FREEMASONRY 118 PART SECOND 125 ALCOHOLISM IN FRANCE 131 THE LAW OF SEPARATION 135 CATHOLICISM IN GERMANY 144 PSEUDO-SEPARATION 147 THE PROGRESS OF ANARCHY 160 THE ABOLITION OF THE CONCORDAT 170 THE INVENTORIES 177 DUC IN ALTUM 185 THE LATEST PHASE OF SEPARATION 197 LIBERTY AND CHRISTIANITY 211 CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION 233 APPENDIX 249 THE RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN FRANCE FIRST IMPRESSIONS LYON, _March 17th, 1900_. There seems to be considerable misapprehension in the United States as to the status of the Catholic Church in France. “One iniquitous arrangement in France,” writes the _Central Baptist_, “is the support of the priesthood out of public funds.” In receiving stipends from the State the French clergy, however, are no more its debtors, nor its functionaries, than holders of French 3 per cents who receive the interest of their bonds. When that essentially satanic movement, known as the French Revolution, swept over this fair land, deluging it in blood, the wealth of the Church, the accumulation of centuries, was all confiscated by the hordes who pillaged and devastated, and killed in the name of Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality, until Napoleon restored order with an iron hand. A born ruler of men, this Corsican understood that the principal feature of the work of restoration must be the reorganization of the Catholic Church in France. Accordingly he concluded with the Pope the convention known as the Concordat. It was not possible in the dilapidated state of the country to restore the millions that had been stolen by those “champions of liberty who,” according to Macaulay, “compressed into twelve months more crimes than the kings of France had committed in twelve centuries.” Still less was it possible to rebuild many noble structures, and recover works of art sold by sordid harpies or destroyed by impious vandals. It was accordingly agreed (Arts. 13 and 14, Concordat) that in lieu of this restitution the State should henceforth pay to the Church, annually, the stipends of so many archbishops, bishops, curates, etc.