A lie.—The Cardinal never had any German safe-conduct. He returned to Belgium by way of Lyons, Paris, Havre (where he delivered a speech), London, and Holland.
2. During his stay in Rome the Cardinal made declarations very unfavourable to the Germans. A placard of the 12th September, 1914, assured us that he protested against the interview in the Corriere della Sera.
A lie.—The Corriere della Sera is a neutral journal (in the sense that the Belgian Le Soir is neutral), and the Germans wished to produce the impression that the Cardinal had been interviewed by a correspondent of this newspaper. Now he was interviewed by the editor of the Catholic journal, the Corriere d'Italia. This is merely one of the "errors" of Cardinal von Hartmann's rectification. The whole is in keeping with this; but it is too long to consider in detail.
3. Baron von der Goltz, at the moment of leaving Belgium, of which he had been Governor-General, thought fit to assert that he had come to an agreement with Mgr. Mercier as to the reopening of the courses in the University of Louvain (Le Réveil, 1st December, 1914).
A lie.—There was never any question of resuming these courses.
4. The Cardinal published his famous Pastoral Letter, which was sent to all the churches of his diocese, to be read from the pulpit. It recalled the present sufferings of the country, and adjured Belgians to "remain faithful to their king and their laws."
Directly the Germans, informed by their spies, knew of the existence of this pastoral letter they withdrew Cardinal Mercier's authorization to visit the other bishops in his motor-car. At the same time they forbade the curés to make the letter known to their parishioners; they even proceeded to seize the pamphlet in the presbyteries. Naturally the priests refused to obey the German injunctions, and the beginning of the mandamus was read from the pulpit on Sunday, the 3rd January, 1915. The Germans were furious, and forbade the curés to continue the reading of the letter; and, the more readily to obtain their submission, showed them a German declaration, signed by von Bissing, of which this is the translation:—
Brussels, 7th January, 1915.
To the Clergy of the Diocese of Malines.
As a result of my remarks, Cardinal Mercier of Malines has declared to me verbally and in writing that he had no intention of exciting or alarming the population by his pastoral letter, and he had not expected any such effect. That he had particularly insisted on the necessity of obedience on the part of the population towards the occupier, even if a patriot should inwardly feel in a state of opposition.
In case I should nevertheless fear an exciting effect, the Cardinal did not insist on requiring of his clergy the repeated reading of the pastoral letter on the succeeding Sundays, provided for in the conclusion of the letter, nor the distribution of the letter.
My hypothesis has proved correct.
I therefore repeat my prohibition of the 2nd January of this year, concerning the reading and the diffusion of the pastoral letter. I draw the attention of the clergy to this point—that they will be acting in contradiction to the written declaration of their Cardinal in disobeying his prohibition.
Baron von Bissing,
Colonel-General.
Governor-General in Belgium.
A lie.—This declaration is false. Mgr. Evrard, Dean of St. Gudule in Brussels, went to see Mgr. Mercier at Malines, and obtained proof of the falsehood. He at once warned all the curés of Brussels and the district of the manœuvre, and on Sunday, the 10th January, the reading of the letter was resumed.