In the midst of these troubles, Pope Pius IX. wrote on August 7, 1873, to the Emperor: "Every measure of the Government demonstrates that its intention is to combat Catholicity; nor is there any apparent reason for such deeds; His Majesty approves of them as is shown by his letters; how then, can they continue? Does not the Emperor perceive that they are a menace to his throne?" The answer of William was worthy of the injustice of his Government; he defended himself by appealing to his rights and casting the blame upon the Centre and the German bishops. This correspondence between the Emperor and the Pope was spread throughout all Germany, which in its inflamed state was willing to take every word of the Pontiff as an insult and cause for further persecution. But the holy Pontiff, in his Encyclical of November 21, 1873, exposed the hypocritical sophisms of the Emperor, and upheld both the Centre and the bishops in the magnificent work they were carrying on. In the meantime a ministerial ordinance of Falk, dated September 2, abolished all difference between the Old Catholics and the Catholics of Rome, declaring that the name, Catholic, should be common to both. At the same time, Reinkens of Breslau, who had been chosen by his co-religionaries as the "German Bishop," and consecrated by the Jansenists of Deventee and Harlem, was so highly recognized by the Government, that the Emperor decided, by an official act, communicated on September 19, to all the provincial governors, that "Bishop" Reinkens constituted a part of the Catholic Church. The document is interesting: "We, William, by the grace of God, King of Prussia, etc., announce by these presents that we recognize and wish to have recognized as a Catholic bishop Joseph Hubert Reinkens, ordinary professor in the Faculty of theology of Breslau." _WAR OF VIOLENCE._ The May Laws of 1873 were put into operation with hardly any delay. The first to feel their force was Archbishop Melchers of Cologne, who had excommunicated the apostates, Rabbers and Pasfrath, and who had forbidden any ecclesiastic ordained by the Jansenists of Utrecht to exercise the clerical offices. The Government closed the Grand Seminaries of Posen and of Paderborn after the bishops of those Sees had refused to submit to the Government, or to bend to its will even after the sequestration of their salaries. At Treves, Cologne and Fulda also the income of the Seminaries were confiscated.