CARDINAL MERCIER
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 RIVERSIDE 
 
 Gift Of 
 William Daly
 
 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 T^astorals, Jitters ^ 'Allocutions 
 1914-1917
 
 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Tastoralsy JTetterSy Allocutions 
 1914-1917 
 
 WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 AND FOREWORD 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. JOSEPH F. STILLEMANS 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE BELGIAN RELIEF FUND 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 P. J. KENEDY & SONS 
 
 1917
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1917 
 BY P. J. KENEDY & SONS
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEK PAGE 
 
 Foreword vii 
 
 Cardinal Mercier, Biographical Sketch ... xi 
 
 I. Patriotism and Endurance i 
 
 II. An Appeal to Truth 37 
 
 III. My Return from Rome 95 
 
 IV. For Our Soldiers iii 
 
 V. The Voice of God 123 
 
 VI. Belgium Enslaved 145 
 
 yil. Courage, My Brethren! 197 
 
 VIII. Christian Vengeance 219
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 A THREEFOLD purpose has prompted the 
 edition of this book. First of all to give 
 the American people an opportunity of reading 
 and keeping within reach the principal writings 
 and utterances of the heroic Belgian Cardinal 
 from the time of Belgium's invasion up to the 
 present day. True, the American people have 
 an unbounded admiration for Cardinal Mercier. 
 His figure loomed up as that of a giant the day 
 he issued his Pastoral on "Patriotism and En- 
 durance," openly accusing and defying the in- 
 vader. It is perhaps safe to say that the majority 
 of those who read at all in America have read 
 the first Pastoral of the Cardinal, but few have 
 read his further writings and discourses. These, 
 although they have not made the same impres- 
 sion upon the world at large, are equally energetic 
 and noble and put forth the Cardinal as the "great 
 man" of Belgium, in turn protesting energetically, 
 tenderly encouraging and wisely enlightening. 
 Cardinal Mercier did not deem his duty fulfilled 
 after his first protest against the German invasion 
 and the barbarous methods of the Germans. 
 Since then he has not ceased to speak, condemn- 
 ing repeatedly the various kinds of cruelty and
 
 Vlll FOREWORD 
 
 atrocity a tragically inventive mind continues 
 to produce. Thus he lifts up his voice "For 
 Those in Captivity," protesting against the en- 
 slavement of the Belgians by the horrifying sys- 
 tem of deportations. When the Germans not 
 only deny any and all atrocities on their part, 
 but, cynically humoristic, turn the tables and 
 accuse the Belgians of the most abominable 
 crimes, he sends forth a protest as forceful as 
 conclusive, and inasmuch as these accusations 
 are directed especially against the Belgian priests, 
 he makes "An Appeal to Truth" in a "Letter 
 to the Bishops of Germany, Bavaria, and Austria- 
 Hungary." Or he strives to keep up the courage 
 of the people by means of his Pastorals — "My 
 Return from Rome," "Courage, my Brethren," 
 and "The Voice of God." Undaunted by fear, 
 he speaks to his people of their great and good 
 King, of the heroism of their absent army, ad- 
 dressing them "For Our Soldiers." Courage, 
 however, is not sufficient, nay, it is often blind. 
 Belgium needs direction and hght. Are not the 
 subtile German doctors and the longheaded 
 German professors trying to upset the Belgian 
 mind and conscience? In vain do they labor. 
 There is one watching, one always on duty; and 
 taking as his subject several Christian virtues, but 
 especially "Christian Vengeance," he will speak 
 to the priests of Belgium and through the priests 
 to the entire Belgian nation; pointing out to
 
 FOREWORD IX 
 
 them straightforwardly and plainly their duties 
 under the sorrowful circumstances of to-day, and 
 showing them what must be their attitude and 
 their behavior toward the unjust and cruel, 
 though mighty, oppressor. 
 
 The second purpose of this edition is to give 
 the reader a more thorough insight into the con- 
 ditions prevailing in Belgium. The reading of 
 Cardinal Mercier's letters and allocutions creates 
 in one's mind a perfectly clear picture of the 
 situation in Belgium, and vivid images of the 
 different episodes of the awful tragedy of which 
 that unfortunate country is the innocent victim. 
 It renders one familiar with the treatment meted 
 out to the Belgians, as well as with the state of 
 mind of the people in Belgium. Poor country, 
 you will say, appalling are your sufferings, 
 heartrending your sorrows! And still, blessed 
 country! blessed in your glory! blessed in 
 your courage! blessed not least in your noble 
 son and heroic leader, your immortal Cardinal 
 Mercier! 
 
 Finally, this book is edited for the purpose of 
 procuring financial assistance for Cardinal Mercier. 
 From every corner of Belgium, from the ruins of 
 castles and from the burned-down huts, appeals 
 reach him every day. Thousands of people 
 whom he knows personally and thousands of 
 others beg him for a little assistance. Should 
 we not try to make it possible for him to answer
 
 X FOREWORD 
 
 these appeals at least in a measure? Whenever 
 permitted by the enemy, he goes out personally 
 from house to house in city and in hamlet. Should 
 we not fill his hand so that he may be our alms- 
 giver on his journeys of charity? P. J. Kenedy 
 & Sons allow a very liberal royalty on this edi- 
 tion. This royalty goes to Cardinal Mercier in 
 its integrity. May I not appeal to you person- 
 ally, dear reader? Shall your admiration for the 
 great Belgian Cardinal confine itself to verba et 
 voces? No; that would not be American! You 
 will send a contribution in accordance with your 
 means to: Miss Marie La Montagne, Treasurer 
 of the Cardinal Mercier Fund, 431 West 47th St., 
 New York, or to: J. P. Morgan & Co., 23 Wall St., 
 New York, Depositary for Cardinal Mercier Fund. 
 
 Rev. J. F. Stillemans 
 
 President, Belgian Relief Fund^ New York
 
 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHER — THE BISHOP — THE MAN 
 
 I AM not writing a eulogy of Cardinal Mercier. 
 I do not feel equal to such a task. Further- 
 more, what need is there of pointing out the glo- 
 rious brilliancy of the sun? My purpose is merely 
 to satisfy the legitimate demands of the reader 
 by giving a short biographical notice and a few 
 facts concerning Cardinal Mercier, the philosopher, 
 the bishop, the man. 
 
 The attempted sketch will be quite inexhaus- 
 tive if for no other reason than the present state 
 of affairs, which makes it impossible to lay one's 
 hands on or to verify a great many facts. 
 
 Desire Cardinal Mercier is sixty-six years of 
 age, being born on November 22, 185 1, at Braine- 
 TAlleud, a village adjoining the historic bat- 
 tlefield of Waterloo. He is a descendant of one 
 of those typically Belgian families: honest, sim- 
 ple, and above all deeply religious, whose pride it 
 is to see their sons ascend the sacred steps of 
 the altar. A maternal uncle of the Cardinal, the 
 Very Rev. Adrian J. Croquet, was for many 
 years one of the great pioneer missionaries in 
 America and his name will forever be held in
 
 XU CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 veneration in the Oregon missions, where he is 
 commonly referred to as "The Saint of Oregon." 
 Born at Braine-l'Alleud, Hke the Cardinal him- 
 self, in 1818, Adrian J. Croquet was ordained a 
 priest at Malines in 1844. After having been 
 a professor at Basse Wavre and later assistant 
 pastor in his native place, he came to Oregon 
 in 1859, and from i860 until 1898 remained in 
 charge of the missions of the Grandronde Reserva- 
 tion in that State. The last four years of his Hfe 
 he spent with his relatives in Belgium, and de- 
 parted from this world on August 8, 1902. Car- 
 dinal Mercier has undoubtedly inherited the zeal 
 and sanctity of his uncle, whom he also resembles 
 very much physically. 
 
 Having completed the regular course of studies 
 at St. Rombaut's College of Mahnes and at the 
 diocesan seminary of the same place. Desire 
 Mercier was raised to the priesthood on April 4, 
 1874. He then studied theology at the old Uni- 
 versity of Louvain — that famous center of 
 learning now so sorely afflicted — until he was 
 appointed to the Chair of Philosophy of the semi- 
 nary of Malines in 1877. In 1882 he was called 
 to Louvain to become Professor of Philosophy. 
 In 1886 Pope Leo XIII appointed him a domestic 
 prelate, which appointment gave Father Mercier 
 the right to the title of Monsignor. Long before 
 he became a Cardinal, Professor Mercier occupied 
 no mean position in the world of philosophy and
 
 CARDINAL MERCIER XUl 
 
 science. Nearly thirty years ago, when the 
 Catholic University of America was established at 
 Washington, Monsignor Keane went so far as to 
 entreat Leo XIII to prevail upon Professor Mercier 
 to give the benefit of his talent and zeal to the 
 American Catholic University. Leo XIII, how- 
 ever, did not want to deprive Louvain of its 
 great son, and when this learned Pope desired to 
 renew the interest of the world in Thomistic or 
 Scholastic, or, more correctly, "Neo-Scholastic" 
 philosophy, a special chair was erected at the 
 University of Louvain by the Bishops of Belgium, 
 and Professor Mercier was made its incumbent. 
 In a few years he built up the worldwide known 
 "Higher Institute of Philosophy." 
 
 Neo-Scholasticism is the development, not 
 merely the resuscitation, of the Scholasticism of 
 the Middle Ages of which St. Thomas Aquinas 
 was the great exponent. It is a philosophy es- 
 sentially based on science, modern science, fol- 
 lowed up in every avenue of investigation; and 
 whilst its principles are those of Aristotle and 
 Thomas, its chief concern, however, is with the 
 present day's systems. The synthetic explanation 
 of phenomena, which it provides, presupposes 
 a complete knowledge of the details furnished by 
 each science. Newman very thoroughly explains 
 this in his "Idea of a University": "The com- 
 prehension of the bearings of one science on 
 another, the use of each to each, and the location
 
 XIV CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 of them all, with one another, — this belongs, I 
 conceive, to a sort of Science of Sciences, which is 
 my conception of what is meant by philosophy.'* 
 
 Monsignor Mercier was not only a torch-bearer 
 in modern philosophy, — he was essentially a 
 teacher, a professor. Those who studied under 
 him can never forget him. How clear his doc- 
 trines were, how complete his teachings, how 
 convincing his arguments! Professor Mercier 
 was not satisfied by merely giving lectures to 
 the body of students as a whole; he had his eye 
 on every individual and would make it a point 
 to influence each one personally. He soon dis- 
 covered the talented worker among his students, 
 and such a one he would encourage and guide 
 on to private, deeper study. The result of this 
 has been that Belgium's great school of philos- 
 ophy to-day might well be called the "Disciples 
 of Mercier." 
 
 Mercier's "Psychology" and "Logic," as well 
 as his "Criteriology," are to be found in every 
 philosopher's Hbrary and translated in all the 
 leading languages. A few months ago there 
 appeared the first volume of Mercier's "A Manual 
 * of Modern Scholastic Philosophy," edited by 
 Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 
 London, and B. Herder, St. Louis. 
 
 In the month of January, 1906, his Eminence 
 Cardinal Goossens, Archbishop of MaHnes, went 
 to his reward. Monsignor Mercier pronounced the
 
 CARDINAL MERCIER XV 
 
 panegyric. Upon returning from the Cathedral 
 after the funeral, his colleague, Professor Joseph 
 Sencie, told Monsignor Mercier that he would 
 be Cardinal Goossens' successor. This prophecy 
 provoked a hearty laugh on the part of Monsignor 
 Mercier. Nevertheless, it was soon to be ful- 
 filled when, on February 21, Monsignor Mercier 
 was appointed as Cardinal Goossens' succes- 
 sor. Professor Mercier's reputation as a phi- 
 losopher was so great, and the work he had 
 accomplished so splendid and far-reaching, that 
 in some q*uarters the opinion was expressed that 
 such a man should not be taken away from his 
 study and Hfe work and intrusted with the 
 active care of a diocese. Professor Mercier him- 
 self held that opinion, as he sincerely stated in 
 his farewell speech to the University of Louvain. 
 However, there was but little need to fear. It 
 soon became evident that Cardinal Mercier's 
 master-mind could easily conquer a new field of 
 activity. He at once showed himself conversant 
 with every detail of the compHcated administra- 
 tion of his great diocese, and soon succeeded in 
 winning the admiration and love of priest and 
 layman ahke. Knowing full well that the 
 Catholic people are what the priests make them — 
 or, more correctly, what the priests are them- 
 selves — Cardinal Mercier considers it his most 
 sacred duty to labor for the highest possible up- 
 lifting of his clergy, and takes special delight in
 
 XVI CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 preaching theological conferences and retreats 
 for his priests and seminarians. Two volumes 
 have been published and translated into English: 
 "A mes Seminaristes" and "Retraite Pastorale." 
 In these conferences, as well as in all the writings 
 of the Cardinal, one may equally admire the ele- 
 gance and simplicity of style and the thorough- 
 ness and loftiness of thought. 
 
 The Cardinal is at the head of an immense 
 diocese in which there are not fewer than 2,500,000 
 Catholics, divided into close to 800 parishes. 
 It is not difficult to imagine how laborious the 
 administration of such a diocese must be and how 
 many problems are to be solved every day. As 
 an administrator, Cardinal Mercier is progres- 
 sive and modern — always ready to accept healthy 
 reforms and energetic in obtaining results. Though 
 fortiter in re he never fails to be suaviter in modo. 
 
 The Pastoral Letter of Cardinal Mercier on 
 "Patriotism and Endurance" has gone down in 
 history as the greatest document of the present 
 European war. 
 
 Those familiar with the ecclesiastical history 
 of Belgium were not surprised at hearing the 
 voice of Belgium's Cardinal on this occasion. 
 The Bishops of Belgium throughout the centuries 
 have been liberty's first champions and patriotism's 
 greatest heralds. Cardinal Frankenberg resisted 
 in turn Austria, France, and Prussia, and died 
 in exile. The famous Bishop of Ghent, Prince
 
 CARDINAL MERCIER XVU 
 
 de Broglie, energetically opposed Napoleon the 
 Great, and later on, William, the King of Holland, 
 and he also died in exile. Both these prelates 
 withstood the foreign oppressor to his face, and 
 neither imprisonment nor exile could deter them 
 from their duty. Frankenberg issued his "Decla- 
 ration" and de BrogHe his "Pastoral." These 
 two documents may well be put in a class with 
 Cardinal Mercier's famous letter. 
 
 It has long been the custom of the Belgian 
 Bishops to write yearly pastorals on the leading 
 questions and great problems of the day. No 
 hbrary contains greater learning, deeper thought, 
 or more wisdom than the collection of these 
 documents. It was eminently proper, therefore, 
 that in this, the greatest hour of sorrow for Bel- 
 gium, the voice of Cardinal Mercier should be 
 heard. Catholic Belgium, nay everybody in 
 Belgium, looked to him for Hght and encourage- 
 ment. 
 
 Cardinal Mercier is a wonderful man — familiar 
 with the greatest problems, yet concerned with 
 the smallest details; honored as few men have 
 been, yet simple as a child; working from early 
 morning until far into the night, yet always hav- 
 ing time to listen to everyone. He is known to 
 the whole of Belgium as a living saint — kindness 
 and readiness personified. Whatever he does he 
 does well, because into whatever he does he puts 
 every fiber of his great heart. At the altar he
 
 XVlll CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 is a saint; in private conversation, a father; in 
 the pulpit, a warm, convincing orator; in all 
 difficult situations, a wise counselor and a safe 
 guide. A man of action is Cardinal Mercier, 
 placing his confidence in Divine Providence 
 above all things, true enough, but realizing the 
 need of cooperation and work on the part of man- 
 Cardinal Mercier never knew how to spare 
 himself. As early as 8 o'clock people of all classes 
 in society begin to gather in the Cardinal's ante- 
 room. There the aristocrat and the laborer, the 
 noble dame and the poor girl, meet on equal 
 terms. All are admitted to his presence, and the 
 whole day is taken up in listening to those visitors, 
 who are received exactly in the order of their 
 arrival. Some will come to confer with the 
 Cardinal on most important questions, others 
 bring the most trivial suggestions, others again 
 will come for personal advice and consolation, 
 but all are received with the same fatherly kind- 
 ness and leave his presence 'wiser and stronger 
 and happier. 
 
 On days not occupied by this tedious reception 
 of all classes of people, the Cardinal visits every 
 part of his immense diocese. A few years ago the 
 Cardinal was driving in his automobile from 
 Malines to Antwerp. A httle child was crossing 
 the road in front of the automobile. The Car- 
 dinal, upon noticing the danger to the child, 
 lost no time in shouting to his chauffeur to turn
 
 CARDINAL MERCIER XIX 
 
 the machine on to the wall alongside the road, 
 with the result that he was violently thrown out of 
 the automobile and severely injured. His face 
 to-day bears the marks of this accident, and he 
 has often been heard to say how much better it 
 was for him to have met with this accident than 
 to have had the slightest injury befall the little 
 child. 
 
 Cardinal Mercier is tall, very tall, and very 
 slender. He has the aspect of an ascetic, and not 
 only has he the aspect thereof, but he leads the 
 life of an ascetic — simple, even severe. The 
 eyes are the image of the soul. The Cardinal has 
 wonderful eyes, which bespeak the greatest kind- 
 ness and yet pierce you through and through. In 
 his conversation he is so essentially human, so 
 very much interested in you, so anxious to help 
 you and please you. 
 
 Cardinal Mercier has inscribed on his coat-of- 
 arms the words "Apostolus Jesu Christi." He 
 meant undoubtedly that it is his desire to labor 
 as the apostles have labored. History will pro- 
 claim that he has been an apostle in every sense 
 of the word, and will compare him with St. Paul, 
 with whom he may say, "I have fought a good 
 fight. ... I have kept the faith. . . . There is 
 laid up for me a crown of justice. . . ." This 
 crown of justice, which is one also of glory, the 
 world has even now placed upon the noble brow 
 of Cardinal Mercier.
 
 I 
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE
 
 I 
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 
 christmas, i914 
 My very dear Brethren 
 
 T CANNOT tell you how instant and how 
 -'■ present the thought of you has been to me 
 throughout the months of suffering and of mourn- 
 ing through which we have passed. I had to 
 leave you abruptly on the 20th of August in order 
 to fulfil my last duty towards the beloved and 
 venerated Pope whom we have lost, and in 
 order to discharge an obligation of the conscience 
 from which I could not dispense myself, in the 
 election of the successor of Pius the Tenth, the 
 Pontiff who now directs the Church under the 
 title, full of promise and of hope, of Benedict 
 the Fifteenth. 
 
 It was in Rome itself that I received the tidings 
 — stroke after stroke — of the partial destruction 
 of the Cathedral church of Louvain, next of the 
 burning of the Library and of the scientific 
 installations of our great University and of the 
 devastation of the city, and next of the wholesale 
 shooting of citizens, and tortures inflicted upon 
 
 3
 
 4 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 women and children, and upon unarmed and 
 undefended men. And while I was still under 
 the shock of these calamities the telegraph brought 
 us news of the bombardment of our beautiful 
 metropolitan church, of the church of Notre 
 Dame au dela la Dyle, of the episcopal palace, 
 and of a great part of our dear city of Mahnes. 
 
 Afar from my diocese, without means of com- 
 munication with you^ I was compelled to lock my 
 grief within my own afflicted heart, and to carry 
 it, with the thought of you, which never left 
 me, to the foot of the Crucifix. 
 
 I craved courage and light, and sought them in 
 such thoughts as these: A disaster has visited 
 the world, and our beloved little Belgium, a nation 
 so faithful in the great mass of her population 
 to God, so upright in her patriotism, so noble 
 in her King and Government, is the first sufferer. 
 She bleeds; her sons are stricken down within 
 her fortresses and upon her fields, in defense of 
 her rights and of her territory. Soon there will 
 not be one Belgian family not in mourning. Why 
 all this sorrow, my God? Lord, Lord, hast Thou 
 forsaken us? Then I looked upon the Crucifix. 
 I looked upon Jesus, most gentle and humble 
 Lamb of God, crushed, clothed in His blood as 
 in a garment, and I thought I heard from His 
 own mouth the words which the Psalmist uttered 
 in His name: "O God, my God, look upon me; 
 why hast Thou forsaken me? O my God, I
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 5 
 
 shall cry, and Thou wilt not hear." And forth- 
 with the murmur died upon my Hps; and I re- 
 membered what Our Divine Savior said in His 
 Gospel: "The disciple is not above the master, 
 nor the servant above his lord." The Christian 
 is the servant of a God who became man in order 
 to suffer and to die. To rebel against pain, to 
 revolt against Providence, because it permits 
 grief and bereavement, is to forget whence we 
 came, the school in which we have been taught, 
 the example that each of us carries graven in 
 the name of a Christian, which each of us honors 
 at his hearth, contemplates at the altar of his 
 prayers, and of which he desires that his tomb, 
 the place of his last sleep, shall bear the sign. 
 
 My dearest Brethren, I shall return by and 
 by to the providential law of suflPering, but you 
 will agree that since it has pleased a God made 
 man, who was holy, innocent, without stain, 
 to suffer and to die for us who are sinners, who 
 are guilty, who are perhaps criminals, it ill be- 
 comes us to complain whatever we may be called 
 upon to endure. The truth is that no disaster 
 on earth, striking creatures only, is comparable 
 with that which our sins provoked, and whereof 
 God Himself chose to be the blameless victim. 
 
 Having recalled to mind this fundamental 
 truth, I find it easier to summon you to face 
 what has befallen us, and to speak to you simply 
 and directly of what is your duty, and of what
 
 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 may be your hope. That duty I shall express in 
 two words: Patriotism and Endurance. 
 
 PATRIOTISM 
 
 My dearest Brethren, I desire to utter, in 
 your name and my own, the gratitude of those 
 whose age, vocation, and social conditions cause 
 them to benefit by the heroism of others, without 
 bearing in it any active part. 
 
 When, immediately on my return from Rome, 
 I went to Havre to greet our Belgian, French, 
 and English wounded; when, later, at Malines, 
 at Louvain, at Antwerp, it was given to me to 
 take the hands of those brave men who carried 
 a bullet in their flesh, a wound on their fore- 
 head, because they had marched to the attack 
 of the enemy, or borne the shock of his onslaught, 
 it was a word of gratitude to them that rose to 
 my lips. "0 valiant friends," I said, "it was for 
 us, it was for each one of us, it was for me, that 
 you risked your lives and are now in pain. I am 
 moved to tell you of my respect, of my thankful- 
 ness, to assure you that the whole nation knows 
 how much she is in debt to you." 
 
 For in truth our soldiers are our saviors. 
 
 A first time, at Liege, they saved France; a 
 second time, in Flanders, they arrested the ad- 
 vance of the enemy upon Calais. France and 
 England know it; and Belgium stands before
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 7 
 
 them both, and before the entire world, as a 
 nation of heroes. Never before in my whole 
 life did I feel so proud to be a Belgian as when, 
 on the platforms of French stations,, and halting 
 a while in Paris, and visiting London, I was 
 witness of the enthusiastic admiration our allies 
 feel for the heroism of our army. Our King is, 
 in the esteem of all, at the very summit of the 
 moral scale; he is doubtless the only man who 
 does not recognize that fact, as, simple as the 
 simplest of his soldiers, he stands in the trenches 
 and puts new courage, by the serenity of his 
 face, into the hearts of those of whom he re- 
 quires that they shall not doubt of their country. 
 The foremost duty of every Belgian citizen at 
 this hour is gratitude to the army. 
 
 If any man had rescued you from shipwreck 
 or from a fire, you would assuredly hold your- 
 selves bound to him by a debt of everlasting 
 thankfulness. But it is not one man, it is two 
 hundred and fifty thousand men who fought, 
 who suffered, who fell for you so that you might 
 be free, so that Belgium might keep her inde- 
 pendence, her dynasty, her patriotic unity; so 
 that, after the vicissitudes of battle, she might 
 rise nobler, purer, more erect, and more glorious 
 than before. 
 
 Pray daily, my Brethren, for these two hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand, and for their leaders to 
 victory; pray for our brothers in arms; pray
 
 8 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 for the fallen; pray for those who are still en- 
 gaged; pray for the recruits who are making 
 ready for the fight to come. 
 
 In your name I send them the greeting of our 
 fraternal sympathy and our assurance that not 
 only do we pray for the success of their arms 
 and for the eternal welfare of their souls, but 
 that we also accept for their sake all the dis- 
 tress, whether physical or moral, that falls to 
 our own share in the oppression that hourly 
 besets us, and all that the future may have in 
 store for us, in humiliation for a time, in anxiety, 
 and in sorrow. In the day of final victory we 
 shall all be in honor; it is just that to-day we 
 should all be in grief. 
 
 To judge by certain rumors that have reached 
 me, I gather that from districts that have 
 had least to suffer some bitter words have 
 arisen towards our God, words which, if spoken 
 with cold calculation, would be not far from 
 blasphemous. 
 
 Oh, all too easily do I understand how natural 
 instinct rebels against the evils that have fallen 
 upon Catholic Belgium; the spontaneous thought 
 of mankind is ever that virtue should have its 
 instantaneous crown, and injustice its imme- 
 diate retribution. But the ways of God are not 
 our ways, the Scripture tells us. Providence 
 gives free course, for a time measured by Divine 
 wisdom, to human passions and the conflict
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 9 
 
 of desires. God, being eternal, is patient. The 
 last word is the word of mercy, and it belongs 
 to those who beHeve in love. "Why art thou 
 sad, O my soul? and why dost thou disquiet 
 me? ^uare tristis es anima mea^ et quare con- 
 turbas me?'' Hope in God. Bless Him always; 
 is He not thy Saviour and thy God? Spera in Deo 
 quoniam adhuc confitebor illi, salutare vultus mei 
 et Deus mens. 
 
 When holy Job, whom God presented as an 
 example of constancy to the generations to come, 
 had been stricken, blow upon blow, by Satan, 
 with the loss of his children, of his goods, of 
 his health, his enemies approached him with 
 provocations to discouragement; his wife urged 
 upon him a blasphemy and a curse. "Dost thou 
 still continue in thy simplicity? Curse God, 
 and die." But the man of God was unshaken 
 in his confidence. "And he said to her: Thou 
 hast spoken like one of the foolish women: if 
 we have received good things at the hand of 
 God, why should we not receive evil? Dominus 
 dedity Dominus abstulit; sicut Domino placuit ita 
 factum est. Sit nomen Domini benedictum." And 
 experience proved that saintly one to be right. 
 It pleased the Lord to recompense, even here 
 below. His faithful servant. "The Lord gave 
 Job twice as much as he had before. And for 
 his sake God pardoned his friends." 
 
 Better than any other man, perhaps, do I
 
 lO CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 know what our unhappy country has under- 
 gone. Nor will any Belgian, I trust, doubt of 
 what I suffer in my soul, as a citizen and as a 
 Bishop, in sympathy with all this sorrow. These 
 last four months have seemed to me age-long. 
 By thousands have our brave ones been mown 
 down; wives, mothers, are weeping for those 
 they shall not see again; hearths are desolate; 
 dire poverty spreads; anguish increases. At 
 Malines, at Antwerp, the people of two great 
 cities have been given over, the one for six hours, 
 the other for thirty-four hours of a continu- 
 ous bombardment, to the throes of death. I 
 have traversed the greater part of the districts 
 most terribly devastated in my diocese; ^ and 
 the ruins I beheld, and the ashes, were more 
 dreadful than I, prepared by the saddest of 
 forebodings, could have imagined. Other parts of 
 my diocese, which I have not yet had time to 
 visit,- have in like manner been laid waste. 
 Churches, schools, asylums, hospitals, convents 
 
 1 Duffel, Lierre, Berlaer Saint Rombaut, Konings-Hoyckt, 
 Mortsel, Waelhem, Muysen, Wavre Sainte Caterine, Wavre Notre- 
 Dame, Sempst, Weerde, Eppeghen, Hofstade, Elewyt, Rymenam, 
 Boort-Meerbeek, Wespelaer, Haecht, Werchter-Wackerzeel, Rotse- 
 laer, Tremeloo; Louvain and its suburban environs, Blauwput, 
 Kessel-Loo, Boven-Loo, Linden, Herent, Thildonck, Bueken, Relst, 
 Aerschot, Wesemael, Hersselt, Diest, SchafFen, Molenstede, Rillaer 
 Gelrode. 
 
 2 Haekendover, Roosbeek, Bautersem, Budingen, Neerlinder, 
 Ottignies, Mousty, Wavre, Beyghem, Capelle-au-Bois, Humbeek, 
 Nieuwenrode, Liezele, Londerzeel, Heyndonck, Mariekerke, Weert, 
 Blaesvelt.
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE II 
 
 in great numbers, are in ruins. Entire villages 
 have all but disappeared. At Werchter-Wacker- 
 zeel, for instance, out of three hundred and eighty 
 homes, a hundred and thirty remain; at Tre- 
 meloo two-thirds of the village are overthrown; 
 at Bueken out of a hundred houses twenty are 
 standing; at SchafFen one hundred and eighty- 
 nine houses out of two hundred are destroyed — 
 eleven still stand. At Louvain the third part of 
 the buildings are down; one thousand and 
 seventy-four dwellings have disappeared; on 
 the town land and in the suburbs, one thousand 
 eight hundred and twenty-three houses have 
 been burnt. 
 
 In this dear city of Louvain, perpetually in 
 my thoughts, the magnificent church of St. 
 Peter will never recover its former splendor. 
 The ancient college of St. Ives, the art schools, 
 the consular and commercial schools of the 
 University, the old markets, our rich library 
 with its collections, its unique and unpublished 
 manuscripts, its archives, its gallery of great 
 portraits of illustrious rectors, chancellors, pro- 
 fessors, dating from the time of its foundation, 
 which preserved for masters and students alike 
 a noble tradition and were an incitement in their 
 studies — all this accumulation of intellectual, 
 of historic, and of artistic riches, the fruit of the 
 labors of five centuries — all is in the dust. 
 
 Many a parish lost its pastor. There is now
 
 12 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 sounding In my ears the sorrowful voice of an 
 old man of whom I asked whether he had had 
 Mass on Sunday in his battered church. "It 
 is two months," he said, "since we had a church," 
 The parish priest and the curate had been in- 
 terned in a concentration camp. 
 
 Thousands of Belgian citizens have in like 
 manner been deported to the prisons of Ger- 
 many, to Miinsterlagen, to Celle, to Magdeburg. 
 At Miinsterlagen alone three thousand one hun- 
 dred civil prisoners were numbered. History will 
 tell of the physical and moral torments of their 
 long martyrdom. Hundreds of innocent men 
 were shot. I possess no complete necrology; 
 but I know that there were ninety-one shot at 
 Aerschot, and that there, under pain of death, 
 their fellow citizens were compelled to dig their 
 graves. In the Louvain group of communes one 
 hundred and seventy-six persons, men and women, 
 old men and sucklings, rich and poor, in health 
 and sickness, were shot or burnt. 
 
 In my diocese alone I know that thirteen 
 priests or rehgious were put to death. ^ One of 
 
 ^ Their brothers in religion or in the priesthood will wish to 
 know their names. Here they are: Dupierreux, of the Society of 
 Jesus; Brothers Sebastian and Allard of the Congregation of the 
 Josephites; Brother Candide of the Congregation of the Brothers 
 of Mercy; Father Maximin, Capuchin, and Father Vincent, Con- 
 ventual; Lombaerts, parish priest at Boven-Loo; Goris, parish 
 priest at Autgaerden; Carette, professor at the Episcopal college of 
 Louvain; De Clerck, parish priest at Bueken; Dergent, parish 
 priest at Gelrode; Wouters Jean, parish priest at Pont-Brule. We
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 1 3 
 
 these, the parish priest of Gelrode, suffered, I 
 beheve, a veritable martyrdom. I made a pil- 
 grimage to his grave, and, amid the little flock 
 which so lately he had been feeding with the 
 zeal of an apostle, there did I pray to him that 
 from the height of Heaven he would guard his 
 parish, his diocese, his country. 
 
 We can neither number our dead nor com- 
 pute the measure of our ruins. And what would 
 it be if we turned our sad steps towards Liege, 
 Namur, Audenne, Dinant, Tamines, Charleroi, 
 and elsewhere ^ ^ 
 
 And there where lives were not taken, and 
 there where the stones of buildings were not 
 thrown down, what anguish unrevealed! Fami- 
 
 have reason to believe that the parish priest of Herent, Van Bladel, 
 an old man of seventy-one, was also killed; until now, however, his 
 body has not been found. 
 
 ^ I have said that thirteen ecclesiastics had been shot within the 
 diocese of Malines. There were, to my own actual personal knowl- 
 edge, more than thirty in the dioceses of Namur, Tournai, and 
 Liege: Schlogel, parish priest of Hastiere; Gille, parish priest of 
 Couvin; Pieret, curate at Etalle; Alexandre, curate at Mussy-la- 
 Ville; Marechal, seminarist at Maissin; the Reverend Father Gillet, 
 Benedictine of Maredsous; the Reverend Father Nicolas, Premon- 
 stratensian of the Abbey of LefFe; two Brothers of the same Abbey; 
 one Brother of the Congregation of Oblates; Poskin, parish priest 
 of Surice; Hotlet, parish priest of Les AUoux; Georges, parish priest 
 of Tintigny; Glouden, parish priest of Latour; Zenden, retired 
 parish priest at Latour; Jacques, a priest; Druet, parish priest of 
 Acoz; PoUart, parish priest of Roselies; Labeye, parish priest of 
 Blegny-Trembleur; Thielen, parish priest of Haccourt; Janssen, 
 parish priest of Heure le Romain; Chabot, parish priest of Foret; 
 Dossogne, parish priest of Hockay; Reusonnet, curate of Olme; 
 Bilande, chaplain of the institute of deaf-mutes at Bouge; Docq, a 
 priest, and others.
 
 14 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 lies, hitherto Hving at ease, now in bitter want; 
 all commerce at an end, all careers ruined; in- 
 dustry at a standstill; thousands upon thou- 
 sands of working-men without employment; 
 working-women, shop-girls, humble servant-girls 
 without the means of earning their bread; and 
 poor souls forlorn on the bed of sickness and 
 fever, crying, "0 Lord, how long, how long?" 
 
 There is nothing to reply. The reply remains 
 the secret of God. 
 
 Yes, dearest Brethren, it is the secret of God. 
 He is the master of events and the sovereign 
 director of the human multitude. Domini est 
 terra et plenitudo ejus; orbis terrarum et universi 
 qui habitant in eo. The first relation between 
 the creature and his Creator is that of absolute 
 dependence. The very being of the creature is 
 dependent; dependent are his nature, his facul- 
 ties, his acts, his works. At every passing mo- 
 ment that dependence is renewed, is incessantly 
 reasserted, inasmuch as, without the will of 
 the Almighty, existence of the first single in- 
 stant would vanish before the next. Adoration, 
 which is the recognition of the sovereignty of 
 God, is not, therefore, a fugitive act; it is the 
 permanent state of a being conscious of his own 
 origin. On every page of the Scriptures Jehovah 
 affirms His sovereign dominion. The whole 
 economy of the Old Law, the whole history of 
 the Chosen People, tend to the same end — to
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE I5 
 
 maintain Jehovah upon His throne and to cast 
 idols down. "I am the first and the last. I am 
 the Lord, and there is none else; there is no 
 God beside Me. I form the light and create 
 darkness, I make peace and create evil. Woe 
 to him that gainsayeth his maker, a sherd of the 
 earthen pots. Shall the clay say to him that 
 fashioneth it. What art thou making, and thy 
 work is without hands .^ Tell ye, and come, and 
 consult together. A just God and a Savior, 
 there is none beside Me." 
 
 Ah, did the proud reason of mankind dream 
 that it could dismiss our God.^ Did it smile in 
 irony when, through Christ and through His 
 Church, He pronounced the solemn words of 
 expiation and of repentance.'' Vain of fugitive 
 successes, O Hght-minded man, full of pleasure 
 and of wealth, hast thou imagined that thou 
 couldst suffice even to thyself? Then was God 
 set aside in oblivion, then was He misunder- 
 stood, then was He blasphemed, with accla- 
 mation, and by those whose authority, whose 
 influence, whose power had charged them with 
 the duty of causing His great laws and His great 
 order to be revered and obeyed. Anarchy then 
 spread among the lower ranks of mankind, and 
 many sincere consciences were troubled by the 
 evil example. How long, O Lord, they wondered, 
 how long wilt Thou sufi'er the pride of this ini- 
 quity.? Or wilt Thou finally justify the impious
 
 l6 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 opinion that Thou carest no more for the work 
 of Thy hands? A shock from a thunderbolt, 
 and behold all human foresight is set at naught. 
 Europe trembles upon the brink of destruction. 
 
 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of 
 wisdom. 
 
 Many are the thoughts that throng the breast 
 of man to-day, and the chief of them all is this: 
 God reveals Himself as the Master. The nations 
 that made the attack, and the nations that are 
 warring in self-defense, alike confess themselves 
 to be in the hand of Him without whom nothing 
 is made, nothing is done. Men long unaccus- 
 tomed to prayer are turning again to God. Within 
 the army, within the civil world, in public, and 
 within the individual conscience, there is prayer. 
 Nor is that prayer to-day a word learnt by rote, 
 uttered Hghtly by the lip; it surges from the 
 troubled heart, it takes the form, at the feet of 
 God, of the very sacrifice of life. The being of 
 man is a whole offering to God. This is wor- 
 ship, this is the fulfilment of the primal moral 
 and religious law: the Lord thy God shalt thou 
 adore, and Him only shalt thou serve. And even 
 those who murmur, and whose courage is not 
 sufficient for submission to the hand that smites 
 us and saves us, even these implicitly acknowl- 
 edge God to be the Master, for if they blaspheme 
 Him, they blaspheme Him for His delay in closing 
 with their desires.
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE If 
 
 But as for us, my Brethren, we will adore 
 Him in the integrity of our souls. Not yet do 
 we see, in all its magnificence, the revelation 
 of His wisdom, but our faith trusts Him with 
 it all. Before His justice we are humble, and 
 in His mercy hopeful. With holy Tobias we 
 know that because we have sinned He has chas- 
 tised us, but because He is merciful He will 
 save us. 
 
 It would perhaps be cruel to dwell upon our 
 guilt now, when we are paying so well and so 
 nobly what we owe. But shall we not confess 
 that we have indeed something to expiate .f' He 
 who has received much, from him shall much 
 be required. Now, dare we say that the moral 
 and religious standard of our people has risen 
 as its economic prosperity has risen.? The ob- 
 servance of Sunday rest, the Sunday Mass, the 
 reverence for marriage, the restraints of modesty 
 — what had you made of these.? What, even 
 within Christian families, had become of the 
 simplicity practiced by our fathers, what of the 
 spirit of penance, what of respect for authority.? 
 And we too, we priests, we religious, I, the 
 Bishop, we whose great mission it is to present 
 in our lives, yet more than in our speech, the 
 Gospel of Christ, have we earned the right to 
 speak to our people the word spoken by the 
 Apostle to the nations, "Be ye followers of me, 
 as I also am of Christ".? We labor indeed we
 
 1 8 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 pray indeed, but it is all too little. We should 
 be, by the very duty of our state, the public 
 expiators for the sins of the world. But which 
 was the thing dominant in our lives — expia- 
 tion, or our comfort and well-being as citizens? 
 Alas, we have all had times in which we too 
 fell under God's reproach to His people after 
 the escape from Egypt: "The beloved grew fat 
 and kicked, they have provoked Me with that 
 which was no god, and I will provoke them with 
 that which is no people." Nevertheless He 
 will save us; for He wills not that our adver- 
 saries should boast that they, and not the 
 Eternal, did these things. "See ye that I alone 
 am, and there is no other God beside Me. I 
 will kill and I will make to live, I will strike 
 and I will heal." 
 
 God will save Belgium, my Brethren, you 
 cannot doubt it. 
 
 Nay rather. He is saving her. 
 
 Across the smoke of conflagration, across the 
 steam of blood, have you not glimpses, do you 
 not perceive signs, of His love for us? Is there 
 a patriot among us who does not know that 
 Belgium has grown great? Nay, which of us 
 would have the heart to cancel this last page 
 of our national history? Which of us does not 
 exult in the brightness of the glory of this shat- 
 tered nation? When in her throes she brings 
 forth heroes, our Mother Country gives her own
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE I9 
 
 energy to the blood of those sons of hers. Let us 
 acknowledge that we needed a lesson in patriot- 
 ism. There were Belgians, and many such, who 
 wasted their time and their talents in futile 
 quarrels of class with class, of race with race, of 
 passion with personal passion. 
 
 Yet when, on the second of August, a mighty 
 foreign power, confident in its own strength and 
 defiant of the faith of treaties, dared to threaten 
 us in our independence, then did all Belgians, 
 without difference of party, or of condition, or 
 of origin, rise up as one man, close-ranged about 
 their own king, and their own government, 
 and cry to the invader: "Thou shalt not go 
 through!" 
 
 At once, instantly, we were conscious of our 
 own patriotism. For down within us all is some- 
 thing deeper than personal interests, than per- 
 sonal kinships, than party feeling, and this is 
 the need and the will to devote ourselves to that 
 more general interest which Rome termed the 
 public thing. Res publica. And this profound 
 will within us is patriotism. 
 
 Our country is not a mere concourse of per- 
 sons or of families inhabiting the same soil, having 
 amongst themselves relations, more or less in- 
 timate, of business, of neighborhood, of a com- 
 munity of memories, happy or unhappy. Not 
 so; it is an association of Uving souls, subject 
 to a social organization to be defended and safe-
 
 20 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 guarded at all costs, even the cost of blood, under 
 the leadership of those presiding over its for- 
 tunes. And it is because of this general spirit 
 that the people of a country live a common life 
 in the present, through the past, through the 
 aspirations, the hopes, the confidence in a life 
 to come, which they share together. Patriot- 
 ism, an internal principle of order and of unity, 
 an organic bond of the members of a nation, 
 Wcis placed by the finest thinkers of Greece and 
 Rome at the head of the natural virtues. Aris- 
 totle, the prince of the philosophers of an- 
 tiquity, held disinterested service of the City 
 — that is, the State — to be the very ideal of 
 human duty. And the religion of Christ makes 
 of patriotism a positive law; there is no perfect 
 Christian who is not also a perfect patriot. For 
 our religion exalts the antique ideal, showing 
 it to be realizable only in the Absolute. Whence, 
 in truth, comes this universal, this irresistible 
 impulse which carries at once the will of the 
 whole nation in one single effort of cohesion 
 and of resistance in face of the hostile menace 
 against her unity and her freedom.? Whence 
 comes it that in an hour all interests were merged 
 in the interest of all, and that all lives were to- 
 gether offered in willing immolation? Not that 
 the State is worth more, essentially, than the 
 individual or the family, seeing that the good 
 of the family and of the individual is the cause
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 21 
 
 and reason of the organization of the State. 
 Not that our country is a Moloch on whose altar 
 lives may lawfully be sacrificed. The rigidity 
 of ancient morals and the despotism of the Caesars 
 suggested that false principle — and modern 
 militarism tends to revive it — that the State 
 is omnipotent, and that the discretionary power 
 of the State is the rule of Right. Not so, replies 
 Christian theology. Right is Peace, that is, the 
 interior order of a nation, founded upon Justice. 
 And Justice itself is absolute only because it 
 formulates the essential relation of man with 
 God and of man with man. Moreover, war for 
 the sake of war is a crime. War is justifiable 
 only if it is the necessary means for securing peace. 
 St. Augustine has said: "Peace must not be a 
 preparation for war. And war is not to be made 
 except for the attainment of peace." In the 
 light of this teaching, which is repeated by St. 
 Thomas Aquinas, patriotism is seen in its reli- 
 gious character. Family interests, class interests, 
 party interests, and the material good of the 
 individual take their place, in the scale of values, 
 below the ideal of patriotism, for that ideal is 
 Right, which is absolute. Furthermore, that 
 ideal is the public recognition of Right in national 
 matters, and of national Honor. Now there is 
 no Absolute except God. God alone, by His 
 sanctity and His sovereignty, dominates all hu- 
 man interests and human wills. And to affirm
 
 22 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 the absolute necessity of the subordination of 
 all things to Right, to Justice, and to Truth is 
 implicitly to affirm God. 
 
 When, therefore, humble soldiers whose hero- 
 ism we praise answer us with characteristic 
 simpHcity, "We only did our duty," or "We 
 were bound in honor," they express the religious 
 character of their patriotism. Which of us does 
 not feel that patriotism is a sacred thing, and that 
 a violation of national dignity is in a manner a 
 profanation and a sacrilege? 
 
 I was asked lately by a staff officer whether 
 a soldier falling in a righteous cause — and our 
 cause is such, to demonstration — is not veritably 
 a martyr. Well, he is not a martyr in the rigor- 
 ous theological meaning of the word, inasmuch 
 as he dies in arms, whereas the martyr delivers 
 himself, undefended and unarmed, into the 
 hands of the executioner. But if I am asked 
 what I think of the eternal salvation of a brave 
 man who has consciously given his life in defense 
 of his country's honor, and in vindication of 
 violated justice, I shall not hesitate to reply 
 that without any doubt whatever Christ crowns 
 his military valor, and that death, accepted in 
 this Christian spirit, assures the safety of that 
 man's soul. "Greater love than this no man 
 hath," said Our Savior, "that a man lay down 
 his life for his friends." And the soldier who 
 dies to save his brothers, and to defend the hearths
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 23 
 
 and altars of his country, reaches this highest of 
 all degrees of charity. He may not have made 
 a close analysis of the value of his sacrifice; but 
 must we suppose that God requires of the plain 
 soldier in the excitement of battle the methodical 
 precision of the moralist or the theologian? Can 
 we who revere his heroism doubt that his God 
 welcomes him with love? 
 
 Christian mothers, be proud of your sons. 
 Of all griefs, of all our human sorrows, yours is 
 perhaps the most worthy of veneration. I think 
 I behold you in your affliction, but erect, stand- 
 ing at the side of the Mother of Sorrows, at the 
 foot of the Cross. Suffer us to offer you not only 
 our condolence but our congratulation. Not 
 all our heroes obtain temporal honors, but for 
 all we expect the immortal crown of the elect. 
 For this is the virtue of a single act of perfect 
 charity: it cancels a whole lifetime of sins. It 
 transforms a sinful man into a saint. 
 
 Assuredly a great and a Christian comfort is 
 the thought that not only amongst our own 
 men, but in any belligerent army whatsoever, 
 all who, in good faith, submit to the discipline 
 of their leaders in the service of a cause they 
 believe to be righteous, are sharers in the eternal 
 reward of the soldier's sacrifice. And how many 
 may there not be among these young men of 
 twenty who, had they survived, might possibly 
 not have had the resolution to live altogether
 
 24 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 well, and yet in the impulse of patriotism had the 
 resolution to die so well? 
 
 Is it not true, my Brethren, that God has the 
 supreme art of mingling His mercy with His 
 wisdom and His justice? And shall we not ac- 
 knowledge that if war is a scourge for this earthly 
 life of ours, a scourge whereof we cannot easily 
 estimate the destructive force and the extent, it 
 is also for multitudes of souls an expiation, a 
 purification, a force to lift them to the pure 
 love of their country and to perfect Christian 
 unselfishness? 
 
 ENDURANCE 
 
 We may now say, my Brethren, without un- 
 worthy pride, that our Httle Belgium has taken 
 a foremost place in the esteem of nations. I am 
 aware that certain onlookers, notably in Italy 
 and in Holland, have asked how it could be 
 necessary to expose this country to so immense 
 a loss of wealth and of life, and whether a verbal 
 manifesto against hostile aggression, or a single 
 cannon-shot on the frontier, would not have 
 served the purpose of protest. But assuredly all 
 men of good feeling will be with us in our rejec- 
 tion of these paltry counsels. Mere utilitarianism 
 is no sufficient rule of Christian citizenship. 
 
 On the 19th of April, 1839, a treaty was signed 
 in London by King Leopold, in the name of 
 Belgium, on the one part, and by the Emperor
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 25 
 
 of Austria, the King of France, the Queen of 
 England, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor 
 of Russia, on the other; and its seventh article 
 decreed that Belgium should form a separate and 
 perpetually neutral State, and should be held 
 to the observance of this neutrality in regard 
 to all other States. The co-signatories promised, 
 for themselves and their successors, upon their 
 oath, to fulfil and to observe that treaty in every 
 point and every article without contravention, 
 or tolerance of contravention. Belgium was thus 
 bound in honor to defend her own independence. 
 She kept her oath. The other Powers were 
 bound to respect and to protect her neutrality. 
 Germany violated her oath; England kept hers. 
 
 These are the facts. 
 
 The laws of conscience are sovereign laws. 
 We should have acted unworthily had we evaded 
 our obligation by a mere feint of resistance. 
 And now we would not rescind our fiirst resolu- 
 tion; we exult in it. Being called upon to write 
 a most solemn page in the history of our country, 
 we resolved that it should be also a sincere, also 
 a glorious page. And as long as we are required 
 to give proof of endurance, so long we shall 
 endure. 
 
 All classes of our citizens have devoted their 
 sons to the cause of their country; but the 
 poorer part of the population have set the no- 
 blest example, for they have suffered also priva-
 
 26 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 tion, cold, and famine. If I may judge of the 
 general feeling from what I have witnessed in 
 the humbler quarters of Malines, and in the most 
 cruelly afflicted districts of my diocese, the 
 people are energetic in their endurance. They 
 look to be righted; they will not hear of 
 surrender. 
 
 Affliction is, in the hand of Divine Omnipo- 
 tence, a two-edged sword. It wounds the rebel- 
 lious, it sanctifies him who is willing to endure. 
 
 God proveth us, as St. James has told us, 
 but He "is not a tempter of evils." All that 
 comes from Him is good, a ray of light, a pledge 
 of love. "But every man is tempted by his 
 own concupiscence. , . . Blessed is he that en- 
 dureth temptation, for when he hath been proved 
 he shall receive the crown of life, which God 
 hath promised to them that love Him." 
 
 Truce, then, my Brethren, to all murmurs of 
 complaint. Remember St. Paul's words to the 
 Hebrews, and through them to all of Christ's 
 flock, when, referring to the bloody sacrifice of 
 Our Lord upon the cross, he reminded them 
 that they had not yet resisted unto blood. Not 
 only to the Redeemer's example shall you look, 
 but also to that of the thirty thousand, perhaps 
 forty thousand, men who have already shed 
 their life-blood for their country. In compari- 
 son with them what have you endured who are 
 deprived of the daily comforts of your lives.
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 2/ 
 
 your newspapers, your means of travel, commu- 
 nication with your families? Let the patriotism 
 of our army, the heroism of our King, of our be- 
 loved Queen in her magnanimity, serve to stimu- 
 late us and support us. Let us bemoan ourselves 
 no more. Let us deserve the coming deliverance. 
 Let us hasten it by our virtue even more than 
 by our prayers. Courage, Brethren, Suffering 
 passes away; the crown of life for our souls, the 
 crown of glory for our nation, shall not pass. 
 
 I do not require of you to renounce any of 
 your national desires. On the contrary, I hold 
 it as part of the obligations of my episcopal 
 office to instruct you as to your duty in face of 
 the Power that has invaded our soil and now 
 occupies the greater part of our country. The 
 authority of that Power is no lawful authority. 
 Therefore in soul and conscience you owe it 
 neither respect, nor attachment, nor obedience. 
 
 The sole lawful authority in Belgium is that 
 of our King, of our Government, of the elected 
 representatives of the nation. This authority 
 alone has a right to our affection, our submission. 
 
 Thus, the invader's acts of pubHc administra- 
 tion have in themselves no authority, but legiti- 
 mate authority has tacitly ratified such of those 
 acts as affect the general interest, and this ratifi- 
 cation, and this only, gives them juridic value. 
 
 Occupied provinces are not conquered prov- 
 inces. Belgium is no more a German province
 
 28 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 than Galicia is a Russian province. Neverthe- 
 less the occupied portion of our country is in a 
 position it is compelled to endure. The greater 
 part of our towns, having surrendered to the 
 enemy on conditions, are bound to observe those 
 conditions. From the outset of military opera- 
 tions the civil authorities of the country urged 
 upon all private persons the necessity of absten- 
 tion from hostile acts against the enemy's army. 
 That instruction remains in force. It is our 
 army, and our army solely, in league with the 
 valiant troops of our AUies, that has the honor 
 and the duty of national defense. Let us intrust 
 the army with our final deliverance. 
 
 Towards the persons of those who are holding 
 dominion among us by military force, and who 
 assuredly cannot but be sensible of the chival- 
 rous energy with which we have defended, and 
 are still defending, our independence, let us con- 
 duct ourselves with all needful forbearance. 
 Some among them have declared themselves will- 
 ing to mitigate, as far as possible, the severity 
 of our situation and to help us to recover some 
 minimum of regular civic life. Let us observe 
 the rules they have laid upon us so long as those 
 rules do not violate our personal liberty, nor our 
 consciences as Christians, nor our duty to our 
 country. Let us not take bravado for courage, 
 nor tumult for bravery. 
 
 You especially, my dearest Brethren in the
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 29 
 
 Priesthood, be you at once the best examples 
 of patriotism and the best supporters of public 
 order. On the field of battle you have been 
 magnificent. The King and the Army admire 
 the intrepidity of our military chaplains in face 
 of death, their charity at the work of the ambu- 
 lance. Your Bishops are proud of you. 
 
 You have suffered greatly. You have endured 
 much calumny. But be patient; history will 
 do you justice. I to-day bear my witness for 
 you. 
 
 Wherever it has been possible I have ques- 
 tioned our people, our clergy, and particularly 
 a considerable number of priests who had been 
 deported to German prisons, but whom a prin- 
 ciple of humanity, to which I gladly render 
 homage, has since set at liberty. Well, I affirm 
 upon my honor, and I am prepared to assert 
 upon faith of my oath, that until now I have 
 not met a single ecclesiastic, secular or regular, 
 who had once incited civilians to bear arms 
 against the enemy. All have loyally followed 
 the instructions of their Bishops, given in the 
 early days of August, to the effect that they were 
 to use their moral influence over the civil popula- 
 tion so that order might be preserved and military 
 regulations observed. 
 
 I exhort you to persevere in this ministry of 
 peace, which is for you the sanest form of pa- 
 triotism; to accept with all your hearts the
 
 30 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 privations you have to endure; to simplify still 
 further, if it is possible, your way of life. One 
 of you who is reduced by robbery and pillage 
 to a state bordering on total destitution, said to 
 me lately, " I am living now as I wish I had lived 
 always." 
 
 Multiply the efforts of your charity, corporeal 
 and spiritual. Like the great Apostle, do you 
 endure daily the cares of your Church, so that 
 no man shall suffer loss and you not suffer loss, 
 and no man fall and you not burn with zeal for 
 him. Make yourselves the champions of all 
 those virtues enjoined upon you by civic honor 
 as well as by the Gospel of Christ. "Whatso- 
 ever things are true, whatsoever modest, what- 
 soever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, 
 whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, 
 if any praise of discipline, think on these things." 
 So may the worthiness of our lives justify us, 
 my most dear Colleagues, in repeating the noble 
 claim of St. Paul: "The things which ye have 
 learned, and received, and heard, and seen, in 
 me, these do ye, and the God of peace shall be 
 with you." 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 Let us continue, then, dearest Brethren, to 
 pray, to do penance, to attend Holy Mass, and 
 to receive Holy Communion for the sacred in- 
 tention of our dear country. ... I recommend
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 3 I 
 
 parish priests to hold a funeral service on behalf 
 of our fallen soldiers, on every Saturday. 
 
 Money, I know well, is scarce with you all. 
 Nevertheless, if you have little, give of that 
 little, for the succor of those among your fellow 
 countrymen who are without shelter, without 
 fuel, without sufficient bread. I have directed 
 my parish priests to form for this purpose, in 
 every parish, a relief committee. Do you second 
 them charitably and convey to my hands such 
 alms as you can save from your superfluity, 
 if not from your necessities, so that I may be 
 the distributor to the destitute who are known 
 to me. 
 
 Our distress has moved the other nations. 
 England, Ireland, and Scotland; France, Hol- 
 land, the United States, Canada, have vied 
 with each other in generosity for our relief. It is 
 a spectacle at once most mournful and most 
 ■noble. Here again is a revelation of the Provi- 
 dential Wisdom which draws good from evil. In 
 your name, my Brethren, and in my own, I offer 
 to the governments and the nations that have 
 succored us the assurance of our admiration and 
 our gratitude. 
 
 With a touching goodness our Holy Father 
 Benedict the Fifteenth has been the first to 
 incline his heart towards us. When, a few mo- 
 ments after his election, he deigned to take me 
 in his arms, I was bold enough there to ask that
 
 32 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 the first Pontifical Benediction he spoke should 
 be given to Belgium, already in deep distress 
 through the war. He eagerly closed with my 
 wish, which I knew would also be yours. To-day, 
 with delicate kindness, His Holiness has decided 
 to renounce the annual offering of Peter's Pence 
 from Belgium. In a letter dated on the beautiful 
 festival of the Immaculate Virgin, December the 
 eighth, he assures us of the part he bears in our 
 sufferings, he prays for us, calls down upon our 
 Belgium the protection of Heaven, and exhorts 
 us to hail in the then approaching advent of the 
 Prince of Peace the dawn of better days. Here 
 is the text of this valued message: 
 
 " To our dear Son, Desire Mercier, Cardinal Priest 
 of the Holy Roman Church, of the title of St. 
 Peter in Chains, Archbishop of Malines, at 
 Malines. 
 
 "Our Dear Son, 
 
 Health and Apostolic Benediction. 
 
 "The fatherly solicitude which we feel for all 
 the faithful whom Divine Providence has in- 
 trusted to our care causes us to share their griefs 
 even more fully than their joys. 
 
 "Could we then fail to be moved by keenest 
 sorrow at the sight of the Belgian nation which 
 we so dearly love, reduced by a most cruel 
 and most disastrous war to this lamentable 
 state .f*
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 33 
 
 "We behold the King and his august family, 
 the members of the Government, the chief per- 
 sons of the country, bishops, priests, and a whole 
 people enduring woes which must fill with pity 
 all gentle hearts, and which our own soul, in the 
 fervor of paternal love, must be the first to 
 compassionate. Thus, under the burden of this 
 distress and this mourning, we call, in our prayers, 
 for an end to such misfortunes. May the God 
 of mercy hasten the day! Meanwhile we strive 
 to mitigate, as far as in us lies, this excessive 
 suffering. Therefore the step taken by our dear 
 Son, Cardinal Hartmann, Archbishop of Cologne, 
 at whose request it was arranged that French or 
 Belgian priests detained in Germany should have 
 the treatment of officers, gave us great satisfac- 
 tion, and we have expressed our thanks to him 
 for his action. 
 
 "As regards Belgium, we have been informed 
 that the faithful of that nation, so sorely tried, 
 did not neglect, in their piety, to turn towards 
 us their thoughts, and that even under the blow 
 of so many calamities they proposed to gather 
 this year, as in all preceding years, the offerings 
 to St. Peter, which supply the necessities of the 
 Apostolic See. This truly incomparable proof 
 of piety and of attachment filled us with admira- 
 tion; we accept it with all the affection that is 
 due from a grateful heart; but having regard 
 to the painful position in which our dear children
 
 34 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 are placed, we cannot bring ourselves to favor 
 the fulfillment of that project, noble though it is. 
 If any alms are to be gathered, our wish is that 
 the money should be entirely devoted to the bene- 
 fit of the Belgian people, who are as illustrious 
 by reason of their nobility and their piety as they 
 are to-day worthy of all sympathy. 
 
 "Amid the difficulties and anxieties of the 
 present hour we would remind the sons who are 
 so dear to us that the arm of God is not short- 
 ened, that He is ever able to save, that His ear is 
 not deaf to prayer. 
 
 "Let the hope of Divine aid increase with 
 the approach of the festival of Christmas and 
 of the mysteries that celebrate the Birth of Our 
 Lord, and recall that peace which God pro- 
 claimed to mankind by His angels. 
 
 "May the souls of the suffering and afflicted 
 find comfort and consolation in the assurance 
 of the paternal tenderness that prompts our 
 prayers. Yes, may God take pity upon the 
 Belgian people, and grant them the abundance 
 of all good. 
 
 "As a pledge of these prayers and good wishes, 
 we now grant to all, and in the first place to you, 
 our dear Son, the Apostolic Benediction. 
 
 "Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, on the feast 
 of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady, in 
 the year MCMXIV, the first of our Pontificate. 
 
 "Benedict XV, Pope."
 
 PATRIOTISM AND ENDURANCE 35 
 
 One last word, my dearest Brethren. At the 
 outset of these troubles I said to you that in 
 the day of the liberation of our territory we 
 should give to the Sacred Heart and to the 
 Blessed Virgin a public testimony of our grati- 
 tude. Since that date I have been able to con- 
 sult my colleagues in the Episcopate, and in 
 agreement with them, I now ask you to make, 
 as soon as possible, a fresh effort to hasten the 
 construction of the national basilica, promised 
 by Belgium in honor of the Sacred Heart. As 
 soon as the sun of peace shall shine upon our 
 country, we shall redress our ruins, we shall 
 restore shelter to those who have none, we shall 
 rebuild our churches, we shall reconstitute our 
 hbraries, and we shall hope to crown this work 
 of reconciliation by raising, upon the heights of 
 the capital of Belgium, free and Catholic, that 
 national basilica of the Sacred Heart. Further- 
 more, every year we shall make it our duty to 
 celebrate solemnly, on the Friday following Corpus 
 Christi, the festival of the Sacred Heart. 
 
 Lastly, in every region of the diocese the 
 clergy will organize an annual pilgrimage of 
 thanksgiving to one of the privileged sanctuaries 
 of the Blessed Virgin, in order to pay especial 
 honor to the Protectress of our national indepen- 
 dence and universal Mediatrix of the Christian 
 commonwealth. 
 
 The present letter shall be read on the fol-
 
 36 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 lowing dates — on the first day of the year and 
 on the Sundays following the day on which it 
 shall severally reach you. 
 
 Accept, my dearest Brethren, my wishes and 
 prayers for you, and for the happiness of your 
 families, and receive, I pray you, my paternal 
 benediction. 
 
 ►I^ D. J. Card. Mercier, 
 
 Archbishop of Malines.
 
 II 
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH
 
 II 
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 
 
 NOVEMBER 24, I915 
 
 To Their Eminences the Cardinals and Their Lord- 
 ships the Bishops of Germany, Bavaria, and 
 Austria-Hungary . 
 
 Your Eminences and Your Lordships 
 
 FOR a year, we Catholic Bishops — you, the 
 Bishops of Germany on the one hand, and 
 we, the Bishops of Belgium, France, and England, 
 on the other — have presented a disconcerting 
 spectacle to the world. 
 
 Hardly had the German armies trodden the 
 soil of our country, when the rumor spread among 
 you that our civilians were taking part in mili- 
 tary operations; that the women of Vise and of 
 Liege were gouging out the eyes of your soldiers; 
 that the populace at Antwerp and at Brussels 
 had plundered the property of expelled Germans. 
 
 In the first days of August, Dom Ildefons Her- 
 wegen, Abbot of Maria-Laach, sent a telegram to 
 the Cardinal Archbishop of Malines, begging 
 him, for the love of God, to protect the German 
 soldiers from the tortures which our fellow 
 citizens were supposed to be inflicting on them. 
 
 39
 
 40 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 But it was common knowledge that our Govern- 
 ment had taken all necessary measures to insure 
 that all citizens were instructed in the laws of 
 war: in every parish the inhabitants were obliged 
 to leave their weapons at the town hall; the 
 people were warned, by means of notices, that 
 the only citizens authorized to bear arms were 
 those regularly enrolled in the army; and the 
 clergy, anxious to second the authority of the 
 State, had given circulation to the instructions, 
 published by the Government, orally, by parish 
 notices, and by posting bills on the church doors. 
 
 Having been accustomed for a century to a 
 reign of peace, we had no idea that anyone could 
 honestly impute violent instincts to us. Strong 
 in our integrity and in the sincerity of our peace- 
 ful intentions, we replied to the slanderous charges 
 of francs-tireurs and "gouged eyes" by a shrug 
 of the shoulders, convinced that the truth would 
 not be long in manifesting itself. 
 
 The Belgian clergy and episcopate were in 
 personal relations with many priests, monks, and 
 bishops of Germany and of Austria; the Eucha- 
 ristic Congresses of Cologne in 1909 and of Vienna 
 in 1 91 2 had given them the opportunity of know- 
 ing one another more closely and of mutually 
 appreciating one another. We had also the 
 assurance that the CathoHcs of the nations at 
 war with ours would not judge us hastily; and, 
 without being much disturbed by the contents of
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 4I 
 
 the telegram of Dom Ildefons, the Cardinal of 
 Malines contented himself with begging him to 
 unite with us in preaching humanity; "for," he 
 added, "we are informed that the German troops 
 are shooting innocent Belgian priests." 
 
 From the very first days of August, crimes 
 had been committed at Battice, Vise, Berneau, 
 Herve, and elsewhere, but we tried to hope that 
 they would remain isolated cases, and knowing 
 the very distinguished connections of Dom Ilde- 
 fons, we put great reliance on the following decla- 
 ration, which he was good enough to send us on 
 August II: — *'I am informed, on the highest 
 authority, that a formal order has been given 
 by the miUtary command to the German soldiers 
 to spare the innocent. As regards the very de- 
 plorable fact that even priests have lost their 
 lives, I would call your Lordship's attention to 
 the circumstance that the costumes of priests 
 and monks have lately become objects of sus- 
 picion and offense, since French spies have made 
 use of the ecclesiastical costume, and even of 
 that of nuns, in order to disguise their hostile 
 intentions." 
 
 Nevertheless, the acts of hostility against the 
 innocent population continued. 
 
 On August 18, 1914, the Bishop of Liege 
 wrote to Commandant Bayer, Governor of the 
 town of Liege: "Several villages have been 
 destroyed one after the other; important people,
 
 42 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 among them some priests, have been shot; others 
 have been arrested, and all have protested their 
 innocence. I know the priests of my diocese; 
 I cannot believe that a single one of them has been 
 guilty of acts of hostility towards German sol- 
 diers. I have visited several ambulances and I 
 have seen that the German wounded are cared 
 for there with the same attention as the Belgian. 
 They admit it themselves." ^ 
 
 No reply was received to this letter. 
 
 At the beginning of September the German 
 Emperor lent the weight of his authority to the 
 scandalous accusations of which our innocent 
 people were the object. He sent to Mr, Wilson, 
 the President of the United States, a telegram, 
 which, as far as we know, has not been withdrawn 
 to this hour: "The Belgian Government has 
 publicly encouraged the civilian population to take 
 part in this war, for which it has been long care- 
 fully preparing. The cruelties committed in the 
 course of this guerrilla warfare, by women and 
 even by priests on doctors and nurses, have been 
 such that my Generals have been obliged at last 
 to have recourse to the severest measures to 
 punish the guilty, and to hinder the bloodthirsty 
 
 * See page 65 for the complete text of the letter of the Bishop of 
 Liege. The protest was repeated on August 21 to General von 
 Kolowe, who had become military governor of Liege; then on 
 August 29 to His Excellency, Baron von der Goltz, Governor-General 
 of the occupied provinces of Belgium, and residing, at this time, 
 in the episcopal palace of Liege.
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 43 
 
 population from continuing to commit these 
 abominable crimes. Several villages, and even 
 the town of Louvain, have had to be destroyed 
 (except the very beautiful Town Hall) for our 
 defense and the protection of my troops. My 
 heart bleeds when I see that such measures are 
 rendered inevitable, and when I think of the 
 numberless innocent people who have lost their 
 homes and property in consequence of the crimes 
 in question." 
 
 This telegram was posted up in Belgium by 
 order of the German Government on Septem- 
 ber II. The very next day, September 12, 
 the Bishop of Namur asked for an interview 
 with the military Governor of Namur, and pro- 
 tested against the accusation which the Emperor 
 sought to make against the Belgian clergy. He 
 maintained the innocence of all the members of 
 the clergy who had been shot or ill-treated, and 
 declared that he was himself ready to publish 
 any guilty deeds which were in reality established. 
 
 The offer of the Bishop of Namur was not ac- 
 cepted, and his protest had no result. 
 
 Calumny was thus given a free course. The 
 German press fomented it. The organ of the 
 Catholic Center, the Cologne Gazette, rivaled the Lu- 
 theran press in its chauvinisms, and on the day 
 when thousands of our fellow citizens (eccle- 
 siastics and laity from Vise, Aerschot, Wesemel, 
 Herent, Louvain, and twenty other localities as
 
 44 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 innocent of deeds of war or of cruelties as you and 
 we), were taken prisoners, led through the sta- 
 tions of Aix-la-Chapelle and Cologne, and for 
 hours were exhibited as a spectacle for the morbid 
 curiosity of the Rhenish metropoHs, they had the 
 pain of finding that their CathoHc brethren poured 
 out as many insults on them as the Lutherans 
 of Celle, Soltau, and Magdeburg. 
 
 Not a voice in Germany was raised in defense 
 of the victims. 
 
 The legend, which turned innocent into guilty 
 and crime into an act of justice, thus gained 
 credence, and, on May lo, 191 5, the "White 
 Book," the official organ of the German Empire, 
 did not scruple to repeat the same charges, and 
 to circulate in neutral coi^ntries these odious 
 and cowardly lies: "It is indisputable that Ger- 
 man wounded have been robbed, murdered, and 
 even frightfully mutilated by the Belgian popu- 
 lation, and that even women and young girls 
 have taken part in these abominations. The 
 eyes of wounded Germans have been gouged 
 out, their ears, noses, fingers, and sexual organs 
 cut oflF, or their bowels opened. In other cases 
 German soldiers have been poisoned, hanged 
 from trees, sprinkled with boiling liquids, and 
 sometimes burnt, so that they have died in 
 frightful agony. These brutish proceedings of 
 the population not only violate the rules expressly 
 laid down by the Geneva Convention as to the
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 45 
 
 care and attention due to the enemy wounded, 
 but are contrary to the fundamental principles of 
 the laws of war and of humanity." ^ 
 
 Put yourselves, for a moment, in our place, 
 dear Brethren in the faith and priesthood. 
 
 We know that these shameless accusations of 
 the Imperial Government are calumnies from end 
 to end. We know it, and we swear it. 
 
 Now, your Government, to justify them, calls 
 evidence which has not been submitted to any 
 cross-examination. 
 
 Is it not your duty, not only in charity, but in 
 strict justice, to enlighten yourselves and your 
 flocks, and to furnish us with the opportunity of 
 establishing our innocence legally? 
 
 You already owed us this satisfaction in the 
 name of CathoHc charity, which is above national 
 struggles; you owe it to us to-day in strict justice, 
 because a Committee, which has at least your 
 tacit approval, and is composed of the most 
 highly esteemed politicians, scientists, and theo- 
 logians in Germany, has supported the official 
 accusations, and has intrusted to the pen of a 
 CathoHc priest. Professor A. J. Rosenberg, of 
 Paderborn, the task of summing them up in a 
 book, entitled "The Lying Accusations of the 
 French Catholics against Germany." It has thus 
 thrown upon Catholic Germany the responsibility 
 
 ^ " Die volkerrechtswidrige Fiihrung des belgischen Volkskriegs: 
 Denkschrift" (S. 4).
 
 46 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 for the active and public propagation of the 
 calumny against the Belgian people. 
 
 When the French book, in reply to which the 
 German Catholics publish their own, came out, 
 their Eminences, Cardinal von Hartmann, Arch- 
 bishop of Cologne, and Cardinal von Bettinger, 
 Archbishop of Munich, felt impelled to send a 
 telegram to their Emperor in these terms: "Re- 
 volted by the libels against the German Fatherland 
 and its glorious army, contained in the work 'The 
 German War and Catholicism,' we feel in our 
 hearts the necessity of expressing our sorrowful 
 indignation to Your Majesty in the name of all 
 the German Bishops. We shall not fail to make 
 our complaint to the Supreme Head of the 
 Church." 
 
 Now, most reverend Eminences and venerated 
 Colleagues of the German Episcopacy, in our 
 turn, we. Archbishop and Bishops of Belgium, 
 revolted by the calumnies against our Belgian 
 land and its glorious army, contained in the Im- 
 perial "White Book," and reproduced in the reply 
 of the German Catholics to the work of the French 
 Catholics, we also feel impelled to express to our 
 King, to our Government, to our army, and to 
 our country our sorrowful indignation. 
 
 And, in order that our protest should not stand 
 in conflict with yours without any useful result, 
 we ask you to agree to help us to set up a tribunal 
 to hear both sides. You will appoint, by virtue
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 47 
 
 of your office, as many members as you wish and 
 such as you please to choose. We will appoint 
 the same number — for instance, three on each 
 side. We will join in asking the Bishops of a 
 neutral State, Holland, Spain, Switzerland, or 
 the United States, to choose us an arbitrator, who 
 will preside over the sittings of the tribunal. 
 
 You have carried your complaints to the Su- 
 preme Head of the Church. 
 
 It is not just that he should hear your voice 
 only. 
 
 You will be honest enough to help us to make 
 ours heard. 
 
 Both you and we have the same duty — to lay 
 before His Holiness attested documents on which 
 he may be able to found his decision. 
 
 You are not ignorant of the efforts which we 
 have repeatedly made, to obtain from the Power, 
 which is in occupation of Belgium, the estabHsh- 
 ment of a tribunal of inquiry. 
 
 The Cardinal of Malines, on two occasions, in 
 writing, January 24, 191 5, and February 10, 
 191 5, and the Bishop of Namur, in a letter to 
 the miHtary Governor of his Province, April 12, 
 191 5, urged the establishment of a tribunal to 
 be composed of an equal number of German and 
 Belgian arbitrators and presided over by a repre- 
 sentative of a neutral State. 
 
 Our solicitations met with an obstinate refusal. 
 Yet the German authorities were careful to set
 
 48 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 up inquiries; but they wanted them to be one- 
 sided, that is, without any legal value. 
 
 After having refused the inquiry which the 
 Cardinal of Malines asked for, the German 
 authorities proceeded to various locahties, where 
 priests had been shot and peaceable citizens 
 massacred or made prisoners, and there took the 
 depositions of witnesses, some of whom were chosen 
 indiscriminately and others carefully selected. 
 Sometimes it was in the presence of a representa- 
 tive of the local authority, who was ignorant of 
 the German language, and so was obliged to 
 accept and to sign on trust the official reports. 
 They believed in this way they could form con- 
 clusions which might afterwards be presented to 
 the public as the results of examination and 
 cross-examination. 
 
 The German inquiry at Louvain in November, 
 1914, was conducted under these conditions. 
 It is thus devoid of authority. 
 
 So it is natural that we should turn to you. 
 
 You will grant us the Court of Arbitration, 
 which the occupying Power has refused us. You 
 will obtain for us from your Government a public 
 declaration that the witnesses will be asked by 
 you and us to tell all they know without fear of 
 reprisals. Before you, under the shelter of your 
 moral authority, they will feel more secure, and 
 will be encouraged to relate what they have seen 
 and heard; the world will have faith in the Epis-
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 49 
 
 copate of our two united countries; our joint 
 control will guarantee the authenticity of the 
 witnesses and the fidelity of the official reports. 
 An inquiry, so conducted, will inspire confidence. 
 
 We ask for this inquiry. Your Eminences and 
 venerated Colleagues, above all, to avenge the 
 honor of the Belgian people. Slanders on the 
 part of your people and its highest representatives 
 have violated it. You know, as well as we, the 
 adage of theology, moral, human. Christian and 
 Catholic — no pardon without restitution: Non 
 remittitur peccatum, nisi restituatur ahlatum. 
 
 Your people, through the mouthpiece of their 
 political powers and highest moral authorities, 
 have accused our fellow citizens of having com- 
 mitted atrocities and horrors upon wounded 
 Germans, of which the "White Book" and the 
 Catholic manifesto, above mentioned, pointed out 
 the details; we oppose a formal denial to all 
 these accusations, and we ask to be allowed 
 to prove the facts upon which we found this 
 denial. 
 
 In return, in order to justify the atrocities 
 committed in Belgium by the German army, 
 the poUtical Power by the very heading of the 
 "White Book," Die volkerrechtswidrige Fiihrung 
 des belgischen Folkskriegs (the violation of inter- 
 national law by the methods of war employed 
 by the Belgian people), and the hundred Catholic 
 signatories of the work. The German War and
 
 50 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Catholicism; a German reply to French attacks, 
 affirm that the German army in Belgium legiti- 
 mately defended itself against a treacherous or- 
 ganization o{ franc s-tireurs. 
 
 We declare that nowhere in Belgium was there 
 an organization of franc s-tireurs, and we claim 
 the right to prove the truth of our assertion in 
 the name of our calumniated national honor. 
 
 You will call whom you wish before the tribunal, 
 at which all parties will be present. We will 
 invite to appear there all the priests of the par- 
 ishes where civilians, priests, monks, or laymen 
 were put to death or threatened with death to 
 the cry of Man hat geschossen (someone has fired). 
 We will ask all these priests, if you wish, to sign 
 their depositions on oath, and then, at the risk 
 of maintaining that all the Belgian clergy is 
 perjured, you will be obliged to accept the con- 
 clusions of this solemn and decisive inquiry, and 
 the civilized world will be also unable to deny 
 them. 
 
 But, your Eminences and venerated Colleagues, 
 we should remind you that you have the same 
 interest as ourselves in setting up a court of honor. 
 
 For we, through direct experience, know and 
 declare that the German army gave itself up in 
 Belgium, in a hundred different places, to plun- 
 dering, incendiarism, imprisonments, massacres, 
 and sacrileges, contrary to all justice and to every 
 sentiment of humanity.
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 5 1 
 
 We declare this, notably in the cases of the 
 communes, the names of which appeared in our 
 Pastoral Letters and in the two notes addressed 
 by the Bishops of Namur and of Liege, on October 
 31 and November i, 191 5, respectively, to His 
 Holiness, Pope Benedict XV, to His Excellency, 
 the Nuncio at Brussels, and to the ministers or 
 representatives of neutral countries in residence 
 at Brussels. 
 
 Fifty innocent priests and thousands of inno- 
 cent CathoUcs were put to death; hundreds of 
 others, whose lives have been saved by cir- 
 cumstances independent of the will of their 
 persecutors, were in danger of death; thousands 
 of innocent persons, with no previous trial, were 
 imprisoned; many of them underwent months 
 of detention, and, when they were released, the 
 most minute questioning, to which they were 
 submitted, revealed no guilt in any of them. 
 
 These crimes cry to heaven for vengeance. 
 
 If, in formulating these denunciations, we are 
 calumniating the German army, or if the military 
 authority had just reasons for commanding or 
 permitting those acts which we call criminal, it is 
 to the honor and the national interest of Germany 
 to confute us. So long as German justice is de- 
 nied, we claim the right and the duty of denounc- 
 ing what, in all sincerity, we consider as a grave 
 attack on justice and on our honor. 
 
 The Chancellor of the German Empire, at the
 
 52 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 sitting on August 4, declared that the invasion 
 of Luxembourg and of Belgium was "contrary to 
 the principles of international law." He recog- 
 nized that, "in disregarding the rightful pro- 
 testations of the Governments of Luxembourg 
 and of Belgium, he committed a wrong which he 
 promised to make good." The Pope, alluding 
 intentionally to Belgium, as well as condescend- 
 ing to write in that sense to the Minister, Mon- 
 sieur van der Heuvel, by his Eminence, Cardinal 
 Gasparri, Secretary of State, pronounced in his 
 Consistorial address of January 22, 191 5, this 
 irrevocable decision: "It appertains to the Roman 
 Pontiff, whom God has set up as sovereign in- 
 terpreter and avenger of 'eternal law,' to pro- 
 claim, before all things, that no one can for any 
 reason whatever violate justice." 
 
 Since then, however, politicians and casuists 
 have attempted to evade or to weaken those 
 decisive words. In their reply to the French 
 CathoHcs, the German Catholics indulge in the 
 same paltry subtleties, and would Hke to prove 
 them by a fact. They have at their disposal 
 two testimonies: one, anonymous, from someone 
 who said he saw, on July 26, some French 
 officers on the Boulevard Anspach, at Brussels, 
 in conversation with some Belgian officers; the 
 other was from a certain Gustave Lochard, of 
 Rimogne, who deposes that "two regiments of 
 French dragoons, the 28 and the 30, and a
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 53 
 
 battery crossed the Belgian frontier on the 
 evening of July 31, 1914, and remained entirely 
 on Belgian soil for the whole following week." 
 
 Now, the Belgian Government declare "that 
 before the declaration of war, no French troop, 
 however small, had entered Belgium." And 
 they add, "There is no honest evidence which 
 can confute this assertion." 
 
 The Government of our King therefore declares 
 the statement of the German Catholics to be an 
 error. 
 
 Here we have a question of paramount im- 
 portance, both political and moral, on which it 
 is our duty to enlighten the public conscience. 
 
 But if, nevertheless, you decline the examina- 
 tion of this general question, we would ask you, 
 at any rate, to attempt to check the evidence 
 upon which the German CathoHcs have rehed 
 as decisive against us. The deposition of this 
 Gustave Lochard rests on facts easy to check. 
 The German Catholics will be anxious to clear 
 themselves of the reproach of error and will 
 make it a duty to their consciences to retract, 
 if they have allowed themselves to be deceived 
 to our prejudice. 
 
 We are well aware that you are reluctant to 
 beheve that the regiments whose discipline, 
 honesty, and religious faith you say you know, 
 could have allowed themselves to commit the 
 inhuman deeds with which we reproach them.
 
 54 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 You want to persuade yourselves that it is not so, 
 because it cannot be so. 
 
 And, constrained by the evidence, we reply to 
 you that it can be, because it is. 
 
 In face of facts no presumption holds good. 
 
 For you, as for us, there is only one issue: 
 the proof of the facts by a commission whose 
 impartiality is, and appears to all, unimpeach- 
 able. 
 
 We have no difficulty in understanding your 
 feelings. 
 
 Pray believe that we also respect the spirit of 
 discipline, of industry, and of faith, of which we 
 had so often received proofs and witnessed the 
 manifestations amongst your fellow countrymen. 
 Very many are the Belgians who confess to-day 
 the bitterness of their deception. But they have 
 lived through the sinister events of August 
 and September. In spite of themselves the truth 
 has overcome their most deeply rooted impres- 
 sions. 
 
 The fact is no longer to be denied — Belgium 
 has suffered martyrdom. 
 
 When foreigners from neutral countries — 
 Americans, Dutch, Swiss, Spaniards — question 
 us as to the manner in which the German invasion 
 was conducted, and when we tell them of certain 
 scenes to the horror of which, in spite of our- 
 selves, we are compelled to testify, we strive to 
 lessen the impression which the narrative would
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 55 
 
 make, feeling that the naked truth passes the 
 bounds of credibiHty. 
 
 Nevertheless, when, in presence of the whole 
 evidence, you have been able to analyze the 
 causes, both remote and immediate, of what 
 one of your generals (in face of the ruins of the 
 little village of SchafFen-lez-Diest, and of the 
 martyrdom of the pastor of the parish) called "a 
 tragic error"; when you have heard of the in- 
 fluences which your soldiers were under at the 
 moment they entered Belgium, in the intoxica- 
 tion of their first successes, the a priori unlikeli- 
 hood of the truth will appear to you, as to us, less 
 of a stumbling-block. 
 
 Above all. Your Eminences and venerated 
 Colleagues, do not allow yourselves to be kept 
 back by the empty pretext that an inquiry to-day 
 would be premature. 
 
 Strictly speaking, we might say so, on our side, 
 because, at the present hour the inquiry would 
 take place under conditions unfavorable to us. 
 Our population has been in truth so deeply ter- 
 rified, the prospect of reprisals is still so threaten- 
 ing, that the witnesses, whom we shall call before 
 a tribunal, consisting partly of Germans, will 
 hardly dare to tell the complete truth. 
 
 But there are decisive reasons against any 
 delay. 
 
 The first, which will most directly touch your 
 hearts, is that we are the weak and you are the
 
 ^6 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Strong. You would not wish to abuse your power 
 over us. 
 
 Public opinion ordinarily is with him Vvho first 
 makes himself master of it. 
 
 Now, while you have complete freedom to 
 inundate neutral countries with your publica- 
 tions, we are imprisoned and reduced to silence. 
 We are hardly allowed to raise our voices inside 
 our churches; the sermons in them are censored, 
 that is to say, travestied by hired spies; conscien- 
 tious protests are styled revolt against public 
 authority; our writings are stopped on the 
 frontier, like an article of contraband. You 
 alone enjoy freedom of speech and of pen, and 
 if you are willing, through a spirit of charity 
 and justice, to procure a little of the same free- 
 dom for the accused Belgians and to give them the 
 opportunity of defending themselves, it is for you 
 to come to their aid at the first possible moment. 
 The old legal maxim, " Audiatur et altera pars" 
 is inscribed, it is said, above many German law 
 courts. In any case, with you as with us, it 
 embodies the law in the proceedings of the epis- 
 copal courts, and in your case, too, no doubt as 
 in ours, it is current in the popular tongue, under 
 this image: "He who hears only one bell, hears 
 only one sound." 
 
 Perhaps you will say: "It is past, forget it. 
 Instead of throwing oil on the fire, rather turn 
 your minds to forgiveness and unite your efforts
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 57 
 
 with those of the occupying Power, which asks 
 only to stanch the wounds of the unfortunate 
 Belgian people." 
 
 Your Eminences and dear Colleagues, do not 
 add irony to injustice. 
 
 Have we not suffered enough.? Have we not 
 been, are we not yet, tortured cruelly enough .? 
 
 It is past, say you; resign yourselves, forget. 
 
 Past! But all the wounds are bleeding! There 
 is not one honest heart which does not swell 
 with indignation. When we hear our Govern- 
 ment say in the face of the world: "He is twice 
 guilty who, after having violated the rights of 
 another, still attempts, with the most audacious 
 cynicism, to justify himself by imputing to his 
 victim faults which he has never committed," 
 our good folk stifle their curses only by force. 
 Only yesterday a countryman of the neighbor- 
 hood of Malines learned that his son had fallen 
 on the battlefield. A priest was consoHng him. 
 The good man rephed: "Oh! him, I give him 
 to the country. But my eldest, they took him 
 
 from me, the , and foully buried him in a 
 
 ditch." 
 
 How do you think that we could obtain a 
 sincere word of resignation and of pardon from 
 these poor creatures who have known all these 
 tortures, as long as those who have made them 
 suffer refuse to admit it, or to utter a word of 
 regret, or a promise of reparation?
 
 58 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Germany cannot now restore to us the blood 
 which she has shed, the innocent lives which her 
 arms have destroyed; but it is in her power to 
 restore to the Belgian people its honor, which she 
 has violated or permitted to be violated. 
 
 We ask this restitution from you — you who 
 stand first among the representatives of Christian 
 morahty in the Church of Germany. 
 
 There is something more profoundly sad than 
 political divisions and material disasters. It is 
 the hatred which injustice, real or supposed, 
 stores up in so many hearts created to love one 
 another. Is it not upon us, the pastors of our 
 people, that the duty lies of helping to get rid 
 of these bad feelings, and of reestablishing on its 
 foundations of justice, to-day so shaken, the union 
 in love of all the children of the great CathoUc 
 family ? 
 
 The occupying Power speaks and writes of its 
 intention to stanch our wounds. 
 
 But in the tribunal of the world intention is 
 judged by action. 
 
 Now all that we poor Belgians, who submit for 
 a time to the domination of the Empire, know, 
 is that the Power which has staked its honor to 
 govern us according to International Law codified 
 in the Hague Convention, is ignoring its engage- 
 ments. We are not speaking of particular abuses 
 committed against individuals or communes, 
 the character of which can only be estimated by
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 59 
 
 an investigation made after hearing both sides 
 at the end of this war. We are considering at 
 present only acts of the Government established 
 by its official documents, posted up on the 
 walls of our towns, and consequently involving 
 directly its responsibility beyond any possible 
 question. 
 
 Now the breaches of the Hague Convention, 
 since the date of the occupation of our provinces, 
 are numerous and flagrant. We set them out 
 here under headings and we shall provide, in an 
 Annex,^ the proof of our allegations. The fol- 
 lowing are the chief breaches: 
 
 Collective punishments imposed on account of 
 individual acts, contrary to Article 50 of the 
 Hague Convention; 
 
 Compulsory labor for the enemy, contrary to 
 Article 52; 
 
 New taxes, in violation of Articles 48, 49, and 
 
 52; 
 Abuse of requisitions in kind, in violation of 
 
 Article 52; 
 
 Disregard of the laws in force in the country, 
 
 contrary to Article 43. 
 
 These violations of International Law, which 
 
 aggravate our unhappy lot and increase the 
 
 ferments of revolt and hatred in hearts usually 
 
 peaceable and kindly disposed, would not be 
 
 continued if those who commit them did not feel 
 
 1 See page 81.
 
 6o CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 that they were supported, if not by the positive 
 approbation, at least by the complacent silence 
 of all those who form public opinion in their own 
 country. 
 
 Again, then, we confidently appeal to your 
 charity; we are the weak, you are the strong; 
 come and judge whether it is still permissible for 
 you to refuse your aid. 
 
 There are, moreover, in regard to the estab- 
 Hshment of a commission of inquiry by members 
 of the Catholic Episcopate, arguments of a general 
 kind. 
 
 We have already dwelt upon this. The spec- 
 tacle which our divisions afford to the world is 
 disconcerting; it is an occasion of scandal to it, 
 and awakens in it blasphemous thoughts. 
 
 Our people do not understand how you can be 
 unaware of the twofold flagrant iniquity that 
 has been inflicted on Belgium — the violation 
 of our neutrality and the inhuman conduct of 
 your soldiers — or how, knowing it, you can 
 refrain from raising your voice to condemn it, 
 and to dissociate yourselves from it. 
 
 On the other hand, what ought to scandalize 
 your population, Protestant and Catholic, is the 
 role ascribed by your Press to the Belgian clergy, 
 and to a nation over which, for the last thirty years, 
 it is well known that a Catholic Government has 
 ruled. "Take care," said the Bishop of Hildes- 
 heim to his clergy, no later than the 21st Sep-
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 6 1 
 
 tember, 1914, "these charges which the Press is 
 circulating against priests, monks, and nuns of 
 CathoUc nations are making a rift between the 
 CathoHcs and Protestants on German soil, and 
 the religious future of the Empire is imperiled.^ 
 
 The campaign of calumnies against our clergy 
 and our people has not slackened. Erzberger, 
 a deputy of the Center, seems to have taken 
 upon himself to increase it. In Belgium itself, in 
 the Cathedral of Antwerp, on the sixteenth 
 Sunday after Whitsuntide, one of your priests, 
 Heinrich Mohr, dared to declare from the pulpit 
 of truth to the Catholic soldiers of your army: 
 "Official documents have informed us how the 
 Belgians have hanged German soldiers on trees, 
 sprinkled them with boiling liquid, and burnt 
 them ahve."^ 
 
 ^ "For in such rumors it is not only a question of the honor of 
 colleagues, but also the endangering of the holy interests of the 
 Catholics in Germany. These rumors, indeed, are calculated to 
 undermine slowly the peaceful relations between the members of 
 the different faiths, to bring about mistrust, particularly towards 
 the clergy, and to cause deep vexation and confusion amongst Catho- 
 lics in non-Catholic countries. For this reason it is particularly im- 
 portant for the priest in non-Catholic countries to be on his guard 
 against the insinuations which may be current in his parish with 
 regard to the clergy." Dr. Adolf Bertram, Bishop of Hildesheim: 
 Vigilance as to Insinuations as regards the Clergy. 
 
 * "We have read horrible things in the official reports: how the 
 Belgians hanged German soldiers on the trees, and scalded them 
 with hot tar and burnt them alive." A sermon on the i6th Sunday 
 after Whitsuntide, by Heinrich Mohr, Chaplain to the Forces. The 
 sermon has been published in the periodical, The Voice of Home, 
 No. 34, Freiburg in Br. 1915. Herder.
 
 62 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 There is only one means of stopping these 
 calumnies, and that is to bring the whole truth 
 to the light of day, and to condemn the true 
 culprits publicly by religious authority. 
 
 There is another source of scandal for honest 
 men, beHevers or non-believers, in the habit of 
 giving prominence to the advantages and the 
 disadvantages which Catholic interests would 
 derive from the success either of the Triple Alli- 
 ance or of the Quadruple Entente. Professor 
 Schrors, of the University of Bonn,^ was the first, 
 so far as we know, to devote his leisure to these 
 alluring calculations. 
 
 The religious results of the war are the secret 
 of God, and none of us is in the Divine confidence. 
 
 But there is a higher question than that — the 
 question of morality, of right, of honor. 
 
 "Seek ye first," said Our Lord in the Holy 
 Gospel, "the Kingdom of God and His righteous- 
 ness, and all these things shall be added unto 
 you. 
 
 Do your duty, come what may! 
 
 Also we bishops at this present moment have 
 a moral duty, and therefore a religious one, which 
 takes precedence of all others, that of searching 
 out and proclaiming the truth. 
 
 Did not Christ, whose disciples and ministers 
 we have the glorious honor to be, say: "For this 
 
 1 " Der Krieg und der Katholizismus," by Dr. Heinrich Schrors, 
 Professor of Catholic Theology in the University of Bonn.
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 63 
 
 cause came I into the world that I should bear 
 witness unto the truth. ^ Ego ad hoc veni in 
 mundum, ut testimonium perhiheam veritati." 
 
 On the solemn day of our episcopal consecra- 
 tion we vowed to God and the Catholic Church 
 never to forsake the truth, to yield neither to 
 ambition nor to fear when it should be necessary 
 to show our love for it. Veritatem diligat, neque 
 earn unquam deserat aut laudihus aut timore 
 superatus.^ 
 
 We have, therefore, in virtue of our vocation, 
 a common role and a ground of sympathy. Con- 
 fusion reigns in men's minds; what some call 
 light, others designate as darkness; what is good 
 to one is bad to another. We cherish the hope 
 that the tribunal of impartial inquiry to which we 
 have the honor of inviting your delegates will 
 help to dissipate more than one uncertainty: 
 Non ponat lucem tenebras, nee tenebras lucem; 
 non dicat malum bonum, nee bonum malum. With 
 all the warmth of his prayers, our Holy Father 
 the Pope calls for peace; in the last letter he 
 deigned to address to you at Fulda, after your 
 last meeting, he urged you — he urges us all — 
 to long for it with him. But he desires it only 
 if it is based on respect for the rights and dignity 
 of nations.^ Dum votis omnibus pacem expetimus, 
 
 ^ John xviii. 37. 
 
 * Pontificale Romanum: de consecratione electi inepiscopum. 
 
 ' Acta Apostolica Sedis, Vol. VII, October 6, 1915.
 
 64 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 atque earn quidem pacem quae et justitiae sit opus 
 et populorum congruat dignitati. 
 
 We shall respond then to the desire of our com- 
 mon Father by working together to cause Truth 
 to shine forth and triumph, Truth on which must 
 rest justice, the honor of nations, and at length 
 peace. 
 
 We are. Your Eminences and Venerated Col- 
 leagues, your respectful servants and brothers in 
 devotion, 
 
 D. J. Card. Mercier, Archbishop of Malines 
 
 Antoine, Bishop of Ghent ^ 
 
 Gu STAVE J., Bishop of Bruges ^ 
 
 Thomas Louis, Bishop of Namur 
 
 Martin Hubert, Bishop of Liege 
 
 Amedee Crooij, Bishop Designate of Tournai 
 
 ^ The Belgian Bishops unanimously decided to address a joint 
 letter to the German Bishops. They have one and all knowledge 
 of the scheme of the present letter and have given their adherence 
 to it; but, owing to the difficulty of communicating with the Bishops 
 of Ghent and Bruges, it has been impossible to submit to them this 
 letter as it was finally drawn up, and obtain their signatures to it.
 
 Annex I 
 
 A letter addressed by the Lord Bishop of Liegey to 
 Commandant Bayer, Governor of Liege^ under 
 date of August i8, 1914.. 
 
 Monsieur le Commandant, 
 
 I address myself to you as a man and a Chris- 
 tian, and entreat you to put an end to the exe- 
 cutions and reprisals. I have been informed 
 time after time that several villages have been 
 destroyed, that persons of note, some of whom 
 were priests, have been shot; that others have 
 been arrested, and that all have protested their 
 innocence. As for such as are priests in my dio- 
 cese, I cannot believe that a single one has been 
 guilty of acts of hostility towards German soldiers. 
 I have visited several field-hospitals, and I have 
 seen that the wounded Germans there are cared 
 for with the same attention as the Belgians. They 
 admit it themselves. If soldiers of the Belgian 
 army, stationed at the outposts, fired on the 
 Germans entering Belgium, is that a crime to be 
 imputed to the civilian population? And even 
 if some civilians had helped the soldiers to drive 
 back German scouts, can the entire population, 
 women, children, and priests, be held responsible 
 for it.?
 
 66 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 But I do not wish to discuss past acts; I only 
 ask you, in the name of God and of humanity, 
 to prevent reprisals upon unoffending popula- 
 tions. These reprisals can have no useful end, 
 but will drive the population to despair. I shall 
 be happy to discuss this subject with you, for I 
 am confident that you, like myself, wish to lessen 
 the evils of war rather than to increase them. 
 
 At the last moment I hear that the cure of R. 
 has been arrested and taken to the Chartreuse. 
 I do not know of what he is accused, but I do know 
 that he is incapable of committing an act of hos- 
 tility towards your soldiers: he is a good priest, 
 gentle and charitable. I will be answerable for 
 him, and I beg you to restore him to his parish. 
 Tours, etc., 
 
 {Signed) M. H. Rutten 
 
 Bishop of Liege 
 
 This letter received no acknowledgment, but 
 the same protests were renewed, on August 21, 
 to General von Kolowe, who had meanwhile be- 
 come Military Governor of Liege. 
 
 The same protests, strongly put and energeti- 
 cally urged, were renewed on August 29, in an 
 interview with the Governor-General of occu- 
 pied Belgium, von der Goltz Pasha, then residing 
 in the episcopal palace with his staff. 
 
 {Signed) M. H. Rutten 
 
 Bishop of Liege
 
 Annex II 
 
 This Annex contains: 
 
 1. A letter from his Eminence Cardinal Mercier, 
 Archbishop of Malines, to the Kreischef of the 
 district of MaHnes, under date January 24, 191 5. 
 
 2. A communication from His Eminence the 
 Cardinal of MaHnes, forwarded to the General 
 Government through the agency of Adjutant 
 von Flemming, under date February 10, 191 5. 
 
 3. A letter from the Lord Bishop of Namur 
 to the Military Governor of Namur, under date 
 April 12, 191 5. 
 
 4. A note referring to a partial inquiry made 
 by an Austrian priest appointed by the Wiener 
 Priester Verein. 
 
 5. Correspondence of the Cardinal of Malines 
 with His Excellency the German Governor- 
 General on the question of outrages suffered by 
 the nuns. 
 
 I. In his pastoral letter of Christmas, 1914, 
 the Cardinal of MaHnes published the names of 
 the innocent priests who had been put to death 
 by the German troops. 
 
 Count von Wengersky, Kreischef of the District 
 of Malines, wrote to the Cardinal on January 20 
 as follows: 
 
 67
 
 68 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 The Kreischef Tgb. No. 268/11. 
 
 Malines, January 20th, 1915. 
 
 To His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop 
 OF Malines, 
 According to a newspaper notice several inno- 
 cent priests are stated to have been put to death 
 in the diocese of Malines. 
 
 In order that an inquiry may be set on foot 
 may I beg Your Eminence to be so good as to 
 let me know whether any priests, and, if so, 
 which, have been put to death, being innocent, 
 in the diocese of Malines. 
 
 I am very anxious to learn what circumstances 
 have led up to this, which troops prove to be 
 concerned, and on which days it happened. 
 The Kreischef 
 {Signed) Wengersky 
 
 Colonel 
 The Cardinal replied as follows to Count von 
 
 Wengersky: 
 
 The Palace of the Archbishop, 
 Malines, January 2\th, 1915. 
 
 M. le Kreischef, 
 
 I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of 
 your letter, 268/11, dated January 20, which 
 you have been so good as to address to me. 
 
 The names of the priests and monks of the 
 diocese of Malines, who, to my knowledge, were 
 put to death by the German troops, are as fol- 
 lows: Dupierreux, of the Company of Jesus; 
 Brother Sebastien Allard, of the Society of St.
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 69 
 
 Joseph; Brother Candida, of the Society of the 
 Brothers of Our Lady of Pity ; Father Vincent, Con- 
 ventual; Carette, a professor; Lombaerts, Goris, 
 de Clerck, Dergent, Wouters, Van Bladel, cures. 
 
 At Christmas time I was not perfectly certain 
 what had been the fate of the cure of Herent. 
 Since then his dead body has been discovered at 
 Louvain and identified. 
 
 Other figures quoted in my pastoral letter must 
 be increased to-day. Thus for Aerschot I gave the 
 number of victims as 91. Now the total number 
 of bodies cf natives of Aerschot which have been 
 exhumed had risen a few days ago to 143. But 
 this is not the moment to dwell upon these par- 
 ticular cases; the proper place to give an account 
 of them will be at the inquiry of which you give 
 me hopes. 
 
 It will be a consolation to me to have full light 
 thrown upon the events which I was compelled 
 to mention in my Pastoral Letter and on others 
 of the same nature. 
 
 But it is essential that the results of this in- 
 quiry should be made plain to all upon indis- 
 putable authority. 
 
 To insure this, I have the honor to propose to 
 you, M. Le Comte, and, through your kind 
 intervention, to the German authorities, that the 
 commission of inquiry should be composed in 
 equal numbers of German representatives and 
 of Belgian magistrates, chosen by our Chief
 
 yo CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Magistrate, and presided over by a representa- 
 tive of a neutral country. I venture to hope that 
 his Excellency, the United States Minister, would 
 not refuse to accept this chairmanship, or to 
 intrust it to a representative of his own choice. 
 I have the honor to be, M. le Kreischef, 
 {Signed) D. J. Cardinal Mercier 
 
 Archbishop of Malines. 
 Monsieur le Comte von Wengersky, Kreischef, Malines. 
 
 This request met with no reply. 
 
 2. On February lo, 191 5, Adjutant von 
 Flemming called at the Palace of Malines, in the 
 name of the Kreischef, to repeat verbally the 
 questions to which the Cardinal had already 
 replied in writing in his letter of January 24. 
 The Cardinal informed the Adjutant that ques- 
 tions of this nature must be formulated and 
 answered in writing. In consequence, he drew 
 up, in the following terms, the questions of the 
 Kreischef and the replies which they admitted 
 of, and the document was then signed by the 
 Adjutant and the Cardinal of Malines. 
 
 The Palace of the Archbishop, Malines. 
 
 Monsieur I'Adjutant von Flemming asks me 
 in the name of the General Government: 
 
 1. Which are the communes where priests have 
 
 been shot.? 
 
 2. Which troops put them to death and on what 
 
 day?
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 7I 
 
 3. Whether the Bishop of the diocese maintains 
 that these priests were innocent? 
 
 1. The names of the communes have been already 
 
 printed in my Pastoral Letter of Christmas, 
 1914, on page 65. 
 
 2. The German Staff is in a better position than 
 
 anyone else to know what troops were occu- 
 pying a commune on any particular day. 
 The populations easily recognize the German 
 uniform, but do not distinguish, for the 
 most part, the regiments which compose 
 the army. 
 
 3. My personal and reasoned conviction is that 
 
 the priests whose names I have quoted were 
 innocent. But, as a matter of law, it is not 
 for us to establish their innocence; it is for 
 the military authorities who have treated 
 them with this severity to estabhsh their guilt. 
 Witnesses summoned to give evidence before 
 a one-sided committee will generally be afraid 
 of telling the whole truth. This can only be fully 
 known and universally accepted on the condi- 
 tion that a mixed commission should be formed 
 to collect it and to guarantee its impartiality and 
 exactitude. 
 
 Also I can only repeat for the third time my 
 proposal ^ for a mixed Commission, composed 
 
 ^ The proposal was formulated a first time in writing on January 
 24, and repeated verbally on February 8, by Monsignor van Roey, 
 Vicar General, who had been summoned to the Commandatur at 
 Malines.
 
 72 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 partly of German magistrates and partly of Bel- 
 gian magistrates, whose work it would be to throw 
 full light on those facts, concerning which the 
 General Government most properly desires to 
 institute an inquiry. In order to give all de- 
 sirable authority to the results of the inquiry, 
 it is of importance that the tribunal should be 
 presided over by a representative of a neutral 
 State. 
 
 Given at Malines, February lo, 191 5. 
 
 {Signed) D. J. Cardinal Mercier 
 
 Archbishop of Malines 
 (Signed) Von Flemming 
 Rittmeister und Adjutant des Kreischefs in Mecheln 
 
 This letter remained without reply. 
 
 3. On the occasion of the publication of a con- 
 fidential letter from the Prussian Minister of 
 War to the High Chancellor, the Lord Bishop of 
 Namur published a reply to that document on 
 April 12, 1915. 
 
 But the MiHtary Governor of Namur disputed 
 the assertions contained in the bishop's reply, 
 without, however, entering into any particulars. 
 
 The latter maintained his statements, and 
 added: "In consideration of the difference of 
 views which separates us, there is only one way 
 of bringing the facts to the Hght and before the 
 eyes of everyone, namely, to intrust their ex- 
 amination to the commission of inquiry which
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 73 
 
 I have proposed. I am confident that Your 
 Excellency will agree with this, and will recom- 
 mend the suggestion to the Governor-General." 
 (Signed) T. L., Bishop of Namur 
 The proposal of the Lord Bishop of Namur 
 received no reply. 
 
 4. A priest accredited by His Eminence Car- 
 dinal Piffl, Prince Archbishop of Vienna, made 
 an inquiry in Belgium in the name of the Wiener 
 Priester Verein. The results of this incomplete 
 inquiry were published in the Tijd, of Amster- 
 dam, and in the Politiken, of Copenhagen. They 
 are overwhelmingly against the German military 
 authorities. But, if we are correctly informed, 
 the German and Austrian newspapers abstained 
 from bringing them to the knowledge of their 
 readers. 
 
 5. Before closing this Annex relating to the 
 inquiries, we have to correct a mistake. 
 
 In their reply to the French Catholics, the 
 German Catholics speak of the outrages upon 
 the nuns, and write: "The German Governor- 
 General in Belgium has addressed the Belgian 
 bishops on this subject. . . . The Archbishop 
 of Malines has allowed it to be known that he 
 could furnish no exact information as to any 
 case whatever of the outrages upon nuns in his 
 diocese." 
 
 This last phrase is, in substance, correct, but
 
 74 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 gives a wrong impression to the casual reader. 
 What I wrote to the Governor-General was, 
 that I could furnish him with no exact information, 
 because my conscience forbade me to hand over 
 to a tribunal of any kind the information (alas! 
 very precise) in my possession. Outrages have 
 been committed upon nuns. I think they are, 
 fortunately, not numerous, but to my knowledge 
 there have been several. Since the Governor- 
 General has thought himself entitled to give the 
 public an extract from the reply I had the honor 
 of addressing to him on this delicate subject, it is 
 my duty to reproduce here the entire text of our 
 correspondence. 
 
 The following is the letter of March 30, 1915, 
 written to me by the Governor-General: 
 
 The Governor-General of Belgium. 
 
 Brussels, March ^oth, 1915. 
 
 Your Eminence, 
 
 A serious reproach has of late been repeatedly 
 made in the foreign press, together with a num- 
 ber of other charges, which for the most part 
 have already been proved incorrect, that German 
 soldiers on the march through Belgium did not 
 hesitate to assault Belgian nuns. 
 
 It is superfluous to point out, as to this, that 
 such misdeeds (in case they should prove true) 
 would certainly incur my own and the German 
 Government's severest reprobation. At the same
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 75 
 
 time justice demands that accusations proved to 
 be untrue should be duly repudiated. I assume 
 that the disclosure of the full truth corresponds 
 with the sense of justice as well as with the 
 interests of the Catholic Church. 
 
 I think, therefore, that I may rely upon Your 
 Eminence's cordial support when I beg you to 
 help me in my eflForts to discover the true facts. 
 
 The information which Your Eminence may 
 desire to bring forward as to the violation of nuns 
 in the said diocese will enable me to take the 
 further steps necessary under the circumstances. 
 I have the honor to be 
 
 Your Eminence's most obedient, 
 (Signed) Fhr. Von Bissing 
 
 To His Eminence, The Lord Archbishop of Malines. 
 
 This is our reply: 
 
 The Palace of the Archbishop 
 Malines, April i6th, 19x5. 
 
 Monsieur le Gouverneur General, 
 
 I have received the letter No. 1243 which your 
 Excellency has done me the honor of addressing 
 me, and I regret having been hindered from reply- 
 ing to it earlier. 
 
 There are in fact rumors in circulation, accepted 
 by certain papers, denied by others, on the ques- 
 tion of the outrages which the Belgian nuns have 
 had to suffer from German soldiers, and, in agree- 
 ment with Your Excellency, I protest against
 
 76 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 those who, lightly and without proof, publicly 
 announce or support such odious accusations. 
 
 But, when Your Excellency asks me to help you 
 in throwing light upon whether these imputations 
 are well or ill founded, I am obliged to ask you 
 a preliminary question. 
 
 Has the civil authority the right to hold an 
 inquiry upon facts of so delicate a nature? 
 
 Whom would it question ^ 
 
 The confessor? The doctor? They are bound 
 by professional secrecy. 
 
 The Sisters Superior? Do they always know 
 the truth ? And if they do know it, having learned 
 it under the seal of secrecy, have they the right 
 to speak? 
 
 Who would venture to question the victims? 
 Would not that be cruel? Who would attempt 
 to question witnesses at the risk of exposing 
 the already wretched victims of violence to the 
 burden of carrying the stain of dishonor in the 
 face of public opinion? 
 
 So far as I am concerned, I should not dare 
 to subject anyone to an examination upon so 
 delicate a subject, and my conscience forbids me 
 to hand over to another the confidences which 
 have been made to me, or might be made to me, 
 spontaneously on this matter. 
 
 Our duty. Your Excellency, is to discourage 
 the public, by all means in our power, from giving 
 countenance to these capricious and unwhole-
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 'J'J 
 
 some allegations. I shall heartily approve of 
 repression by law of those who, either from 
 prejudice or from unpardonable levity, invent 
 or spread them. But I consider that we cannot 
 go further without trespassing upon the rights of 
 conscience and exposing ourselves to the risk of 
 violating its liberty. 
 
 Accept, Monsieur le Gouverneur General, the 
 assurance of my very high regard. 
 
 (Signed) D. J. Card. Mercier 
 
 Archbishop of Malines 
 
 To His Excellency, 
 
 Baron von Bissing, Governor-General, Brussels.
 
 Annex III 
 
 We know, and we affirm, that the German 
 army gave itself up in Belgium, in a hundred 
 different places, to pillage, to incendiarism, im- 
 prisonments, massacres, and sacrileges, contrary 
 to all justice and to every sentiment of humanity. 
 
 There are parts of Hainault and of the two 
 Flanders, which are still to-day under special 
 military control, whose disasters are consequently 
 less well known to us. But below is an approxi- 
 mate list of locaHties which our protest covers. 
 
 I. Diocese of Namur. Provinces of Namur 
 and of Luxembourg. 
 
 Tamines, Surice, Spontin, Namur, Ethe, Gom- 
 ery, Latour, Aische-en-Refail, Alle, Arsimont, 
 Auvelais, Bonnines, Bourseigne-Neuve, Bouge, 
 Daussois, Dourbes, Ermeton-sur-Biert, Evre- 
 hailles, Felenne, Fosses, Franchimont, Franc- 
 Waret, Frasne, Gedinne, Gelbressee, Hansinelle, 
 Hanzinne, Hautbois, Hastiere, Hermeton-sur- 
 Meuse, Hingeon, Houdremont, Jemeppe-sur- 
 Sambre, Lisogne, Louette-Saint-Pierre, Mariem- 
 bourg, Mettet, Monceau, Morville, Onhaye, Oret, 
 Petigny, Romedenne, Somme-Leuze, Somzee, 
 Stave, Temploux, Villers-en-Fagne, Wartet, 
 Waulsort, Willerse, Yvoir, Anloy, Assenois, Ba- 
 ranzy, Bertrix, Briscol, Etalle, Framont, Frene- 
 
 78
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 79 
 
 Opont, Freylange, Glaumont, Glaireuse, Hamipre, 
 Herbeumont, Izel, Jehonville, Maissin, Manhay, 
 Musson, Mussy-la-Ville, Neufchateau, Pin, Saint- 
 Leger, etc., etc, 
 
 Thibessart, Biesme, Porcheresse, Graide, 
 Nothomb, Rulles, Rosiere-la-Grande, Bovigny, 
 Gouvy, Champion, Jamoigne, Silenrieux, Les 
 Bulles, Tintigny, Ansart, Rossignol, Sorinne, 
 Bievre, Beheme, Leglise, LanefFe, Frenois, Villers- 
 devant-Orval, Couvin, Houdemont, Chiny, 
 Anthee, Ychippe, Conneux, Aye, Evelette, 
 Florenville, Hollogne, Le Boux, Leuze, Marche, 
 Sainte-Marie, Saint-Vincent. 
 
 Andenne, Dinant. 
 
 2. Diocese of Liege. Provinces of Liege and 
 of Limhourg. 
 
 Battice, Herv, Bise, Mouland, Hermee, Hallem- 
 baye, Louvegne, Lince, Poulseur, Soumagne, 
 Fecher, Melin, Julemont, Barchon, Lummen, 
 Haelen, — , Lanaeken. 
 
 3. Diocese of Malines. Provinces of Brabant 
 and of Antwerp. 
 
 Haekendover, Autgaerden, Grimde, Hougaerde, 
 Cumptich, Hautem-Sainte-Marguerite, Vissen- 
 aeken, Bunsbeek, Lubbeek-Saint-Bernard, Wever, 
 Attenrode, Cappellen (Glabbeek), Cortryck- 
 Dutzel, Glabbeek, Pellenberg, Neer-Linter, 
 Budingen, Heelen-bosch, Orsmael-Gussenhoven, 
 Corbeek-Loo, Lovenjoul, Roosbeek, Schaffen, 
 Molenstede, Wersbeek, Aerschot, Rillaer, Gelrode,
 
 80 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Wesemael, Hersselt, Rethy, Haecht, Rotselaer, 
 Wackerzeel, Werchter, Tremeloo, Thildonck, 
 Wespelaer, Boortmeerbeek, Rymenam, Hever, 
 Louvain, Heverle, Herent, Berg, Campenhout, 
 Bueken, Neder-Ockerzeel, Cortenberg, Delle, 
 Boisschot, Goor, Heyst-op-den Berg, Beersel, 
 Putte, Schrieck, Malines, Bonheyden, Wavre- 
 Notre-Dame, Wavre-Sainte-Catherine, Waelhem, 
 Leest, Hombeek, Sempst, Laer, Hofstade, Muysen, 
 Schiplaeken, Konings-Hoyckt, Kessel, Lierre, 
 DufFel, Blaesveld, Perck, Peuthy, Hautem, 
 Elewyt, Weerde, Eppeghem, Pont-Brule, Grim- 
 berghen, Londerzeel, Meysse, Humbeek, Nieuwen- 
 rode, Beyghem, Wolverthem, Cappelle-au-Bois, 
 Linsmeau, Wavre, Mousty. 
 
 4. Diocese of Ghent. Eastern Flanders, 
 Saint-Gilles, Lebbeke, Termonde. 
 
 5. Diocese of Tournai. Province of Hainault 
 Peronne.
 
 Annex IV 
 
 INFRACTIONS OF THE HAGUE CONVENTION 
 
 Germany signed the Hague Convention. The 
 first German Governor-General, Baron von der 
 Goltz, referred to the Hague Convention in an 
 order pubHshed by him as early as November 12, 
 1914. 
 
 The second German Governor-General, Baron 
 von Bissing, in a solemn proclamation of July 18, 
 191 5, declared his wish to administer Belgium ac- 
 cording to the Hague Convention, regulating the 
 laws and customs of war on land. . . . He added : 
 "His Majesty, the German Emperor, after the 
 occupation of the Kingdom of Belgium by our 
 victorious troops, has intrusted to me the ad- 
 ministration of this country, and has ordered me 
 to carry out the obligations arising from the Hague 
 Convention." 
 
 That is the legal aspect. 
 
 The following is the fact: 
 
 I. Collective Punishments 
 Article 50 of the Convention stipulates, "No 
 collective penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, shall 
 be enacted against populations on account of 
 individual acts for which they could not be 
 considered as jointly responsible." 
 
 81
 
 82 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Now the history of the occupation covers three 
 periods: that of the invasion and those over 
 which Baron von der Goltz and Baron von Bissing 
 presided successively. 
 
 During the period of the invasion collective pun- 
 ishment was systematically inflicted and under 
 every form. Proofs of this assertion abound. 
 Here is one which sufl&ces in itself: — As the in- 
 vasion gained ground the Commander-in-Chief 
 of the army caused to be posted up a proclama- 
 tion in three languages, on red paper, in which 
 he said: 
 
 The villages where acts of hostility shall be 
 committed by the inhabitants against our troops 
 will he burned. 
 
 For all destruction of roads, railways, bridges, 
 etc., the villages in the neighborhood of the destruc- 
 tion will be held responsible. 
 
 The punishments announced above will be 
 carried out severely and without mercy. The 
 whole community will be held responsible. Hostages 
 will be taken freely. The heaviest war taxes 
 will be levied. 
 
 Under the government of Marshal von der Goltz 
 a proclamation, signed by the hand of the Gov- 
 ernor-General and promulgated on September 2, 
 1914, in the occupied territory, expressly stated: 
 "It is the hard necessity of war that the punish-
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 83 
 
 ment of hostile acts includes the innocent as well 
 as the guilty." 
 
 Consequently collective punishment was applied 
 unsparingly. 
 
 Thus, as a typical example, the city of Brus- 
 sels was condemned to pay a fine of five millions, 
 because one of its policemen, unknown to 
 the communal administration, had been want- 
 ing in deference to a functionary of the German 
 civil administration. 
 
 A notice signed Baron von der Goltz, posted up 
 on October 7, 1914, applies the collective penalty 
 to the family. It is there stated: "The Belgian 
 Government have sent orders to rejoin the army 
 to the mihtiamen of several classes. . . . All 
 those who receive these orders are strictly for- 
 bidden to act upon them. . . . In case of dis- 
 obedience the family of the militiamen will be held 
 equally responsible." 
 
 Under the government of General Baron von Bis- 
 singy that is from December 3, 1914, the col- 
 lective punishments, in violation of Article 50, 
 have been continual. Here are some specimens. 
 On December 23, 1914, a notice posted in Brus- 
 sels stated: "If the graves of fallen soldiers are 
 damaged or violated, not only will the perpetrator 
 be punished, but the commune will also be made 
 responsible." 
 
 A warning of the Governor-General, dated
 
 84 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 January 26, 191 5, renders the members of the 
 family responsible if a Belgian fit for military 
 service, between the ages of 16 and 40, goes to 
 Holland. 
 
 In fact, upon the flimsiest pretexts, heavy 
 fines are inflicted on communes. The commune 
 of Puers was subjected to a fine of 3000 marks 
 because a telegraph wire was broken, although 
 the inquiry showed that it had given way through 
 wear. 
 
 Malines, a working-class town, without re- 
 sources, has had a fine of 20,cx)0 marks inflicted 
 on it because the Burgomaster did not inform 
 the military authority of a journey which the 
 Cardinal, deprived of the use of his motor-car, 
 had been obliged to make on foot. 
 
 2. Compulsory Labor for the Enemy 
 
 According to Article 52 of the Hague Conven- 
 tion, *' requisitions in kind and service^' can be 
 claimed from communities or from inhabitants 
 only on three conditions: 
 
 On condition that they do not place on the 
 population any obligation to take part in the 
 operations of war against the nation. 
 
 On condition that they are claimed only with 
 a view to the needs of the army of occupation. 
 
 On condition that they are in proportion to 
 the resources of those from whom they are 
 demanded.
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 85 
 
 It is Striking to observe that Article 23 con- 
 tains a final note proposed at the second Hague 
 Congress, in 1907, by the German delegation. 
 It is as follows: "A belligerent is forbidden to 
 force the subjects of an enemy country to take 
 part in operations of war directed against their 
 country." 
 
 But — 
 
 I. At the time of the invasion^ Belgian civilians, 
 in twenty places, were made to take part in 
 operations of war against their own country. 
 At Termonde, Lebbeke, Dinant, and elsewhere 
 in many places, peaceable citizens, women, and 
 children were forced to march in front of German 
 regiments or to make a screen before them. 
 
 At Liege and at Namur civilians were obliged 
 to dig trenches and were employed on works of 
 repairs at fortifications. 
 
 The system of hostages was carried out with 
 a fierce cruelty. The proclamation of August 4, 
 quoted above, declared, without circumlocution: 
 "Hostages will be freely taken." 
 
 An official proclamation, posted at Liege, in 
 the early days of August, ran thus: "Every 
 aggression committed against the German troops 
 by any persons other than soldiers in uniform, 
 not only exposes the guilty person to be imme- 
 diately shot, hut will also entail the severest reprisals 
 against all the inhabitants and especially against 
 those natives of Liege who have been detained as
 
 86 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 hostages in the citadel of Liege by the Commandant 
 of the German troops." 
 
 These hostages are Monsignor Rutten, Bishop 
 of Liege, M. Kleyer, burgomaster of Liege, the 
 senators, representatives, and the permanent 
 deputy and sheriff of Liege. 
 
 2. Under the government of Field-Marshal von 
 der Goltz the requisitions for personal service in 
 force in the month of August were continued 
 under every form — digging trenches, work on 
 the fortifications, carting, work on the roads, 
 bridges, railways, etc. 
 
 An order of the Governor-General, published 
 on November 19, declared: "Whosoever at- 
 tempts to prevent by force, threat, persuasion^ 
 or other means, any persons disposed to carry 
 out any work for purposes required by the Ger- 
 man authorities from so carrying out this work, 
 or obstructs any contractors intrusted by such 
 authorities with the execution of this work, will 
 be punished with imprisonment." The order does 
 not fix the term of this imprisonment; it is a 
 purely arbitrary measure. As to the treatment 
 of hostages, severest measures were enacted. 
 
 A monstrous specimen of arbitrariness and 
 cruelty is the proclamation posted in the com- 
 munes of Beyne-Heusay, Grivegnee, Bois- 
 de-Breux, by the Major in command, Dieck- 
 mann, on September 8, 1914. Here follows an 
 extract:
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 87 
 
 "Beginning with September 7 I shall permit 
 persons from the undermentioned communes to 
 return to their homes. To make sure that this 
 permission will not be abused, the Burgomasters 
 of Beyne-Heusay and of Grivegnee must at once 
 prepare lists of persons who will be retained as 
 hostages at the fort of Fleron. 
 
 " The lives oj these hostages depend upon the 
 inhabitants oj the previously named communes 
 comporting themselves peaceably under all cir- 
 cumstances. 
 
 "I shall designate the persons to be detained 
 as hostages from midday on one day until the 
 next midday. If the substitute has not appeared 
 in due time, the hostage remains another 24 hours 
 at the Fort. After this second 24 hours, the 
 hostage runs the risk of death if the person con- 
 cerned fails to appear. The priests and burgo- 
 masters and other members of the council are the 
 first to be taken as hostages." 
 
 3. Under the government of Baron von Bissing 
 the violations of Article 52 were flagrant. The 
 deeds which took place in the railway workshops 
 at Luttre and Malines, as well as in several 
 communes in Western Flanders, are revolting. 
 
 Judge of them: 
 
 On March 23, 191 5, at the arsenal at Luttre, 
 the German authority posted a notice demanding 
 return to work. On April 21, 200 workmen were 
 called for. On April 27 soldiers went to fetch
 
 88 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 the workmen from their homes and take them to 
 the arsenal. In the absence of a workman a 
 member of the family was arrested. 
 
 However, the men maintained their refusal to 
 work, "because they were unwilling to cooperate 
 in acts of war against their country." 
 
 On April 30 the requisitioned workmen were 
 not released, but shut up in the railway carriages. 
 
 On May 4, 24 workmen detained in prison 
 at Nivelles were tried at Mons, by a court-martial, 
 "on the charge of being members of a secret 
 society, having for its aim to thwart the carrying 
 out of German military measures." They were 
 condemned to imprisonment. 
 
 On May 8, 191 5, 48 workmen were shut up 
 in a goods wagon and taken to Germany. 
 
 On May 14, 45 men were deported to 
 Germany. 
 
 On May 18 a fresh proclamation announced 
 that the prisoners "would receive only dry bread 
 and water, and hot food only every four days." 
 
 On May 22 three wagons with 104 workmen 
 were sent towards Charleroi, 
 
 In spite of all, the patriotic dignity of the work- 
 men got the better of the pressure exerted on 
 them. 
 
 A similar course was adopted at Malines, 
 where, by various methods of intimidation, the 
 German authorities attempted to force the workers 
 at the arsenal to work on material for the rail-
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 89 
 
 ways, as if it were not plain that this material 
 would become war material sooner or later. 
 
 On May 30, 191 5, the Governor-General 
 announced that he "would be obliged to punish 
 the town of Malines and its suburbs, by stopping 
 all commercial traffic if by 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 
 June 2, 500 workmen had not presented them- 
 selves for work at the arsenal." 
 
 On Wednesday, June 2, not a single man 
 appeared. Accordingly, a complete stoppage 
 took place of every vehicle within a radius of 
 several kilometers of the town. 
 
 It was at this time that the Cardinal's journey 
 on foot was made from Malines to Eppeghem, a 
 journey which cost the town of Malines a fine of 
 20,000 marks. 
 
 Several workmen were taken by force and kept 
 two or three days at the arsenal. 
 
 The suspension of traffic lasted ten days. 
 
 The commune of Sweveghem (Western Flanders) 
 was punished in June, 191 5, because the 350 
 workmen at the private factory of M. Bekaert 
 refused to make barbed wire for the German 
 army. 
 
 The following notice was placarded at Menin 
 in July-August, 191 5: 
 
 By order: From to-day the town will no longer 
 afford aid of any description — including assist- 
 ance to their families, wives, and children — to 
 any operatives except those who work regularly
 
 90 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 at military work, and other tasks assigned to them. 
 All other operatives and their famiHes "can 
 henceforward not be helped in any fashion." 
 
 Can anything be more odious.'' 
 
 Similar measures were taken in October, 1914, 
 at Harlebeke-lez-Courtrai, Bisseghem, Lokeren, 
 and Mons. From Harlebeke 29 inhabitants were 
 transported to Germany. At Mons, in M. Lenoir's 
 factory, the directors, foremen, and 81 workmen 
 were imprisoned for having refused to work in 
 the service of the German army. M. Lenoir 
 was sentenced to five years' imprisonment, the 
 five directors to a year each, six foremen to six 
 months, and the eighty-one workmen to eight 
 weeks. 
 
 The General Government had recourse also to 
 indirect methods of compulsion. It seized the 
 Belgian Red Cross, confiscated its property, and 
 changed its purpose arbitrarily. It attempted to 
 make itself master of the pubhc charities and to 
 control the National Aid and Food Committee. 
 
 If we were to cite in extenso the decree of the 
 Governor-General of August 4, 191 5, concerning 
 measures intended to assure the carrying out of 
 works of public usefulness, and that of August 15, 
 191 5, ^'concerning the unemployed, who, through 
 idleness, refrain from work,'' it would be seen 
 by what tortuous means the occupying Power at- 
 tempts to attack at once the masters and the men. 
 
 But it is in the area of military operations that
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 9I 
 
 contempt of the Hague Convention has been 
 pushed to an extreme. 
 
 ' On October 12, 191 5, the Official Bulletin of 
 Orders for the district under military operations 
 pubHshed an order containing the following 
 striking passages: 
 
 ''Article I. Whoever, without reason, refuses 
 to undertake or to continue work suitable to his 
 occupation, and in the execution of which the 
 military administration is interested, such work 
 being ordered by one or more of the military 
 commanders, will be Hable to imprisonment not 
 exceeding one year. He may also be transported 
 to Germany. 
 
 ^^ Invoking Belgian laws or even international con- 
 ventions to the contrary, can, in no case, justify 
 the refusal to work. 
 
 "On the subject of the lawfulness of the work 
 exacted, the military commandant has the sole right 
 of forming a decision. 
 
 " Article 2. Any person who by force, threats, 
 persuasion, or other means attempts to influence 
 another to refuse work as pointed out in Article i, 
 is liable to the punishment of imprisonment not 
 exceeding five years. 
 
 "Article 3. Whoever knowingly hy means of aid 
 given or in any other way abets a punishable 
 refusal to work, shall be liable to a maximum 
 fine of 10,000 marks, and, in addition, may be 
 condemned to a year's imprisonment.
 
 92 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 "If communes or associations have rendered 
 themselves guilty of such an offense, the heads of 
 the communes will be punished. 
 
 "Article 4. In addition to the penalties stated 
 in Articles i and 3, the German authorities may, 
 in case of need, impose on communes, where, 
 without reason, work has been refused, a fine or 
 other coercive police measures. 
 
 "This present decree comes into force imme- 
 diately." 
 
 Der Etappeinspekteur, 
 
 Von Unger, 
 Generalleutnant 
 Ghent, October 12, 1915. 
 
 The injustice and arbitrariness of this decree 
 exceed all that could be imagined. Forced labor, 
 collective penalties, and arbitrary punishments, — 
 all are there. It is slavery, neither more nor less. 
 
 3. New Taxes 
 
 We will content ourselves with pointing out, 
 in a few words, two taxes contrary to Articles 48, 
 49, 51, and 52 of the Hague Convention. 
 
 The first was levied by a decree of Governor- 
 General Baron von Bissing, on January 16, 
 191 5, It consists in imposing on absentees an 
 additional extraordinary tax fixed at ten times 
 the amount of the personal tax. This tax comes 
 into no category of existing taxes. It strikes only
 
 AN APPEAL TO TRUTH 93 
 
 at one class of citizens who have legitimately 
 used their right of changing their place of resi- 
 dence before the occupation of the country. 
 It is, then, contrary to Articles 48 and 51 of the 
 Convention. 
 
 The second violation of the Convention is the 
 famous contribution of 480 millions imposed on 
 the nine provinces, December 10, 1914. 
 
 The essential condition of the legality of a 
 contribution of this kind, according to the Hague 
 Convention, is that it should bear relation to the 
 resources of the country — Article 52. 
 
 Now, in December, 1914, Belgium was devas- 
 tated. Contributions of war imposed on the 
 towns and innumerable requisitions in kind had 
 exhausted her. The greater part of the factories 
 were idle, and in those which were still at work 
 raw materials were, contrary to all law, being 
 freely commandeered. 
 
 It was on this impoverished Belgium, living on 
 foreign charity, that a contribution of nearly 
 500,000,000 frs. was imposed. 
 
 The decree of December 10, 1914, ran: "A 
 contribution of war is imposed upon the Belgian 
 people, amounting to forty million francs, to be 
 paid monthly for the period of one year.^^ This 
 "period of one year" has now passed. 
 
 But, as we write these lines, the occupying Power 
 proposes to replace "the period of one year," by 
 "the whole duration of the war"!
 
 94 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Poor little Belgium! What has she done to 
 rich and powerful Germany, her neighbor, to be 
 so trodden under foot, tortured, calumniated, 
 exploited, and ground down by her? 
 
 If we had to furnish a complete statement of 
 the decrees and acts by which, to our knowledge, 
 the occupying Power has contravened the Hague 
 Convention we should have to quote again the 
 abuse of requisitions in kind contrary to Article 52; 
 the seizure of funds belonging to private companies; 
 the requisition of railway lines for hundreds of 
 kilometers; the seizure of arms, deposited, by 
 order of the Belgian Government, in the town 
 halls — an abuse of Article 53; the total disregard, 
 especially in the matter of the penal law, of the 
 laws in force in the country, contrary to Article 43. 
 
 But we cannot say all here, nor quote all. 
 
 If, however, our readers wish for the proof of 
 the accusations merely indicated in this final 
 paragraph, we shall be glad to furnish them. There 
 is not in our letter, nor in the four annexes, one 
 allegation of which we have not the proof in our 
 records.
 
 Ill 
 
 MT RETURN FROM ROME
 
 Ill 
 
 MT RETURN FROM ROME 
 feast of st. thomas aquinas 
 
 Dearly Beloved Brethren, 
 
 IT would be impossible to express the joy I 
 feel at being once more among you. Mis- 
 fortune has brought us closer to each other. Like 
 the early Christians, who, living under the men- 
 ace of perpetual danger, were, as the Holy Scrip- 
 tures tell us, "of one heart and of one soul: 
 Credentium erat cor unum et anima una,"^ — 
 the Belgians have gathered round their Pastors; 
 these Pastors have felt the responsibilities and 
 the ardors of paternity growing and expanding 
 within them; and to-day, both in invaded Bel- 
 gium and in foreign lands, the sons of our soil, 
 obeying a common impulse, ask us, more ur- 
 gently than ever, to be their interpreters with 
 God, to tell them what divine Providence de- 
 mands from them and allows them to hope for. 
 "The High Priest," says the Apostle Paul, 
 "taken from among men, is ordained for men in 
 things pertaining to God. Pontifex, ex homini- 
 
 ^ Acts iv. 32. 
 97
 
 98 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 bus assumptuSy pro hominibus constituitur in Us, 
 quae sunt ad Deum." ^ 
 
 I am well aware how fervently and how de- 
 voutly you prayed for us during our journey. 
 Your petitions have been granted. My first 
 act on my return from Rome was to go into our 
 dear Cathedral, to address a heartfelt Te Deum 
 to the Lord, and to offer an act of ardent grati- 
 tude to our Blessed Mother, "the Cause of our 
 Joy — Causa nostrae laetitiae," as also the "Virgin 
 of pain and tears — Dolorosa et lacrymabilis Virgo 
 Maria." Our Lord, indeed, has blessed our 
 journey beyond anything that we dared to hope 
 for. 
 
 There are many things I cannot tell you. You 
 will understand me. The abnormal conditions, 
 to which we have to submit, forbid us to lay 
 bare to you all the best and most intimate 
 things we hold in our soul for you; things which, 
 coming from a higher source and touching you 
 more nearly, are my most steadfast support, and 
 would be, if I could repeat them to you, your 
 strongest consolation; but you will not doubt 
 my word; you will believe me when I assure you 
 that my journey was specially blessed, and that I 
 return to you happy, very happy. 
 
 Our Holy Father showed me the most touch- 
 ing kindness. As soon as I arrived, he deigned 
 to fold me in his arms; he invited me to come 
 
 ^ Hebrews v. i.
 
 MY RETURN FROM ROME 99 
 
 and see him as often as possible; he allowed me 
 to tell him everything, to confide in him fully, 
 to think aloud before him. During the many 
 hours I had the consolation of spending in his 
 august presence, he comforted, illuminated, and 
 encouraged me paternally. He understands and 
 shares our anxieties concerning our religious 
 liberties and our patriotic feelings. He was 
 good enough to sum up his profound thought 
 on your behalf, which I received most eagerly, 
 in the inscription traced by his own august hand 
 beneath his portrait; I here transcribe it for you 
 in all simplicity: 
 
 *' To our revered brother. Cardinal Mercier, Arch- 
 bishop of Mechlin, We give the Apostolic Blessing 
 with all our heart, assuring him that We are always 
 with him,, and that We share his grief and his 
 anguish, inasmuch as his cause is our cause." 
 
 One day I went, with my heart full of grati- 
 tude, to tell the Sovereign Pontiff that he could 
 never doubt the perfect filial piety of the Belgian 
 people, and that we had conceived a desire to 
 give him a fresh evidence of this in the near 
 future. "Most Holy Father," I said, "we would 
 hke to ask our faithful congregations, through- 
 out the country, to take part on the first Sunday 
 in May in a general communion on behalf of 
 your Holiness." 
 
 "And my behalf," replied the Holy Father im- 
 mediately, "is that of Belgium."
 
 100 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Encouraged by this reception of my plan, I 
 wrote to the Cardinals of Paris, London, Armagh 
 in Ireland, and Italy, and I am confident that 
 on the first Sunday in May a common Eucharistic 
 prayer will go up to Heaven from all the coun- 
 tries of our Allies; presented to God by the 
 august hands of the Head of the Catholic Church, 
 this prayer will hasten the glorious restoration of 
 our beloved Belgium. On that day the Holy 
 Father gives all parish priests throughout the 
 country power to bestow the Papal benediction 
 on their flock, with plenary indulgence for the 
 souls of soldiers who have fallen on the field of 
 honor. 
 
 You have already, I believe, heard echoes of 
 the acclamations with which the name of Bel- 
 gium was greeted throughout our journey to 
 Switzerland and Italy, and on our way back. 
 
 Even supposing, my beloved brethren, that 
 the final issue of the gigantic duel at present 
 being fought in Europe and Asia Minor is un- 
 certain, the moral triumph of Belgium is an ever 
 memorable fact for history and civilization. 
 In concert with your King and your Govern- 
 ment, you agreed to an immense sacrifice in the 
 interests of your fatherland. Out of respect 
 for our plighted word; to proclaim that in your 
 consciences, right comes before all else, you have 
 sacrificed your good, your homes, your sons, your 
 husbands; and after eighteen months of coercion.
 
 MY RETURN FROM ROME lOI 
 
 you are still proud of your deed, as on the first 
 day. Heroism seems so natural to you that it 
 does not occur to you to glory in it on your own 
 account; but if you had been able to do as we 
 have done, to pass beyond our frontiers, and 
 look at our Belgian fatherland from without; 
 if you could have heard the voices of the people, 
 "the man in the street," as the English say, I 
 mean the manual laborer, the humble employey 
 the women of the working classes; if you had 
 received the homage, written or spoken, of 
 those who are the authorized representatives of 
 the great social forces, politics, the press, science, 
 art, diplomacy, and religion; you would have 
 reahzed more fully the magnanimity of your 
 attitude, and your souls would have leaped with 
 joy and, even, I think, with pride. 
 
 The most fervid expressions of respect, of 
 admiration, of reverence for the moral greatness, 
 the nobihty of soul, the calm tenacious patience 
 of the Belgian nation reached us from the cities 
 and villages of Switzerland, Italy, Spain, France, 
 and England, and went up, borne by enthusiasm, 
 to those who personify Belgian patriotism, our 
 Sovereigns, the Government, the Clergy, our 
 vaHant army. 
 
 As to us, all the homage we received we re- 
 ferred to you, for a secret instinct always reminded 
 us that it was you who deserved it and attracted 
 it by your endurance.
 
 102 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 In our hours of meditation we blessed Provi- 
 dence for the progress it has brought about in 
 pubhc opinion. 
 
 You will remember how, some fifteen months 
 ago, we told you: Certain highly placed men, 
 who ought to have taken a loftier view of events, 
 sometimes went so far as to say: But after all, 
 was it necessary for Belgium to sacrifice herself 
 thus in defense of her territory? Would not a 
 verbal protest have sufficed, and would this not 
 have saved her from the ravages that have brought 
 her to the verge of ruin? This language, I told 
 you, had roused my indignation, and more than 
 once I had given free utterance to that indigna- 
 tion under the stimulus of internal revolt. 
 
 Well ! I never hear this language on any Hps now. 
 
 Therefore the moral level of neutral, or for- 
 merly neutral nations, is higher. They understand 
 the spirit of sacrifice, they do homage to it, they 
 appreciate it in you, they admire you. Your gen- 
 eration has made a glorious entrance into history. 
 
 Is not this a conquest, my Brethren, and, in 
 the sense in which moral advantage is more, 
 highly esteemed than material advantage, are 
 you not the most glorious conquerors? 
 
 I cannot refrain from applying to our present 
 situation the words of our Lord in the Gospel: 
 "What shall a man be profited, if he shall gain 
 the whole world, and lose his own soul?" ^ 
 
 ^ Matthew xvi. 26.
 
 MY RETURN FROM ROME I03 
 
 Oh, yes! you weep, I know; there is mourn- 
 ing on every hand; the hearts of mothers, wives, 
 and betrothed maidens are wrung; lives are lost 
 on the banks of the Yser; the captivity of the 
 nation on its own soil is painfully prolonged; 
 our finances are involved, our trade and our 
 manufactures are at a standstill; I know all this, 
 and you know me well enough, I think, to rest 
 assured that I suffer because of them with you, 
 and because you are suffering. But, after all, 
 what are these sufferings of a day in face of the 
 eternity in which we shall all sooner or later 
 Hve our true hves? What, finally, is the value 
 of an earthly success which we should have to 
 buy at the price of our eternal happiness? What, 
 on the other hand, is a momentary sorrow, an 
 ephemeral desolation, a, humanly speaking, pre- 
 mature death, when we have the provision of 
 an endless and unclouded happiness for those 
 Christian families who, having lived together as 
 Christians here below, and having nerved them- 
 selves with Christian courage to self-sacrifice, will 
 soon be reunited forever in the bosom of our 
 Father which is in Heaven? 
 
 One day when I was making my way towards 
 the Church of St. Paul-without-the-Walls, ac- 
 complishing on your behalf the pilgrimage I 
 had promised you before my departure that I 
 would undertake, I visited the basilica of St. 
 Sebastian, and found it full of fragments, due
 
 104 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 to the excavations there in progress. The archae- 
 ologists who were directing the work had brought 
 various inscriptions to Hght. One of these struck 
 me particularly, and I brought it away in my 
 memory for you. It said: "£/ nos in Deo omnes. 
 — And as to us, let us all hold together in God." 
 
 Let us take this as the motto of our hopes; 
 let it perfectly sustain our courage. *' Et nos in 
 Deo omnes. All together in God." 
 
 The day will come when we shall weep no 
 more, when we shall no longer be scattered, when 
 our families will be reunited never to be parted 
 again. Let us think more of Heaven than of 
 earth. Let us live there in spirit; as St. Paul 
 said to the Philippians: "For our conversation 
 is in Heaven: Nostra autem conversatio in coelis 
 est." ' 
 
 The Christian is a traveler, whose home is in 
 Heaven. 
 
 You must remember that I have never con- 
 cealed my forebodings from you. I have preached 
 patriotism to you, because it is an offshoot of 
 the greatest of Christian virtues. Charity. But 
 from the first I warned you, that in my humble 
 opinion, our trial would be a long one, and that 
 success would be the guerdon of the nations who 
 could endure most bravely. 
 
 My conviction, both natural and supernatural, 
 of our ultimate victory is more firmly rooted in 
 
 ^ Philippians iii. 20.
 
 MY RETURN FROM ROME 105 
 
 my soul than ever. If, indeed, it could have been 
 shaken, the assurances given me by several dis- 
 interested and careful observers of the general 
 situation, notably those belonging to the two 
 Americas, would have sufficed to consolidate it. 
 
 We shall triumph, do not doubt it, but we are 
 not yet at the end of our sufferings. 
 
 France, England, and Russia have engaged not 
 to conclude peace until the independence of 
 Belgium is completely restored and an ample 
 indemnity has been made to her. Italy, in her 
 turn, has given her adhesion to the London 
 compact. 
 
 Our future is not doubtful. 
 
 But we must prepare it. 
 
 We shall prepare it by cultivating the virtue 
 of patience and the spirit of self-sacrifice. "Be 
 of good courage," says the Psalmist, "and He 
 shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in 
 the Lord. Viriliter agite, et confortetur cor ves- 
 truniy omnes qui speratis in Domino." ^ 
 
 Put your trust absolutely in Providence; it 
 watches over those who reverence the Kingdom 
 of God and of Justice. Whatever happens, never 
 doubt of Justice. At no other period of my life 
 have I seen its action penetrating, to all appear- 
 ance, the most trivial circumstances, the most 
 insignificant incidents, the events most foreign 
 to our personal calculations, as in this recent 
 
 ^ Psalm xxxi. 24.
 
 Io6 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 journey of mine. "We know that all things 
 work together for good to them that love God," 
 said St. Paul. " Scimus autem quoniam diligen- 
 tihus Deum omnia co-operantur in bonum." ^ 
 
 Are we not all and always, more than the 
 lilies of the field, and the young bird that flut- 
 ters in the branches, in the hand of the Most 
 High? Draw your plans, set up your batteries, 
 arrange your movements, but still man will pro- 
 pose and God will dispose. 
 
 "There is no king saved by the multitude of 
 an host," says the Psalmist; "a horse is a vain 
 thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any by 
 his great strength. . . . Our soul waiteth for the 
 Lord; He is our help and our shield."^ 
 
 Imagine a belligerent nation, sure of its army 
 corps, its munitions, its commanders, with every 
 prospect of gaining a victory. If God should 
 allow the germs of an epidemic to spread among 
 the ranks, all optimistic previsions would at once 
 be brought to naught. 
 
 Therefore, above all things, put your trust in 
 God. Invoke His favor by purifying your con- 
 sciences. Cleanse your homes. Let purity, 
 modesty, and Christian simplicity reign there. 
 Prepare in contrition for the performance of 
 your Easter duties. Do not isolate yourselves 
 in the Church. You are in her maternal breast; 
 
 * Romans viii. 28. 
 
 ^ Psalm xxxviii. 16-20.
 
 MY RETURN FROM ROME I07 
 
 live in her spirit. Lent is the season when the 
 Church awaits in prayerful lamentation, in priva- 
 tion and suffering, reconciliation with her prodi- 
 gal children, the birth of catechumens to divine 
 life. Lament, pray, deny yourselves, suffer with 
 your Mother. 
 
 As a general measure, we have thought it well 
 to give you dispensation from the rules of fast- 
 ing and abstinence, save on Ash Wednesday 
 and Good Friday, but if you do not feel the need 
 for them, do not take advantage of all the dis- 
 pensations; impose certain voluntary supere- 
 rogatory mortifications upon yourselves. Apply 
 yourselves to meditation; watch over your senses 
 and the inclinations of your hearts, that your 
 souls may freely soar to Him who is your sole 
 Good, and who alone can give you peace, that is, 
 serenity with order. 
 
 Pray, pray confidently, pray perseveringly. 
 Pray at night with your families. Attend the 
 Sunday Offices, Mass, Vespers, and Benediction. 
 
 Above all, my beloved Brethren, attend the Holy 
 Sacrifice of the Mass whenever you have time, 
 and participate in it by Holy Communion. At 
 present many of you are less strenuously occu- 
 pied than formerly, and are freer to dispose of 
 your time. Could you not, by exerting your 
 good will, spend half an hour at the foot of the 
 altar, in a union of your souls with our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, not only on Sundays, but daily.
 
 I08 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 praying for our country, for our heroes on the 
 Yser, Hving or dead, for those who are suffering 
 and dying? He is there, our Divine Lord; He 
 comes to remind us that He was preeminently 
 the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief: 
 virum dolorum et scientem infirmitatum; ^ but He 
 is risen. He is in the triumph of His glory at 
 the right hand of the Eternal Father; and if He 
 deigns to dwell among us, and to give Himself 
 for our food in the Holy Eucharist, it is that He 
 may fill us with His hfe, and help us to tread 
 the path of suffering with Him, that so we may 
 follow Him into the joy of the everlasting tab- 
 ernacles. Courage, my Brethren; listen to my 
 exhortations; attend Mass daily, take your missal 
 with you, follow the priest closely in it, partake 
 with him of the Eucharistic feast, and you will 
 soon perceive that your life is being transformed, 
 and that our Divine Jesus does not deceive us 
 when He says: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor 
 and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. 
 Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis et onerati estis 
 et ego reficiam vos." ^ 
 
 Let us more especially invoke St. Joseph during 
 this month of March, which popular piety dedi- 
 cates to him. Let us celebrate his festival. Let 
 us commend our families to him and confide our 
 soldiers to his care. 
 
 ^ Isaias liii. 3. 
 * Matthew xi. 29.
 
 MY RETURN FROM ROME IO9 
 
 As we write this conclusion, the newspapers 
 bring us a summary of a letter addressed by the 
 Sovereign PontiflP to the Cardinal Vicar, in which 
 His Holiness expresses a dual wish, to which we 
 hasten to respond. 
 
 The Holy Father implores Divine Mercy to 
 put an end to the conflict which is steeping 
 Europe in blood. During Lent we desire priests 
 to replace the Collect pro tempore belli by the 
 Collect pro pace. 
 
 The Holy Father further asks that, on Good 
 Friday, all mourning mothers and wives should 
 stand with the Mother of Jesus at the foot of 
 the Cross and unite their sacrifice with the blood- 
 stained Sacrifice of the Redemption. We will 
 all associate ourselves with the ideas of His 
 Holiness. Belgium has already been dedicated 
 to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and to St. Joseph. 
 On Good Friday we will dedicate ourselves to 
 the sorrowful and immaculate Heart of Mary. 
 We delight in honoring the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion of the Holy Virgin, and this is well; but 
 together with this privilege, freely conferred by 
 God on her who was to be His Mother, let us 
 remember the title Mary acquired by her suffer- 
 ings to our gratitude. Pierced by the sword of 
 spiritual martyrdom, the Heart of Mary volun- 
 tarily associated its Compassion with the Immo- 
 lation of the Divine Victim of Calvary, for the 
 redemption of our souls.
 
 no CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 The evil hours we are experiencing urge us to 
 have recourse more especially to the Meditation 
 of our Lady of Sorrows. 
 
 Therefore, in response to the ardent wish which 
 has been expressed to me, I will, during the 
 office of Good Friday, consecrate in the depths 
 of my soul, my diocese, and as far as lies in my 
 power, our dear country to the sorrowful and im- 
 maculate Heart of Mary. I exhort our priests to 
 unite with me in this intention, and the faithful 
 to repeat devoutly the following invocation, to 
 which I have already, on a former occasion, at- 
 tached an indulgence of loo days: Sorrowful and 
 immaculate Heart of Mary^ pray for us, who ask 
 thy help. 
 
 D. J. Card. Mercier, 
 Archbishop of Malines.
 
 IV 
 
 FOR OUR SOLDIERS
 
 IV 
 
 FOR OUR SOLDIERS 
 
 Address given hy His Eminence Cardinal Mercier on 
 the day of the National Fete, July 2i, igi6y at 
 Sainte Gudule, Brussels. 
 
 "Jerusalem was made an habitation of strangers; 
 her festival days were turned into mourning." 
 
 / Machabees, i. 40, 41. 
 
 Beloved Brethren, 
 
 WE ought to have met together here to 
 celebrate the eighty-fifth anniversary of 
 our national independence. 
 
 To-day, in fourteen years' time, our restored 
 cathedrals and our rebuilt churches will be 
 thrown widely open; the crowds will surge in; 
 our King Albert, standing on this throne, will 
 bow his unconquered head before the King of 
 Kings; the Queen and the Royal Princes will 
 surround him; we shall hear again the joyous 
 peals of our bells, and throughout the whole 
 country, under the vaulted arches of our churches, 
 Belgians, hand in hand, will renew their vows 
 to their God, their Sovereign, and their Hberty, 
 while the bishops and the priests, interpreters of 
 the soul of the nation, will intone a triumphant 
 
 113
 
 114 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Te Deum in a common transport of joyous thanks- 
 giving. 
 
 To-day the hymn of joy dies on our lips. 
 
 The Jewish people in captivity at Babylon, 
 sitting in tears on the banks of the Euphrates, 
 watched the waters of the river flow by. Their 
 dumb harps were hung on the willows by the 
 bank. Who amongst them would have the 
 courage to sing the song of Jehovah in a strange 
 land? "O Jerusalem," cried the Psalmist, "if 
 ever I forget thee, let my right hand wither, let 
 my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I 
 do not remember thee; if thou art no longer the 
 beginning of my joys." 
 
 The Psalm ends in imprecations, but we do 
 not allow ourselves to repeat them; we are not 
 of the Old Testament, tolerating the laws of 
 retaliation: "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for 
 a tooth." Our lips, purified by the fire of Chris- 
 tian charity, utter no words of hate. 
 
 To hate is to make it one's object to do harm 
 to others and to delight in so doing. Whatever 
 may be our sufferings, we must not wish to show 
 hatred towards those who have inflicted them. 
 Our national unity is joined with a feeling of 
 universal brotherhood. But even this feeling of 
 universal brotherhood is dominated by our respect 
 for unconditional justice, without which no rela- 
 tionship is possible, either between individuals or 
 between nations.
 
 FOR OUR SOLDIERS 115 
 
 And that Is why, with St. Thomas Aquinas, 
 the most authoritative teacher of Christian 
 Theology, we proclaim that pubHc retribution is 
 commendable. 
 
 Crimes, violation of justice, outrage on the 
 pubHc peace, whether enacted by an individual 
 or by a group, must be repressed. Men's minds 
 are stirred up, tortured, uneasy, as long as the 
 guilty one is not put back in his place, as the 
 strong, healthy, colloquial expression has it. To 
 put men and things back in their places is to re- 
 establish order, readjust the balance, and restore 
 peace on a just basis. ^ 
 
 Public retribution in this sense may distress 
 the affected sentimentality of a weak nature; 
 all the same, it is, says St. Thomas, the expres- 
 sion and the decree of the highest, the purest 
 form of charity, and of the zeal which is its flame. 
 It does not make a target of suffering, but a 
 weapon wherewith to avenge outraged justice. 
 
 How can one love order without hating dis- 
 order; intelligently wish for peace without ex- 
 pelling that which is destroying it; love a brother, 
 that is to say wish him well, without desiring 
 that willingly, or by force, his will shall bend be- 
 fore the unalterable edicts of justice and truth? 
 
 It is from these heights that one must view the 
 war in order to understand the greatness of its 
 extent. 
 
 Once more, perhaps, you will find yourself
 
 Il6 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 face to face with effeminate natures for whom 
 the war means nothing beyond explosions of 
 mines, bursting of shells, massacres of men, 
 spilling of blood, piling up of corpses. You will 
 meet politicians of narrow vision who see no 
 further stake in a battle beyond the interest of 
 one day, the taking of so much ground, of a 
 stretch of country, or of a province. 
 
 But no. If, in spite of its horrors, war, I mean 
 a just war, has so much austere beauty, it is 
 because war brings out the disinterested enthu- 
 siasm of a whole people, which gives, or is pre- 
 pared to give, its most precious possession, even 
 life itself, for the defense and the vindication 
 of things which cannot be weighed, which cannot 
 be calculated, but which can never be swallowed 
 up: Justice, Honor, Peace, Liberty! 
 
 Do you not feel that, in these two years, the 
 war, the ardent unflagging interest which you 
 give to it, purifies you, separates your higher 
 nature from the dross, draws you away to uplift 
 you towards something nobler and better than 
 yourselves ? 
 
 You are rising towards the ideals of justice and 
 honor. They support you and draw you upwards. 
 
 And, because this ideal, if it is not a vain ab- 
 straction, which evaporates like the phantasies 
 of a dream, must have its foundation in a living 
 subject, I am never tired of maintaining this 
 truth, which holds us all under its yoke. God
 
 FOR OUR SOLDIERS II7 
 
 reveals Himself as the Master, the Director of 
 events, and of our wills, the holy Master of the 
 universal conscience. 
 
 Ah, if we could clasp in our arms our heroes 
 who are fighting for us over there, or are await- 
 ing anxiously in the trenches their turn to go 
 under fire; if we could take them by surprise, 
 and feel the beatings of their hearts, would not 
 each one of them say to us: I am doing my duty, 
 I am sacrificing myself on the altar of justice? 
 
 And you, wives and mothers, tell us in your 
 turn of the beauty of these tragic years; wives, 
 whose every thought goes, sad, but resigned, 
 towards the absent one, bringing him your hopes, 
 your long expectation, your prayers. Mothers, 
 whose divided existence is consumed in unceasing 
 anguish, you have given your sons, and you will 
 not take them back; we stand breathless with 
 unceasing admiration before you. 
 
 The head of one of our noblest families wrote 
 to me: "Our son in the 7th Line Regiment has 
 fallen; my wife and I are broken-hearted; and 
 yet, if it had to be, we would give him again." 
 
 One of the curates of the capital has been con- 
 demned to twelve years' penal servitude. I was 
 allowed to go into his cell to embrace and to 
 bless him. "I have three brothers at the front," 
 he said, "and I think I am here chiefly because 
 I helped the youngest — he is only seventeen — to 
 rejoin the elder ones; one of my sisters is in a
 
 Il8 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 neighboring cell, but, thank God, my mother is 
 not left alone; indeed she has sent us a message 
 to say so; she does not weep." 
 
 Is it not true that our mothers make us think 
 of the mother of the Machabees? 
 
 What lessons of moral greatness there are to 
 be learned here around us, and in exile and in the 
 prisons, and in the concentration camps, in Hol- 
 land and in Germany! 
 
 Do we think enough of what those brave men 
 must be suffering, who since the beginning of the 
 war, on the morrow of the defense of Liege and 
 Namur, and the retreat from Antwerp, saw their 
 military career shattered, and chafe and fret, 
 these guardians of our rights, and of our com- 
 munal liberties, whose valor has reduced them 
 to inaction? 
 
 It needs courage to throw one's self forward, 
 but it needs no less to hold one's self back. 
 Sometimes it is more noble to suffer in silence 
 than to act. 
 
 And what of these two years of calm submis- 
 sion by the Belgian people before the inevitable; 
 this unshakable tenacity, which moved a hum- 
 ble woman, before whom the possibihties of 
 an approaching conclusion of peace were being 
 discussed, to say: "Oh, as for us, we must not 
 worry; we can go on waiting." How beautiful 
 is all this, and how full of instruction for the 
 generations to come!
 
 FOR OUR SOLDIERS II9 
 
 This is what you must look at, my brothers, 
 the greatness of the nation in her sacrifice; our 
 universal and enduring brotherhood in anguish 
 and in mourning, and in the same unconquerable 
 hope; this is what you must look at to appraise 
 your Belgian fatherland at its true value. 
 
 Now the first exponents of this moral greatness 
 are our soldiers. 
 
 Until that day when they return to us, and 
 when grateful Belgium acclaims the living, and 
 places a halo of glory about the memory of her 
 dead, let us build up for them in our hearts a 
 permanent monument of sacred gratitude. 
 
 Let us pray for those who are no more. Let 
 us exclude no one from our commiseration; the 
 blood of Christ was shed for all. Some of them 
 are atoning in Purgatory for the last remnants 
 of their human weakness. It is for you to hasten 
 their entry into Paradise. Succor the poor in 
 distress, both the poor who are known to you 
 and those who are ashamed to beg. Give of 
 your abundance to those who are in need of the 
 necessities of hfe. Be present at the Mass, which 
 is celebrated every week in your parish churches 
 for our dead soldiers; take your children with 
 you, encourage them to communicate, and com- 
 municate with them. 
 
 Let us also pray for those who are still holding 
 the firing line on the field of battle. Remember 
 that, even at this moment, while I am speaking
 
 120 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 to you, some of them are in the agony of death. 
 The prospect of eternity stretches out before 
 them. Let us think of them, let us mortify our- 
 selves for them, resign ourselves to God for them, 
 and obtain for them a holy death. 
 
 "Our soldiers are our masters," wrote a French 
 Academician yesterday; "they are our leaders, 
 our teachers, our judges, our supporters, our 
 true friends; let us be worthy of them, let us 
 imitate them, so that we may not do less than 
 our duty; they are always ready to do more than 
 their own." 
 
 The hour of deliverance approaches, but it has 
 not yet struck. Let us be patient. Let us not 
 suffer our courage to waver. Let us surrender to 
 Divine Providence the work of making perfect 
 our national probation. 
 
 Young women, young girls, let me ask if you 
 are thinking seriously enough about the gravity 
 of this present time.? I entreat you not to turn 
 aside from the mourning of your country. There 
 are attitudes, there are ways of behaving which 
 are an insult to grief. 
 
 For you modesty is at all times a virtue and 
 a halo of glory; but to-day it is in addition a 
 patriotic duty. 
 
 You, also, must think of the privations and of 
 the endurance of our soldiers. 
 
 Let us all try to adopt the great principle of 
 austerity in our lives.
 
 FOR OUR SOLDIERS 121 
 
 "How much," continues the patriot whom I 
 have just quoted, "how much ought we, in the 
 relatively easy conditions and the less exposed 
 districts, which are ours, and which do not deserve 
 the name of fire zones, to endeavor to reduce and 
 simplify our needs, and like the soldiers, though 
 in our own sphere, to show more concentrated 
 energy. Let us not allow ourselves a moment's 
 distraction or relaxation. Let us devote every 
 minute in our lives to the magnificent cause for 
 which our brothers are so devotedly sacrificing 
 theirs. 
 
 "And, just as our heroes at the front show us 
 a wonderful and consoling spectacle of indis- 
 soluble unity, of a brotherhood in arms which 
 nothing can destroy, even so, in our ranks, less 
 compact and well disciphned though they may 
 be, we shall earnestly strive to maintain the 
 same patriotic sense of union. We will respect 
 the truce imposed on our quarrels by the one 
 great Cause which alone ought to use and absorb 
 all our powers of attack and combat; and if 
 there are any godless or unfortunate people, who 
 fail to understand the urgency and the beauty of 
 this national precept, and insist, in spite of all, 
 on keeping alive and fomenting the passions v/hich 
 divide us when other matters are concerned, we 
 will turn aside our heads, and continue, without 
 answering them, to remain faithful to the pact of 
 fellowship, of friendship, of loyal and true con-
 
 122 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 fidence which we have concluded with them, even 
 in spite of themselves, under the great inspiration 
 of the war." 
 
 The approaching date of the first centenary of 
 our independence ought to find us stronger, more 
 intrepid, more united than ever. Let us prepare 
 ourselves for it with work, with patience and in 
 true brotherhood. 
 
 When, in 1930, we recall the dark years of 
 1915-1916, they will appear to us as the bright- 
 est, the most majestic and, if, from to-day, we 
 resolve that they shall be so, the happiest and the 
 most fruitful in our national history. Per crucem 
 ad lucem — from the sacrifice flashes forth the 
 light!
 
 V 
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD
 
 V 
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD 
 
 first sunday of the month of the 
 holy rosary, i916 
 
 Introduction 
 
 The Trial is long 
 
 YES, the trial is long. (I hear you repeat 
 this from day to day, and I think there 
 can be none who do not share your feeling.) 
 
 And when will it end.? 
 
 One day when our divine Saviour had been 
 speaking to His Apostles of the calamities which 
 will herald the approaching end of the world — 
 wars, pestilence, famine, earthquakes, atmos- 
 pheric disturbances — His hearers asked Him: 
 "When shall these things be?" 
 
 And our divine Redeemer answered: "Of that 
 day and that hour knoweth no man . . . not 
 even the Son of Man";^ in other words, it did 
 not enter into the earthly mission of the Son of 
 God to reveal it to humanity. The great thing 
 for you is, indeed, not to know whether the world 
 
 ^ Matthew xxiv. 3; Mark xiii. 32. 
 I2S
 
 126 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 will last a thousand years, ten thousand years, 
 or ten million years longer; it signifies not whether 
 you die in youth, in maturity, or in extreme old 
 age; one thing alone is of consequence, that you 
 save your souls, and that you be docile instru- 
 ments in the almighty hands of the Master of 
 events, for the sanctification of His Holy Name, 
 the establishment of His Kingdom, and the ful- 
 fillment of His Will. 
 
 Part I 
 
 The soul must contemplate Eternity in silence, if 
 it would grasp the deep significance of events. 
 
 God speaks to us from without and from 
 within. 
 
 He speaks to us from without by the marvels 
 of Nature and the lessons of events. 
 
 He speaks to us from within by the gentle 
 breath of the graces of His Holy Spirit. 
 
 The voice of Nature is generally harmonious 
 and peaceful, as in the solemn progress of the 
 sun through space, the murmur of the waters, 
 the growth of corn, the slow evolution of the 
 seasons. But at times it is violent and terrible, 
 as in thunder and the thunderbolt, the fury of 
 the tempest, the shocks that make the earth 
 tremble, and cast out the lava of volcanoes 
 upon it. 
 
 The world of history has also its peaceful ex-
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD 1 27 
 
 pansions, its periods of concentrated labor, of 
 economic, intellectual, artistic, and civilizing suc- 
 cess; but at times, passions run riot, hate stifles 
 the voice of love, death seems to triumph over 
 life. 
 
 Nevertheless, the God of grace is still speaking 
 to us. 
 
 Each historic period is a page in the divine 
 book of Providence. 
 
 We write it, but the Will of the Almighty, 
 strong yet gentle, holds the pen. 
 
 It depends upon us whether we write in char- 
 acters of gold or letters of blood, but the book 
 must be written. We shall find this book again 
 in eternity, and it will then be manifest to all to 
 what extent, and how, each one of us has col- 
 laborated in it. 
 
 As long as history lasts, the book remains 
 closed and sealed; the divine Lamb, who shed 
 His blood for our redemption, alone has power 
 to break the seven seals which guard its secrets. 
 The Elders of the Apocalypse, prostrate before 
 the Lamb, oflPer Him the prayers of the Saints, 
 and sing: "Thou art worthy to take the book, 
 and to open the seals thereof; because Thou wast 
 slain, and hast redeemed us to God in Thy blood 
 out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, 
 and nation; and hast made us to our God kings 
 and priests; and we shall reign on the earth. 
 Dignus eSy DominCy accipere librum, et aperire
 
 128 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 signacula ejus; quoniam occisus es, et redemisti 
 nos Deo in sanguine tuo ex omni trihu, et lingua^ et 
 populo, et natione; et fecisti nos Deo nostro regnu7n, 
 et sacerdotes." ^ 
 
 The last seal will be broken when the divine 
 Jesus who has deigned to abase Himself to us, 
 and to take on our frail humanity, that He might 
 sacrifice it for us, shall come back to us in the 
 majesty of His glory, seated on the clouds, the 
 cross of the Last Judgment in His hand, and shall 
 say in a voice infinitely more mighty than the 
 thunder to each of His creatures one or the other 
 of these two things: "Come, ye blessed of My 
 Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you," 
 or: "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, 
 prepared for the devil and his angels." 
 
 These will be the last resounding words that 
 will fall from the lips of the Man-God; decisive, 
 irrevocable words, which will range us for all 
 eternity on the right or on the left, among the 
 elect in glory, or among the reprobate in hell. 
 
 My beloved Brethren, do you think of this? 
 Do you think of it enough? 
 
 In the presence of this supreme alternative, 
 what does all the rest matter? 
 
 What does it matter whether you die young or 
 old, in bed or on the battle-field, far from those 
 belonging to you, or near to them? 
 
 What in the last resort will it matter to you 
 
 ^ Apocalypse v. 9, 10.
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD 1 29 
 
 whether your days have been passed happily, in 
 a much loved home, in comfort and abundance, 
 surrounded by affection and esteem, or whether 
 you have lived in affliction, in soHtude, perhaps 
 in poverty, bowed down by suspicion, humilia- 
 tion, and oppression? How will you look upon 
 and judge these trifles, when you contemplate 
 them from eternity? 
 
 Whatever may betide you, there is something 
 in you which no person and no event can touch; 
 this is your soul. And this soul, which belongs to 
 you, and is yours, of which you are the master, 
 was made to enjoy God, and will enjoy God, if 
 that is your desire; it will embrace Him and be 
 embraced by Him, not for the brief space of a 
 man's life, or of an historic period, but eternally, 
 for ever and ever. 
 
 So, Brethren, lift up your eyes, I beseech you, 
 and keep them fixed upon this polar star of your 
 eternity. 
 
 Then you will see created events fading into 
 the penumbra of nullity which the Scriptures, 
 that other direct and personal voice of God, call 
 alternately a vapor which steals away and dis- 
 appears, a cloud which dissolves, a shadow which 
 flees, a flower which withers, a wave which melts 
 again into the ocean. 
 
 Eternity! My Brethren, we all lack courage 
 to look at it steadil}^, were it but for once. Lay 
 hold of it as closely as you can; keep it fixed in
 
 130 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 your imagination for an hour, a half hour, a 
 quarter of an hour; concentrate your thoughts 
 on it; during this quarter of an hour see only 
 this, and in it God, the God that was made Man, 
 your Creator, your Savior and your Judge; 
 you, confronting it, made for it, determine to 
 forget all else, for this short space of time; and 
 you will rise enlightened, tempered, fortified. 
 
 At the beginning of this address, my Brethren, 
 I told you that God speaks to us from within and 
 from without by the voice of Nature or of history; 
 from within by the gentle breath of the graces of 
 His Holy Spirit. 
 
 Would you know why it is that Eternity, which 
 is of such vast importance, touches you so little, 
 whereas events which Time carries away absorb 
 you so deeply? 
 
 It is because you find time for everything, but 
 that you will not spare any for the one thing 
 which is worth while. You are not able to collect 
 your thoughts and listen. Your soul has been 
 made the temple of the Holy Ghost by baptism 
 and confirmation; let it, as St. John says, receive 
 the anointing of grace, and it will learn to dis- 
 tinguish truth from falsehood.^ But, observes 
 St. Gregory the Pope, Grace is like the breeze 
 of dawn; it caresses, and is gone; unquiet spirits 
 cannot hold it.^ 
 
 ^ I John ii. 27. 
 
 2 " Moral." Lib. v. cap. 26.
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD 13I 
 
 You are at the mercy of events, whereas you 
 ought to dominate them. You obey your emo- 
 tions, whereas it is your duty, and within your 
 power, to control them. Reduce them to silence, 
 kneel down in your room with closed doors, 
 clauso ostio,^ or in the sanctuary where our divine 
 Savior dwells for us, in front of the altar of the 
 Holy Sacrifice, in front of the tabernacle, in front 
 of the crucifix, and there in silence, withdrawing 
 from all that is happening without and all that 
 is stirring within, ask our Lord to send you His 
 Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is the forefinger of 
 the Father's right hand, digitus Paternae dexterae; 
 He will point out the way in which your conscience 
 shall find truth, light, and peace, in all your hours 
 of grief and anguish. 
 
 Part H 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ gives us the key to events in 
 the mystery of His Death and Resurrection, per- 
 petuated in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Life 
 springs from death. 
 
 The peace of humanity ought not to be broken 
 by wars. In the original scheme of Providence 
 the passions were in subjection to reason, and 
 ought never to have interfered with the concord 
 either of families or of nations. But sin overthrew 
 
 ^ Matthew vi. 6.
 
 132 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 this generous plan, and after sin, disorder made 
 its appearance in history. Henceforth revolt 
 became an element in events. Pride and greed 
 broke down equihbrium; repression, defense by 
 force of arms, are necessary for its reestabhsh- 
 ment. Wars have become inevitable, and as 
 long as there are upon the earth men guilty of 
 allowing their passions to dominate their reason, 
 and their reason to set itself above the divine will, 
 universal pacifism will be a dream. Nay, more 
 than this: to desire peace for its own sake, peace 
 at any price, would be to accept with equal indif- 
 ference justice and injustice, truth and false- 
 hood; it would be an act of cowardice, an impiety. 
 
 Nevertheless, a great artist is able to resolve 
 discords into harmonies. Under the brush of a 
 master of genius, the ugly, by force of contrast, 
 becomes surpassing beauty. 
 
 Thus divine Providence, which designed naught 
 but good, found means, in the secrets of its in- 
 finite wisdom, to transform this world of ours, 
 disturbed and disfigured by the sin of our first 
 parents and our individual crimes, into a work of 
 redemption, surpassing the sketch of its primi- 
 tive design in grandeur and moral perfection. 
 "God, Who is almighty and supremely good," 
 says St. Augustine, "would not have allowed the 
 smallest taint of evil to have crept into His work, 
 had He not been at once good enough and power- 
 ful enough to evolve good even from evil.
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD I33 
 
 Neque Deus omnipotens, rerum cui summa po- 
 testaSy cum summe bonus sit, ullo modo sineret 
 mail aliquid esse in operibus suis, nisi usque adeo 
 esset omnipotens et bonus, ut bene faceret et de 
 malo." ^ And you remember, my Brethren, that 
 every year on Easter Eve when the Resurrec- 
 tion of Christ is proclaimed, the Church makes 
 bold to sing: "O yes, Adam's sin, which Christ 
 has taken away, was indeed necessary! O happy 
 fault, which procured us such a mighty Re- 
 deemer! certe necessarium Adae peccatum, 
 quod Christi morte deletum est! felix culpa, quae 
 talem ac tantum meruit habere Redemptorem! " 
 
 The terrible events we have been witnessing for 
 the last two years are the result of human passions 
 we must deplore and execrate; but it is for us to 
 raise ourselves, by reflection and faith, to a higher 
 and serener conception of the general plan of 
 Providence, and to apply to our affliction and the 
 crimes which occasioned it what our liturgy says 
 of the drama which was at once the darkest of 
 crimes and the cruellest of agonies: "Lord God," 
 it says in the canon of the Mass, "in memory of 
 the blessed Passion of Christ Thy Son, our Lord, 
 and of His glorious Resurrection and Ascension, 
 we offer to Thy Sovereign Majesty this Holy 
 Victim, this bread of Ufe and this cup of 
 immortaHty." 
 
 Yes, in spite of its horrors, blessed was the 
 
 ^ "S. Aug. Enchiridion," Cap. xi.
 
 134 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Passion of our divine Saviour. Blessed for Him, 
 for it earned Him His glorious Resurrection and 
 Ascension, and His sovereignty of the world. 
 Blessed for us, for henceforth, if we are willing 
 to suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified with 
 Him : " Si tamen compatimur, utetconglorificemur."^ 
 A moment of affliction now, as St. Paul says to 
 the Corinthians, and above, for our reward, an 
 "eternal and exceeding weight of glory," pro- 
 vided that "we look not at the things which are 
 seen, but at the things which are not seen; for 
 the things which are seen are temporal; but 
 the things which are not seen are eternal. Id 
 enim, quod in praesenti est momentaneum et leve 
 tribulationis nostrae, supra modum in sublimitate 
 aeternum gloriae pondus operatur in nobisy non 
 contemplantibus nobis quae videntur, sed quae non 
 videntur. ^uae enim videntur temporalia sunt, 
 quae autem non videntur^ aeterna sunt."^ 
 
 Such, my Brethren, in brief, is the funda- 
 mental solution of the essential problems of life 
 for individuals and for nations: the Passion be- 
 fore the Resurrection, death to attain life, the 
 Cross to enter into glory. 
 
 Under the ancient covenant, God spoke to 
 His chosen people by the medium of the Prophets. 
 Under the new covenant, says St. Paul, He speaks 
 to us directly by His Son, who, when He had 
 
 ^ Romans viii. 17. 
 
 ^ // Corinthians iv. 17, 18.
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD I35 
 
 purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of 
 the Majesty on high,^ 
 
 The prophets, Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel, Daniel, 
 Nahum, Habacuc, and the rest, were commis- 
 sioned to recall the chosen people and their 
 oppressors, the Egyptians, Assyrians, Chaldaeans 
 and Babylonians, to the law of duty; they pro- 
 claimed to them invariably that in blood and 
 ruins they would find at once their chastisement 
 and the principle of their regeneration. God 
 chastens us only to heal and save us. Guilty 
 humanity must die to live again. Until the grain 
 of wheat dies in the earth, there is no hope of 
 Hfe and fruitfulness. "Follow this rule," says 
 St. Paul again; "look only to the Cross for your 
 regeneration in Christ Jesus, and you shall find 
 pardon and peace, you and all the true sons of 
 Israel. Mihi autem ahsit gloriari, nisi in cruce 
 Domini nostri Jesu Christi. . . . In Christo enim 
 Jesu^ nihil valet {nisi) nova creatura. Et quicum- 
 que banc regulam secuti fuerint, pax super illos, et 
 misericordia, et super Israel Dei."^ 
 
 In so far as the Belgian people can accept these 
 austere principles, in so far will it be able to take 
 the two tragic years it has passed through as an 
 incentive to a more vigorous future, a renewal of 
 energy, a more ardent confidence in the illimitable 
 resources of a Christian nation. 
 
 ^ Hebrews i. 2, 3. 
 
 * Galatians vi, 14-16.
 
 136 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 At this most intimate moment of the Mass, 
 when the priest and the faithful are about to feed 
 upon Christ, what is the prayer the Church puts 
 upon our hps? Once again she reminds us of the 
 starting point and the term of hfe. Here, she 
 says, the Eternal Father, with the cooperation 
 of the Holy Spirit, realizes His design of making 
 the life-spring that is to nourish the world come 
 forth from the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the Son of the living God. '' Domine Jesu Christe, 
 Fill Dei vivi, qui ex voluntate Patris, co-operante 
 Spiritu Sancto, per mortem tuam, mundum 
 vivificasti. ..." 
 
 And have not the Holy Fathers, Popes Pius IX 
 and Pius X, asked us to repeat each day after 
 Mass this touching prayer: "I intreat Thee, O 
 sweet Savior Jesus Christ, that Thy death may 
 be to me a source of unfailing life, and that Thy 
 Cross may be my glory forever. Mors tua sit 
 mihi vita i7ideficienSy crux tua sit mihi gloria 
 sempiterjia." ^ 
 
 Part HI 
 
 Take an active part in the Holy Sacrifice of the 
 Alass; worship the purposes of God therein; and 
 further, expiate, give thanks, and pray. 
 
 Come to Mass, my Brethren, to revive your 
 rehgious hfe. Come every day, if you can, but 
 at least never miss the obligatory Sunday Mass. 
 1 Pius, P.P. X, Aug. 29, 1912.
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD I37 
 
 I have of late encountered youths and maidens 
 of the people, who would no longer venture to 
 show themselves in church, because they have 
 nothing but sabots to put on their feet. My 
 children, I understand and sympathize with your 
 humiliation. But believe that our divine Re- 
 deemer is not like the parvenus whose glances 
 you dread. He became poor of His own free will, 
 to draw you to Him more closely; the nearer 
 you are to destitution, the more you resemble 
 Him, and the more He loves you. 
 
 Oh! my Brethren, honor the poor. And you, 
 my dear colleagues of the priesthood, give them 
 the first place in your esteem and solicitude. I 
 should wish to see them in the front rank in the 
 temple of Jesus of Bethlehem and Nazareth. 
 Before God and before His Church, they are 
 greater and worthier than you and I. If they 
 accept their condition cheerfully and with faith, 
 they do more for the salvation of humanity than 
 those whose wealth and success sometimes dazzle 
 you. 
 
 As to you. Ladies, if you flaunt your abundance 
 when your sisters have only wooden shoes and 
 shabby garments, know that you will be offend- 
 ing against God, your country, and the dignity 
 of the poor. 
 
 Come then, one and all, to Mass, Come 
 modestly attired. You need not blush to come, 
 however poor your garments, if they are clean.
 
 138 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Come mainly for the primary intention of the 
 sacrifice, that of worshipping God. To worship 
 God is to proclaim that God is God, that He is 
 the Master to whom you owe obedience, that all 
 He does is well done. Unite with the priest 
 at the altar, not only in repeating prayers more 
 or less similar to his; but also in the sacerdotal 
 act. For you too are priests. You have heard 
 how the Apostle St. John tells you in the Apoc- 
 alypse that the blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ 
 has made you all kings and priests; priests of 
 God and of Christ, he says elsewhere.^ St. Peter 
 expresses the same thought: Christ is the living 
 stone upon which the whole Church is built, he 
 says: "Ye also, as living stones are built up a 
 spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up 
 spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus 
 Christ. Et ipsi tamquam lapides vivi super-aedi- 
 ficamini, domus spiritualis, sacerdotium sanctum^ 
 offerre spirituales hostias, acceptahiles Deo per Jesum 
 Christum J' ^ 
 
 To the priest officially intrusted with pubHc 
 ministry in the Church, the bishop gives the 
 following admonition: "Understand what you 
 are doing; seek inspiration in your acts, from the 
 mystery you touch with your hands; and since 
 at the altar you renew the mystery of the Death 
 of our Lord, mortify also in your members your 
 
 ^ Apocalypse xx. 6. 
 2 / Peter ii. 5.
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD 1 39 
 
 vicious instincts and evil desires. Agnoscite 
 quod agitis; imitamini quod tractatis; quatenus 
 mortis Dominicae mysterium celehrantes, mortifi- 
 care membra vestra a viiiis et concupiscentiis 
 omnibus procuretis." ^ 
 
 And since you are priests, that is to say, sacri- 
 ficers, be, moreover, yourselves the victims. 
 "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God," 
 writes St. Paul to the Romans, "present your 
 bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
 God, which is your reasonable service. Obsecro 
 itaque vos fratres, per misericordiam Dei, ut exhi- 
 beatis corpora vestra hostiam viventem, sanctam, Deo 
 placentem, rationabile obsequium vestrum." ^ 
 
 Make your individual sufferings and your 
 national suflPerings, as well as every act of your 
 Hfe, the material of your sacrifice. 
 
 And this is not enough. Sacrifice your life 
 itself in anticipation as a free-will offering to the 
 glory of God. Death is but a violent rupture 
 which we must inevitably undergo; it is an act 
 with which the Christian soul should associate 
 itself actively, the restitution to the sovereign 
 Master of a possession He has confided to us for 
 His glory; this restitution is a sacerdotal act 
 which the Christian accomplishes in union with 
 the supreme dissolution of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 And when all of us, familiarizing ourselves with 
 
 ^ Pont. Rom. de Ord. Presbyter!. 
 ^ Romans xii. i.
 
 140 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 this Christian and ennobling conception of death, 
 shall, in concert with our sons and brothers who 
 fall on the field of honor, offer this spiritual sacri- 
 fice of our earthly lives, a magnificent homage will 
 rise from the soil of our Belgian fatherland to the 
 throne of divine Majesty, and will come down to 
 us again in blessings. Our sacrifice will be an 
 act of worship and of expiation. During these 
 two months, of the Holy Rosary, and of the Dead, 
 in union with the sorrowful and immaculate 
 heart of Mary, kneel diligently in prayer at the 
 Calvary, be assiduous in your attendance at the 
 Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, asking pardon for 
 the living, and mercy for the souls of our beloved 
 dead. 
 
 Also, show gratitude to God. Bless Him for 
 having preserved to our affection our King, the 
 pride of the Belgian nation; our strong and gentle 
 Queen, and the royal children; thank Him for 
 having given us patience to endure, without 
 flinching or murmuring, our long, hard ordeal; 
 for having granted us the first benediction of our 
 Holy Father Pope Benedict XV, and for having 
 inspired him to say that his warmest paternal 
 feeling is for Belgium, for having filled the hearts 
 of foreign nations with respect for our mis- 
 fortunes. After the war we ought to raise a 
 monument of gratitude to them; let us even now 
 give them a place of honor in our grateful piety. 
 
 Finally, until we have reached the end of our
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD I4I 
 
 Calvary, let our participation in the Mass be a 
 constant prayer for our beloved country, for 
 those present and those absent, our brave prisoners 
 and interned compatriots, our dear refugees. 
 
 The longer the war lasts, the more ardent does 
 my pity become for all those energetic men who 
 were eager to spend themselves on our behalf, 
 and who are now tortured by their inaction. 
 
 Our refugees! England, France, Holland, and 
 Switzerland leave nothing undone to alleviate 
 their lot, but exile is exile, none the less. We 
 sometimes hear bitter things said of them. I do 
 not deny that there may have been among them 
 certain weaknesses, perhaps remembered with 
 sorrow now by those who yielded to them; but 
 how many among those you judge hastily, re- 
 luctantly obey some delicate sentiment of defer- 
 ence, of filial or paternal affection, of devotion 
 to a sick person, of solicitude for a son at the 
 front, of material necessity. According to those 
 who are in close contact with them, our absent 
 ones rival their compatriots in occupied Belgium 
 in patience, self-denial, and apostolic spirit. We 
 shall receive them with open arms when they 
 return to us, and they must not doubt that they 
 will find here friends and brothers who will have 
 invariably remained faithful to them. 
 
 We cannot exclude any from our prayers, even 
 our enemies; but Christian theology teaches us to 
 graduate our affections. Give your best affec-
 
 142 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 tion, says St. Thomas Aquinas, to your relatives, 
 your compatriots, those who do good to you=^ 
 
 Pray then above all for our dear soldiers, who 
 are so close to our hearts by the ties of blood, 
 perhaps, by patriotism, by their devotion to us. 
 Associate with them their wives and mothers, 
 those silent heroines of the great European drama. 
 Pray for our armies which, in the west, the east, 
 and the south, are fighting with so much valor 
 and tenacity for our common cause. May their 
 guardian angels be with them in action, and 
 keep them chaste and devout in their hours of 
 rest. Let me also specially commend to you our 
 priests, military chaplains or stretcher-bearers; 
 may their ministry be fruitful; may they pass 
 through dangers unspotted, and come back to us 
 strong and pious. 
 
 Suffering has made us more compassionate. In 
 days gone by we heard without much emotion 
 of the massacres of the poor Armenians. Mussul- 
 man fanaticism has caused the death of thousands 
 upon thousands of these unhappy people in the 
 course of the present war, and has carried off their 
 women and their young girls into slavery. Have 
 pity on them; pray for them. 
 
 Poland, noble Poland, always faithful to her 
 creed and her vows, who has never embarked on 
 any war of conquest, but has always fought for 
 the hberty of nations and for European civiliza- 
 
 ^ "Summa Theol," 2, 2 q. 26, a. 7.
 
 THE VOICE OF GOD I43 
 
 tion, has suffered more than we have done; her 
 sons are scattered in Russian, Austrian and Ger- 
 man battaHons; her soil has been torn and rav- 
 aged by the ebb and flood of armies; America 
 cannot feed her; pray for her, my Brethren, and 
 ask God to grant that at least one of the happy 
 results of this horrible war may be the definitive 
 recognition of the independence of Poland. 
 
 Finally, here also, in occupied Belgium, let us 
 pray one for another, and love one another. 
 May our affection be sincere and active. The 
 history of Belgian charity during the war will 
 furnish pages worthy to figure beside those in 
 which the heroism of our soldiers will be recorded. 
 Let there be no stain on our national record ! Let 
 us all collaborate to the utmost in our union and 
 our mutual help. Let those who are wealthy give 
 liberally to those who are in want, to the infirm 
 and the weak. Refrain from enriching your- 
 selves — this would be hateful indeed — at the 
 expense of the suffering of others. 
 
 And let us all remain patient and enduring 
 to the end. Lift up your hearts! Let us redouble 
 our confidence. Let us cry to God, in the words 
 of the holy Liturgy: "O God, come to my aid! 
 O Lord, make haste to help me! Deus, in 
 adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adju- 
 vandum me festina!" Meanwhile, be calm and 
 courageous; murmur not. Let us apply to our 
 patriotic endurance what our blessed Saviour
 
 144 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 says of the work of our eternal salvation: "He 
 that endureth to the end shall be saved, ^uiautem 
 perseveraverit usque in finem hie salvus erit." ^ 
 
 My beloved Brethren, all and every one of you, 
 Belgians of occupied Belgium and absent com- 
 patriots, receive my episcopal and paternal 
 blessing. 
 
 D. J. Card. Mercier, 
 Archbishop of Malines 
 
 ^ Matthew x. 22.
 
 VI 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED
 
 VI 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 
 
 CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN CARDINAL MERCIER 
 AND THE GERMAN COMMANDERS 
 
 Letter of His Eminence, Cardinal Mercier, to 
 
 Governor-General von Bissing 
 
 Archdiocese of Malines, 
 Malines, October 19, 1916. 
 
 Sir: 
 
 ON the day after the capitulation of Antwerp 
 the distracted people were asking what 
 would happen to Belgian citizens who were of 
 military age, or who would attain such age before 
 the end of the occupation. In view of the sup- 
 plications I received from fathers and mothers, 
 I decided to question the Governor of Antwerp, 
 Baron von Huene, who was good enough to 
 reassure me and to authorize me to reassure the 
 griefstricken parents. However, the rumor had 
 spread in Antwerp that at Liege, Namur, and 
 Charleroi young men had been seized and forcibly 
 transported to Germany. I, therefore, asked 
 Governor von Huene to kindly confirm in writing 
 the verbal pledge which he had already given me 
 that nothing of this kind would happen at Ant- 
 werp. He answered me immediately that the 
 
 147
 
 148 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 rumors of deportations were without foundation, 
 and wrote me a letter containing the following 
 statement: "Young men need have no fear of 
 being sent to Germany, either to be enrolled in 
 the army there, or to be employed at forced 
 labor." 
 
 This declaration, written and signed, was pub- 
 licly communicated to the clergy and faithful of 
 the Province of Antwerp, as Your Excellency 
 may ascertain from the inclosed document dated 
 October 16, 1914, which was read in all the 
 churches. 
 
 When your predecessor, the late Baron von der 
 Goltz, arrived in Brussels, I had the honor of 
 waiting on him, and asked him to kindly ratify 
 for the whole country, and without any limitation 
 of time, the pledges which General von Huene 
 had given me for the Province of Antwerp. The 
 Governor-General retained my petition to exam- 
 ine it at leisure. The following day he was good 
 enough to come in person to Malines and bring 
 me his approval. There, in the presence of two 
 aides-de-camp and of my private secretary, he 
 confirmed the promise that the Hberty of Belgian 
 citizens would be respected. 
 
 To doubt the authority of such pledges would 
 have been an insult to the persons who had 
 signed them, and I therefore employed all the 
 powers of persuasion I possessed to dispel the 
 persistent uneasiness of the famiHes concerned.
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED I49 
 
 But now your Government is tearing away from 
 their homes workers who, through no fault of 
 their own, have been reduced to a state of "un- 
 employment." ^ It is violently separating them 
 from their wives and children, and deporting 
 them to a foreign land. A large number of work-, 
 men have already met this unhappy fate; more 
 numerous still are those who are menaced with 
 the same violence. 
 
 In the name of the freedom of domicile and the 
 freedom of labor; in the name of the inviolability 
 of family hfe; in the name of morality, which 
 the policy of deportation would gravely com- 
 promise; in the name of the pledges given by the 
 Governor of Antwerp and the Governor-General, 
 the immediate representative of the supreme 
 authority in the German empire, I respectfully 
 ask Your Excellency to have the measures of 
 compulsory labor and deportation repealed, and 
 to restore to their hearths those Belgian work- 
 men who have been already deported. 
 
 Your Excellency will appreciate how heavy 
 would be the weight of my responsibihty towards 
 famihes if the confidence which they have re- 
 posed in you through my intervention and on 
 
 1 It may be well to remind the reader that the present "unem- 
 ployment" {chomage) in Belgium is mainly the result of the patri- 
 otic refusal of the inhabitants to work for Germany. As the terms 
 "chomage" and "chomeurs" (unemployed) have thus a special 
 meaning in this controversy, it has been thought well to place be- 
 tween quotation marks their English equivalents. — Tr.^nsl.'VTOr's 
 Note.
 
 150 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 my recommendation were lamentably deceived. 
 
 I cannot, however, believe that such will be the 
 
 case. 
 
 Yours most respectfully, 
 
 (Signed) D. J. Cardinal Mercier 
 
 Archbishop of Malines 
 His Excellency, Baron von Bissing, 
 Governor-General, Brussels. 
 
 On the same day Cardinal Mercier sent the 
 following letter to Baron von der Lancken, the 
 head of the political department at Brussels and 
 the most important German official after the 
 Governor-General, inclosing a copy of the above 
 protest addressed to Baron von Bissing, 
 
 Letter of His Eminence^ Cardinal Mercier, to 
 Baron von der Lancken 
 
 Archdiocese of Malines, 
 Malines, October 19, 1916. 
 
 Sir: 
 
 I have had the honor of sending His Excel- 
 lency, Baron von Bissing, a letter of which I 
 inclose a copy. 
 
 Repeatedly and even publicly the Governor- 
 General has expressed his intention to reserve 
 a large share of his solicitude for the interests of 
 the occupied territory, and you yourself have so 
 often affirmed the wish of the German authorities 
 not to perpetuate during the period of occupa- 
 tion the state of war which existed during its
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 151 
 
 early days. Consequently, I cannot believe that 
 you will put into execution the measures with 
 which your Government threatens the Belgian 
 workmen who have been reduced, through no 
 fault of their own, to a state of "unemployment." 
 
 I hope you will use all your influence with the 
 higher authorities to prevent such a crime. 
 
 Do not speak to us, I beg of you, of the need of 
 maintaining public order, nor of the burden on 
 public charity. Spare us this bitter irony. You 
 are well aware that public order is not menaced, 
 and that every moral and civil influence would 
 spontaneously cooperate with you if public 
 order were endangered. The "unemployed" are 
 not a burden on ofl&cial charity, and it is not from 
 your finances that they derive support. 
 
 Consider whether it is not to the interest of 
 Germany, as well as to your own, to respect the 
 pledges signed by two high officials of your 
 Empire. 
 
 I feel confident that my petitions to the Gov- 
 ernor-General and you will not be misinterpreted 
 or misunderstood, and beg to remain, 
 Yours respectfully, 
 (Signed) D. J. Cardinal Mercier 
 
 Archbishop of Malines 
 Baron von der Lancken, 
 
 Chief of the Political Department, Brussels. 
 
 On October 26, Governor-General von Bis- 
 sing sent Cardinal Mercier a letter which left
 
 152 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 no doubt in the mind of His Eminence that the 
 German authorities had resolved to continue the 
 wholesale deportations of Belgian citizens. This 
 document was sent in French and in German. The 
 following is a translation of the authentic French 
 text. 
 
 General von Bissings Answer to His Eminence 
 
 Cardinal Mercier 
 
 Brussels, October 26, 1916. 
 
 Your Eminence: 
 
 In your favor of October 19, Your Eminence 
 has requested that Belgian "unemployed" should 
 not be transported to Germany. While fully 
 appreciating Your Eminence's point of view, I 
 feel it my duty to answer that you have not 
 considered all the aspects of the very difficult 
 problem of "unemployment" in Belgium. This 
 is especially the case with regard to certain quite 
 abnormal circumstances, which have been brought 
 about by two years of warfare and which Your 
 Eminence has not considered in all their bearing. 
 The measures which you wish countermanded 
 are only the expression of an imperious necessity, 
 and an inevitable consequence of the war. Of 
 this you will find an explanation below. 
 
 Your Eminence begins your letter by recalling 
 the declarations which were made by my prede- 
 cessor and the Military Governor of Antwerp 
 in October, 1914. These declarations referred
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED I 53 
 
 to facts directly linked with the military opera- 
 tions. They related to Belgians who were subject 
 to military service, and who, in accordance with 
 the generally accepted customs of warfare, could 
 not have been brought as civil prisoners to Ger- 
 many, At this period England and France were 
 removing from neutral ships sailing on the high 
 seas all Germans between the ages of seventeen 
 and fifty years and interning them in concentra- 
 tion camps. Germany has not appHed the same 
 measure to Belgium. The declarations made to 
 Your Eminence to enable you to reassure the 
 population have been strictly observed. In any 
 case, these declarations were a proof of the good 
 intentions with which the German Governor- 
 Generals undertook the administration of the 
 occupied territory. In view of the clandestine 
 and wholesale emigration of young Belgians to 
 rejoin the Belgian army, the German authorities 
 would have been completely justified in following 
 the example of England and France. They have 
 not done so. The utilization of Belgian "unem- 
 ployed" in Germany, which is being inaugurated 
 only after two years of warfare, differs essentially 
 from throwing men of military age into captivity. 
 The measure has nothing at all to do with the 
 conduct of the war, properly speaking, but is 
 occasioned by social and economic conditions. 
 
 The economic isolation of Germany — a policy 
 which England has pursued mercilessly and with
 
 154 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 the Utmost vigor — has extended to and pressed 
 ever more heavily on Belgium. Belgian industry 
 and commerce, which depend largely on the im- 
 portation of raw materials and the export of 
 manufactured goods, were vitally injured. The in- 
 evitable consequence was the lack of work for 
 the mass of the population. The system of grant- 
 ing subventions, which were allowed on a large 
 scale to the "unemployed," might be acceptable 
 in the case of a war of short duration. The long 
 duration of the war fostered an abuse of these 
 grants, and introduced a condition of affairs 
 which is intolerable from the social standpoint. 
 As early as the spring of 1915 far-seeing Belgians 
 approached me and pointed out the perils of the 
 situation. They emphasized the fact that, no 
 matter who might furnish the funds at present, 
 the grants would ultimately become a burden 
 on the resources of Belgium, They pointed out, 
 moreover, that the grants are encouraging the 
 workers to give themselves over and accustom 
 themselves to idleness. The inevitable conse- 
 quence of the prolongation of "unemployment" 
 would be the moral and physical deterioration 
 of the workers. Skilled workmen, especially, 
 would lose their technical aptitude for their trades, 
 and would grow useless for industry in coming 
 times of peace. In accordance with these repre- 
 sentations and in collaboration with the competent 
 Belgian department, my Orders of August, 191 5,
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED I 55 
 
 against deliberate "unemployment" were framed. 
 These ordinances were completed by the Order 
 of May I, 1916, and provided for compulsion 
 only when a workman refuses, without a valid 
 reason, to undertake at proper wages a work 
 suited to his ability, and thus becomes a charge 
 on pubHc charity. Every refusal based on the 
 right of nations is formally recognized as valid. 
 Consequently, no workman can be compelled to 
 participate in works connected with the war. 
 Your Eminence will recognize that these Orders 
 are based on sound principles of legislation, which, 
 it is true, place general interests above individual 
 liberty. The social sores, which made their 
 appearance in 191 5, having developed into a 
 pubhc calamity, it is now our duty to apply 
 efficaciously the Orders in question. 
 
 Your Eminence invokes the high ideal of family 
 virtues in your letter. I may be permitted to 
 answer that, like Your Eminence, I rate this ideal 
 very highly, but for this reason I must also de- 
 clare that the working classes would be in the 
 gravest danger of losing sight of all ideals, if we 
 tolerated a condition which would inevitably 
 grow worse. For idleness is the worst enemy of 
 family life. Men who work for their families at 
 a distance from their homes — a condition which 
 has always existed among Belgian workmen — 
 undoubtedly contribute more to the well-being 
 of their families than the "unemployed" who
 
 156 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 remain at home. Men who undertake work in 
 Germany can maintain their relations with their 
 families. At regular intervals they are given 
 leave of absence to return to their homes. They 
 can bring their families to Germany, where also 
 they will find priests who know their language. 
 
 Using their simple common sense, a large 
 number of the people have already recognized 
 these facts, and tens of thousands of Belgian 
 workmen have gone of their own free will to 
 Germany. There, placed on a level with German 
 workmen, they earn high wages which they have 
 never known in Belgium. Instead of sinking 
 into misery, as their comrades who remained at 
 home have done, they are improving their own 
 condition and that of their families. A large 
 number of others would like to follow their 
 example, but do not dare to do so, because influ- 
 ences brought systematically to bear upon them 
 make them hesitate. If they do not rid them- 
 selves of these influences within a reasonable 
 time, they must submit to compulsion. The 
 responsibility for whatever rigorous measures 
 are then taken, which might have been avoided, 
 must fall on those who have prevented them from 
 working. To enable Your Eminence to judge 
 the situation in its entirety, I ask you to con- 
 sider the following explanations which are the 
 very essence of the problem: 
 
 The isolation policy adopted by England has
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 1 57 
 
 necessarily resulted in the establishment of a 
 community of economic interests between the 
 occupied territories and Germany, and Germany 
 is practically the only country with which Belgium 
 can have commercial relations. Although the 
 practice is common between enemy countries, 
 Germany has not refused to make payments in 
 Belgium, and consequently German money is 
 always entering the country. The wages of 
 Belgians working in Germany increase this flow 
 still further. Besides, the occupation itself re- 
 sults in a constant movement of money to Bel- 
 gium, and to this must be added the war levies 
 which, in accordance with the established and 
 recognized principle, are spent exclusively in the 
 country. The community of interests resulting 
 from existing conditions imposes on both parties, 
 by the very logic of things, the necessity of ex- 
 change and of maintaining a proper equilibrium 
 between the elements of economic life. Hun- 
 dreds of thousands of workmen being idle in 
 Belgium while there is a shortage of labor in 
 Germany, it becomes both a social and economic 
 duty to employ the Belgian ''unemployed" in 
 productive work in Germany. This is necessi- 
 tated by the community of interests. If there is 
 any objection to be offered to this condition of 
 things, it should be addressed to England, which 
 has created the necessity by its policy of isolation. 
 Your Eminence will see from the foregoing
 
 158 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 that the problem is very complex. I should feel 
 
 a deep satisfaction if, after my explanation, you 
 
 would examine the problem from the social and 
 
 economic standpoint. 
 
 Yours most respectfully 
 
 (Signed) Frh. von Bissing 
 
 Lieutenant-General 
 
 His Eminence, Cardinal Mercier, 
 Archbishop of Malines, Malines. 
 
 The above letter showed clearly that the German 
 authorities had no intention of acceding to the 
 legitimate complaints of the Belgian people. 
 The deportations continued with that pitiless 
 regularity which characterizes even the harshest 
 measures of the Berlin Government, as if the 
 sufferings and complaints of tens of thousands 
 of men, women, and innocent children counted 
 as nothing with the occupying Power. The only 
 resort of the Belgian bishops was to direct public 
 opinion towards the vexatious measures taken by 
 the invader. On November 7, therefore, the 
 Belgian bishops issued the Appeal to Pubhc 
 Opinion. 
 
 Appeal of the Belgian Bishops to Public Opinion 
 
 Malines, November 7, 1916. 
 The military authorities are deporting daily 
 from Belgium to Germany thousands of inoffensive 
 citizens and there assigning them to forced labor.
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED I 59 
 
 On October 19, we sent the Governor-General 
 a protest, copies of which were sent to the repre- 
 sentatives of the Holy See, Spain, the United States, 
 and Holland at Brussels. The Governor-General 
 repHed that it was impossible to grant our petition. 
 At the time of our protest the ordinances of the 
 occupying Power menaced only the "unem- 
 ployed." To-day, all able-bodied men are being 
 taken away indiscriminately, herded into wagons, 
 and deported no one knows where, like a troop 
 of slaves. The work of the enemy is proceeding 
 by districts. A vague rumor had reached our 
 ears that arrests had been made in the depots at 
 Tournai, at Ghent, and at Alost, but we did not 
 know under what conditions. Between October 
 24 and November 2 the enemy was active in 
 the region of Mons, Quievrain, Saint-Ghislain, 
 Jemappes, drafts of from eight hundred to twelve 
 hundred men being arrested daily. To-morrow 
 and the following days the district of Nivelles 
 will be descended on. Here is a copy of the 
 notice announcing the outrage: 
 
 "By order of the Kreischef all persons of the 
 male sex of over seventeen years of age are sum- 
 moned to be present at the Place St. Paul, Ni- 
 velles, November 8, 1916, at eight o'clock 
 (H. B.), nine o'clock (H. C.), bringing their 
 identification cards, and also (if they possess 
 them) their Meldeamt cards. 
 
 "Only small hand baggage may be brought.
 
 l6o CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 "Anyone who does not present himself will be 
 forcibly deported to Germany, and will be liable 
 besides to a heavy fine and long imprisonment. 
 
 "Ecclesiastics, doctors, lawyers, and teachers 
 are not required to present themselves. 
 
 "The burgomasters will be held responsible 
 for the proper execution of this order, which 
 must be brought immediately to the attention of 
 the inhabitants." 
 
 There is an interval of twenty-four hours 
 between the posting of the notice and the 
 deportation. 
 
 Under the pretext that certain pubHc works 
 had to be executed on Belgian soil, the occupying 
 Power had endeavored to obtain from the com- 
 munes the lists of " unemployed " workmen. Most 
 of the communes proudly refused to supply this 
 information. 
 
 Three Orders of the Governor-General were 
 issued to prepare the way for the blow which 
 strikes us to-day. 
 
 On August 15, 191 5, the first Order imposed 
 compulsory labor on all "unemployed" under 
 penalty of a fine and imprisonment, but declared 
 that they would be engaged only on works in 
 Belgium, and that infringements of the decree 
 would be tried by Belgian tribunals. 
 
 A second Order, of May 2, 191 6, reserves to 
 the German authorities the right of furnishing 
 work for the "unemployed," and threatens with
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED l6l 
 
 a penalty of three years' imprisonment and a fine 
 of 20,000 marks, any person who shall have any 
 works executed which are not authorized by the 
 Governor-General. By virtue of this same Order, 
 the competence to try infringements of the 
 Order is transferred from Belgian to German 
 tribunals. 
 
 A third Order, dated May 13, 1916, "author- 
 izes the Governors, military commanders, and 
 district chiefs, to order the 'unemployed' to be 
 forcibly conducted to the places where they are 
 to work." This was, true enough, forced labor, 
 but always on Belgian territory. 
 
 To-day it is no longer forced labor in Belgium 
 but in Germany and for the benefit of the Ger- 
 mans. And, to give an outward semblance of 
 plausibility to its violent measures, the occupy- 
 ing Power cites the following two pretexts in the 
 German press of Germany and Belgium: The 
 "unemployed" are a menace to public order, 
 and a charge on official charity. 
 
 These allegations have been answered in the 
 letter which we addressed to the Governor-General 
 and the Chief of his political department on 
 October 19: 
 
 "You are well aware that public order is not 
 menaced, and that every moral and civil influence 
 would spontaneously cooperate with you if 
 public order were endangered. 
 
 "The 'unemployed' are not a burden on official
 
 l62 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 charity, and it is not from your finances that they 
 derive support." 
 
 In his reply, the Governor-General no longer 
 invokes these two considerations, but alleges 
 that the grants to the "unemployed," from what- 
 soever source they may come at present, must 
 eventually be a burden on our finances, and that 
 it is the task of a good administrator to relieve 
 them of these charges. He adds that "the pro- 
 longation of 'unemployment' would deprive our 
 workmen of their technical aptitude, and that 
 they would grow useless for industry in coming 
 times of peace." 
 
 There were, it is true, other means to protect 
 our finances — for example, by sparing us war 
 levies which have already attained a thousand- 
 millions, and are mounting at the rate of forty 
 millions a month; by sparing us requisitions in 
 kind, which already amount to several thousand 
 millions, and are exhausting our country. 
 
 There were other means available for preserving 
 the skill of our trained workmen — for example, 
 by leaving Belgian industry its machinery and 
 accessories, its raw materials and the manufac- 
 tured products which have been sent from Bel- 
 gium to Germany. Nor is it in the quarries or 
 lime-kilns, to which the Germans declare they 
 will send our "unemployed," that our specialists 
 will perfect their professional education. 
 
 The naked truth is that every deported work-
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 163 
 
 man means a soldier added to the German army, 
 for he will take the place of a German workman 
 who will be made into a soldier. 
 
 Consequently, the situation which we denounce 
 to the civilized world may be reduced to these 
 terms: Four hundred thousand workers are re- 
 duced to "unemployment" through no fault of 
 their own and largely because of the German 
 occupation. Sons, husbands, and fathers, they 
 bear their unhappy lot unmurmuringly and 
 respect public order. Provision for their most 
 pressing needs has been made, thanks to our 
 national solidarity. By dint of parsimony and 
 generous self-denial, they are saved from extreme 
 misery, and are awaiting with dignity the end of 
 our common trial, safe in the intimacy which is 
 fostered by national grief. 
 
 Gangs of soldiers force their way into these 
 peaceful households, and tear the young men 
 from their parents, the husband from his wife, 
 the father from his children. At the point of the 
 bayonet, the soldiers prevent wives and mothers 
 from throwing themselves into the arms of the 
 departing ones to bid them a last adieu. The 
 captives are ranged in groups of forty or fifty, 
 and forcibly hoisted into railroad wagons. The 
 locomotive is under steam, and, as soon as the 
 train is filled, an officer gives the signal to start. 
 Another thousand Belgians have been reduced 
 to slavery, and, without a preliminary trial, have
 
 164 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 been condemned to the severest punishment in 
 the penal code except death — deportation. They 
 do not know whither they are going, nor how long 
 their absence will endure. All they know is that 
 their work will benefit only the enemy. In several 
 cases, by bribes or threats, a contract, which 
 the Germans venture to describe as "voluntary," 
 has been extorted from the exiles. 
 
 Furthermore, while the "unemployed" are 
 indeed enrolled, a large number of others who 
 have never been unemployed, and belong to the 
 most varied professions, have been also recruited. 
 This latter class, which formed twenty-five per 
 cent of the total in the district of Mons, includes 
 butchers, bakers, foremen-tailors, brass workers, 
 electricians and farmers. Even the very young 
 were taken — students in colleges, universities and 
 other high schools. 
 
 And yet two high officials of the German Em- 
 pire had formally guaranteed us the liberty of our 
 fellow-citizens. 
 
 On the day after the capitulation of Antwerp, 
 the distracted population was asking what would 
 become of Belgians who were of military age, or 
 who would attain such age before the end of the 
 occupation. Baron von Huene, Military Governor 
 of Antwerp, then authorized me to reassure 
 anxious parents in his name. Nevertheless, as it 
 was rumored in Antwerp that young men had been 
 seized at Liege, Namur, and Charleroi and de-
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 165 
 
 ported to Germany, I begged Governor von 
 Huene to confirm in writing the guarantees which 
 he had given me verbally. He answered that the 
 rumors of deportations were groundless, and gave 
 me without hesitation the written statement 
 which was read in all the parish churches of the 
 Province of Antwerp, on Sunday, October 18, 
 1914: "Young men need have no fear of being 
 sent to Germany, either to be enrolled in the 
 army there, or to be employed at forced labor." 
 
 On the arrival of Baron von der Goltz in Brus- 
 sels, in the capacity of Governor-General, I went 
 and asked him to ratify for the whole country, 
 and without any limitation of time, the pledges 
 already granted by Governor von Heune for the 
 Province of Antwerp. The Governor-General 
 retained my petition to examine it at leisure. On 
 the following day, he came in person to Malines, 
 bringing his approval and, in the presence of two 
 aides-de-camp and my private secretary, con- 
 firmed the promise that the liberty of Belgian 
 citizens would be respected. 
 
 In my letter of October 19 last to Baron von 
 Bissing, after reminding him of the pledges given 
 by his predecessor, I concluded: 
 
 "Your Excellency will appreciate how heavy 
 would be the weight of my responsibility towards 
 families if the confidence which they have re- 
 posed in you through my intervention and on 
 my recommendation were lamentably deceived."
 
 l66 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 The Governor-General replied: "The utiliza- 
 tion of Belgian 'unemployed' in Germany, which 
 is being inaugurated only after two years of war- 
 fare, diflPers essentially from throwing men of 
 military age into captivity. The measure has 
 nothing at all to do with the conduct of the 
 war, properly speaking, but is occasioned by 
 social and economic conditions." 
 
 As if the word of an honest man were annulable 
 at the end of one or two years, like an officer's 
 lease! 
 
 As if the declaration confirmed in 1914 did not 
 expressly exclude military operations and forced 
 labor! 
 
 As if, in fine, every Belgian workman, who takes 
 the place of a German, did not allow the latter to 
 fill a gap in the German army! 
 
 We pastors of those flocks which are being torn 
 from us by brutal force, are filled with anguish 
 at the idea of the moral and religious isolation 
 in which our flocks will languish. Impotent wit- 
 nesses of the grief and terror of so many destroyed 
 and menaced households, we appeal to believers 
 and non-believers alike — among our Allies, in 
 neutral countries, and even among our enemies — 
 who retain a respect for human dignity. 
 
 When Cardinal Lavigerie undertook his cam- 
 paign against slavery, Pope Leo XIII, while 
 blessing his mission, said: "Opinion is more than 
 ever the queen of the world; you should act
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 1 67 
 
 through it. Through pubhc opinion alone will 
 you attain victory." 
 
 May the Divine Providence graciously inspire 
 all who possess authority, a word or a pen, to 
 rally around our humble Belgian flag for the 
 abolition of European slavery! 
 
 May the conscience of man triumph over all 
 sophisms, and remain unalterably faithful to the 
 great maxim of St. Ambrose: Honor above all! 
 Nihil prcsferendum honestati! 
 
 In the name of the Belgian Bishops, ^ 
 {Signed) D. J. Card. Mercier 
 
 Archbishop of M alines 
 
 In his letter of October 26 to Cardinal 
 Mercier, the Governor-General endeavored to 
 justify the measures adopted in Belgium by 
 having recourse to all kinds of sophisms and 
 subterfuges, for example: the situation is no 
 longer the same as it was two years ago; France 
 and England are responsible for the deportations 
 of Belgian workmen; the deportation of the 
 "unemployed" is occasioned by social and eco- 
 nomic considerations, and proves the interest we 
 feel in these workmen; besides, it is England 
 which, by its isolation poHcy, created the actual 
 necessity for the deportations, etc., etc. 
 
 Cardinal Mercier believed that he could not 
 allow to go unanswered the false allegations and 
 
 ^ We were unable to get into communication with the Bishop of 
 Bruges.
 
 l68 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 calumnies about Belgian workmen contained in 
 the above-mentioned letter. He therefore wrote 
 the following letter to Baron von Bissing on 
 November lo, 1916. 
 
 Second Letter of His Eminence, Cardinal 
 Mercier, to Governor-General von Bissing 
 
 Archdiocese of Malines, 
 Malines, November lo, 1916. 
 
 Sir: 
 
 I refrain from expressing to Your Excel- 
 lency the sentiments aroused in me by your 
 letter (I, 1005 1), written in answer to that 
 which I had the honor to address to you on 
 October 19 on the subject of the deportation 
 of the "unemployed." 
 
 I have a melancholy recollection of the words 
 which Your Excellency pronounced in my pres- 
 ence on his arrival in Brussels, emphasizing every 
 syllable: "I hope that our relations will be 
 loyal. ... I have been given the mission of 
 dressing the wounds of Belgium." 
 
 My letter of October 19 reminded Your 
 Excellency of the pledge given by Baron von 
 Huene, Military Governor of Antwerp, and rati- 
 fied some days later by Baron von der Goltz, 
 your predecessor as Governor-General at Brussels. 
 The pledge was explicit, absolute and without 
 limitation as to time: "Young men need have no 
 fear of being sent to Germany, there either to be
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 169 
 
 enrolled in the army or to he employed at forced 
 labor'' 
 
 This pledge has been violated thousands of 
 times daily during the last fortnight. 
 
 Baron von Huene and the late Baron von der 
 Goltz made no such condition, as your dispatch 
 of October 26 would suggest: "If the occupa- 
 tion does not last more than two years, men of 
 military age will not be sent into captivity." 
 They stated unconditionally that "young men, 
 and, still more, men who have reached a mature 
 age, will not be imprisoned, nor subjected to 
 forced labor, at any time during the period of the 
 occupation." 
 
 To justify himself. Your Excellency adduces 
 the conduct- of England and France, which 
 have. Your Excellency states, "removed all 
 Germans between the ages of seventeen and fifty 
 from neutral vessels and interned them in con- 
 centration camps." 
 
 If England and France had committed an in- 
 justice, your vengeance should be directed against 
 the English and French, and not against an 
 inoffensive and disarmed people. But has there 
 been an injustice? We are ill informed as to what 
 happens outside the walls of our prison, but we 
 feel greatly tempted to believe that the Ger- 
 mans so seized and interned belonged to the re- 
 serve forces of the Imperial army. They were 
 thus soldiers whom England and France were
 
 170 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 justified in sending to the concentration camps. 
 Only since August, 191 3, has Belgium inaugurated 
 universal military service for all her citizens. 
 
 Belgians between the ages of seventeen and 
 fifty years, now residing in the occupied part of 
 Belgium, are thus civilians and non-combatants. 
 It is playing with words to compare them to 
 German reservists by applying to them the 
 equivocal phrase: "men liable to military service." 
 
 The Orders, notices and press comments, 
 which were intended to prepare public opinion 
 for the measures now being put into execution, 
 relied mainly on two points: The "unemployed," 
 it was affirmed, are a danger to public safety, 
 and they are a charge on official charity. 
 
 As already stated in my letter of October 19, 
 it is not true that our workmen have disturbed, 
 or even threatened anywhere, public order. Five 
 millions of Belgians and hundreds of Ameri- 
 cans are astonished witnesses of the dignity and 
 unwavering patience of our working class. 
 
 It is not true that our "unemployed" are a 
 charge either on the occupying Power or on the 
 charity provided by its Administration. The 
 National Committee, in which the occupying 
 Power has no active participation, is the sole 
 provider of support for the innocent victims of 
 forced "unemployment." 
 
 These two statements, made already In my 
 previous letter, have remained unanswered.
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED I7I 
 
 Your letter of October 26 attempts another 
 method of justification. It alleges that the 
 measures against the "unemployed" were neces- 
 sitated by "social" and "economic" reasons. 
 Because it has a warmer and more intelHgent 
 devotion to the interests of the Belgian nation 
 than we, the German Government is rescuing 
 the workman from idleness and preventing him 
 from losing his technical aptitude. Forced labor 
 is the exchange value of the economical ad- 
 vantages which we derive from our commercial 
 relations with the Empire. 
 
 Finally, if Belgium has any complaints to make 
 with regard to her condition, let her address them 
 to England, who is the chief culprit. "It is she 
 who, by her policy of isolation, has occasioned 
 this necessity." 
 
 A few brief and frank statements will be suf- 
 ficient answer to this pleading, which is halting 
 and complicated in the original letter. 
 
 Every Belgian workman will release a German 
 workman, who will be one soldier more for the 
 German army. There, in all its simplicity, is 
 the dominating fact of the situation. The writer 
 of the letter himself appreciates this vital fact, 
 for he states: "The measure has nothing at all 
 to do with the war, properly speaking." It has 
 thus some connection with the war "improperly 
 speaking;" and what does this mean except that, 
 while the Belgian workman does not actually
 
 172 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 bear arms, he releases a German worker who will 
 bear them? The Belgian workman is compelled 
 to cooperate, indirectly but evidently, in the 
 war against his own country. This is in mani- 
 fest contradiction to the spirit of the Hague 
 Convention. 
 
 Again, the lack of "employment" has not been 
 caused by the Belgian workman or England; it 
 is the effect of the German regime of occupation. 
 
 The occupying Power has taken possession of 
 large quantities of raw materials destined for 
 our national industries. It has seized and sent 
 to Germany machinery, tools, and metals from 
 our mills and workshops. With the possibility 
 of national industry thus destroyed, the work- 
 man is faced with the alternative of working for 
 the German Empire — here or in Germany — 
 or of remaining idle. To the regret of the ma- 
 jority, some tens of thousands of workmen have 
 undertaken work for the foreign Government 
 under the pressure of fear or hunger. But four 
 hundred thousand working men and women pre- 
 ferred "unemployment," with its privations, to the 
 betrayal of the interests of their native land, and 
 these live in poverty and dependence on the 
 meager assistance given them by the National 
 Relief Committee, which is controlled by the 
 ministers of Spain, America, and Holland. Calm 
 and deserving, they bear their hard lot unmur- 
 muringly. Nowhere has there been a revolt, or
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 173 
 
 a semblance of a revolt. Employers and work- 
 men courageously await the end of their long 
 trial. 
 
 The communal administrations and private 
 individuals tried to diminish the undeniable 
 evils of "unemployment," but the occupying 
 Power paralyzed their efforts. The National 
 Committee tried to organize technical instruc- 
 tion for the "unemployed." This practical in- 
 struction, while respecting the dignity of our 
 workmen, was to preserve their skill, increase 
 their capabilities, and prepare them to do their 
 part in the rebuilding of their country. Who 
 opposed this noble movement, after the plans 
 had been worked out by our industrial leaders? 
 The occupying Power. Nevertheless, the com- 
 munes strove to have works of public utility 
 executed by the "unemployed." The Governor- 
 General made these works conditional on an 
 official authorization, which was then, as a rule, 
 refused. The cases are not rare, I am assured, 
 in which the Government authorized works of 
 this nature on the express condition that they 
 were not entrusted to the "unemployed." 
 
 "Unemployment" was thus desired. An army 
 of "unemployed" was being recruited. And, in 
 face of these facts, they dare to apply to our 
 workingmen the insulting appellative, "idler." 
 
 No, the Belgian workman is not an idler. He 
 is devoted to his work. This he has proved in
 
 174 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 the noble struggles of economic life. When he 
 scorned the highly paid work oflFered him by the 
 occupying Power, he was actuated by patriotic 
 dignity. As pastor of our people, we share more 
 intimately than ever its sorrows and distress, 
 and know what it has cost at times to prefer inde- 
 pendence in privation to comfort in subjection. 
 Cast no stone at this people. It is entitled to 
 your respect. 
 
 Your letter of October 26 states that England 
 is primarily responsible for the "unemployment" 
 of our workmen, because she has not allowed raw 
 materials to enter Belgium. 
 
 England generously allows foodstuffs to enter 
 Belgium under the control of the neutral coun- 
 tries — Spain, the United States, and Holland. 
 She v/ould assuredly allow the importation of the 
 raw materials necessary for our industries under 
 the same control, if Germany would bind herself 
 to leave them to us and not seize the products of 
 our industrial labor. 
 
 But Germany, by divers methods (notably, by 
 the organization of its Zentral-Stellen, in which 
 neither the Belgians nor the neutral officers can 
 exercise an eflFective control), is absorbing a 
 considerable part of the products of our agri- 
 culture and industrial plants. There thus results 
 a disquieting increase in the cost of living, which 
 is causing grave privations for those who have no 
 savings. The ''community of interests," whose
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 1 75 
 
 great value for us is lauded in your letter, is not 
 the normal equilibrium of commercial exchanges, 
 but the predominance of the strong over the 
 weak. Do not, I beg of you, represent this state 
 of inferiority to which we are reduced as a privi- 
 lege which would justify forced work for our enemy, 
 and the deportation of legions of innocent people 
 into exile. 
 
 Slavery and deportation, the hardest punish- 
 ment in the penal code after death — has Bel- 
 gium, which never did you an evil, merited from 
 you this treatment, which calls to Heaven for 
 vengeance ? 
 
 Sir, at the beginning of my letter, I recalled 
 the noble utterance of Your Excellency: "I have 
 come to Belgium with the mission of dressing 
 your country's wounds." 
 
 If Your Excellency, like our priests, could visit 
 the homes of our workmen and hear the lamenta- 
 tions of wives and mothers, for whom your ordi- 
 nances spell mourning and dread, you would 
 realize better how gaping are the wounds of the 
 Belgian people. 
 
 Two years ago, people are saying, we faced 
 death, pillage, and conflagration, but it was war. 
 To-day it is no longer war; it is cold calculation, 
 premeditated destruction, the victory of might 
 over right, the debasement of human nature, a 
 defiance of humanity. 
 
 It is within the power of Your Excellency to
 
 176 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Stifle these outcries of outraged conscience. May 
 
 God, whom we invoke with all the ardor of our 
 
 soul on behalf of our oppressed people, inspire 
 
 in you the pity of the Good Samaritan! 
 
 Yours most respectfully, 
 
 (Signed) D. J. Cardinal Mercier 
 
 Archbishop 0/ Malines 
 
 His Excellency, Baron von Bissing, 
 Governor-General, Brussels. 
 
 On November 23, Governor-General von 
 Bissing sent His Eminence, Cardinal Mercier, 
 the following answer, which is translated from 
 the German text. 
 
 Governor-General von Bissing s Answer to the 
 Second Letter of His Eminence, Cardinal Mercier 
 
 The Governor-General of Belgium, P. A. L 11254. 
 
 Brussels, November 23, 1916. 
 
 Your Eminence: 
 
 I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of 
 Your Eminence's favor of the loth inst., as also 
 of the manuscript letter of the 15th inst. con- 
 cerning the delay in delivery. I wish to reply 
 as follows. 
 
 On October 19 of this year. Your Eminence 
 sent me a petition with a view to having a stop 
 put to the employment in Germany of idle Bel- 
 gian workmen. In my reply of October 28, 
 while appreciating at its proper value the point 
 of view which you take, I explained the reasons
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED I77 
 
 and the considerations which compelled the occu- 
 pying Power to take certain steps in connection 
 with the question of the workmen. These meas- 
 ures were not the result of arbitrary judgment or 
 of an insufficient study of the difficult problem, 
 but were adopted after an exhaustive examination 
 of the circumstances involved, and in face of a 
 necessity which must be recognized as unavoidable. 
 As regards the general aspects of the question, I 
 thus find myself obliged to refer Your Eminence 
 to my statements of October 28. Your objections 
 to these statements either rest on erroneous inter- 
 pretation of them, or are the result of conceptions 
 of which I cannot approve in their essence. 
 For "unemployment," which has attained consid- 
 erable proportions in Belgium, is a great social 
 wound, while it is a social benefit for the Belgian 
 workers to be put to work in Germany. It is 
 true that, on my arrival in Belgium, I told Your 
 Eminence I wished to heal the wounds which war 
 had caused among the Belgian people; but the 
 measures now taken are not in contradiction to 
 these words. I may also say that Your Eminence 
 misinterprets facts when you try to ignore my 
 frequently successful efforts to reestablish eco- 
 nomic life in Belgium by remarking that an artifi- 
 cial "unemployment" has been thereby created. 
 England has imposed unacceptable conditions on 
 the importation of raw materials into Belgium 
 and the export of manufactured goods. During
 
 178 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 the war these questions have been the subject 
 of serious negotiations with competent persons 
 of both Belgian nationaUty and neutral nations, 
 but it would be too tedious to explain them here. 
 I can only repeat that, in the last analysis, the 
 deplorable conditions are a result of England's 
 isolation policy, just as the requisition of raw 
 materials were an inevitable consequence of the 
 same policy. I must also absolutely maintain 
 that, from the economic standpoint, the occupy- 
 ing Power is guaranteeing Belgium all the ad- 
 vantages that can be assured her in the face of 
 the constraint exercised by England. 
 
 The execution of the measures taken in con- 
 nection with the "unemployed" has caused my 
 administration many difficulties, which in turn 
 entail hardship for the population. All this 
 hardship might have been avoided if the communal 
 administrations had cooperated properly with us 
 in rendering the execution more simple and better 
 adapted to the end proposed. Under existing 
 conditions it has been necessary to extend the 
 measures to a wider circle so as to bring within 
 their scope a larger number of persons. Every 
 possible precaution has, however, been taken to 
 diminish the number of errors. Definite cate- 
 gories of persons, determined by their occupation, 
 are relieved of the obligation of presenting them- 
 selves, and individual complaints are examined 
 immediately or adjourned for further examination.
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 179 
 
 Your Eminence will see from the above state- 
 ments that it is impossible to grant your request 
 of repealing the measures which have been taken, 
 but that, in the application of these measures, 
 nothing that it is possible to do in the public 
 interest is being left undone, in spite of the 
 difficulties which have arisen. 
 
 Yours most respectfully, 
 
 {Signed) Frh. von Bissing 
 
 Lieutenant-General 
 His Eminence, Cardinal Mercier, 
 Archbishop oj Malines, Malines. 
 
 Despite the numerous protests and petitions 
 of the civil powers in Belgium, despite the Appeal 
 of the Belgian Bishops to Public Opinion, despite 
 the strong letters of protest addressed by Cardinal 
 Mercier to the German authorities, the enemy 
 continued the deportations in contravention of 
 all rights and treaties. The intrepid Cardinal of 
 Malines spent three days paying consolatory 
 visits to families which had been reduced to the 
 depths of physical and moral misery by the iniqui- 
 tous measures of an enemy devoid of every senti- 
 ment of pity and humanity. No longer able to 
 restrain the indignation provoked by so much 
 suffering and so much injustice. His Eminence 
 resolved to attack publicly the violation of the 
 rights of the workmen, to proclaim that injus- 
 tice "resting on force remains none the less in- 
 justice," to declare the deep sorrow of the bishops
 
 l80 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 at the sufferings of their flocks, and to urge his 
 fellow-countrymen to await in patience and dignity 
 peace with victory. 
 
 On November 26, 1916, the Cardinal de- 
 livered the following sermon in the Church of 
 Sainte Gudule at Brussels on the occasion of the 
 Mass prescribed in honor of Our Lady of Help 
 for the intentions of the deported and their 
 families : 
 
 FOR THOSE IN CJPTIFITT 
 
 " Ye shall be My disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and 
 the truth shall make you free." — John viii. 32-33. 
 
 My Very Dear Brethren: 
 
 The four or five weeks which have just gone 
 by are probably the most unhappy of my life 
 and the most heartbreaking of my episcopal 
 service. The fathers and mothers who are 
 gathered round this pulpit will understand 
 me. 
 
 The office of the bishop is a spiritual father- 
 hood. St. Paul even called it a motherhood when 
 he wrote to the Galatians: "My Httle children, of 
 whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed 
 m you. '■ 
 
 Now I have seen hundreds of my flock in danger 
 and in grief. For three days, last Sunday, Mon- 
 day, Tuesday, morning and evening, I have been 
 traveling through those parts of the country 
 
 ^ Galatians iv. 19.
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED l8l 
 
 whence the first laborers and workmen of my 
 diocese were forcibly carried into exile. At Wavre, 
 Court St. Etienne, Nivelles, Tubize, Braine- 
 I'Alleud, I entered more than a hundred homes that 
 are now half empty. The husband was gone, the 
 children were orphaned, the sisters sat at their 
 sewing machines, with haggard eyes and hands 
 that were incapable of work. A gloomy silence 
 reigned in every cottage. You might have fan- 
 cied that there was a dead body within. 
 
 But hardly could we say one kind word to the 
 mother before the sobs broke out, and with them 
 words of sorrow and anger, and magnificent out- 
 bursts of pride. 
 
 The memory of these heartbreaking scenes will 
 never leave me. 
 
 I would willingly have hastened to Antwerp, 
 Tirlemont, Aerschot, Diest, wherever I might 
 have found them repeated, wherever I might have 
 found sorrow to soothe, tears to dry, or hearts 
 to comfort. 
 
 But I could not do it. My strength and my 
 time alike failed me. 
 
 And so, dear Brethren, I resolved to come to 
 you, here at the center of my diocese and of our 
 country. You shall become the missionaries of 
 my thoughts, you shall make my feelings known. 
 
 Pax vobiscum is the traditional greeting of the 
 bishop — Peace be with you — and so I bring 
 you now a word of peace.
 
 l82 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 But there can be no peace without order, and 
 order reposes upon justice and charity. 
 
 We desire order, and it is for this reason that, 
 from the first, we have begged that no active 
 resistance be offered to the Power that is in 
 occupation of our country and that all its regula- 
 tions be implicitly obeyed, so long as they offend 
 against neither our conscience as Christians nor 
 our honor as Belgians. But that Power must 
 also desire order, that is to say, it must respect 
 our rights and its own promises. 
 
 In every civilized country the citizen has a 
 right to work freely. He has a right to his home. 
 He has a right to refuse his services to any but 
 his own country. 
 
 Regulations which infringe these rights can bind 
 our conscience in no way. 
 
 I tell you this, my Brethren, without anger 
 and in no spirit of vengeance. I were unworthy 
 of this ring which the Church has put upon my 
 finger, of this cross which she has placed upon 
 my breast, if I yielded to human weakness and 
 hesitated to declare that, though they be violated, 
 rights remain rights, and that injustice which 
 reposes upon force is none the less injustice. 
 
 There can be no order without justice; none 
 without charity. Charity is Union. And Union 
 is the Law of Man, the law of the three-fold 
 domain of life in which Nature and Faith give 
 him his being and his growth, the Family, the
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 183 
 
 Country, and the Fellowship of all Christian 
 people. 
 
 Every man's duty is to his country, and it is 
 the duty of every class to cooperate with the 
 others for the national welfare. 
 
 The Christian belongs to his diocese. To the 
 CathoHc Church, his mother, he is bound through 
 his bishop alone. 
 
 And it is on this account, my Brethren, that 
 to-day your bishops' hearts are bleeding. They 
 have seen thousands of their sons dragged be- 
 yond the reach of their pastoral care, driven 
 towards the unknown, lost sheep without a 
 shepherd, a prey to the' dangers of isolation, im- 
 potent fury, perhaps of despair. 
 
 And a great event of history presents itself to 
 their memory. When Pope Pius VII was in 
 captivity at Savona, he put his trust in his Heav- 
 enly Mother, whom, since the victory of Lepanto, 
 Europe had named "Our Lady, Help of Chris- 
 tians." The day after he had been set free, the 
 Holy Father was constrained to demonstrate his 
 own piety and the gratitude of Christendom by 
 instituting a yearly festival to the glory of Our 
 Lady of Help. 
 
 We also offer, through the mediation of the 
 most Holy Virgin Mary, our humble entreaties 
 to the Sovereign Lord "who reigneth in the 
 Heavens and on whom all the Kingdoms of the 
 Earth depend," to restore to us quickly our
 
 184 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 captive workers, and to keep our homes still in- 
 violate until the day when we shall all, in the 
 peace of victory, embrace one another around the 
 triumphant altar of our Lady of Ransom. 
 
 Courage, then, my brothers — keep the com- 
 mandments of Christ. Be loyal to Belgium, your 
 Homeland. 
 
 From the depths of my heart I give you all my 
 paternal blessing. 
 
 It may well be understood that this bold and 
 patriotic address, which emphasizes the fact that 
 right and might are not synonymous, contributed 
 greatly to sustain the admirable courage of the 
 people and to soften the unmerited sufferings of 
 the unfortunate victims of the iniquitous invader. 
 It could not prevent the continued violation of 
 right by might. With a pitiless brutality, which 
 might have been dispensed with in the execution 
 of measures already sufficiently cruel, "unem- 
 ployed" and employed continued to be torn from 
 their families and deported to Germany. 
 
 Wishing to make one more effort to help his 
 unfortunate fellow-countrymen, the Cardinal of 
 Malines sent another letter to the Governor- 
 General on November 29, denouncing the 
 arbitrary and inhuman procedure of the Ger- 
 mans and appealing to the supreme authorities 
 of the empire.
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 185 
 
 Third Letter of His Eminence, Cardinal Mercier, 
 
 to Governor-General von Bissing 
 
 Archdiocese of Malines, 
 Malines, November 29, 19 16. 
 
 Sir: 
 
 The letter of November 23 (I, 11254), with 
 which Your Excellency has honored me, is a dis- 
 appointment to me. In several circles, which I 
 had reason for believing very well-informed, it 
 was said that Your Excellency thought it a duty 
 to protest to the highest authorities of the Empire 
 against the measures which you were compelled 
 to apply in Belgium. I therefore expected at 
 least a delay in the application of these measures, 
 while they were being subjected to a further 
 examination, and a softening of the methods 
 which accompanied their execution. 
 
 But, without answering a word to any of 
 the arguments whereby I established the anti- 
 juridical and anti-social character of the con- 
 demnation of Belgian workmen to forced labor 
 and deportation, Your Excellency contents him- 
 self with repeating in his dispatch of November 
 23 the very text of his letter of October 26. 
 The two letters of October 26 and November 23 
 are indeed identical in substance and almost 
 identical in form. 
 
 On the other hand, the recruiting of so-called 
 "unemployed" is progressing for the most part 
 without any regard for the opinions of the local
 
 l86 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 authorities. Several reports in my possession 
 prove that the clergy are brutally set aside, and 
 the burgomasters and communal councillors re- 
 duced to silence. The recruiting agents thus 
 find themselves confronted with men of whom they 
 know nothing, and arbitrarily make their choice. 
 
 Of such procedure there are abundant ex- 
 amples. I shall quote two very recent instances 
 from the number which I hold at the disposal of 
 Your Excellency. 
 
 On November 21 the recruiting was held in 
 the commune of Kesbeek-Miscom. Of the 1325 
 inhabitants in the commune, the recruiters took 
 away 94 en bloc, making no distinction of social 
 condition or profession; farmers' sons, sole sup- 
 port of aged and infirm parents, fathers whose 
 departure left their wives and children in misery 
 — all as necessary for their families as their 
 daily bread. Two families were robbed at once 
 of four sons each. Of the ninety-four deported 
 only two were "unemployed." 
 
 The recruiting in the district of Aerschot took 
 place on November 23. At Rillaer, Gelrode, and 
 Rotselaer, some young men who were sole sup- 
 porters of widowed mothers were recruited. 
 Farmers who were fathers of large families (one 
 farmer, over fifty years of age, had ten children), 
 cultivated their own land, possessed several head 
 of cattle, and had never touched a cent of public 
 charity, were also forcibly deported in spite of
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 187 
 
 their protests. Twenty-five young lads of seventeen 
 years were taken in the Httle commune of Rillaer. 
 
 Your Excellency would have liked the com- 
 munal authorities to become accomplices in these 
 odious recruitings. By reason of their legal 
 position and in conscience they could not do so. 
 But they could enlighten the recruiting agencies, 
 and are well qualified to do that. The priests, 
 who know the poorer people better than anyone 
 else does, would be of valuable assistance to the re- 
 cruiting parties. Why is their cooperation spurned ? 
 
 At the end of your letter. Your Excellency re- 
 marks that men belonging to the liberal profes- 
 sions are not disturbed. If only the " unemployed " 
 were being led away, I should understand this 
 distinction. But if the practice is continued by 
 enrolling able-bodied men without exception, the 
 distinction is unjustifiable. It would be wrong 
 to have the burden of deportation fall on the 
 working class alone. The middle class should 
 have its share in the sacrifice imposed by the 
 occupying Power on the nation, however cruel 
 this sacrifice may be; in fact, it is all the more 
 just for them to share in the sacrifice, when this 
 is cruel. Numbers of my clergy have asked me 
 to claim for them a place in the vanguard of the 
 persecuted ones. I register their offer, and am 
 proud to submit it to you. I am loath to believe 
 that the authorities of the Empire have spoken 
 their last words. They will think of our unde-
 
 I 88 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 served sorrows, of the reprobation of the civiHzed 
 world, of the judgment of history and the chas- 
 tisement of God. 
 
 Yours most respectfully, 
 (Signed) D. J. Cardinal Mercier 
 
 Archbishop of Malines 
 
 His Excellency, Baron von Bissing, 
 Governor-General, Brussels. 
 
 Vain were all efforts, alas! 
 
 And Cardinal Mercier — the glory of the valiant 
 Belgian episcopate, one of the outstanding figures 
 of the world, grander and more admired in pro- 
 portion as his sorrows increase — goes from town 
 to town, and village to village, consoling the old 
 men, the women and the children, who are suffer- 
 ing for justice' sake. 
 
 How long will justice and right continue to be 
 thus despised and violated with impunity? 
 
 Instructions of His Eminence, Cardinal Mercier, to 
 the Clergy of his Diocese 
 
 His visits to several hundred families of the 
 deported workmen, and the reports of his clergy 
 on the frequently brutal manner in which the 
 deportation orders were executed, inspired the 
 Cardinal of Mahnes to issue instructions on 
 the matter to the pastors of his diocese. Failing 
 in his noble efforts to make his sentiments of 
 justice, right, humanity, and compassion prevail
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED 189 
 
 with an invader who dreamt only of force and 
 power, Cardinal Mercier, heartbroken at the 
 sufferings and misfortunes of his flock, wished to 
 mitigate the evil which he felt powerless to pre- 
 vent. He would fain have dried all their tears, 
 consoled every troubled soul, reminded these 
 sorely tried families — which yet did not waver 
 in their allegiance to country and king — of the 
 sublimity of their patriotic endurance. He found 
 food for the children who came to school without 
 breakfast, and for the old men who relinquished 
 their meal to give a morsel of bread to their 
 grandchildren. Like his Divine Master, he would 
 fain have sacrificed himself completely for all, 
 through love of his people and admiration for the 
 heroic virtues which this people had never ceased 
 to display for more than two years. But, as "his 
 strength and his time could not keep pace with 
 his good-will," he addressed himself to his priests 
 and, through them, to all men of good-will, asking 
 them to come to the aid of the suff^ering. 
 
 On December 19, 1916, His Eminence sent the 
 following instructions to the pastors of his diocese. 
 
 Malines, December 19, 1916. 
 
 My dear Pastors and Assistants: 
 
 Despite the protests addressed to Germany by 
 the Sovereign Pontiff and several neutral States, 
 the deportation of our civil population has not 
 ceased.
 
 190 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 It is our duty to mitigate, as much as we can, 
 an evil which we are powerless to prevent. 
 
 WHEN THE DEPORTATION IS ANNOUNCED 
 
 1. As soon as the notice of the convocation 
 has been posted in your commune, please warn 
 the persons who are not dependent on public 
 assistance that they must provide themselves with 
 a receipt of their taxes, and attach to it a cer- 
 tificate of the communal authority. The sick 
 and delicate will ask their physicians to issue to 
 them a certificate of ill-health, and the workmen, 
 who are not "unemployed," will procure from their 
 employers a certificate of service, which will be 
 countersigned by the burgomaster. 
 
 2. In conjunction with the influential people 
 of your parish, pay special attention to the in- 
 terests of your parishioners who, according to the 
 instructions of the German authorities themselves, 
 cannot be deported. Then, act in concert with 
 the communal authorities, with the Comite de 
 Secours et d' Alimentation^ with your wealthy 
 parishioners and devoted women, with a view to 
 supplying the necessary clothes and assistance for 
 the indigent whose departure is probable. 
 
 ON THE EVE OF THE DEPARTURE 
 
 On the eve of their departure, or the preceding 
 day, urge the enrolled men to go to confession. 
 Several of you should place yourselves at their
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED I9I 
 
 disposal. Celebrate a Mass for their intentions 
 and invite their children, grandchildren, and other 
 adults to be present. The fact that they received 
 Holy Communion in union with their whole 
 family will be a comfort and happy memory for 
 them in their exile. In a practical instruction, 
 exhort them to remain true to their faith and 
 to their moral and religious practices during the 
 period of their absence. Family prayers should 
 be said for them. Give the departing men a 
 souvenir — beads, a scapular, or a New Testament. 
 
 ON THE DAY AFTER THE DEPARTURE 
 
 I. Issue an appeal to a selected number of 
 charitable parishioners. Get into communica- 
 tion with the branches of the Society of St. 
 Vincent de Paul, the Association of the Ladies of 
 Mercy, the Third Order of St. Francis, the Sodal- 
 ities, confraternities and the various charitable 
 societies affiliated with the Diocesan Federation 
 of Catholic Women, of which Father Halflants 
 is director. With their assistance and under 
 the direction of the pastor or his delegate, form 
 a "committee of moral aid" to visit the bereaved 
 families, console them, and give them advice and 
 assistance. Help them morally, and, if there is 
 need, help them materially. The Christian 
 parish forms one family. When one member of 
 a family suffers, the other members suffer with 
 him; when the family is in affluence, each shares
 
 192 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 in it. In the same way there should not be in 
 the parish a single neglected, unknown, or for- 
 gotten household. And, if this obligation obtains 
 in normal times, it is imperious in these days of 
 distress. Persons who have leisure should place 
 themselves a^t the disposal of persons who have 
 not. Whatever some have in superabundance, 
 should supply the necessity of others. Mutual 
 aid, thus understood and practiced, is only the 
 fulfilment of the Christian law. "Bear ye one 
 another's burdens," says St. Paul, "and so you 
 shall fulfil the law of Christ." ^ 
 
 Pastors who need assistance in the discharge of 
 their ministry of charity, may come and ask it 
 from me, or send someone on their behalf. I 
 should be grateful to them if they would in such 
 cases state as exactly as possible the amount of 
 assistance they expect. 
 
 2. We may not neglect any means of securing 
 the repatriation of those who, according to the 
 declarations of the German Government, should 
 have escaped deportation. A bureau of claims 
 has been organized for this object in our episcopal 
 offices. 
 
 The pastors are requested to fill in the attached 
 forms, in triplicate. Extra copies will be sent 
 upon request. The filled-in forms will be col- 
 lected in the various deaneries, and thence sent 
 as rapidly as possible to the archiepiscopal offices. 
 
 ^ Galatians vi. 2.
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED I93 
 
 The deans will kindly communicate the above 
 instructions to their colleagues. 
 
 You will remind them again of our request of 
 August 14, 1914, that they should say Mass each 
 week for our soldiers who have fallen on the field 
 of honor. Charity commands us to pray and to 
 make others pray for them. 
 
 This will be the moment also to rekindle piety 
 and the spirit of penance and sacrifice among your 
 parishioners. Let them offer their good works 
 for the intention of all who are in distress or 
 grief: for our soldiers, the wounded, the absent, 
 the refugees of to-day or exiles of to-morrow; for 
 the intention of our King and his Government, 
 for the intention of our Holy Father the Pope, 
 and I confidently add, as I do at the end of 
 the ceremonies of ordination: "Pray also to the 
 Almighty God for me." 
 
 Accept, dear pastors and assistants, the as- 
 surance of my affectionate devotion in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Holy See and the Deportations 
 
 Cardinal Mercier forwarded to the Sovereign 
 Pontiff several documents dealing with the de- 
 portations of Belgians to Germany. On receiving 
 the answer of the Cardinal Secretary of State, 
 he sent it to the pastors of his diocese with the 
 request that they should read it to the faithful: 
 "You will gratefully welcome the enclosed letter
 
 194 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 which the Cardinal Secretary of State has sent 
 us, on behalf of the Holy Father. Kindly read 
 this letter to the faithful." The letter is written 
 in ItaHan. The translation is as follows: 
 
 Secretariate of State 
 OF His Holiness 
 No. 23026 
 Vatican, November 29, 19 16. 
 
 Your Eminence: 
 
 The Holy Father has received Your Emi- 
 nence's letter of the 12th inst. and the en- 
 closed documents concerning the deportation of 
 Belgians to Germany. 
 
 The venerable Pontiff, in whose paternal heart 
 all the sorrows of his beloved Belgian people find 
 an echo, has ordered me to announce to Your 
 Eminence that he is keenly interesting himself 
 in your harshly tried people, that he has already 
 addressed himself to the Imperial German Govern- 
 ment in their favor, and that he will do every- 
 thing in his power to secure that an end be put 
 to the deportations, and that these who have 
 already been deported far from their native land, 
 may soon return to the bosom of their afflicted 
 families. 
 
 His Holiness has also entrusted to me the agree- 
 able duty of transmitting a very special bless- 
 ing to Your Eminence and the faithful of your 
 diocese. 
 
 I am also glad of this opportunity of expressing
 
 BELGIUM ENSLAVED I95 
 
 to Your Eminence the sentiments of deep venera- 
 tion with which I humbly salute you. 
 
 Your Eminence's humble and devoted servant, 
 {Signed) P. Cardinal Gasparri 
 
 The intercession of Pope Benedict XV with 
 the German Government has not been crowned 
 with success. The Belgian Government reports 
 that the deportations continue and that only the 
 sick are returned to their homes. However, 
 speaking in his address to the Consistory on 
 December 4, 1916, of the violations of the rights 
 of nations which have taken place during the 
 war, the Holy Father believed it his duty to insist 
 especially on the horrors of the deportations. 
 
 We quote here the passage from the Consistorial 
 Address which deals with this subject: 
 
 "Wherever the authority of the laws is neg- 
 lected or scorned, discord and the passions reign, 
 and trouble invades public and private affairs. 
 If this truth needed confirmation, it would find 
 it in the present course of the affairs of the world. 
 
 "Does not the horrible folly of this war which 
 ravages Europe, cry out in evidence of what 
 ruin and disaster may result from the scorn of 
 the sovereign laws which govern the relations 
 between States? In this great conflict of nations 
 we see the unworthy treatment meted out to 
 sacred things and the ministers of God (even 
 those of elevated rank), in spite of the sacred
 
 196 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 character they possess in virtue of divine right 
 and the law of nations. Large numbers of peace- 
 able citizens are torn from their hearths and 
 conducted away amid the tears of their mothers, 
 their wives, and their children. Unfortified towns 
 and defenseless multitudes are the victims of 
 air raids. Alike on sea and on land, such crimes 
 are perpetrated as fill one's soul with sadness and 
 horror. 
 
 "We deplore this accumulation of evils, and 
 again condemn all the iniquities committed in 
 this war, whatever be the theater and whoever 
 the authors."
 
 VII 
 COURAGE, Mr BRETHREN!
 
 VII 
 
 COURAGE, MY BRETHREN! 
 
 sexagesima sunday, i917 
 
 feast of the apparition of our lady of lourdes 
 i. moral grandeur of the nation 
 
 My Beloved Brethren 
 
 IS it indeed necessary to preach courage to you? 
 And when I say "you," I am thinking more 
 immediately of the faithful companions of our 
 misfortunes, but my thoughts go out also beyond 
 our occupied provinces to our refugees, our 
 prisoners, our deported fellow-countrymen, and 
 our soldiers. 
 
 Brethren of our armies of Liege, Haelen, Ant- 
 werp, the Yser and Ypres, the Cameroons and 
 East Africa, it is you who are our foremost pur- 
 veyors of energy. On August 2, 1914, you 
 sprang up from the bosom of all the families of 
 our national aristocracy with splendid ardor, at- 
 testing to the world at large that the nobility has 
 preserved its traditional significance in Belgium; 
 the middle classes, the bulwarks of the nation, 
 ranged themselves beside you; a modest employe 
 of our city of M alines has six sons at the front; 
 
 199
 
 200 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 the working classes, too, furnished their con- 
 tingent of voluntary recruits, all the more praise- 
 worthy since their departure made a painful 
 void in the home; military chaplains and stretcher- 
 bearers have gladly offered and lavished their 
 devotion; the Government, after two years and 
 six months of trial, is still in harness, with a 
 courage that nothing can weaken; our good wishes 
 follow in the wake of these valiant men; all form 
 a guard of honor, proud and faithful, for our 
 magnanimous Sovereign, who, from the sand- 
 bank which is now all his kingdom, gives to Bel- 
 gium and to the whole world a perfect example of 
 endurance and of faith in the future. 
 
 Those who are fighting for the liberty of the 
 Belgian flag are brave men. Those interned in 
 Holland and Germany, who raise their fettered 
 hands to Heaven on behalf of their country, are 
 brave men. Our exiled compatriots, who bear in 
 silence the weight of their isolation, also serve 
 their Belgian fatherland to the best of their 
 ability, as do also all those souls who, either 
 behind the cloister-walls or in the retirement of 
 their own homes, pray, toil, and weep, awaiting 
 the return of their absent ones, and our common 
 deliverance. 
 
 We have listened to the mighty voices of wives 
 and mothers; through their tears they have 
 prayed God to sustain the courage and fideUty 
 to honor of their husbands and sons, carried off
 
 COURAGE, MY BRETHREN! 201 
 
 by force to the enemy's factories. These gallant 
 men have been heard at the hour of departure, 
 rallying their energy to instil courage into their 
 comrades, or, by a supreme effort, to chant the 
 national hymn; we have seen some of them on 
 their return, pale, haggard human wrecks; as 
 our tearful eyes sought their dim eyes we bowed 
 reverently before them, for all unconsciously they 
 were revealing to us a new and unexpected aspect 
 of national heroism. 
 
 After this, can it be necessary to preach courage 
 to you ? 
 
 True, there are some shadows in the picture 
 I have sketched for you; there have been weak- 
 nesses here and there among our people for which 
 we must blush; I am not referring, be it clearly 
 understood, to the handful of workmen, exhausted 
 by privation, stiff with cold, or crushed by blows, 
 who at last gave utterance to a word of submis- 
 sion; there are limits to human energy. I refer, 
 with deep regret, to the few malefactors who lend 
 themselves to the lucrative parts of informer, 
 courtier, or spy, and to those misguided individuals 
 who are not ashamed to trade upon the poverty 
 of their compatriots. Happily, when future 
 generations look back from the more distant 
 standpoint of History, these blots will die out, 
 and all that will remain for their edification will 
 be the splendid spectacle of a nation of seven 
 millions, which, on the evening of August 2,
 
 202 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 with one accord not only refused to allow its 
 honor to be held in question for a moment, but 
 which, throughout over thirty months of ever- 
 increasing moral and physical suffering, on bat- 
 tlefields, in military and civil prisons, in exile, 
 under an iron domination, has remained imper- 
 turbable in its self-control, and has never once 
 so far yielded as to cry: This is too much! This 
 is enough! 
 
 In our young days our professors of history 
 rightly held up to our admiration Leonidas and 
 the three hundred Spartans, who, instead of seek- 
 ing safety in easy flight, allowed themselves to 
 be crushed by the Persian army at the Pass of 
 Thermopylae. They filled us with enthusiasm for 
 the six hundred heroes of Franchimont, who, 
 after risking life and liberty by passing through 
 the camp of the armies of Louis XI and Charles 
 the Bold at night, all fell in an assault of almost 
 frenzied valor and desperate resistance. The 
 teachers of the Belgian generation of to-morrow 
 will have yet other instances of military heroism 
 and patriotism to evoke. And may we not hope 
 that our generation, too, will preserve the mem- 
 ory of the union it has now fashioned, and that 
 in future there will be among us all a deeper wish 
 for national unity, less personal acrimony in the 
 conflict of ideas, a less grudging respect for civil 
 and religious authority, in a word, a more general 
 fidelity, both before pubhc opinion and in the
 
 COURAGE, MY BRETHREN! 203 
 
 secret recesses of the soul, to our motto: "Union 
 is strength," an echo of the words of Christ: 
 " Ut omnes unum sint, — that they all may be 
 one." 1 
 
 II. CHRISTIAN GREATNESS 
 
 Nevertheless, my Brethren, we must rise still 
 higher. 
 
 True, the natural moral virtues are worthy of 
 all admiration, and he who should refuse them 
 such admiration would be fatuous indeed. 
 
 At various periods of unrest there have been 
 arrogant minds which have despised human na- 
 ture, its resources and its achievements. But 
 Christ and the Church honor it. Our Saviour 
 came not to destroy nature, but to correct its 
 aberrations, and to raise it to a higher level. 
 
 Did not Greece give the world thinkers of 
 genius? Is not the wisdom of ancient Rome pro- 
 verbial? Did not pagan art produce master- 
 pieces which Christian generations have never 
 wearied of admiring and copying? The great 
 Popes Leo XIII and Pius X protected classic 
 literature against those who wished to abolish 
 it in Christian education; and in one of his 
 masterly Encyclicals, Leo XIII expressly en- 
 joined Catholic philosophers to profit by the 
 thought and science of others, no matter where 
 they found them. 
 
 ^ John xvii. 21.
 
 204 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Intelligence is no more exclusively Christian 
 than are physical health, capacity for work, 
 initiative, energy, or wealth. These gifts of 
 nature are not even bound up with virtue. God, 
 says the Gospel, maketh His sun to rise on the 
 evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the 
 just and on the unjust.^ 
 
 As to moral virtue — bravery, for instance, con- 
 stancy, philanthropy, patriotism in its multiple 
 forms — you must greet it with gratitude and 
 respect wherever you find it. Christianity has no 
 monopoly of it. Nature is not incapable of it, 
 and moreover, the supernatural graces are not 
 exclusively reserved for members of the Catholic 
 Church. It is well to be proud of your faith, but 
 do not imitate the Pharisee who boasted that he 
 was not like other men, and looked down upon 
 the poor publican on whom the God of mercy 
 took pity. "Finally, brethren," says St, Paul, 
 "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, 
 whatsoever just, whatsoever holy, whatsoever 
 lovely, whatsoever of good fame, think on [ap- 
 preciate] these things." ^ "Loving one another," 
 he says elsewhere, "with honor preventing one 
 another, diligentes honore invicem prcBvenientes;" ^ 
 better still, be humble enough to think your neigh- 
 bor superior to yourself; you will become con- 
 
 ^ Matthew v. 45. 
 
 2 Philippians iv. 8. 
 
 3 Romans xii. 10.
 
 COURAGE, MY BRETHREN! 205 
 
 vinced of this, if, instead of taking pleasure in 
 what is good in yourself, you endeavor to look 
 at what is good in others: in humilitate superiores 
 sibi invicem arbitrantes, non qucB sua sunt smguli 
 consider antes i sed <?«, quce aliorum. In humility let 
 all esteem others better than themselves. Each 
 one not considering the things that are his own, 
 but those that are other men's. ^ 
 
 Nevertheless, my Brethren, when virtue is not 
 inspired by Christian charity, it lacks its chief 
 element. It is not enough, in short, to do good; 
 we must do good aright; now we can only do it 
 aright when we have brought it to a degree of 
 perfection which makes it deserving of eternal 
 life. St. Augustine devoted the greater part of 
 his dogmatic and polemical writings to establish- 
 ing, as against the rationalists of his day. Pelagians 
 or semi-Pelagians, this fundamental truth: that 
 only works inspired by charity, that is to say, by 
 the love of God, and the love of one's neighbor in 
 the sight of God, have power to open the gates of 
 Paradise to us. The holy doctor would not per- 
 mit an act of mere natural goodness to be quali- 
 fied without reservation as "virtuous." "To 
 sum up," he wrote, "virtue is identical with 
 charity, and consists in loving what we ought 
 to love." Virtus est charitaSy qua id quod dili- 
 gendum est, diligitur? 
 
 ^ Philippians ii. 3, 4. 
 
 2 Epist. ad S. Hieron. 167a ed. Vives.
 
 206 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Indeed, did not our Lord Himself declare and 
 insist that all the commandments of God are 
 comprised in the law of love? And does not St. 
 Paul say that love is the fulfilling of the lav/, 
 plenitudo ergo legis est dilectio? ^ 
 
 Christianity has not transformed moral great- 
 ness, but it has ameliorated, completed, and 
 raised it to that supreme height where it is in 
 immediate contact with God. The soul which 
 possesses charity lives the divine life. God lives 
 in it, and it in God. Jesus Christ is the living 
 bond between it and the Holy Trinity. Thence- 
 forth, the natural worship of morality and of 
 religion cannot suffice; God no longer accepts it. 
 It is through Christ, who sheds the effusions of 
 His life supernaturally into our souls, it is with 
 Christ and in Christ — per Ipsum et cum Ipso, 
 et in Ipso — that all honor and glory must rise 
 towards God the Father Almighty in the unity 
 of the Holy Spirit, for ever, in time and in eternity: 
 Per Ipsum et cum Ipso et in Ipso, est tihi Deo Patri 
 Omnipotenti, in unitate Spiritus Sancti, omnis 
 honor et gloria, per omnia saecula saeculorum? 
 
 How sad it would be, my Brethren, to think 
 that the sufferings endured for nearly three years 
 by millions of immortal souls, would, perhaps in 
 a very considerable number of cases, be lost to 
 eternity! The glory of military successes is, no 
 
 1 Romans xiii. lo. 
 
 ' End of the Canon of the Mass.
 
 COURAGE, MY BRETHREN! 207 
 
 doubt, enviable; heroism in patience, privation, 
 loss of liberty, and even in the presence of death, 
 is certainly admirable; but the artificers of this 
 glory, those who engendered this heroism, would 
 be greatly to be pitied, if at the turning-point of 
 eternity, suddenly confronted by those sovereign 
 realities they had refused to believe in, they 
 should have to confess, in despair: Fools that we 
 were! We treated the modest lives of the Chris- 
 tians around us as folly; we thought they lacked 
 brilliance, and behold! it is they who now take 
 place among the children of God and in the tri- 
 umphant assembly of saints. We were deceived 
 then. We did not follow the way of truth, our 
 eyes did not recognize the light of justice, the 
 sun of intelligence did not shine upon us. Nos 
 insensati, vitam illorum aestimahamus insaniam, et 
 finem illorum sine honore. Ecce quomodo computati 
 sunt inter filios Dei, et inter sanctos sors illorum 
 est. Ergo erravimus a via veritatis, et justitiae 
 lumen nan luxit nobis, et sol intelligentiae 7ion est 
 ortus nobis} 
 
 Those who are on the other side of the barrier 
 of Time, our dead of yesterday, of past centuries, 
 would gladly send us a messenger charged to 
 tell us what the rich man of the parable desired 
 to tell his brethren: You have still a span of life 
 before you; you are within reach of the confes- 
 sional, where the divine Saviour of the world 
 
 ^ Wisdom V. 4-6.
 
 208 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 remits sins by the ministry of His priests, of your 
 parish church, where you can so easily go to pray, 
 and to ask our Lord in His tabernacle, and His 
 Mother, the refuge of sinners, the Mother of 
 divine grace, the almighty mediator for humanity, 
 to grant you the grace of conversion or of per- 
 severance; I entreat you, in the name of your 
 dearest interests, in the name of the affection you 
 bear me, in the name of the tears you shed over 
 my lot, in the name of the deep joy we shall feel 
 when we meet again to part no more, once more 
 I entreat you, be converted, sanctify yourselves, 
 live the lives of Christians and of saints. 
 
 My Brethren, if our ordeal is prolonged, it is 
 because the design of divine Love is not yet 
 accomplished. 
 
 The design of Providence is a design of love, 
 doubt it not. It is carrying out for some a 
 work of justice, for others a work of mercy; but 
 for all it is, in the divine intention, a work of 
 love. 
 
 In God, all attributes are substantially identical. 
 God is Omnipotence, but His omnipotence could 
 not exist without wisdom, and the wisdom of 
 the Almighty is not separable from His love. He 
 can do all things. He knows all things, but He 
 wills only in love. Theology ascribes Omnipotence 
 to the Father, Omniscience to the Son, the Word 
 of the Father; and all-embracing Love to the
 
 COURAGE, MY BRETHREN! 209 
 
 Holy Spirit, who proceeds from the Father and 
 the Word; but the works of creation and of 
 Providence have as their Author the unique na- 
 ture of God, in whom the three Persons of the 
 Blessed Trinity are indissolubly united. 
 
 Do not forget your baptismal faith. Believe in 
 God. Believe in love, which is, in substance, God. 
 Deus charitas est} 
 
 Believe in the sayings of the Word: He came 
 to reveal the love of God to the world, and in 
 order to convince us and bring us to Him, He 
 deigned to carry the evidences of His love before 
 our eyes and hearts, far beyond that which the 
 most rigorous divine justice could have demanded 
 for the redemption of mankind. For whereas a 
 prayer, a sigh, a tear would have sufficed for the 
 salvation of humanity, our Saviour strove to 
 conquer our souls by every means that could 
 touch and move us, that could make us love 
 Him, and pass, by Him, to the love of His 
 Father. 
 
 Need I remind you. Brethren, of the Babe of 
 Bethlehem, for whom His parents did not even 
 demand the humblest place in an inn; of the 
 Flight through the desert into Egypt, under the 
 threat of murderous persecution; of a childhood 
 and youth spent under a humble roof, in the ob- 
 scurity of a workshop; of the fatigues of a ministry 
 exposed to the opposition of the Scribes and 
 
 1 / John iv. 8.
 
 2IO CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Pharisees, the ingratitude of the masses, the 
 obstinate prejudices of the Disciples and Apostles; 
 finally, of that last week, into which, rushing one 
 upon the other like the waters of a torrent, were 
 crowded the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, 
 the treachery of Judas on the very evening of the 
 institution of that Sacrament we so rightly call 
 the Sacrament of Love, and the institution of the 
 priesthood, the choice between Jesus and Barab- 
 bas, the frenzy of the crowd, blaspheming Him 
 whom but yesterday they had acclaimed with 
 triumphant Hosannas, the scenes in the Praeto- 
 rium and in the court of Herod: our gentle Lord's 
 back and shoulders scourged with rods. His head 
 lacerated by the crown of thorns. His face defiled 
 by spittle and swollen by buffeting; the whole 
 adorable person of the Man-God outraged and 
 mocked, rendered what the prophetic psalm 
 describes as "a reproach of men, and the outcast 
 of the people," ahjectio plebis,^ or as TertuUian 
 has it, "one who is of no more account," nulli- 
 ficamen plebis; then the ascent to Calvary, the 
 swooning of the Victim under the weight of the 
 cross; the desertion by all the Apostles save 
 St. John; the Crucifixion; the Messias exposed 
 to public derision between two thieves, in sight 
 of His Mother, a martyr with Him; all suffer- 
 ing, physical and moral, heaped upon a single 
 head, even to the sense of total abandonment 
 
 ^ Psalm xxli. 6.
 
 COURAGE, MY BRETHREN! 211 
 
 which drew from the dying lips that sigh of 
 supreme distress: "My God, My God, why 
 hast Thou forsaken Me? Deus mens, Deus mens, 
 ut quid dereliquisti me!" ^ My Brethren, you 
 who pass so often before the crucifix, pause 
 for a moment, "and see if there be any sorrow 
 like to this sorrow. Fos omnes qui transitis per 
 viam, attendite et videte si est dolor sicut dolor 
 meus. ^ 
 
 "God so loved the world as to give His only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
 may not perish, but have life everlasting. Sic 
 enim Deus dilexit mundum, ut Filium suum 
 unigenitum daret: ut omnis, qui credit in eum, non 
 pereat^ sed haheat vitam aeternam." ^ 
 
 Christians, do you not hear resounding in your 
 souls the challenge of Jehovah to His chosen 
 people, of the vine-dresser to his vineyard: "In- 
 habitants of Jerusalem and ye men of Juda," 
 He says by the mouth of the Prophet Isaias, 
 "judge between me and my vineyard. What is 
 there that I ought to do more to my vineyard 
 that I have not done to it? ^id est quod dehui 
 ultra facer e vineae meae, et non feci ei?" ^ And do 
 we not understand how the Apostle Paul, about 
 to die for the love of his Saviour, ventured to cry: 
 "If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ let 
 
 1 Mark XV. 34. 
 
 2 Lamentations i. 12. 
 ^ John iii. 16. 
 
 * Isaias v. 3.
 
 212 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 him be anathema. Si quis non amat Dominum 
 nostrum Jesum Christum, sit anathema." ^ 
 
 III. CONCLUSIONS 
 
 First Conclusion: Believe in the divine 
 love. 
 
 My Brethren, you cannot doubt the love of 
 God for you; you cannot doubt that all He does 
 is well, that it is the work at once of His Power, 
 His Wisdom, His Love, the work of Father, Son 
 and Holy Spirit. 
 
 You cannot at the present moment understand 
 the why and wherefore of all the events which 
 His Providence ordains or permits; it is not 
 required of you to understand them. Is it sur- 
 prising, I ask you, that the finite should fail to 
 understand the infinite; that the child, Hsping the 
 first letters of the alphabet, should not grasp 
 the meaning of the great Book of History; that 
 the spectator of a sunrise and a sunset should not 
 take in the meaning of eternity? 
 
 If indeed you could understand, you would not 
 need to believe; and it is God's will that you 
 should believe, that your faith should be meritori- 
 ous for you, and glorious for Him. The holy 
 man Job, whom the Scriptures offer as a pattern 
 to suffering souls, was absolutely right in refusing 
 to listen to his wife and his friends, who urged 
 him to rebel, on the pretext that the trials which 
 
 1 / Corinthians xvi. 22.
 
 COURAGE, MY BRETHREN 213 
 
 had overwhelmed a faithful servant of God were 
 senseless chastisements. "If we have received 
 good things at the hand of God," replied the 
 martyr, "why should we not receive evil? Si 
 bona suscepimus de manu Deiy mala quare non 
 suscipiamus?"^ 
 
 In other words, it is not for us to judge whether 
 a thing is good or evil; the main point is not to 
 know whether it pleases or displeases us. Our 
 point of view is too restricted, our horizon too 
 limited, our faculty of judgment too uncertain, to 
 enable us to pronounce wisely upon the bearing 
 and value of providential events. 
 
 There is a much safer course, the only truly 
 safe one, that is, to keep our own place, in the 
 humility proper to our incompetence and our 
 inferiority, and to leave to God sovereign auton- 
 omy, understanding, and love. The holy king 
 David, whose life was so full of trials, was often 
 troubled at the sight of the insolent prosperity of 
 his persecutors and enemies; he poured out his 
 doubts, his anguish, and his grief in his Psalms; 
 but Faith triumphed in him, and finally led him 
 to these outbursts of loving confidence: "What 
 have I in heaven? And besides Thee what do 
 I desire upon earth? For Thee my flesh and my 
 heart hath fainted away. Thou art the God of 
 my heart and the God that is my portion for 
 ever. For behold! they that go far from Thee 
 
 ^ Job iL 10.
 
 214 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 shall perish . . . but it is good for me to ad- 
 here to my God; to put my hope in the Lord 
 God." 1 
 
 If you are tempted to be sceptical, my Brethren, 
 take your Psalter; read and meditate upon a 
 few Psalms; your faith will revive, and almost 
 involuntarily, you will begin to pray. 
 
 Second Conclusion: Act of adoration, sub- 
 mission, and love. 
 
 Pater Noster, Our Father: My God, the first 
 thought I will contemplate when, in sorrow as in 
 joy, I lift up my soul to Thee, is that Thou art 
 my Father, that I am Thy Child, that between 
 Thee and me, thanks to Thine ineffable con- 
 descension, there are family relations. It is as 
 a child with his father that I wish to live with 
 Thee. I do not doubt Thee, any more than I 
 doubt my own father and mother; I have less 
 confidence in my own father and mother than in 
 Thee, because my father and mother are often 
 unable to give me the good things they would 
 bestow upon me, whereas, O my -Father in Heaven, 
 nothing can resist Thy sovereign will. 
 
 Our Father who art in Heaven: It is not upon 
 earth, in the restricted space of a shelter made 
 by the hand of man, that the family life of God's 
 
 ^ i^id enim mihi est in coelo? Et a te quid volui super terrain? 
 Defecit caro mea et cor meum: Deus cordis mei, et pars mea Deus in 
 aeternum. S^uia ecce qui elongant se a te, peribunt. . . . Mihi autem 
 adhaerere Deo bonum est; ponere in Domino Deo spem meam. Psalm 
 Ixxii. 25-28.
 
 COURAGE, MY BRETHREN! 215 
 
 children develops. Heaven is the region above 
 matter, above the reason of the feeble human 
 creature; it is the spirit, of which baptismal grace 
 has made a temple; it is the bosom of the divine 
 Trinity, where the Christian soul, transformed 
 by Faith, Hope and Charity, and by the gifts 
 of the Holy Spirit, breathes in God, believes in 
 God, and expands in God, until it attains the 
 stature allotted to it by the design of eternal 
 predestination. 
 
 Hallowed he Thy Name: My God, Thou art 
 essential sanctity, and as such, inaccessible to a 
 miserable and sinful creature. Thou art infinitely 
 above us. Thy Majesty, enthroned in the holy 
 temple of its glory, transcends our vain eflPorts to 
 praise and glorify it. Benedictus es in templo 
 sanctae gloriae tuae, et superlaudahilis et super- 
 gloriosus in saecula. But O, unfathomable depth 
 of divine Love, Mystery which comprises all 
 mysteries. Thou wast pleased to bring us forth 
 from the void, to bend down towards us, to en- 
 fold us with Thy love, to offer us a share in Thy 
 life and Thy felicity. There is, however, a con- 
 dition attached to this deification of our souls: 
 we must beheve that Thou lovest us, we must 
 have faith in Christ, the supreme revelation of 
 divine Love; we must believe in Thy Love, O 
 Jesus, as the friend believes in his friend, the 
 child in his mother, the wife in her husband. This 
 faith is the highest glorification of the Holy
 
 2l6 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Name of God: Sanctificetur nomen tuum. Hal- 
 lowed he Thy Name. 
 
 Thy Kingdom come: My soul is a temple for 
 Thee, my Saviour, may it also be a kingdom for 
 Thee! I am and will be Thy subject. Reign 
 supremely over me. If I have sometimes turned 
 away from Thee, if I have even rebelled against 
 Thee, it was because I did not know Thee. Hap- 
 pily for me, my God, Thou art not estranged 
 either by the cowardice or by the revolts of my 
 nature. Thou askest only my faith, and a loyal 
 will under the guidance of faith and the inspira- 
 tion of Thy love. Lord, I believe, I would be- 
 lieve, help Thou mine unbelief.^ Overcome my 
 resistance. I know that Thou subduest me only in 
 order to love me. To submit myself to Thee is 
 to make myself beloved by Thee; it is to leave 
 Thee free to realize my happiness, even in spite 
 of myself. Dispose of me. Lord, break down in 
 me, either with or against my own will, all obstacles 
 to the invasion and the triumph of Thy Love. 
 
 Thy Will he done on earth as it is in Heaven: 
 My will belongs to Thee, I sacrifice it to Thee. 
 What Thou wiliest is good, always good; what I 
 will may not be so. My will must bow to Thine. 
 Subdue it, purify it, transform it. The saints 
 and angels in Heaven see and acclaim Thine 
 infinite wisdom. I do not see it, but I believe in 
 it. I bless Thy will, past and present. I await, 
 
 ^ Mark ix. 24.
 
 COURAGE, MY BRETHREN.' 21/ 
 
 in loving confidence, Thy future will. There is 
 no event which does not bring us a message of 
 love, an offer of union, a pledge of beatitude from 
 Thee. All the designs of Providence are merci- 
 ful and faithful, as the Psalmist tells us, but to 
 experience this, we must enter into the divine 
 covenant and desire to receive its testimonies. 
 Universae viae Domini, misericordia et Veritas requi- 
 rentibus testamentum ejus et testimonia ejus} 
 
 May the name of the Lord be blessed now and 
 ever! Sit Nomen Domini henedictum ex hoc nunc 
 et usque in saeculum! 
 
 (Signed) D. J. Card. Mercier 
 
 Archbishop of M alines 
 
 ^ Psalm xxiv. lo.
 
 VIII 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE
 
 VIII 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 
 
 Address delivered to the Deans, during their 
 Annual Reunion at the Archiepiscopal 
 Residence, on January 29, 191 7. {Feast of 
 St. Francis de Sales.) 
 
 Reverend and dear Deans: 
 
 IT has occurred to me that, during the troublous 
 epoch through which we are passing, no day 
 was more propitious for an exchange of views and 
 sentiments with my closest fellow-workers than 
 the feast of the great bishop, St, Francis de 
 Sales, whose character and teachings trace so 
 luminous a path of Christian spirituality and 
 pastoral action. 
 
 Monsignor de Segur recalls the fact that, in 
 the Middle Ages, every Doctor of the Church 
 had his surname: St. Thomas Aquinas was known 
 as Doctor Angelicus; St. Bonaventure as Doctor 
 Seraphicus; Duns Scotus as Doctor Suhtilis. 
 And, he adds, Pius IX is said to have declared 
 that, if the great Bishop of Geneva should one 
 day be ranked by the Church among her Doctors, 
 we should have to style him Doctor Infallibilis 
 (the infallible Doctor), so sure, so evangelic, so
 
 222 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 luminous and so firmly grounded is his spiritual 
 doctrine.^ 
 
 It is indeed true that all the saints whom the 
 Church raises to her altars, have practiced virtue 
 to an heroic degree, and that she offers them all 
 for our imitation. Each has, nevertheless, his 
 individual features; in each we behold, as it 
 were in greater relief than in the others, one of 
 the traits of the Sacred Face of Our Saviour, 
 inimitable as these traits are in their supreme 
 ideahty. The practice of meditating on the 
 saints thus prepares our eyes for the con- 
 templation of the human-divine countenance of 
 Christ. 
 
 St. Francis lived, labored, and spent himself in 
 an age when the pagan renaissance and nascent 
 Protestantism agitated mankind (i 567-1622). His 
 labors, his worries, and his combats remind us of 
 St. Paul, St. Athanasius, or St. Augustine. Con- 
 sequently, no better model could be chosen for 
 our contemplation. Whether we regard his moral 
 character or even his physical appearance — if 
 we may judge from the portraits we possess of 
 him — the contemplation of the Saint will bring 
 us enlightenment and encouragement. 
 
 Examine more closely, my dear Colleagues, 
 this noble countenance. An old fellow-worker 
 and university friend of mine, the late and so 
 
 1 Chaumont, "Directions spirituelles de S. Franfois de Sales: 
 La SouflFrance. Preface de Mgr. de Segur."
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 223 
 
 beloved Monsignor Cartuyvels, had a favorite 
 saying that at forty a man is responsible for his 
 countenance. St. Francis de Sales fashioned his 
 by almost fifty years of ceaseless labor. Of an 
 ardent, and even choleric temperament, he be- 
 came a model of meekness, and numbers were 
 accustomed to speak of him as "meek St. Francis 
 de Sales." Let none, however, fall into the error 
 of believing that his meekness was a spontaneous 
 grace springing from a soft and timid nature; it 
 represented the victory of a will accustomed to 
 govern the emotions and to rely on a fortitude, 
 or firmness of soul, which nothing could dishearten 
 and nothing overcome. 
 
 Our vanity loves to console itself with the 
 idea that the saints were formed in a different 
 mould from that in which we ourselves were cast. 
 Nothing could be more deceptive or more ener- 
 vating than this prejudice. "No, no," says St. 
 Ambrose, "let us convince ourselves of this: 
 the saints were not of a nature superior to ours; 
 they were more generous than we, and therein 
 lies the explanation; they were not free from 
 evil passions, but they applied themselves to the 
 task of conquering them." ^ 
 
 The fortitude, or strength of soul, displayed by 
 the saintly Bishop of Geneva sprang from his 
 charity. He cultivated an overflowing affection 
 for all his brethren, and especially for those 
 
 ^ St. Ambrose, "De Joseph Patriarcha," cap. i, in P. L. XIV, 643.
 
 224 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 towards whom he felt naturally least attracted. 
 "He made himself all things to all men so as to 
 save souls," says the Collect in the Mass and the 
 liturgical office of his feast day: "0 God, who didst 
 will that blessed Francis should become all 
 things to all men for the salvation of souls . . ., 
 graciously grant that through the sweetness 
 of Thy charity we may attain everlasting 
 bliss." 
 
 And, in this chosen soul, these three different 
 virtues were fused in so sweet a harmony — they 
 were poised in such perfect equilibrium — that 
 they convey an impression of repose, of order, 
 and of serenity to all who consider the countenance 
 of the saint. 
 
 Let us apply to ourselves, my very dear Col- 
 leagues, the advice of this holy Bishop. "Read," 
 he says,^ "the stories and the lives of the saints, 
 in which, as in a mirror, you will behold the 
 portrait of the Christian life, and accommodate 
 their actions to your profit according to your 
 vocation." 
 
 Let us consider, one after another, each of 
 these four virtues which are characteristic of the 
 saint: meekness, fortitude, charity and serenity. 
 Let us study them with a view to adapting them 
 to our own mode of life, and determine to draw 
 inspiration from them in the actual practice of 
 our ministry. 
 
 1 "Introduction to a Devout Life," part II, chap. XVII.
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 225 
 
 MEEKNESS 
 
 A large number of priests, both pastors and 
 assistants, are engaged on the Comites de Ravi- 
 taillement (committees for food distribution). This 
 work of corporal mercy, which should win us the 
 gratitude of all whom we aid, leaves in reality 
 many persons discontented, and many ungrate- 
 ful. Be patient, dear friends. Distrust your natu- 
 ral inclinations. Do not yield to the temptation 
 to say: "If they treat me in this fashion, I am 
 going away." Do not throw the helve after the 
 hatchet. What do you expect? We must take 
 poor humanity just as it is. Was it not our old 
 minister, Beernaert, who defined gratitude as 
 "the remembrance of favors we hope to obtain." 
 Disinterested affection is not common. Do not 
 we all prove this in our relations with God.? 
 Do we love Him for His own sake, as a rule, or 
 for the sake of ourselves? 
 
 Let the ingratitude. of our neighbors teach us to 
 supernaturalize our intentions. When our Divine 
 Saviour urges us to cultivate neighborly charity, 
 He calls it a new commandment: "A new com- 
 mandment I give unto you: That you love one 
 another, as I have loved you, that you also love 
 one another." Not indeed that the love of one's 
 neighbor was not obligatory before the com- 
 ing of the Messias, but it lacked that double 
 character of universality and perfection which
 
 226 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 Christian faith and charity alone could inspire and 
 sustain. 
 
 After the example of Christ, we must love 
 everybody without exception. "For if you love 
 them that love you, what reward shall you have? 
 Do not even the publicans this?" ^ We must 
 imitate our Heavenly Father, who sends His warm 
 sun and beneficent rain to the evil as well as the 
 good. In every unfortunate whom you assist you 
 must no longer see a man with his defects and 
 faihngs, but Christ, of whom this unfortunate is 
 a suffering member. For "as long as you did it 
 to one of these My least brethren," says Our 
 Saviour, "you did it to Me." ^ 
 
 The mercy which is exercised in this spirit does 
 not stop short of the extremest self-sacrifice, after 
 the example of Christ who laid down His life for 
 those whom He loved. "Greater love than this 
 no man hath, that a man lay down his hfe for 
 his friends." ^ Charity thus understood is new 
 in history, for it dates from Christ and His Church. 
 Make it your inspiration, my dear friends, and 
 you will be humble of heart and meek of soul. 
 You will not be depressed by disappointments; 
 you will not be conceited or domineermg; you 
 will not be prone to anger, but will know how to 
 suffer all, accept all, expect all, support all. 
 
 1 Matthezv v. 46. 
 ^ Matthezv xxv. 40. 
 ' John XV. 13.
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 22/ 
 
 "Charity is patient, is kind; charity dealeth not 
 perversely, is not puffed up; is not ambitious, is 
 not provoked to anger; beareth all things, be- 
 lieveth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all 
 things." ^ 
 
 FORTITUDE 
 
 We must not, however, confound meekness 
 with desertion of duty, nor moderation with the 
 surrender of principles. Meekness ^ derives its 
 sustenance from patience, a virtue which is a 
 component part of fortitude {fortitudo), or strength 
 of soul. 
 
 In the Comit^s de Ravitaillement and elsewhere, 
 one may see members venting their ill-temper on 
 their subordinates, or bearing themselves in an 
 arrogant manner. One may also see members — 
 and often the self-same members — retire in a 
 temper when confronted with opposition, lapse 
 into an angry silence, and finally resign their 
 task and relinquish the field to their adversaries. 
 These members are lacking in self-control and 
 fortitude. 
 
 ^ / Corinthians xiii. 4-7. 
 
 2 Meekness is a virtue. It is a beatitude (Matthew v. 4), that is 
 to say, an act of virtue. It is a fruit of the exercise of virtue {Galatians 
 V. 22). Considered as a virtue, it is related — with its asso- 
 ciates, humility and modesty — to the cardinal virtue of temperance. 
 Patience is an auxiliary of meekness. It teaches man to preserve 
 equanimity amidst the trials of life. It is included in the cardinal 
 virtue called fortitude, or strength of soul.
 
 228 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 In the face of a common enemy, good patriots 
 should certainly close up their ranks more tightly 
 than ever around their King and the public 
 authorities. After the war there will inevitably 
 be a truce, the duration of which, in my opinion, 
 no one can now foresee, and during which the 
 politicians of all parties must combine their 
 talents and their influence for the resurrection of 
 our ruins and the restoration of public order. 
 The anticipation of this truce, which the Belgian 
 Government has already inaugurated in Havre by 
 admitting into its bosom the leaders of the Liberal 
 and Socialist parties, has inspired the directors of 
 the Comite National de Secours et de Ravitaillement 
 with a spirit of benevolent neutrality to which 
 we gladly pay tribute. We are obeying a senti- 
 ment of loyalty when we affirm that the Central 
 National Committee has given us in many in- 
 stances what is better than verbal declarations — 
 namely, effective proofs of its care for neutrality. 
 But, just as before the war politicians used to 
 brave authority and at times vied with one an- 
 other in evading the laws, certain individuals, 
 whom a member of the General Committee 
 described as "persons of inferior mentality," are 
 even to-day incapable of ridding themselves of 
 sectarianism, and show greater concern for their 
 own future influence with the electorate than for 
 national union. You must not capitulate to 
 these individuals. Whether it is a question of
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 229 
 
 education, charitable enterprises or religion, be 
 firm and persevering in the defence of the souls 
 of the children, the interests of the poor, and the 
 rights of Catholic families. True fortitude, 
 fortitudo christia7ia, declares itself in action. 
 Calmly and unflinchingly insist that your rights 
 prevail; go and plead your cause, if necessary, 
 before the Central Committee. And, when you 
 have exhausted in vain all the means of resistance 
 that are at your disposal, come to us, and we 
 shall leave nothing undone to secure recognition 
 for the justice of our common cause. The in- 
 terests which you defend are not your own, but 
 those of God and of His Church. You have, 
 therefore, no right to abandon their defence. 
 Hear what Jeanne de Chantal says of the meek 
 St. Francis, whom she knew so intimately: "Our 
 very dear father was the bravest, most generous 
 and powerful soul that one could have seen in 
 discharging the tasks and labors, and in pursuing 
 the enterprises with which God inspired him. He 
 never became disheartened, and used to say that, 
 when Our Saviour commits a task to us, we must 
 not abandon it, but have the courage to overcome 
 all difficulties." ^ 
 
 My dear Colleagues, after the example of the 
 great Bishop under whose patronage we are 
 assembled, be meek and humble of heart. But do 
 not be weak or timid; be strong. 
 
 ^ Letter of St. Jane Frances de Chantal on St. Francis de Sales.
 
 230 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 One of the main reasons for the relative sterility 
 of numerous lives is because the faithful and 
 priests do not arouse themselves to a sufficiently 
 clear recognition of the resources which the 
 Christian soul and sacerdotal zeal have at their 
 disposal for the attainment of good. Do not 
 confound pride and bravery, or pusillanimity and 
 humihty. St. Paul says: "For not he who com- 
 mendeth himself, is approved;" ^ but he has said 
 elsewhere: *'I can do all things in Him who 
 strengtheneth me." ^ God has given you the 
 grace to live in the most tragic epoch of our his- 
 tory. Forge yourselves virile souls. Courage, 
 like all the virtues, is acquired and developed by 
 exercise. You have heavy responsibilities, but 
 let them not make you timorous. "If God puts 
 ten pounds on a man," says an English writer, 
 "He gives him strength to bear twenty." The 
 essential thing is that you proceed conscious of 
 your dependence on God. His arm will raise 
 you to the level of each task. "Commit thy way 
 to the Lord," says the Psalmist,^ "and trust in 
 Him, and He will do it." 
 
 CHARITY 
 
 Meekness and humility, patience and courage, 
 have their roots in charity. After the example 
 of St. Francis de Sales, who emulates St. Paul, 
 
 1 // Corinthians x. 18. 
 ^ Philippians iv. 13. 
 ^ Psalm xxxvi. 5.
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 23 I 
 
 center all your energies in charity: make your- 
 selves all things to all men. "O God, who didst 
 will that St. Francis, Thy Confessor and Pontiff, 
 should become all things to all men for the salva- 
 tion of souls, graciously grant that, infused with 
 the sweetness of Thy charity, we may attain 
 everlasting bhss." 
 
 To-day the general law of charity should regu- 
 late especially our relations with those who have 
 become our enemies, our relations with certain 
 fellow-citizens who allow their selfish interests to 
 compromise national union, and our relations 
 towards our country. 
 
 /. Charity towards our Enemies 
 
 Catholics in other countries, who have not 
 found in their hearts one word of reprobation for 
 the German armies when they massacred the 
 innocent inhabitants of Dinant, Virton, Andenne, 
 Tamines, Aerschot, and Louvain, shot our priests, 
 and set fire to our open towns and defenseless 
 villages; who have propagated, or allowed to be 
 propagated, the calumny which sought to absolve 
 the criminals by transforming the victims into 
 guilty parties; who, with folded arms, unmoved 
 looks and closed lips, have now looked on for 
 almost three years at the torture of a formerly 
 friendly people, who had never wished Germany 
 anything but good — these same Catholics dis- 
 cover to-day pathetic accents to compose hymns
 
 232 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 to Christian brotherhood, to the burial of the 
 past and to peace. 
 
 Confused notions are afloat as to our relations 
 in justice and charity towards the enemy of the 
 Belgian fatherland, and the occasion is propitious 
 for recalling some points in the doctrine of St. 
 Thomas Aquinas, the master par excellence of 
 Christian philosophy and theology. 
 
 There are two deep propensities in the heart 
 of man — one towards joy and the other towards 
 anger. The first has for its object the possession 
 of a good, and joy is the fruit of this possession. 
 The second propensity has for its object the 
 removal of an evil, or the revolt against this evil 
 when it has settled on us. 
 
 These two propensities are met with in the 
 animal kingdom and in man. In the case of 
 animals, they occur in the state of need and of 
 passion; in the case of man, they are found both 
 in the state of need and passion and in the state 
 of rational inclination. 
 
 Our propensity towards pleasure, whether 
 sensible or supra-sensible, is outside the ques- 
 tion which now concerns us. Our propensity 
 towards anger and vengeance — the animal pas- 
 sion or the rational inclination of the will — alone 
 interests us here. 
 
 St. Thomas defines anger as an "appetite for 
 vengeance" {ira est appetitus vindictce). This 
 appetite may have its seat in the sensible part of
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 233 
 
 our nature, or in the super-sensitive will. How 
 are we to judge it from the moral standpoint? 
 
 It may be either good or bad, says St. Thomas; 
 it may occasion an act of virtue or a sin, according 
 as the object of the vengeful will is just and proper 
 or otherwise. "To have the will to avenge evil, 
 while respecting the order of justice, is to perform 
 an act of virtue. To will thus to redress a moral 
 evil, within the limits of right, is to feel anger at 
 evil, to perform a work of zeal, to act well." 
 
 But to desire vengeance inordinately, "whether 
 we transcend the hmits of justice or seek first the 
 extermination of the guilty party and the re- 
 pression of evil only as an afterthought, is to do 
 evil. In this latter case, the suffering of our 
 neighbor becomes the aim of our vengeance." 
 
 And how must we judge the participation of 
 passion in this vengeful anger? Does the moral 
 law require that the will to avenge an evil be 
 impassive? St. Thomas declares the contrary. 
 Passion is undoubtedly dangerous at the moment 
 when a man is to pass judgment on the morality 
 of a contemplated act, as it may then indeed 
 disturb the calmness of his judgment. But from 
 the moment when the justice of the repressive 
 act is apparent and the morality of the repres- 
 sion has been decided, the passion accompanying 
 the anger becomes the auxiHary of the will, and 
 lends more vigor and promptness to the accom- 
 plishment of justice. When thus confined to their
 
 234 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 proper role, passions are, says St. Thomas, useful 
 for virtue (utiles virtuti)} 
 
 The application of these principles to the situa- 
 tion which confronts us is apparent. The in- 
 justice of the violation of our territory is flagrant, 
 and is even admitted by its authors. The scorn 
 
 1 The preceding paragraphs are taken, almost verbatim, from 
 different passages of the superb opusculum of St. Thomas, entitled 
 "De Malo." The following are the principal texts on which our 
 argument is based: "In ira sicut in qualibet alia passions, duo pos- 
 sumus considerare: unum quod est quasi formate, aliud quod est quasi 
 materiale. Formale quidem in ira est id quod est ex parte animae 
 appetitivae, quod scilicet ira sit appetitus vindictae; materiale autem 
 id quod pertinet ad commotionem corporalem. . . . Ita ergo, si con- 
 sideretur ira secundum id quod est formale in ea, sic potest esse et in 
 appetitu sensitive et in appetitu intellectivo qui est voluntas, secundum 
 quam aliquis potest velle sumere vindictam; et secundum hoc mani- 
 festum est quod ira potest esse et bona et mala. 
 
 " Manifestum est enim quod quando aliquis quaerit vindictam se- 
 cundum debitum justitiae ordinem, hoc est virtutis, puta, cum vin- 
 dictam quaerit ad correctionem peccati, servato ordine juris; et hoc est 
 irasci contra peccatum. 
 
 Cum autem aliquis inordinate appetit vindictam, est peccatum: 
 vel quia quaerit vindictam praeter ordinem juris, vel quia quaerit 
 vindictam magis intendens exterminationem peccantis quam aboli- 
 tionem peccati; et hoc est irasci in fratrem. 
 
 Ira et aliae passiones dupliciter se possunt habere ad judicium 
 rationis: uno modo, antededenter; et sic necesse est ut semper ira et 
 omnis hujus modi passio judicium rationis impediat, quia anima 
 maxime judicare potest veritatem in tranquillitate quadam mentis; 
 alio modo, potest se habere ira ad judicium rationis, ut consequenter; 
 quia scilicet postquam ratio dijudicavit et ordinavit modum vindictae, 
 tunc passio insurgit ad exequendum; et sic ira et aliae hujusmodi pas- 
 siones non impediunt judicium rationis quia jam prcecessit; sed magis 
 adjuvant ad promptius exquendum, et in hoc sunt utiles virtuti; unde 
 Gregorius die it: Tunc ira robustius contra vitia erigitur, cum subdita 
 rationi famulatur." — " De Malo," q. XII. art I. 
 
 "Si aliquis appetat quod, secundum ordinem rationis, flat vindicta, 
 est laudabilis irae appetitus, et vocatur ira per zelum." " Summ. 
 Theol." 2a 2ae, q. 158. art. 2.
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 235 
 
 shown for our rights from the fatal days of the 
 first invasion of our country to the present hour 
 is incontestable. The repression of these iniquities 
 is thus a manifest right, and is moreover a duty 
 for those who have the means of repressing them. 
 To wish that this duty be exercised, that order 
 be reestabhshed, that the authors of the disorder 
 be chastised and reduced to a condition of power- 
 lessness to injure us further; to wish that inof- 
 fensive people shall have the opportunity of living 
 in peace, that the final decision shall accord with 
 right and the vindication of the God of justice — 
 to desire this with all the energy of our will and 
 with all the passionate ardor of which our human 
 nature is capable, is simply to correspond 
 with the plea of justice, to perform an act of 
 virtue. 
 
 But, some people object, this is the same as 
 hatred, and charity excludes hatred. 
 
 Assuredly charity excludes hatred. Hatred is 
 the contrary of charity. They are as mutually 
 exclusive as fire and water, and it is impossible 
 that they co-exist in the same person. 
 
 But what is hatred? It is to wish someone 
 evil for evil's sake; to wish that our neighbor 
 should suffer for no other reason than that he 
 may suffer; to make his suffering our object on 
 which our wills can dwell with pleasure. Such 
 a disposition of souls would be grievously 
 culpable.
 
 236 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 On the other hand, to wish a physical evil to 
 someone who has committed an injustice and 
 obstinately perseveres in his unjust course, and 
 to wish this physical evil, not as an end in itself, 
 but as a means of attaining an ulterior moral 
 end; to wish that the guilty should suffer so that, 
 under the pressure of suffering, there shall come 
 about in his soul the conversion which he refuses 
 to effect voluntarily — this is not to hate him, 
 but on the contrary to love him rationally.'^ 
 
 "As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the 
 death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn 
 from his way, and live." - We follow the teach- 
 ing of God; we do not desire our enemies to be 
 excluded from Paradise, but we wish that they 
 shall again become worthy of entering into it. 
 
 "He who loves well, chastises well," says the 
 proverb. The love for avenging justice may be 
 carried to excess and degenerate into cruelty, 
 but it may also err by defect, by inflicting on 
 
 1 " Vindicatio fit per aliquod poenale malum inflictum peccanti. 
 Si vindicantis intentio feratur principaliter in malum illius de quo 
 vindictam sumit, ut ibi quiescat, est omnino illicita; quia delectari in 
 malo alterius pertinet ad odium, quod charitati repugnat. Si vero 
 intentio vindicantis feratur principaliter in aliquod bonum, ad quod 
 pervenitur per poenam peccantis, puta ad emendationem peccantis, vel 
 saltem ad cohibitionem ejus et quietum aliorum, et ad justitiae con- 
 servationem, et Dei honorem, potest esse vindicatio licita, aliis 
 debitis circumstantiis servatis." "Summ. Theol." 2a 2ae q. 108, 
 art. I. 
 
 ^ " Vivo ego, dicit Dominus Deus, nolo mortem impii; sed ut con- 
 vertatur impius a via sua, et vivat. Convertimini, eonvertimini a 
 viis vestris pessimis." Ezechiel xxxiii. 11.
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 237 
 
 the guilty less punishment than the occasion 
 merits.^ 
 
 Virtue is always the exact mean between ex- 
 tremes. The will to avenge an evil is properly 
 a virtue. St. Thomas considers it as a special 
 virtue which completes in each of us our natural 
 repulsion for everything hurtful to us, makes us 
 repel an injury which menaces us, and incites us 
 to take vengeance for it after we have received 
 it. What would you say of a man who, under 
 the pretext of kindness, would endeavor to close 
 all prisons and suppress the penal code? 
 
 The collective crime of a nation which violates 
 the rights of another nation is incomparably more 
 grave than the crime of an individual whom 
 society sends to the guillotine or the scaffold. 
 We well understand that those who doubt the 
 justice of their cause seek to see in war only sub- 
 jects for pity or horror. But for us war is the 
 means of making honor respected and right tri- 
 umph, and of reestablishing on a pinnacle truth 
 and the worship of the God who is Truth. Herein 
 lies the grandeur and nobility of war and the 
 justification of all its sacrifices. 
 
 Let us therefore not confound hatred, a vice, 
 with the spirit of just vengeance, a virtue. Hatred 
 
 1 " Vindicationi opponuntur duo vitia: unum quideni per exces- 
 sum, scilicet peccatum crudelitatis, vel saevitiae, quae excedit men- 
 suram in puniendo; aliud autem est vitium quod consistit in defectu, 
 sicut cum aliquis est nimis remissus in puniendo.^' "Summ. Theol." 
 2a 2ae, q. 108, art. 2, ad. 3.
 
 238 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 is inspired by an instinct of destruction. The 
 virtue of vengeance is inspired by charity. Bravery 
 paves the way for its advance, by banishing terror 
 from the heart. Our King, our Government, and 
 the Belgian people have shown their fortitude on 
 August 2, 1914, at midnight, when they braved 
 the insolence of the military colossus which now 
 bestrides us. 
 
 Having banished terror, the upright soul looks 
 straight to his duty. An injury has been done to 
 truth, justice, and God, and he considers it done 
 to himself. The peril of his brothers becomes his 
 own. The flame of the twofold love of God and 
 humanity is lighted within him, and he decides 
 to sacrifice himself in their defense, preferring 
 anything rather than a dishonorable desertion of 
 his duty. 
 
 In all this we can see only charity and the zeal 
 which is its flame. The Belgian people resolved 
 on this grand act of charity; it has remained 
 faithful to its choice; its tears, its strength, its 
 fortune and its blood did not seem too great a 
 price to pay for the triumph of right and to safe- 
 guard its independence.^ 
 
 But perhaps someone will say: "You have in- 
 voked strict right, and we understand your posi- 
 
 ^ " Fortitudo disponit ad vindictam removendo prohibens, scilicet 
 timorem periculi imminentis. Zelus autem, secundum quod importat 
 fervorem amoris, importat primam radicem vindicationis, prout aliquis 
 vindicat injurias Dei vel proximorum, quas ex charitate reputat quasi 
 suas." "Summ. Theol." 2, 2, q. 108, Art. 2, ad. 2.
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 239 
 
 tion. But there is another point of view — that 
 of Christian perfection. Is it not more perfect 
 to return good for evil ? Should not the Christian 
 know how to pardon?" 
 
 To return good for evil may be preferable in 
 the case of individual wrongs, secretly inflicted. 
 But, viewing the matter in a practical light, you 
 have, my dear Colleagues, in the parishes of your 
 deaneries hundreds of ravaged, pillaged, and 
 burned hearths; the absent ones of your con- 
 gregations, whether deported as military or civilian 
 prisoners, are legion. Is it to avenge these per- 
 sonal wrongs that your people demand justice? 
 In the name of my experience, and no less confident 
 of yours, I venture to answer: "No." 
 
 It is the injury done to the nation which has 
 evoked general indignation and demands repara- 
 tion. The crimes against public order cannot 
 remain unpunished. A prince who would exer- 
 cise clemency systematically, would compromise 
 pubHc security. A people who would hold an 
 amnesty with injustice, would be unworthy of 
 liberty. 
 
 The Gospel, it is true, always inclines towards 
 forgiveness. But the Church knows on what 
 conditions she may dispense it. Let us imitate 
 her example. She demands from the sinner the 
 confession of his fault; repentance; the promise 
 not to relapse again into his error; if he has done 
 an injustice, the promise to make restitution in
 
 240 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 accordance with the well-known declaration of 
 St. Augustine: '^Non remittetur peccatum, nisi 
 restituatur ablatum. Let no sin be remitted unless 
 that which was taken away be restored"; and 
 finally the acceptance of a penance in satis- 
 faction of the penalties due for the offences com- 
 mitted. 
 
 As soon as our enemies shall have fulfilled these 
 conditions, the hour of mercy will have struck for 
 them. 
 
 Certain sentimental souls grow uneasy at times 
 when they remember the text: "But if one strike 
 thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the 
 other." ^ If you wish to understand fully the 
 meaning of this evangehcal counsel, consider, says 
 St. Augustine, the example of our Lord Himself. 
 While our Divine Master was submitting to the 
 interrogation of Caiaphas, an officer ventured to 
 strike Him. Our meek Saviour did not answer: 
 "Here is the other cheek." He offered this 
 dilemma to the guilty man: "If I have spoken 
 evil, give testimony of the evil; but if well, why 
 strikest thou Me?" ^ 
 
 St. Paul the Apostle also, says St, Augustine, 
 was scourged in public by order of Ananias, 
 prince of the priests. Did the accused receive 
 the blows in silence? "God shall strike thee, 
 thou whited wall. For sittest thou to judge me 
 
 1 Matthew v. 39. 
 * John xviii. 23.
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 24I 
 
 according to the law, and contrary to the law 
 commandest me to be struck." ^ 
 
 This retort was accompanied by words of biting 
 irony. 
 
 Consequently the above-mentioned scriptural 
 quotation should not be interpreted strictly ac- 
 cording to the letter. It means that, whatever 
 happens, we must remain masters of ourselves, 
 and preserve our interior patience. As to our 
 external conduct, that will depend on circum- 
 stances. "Benevolence, properly understood, 
 often counsels us to use harshness towards our 
 neighbor. We should know how to correct him 
 in spite of himself and have regard for his real 
 interest rather than for his preferences." 
 
 But has not the Lord said in Deuteronomy: 
 "Revenge is Mine, and I will repay them." ^ 
 And in his epistle to the Romans does not St. 
 Paul give the same advice: "If it be possible, 
 as much as is in you, have peace with all men. 
 Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but 
 give place unto wrath, for it is written: Revenge 
 is Mine, I will repay, saith the Lord."^ 
 
 Evidently these inspired texts do not mean 
 that God reserves for His immediate action every 
 exercise of repressive justice, seeing that in this 
 same epistle to the Romans from which the 
 
 ^ Acts xxiii. 3-5. 
 
 * Deuteronomy xxxii. 35. 
 
 ' Romans xii. 18-19.
 
 242 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 above words are taken, the Apostle declares ex- 
 pressly that the representative of public power 
 "beareth not the sword in vain. For he is God's 
 minister: an avenger to execute wrath upon him 
 that doth evil." ^ 
 
 According to St. Thomas, the meaning of these 
 texts of Scripture is as follows: External offenses 
 fall under the repressive power of the public 
 authorities, but in the case of hidden faults I 
 reserve to myself the right of judging and punish- 
 ing them. And you Christians do not form pre- 
 mature judgments: "Judge not before the time."^ 
 
 Or perhaps, says the holy doctor, the texts 
 may have this other meaning: "The crimes of 
 men offend God. So it is to God that justice and 
 reparation are due. It is to usurp a divine pre- 
 rogative, to claim for one's self the intention of 
 justice. ** 
 
 One last question may be considered. Does it 
 befit the clergy to take part in conflicts which 
 are brought about by the war and occupation? 
 Are not the bishop and his priests to devote them- 
 
 1 Romans xiii. 4. 
 
 ^ / Corinthians iv. 5. 
 
 ^ " Circa vindictam Deus aliquid sibi soli retinuit. Injerre enim 
 vindictam in manifestis delictis, aliis commisit qui constituuntur in 
 ordine alicujus potestatis. ... De occultis vera sibi soli judicium et 
 vindictam reservavit, secundum illud: ' Nolite ante tempus judicare.' 
 
 " Sibi etiam reservavit Deus ut propter seipsum v indie aretur: homo 
 enim non debet vindicari propter seipsum, sed propter culpam commis- 
 sam, quae est offensa Dei. ^uando ergo aliquis quaerit vindictam propter 
 seipsum, vel praeter ordinem judiciariae potestatis, usurpat sibi quod 
 Dei est." — " De Malo," q. XII, art. 3, ad 5.
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 243 
 
 selves exclusively to the spiritual needs of the 
 faithful? 
 
 The Church is not an invisible society composed 
 of pure spirits. The faithful are exposed to perils 
 of the body and of the soul, of time and eternity. 
 The solicitude of their pastors should extend to 
 all these interests. Listen again to St. Thomas: 
 "The pastors of the Church may not content 
 themselves with resisting the wolves which cause 
 the spiritual death of their flock. They should 
 also oppose the ravishers of the people, and tyrants 
 who cause physical suff^ering to their flock. Not 
 that the representatives of ecclesiastical authority 
 should themselves handle material arms, but they 
 should make use of spiritual weapons — that is 
 to say, address salutary warnings to the guilty 
 parties, pray fervently and excommunicate ob- 
 stinate rebels." ^ 
 
 The ambiguities which we have endeavored to 
 explain away in this discussion of charity towards 
 our enemies have their origin in an inadequate 
 conception of charity. In the eyes of numerous 
 persons who are badly instructed in the Christian 
 religion, the virtues are like so many threads 
 running parallel to each other in the weaving 
 
 ^ " Praelati debent resistere non solum lupis, qui spiritualiter inter- 
 ficiunt gregem, sed etiam raptoribus et tyrannis qui corporaliter vexant; 
 non autem matenalibus armis in propria persona utendo, sed spiritu- 
 alibus, quae quidem sunt salubres admonitiones, devotae orationes, 
 contra pertinaces excommunicationis sententia." " Summ. Theol." 2, 2, 
 q. 40, art. 2, ad i.
 
 244 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 machine. These threads differ in quahty per- 
 haps. Charity may even be conceded a superior 
 quahty, but it none the less runs parallel to the 
 other threads of the warp. One can understand 
 how the mind thus accommodates itself to the 
 idea of a charity without justice, and how 
 a means should be then sought of reconciling 
 them. 
 
 But the above analogy is not at all in accordance 
 with reality. Charity is the woof which forms a 
 single tissue out of all the threads of the Chris- 
 tian virtues. All virtues may be included in a 
 single precept: "Love God and love your neigh- 
 bor for the love of God." Fundamentally there 
 is only one virtue — the love of God for His own 
 sake and the love of one's neighbor for the love 
 of God. The Christian should be temperate, 
 strong, just, prudent, but through charity; he 
 should believe in God and hope in Him, but through 
 charity. He should practice charity through 
 charity. Charity is the sole inspiring and direct- 
 ing force of all moral and religious hfe. 
 
 There is no Christian justice without charity. 
 There is no charity without justice. And inas- 
 much as avenging justice is a part of the virtue 
 of justice, there is no charity without avenging 
 justice. To desire to close one's eyes to injustice 
 under the pretext of an heroic charity; to grant 
 impunity to the crimes of an enemy, because he 
 is an enemy, is to misunderstand the sovereign
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 245 
 
 and necessary dominion of charity over the or- 
 ganization of the moral, individual, and social 
 life of Christianized humanity. If we praise or 
 ignore the faults of a naughty child, we are spoil- 
 ing him, not loving him. We must not spoil 
 either our enemies or our friends. 
 
 Charity is one, but the mode of its exercise 
 varies according to the object to which charity 
 is directed. When we love the soul of a just man, 
 we desire his perseverance; when we love the 
 soul of a sinner, we desire his conversion. Let us 
 imitate our holy mother, the Church. On Good 
 Friday she prays for her faithful children and also 
 for heretics and schismatics, for the descendants 
 of the chosen people, and for the pagan nations. 
 But for the first she asks sanctity and progress; 
 for the others she desires repentance and the 
 opening of their eyes to the light of truth. 
 
 It may not be amiss to remark that, in the pul- 
 pit and in the spiritual direction of souls, too great 
 neglect is shown of this law which governs the 
 contexture of the Christian virtues in the tissue 
 of life. This neglect leads to the formation of 
 fragmentary souls who are acquainted only with 
 partial aspects of good, and of devotional souls — 
 the world often calls them bigots — who prac- 
 tice their charity towards God under the form of 
 ritual exercises, but who do not make of this 
 fundamental virtue the soul of their morality and 
 their piety.
 
 246 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 In the pursuit of good it is not sufficient to 
 regulate duly the attraction of pleasure (temper- 
 ance); to brave the obstacles which are opposed 
 to the acquisition or possession of moral good 
 {strength of soul, courage, fortitude); to prac- 
 tice good and resist evil in such a way as not 
 to infringe on the rights of others {justice). 
 The virtues must be exercised within reason- 
 able limits, without excess or defect — with 
 prudence} 
 
 Prudence thus introduces a unity in the perfect 
 practice of good. It disposes a man who does 
 good to do it well: bonum bene facere. But the 
 primordial law of prudence is to direct man to 
 his true end — that is, to his supernatural or 
 Christian end, for mankind has no other. Hence, 
 the sovereign law of prudence is that it be inspired 
 by charity. Charity, poured into the soul by 
 the Holy Spirit in Baptism, first directs the will 
 towards our true end — God— whom faith reveals 
 to us and hope makes us regard as our Supreme 
 Good. Then, it imposes on supernaturalized 
 prudence the duty of subordinating to God all 
 other goods outside Himself, as so many means 
 of reaching our end. Thoughts, desires, resolu- 
 tions, works, moral virtues, the theological vir- 
 tues of faith and hope are thus placed in the 
 service of charity, the unifying principle par 
 
 1 All moral virtues, as is known, depend on the four "cardinal" 
 or fundamental virtues which are here quoted.
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 247 
 
 excellence of the whole moral and rehgious Ufe of 
 man and humanity.^ 
 
 From this elevated point of view, which alone 
 can be considered complete and true (in the full 
 meaning of this word), moral or religious "par- 
 ticularism" becomes incomprehensible in a Chris- 
 tian life. Opposition between patriotism and 
 justice, between justice and charity, becomes 
 devoid of meaning. 
 
 Under the form of "habits," the Christian 
 virtues appear, increase or decrease, and dis- 
 appear together. Have you sufficiently meditated 
 on this unity in the organization of the Christian 
 life, its extent, its harmony? Have you con- 
 sidered how splendidly this order reveals itself 
 in the individual conscience and the social inter- 
 course? Have you, in a word, sufficiently realized 
 this beauty of charity? 
 
 Have you sufficiently insisted on the inter- 
 pretation of the virtues by the love of God and 
 held up the elevation and fertility of Christian 
 morality to the admiration of the people ? Whence 
 
 ^ S. Thomas, "Summ. Theol.," i, 2, qu. 65, art. 2, " Aliae virtutes 
 morales non possunt esse sineprudentia; prudentia autem non potest 
 esse sine virtutihus moralibus mquantum virtutes morales faciunt bene 
 se habere ad quosdam fines, ex quibus procedit ratio prudentiae. Ad 
 rectam autem rationem prudentiae, multo magis requiritur quod homo 
 bene se habeat circa ultimum finem, quod fit, per caritatem, quam circa 
 alios fines, quod fit per virtutes morales. Unde manijestum fit quod nee 
 prudentia infusa potest esse sine caritate; nee aliae virtutes morales 
 consequenter, quae sine prudentia esse non possunt." Cfr. ibid., 
 4 et art. 5, de unione fidei et spei cum caritate.
 
 248 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 comes it that so many souls lower their Chris- 
 tianity to the level of naturalism? Put that 
 question to yourselves, directors of souls, and 
 supply the answer. 
 
 //. Charity towards our Fellow-citizens 
 
 You are aware of the dissensions wWch have 
 arisen between the country people and the town 
 folks, and between merchants and customers in 
 consequence of the increased cost of food and 
 clothing. It is not easy to define the responsi- 
 bihty of the different classes in these matters. 
 Justice and charity, however, are both concerned 
 in these complex problems. As to the questions 
 of justice involved, I gave you, the day of the 
 meeting, a note containing some general sugges- 
 tions which you can turn to profitable account, 
 especially in the confessional and in your con- 
 versations with the parties interested. But we 
 must not forget that one can sin otherwise than 
 by committing an offense against commutative 
 justice. Charity towards individuals and legal 
 justice — that is to say, respect for the common 
 good — are also binding on the conscience, and 
 this obligation becomes grave according to the 
 gravity of the matter. 
 
 In the pulpit and in the confessional, insist on 
 the practice of charity, on how odious it is to see 
 exorbitant profits made at the expense of those 
 who are in poverty or want, and on the obliga-
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 249 
 
 tion of avoiding everything that provokes hatred, 
 jealousies, and rancor. 
 
 ///. Charity towards our Country 
 
 Article 43 of the regulation concerning the laws 
 and customs of war on land added to the Hague 
 Convention, October 18, 1907, stipulates: "The 
 authority of legal power having actually passed 
 into the hands of the occupying party, the latter 
 will take all measures within his power to re- 
 establish and assure, in so far as is possible, public 
 order and life, while respecting the laws in force 
 in the country except in so far as he is absolutely 
 prevented from doing so" 
 
 It is very interesting to note that the Plan for 
 an International Convention presented by Russia 
 at the Conference of Brussels in 1874 permitted 
 the occupying party "to maintain the laws in 
 force, to modify them or suppress them entirely 
 according to the exigencies of the war and with 
 a view to public interest." The Conference, how- 
 ever, rejected this suggestion, and adopted a more 
 restrictive clause, which permitted the occupy- 
 ing party to modify or suspend the laws in force 
 only "if it is necessary." The regulation added to 
 the Hague Convention, July 29, 1899, and that 
 added to the Hague Convention, October 18, 
 1907, are more rigorous still, as they forbid all 
 modification except in so far as it is absolutely 
 impossible to do otherwise. These successive
 
 250 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 changes of wording show conclusively the mature 
 and determined desire of the signatories to impose 
 on the occupying party respect for the laws 
 which are in force in occupied territory. The dele- 
 gates from Germany were the first signatories of 
 this Article 43 of the Regulation added to the 
 Convention, 
 
 Now the occupying government aims at the 
 overthrow of the general administration of our 
 country. It seems to have taken as its motto: 
 "Divide et impera." The creation of the so- 
 called University of Ghent, the administrative 
 separation which has existed so long in certain 
 ministries but which a certain recent decree has 
 just made general, the public or clandestine en- 
 couragement given to journals and conventions 
 (whether of thoughtless Walloons or foolish 
 Flemings) which foster antagonism between the 
 two races traditionally united under the Belgian 
 flag, represent so many attempts — happily futile 
 — to disturb our national union. 
 
 Those who would favor such equivocal conduct 
 would be traitors to their native land. Questions 
 of internal politics concern only the Belgians, and 
 can be decided only by the Belgian Chambers, 
 the Belgian Government and the King of the 
 Belgians. 
 
 Be watchful, my dear Deans. Make the faith- 
 ful avoid deceitful writings and conventions. 
 Watch for and put an end to the schemes of traitors
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 25 I 
 
 who would make common cause with the enemy. 
 Restrain the extravagances of youth. The nation 
 has defied violence; let her beware of seduction. 
 Patriotic piety is a virtue. Your state of Hfe con- 
 stitutes you the guardians and preachers of virtue. 
 
 SERENITY 
 
 "What I first recognized in our blessed father," 
 said St. Chantal, "was the gift of a very perfect 
 faith. ... I have always seen the saint aspire 
 to and breathe only the desire to live according 
 to the truths of faith and the maxims of the 
 Gospel. He used to say that the true way to 
 serve God was to follow Him and walk after Him 
 on the fine point of the soul, without any sup- 
 port of consolation, of sentiment or light ex- 
 cept that of simple and naked faith. That 
 is why he loved interior weariness, tribulation 
 and desolation." ^ 
 
 "If I wish only pure water," says St. Francis 
 de Sales, "what matter if it be brought to me in 
 a golden vase or in a glass? I should even love 
 it better in the glass, because there is then no 
 color but that of the water, and I see it thus much 
 better. What does it matter if the will of God is 
 presented to me in tribulation or in consolation, 
 since in both I wish and seek nothing else than 
 the Divine Will, which is shown forth all the more 
 clearly when there is no other beauty in evidence 
 
 ^ Letter of St. Jane Frances de Chantal on St. Francis de Sales.
 
 252 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 than that of the holy and eternal good pleasure 
 of the Lord." ^ 
 
 The pious Elizabeth of the Holy Trinity, a 
 Carmelite nun of Dijon, used to say that the 
 Christian has nothing to do with secondary causes, 
 but with God alone. 
 
 And does the Gospel not state: "If thy eye be 
 single [if thy eye regard but one thing, is fixed by 
 faith on God], thy whole body shall be light- 
 some." ^ That is, thou shalt be entirely bathed 
 in light. 
 
 Turn your thoughts directly to your God. He 
 is the sovereign Master of events. He and none 
 other. "I am the Lord, and there is no other." ' 
 Love Him for He loves you. He is love's very 
 substance. He has begotten you in His only Son 
 in whom repose all His favors. He is a father to 
 you. Be a son to Him. Love Him, and, while 
 hoping that it will be granted to you to behold 
 His living personality in glory, adore Him in the 
 manifestations of His Divine Will. Embrace 
 these manifestations, each and all, chanting the 
 eternal hymn of filial acquiescence: "Our Father, 
 who art in Heaven. . . . Thy will be done on 
 earth as it is in Heaven." 
 
 How far should our surrender to the divine 
 love extend? 
 
 ^ " Treatise on the Love of God," lib. ix, cap. iv. 
 * Matthew vi. 22. 
 ' Isaias xlv. 18.
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 253 
 
 The holy bishop will tell us. He brings before 
 our eyes the little Infant Jesus and His Blessed 
 Mother, and the dialogue which the saint holds 
 with the Divine Child is a sublime lesson in 
 spirituality. 
 
 Here is a preliminary insight into the idea of 
 perfect renunciation: "We, little children of the 
 Heavenly Father, can walk with Him in two ways. 
 In the first place, we can walk with Him by 
 following the way of our own will, conforming 
 this will to His, always holding the hand of His 
 divine intention with the hand of obedience, and 
 following His intention whithersoever it leads 
 us. . . . But we can also walk with our Saviour 
 without having any will of our own, simply allow- 
 ing ourselves to be borne along the way of His 
 divine pleasure (as an infant is borne in the arms 
 of its mother) in a species of admirable consent 
 which may be called the union, or better still the 
 unity, of our will with God's. Thus it is that we 
 should endeavor to conduct ourselves towards 
 the divine pleasure, in so far as the effects of this 
 divine pleasure come solely from Providence, and 
 have not their origin in ourselves. 
 
 *Tt is true that we can wish events to happen 
 in accordance with the will of God, and this wish 
 is very good. But we may well also accept all 
 events sent by the divine pleasure with a very 
 simple tranquillity of will, which, not wishing 
 anything whatsoever itself, lends a complete
 
 254 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 acquiescence in everything that God wishes done 
 in us, to us and by us." 
 
 Some pages later the holy doctor declares it 
 very difficult to define clearly the extreme indiffer- 
 ence of the human will when it is thus submerged 
 in the will of God. It is not an " acquiescence," 
 for that is an action of the soul when it declares 
 its consent. It is not an "acceptance," for to 
 accept is the action of embracing what happens 
 to us. It is not a ''permission," for to permit 
 signifies a certain sluggish act of the will, which, 
 while unwilling to do something itself, is ready 
 to allow its performance by an outside agency. 
 "It appears to me therefore that the soul which 
 is in this state of indifference, and which wishes 
 nothing, but lets God will what He pleases, might 
 be said to retain its will in a state of simple and 
 general expectancy — a loving expectancy — so 
 much the more so as to await is not to do or to 
 act, but to be ready for any occurrence. And, if 
 we examine it closely, the expectancy of the soul 
 is really voluntary, and is yet not an action, but 
 a simple disposition to receive whatever will 
 happen. After the events have occurred, the 
 expectancy is converted into consent or acqui- 
 escence, but before the occurrence the soul is 
 really only in a simple expectancy, indifferent as to 
 what it may please the divine pleasure to ordain." 
 
 These preliminary ideas stated, the pious dia- 
 logue of the saint with the Infant Jesus follows:
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 255 
 
 "If anyone had asked the sweet Infant Jesus, 
 as He was borne along in the arms of His Mother, 
 whither He was going, would He not rightly have 
 answered: 'I am not going; My Mother is going 
 for Me.' 
 
 "And if He had been asked: 'But are you not 
 at least going with Your Mother,' would He not 
 have rightly replied: 'No, I do not go at all, or 
 if I do go where My Mother carries Me, I do not 
 go with her nor by any steps of My own, but I 
 go by the steps of My Mother, by her and in 
 her.' 
 
 "And if He were questioned still further: 'But 
 at least, O dear Divine Child, You will to allow 
 Yourself to be carried by Your sweet Mother?' 
 'Not so, by any means,' He would have said, 'I 
 will nothing of that, but, inasmuch as My dear 
 Mother walks for Me, she also wills for Me; I 
 leave her alike the care of going and of willing 
 to go for Me wherever she pleases. And, as I 
 walk only by her steps, I also will only through 
 her will; and, as long as I am in her arms, I do 
 not intend to will or not to will, leaving to My 
 Mother every other care, provided I remain at 
 her bosom, am nourished at her breast, and cling 
 to her adorable neck where I can kiss her lovingly 
 with My lips. . . . That is the reason why, just 
 as her walking suffices for her and for Me, without 
 My taking a single step, her will also suffices for 
 her and for Me, without My forming a wish for
 
 256 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 anything that is to come or to go. Consequently, 
 I am indifferent whether she goes quickly or 
 leisurely, or whether she goes in this direction or 
 that, nor do I ever inquire whither she wishes to 
 go, resting content that, whatever happens, I am 
 always in her arms.' 
 
 "O divine Child of Mary, grant to my wretched 
 soul this transport of devotion. And go then, O 
 beloved and adorable Infant — or rather do not 
 go, but remain — thus hohly clasped to the bosom 
 of your sweet Mother. Go always in her and 
 through her, or with her, and never go without 
 her in the days of Thy childhood. Blessed is 
 the womb that bore Thee and the paps that gave 
 Thee suck!" 
 
 After reminding us that our Saviour had the 
 use of reason from the moment of His concep- 
 tion, and could thus hold the discourses which 
 have just been attributed to Him, St. Francis 
 turns to his disciple, Theotimus, and continues: 
 
 "We should be like that, Theotimus, rendering 
 ourselves flexible and plastic to the divine pleas- 
 ure, as if we were of wax — not amusing ourselves 
 desiring and wishing for things, but letting them 
 be wished and done by God just as it pleases 
 Him, referring to Him (as the Apostle says) all 
 our solicitude inasmuch as He has care of us. 
 Notice that he says all our solicitude — that is 
 to say, both our solicitude over the outcome of 
 events and our solicitude in willing and not willing.
 
 CHRISTIAN VENGEANCE 257 
 
 For He will take care of the success of our aflFairs, 
 and will will for us whatever is best. 
 
 "Let it be our constant care to bless God for 
 whatever He shall do, saying like Job: 'The Lord 
 has given me much, the Lord has taken it away. 
 Blessed be the name of the Lord.' No, Lord, I 
 wish for nothing, but leave everything for You to 
 will according to Your good pleasure; and, instead 
 of willing any events, I will bless You because 
 You have willed them. O Theotimus, how excel- 
 lent is this occupation of our will, when, relinquish- 
 ing all preference as to how the divine pleasure 
 may manifest itself, it takes up the task of prais- 
 ing and thanking the divine pleasure for all its 
 manifestations!" ^ 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 My dear Colleagues, let us draw inspiration 
 from these noble teachings. Let us raise our- 
 selves above our impressions, above our reason- 
 ings and conjectures, above the clouds which 
 envelop our poor human conceptions, to that 
 serene sphere where the soul, rid of its passions 
 and of itself, finds itself untrammeled in the 
 presence of the divine pleasure. 
 
 Every day has its own trials. The practice of 
 moral virtues varies with circumstances. At the 
 present moment, meekness, fortitude, and serenity, 
 assembled in the warm atmosphere of charity, 
 
 ^ "Treatise on the Love of God," lib. ix, cap. xiv-xv.
 
 258 CARDINAL MERCIER 
 
 are especially necessary for us. We have the 
 divine mission of sustaining and encouraging our 
 people. Whatever be the human motives for our 
 confidence in the future — and you now feel, 
 more than ever, that they are justified — let us 
 seek for better. After the example of Moses — 
 who, according to the Epistle to the Hebrews, had 
 as lively a faith in God as if he had seen Him 
 with his eyes "By faith ... he endured as 
 seeing Him that is invisible,"^ let us in fiHal 
 fashion deliver our whole souls to God. Let this 
 faith inspire our judgments and temper our wills. 
 Immovable ourselves, we shall sustain our breth- 
 ren. The Belgian people has not flinched; with 
 the grace of God, it will not flinch. Its serenity 
 will continue unaltered to the end of this harsh 
 and prolonged trial; it will console our absent 
 ones, thank our benefactors, encourage our soldiers, 
 bless our Allies, and make its obeisance before 
 His Majesty, King Albert. Until the end, this 
 serenity will be our expression of defiance to our 
 oppressors, our daily act of patriotism, the 
 homage of Belgium to the wisdom, the good- 
 ness, the justice, and the mercy of God. 
 
 ^ Hebrews xi. 27. 
 THE END
 
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