"Do not allow yourselves to be persuaded that the ecclesiastical power is increasing, because you hear of numerous conversions to the Romish creed in individual German States! The nation must and shall learn that these conversions are, for the most part, brought about by the intrigues and money of the Jesuits--by money which these spiritual and consecrated bands of freebooters of the Romish Hierarchy, wring from the poor by means of Rosary and Prayer-associations, and of which they rob the rich by mortmain. When our people shall have learned this--when they shall have discovered how fearfully all that they hold most sacred--their religion--is abused by the Romish Church, they will cast off Rome and her hypocrites with inexorable indignation. Still you may object,--'A great portion of our people is more attached than ever to the formal mummeries of Rome--to the doctrine of works; they hasten more than ever to places of Pilgrimage and Indulgence, and these processions are not confined to the ignorant populace, but are joined by educated wives and maidens, while the younger clergy are full of fanaticism! Does not this indicate the increase and the triumph of the Romish Creed?' Such phenomena there are indeed--phenomena belonging to the sixteenth, not the nineteenth century--but these phenomena are the curse upon your cowardice, the consequences of a want of moral courage to contend against the hirelings of the Pope. You have not dared encounter these Roman wolves in German fleeces; you have not dared to honour God and his truth; you have not dared to sacrifice your benefices to your heart's convictions, to the welfare of your congregations--of the nation! The slaves of Rome have therefore been enabled to rule at pleasure in the Catholic States of Germany, speaking big words--shamelessly insulting and intriguing--disseminating darkness and superstition. They have been free to rage in their congregations, to mislead, unpunished and unchecked, the credulous multitude, and to excite them and the younger clergy to fanaticism; they have been at liberty to proclaim the grossest abuses as the actual substance of Christianity, announcing follies and absurdities as Christian truths--for it is but seldom that any one, now and then, has ventured to raise his voice against them, or at least it has been speedily reduced to silence when once raised.