boldly, and work on to the end, confident in the Almighty's assistance to bring all to a successful issue.

The first great national foundation which his country owes to this munificent patron of art is the Academy of Agram, which is expressly designated as an academy for all Southern Slavs. In a memorable letter to the Ban of Croatia the Bishop explained his project and submitted a sum of $20,000 towards its realization. This was but one of many subsequent donations for the same object, and when he had defended it in the Parliament-for even here a hostile party opposed the foundation-the nation responded nobly by generous contributions. When the existence of the Academy was assured he undertook to provide a suitable building for its permanent establishment; and here too, leading the way by a princely dona, tion, he saw the necessary funds quickly supplied by his enthusiastic compatriots.

Bishop Strossmayer next turned his attention to the completion of the National Croat University, whose foundation stone he had laid many years before. The necessity and utility of this institution were fiercely attacked in Parliament by the representatives of the Magyar element; and again the Bishop's eloquence was brought to bear in order to overrule opposition. He had given $12,000 towards the creation of this university, and now he undertook to collect the whole of the necessary sum. In a short time he succeeded, and had the joy of witnessing the realization of his second great aspiration for the youth of Croatia.

The wisdom of Strossmayer in guaranteeing to his countrymen the advantages of higher education in their own land, surrounded by the salutary influence of their pastors, rather than expose them to contact with heretical and Semitic prejudices, was made evident in 1892 when the Hungarian Parliament ratified the civil marriage bill. This iniquitous measure, introduced for the greater facility of mixed marriages in a land overridden with fanatical Jews, legalizes a marriage between any two persons who present themselves before the mayor of the district; and dissolves it, in like manner, without difficulty. It would not have pressed so sorely on Catholics, had it not been made obligatory even on those who, as hitherto, made marriage a religious ceremony, and considered that the sacrament dispensed with all civil formalities. The peo

ple, Catholic Croats and Hungarians, and schismatic Serbs, who were first forced to comply with its rules, showed their contempt by appearing before the mayor in soiled or ragged clothes and openly deriding the contract. Many went to prison for insulting the "dignity of the law," and in some villages there were violent disturbances. Unlike the Parliament of Croatia, which consists of but one Chamber, the Magyar Parliament comprises a Lower and an Upper Chamber, the House of Magnats. Strossmayer had long since ceased to occupy his seat in the latter, but at the time of the passing of the Civil Marriage Act he worked actively to secure its defeat in the House of Magnats. Although this Act could not affect Croatia, he felt called upon to denounce an infringement of the Church's rights in a neighboring country professedly Catholic, and therefore a gross injustice to the Croats resident in Hungary. His campaign resulted in the defeat, on two different occasions, of the bill in the Upper House, and when at length it passed, the victory was obtained by only four votes. I remember, at that time, listening to the pastoral addressed by the Bishop to his flock, and which expressed so vehemently his grief and indignation that the priest's voice faltered as he read, and many of the congregation were in tears. It was, indeed, incredible that pagan institutions should sully the greatest of the lands belonging to the Crown of St. Stephen, nor can I forget the lowering faces of the honest Croats around me. If Hungary had wished to alienate Croat sympathy, and put the greatest bar to her Magyarizing tendencies, she could have done nothing more effective than the passing of the Civil Marriage Act.

Strossmayer's life was as thickly bestrewn with sorrows and deceptions as with honors and triumphs. The bitterest trial of his career was the libellous pamphlet circulated throughout Europe, and even in America, containing a hostile criticism of the Catholic Church signed with his name.

This infamous document received its shadow of possibility from the fact that Strossmayer was an Inopportunist. The Bishop's attitude in this, as in every instance, testifies to his unfailing sincerity and conscientiousness. He feared aught that might tend to widen the breach between the Eastern and Western Churches; and, as Cardinal Manning afterwards declared, performed his duty as a a true son of the Church. His dis

course, pronounced in that assembly of holiness and learning, is a beautiful specimen of the purest classical Latin; but more beautiful still in the minds of all lovers of virtue are the sermons in which he expounded to his people the dogma of Papal Infallibility, to the promulgation of which he now gave his fullest and warmest support.

In 1871 the pamphlet which purported to give a report of the Bishop's speech at the Vatican Council was sown broadcast throughout Austria. To those who are even slightly acquainted with the Church's discipline, it was evident that the Bishop could not have retained his post after such violent diatribes against his superiors, even for the sake of preserving the Croat nation from a schism! The secession to the Greek Church of Croatia was an intention with which the Bishop's political opponents were fond of crediting him. The forged pamphlet was, however, welcomed with delight by the enemies of the faith, and translated into many tongues. In spite of Bishop Strossmayer's disclaimer, the Austrian liberal press continued to proclaim it genuine, and the Old Catholics of Germany employed it as their chief weapon at the Council of Constance in 1873. It was then that Bishop Ketteler came forward and declared that he had known Bishop Strossmayer intimately during their sojourn in Rome, but that never, either in public or in private, had he heard him express an opinion similar to those contained in the pamphlet. Silenced in Germany, the calumny still subsisted in England and America, and as late as 1889 we find the Bishop writing to the Bishop of Covington on the matter. Meanwhile Strossmayer had received a letter from a priest in America who had received the confession of the forger. The man, who had been an apostate, entreated Bishop Strossmayer's forgiveness, and died full of remorse.

In 1900 the venerable prelate celebrated the golden jubilee of his episcopate. His regular and active life had led him to a hale old age; at his death, in the beginning of 1905, he was the oldest bishop in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. His extraordinary vitality remained almost unimpaired during the last decade, and his interest in his educational foundations never waned. He had founded a chair for the old Slav tongue in the College of St. Jerome in Rome, and one of his latest acts was in reference to it. Pope John VIII. had accorded to the great Slav apostles, Cyril and Methodius, the right to use the

Slav liturgy, and it was largely due to Bishop Strossmayer's endeavors that Pope Leo XIII. issued the Bull, "Grande Munus," which confirms this right, and places the Slav tongue on a perfect equality with the Greek and Latin. Invited by the Bishop of Loreto to celebrate High Mass at the dedication of the new Cathedral in Loreto, Bishop Strossmayer gladly consented, and thus the first time the Holy Sacrifice was offered in this Church, which is under the patronage of Saints Cyril and Methodius, the liturgy was sung in the language of the Slav apostles.

On looking back over the long and fruitful life of the great Croat, one is forced to ask: How did this one man accomplish so many gigantic undertakings?

The ferment of 1848 had undoubtedly given a new impetus to national life everywhere; and the Croat people had just awakened to that sense of their own power which only required a competent leader to transform it into action. Bishop Strossmayer was that leader. But, although his training in hut and palace, and his eminent abilities, fitted him for the post of teacher and adviser, it was neither of these that won for him the unbounded sway he exercised over his compatriots. Their attachment and confidence, born of the faith which is their dearest heritage, were irresistibly drawn by the great spiritual force behind all the Bishop's acts. As member of the political councils and legislative assemblies in Vienna, Pest, and Agram, as Governor of the province of Vitir, as pastor of Croats, Serbs, and Bosnians, as leader of the great intellectual movement in modern Croatia, Bishop Strossmayer never worked for actual present results, but always with a view to the future and the hereafter. His extraordinary energy and perseverence in the performance of his self-allotted tasks arose from that keen sense of duty with which he had been permeated from childhood. Thus, persuaded that the talents with which God had endowed him were precious charges to be employed in his service, he feared nothing so much as the temptation of allowing them to rust. Hence, his political correspondence with Gladstone coincides with the time of his Latin poems in the honor of the Blessed Virgin; and his literary communications to several European universities did not interfere with his revision of the schoolbooks

in his diocese or his contributions to the series of instructive books issued by the Society of St. Jerome. During the erection of the Cathedral of Djakovo he visited it several times daily, studying the plans with the architect, and inspecting almost every stone. As a priest he was indefatigable; he had revived the custom of reading the Epistles and Gospels aloud in the Croat tongue; and he continued to preach until the infirmities of age, weakening his powerful and melodious voice, forced him to abandon the pulpit. The distribution of the Holy Eucharist was his dearest privilege; he often traveled to distant villages in order to celebrate Mass on a First Communion day. On these occasions he addressed the children familiarly; reminded them that. Croat meant Catholic; that their attachment to their religion was the guarantee of their future as a nation; and gave them his blessing often with tears of emotion running down his cheeks.

Strossmayer has been accused of ambition-even of aspiring to the greatest of all dignities, the sceptre wielded so powerfully by his compatriot, Sixtus V.; but to those who knew him personally, as well as to those who study impartially the record of his life, it is plain that his zeal for the Church and his devotion to his own nation were the barriers to his elevation to the archiepiscopate.

One of the most edifying moments of his career was that in which he hastened to pay homage to his newly-appointed superior-his inferior in years, in services to the Church, and in mental qualifications. At the aged prelate's approach, the new Archbishop advanced to meet him and, in confusion, reversing the usual order, bent down to kiss his hand before Strossmayer could protest. Tears stood in the eyes of all present, and only the countenance of one remained serene. He, whom Hungarian statesmen thought to mortify, was well content to work in any capacity in the Lord's vineyard. The pallium which Leo XIII. soon after conferred on the Bishop of Djakovo, and a letter expressing the warmest appreciation of his services to the Church, sufficiently demonstrated the esteem in which he was held by the Head of Christendom. As an instance of the Bishop's conciliatory spirit, we may recall the following:

He had contributed largely to the erection of a new church