We see that from the very first days of the war, before any one could have verified the statements of the Chancellor, the Protestant pastors of Germany, even those of foreign origin, unhesitatingly accepted the official assertions. Is it as pastors that they stand forth as the stern defenders of the rights of truth? Are they not rather spiritless courtiers, we might almost say like the sheep of Panurge? _The Catholic Priests and Rabbis._ The Catholic priests have given proofs of equal docility. Mgr. the Cardinal Felix von Hartmann, Archbishop of Cologne, says in _The Divine Providence_, a pastoral letter read on the 25th of January, 1915:-- "Our warriors have gone forth to the bloody conflict, with God, for King and Country! With God, in the conflict which has been forced upon us, the fight for the salvation and the liberty of our dear German land; with God, in the war for the sacred possessions of Christianity and its beneficent civilization. And what exploits have not our warriors accomplished, under the protection of God, under the leadership of their wonderful chiefs, the Emperor and the German Princes, exploits whose glory shall shine in times to come! And more, what precious treasures of devotion, of love for one's neighbour, and of nobility, has not this war revealed, in our country as on the field of battle!" The curate August Ritzl, however, falls into the sin of pride. "Kultur has received an unheard-of impulse in Germany; the human spirit has subjected the most diverse forces of nature.... A glance at the map shows us the German Empire as the centre of Europe. On all sides, near and far, enemies are intent on the ruin of our country. To the east the giant empire of Russia threatens us--to the west, violent France, still strong despite her moral decay--allied with English perfidy and Belgian cruelty; Japan, Serbia, and Egypt have also declared war upon us" (pp. 26-27). Well, reverend sir, before proclaiming the cruelty of the Belgians, before asserting, from the vantage of the pulpit of Truth, that Serbia and Egypt have declared war on Germany, a little circumspection and critical sense would not have been out of place! Let us also cite the sermon preached on the 9th August, in the synagogue of Schwerin, by Dr. S. Silberstein, rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. "They have forced us to put our hand to the sword; we execrate the perfidy with which our enemies are fighting us; we wish to ward off the danger that threatens us in honourable combat." So the Jewish rabbis knew as early as the 9th August that it was Germany that had been attacked, and that the other nations were forgers!