PREFACE. At a time when the eyes of nations are fixed on Rome, some in filial love because of the dangers which are closing round it, and others in eager hope of the downfall and dishonour of the Church of God; when Italy and the whole Catholic unity are afflicted by indignities heaped upon the Vicar of Jesus Christ, by those too who profess the Catholic name, the Holy Father, by commanding the publication of the following pages, points us to his solace and strength in the farthest East, where are now arising the New Glories of the Church of God. And to what does he direct our eyes? It is to no new splendour of Christian empires, no new monuments of Catholic civilization, but to the plains and cities of Corea, Tong-King, and Cochin-China, steeped with Catholic blood, shed not in the onslaught and victories of war, but in the more glorious martyrdoms of bishops and priests, of aged men, and feeble women, and children of tender age. The volume in our hands is |