nce is the rule, and discontent
a thing not to be indulged in by any means.

So the soldiers stayed in the ranks, and Frederick raided Silesia and
Poland. His successors ordered all the Protestant sects into one, so
that they might be more easily controlled; from which time the
Lutheran Church has been a department of the Prussian state, in some
cases a branch of the municipal authority.

In 1848, when the people of various German states demanded their
liberty, it was an ultra-pious king of Prussia who sent his troops and
shot them down--precisely as Luther had advised to shoot down the
peasants. At this time the future maker of the German Empire rose in
the Landtag and made his bow before the world; a young Prussian
land-magnate, Otto von Bismarck by name, he shook his fist in the face
of the new German liberalism, and incidentally of the new German
infidelity:

Christianity is the solid basis of Prussia; and no state
erected upon any other foundation can permanently exist.

The present Hohenzollern has diligently maintained this tradition of
his line. It was his custom to tour the Empire in a train of blue and
white cars, carrying as many costumes as any stage favorite, most of
them military; with him on the train went the Prussian god, and there
was scarcely a performance at which this god did not appear, also in
military costume. After the failure of the "Kultur-kampf," the
official Lutheran religion was ordered to make friends with its
ancient enemy, the Catholic Church. Said the Kaiser:

I make no difference between the adherents of the Catholic
and Protestant creeds. Let them both stand upon the
foundation of Christianity, and they are both bound to be
true citizens and obedient subjects. Then the German people
will be the rock of granite upon which our Lord God can
build and complete his work of Kultur in the world.

And here is the oath required of the Catholic clergy, upon their
admission to equality of trustworthiness with their Protestant
confreres:

I will be submissive, faithful and obedient to his Royal
Majesty,--and his lawful successors in the government,--as
my most gracious King and Sovereign; promote his welfare
according to my ability; prevent injury and detriment to
him; and particularly endeavor carefully to cultivate in the
minds of the people under my care a sense of reverence and
fidelity towards the King,