A few days previously an execution had taken place, which had made a deep impression on him. A Neapolitan youth, twenty years of age, who had committed a murder in his country, had been condemned to death. The unhappy parents had sent a heartrending appeal to the young King, who had wished to reprieve him; but his Ministers had opposed his intention. In his later years, Ludwig seldom attended divine service in Munich; but during his residences at Berg, he went regularly to a little church which had been built in the park there. At the castle of Neuschwanstein there was an altar and a prie-dieu in his sleeping apartment. He was in the habit of hearing Mass in the neighbouring chapel; and no person was refused admittance because the King was praying in it. When he visited the small village churches in the highlands, he would often kneel unknown amid those at prayer. At Ober-Ammergau he was so affected by the passion plays, that he caused a magnificent marble group of the Crucifixion to be erected in that town. Once when driving he met a priest carrying the sacrament; he alighted, knelt upon the highroad and prayed. He was God-fearing, but very tolerant; and he hated confessional dissensions. In affairs of state he preserved a quiet and certain view, not the less so where ecclesiastical matters were concerned; but the relations between the Papal power and his Government were anything but peaceful. Ludwig had a modern conception of the Church's relation to the State; he desired that the schools should be freed from the yoke of the Church. The reforms of the Government in this domain became the source of violent skirmishes.