The consciousness of the Germans that they committed a foolish
blunder in arresting Cardinal Mercier may be measured by their eagerness to explain the affair away. But the formal protest which Cardinal Mercier has circulated among his clergy shows that the Germane, as so often happens, have been laboriously denying demonstrable facts. In his protest Cardinal Mercier says :—
" On the evening of January 1st and the next day soldiers i
forced their entry into the residences of the curia, seized my pastoral letter, and, contrary to my episcopal order, forbade their reading it to their congregations, threatening them with the severest punishment, which, they said, would be inflicted either on the cures themselves or on the parish. My own dignity was not spared. On Jammu 2nd, at 6 o'clock in the morning. I received an order to appear the same morning before the Governor- General to answer for my letter to the priests and their parish- ioners. The next day I was forbidden to attend service in the Cathedral at Antwerp. Finally. I was not allowed to travel freely in order to visit the other Bishops in Belgium."
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