Much has been written and said about my relations with the Church. Even when I was_ still a Prince, and a student at Bonn. I realized the harmful influence of the Kulturkampf in its last phase. The religious rift did so much to ward antagonism that once, for example, I was directly boycotted, while on a hunting expedition, by members of leading noble Rhenish-Westphalian families of the Rhineland belonging to the Ultra-Montane Party. Even as far back as that I resolved, in the interests of the national welfare, to work toward creating a modus vivendi such as would make it possible for people professing the two creeds to live peacefully with each other. The Kulturkampf, as such, had come to an end before beginning of my reign.
T_ strove patiently and earnestly to be on good terms with the Bishops, and I was on very friendjy terms with several, especially Cardinal Kopp, Archbishop Simar, Dr. Schulte, Prince-Bishop Bertram, Bishop Thiel, and, last but not least, Archbishop Faulhaber
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.