The number of the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps a hundred, times superior to that of the Christians. The double walls were reduced by the cannon to a heap of ruins. In a circuit of several miles some places must be found more easy of access or more feebly guarded; and if the besiegers could penetrate in a single point, the whole city was inevitably lost. The first who deserved the Sultan's reward was Hassan the Janizary, of gigantic stature and strength. With his cimeter in one hand and his buckler in the other, he ascended the outward fortification. Of the thirty Janizaries who were emulous of his valor, eighteen perished in the bold adventure. Hassan and his twelve companions had reached the summit; the giant was precipitated from the rampart; he rose on one knee, and was again oppressed by a shower of darts and stones; but his success had proved that the achievement was possible. The walls and towers were instantly covered with a swarm of Turks; and the Greeks, now driven from the vantage ground, were overwhelmed by increasing multitudes. Amidst these multitudes the emperor, who accomplished all the duties of a general and a soldier, was long seen and finally lost. The nobles who fought round his person sustained till their last breath the honorable names of Palæologus and Cantacuzene; his mournful exclamation was heard, "Cannot there be found a Christian to cut off my head?" and his last fear was that of falling alive into the hands of the infidels. The Greeks fled toward the city; and many were pressed and stifled in the narrow pass of the gate of St. Romanus. The victorious Turks rushed through the breaches of the inner wall; and as they advanced into the streets they were joined by their brethren, who had forced the gate Phennar on the side of the harbor.

In the first heat of the pursuit about two thousand Christians were put to the sword. But avarice soon prevailed over cruelty; and the victors acknowledged. that they should immediately have given quarter if the valor of the emperor and his chosen bands had not prepared them for a similar opposition in every part of the capital. It was thus, after a siege of fifty-three days,

that Constantinople, which had defied the power of Chosroes, the Chagan, and the Caliphs, was irretrievably subdued by the arms of Mahomet the Second. Her empire had only been subverted by the Latins; her religion was trampled in the dust by the Moslem conquerors. Decline and Fall, Chap. LXVIII.

IBBONS, JAMES, an American cardinal; born at Baltimore, Md., July 23, 1834. When a child he was taken by his parents to their former home in Ireland, where his early education was received. When seventeen years of age he returned to Baltimore and soon after entered St. Charles's College, Emmittsburg, Md. In 1857 he was transferred to St. Mary's Seminary, Baltimore, and on June 30, 1861, ordained a priest. He was made assistant of St. Patrick's Church, Baltimore, and in a few months priest of St. Bridget's Church, Canton, a suburb of Baltimore. From this parish he was transferred to the Cathedral by Archbishop Spalding, and made his private secretary. In 1866, when the second plenary council of the Roman Catholic Church in America was held in Baltimore, he was appointed assistant chancellor of the council. In 1868 he was made Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina with the rank and title of bishop, and was consecrated by Archbishop Spalding in the Cathedral on August 16th of that year. At this time the Roman Catholic population of North Carolina was very small, but in a few years Bishop Gibbons had built new churches, opened new schools, founded asylums, and largely increased the number of priests. In 1872 he was transferred to the vacant

See of Richmond, Va., where he continued the work he had begun in North Carolina. In 1877, Archbishop Bayley's health beginning to fail, he asked Pope Pius IX. for a coadjutor, and requested that Bishop Gibbons be given the position. The request was granted and on May 20, 1877, he was appointed, with the right of succession to the See. Bishop Bayley died the same year, and on October 3d Bishop Gibbons succeeded him. This See is the oldest in the United States, and for this reason ranks as the most important. In 1883, with other archbishops, he was called to Rome to confer with the Pope upon the affairs of the Church in the United States. In 1884 he was appointed to preside over the third plenary council, which was also held in Baltimore, and in June, 1886, he received a cardinal's hat, succeeding Cardinal McCloskey. The twenty-fifth anniversary of his elevation to the episcopate was celebrated with imposing ceremonies on October 18, 1893. With one exception, every archbishop, nearly every bishop, and many monsignors and priests were present and took part in the celebration.

Cardinal Gibbons has been a frequent contributor to both secular and religious periodicals, and is the author of two books, The Faith of Our Fathers (1876) and Our Christian Heritage (1889). The former has been translated into a number of different languages, and has passed through forty editions.

CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

A man enjoys religious liberty when he possesses the free right of worshipping God according to the dictates of a right conscience, and of practicing a form of religion most in accordance with his duties to God. Every act infringing on his freedom of conscience is justly

styled religious intolerance. This religious liberty is the true right of every man, because it corresponds with a most certain duty which God has put upon him.

A man enjoys civil liberty when he is exempt from the arbitrary will of others, and when he is governed by equitable laws established for the general welfare of society. So long as, in common with his fellow-citizens, he observes the laws of the state, any exceptional restraint imposed upon him, in the exercise of his rights as a citizen, is so far an infringement on his civil liberty.

I here assert the proposition, which I hope to confirm by historical evidence, that the Catholic Church has always been the zealous promoter of religious and civil liberty; and that whenever any encroachments on these sacred rights of man were perpetrated by professing members of the Catholic faith, these wrongs, far from being sanctioned by the Church, were committed by palpable violation of her authority.

Her doctrine is, that as man by his own free will fell from grace, so of his own free will must he return to grace. Conversion and coercion are two terms that can never be reconciled. It has ever been a cardinal maxim, inculcated by sovereign Pontiffs and other Prelates, that no violence or undue influence should be exercised by Christian Princes or Missionaries in their efforts to convert souls to the faith of Jesus Christ.

St. Augustine and his companions, who were sent by Pope Gregory I. to England for the conversion of that nation, had the happiness of baptizing in the true faith King Ethelbert and many of his subjects. That monarch, in the fervor of his zeal, was most anxious that all his subjects should immediately follow his example; but the missionaries admonished him that he should scrupulously abstrain from all violence in the conversion of his people; for the Christian religion should be voluntarily embraced.

Pope Nicholas I. also warned Michael, King of the Bulgarians, against employing any force or constraint in the conversion of idolaters.

The fourth Council of Toledo, a synod of great authority in the Church, ordained that no one should be

compelled against his will to make a profession of the Christian faith. And be it remembered that this Council was composed of all the Bishops of Spain; and was assembled in a country, and at a time in which the Church held almost unlimited sway, and among a people who have been represented as the most fanatical and intolerant of all Europe.

Perhaps no man can be considered a fairer representative of the age in which he lived than St. Bernard, the illustrious Abbot of Clairvaux. He was the embodiment of the spirit of the Middle Ages. His life is the key that discloses to us what degree of toleration prevailed in those days. Having heard that a fanatical preacher was stimulating the people to deeds of violence against the Jews, as the enemies of Christianity, St. Bernard raised his eloquent voice against him, and rescued those persecuted people from the danger to which they were exposed.

Not to cite too many examples, let me only quote for you the beautiful letter addressed by Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambray, to the son of King James II. of England. This letter not only reflects the sentiments of his own heart, but formulizes, in this particular, the decrees of the Church of which he was a distinguished ornament. Above all," he writes, "never force your subjects to change their religion. No human power can reach the impenetrable recess of the free will of the heart. Violence can never persuade men; it serves only to make hypocrites. Grant civil liberty to all, not in approving everything as indifferent, but in tolerating with patience whatever Almighty God tolerates, and endeavoring to convert men by mild persuasion.

"

It is true, indeed, that the Catholic Church spares no pains, and stops at no sacrifice, in order to induce mankind to embrace her faith. Otherwise she would be recreant to her sacred mission. But she scorns to exercise any undue influence in her efforts to convert souls. The Faith of Our Fathers.