‎MERCIER, CARDINAL.- ‎
‎Duitsch nationalisme en de Katholieke Kerk. Geïllustreerd. ‎

‎N.pl., n.d. (probably 1916) ‎

Reference : 160719

‎(22) p., illustrations. Wrappers, staples. 24x19 cm (Pamphlet in defence of the Belgian Cardinal Désiré Félicien François Joseph Mercier, archbishop of Mechelen, created cardinal in 1907. See Wikipedia for the Cardinal's opposition against the German occupier: 'In 1914, the German army attempted a surprise invasion of France by invading neutral Belgium. Mercier had to leave his see on 20 August of that same year to attend the funeral of the late Pius X, and participate in the following conclave to elect a new pope. Returning from the conclave Mercier passed through the Port of Le Havre, where he visited wounded Belgian, French and British troops. Once back in his archdiocese, he found the Mechelen Cathedral to have been partially destroyed. In the Imperial German atrocities that ensued in the Rape of Belgium, thirteen of the priests in Mercier's diocese were killed, not to mention many civilians, by Christmas 1914. With his pastoral letter, Patriotism and Endurance, of Christmas 1914, Mercier came to personify Belgian resistance to the German occupation. The pastoral letter had to be distributed by hand as the Germans had cut off the postal service. Mercier's passionate, unflinching words were taken to heart by the suffering Belgians. He sometimes became a focus of Allied propaganda during the war. He was kept under house arrest by the Germans, and many priests who had read the letter aloud in public were arrested as well') (Cover slightly soiled, curved and dog-eared. Small library stamp, and two small shelf labels on the frontcover) ‎