Then he listened to the bishops of the lands of propaganda, ceased to intervene in the Irish quarrel, withdrew the excommunications which he had launched against the American "knights of labour," and would not allow the bold works of Catholic socialist writers to be placed in the Index.

This evolution towards democracy may be traced through his most famous encyclical letters: _Immortale Dei_, on the constitution of States; _Libertas_, on human liberty; _Sapientoe_, on the duties of Christian citizens; _Rerum novarum_, on the condition of the working classes; and it is particularly this last which would seem to have rejuvenated the Church.

The Pope herein chronicles the undeserved misery of the toilers, the undue length of the hours of labour, the insufficiency of salaries.

All men have the right to live, and all contracts extorted by threats of starvation are unjust.

Elsewhere he declares that the workman must not be left defenceless in presence of a system which converts the misery of the majority into the wealth of a few.