♦ifö'lliillÜijWiiil lliiÄ ! '^^l! ' .w I ^ \< \ 1,1 ii I 1 ,M< < 5 < iili'M!',", , tS^b^^^ *-- '* BV 630 .04 Geffcken, p. Heinrich 1830- Church and state < I CHUECH AND STATE VOL. II. LONDON : PRINTED liV SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEVV-STllEET SViUAKE AXÜ PAKLIAMENT STREET 1 ^v .... CHURCH AND STATE "^ THEIR RELATIONS HISTORICALLY DEVELOPED HEINRICH GEFFCKEN" PROFESSOR OF INTERN ATION-AI- LAW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF STRASBURG LATE HANSEATIC MIKISTER RESIDENT AT THE COURT OP ST. JAMES'S TRANSLATED AXD EDITED WIT/{ THE ASSISTAyCE OF THE AUTHOR EDWARD FAIRFAX TAYLOR IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. IL LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1877 All lights riscrved CONTENTS THE SECOND VOLUME. CHAPTER XVII. EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON GERMANY. Secularisation of Oburcli Property — Secret Treaty between France and Prussia — Treaty of Oarapo Formio— Congress of Rastadt — Treaty of LuneviUe — General Plan of Indemnity imposed by France and Russia — The Ecclesiastical States deprived of Independence — Secu- larisation in Bavaria under Montgelas — Edict of Religious Liberty — Secularisation in "VViirtemberg and Baden — Dalljerg's Negotiations for a German Concordat — Attempted Concordat for Bavaria — Papal Negotiations with AViirtemberg — Bonaparte and the Rhenish Con- federation— Ecclesiastical Commission of 1809 — Thugut's Policy in Austi-ia — Religious Edict of 1788 in Prussia — The Landrecht of 1794 — Good Relations vrith Rome — The Landrecht and Protestantism — Mediatising of the Cliurch in Würtemberg .... page 1 CHAPTER XVIII. THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Principle of Legitimacy — Congress of Vienna and the Church — Restora- tion of Pius VII. — Revival of Papal Pretensions — Re-establishment of the Jesuits — Restoration in Spain, Sardinia, Naples, the Papal States, and Tuscany — France : Clerical Reaction luider Louis XVIII. —Papal Convention of 1817 — Failure to revive Concordat of löl7 — Activity of the Parti Prktre — Law of Sacrilege — The Jesuits de- CONTENTS OF TUE SECOND VOLUME. nounced by Montlosier — Ordinances of 1828 on Education — Unpopu- larity of the Clergy — Germany : Opposition of Bavaria to a Federal Concordat — Metternich opposes a Concordat for Austria — Bavarian Concordat of 1817 — Constitutional Act and Edict of Religion — Protest of Rome — Royal Rescript of Tegernsee — Negotiations of Prussia with Rome — Niebuhr's Memorial of 1819 — Bull De Salute Animarum — Circumscription Bull for Hanover — Frankfort Con- ference of South German States— Their Negotiations with Consalvi — Concordat with the Netherlands— Redistribution of Dioceses in Switzerland — Germany: Roman Sympathies of Catholic Clergy — Anti-Febronian Movement — Wessenberg's Attempts at Church Reform — Romantic and Historic Theories of Catholicism — Ultra- montane Doctrines of Görres and Droste — Feeble Policy of the Prussian Goverimient — Catholic Reaction in Silesia — Memorial of 1826 — Schimonsky and President Merckel — Ultramontane Progress in the Netherlands — Catholic Emancipation in England . page 35 CHAPTER XIX. THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH FROM 1830-48. Effects of the July Revolution — Italy: Insurrection of the Legations — Memorandum of the Great Powers — Integrity of Papal States guaranteed — Papal Misgovernment and Priestly Rule — Spain: Pro- gress of Ultramontanism — Belgium : Revolution of 1830 — Union of Catholics and Liberals — Clerical Ascendency — The Union dissolved — France : Popular Reaction against the Clergy — Disturbances in Paiii^^^^^^midity of the Government — Anti-Clerical Legislation — Liberal Catholic Movement — Lamennais and the 'Avenir ' — Catho- licism incompatible with Civil Liberty — Conduct of Education de- manded by the Clergy — Aggressive Attitude of the Jesuits — Ireland : the Tithe Grievance— Question of Appropriation — Further Concessions to Catholics — Germany: Growing Dislike of Ultramon- tanism;— Austria: Ultramontaiie* Progress under Ferdinand I. — Re- admission of the Jesuits — Mixed Marriages in Hungary — Prussia: Dispute with Rome respecting Mixed Marriages — The Archbishop of Cologne and tlie Government — The Contest repeated in Posen — Triimiph of the Vatican — Germany: Ultramontane Progress in Bavaria — The ' Holy Coat of Treves ' — German Catholic Movement mider Ronge and Czerski — Switzerland : Contest between Liberals and Ultramoutanes — Catholic League of 1831— The Jesuits invited to Lucerne— War of the Sunderbund — Victory of the Liberals — Italy : Election of Pius IX. — His Political Reforms — Early Signs of Ultramontanism 107 CONTENTS t)F THE SECOND VOLUMK. CIIAPTEU XX. IHK J^TAIK AND THE PROTESTANT CHUHCUES, 1815-48. Protestant Revival after the French Revolution — Anti-Rationalistic '' Movement uiuder Schleiermacher — Prussia: Church Reforms of Frederick William III. — ' Evangelical Union ' of Lutherans and Reformed — Sjniodal Constitution of the New Church — Introduction of the 'Agenda '• — Clerical Resistance under Schleiermacher — Perse- cution in Silesia — Presbyterian Constitution in Westphalia and the Rhine Provinces — General Failure of the ' Union ' — Frederick William IV. — His Dislike of Monarchical Episcopacy — His Scheme of Church Organisation — Ordination Formida of ' Union ' Theolo- gians— Endowment of Evangelical Chui-ch — Germany: Evangelical Union in Nassau — in Rhenish Bavaria — in Baden — in Rhenish Hesse — Hostility of Catholic Government in Bavaria — The * Genuflexion Decree ' — Austria : Persecution of Protestant Zillerthalers in Tyrol — General Progress of German Protestantism — Theological Parties — Liberalism and Free-thinking— LSwitzerland : Mischievous System of State Domination- — Formation of Fiee Churches — Netherlands: Re- constitution of the Protestant Church — Free Church in Holland — France: Ill-treatment of Protestants — Russia: Persecution of Lutherans in the Baltic Provinces — Great Britain : Removal of Civil Disabilities from Dissenters — The Tractarian Movement — Early Phases of Ritualism — Lay Patronage in Scotland — The Veto Act — Collision between Chuich and State — Disruption of 1843 — Forma- tion of the Free Church — United States: Separatist Principles of Church and State page 1G8 ^CHAPTER XXI^ UHE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN REVOLUTION AND REACTION, 1848—50. Eflects of the February Revolution — Italy: Papal Constitution of 1848 *" — Pius IX. and the National Movement — His Flight to Gaeta — Causes of his Failure — Germany: Catholic Movement for Church Independence — Debate in the Frankfort Assembly — Episcopal De- mands— The W'iirzburg Articles — The Bishops' Memorial to the German Governments — Question of State Interference in the Church — Constitutions of 1848 and 1850 — System of State-guardianship surrendered — Freedom of the Church in Prussia — Resistance to Clerical Demands in Bavaria— Conflicts in the Upper Rhenish Church Province — Ketteler's Appointment to See of Mayonce — Memorial of tlie FiA-e Bishops— Italy : Restoration of Pius IX. to Vlll CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. Rome —Difficulties of the French Protectorate — Revival of Papal Misgovernment — France : The Ministry and the President — Napo- leon's Letter to Colonel Ney — Law of Instruction, 1850 — The Coup (VEtat — Alliance of Csesarism and the Hierarchy — Ultramontane Intolerance— Italy : Absolutist Policy of Pius IX. and Antonelii— Influence of the Jesuits — Dogma of the Immaculate Conception — Programme of the Civilta C'attolica — England : Papal Aggression in 1850— The Ecclesiastical Titles Act— Spain: The Concordat of 1851 ■■ — Holland: Alliance of Democrats and Ultramontanes— Re-estab- lishment of the Hierarch}' — Apathy of the Liberals— Austria : Im- perial Patent of March 4, 1849 — Episcopal Assembly at Vienna — Demands of the Bishops — Reports of Count Thun — The Emperor surrenders to the Hierarchy — Concordat of 1855 — Final Overtlirow of Liberalism — Germany (Upper Rhenish Church Province): Con- cordat Avith Wiirtemberg — and -ndth Baden — General Advance of Catholicism — United States : Growing Political Power of the Catholic Clergy page 20; CHAPTER XXII. THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. Sardinia: Resistance to Papal Aggression — Constitution of 1848 — Abolition of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction — Civil Maniage Bill — Con- vent Act — Cavour at the Congress of Paris — Italy : Count Ravne- val's Report on the Papal States — Napoleon III. and Italian Inde- pendence— War between France and Austria — The Legations annexed by Sardinia — The September Convention — Papal Efforts to retain the Temporal Ride — Napoleon III. denounced by the French Clergy — His temporising Policy — The Tmin GoA-ernment and the Pope — Question of the Status quo— Cavourj ' Free Church and Free State ' — His Overtures rejected by Pius IX 2G'J CHAPTER XXHI. THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. Papal War against Civil Power — Pius IX. 's Alliance with the Jesuits — Their Exaltation of the Papacy — Programme of the Svllabus First Proposals of a General Council — Allocution of 18C7 to the Bishops at Rome— The Council convened — Comiter-movement in Germany and France— Address of Coblentz Catholics— Bavaria considts the Universities — Declaration of German Bishops at Fulda — Dupanloup's Warning Pastoral— Circular of Piince Hohenlohe - Passive Attitude of the Governments— Count Bismarck's Instructions to Count Arnim— Opening of the Council— Papal Restrictions on CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. IX FieeJoiu of Debate — Composition of the Council — Dispi(J])ortion of Numbers and Intelligence— Divisions in the Minority — Count Baru's Attempt at Intervention — Consistent Neutrality of Count Bismarck — Arbitrary Conduct of the Majority — Thuid Opposition of the Minority — Close of the General Debate— The Constitution voted — Withdrawal of the Minority — The Dogma of Infallibility pro- claimed PAGE 204 CHAPTER XXIV. THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. Triumph of Rome over the Episcopate — Dogmatic Constitution of July ] 8, 1870— Liberal Catholicism in Germany— Dollinger rebuked by the Curia — Anomalous Attitude of his School — Arguments of Schulte examined — Question of (Ecumenicity and Freedom of Council — The Dogma tested by Scripture and Tradition — Con- gresses of Old Catholics at Munich and Cologne- Chimerical Hopes of a reunited Christendom — Church Constitution of the Old Catholics — Consecration of Bishop Reinkens — Divisions in the Old Catholic Party — The Movement compared with the Reformation — Its un- tenable Character — Its Protection by the State — False Policy of the Government in Prussia — Conduct of Bavaria — Probable Future of the Movement — Altered Relations between Catholicism and the**- State — Austria rejects the Concordat — The Reservation of ex Cathedra 335 CHAPTER XXV. THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCH SINCE 1848."^ France : General Synod of 1848 — ' Union of the Evangelical Churches' ~~^ Reorganisation by Napoleon III. — External Oppression of Pro- testants— General Synod of 1872 — Contest between Orthodox and Liberal Parties — Protestantism in Italy — in Spain — in Austria — . Illiberal Policy of Count Thun — Protestant Movement in Hungary —Patents of 1859 and 1861— Remedial Legislation of 1868— Ger- m&Qj : Evangelical Church Union at AMttenberg — Prussia : Con- stitution of 1860— Cabinet Order of 1852— Revision of Rhenish- "SVestphaliau Church Constitution — Passive Conduct of Frederick William IV.— Gerlach and the Kreuz-zeitung Party — Their mischie- vous State-Church Principles— Reforms of A'on Bethmann-Hollweg — Church Constitution of Baden — ' Union ' of Liberal Protestants — Their anti-Confessional Principles— Freethinkers and semi-unbe- lievers— Their Want of Cohesion— The Confessional Movement — Incorporation of Provincial Chui-ches by Prussia — Scheme of a Church Confederation— Constitutions of 1873 and 1876— Holland -^ Revised Chmeh Constitution of 1852— System of Secular EcTucation England : Internal Progress of the State-Church— Political Growth CONTENTS OF THE SECONI> VOLUME. of Dissent — State of Church Parties — Public Worship llegulatiou Act — The Bishops and Ritualism — Prospects of the Established Church — Church Patronage in Scotland — Disestablishment of the V Irish Church page 372 CHAPTER XXVI. THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. Ameetca : Statistics of Catholic Progress — Political Influence of the Hierarchy — Their Attempts to control Education — Protestant Parties of Opposition — Question of Secular Education — The Voluntary System a Counterpoise to Ultramontanism. Great Britain : Unconciliatory Attitude of Catholics — Irish Univer- sity Bill — Mr. Gladstone and Vaticanism — Progress of the Hierarchy — Aversion to coercive Legislation. 1'rance : Ultramontane Reaction since 1870 — Official Support of Cleri- calism— Ultramontane Demands in Education — Bill of M. Jules Simon — University Education Law, 1875 — Dangers of Radicalism. Spain : Constitution of 1869 — Liberty of Worship opposed by Rome. Belgium : Clerical Domination — The Priests and the Liberals. Italy : The Government removed to Rome — Law of Papal Guarantees — Religious Corporations Bill — Results of Recent Legislation — Relations between the Vatican and the Government — Prospects of Reconciliation. Austria : Legislation of 1874 — Regulation of Internal Autonomy of the Church — Protests of the Pope and Bishops — Firm Attitude of the Government — Position of the Old Catholics. Switzerland : Radical Dictatorship at Geneva — Appointment of Bishop Mermillod — His Quarrel with the Government — Civil Constitution of the Church — Catholic Disunion — Conflict in the Bernese Jura — Removal of Bishop Lachat — Establishment of State-Church in Berne — Revision of the Federal Constitution. Germany : Friendly Relations with Rome before the French War — Reversal of State Policy in Prussia— New Catholic Party of the Centi-e — Harsh Conduct of the Government — Church Legislation of 1871 Case of Dr. WoUmann — Expulsion of the Jesuits — The Falk Laws — Confusion of Civil and Spiritual Competence — Resistance of Catholic Laity— The Wiirtemberg Law of 1862— Supplementary Legislation against the Church— Banishment of recusant Clergy — Compulsory Civil Marriage Law— The Struggle in 1875 — The Pope and the Emperor— Encyclical to Prussian Bishops — With- drawal of State Salaries— Administration of Church Property — Bismarck's Circular on the next Conclave— What the Catholic Church will never assent to— Siurvey of the Struggle— The Way to conquer Ultramontanism '^^^ THE RELATIONS OF CHURCH AND STATE. CHAPTEE XVn. EFFECTS OP THE FKENCH REVOLUTION ON GERMANY Secularisation of Ohurcli Property — Secret Treaty bet-ween France and Prussia — Treaty of Oampo Formio — Congress of Rastadt — Treaty of Lunäville — General Plan of Indemnity imposed by France and Russia — The Ecclesiastical States deprived of Independence — Secularisation in Bavaria under Montgelas — Edict of Religious Liberty — Secidarisation in Wiirtemberg and Baden — Dalberg's Negotiations for a German Con- cordat— Attempted Concordat for Bavaria — Papal Negotiations with Wiirtemberg — Bonaparte and the Rhenish Confederation — Ecclesiastical Commission of 1809 — Thugut's Policy in Austria — Religious Edict of 1788 in Prussia — The Landrecht of 1794 — Good relations with Rome — The Lmidrecht and Protestantism — Mediatising of the Church in \^'iir- temberg. The principles of the French revolution, although only chap. the consequences of the views which the so-called age of -— t "■■ enlightenment had spread, were yet so irreconcilably op- posed to all the actual conditions of Europe, that the over- throw of the old French monarchy was bound to lead to conflicts with foreign countries. In the contest of the great powers against revolutionary France, England alone maintained her domestic constitution unaltered, and her soil untouched. No country, on the other hand, was more shaken to her base than the neighbouring Germany. VOL. IL B EFFECTS OF TUE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON GERMANY. Secret treaty between France and Prussia, August 5, 1796. The relations of the Church to the Emph'e, no less than to the separate German States, suffered in the first place a searching change through the secularisation of her dignitaries and landed property. The first example of this revolution had been given by the Peace of West- l)halia. Later on, at the first partition of Poland, the bishopric of Prussian Ermland, then under Polish sovereignty, was suppressed in the same manner as the ecclesiastical states in West Prussia, one-half only of the revenues of the confiscated property being paid to the previous possessors, in order, as Frederick IL declared, ' that ecclesiastics might not be distracted by the manage- ment of their estates, and might be less hindered in the performance of their spiritual duties.' Joseph IL follow ed the lead with his extensive confiscations of monastic pro- perty, and after the French Eevolution had made a clean sweep of all the possessions of the Church, it was only natural that during the wars and territorial changes that ensued, the lands and goods of the Church should be . regarded as appropriate booty to compensate for losses incurred in other ways. The first new step in this direction was taken by Prussia, in conjunction with France. By a secret con- vention,^ signed at Berhn on the advance of the French troops into Bavaria (August 5, 1796), Frederick William II. promised, on behalf of the German empire, not to oppose the cession of the left bank of the Ehine to the French republic, and to recognise the principle that the temporal princes on that bank, who would thus be dis- possessed, should be indemnified, at the expense of the spiritual princes of the empire, by the secularisation of their bishoprics. The King of Prussia obtained, as com- pensation, the bishopric of Münster, with the district of See Garden, ' Hist, des Traites/ t. v. p. 359. SECULARISATION OF CIIUHCII PROPERTY. 8 Eecklingliauscii, and engaged to procure for the Prince chap. of Orange, sliould his restoration to the Stadtholderate • -—^ be deemed inadmissible, the secularised bishoprics of Würzburg and Bamberg, together with the dignity of Elector ; those bishoprics to devolve upon the house of Brandenburg, in case the prince should die without issue male. The Emperor Francis denounced, it is true, these arrangements to the ecclesiastical states of the empire, in order to rouse them to more vigorous action ; but he him- self admitted the principle of secularisation in the fifth article of the Secret Treaty of Campo Formio^ (October Treaty of 17, 1797) — notwithstanding the promise to protect the Fonni!) Churcli, given in his coronation engagement in 1792, as nt?.^^' advocatus ecclesice — and even accepted the offer of France to procure for liim the archbishopric of Salzburg. France now, supported by the promises of the two great powers, openly proposed to the empire, at the Congress of Eastadt, Congress the principle of secularisation (March 15, 1798), in order March i5,' to gain the frontier of the Ehine. The ecclesiastical states, who resented with good reason these pretensions, as an interference in the constitution of the empire, naturally resisted with all their might the proposal, that they alone should pay the penalty of the German defeats ; and when that resistance proved unavaihng, fell away among themselves. The bishops shoAved themselves ready to surrender the possessions of the Church: the arch- bishops declared themselves content if the demand were limited to the confiscation of the bishoprics. Finally Mayence acquiesced in the secularisation of Cologne and Treves, provided she herself remained untouched. The secular states of the empire outvied each other in greedi- ness and rapacity, anxious only to secure as nmch as possible of the lands now cons^idered without a master. ' Ibid. t. V. p, 420. B 2 EFFECTS OF TUE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON GERINIANY. On the 4th of April the Deputation was compelled to accept the principle of secularisation. Three years later that principle was carried into practical effect by the Treaty of Luneville, followed by the Recess of the Deputation. Article VII. of that treaty recited as follows : — ' And whereas, in consequence of the cession which the empire makes to the French re- public, several princes and states of the empire will be dispossessed, either wholly or in part, while it is incum- bent upon the Germanic empire collectively to support the losses resulting from the stipulations in the present treaty ; it is agreed between his Majesty the emperor and king, as well in his own name as in that of the Germanic empire, and the French republic, that, in conformity with the principles formally established at the Congress of Eastadt, the empire shall be bound to give to the here- ditary princes who shall be dispossessed on the left bank of the Ehine, an indemnity which shall be taken from the whole of the empire, according to arrangements which on these bases shall be ultim^ately determined upon.' ^ Even the grand duke of Tuscany was promised (Article Y.) a ' full and complete indemnity in Germany for the loss of his Italian dominions.' Two months after the conclusion of this treaty a decree of the Diet of Eatisbon (April 30, 1801), invited the emperor to arrange the settlement of the empire, and on finding Francis delay, appointed (October 8, 1801) a deputation of eight members, with unlimited powers to settle the question of indemnification. But while the plenipotentiaries were negotiating the execution of the articles of the treaty, Bonaparte had made peace with England, and had concluded his convention with the Emperor Alexander (October 11).^ The German princes ' Marten's ' Reciieil des Tniite.s,' vii. 29G. '^ Garden, t. vi. p. 287. GENERAL PLAN OF INDEMNITY. 5 now proceeded to open negotiations at Paris, and con- ^J,'[.)/'- eluded separate treaties with France.^ As the Em- " — ' — ' peror Alexander, through his alliance with the princely house of Baden, obtained a share in the settlement of t]ie empire ; so in those days of profound ^nnniliation, the fate of the Church property in Germany lay in the hands of Eussia and France. While the cabinet of Vienna still remained inactive, conerai these two jwwers arranged a scheme of indemnity. Iiemtiuy" Prussia, who was a party to their proceedings, was re- ^^^^' warded with the city of Münster, the bishoprics of Ilildesheim and Paderborn, some Mayence possessions, and several abbeys, all of which she immediately pro- ceeded to occupy. Austria, in return for the cession of Ortenau to the duke of Modena, received the bishoprics of Trent and Biixen. The emperor's brother Ferdinand, the grand duke of Tuscany, obtained the archbishopric of Salzburg with the title of Elector, and parts of the bishoprics of Passau and EichstUdt. Bamberg, Freisingen, Augsburg, and Wiirzburg fell to Bavaria ; Osnabrück to George III., as elector of Hanover ; Fulda and Corvey, with the imperial city of Dortmund, to the prince of Nassau-Orange, as an indemnity for the lost Stadtholderate and the territories in Holland and Belgium ; and other states of the empire were similarly provided for. The Deputation, at the summons of the French and Eussian ministers, who attended as mediators, were simply re- quired to accept within two months ^ the scheme in its Ratified by integrity. It was a proceeding of so unusual a kind, as inju-Depu- could only appear possible imder the peculiar circum- ^''"""• ^ France and Prussia (May 23, 1802), France and Bavaria (May 24), France and Wiirteniberg (June 20). These treaties were secret, but their substance is lully given by Garden, t. vii. p. 140 sqq. 2 This was nut actually done, however, till the liecess of the next year (Feb. 25, 180ü). (Sec Garden, t.\i\. passim.) EFFECTS OF TUE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON GERMANY. CHAP, stances of Germany. The empire lost altogether about — r— ^ 1,150 square miles of territoiy. The various dynasties were indemnified, nay, in all cases, considerably enlarged their possessions. Even princes like those of Hanover and Brunswick, and the dukes of Tuscany and Modena, who had lost nothmg on the left bank of the Ehine, and had no claim therefore to compensation, obtained at this general division of Church property, larger or smaller morsels of the spoil. The area of confiscation embraced 1,719 square miles, containing 3,161,776 inhabitants, all of whom now became subjects of secular, and, as so happened, for the most part of Protestant governments. This aggregate included the archbishoprics of Cologne, Treves, and Mayence, the first two of which were abolished. The archiepiscopal see of Mayence, now presided over by Dalberg, the open ally of the First Consul, was transfei'red ^ to the cathedral Church of Eatisbon, and the dignity of arch-chancellor of the empire and primate of Germany was attached ' in perpetuity ' to its possessor. The elector of Mayence, therefore, alone of all the ecclesiastical princes, was to retain his sovereignty, and to be indem- nified, at least in part, for his losses on the left bank of the Ehine, by receiving the principalities of Aschaffenburg and Eatisbon, and the imperial city of Wetzlar ' ä titre de comte et en pleine superiorite territoriale,' together with 650,000 florins for income, and another 350,000 florins derived from the octroi on the navigation of the Ehine. Twenty-nine bishoprics and a multitude of convents and abbacies, immediately under the empire, lost their independence. But, in addition to this, the private property of the suppressed convents and abbeys, valued at 420,000,000 florins of capital, was assigned to the different sovereigns ; and it was further determined, ' ' Reces Principal,' § xxv. in Martens, vii. 483. GENERAL PLAN OF INDEMNITY. iu like manner, that all the goods of the convents, abbeys, and religious houses, which the Recess had not formally disposed of, should be placed at the free and full disposition of the respective territorial princes,^ who could therefore suppress also all the remaining institutions of that nature, wherever situated in their dominions, and take possession of their property. The only formal reservations were the endowment of the cathedrals which were to be retained, and the pensions for the suppressed clergy. As for the rest, though they were directed to apply the confiscated property to the ' expenses of religious worship, of seminaries for education, and other establishments of pubhc utility,' yet they were allowed to retain the same, if they pleased, ' to ease,' as it was termed, ' their finances.',^ In connection with this, it is merely to be remarked, that according to § xlii., the convents of recluse w^omen were not to be secularised, unless with the consent of the bishop of the diocese ; but the monasteries were left to the disposition of the terri- torial princes, who might suppress or preserve them at their pleasure. It was further provided, that neither monasteries nor nunneries should receive any novices, without the consent of the local sovereign. To the Chiu*ch there remained only the pious and charitable foundations, but these were expressly subjected to the supervision and control of the sovereigns.^ In this manner the whole previous distribution of the Catholic hierarchy in Germany was upset. The proceeding was all the more significant, since, according to that orcranisation, the centres of Church Q-overnment were the ' ' Reces Principal,' § xxxv. * ' Pour le aoulagement de leurs finances.' Ibid 3 Ibid. § Ixv. 8 EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON GERMANY. CHAP, spiritual principalities, immediately under the empire ; ^ r— ^ from whence also the power of the Church was exercised over the dominions of the secular princes, so far, that is '^{'"■■^ti 1 ^^ ^^^' ^^ ^^ exemption existed. Of this, however, there states de- could no longer be any question, since the spiritual princes pr ived of indepen- bccanie the subjects of their former co-estates, and the deuce Church thereby lost her territorial independence. No unbiassed person will lament the lost independence of these ecclesiastical principalities, presenting, as they did, such a glaring anomaly to modern times, and having long- before challenged criticism by their abuses. The prince- bishops occupied themselves, as was only too plain, far more with their temporal interests than with the spiritual welfare of their dioceses, the large extent of which, more- over, rendered their administration all the more laborious. The extra-territorial jurisdiction which they exercised was a source of dispute with the sovereigns of those territories. But although their justification was gone when they had lost their practical utility, the manner of their incorporation, by which German princes purchased, through heavy bribes, the protection of France and Eussia, remains a melancholy page in the history of Germany. The result, moreover, has shown that the dependence of the Catholic Church in Germany on Eome increased with the loss of her secular possessions. The pope protested at that time, it is true, as he protested afterwards at the Congress of Vienna, against the work of spoliation ; but this did not prevent him from incorporating into France, by his Bull of December 29, 1800, all the ancient bishop- rics on the left bank of the Eliine, and from raising Ratisbon in 1805 to the archiepiscopal see of the whole of Germany, although, in so doing, he carefully avoided all mention of sequestration. Pacca, at that time nuncio, declared later on, in a public speech, that this iniquitous spoliation of the German Church had been no misfortune SECULARISATION IN BAVARIA. 9 to her at all, since the bishops, thus deprived of their chap. secular domains, lent the more wiUing ear, in conse- - — ^—^ quence, to the voice of the Supreme Shepherd of the Church. One after another, the separate governments now exercised zealously their newly-acquired rights, by sup- pressing all the remaining convents, abbeys, and religious liouses ; while the endowments and pensions of their former possessors were meted out as sparingly as pos- sible. In Bavaria, where certainly most remained to be secuiarisa- cleared away in Church and State, this process was Bavaria, conducted with peculiar harshness under the government of Montgelas and Maximihan Joseph. Charles Theodore had soon forsaken the tendencies of his predecessor towards enlightenment. Braun, who had been appointed in 1777 Director-General of Schools, was removed only four years afterwards from his post ; and the work of his creation fell rapidly to pieces, under the guidance of ecclesiastics of opposite tendencies. The property of the suppressed order of the Jesuits, originally appropriated to the support of the schools, was applied for providing for the numerous illegitimate children of the elector, and the entire conduct of public education was handed over to religious houses, no less than 170 of which were existing in 1801. Fifteen hundred mendicant friars wandered through the country. The peasantry grew up in coarse- ness and ignorance, acquainted merely with the external forms of religion, wliich consisted practically in learning by heart the tenets of the catechism compiled by Jesuits. The feast days took up well-nigh a quarter of the year. Eeligious service was deformed with grotesque and almost heathenish customs. Processions, pilgrimages, and miraculous images occupied the foremost place in public devotion. All German writings were suppressed as Lutheran ; even Kant was prohibited by the censorship. 10 EFFECTS OF TUE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON GERMANY. CHAP. Certainly the former exclusiveness of Germany could not XVII. . . . ^~ — r-^ be entirely re- established. Enlightenment, having once penetrated the national mind, assumed an organised form in the secret society of the Illuminati,^ which, however insipid and untenable its aims, still, in spite of rigorous persecution, grew dangerous to the government from the decline of the country itself. ' This puerile revolt,' says Perthes, ' against the condition of hoary senility, completed the picture of decrepitude, which Bavaria presented to- wards the end of the eighteenth century.' ^ Such ^vas Montgeias. the posturc of affairs, when Montgelas, who, himself one of the lUuminati, had been compelled for that reason to quit Munich, was summoned to direct the ministry in 1799, on the accession of Max Joseph to the electorate. Personally destitute of any moral weight or intiuence, he represented the tendency of the old doctrine of enlighten- ment, which saw its mission fulfilled in the removal of the rubbish, accumulated by centuries in the Church and ill the State. After the example of his idol Napoleon, he began by effacing the vestiges of all political institutions, from which resistance was still to be expected, and erect- ing on the ruins an unlimited princely absolutism. That done, he directed his attack against the position hitherto asserted by the Church in Bavaria. The Recess of the Deputation having expressly allowed the sovereign (§ Ixiii.) to ' tolerate the members of other persuasions, and to grant to them the full enjoyment of civil rights,' the elector formally decreed the admission of Protestants. Keiigious Thereupon the Standing Committee of the Landtag, ' pene- troduced!"^ tratcd with consternation,' protested against this breach of the unity of Catholic faith, which had been ratified by the recent dynastic treaty of 1771. The elector replied, ^ For a sketch of this society see Menzel's ' History of Germany,' edit. 1849. Engl, transl., vol. iii. p. 101 sqq. ^ ' Polit. Personen und Zustände,' I. p. 443. RELIGIOUS EQUALITY IX BAVARL\. 11 tliat tlie jus reformandi had always belonged exclusively chap. to the territorial princes, and that the Peace of Westphalia — ■ — ' protected the subjects in their religion merely in case of the sovereign changing his creed. The equalisation of all Christian confessions, who obey a common system of morality and a common teacher, could have none other but a beneficial effect on the elevation of the physical and moral energies of the country. They had only to com- pare those States which had sacrificed everything to the monarchy of the Church and to unity of religion, with those which were open to foreign industry and civilisation, without distinction of creed. The acquisition of parts of Swabian and Franconian territory was accompanied with the grant of religious equality ; to their Protestant in- habitants all the rights, enjoyed by the Catholics in the hereditary provinces, were amply assured, just as the exclusion of the Catholics was prohibited. The papal protests, urgently warning the elector against the ' horrible evil and lamentable consequences of these edicts,' inas- much as the weapons of ' defence against the enemies of the Faith were being torn from the hands of the Catholics, and arms were given to the Protestants to injure, freely and without restraint, the Church of Christ,' remained unheeded and ineffectual. The Constitutional Act of 1808 extended to all Christian persuasions, throughout the new kingdom of Bavaria, general equality of civil and political rights, and gave to all subjects perfect liberty of conscience. The Ecclesiastical Council, which was intended to secure the rights of the sovereign against the Catholic Church, but had come very much under the influence ot the clergy, was now dissolved, and its authority trans- ferred to a department of the Ministry of the Interior. The elector declared, in an edict of 1804, that his efforts Edict of were directed to rehabilitate the priesthood in the dignity of their important office, and to promote tlie purity of 1804. 12 EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON GERMANY. CHAP. Christian worship, but that he would never allow the ' — V-i— clergy to form an Imperium in imperio, and to shake off their allegiance, as regarded either their secular con- duct or possessions, to the laws and to the govern- ment. Even in all spiritual matters, moreover, con- nected with the State, such as the education of the people, the priests were to be regarded not simply as servants of the Church, but as functionaries also of the government. By the edict of 1803, all matters ' emanating from sovereignty, and not incontestably belonging to the supreme pastoral office,' were transferred to the secular authorities. The schools became State institutions : the elector declared in 1804, that there existed neither a Catholic nor a Protestant system of instruction, and that he would therefore not permit the hierarchy to exert any influence on the schools. The university of Ingolstadt was removed to Landshut, in order to withdraw it from the direction of the bishop of Eichstadt. Protestant students were repeatedly invited to frequent it, and like the newly acquired university of Würzburg, it was reor- ganised upon a strictly secular system. Spiritual authority was restricted to matters belonging purely to the Church : in all others the clergy were subjected to secular jurisdiction. The Placet was rigidly maintained. The administration of all church property was transferred to electoral authority. The episcopal right of collation was curtailed by the right of patronage, vested in the sove- reign. The parochial clergy were protected against the bishojjs ; all priests not educated in Bavaria were excluded from benefices ; the seminaries for priests were placed under the control of the sovereign. The government, by virtue of the powers of police claimed by it over the Church, interfered, further, directly in the religious life of the people. The long foreign pilgrimages were for- bidden, together with scourgings, miraculous cures, SUrPKESSION OF RELIGIOUS HOUSES. 13 exorcisms, and similar ecclesiastical mummeries. But chap. the chief attack was directed against convents and XVII. religious houses. Those only were preserved, which fi"^PJf®" had been founded for education or the nursing of the [f^^^r^ sick ; the property of the rest was handed over to the fund for defraying the expenses of the public schools. That these religious houses had outhved their objects, is admitted even by Catholic writers. The cathedral chap- ters were accessible only to the members of a few noble families, who, as sinecurists, squandered their enormous ■wealth. Each and all, these institutions promoted only indolence and mendicancy. But the harshness, nay brutality, with which the secularisation was effected, is wholly without justification. The non-Bavarian monks were simply taken across the frontier by soldiers. The treasures of the religious houses were brought to the hammer. Their lands and buildings were sold, and frequently for a price out of all proportion to their value, in consequence of the excessive number of offers. Most of the residences of the clergy were speedily altered for the reception of government officials. It is plain that such measures, which were repeated, more or less, in all German countries, could not fail to change entirely the position of the Catholic Church. Not only did those Priest-States disappear, in which, up to the latest times of the ecclesiastical states, the bishops w^ere sovereigns, and the clergy formed the ruling class ; but in the secular territories also there was an end of all those institutions and social conditions, which had pre- supposed the absolute and exclusive rights of the Catholic Church. The legislation, moreover, which had accom- plished these results, by resting on its own sovereignty and ignoring the canon law, appeared with reason more dangerous to the court of Eome than the secularisation of ecclesiastical sovereignties, the twofold character of 14 EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON GERMANY. CHAP. XVI I. Secularisa- tion in Würtem- burg, wliich frequently brought them into colhsion with Eome, whenever secular interests were involved. This view was stated veiy nakedly in the papal brief to Bavaria, of February 12, 1803. The pope therein expresses his extreme disapproval of all that had been done against the rights of the Church and in favour of the non-Cathohcs, and demands that those perverse measures shall be re- scinded, and atonement made for the scandal, given by the successor of those praiseworthy princes, who for three centuries had preserved inviolate, by their legislation, the Catholic Church in Bavaria.^ Wlirtemberg proceeded on similar principles of terri- torialism. This country, up to 1802, had been purely Protestant ; but after that time it acquired so much Catholic territory of the empire, that its area equalled that of the hereditary dukedom. Here also the exclusive barriers of creed were broken down, and equal rights conceded to the three confessions ; but the churches, at the same time, were subjected entirely to the civil power. Frederick I. declared to the pope, that he would recog- nise no regulations made by a foreign power, respecting the internal relations of the kingdom ; and he secured obedience to his own commands by instituting a Church Council under the Minister of Public Worship, besides claiming the exercise of the Placet for every ecclesiastical publication. The existing episcopal jurisdiction was ac- quiesced in only for purely ecclesiastical causes ; in all mixed questions, such as those relating to marriage, deprivation of office, and others, the concurrence of the civil government was required. The latter also interfered in all matters of worship and disciphne. Pilgrimages to foreign parts were forbidden, as also any devotional exercise out of doors after dark ; and the national Sicherer, ' Staat und Kirche iu Bayern.' (Document No. 3.) DALBEKGS SCHEME OF A CONCORDAT. 15 scliools, previously conducted by the Church, were placed chap. XVII. under the government. If proceedmgs were less violent in Baden, Hesse, and in Baden, Nassau, the reason lay partly in the personal character of their princes, like Charles Frederick of Baden, partly also in the circumstance, that in this motley group of states, the Church was not a power, like the Catholic Church in Bavaria, and the Protestant in Wiirtemberg. On the contrary, the university of Freiburg, which Baden acquired with the Breisgau, had been the head-quarters of that Josephist doctrine of Church rights, which conceded civil authority over the Church equally to a Protestant, as to the former Cathohc government. For the same reason also, the clergy there educated offered no resistance to the thoroughly territorial system which the grand-duke introduced. With regard to the internal organisation of the Church internal in Germany, it is to be noticed that the Circumscription tiTnof'the Bullof November 29, 1801, which, issued in execution of chuTch! the Frencli Concordat, had converted all those portions of the trans-Eheuane German bishoprics into French dioceses, left the portions on the right bank unaltered and undis- turbed. The Recess of the Deputation determined (§ Ixii.) that the archiepiscopal and episcopal dioceses should remain in statu quo, 'pending the establishment of a new diocesan organisation, conformable to the laws of the empire,' and undertook to obtain their future endow- ment. It was attempted at first to efiect this readjustment in the manner prescribed, by opening negotiations with Eome on the subject of a Concordat for the empire. The soul of this movement was the electoral arch- Oaiberg's scheme of fl chancellor Charles von Dalberg. Eaised to the dignity of concordat. German primate, by his facile conduct to Napoleon, he had inherited the only remaining archiepiscopal see out of the four previously existing in Germany. As such he 16 EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON GERMANY. CHAP, aspired, after the example set by the former archbishop ^ ^^ of Mayence, to apply the principles embodied in the Ems Punctations, with a view to obtaining a greater indepen- dence for the German hierarchy. And in many respects, circumstances appeared to favour his design. The im- mediate bishops of the empire, whose jealous opposition had proved so fatal to the metropolitans, had become the subjects of secular princes ; and their interests now, con- versely to before, prompted them to look for protection to the sole remaining territorial magnate of the Church, against the sovereigns thus forced upon them. The imperial court, moreover, which formerly had sided with the bishops, was now equally inclined to a settle- ment of the relations of the Catholic Church, conformable to the laws of the empire ; for, as supreme head of that empire, it hoped to reassert its rightful protectorate, as advocatus ecclesice. Lastly, Eome also inclined in this direction, because she avoided thereby the necessity of treating separately with the various princes, most of whom were Protestants, in the manner they naturally demanded. Accordingly the pope declared to them, as well as to the First Consul, that he could not negotiate, ' separement ni independamment du chef de I'empire.' Thenegoti- Thus tlicu the nuucio at Vienna, and afterwards della fapse.^ '^'^ ' Genga, the former nuncio at Cologne, actually endeavoured to effect an agreement with two representatives of the empire, on the basis of a Concordat for Germany. But insurmountable obstacles arose at the outset. The court at Vienna declared that the intended agreement could only apply to the empire, not to the hereditary states of Aus- tria. Here therefore the very ordinances of Joseph II. were to continue untouched, which it was the essential object of the Vatican in this negotiation to cancel.^ On the other hand, Dalberg deceived himself in hoping to ' Consalvi, ' Memoiri's,' -vo]. ii. pp. 304-7. COLLAPSE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS. 17 obtain something similar to the French Concordat. The chap. motives of compulsion, which had induced Pius VIE. to ^■■^\"-' yield so much to the First Consul, were entirely wanting in his dealings with Germany. On the contrary, he even declared that the very fixct of his having been forced to make such concessions to France, made him the less able to grant any alleviations to other countries. Thus the negotiations came to a dead-lock. Dalberg, it is true, had effected so far an agreement with Genga's auditor, Count Troni, that a national German Church should be constituted for the territories not belonging to Austria and Prussia, with eleven bishoprics under the primate, who was to be elected in future by the chapter of the metropolitan. But in the conferences on this scheme, conducted at Paris between Dalberg, who had gone thither for the coronation of the Emperor, and the Cardi- nals AntonelU, Pietro, and Casselli, the latter made so many reservations and objections, that the whole plan came to nothing. Dalberg only obtained the papal sanction to the transfer of the see of Mayence to Eatisbon, after the urgent intercession of Napoleon with Pius VII. A menacing letter of the emperor to the pope, after the battle of Austerlitz, in which he threatened to arrange the relations of the German Church with Dalberg alone, without Eome, proved ineffectual. The negotiation with Consalvi was formally adjourned, ' on account of the heavy troubles and the embarrassed position of the pope.' ^ By the establishment of the Confederation of the Ehine (July 17, 1806), and the abdication of the imperial crown of Germany by Francis II. (August 6),'^^ the formal possi- bility of a Concordat of the empire fell to the ground ; and the elevation of Dalberg as grand-duke of Frankfort, ' Meyer, * Zur Geschichte der Eömisch-Deutschen Frage,' i. p. 225. Rostock, 1872. ' 'Hist, des Traitös,' vol. viii. Meyer, ' Corpus,' vol. i. p. 70. VOL. IL C 18 EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON GERMANY. CHAP. XVII. removed the anomaly of a solitary eeclesiastical principality surviving beside the papal states. As the pope regarded the abdication of the emperor- simply as a private act, and refused to recognise either the discontinuance of the Holy Eoman Empire, or Napoleon's protectorate of the Confederation of the Ehine, nothing was now left but to negotiate separate Concordats with those territorial princes who had ac- quired the rights of sovereigns. The most important of these, the former elector, and now king of Bavaria, had opposed most warmly, from the first, Dalberg's attempted Concordat for the empire ; nay, he had distinctly an- nounced his intention to repudiate it ultimately, if con- cluded, and in that resolve he was supported by Napoleon, who wished also to have a hand in this business. Already in 1804, the suffragan bishop of Munich, von Häffelin, had been specially despatched to Eome, in order to point out the dangers that might arise to the Papacy Attempted from an imperial Concordat, by conferring such a powerful forX- ^ position upon the German primate, especially if an arch- duke were to occupy his see, and to urge the conclusion of a separate Concordat, with the view of obviating those evils, and regulating the relations of the Bavarian National Chiu-ch.^ But Häffelin met with a reception most unfavourable from Consalvi, who complained warmly of the injuries inflicted on the Church by the recent legislation in Bavaria, and demanded, with reference to the Brief of February 12, 1803, the restoration of the old exclusively Catholic system as the preliminary con- dition of an agreement. With such pretensions to start with, it was naturally impossible to arrive at an under- standing ; and Häffelin failed equally later on, when the question of a Concordat was put aside, to obtain the assent of the pope to the establishment of a National Church, and ^ .Sicherer, p. 75. ATTE:\[rTED CONCORDAT FOU BAVAPJA. 19 the nomination of bishops by the crown.^ The Curia chap. .XVII answered only with complaints of the innovations against ■ — r— ' the Church in Bavaria, and by referring again to the negotiations for an imperial Concordat ; carefully abstain- ing, however, fi'om admitting the cause, namely, the Recess of the Deputation of the empire. But this ground of objection was removed, after Bavaria had gained by the Peace of Pressburg, and the Act of the Confederation of the Khine,^ not only the royal dignity but full sovereignty over the whole of her territories, including the districts ceded by Austria, such as Tyrol, the Vorarlberg, &c. Eome accordingly now declared her readiness to negotiate a national Concordat with Bavaria, and sent della Genga to Munich for that purpose. But the nuncio's demands augured ill for the success of his mis- sion. He insisted inflexibly, and on all points, on the re-establishment of the canon law. The government was to be excluded from all control over ecclesiastical affairs. The clergy and the property of the Church were to enjoy once more absolute immunity : the eccle- siastical jurisdiction was to be recognised : the entire management of schools, seminaries, and benevolent in- stitutions was to be handed over to clerical authorities : the censorship of the Church was to be re-introduced : ' The despatches of the ambassador, as recorded by Sichei'er, show him to have been a clear-sighted man. He writes to his court on April 8, 1805 as follows : ' It has been proved by experience that every Concordat with Eome or the bishops has been disadvantageous to the princes who concluded it. If the question is simply one of ecclesiastical dominion, then no Concordat is needed ; if of secular dominion, then the precept of the Gospel must be followed, " Render unto Ctesar that which is Caesar's" ; and on this point no prince must enter into treaties ■v\T.th the shepherd.' Later on, unfortimately, he renounced these excellent principles. See p. 62. 2 For tliis Act — the ' Rheinbund ' — see Koch's 'Traites ' (continued by Scholl), vol. viii. ; and Meyer's ' Corpus Juris Confederationis Ger- manica;,' vol. i. c 2 20 EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON GERMANY. CHAP, and a promise was to be given to reinstate the Catholic XVII rehgion in its integrity. In a word, the abrogation was demanded of all the recent ecclesiastical legislation in Bavaria. It is true that, in the course of these negotia- tions, the nuncio refrained from adhering tenaciously to all the above demands. He pointed out, that 'the Curia, in concluding the Concordat, must ensure the recognition in principle of all its claims, in order to retain for itself the strict letter of the treaty, as well as the power to in- sist, if necessary, on its frill execution ; but that it was willing, at the same time, orally to declare, for the sake of quieting the government, that, while having no inten- tion of explicitly approving a course of legislation opposed to the claims of Eome, and the text of the treaty, nevertheless it would tacitly accept it.' ^ Notwithstanding this, however, the points of view adopted by the two parties, were so diametrically opposed, that the negotia- tions, after lasting for fourteen months, had to be broken off without any tangible result. The mutual estrange- ment increased still more, when the pope energetically supported the Tyrolese bishops in their resistance against the Church legislation of Bavaria, and positively forbade them to yield in any way. The government expelled them from their sees, decreed temporal disabilities against the clergy who adhered to their cause, and finally interned them ; measures which led to violent disturb- ances among the population, and ultimately to an open revolt under Hofer against the enemies of the Church. Papal Tie- It is remarkable that the nuncio, on his visit to gotiations Wür- Stuttgart, after the failure of the negotiations with te^mijerg, j3,^y.-jj,jj^^ showcd himsclf far more yielding to the Pro- testant king of Wiirtemberg. The essential reason of this lay undoubtedly in the fact, that here, from the nature of the circumstances, the question was not, as in 1 Sicherer, p. 123. AND FOR wiuiTEMBERG. 21 Bavaria, of the re-establishment of the exchisive autliority ^\V1,^* of Cathohcism, but of consohdating its legal status in a ' ^ — ' country hitherto purely Lutheran. The form chosen for this purpose was not a Concordat, but a treaty, stipulating that the king should issue an ordinance to regulate the relations of his Catholic subjects to the Eomish Church. And an agreement was soon arrived at on all essential points. In a secret article, della Genga actually conceded to the crown the right of nominating to the two bishoprics to be newly established — the right, that is to say, of proposing nominees, to whom, if canonically eligible, the pope was bound to grant the necessary institution. By these mutual overtures, the negotiation took a satisfactory course ; and although not all the points of difference were yet removed, the final signatures would have been attached to the treaty, had not a peremptory summons arrived from Paris, to break off all separate negotiations with Eome, as Napoleon was about to arrange a common Concordat for the Confederation of the Ehine, at Paris, whither the nuncio was directed immediately to repair.-^ But there, also, no practical result was achieved. The Bonaparte separate states were as loth to accept a Concordat of the Kii^m^h Ehenish Confederation, as a Concordat of the empire, tion. since in either case their sovereignty would be curtailed. Least of all did they desire to submit themselves to an ecclesiastical organisation of the Ehenish Confederation under the prince-primate. Dalberg's project, carefully elaborated with that object, was not even seriously dis- cussed : and the final rupture of Napoleon with the pope terminated also for the time the negotiations on the affau's of Germany. The deliberation of these was resumed, at the instigation of Dalberg, by the ecclesiastical commis- ' The course of these negotiations is cle;/ ^ o ^--'-r— ' forbearance ; the abohtion and reorganisation of the cathedral-chapter at Breslau ; or the monstrous order, that Catholic soldiers, in order to ' habituate themselves to the respect due to the chief religion of the country,' should every fourth Sunday be present at the evangelical military service. The Zand- It is rcadilv intellicfible that the Landrecht, which recht and . . Protestant- interfered so closely with the relations of the Catholic Church, proceeded in a far more trenchant manner in its dealings with that of the Protestants, interwoven as their Church was with the principle of the supreme episcopal authority of the Sovereign. The compact constitution of the hierarchy might be limited, but its essential organi- sation continued unchanged. The Protestant Church on the contrary, which had no ecclesiastical superiors, but merely consistories under the sovereign, was treated simply as an institution of the State ; nay, the provision that individual congregations of the same religious sect do not enjoy of necessity any relations of mutual union, negatived her theory of a community of faith and con- fession. The system, therefore, of parochial self-govern- ment in the Church, which had been attempted to be con- structed on the basis of brotherly concord, was never able to develope itself. The principle thus embodied in the Landrecht^ found their characteristic expression later on in the edict of 1808 on the altered constitution of the supreme au- thorities of the State, which abolished the central authorities of the Church as well as the consistories, and transferred the administration of ecclesiastical mat- ters as affairs of police to the Ministry of the Interior and the civil government. In this manner the Church ceased to be an independent organism, and became simply a department of the administration as an MEDIATISATION IN Wu"RTE:\rBERG. 33 institution for public education. The head consistory ciiap. remonstrated as was natural, on the ground that the su- • r— ^ prenie episcopal government of the Church and the supreme government of the State by the sovereign, were two distinct offices, the fusion of which would hinder rather than promote rehgion. But their remonstrance was unheeded. It was due solely to the personal in- fluence of William von Humboldt, who himself held aloof from all positive religion, that so able a man as Nicolovius was placed at the head of the department of Public Worship, a man who had undertaken the self-imposed mission of re-awakening the religious faith of the people. It is easy to understand that a liberal-minded divine like Schleiermacher should warmly inveigh in his religious discourses against this degradation of the Church to the level of a mere institution of the State, as a position totally unworthy of her exalted character. In Prussia, this process of mediatising the Church was effected indeed without any serious resistance, for the Church there had long been feeble in her attitude towards the State. But in the strictly Lutheran Wui'temberg it required all the powerful energy of Frederick I. to break the stubborn independence of the Church. The Duke, it Mediatis- is true, was head of the Church, but that Church was church in completely severed from the State by her constitution, and berg, ma. maintained a position of extreme independence through her dignitaries, her vast and self-administered possessions, and her spiritual no less than her political influence. The absolutism of the king would not tolerate such a power in his country. By his edict of 1806 he stripped the Church of all her property, estimated at 30 miUion florins, incorporated it with the property of the State, and placed the entire system of education, which had hitherto been subject to ecclesiastical control, the University of VOL. II. D 34 EFFECTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ON GERMANY. CHAP. Tubingen, and the whole Church herself, solely under -- . ' - his officers of State. Although in Bavaria this period brought civil equahty Bavaria. ^^ ^^^ Protcstauts, as it did to the Catholics in Würtem- berg and Saxony, yet Montgelas took care that the evan- gelical Church should not acquire a position of indepen- dence in the new kingdom, but be directly subject to the government. Of all the States included in the Ehenish Baden. Confederation, Baden alone under the guidance of her grand-duke and his able servant, J. F. Brauer, showed that the practical duties of ecclesiastical legislation were understood in that country. In Germany the era of the Revolution had swept away, as in other tilings, so in the relations of Church and State, much that was untenable. But it had done nothing more than remove the old : it was reserved for the following epoch to show how far any vital power existed to create the new. 35 CHAPTEE XVni. THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. Principle of Legitimacy — Congress of Vienna and tlie Church — Restoration of Pins VII. — Revival of Papal Pretensions — Re-establishment of the Jesuits — -Restoration in Spain, Sardinia, Naples, the Papal States, and Tuscany — France : Clerical reaction under Louis XVIII. — Papal Con- vention of 1817 — Failure to revive Concordat of 1517 — Activity of the Parti Pretre — Law of Sacrilege — The Jesuits denounced by Montlosier — Ordinances of 1828 on Education — Unpopularity of the Clergy — Ger- many: Opposition of Bavaria to 'a Federal Concordat — Metternich opposes a Concordat for Austria — Bavarian Concordat of 1817 — Con- stitutional Act and Edict of Religion — Protest of Rome— Royal Rescript of Tegernsee — Negotiations of Prussia with Rome — Niebuhr's Memorial of 1819 — Bull De Salute Animarum — Circumscription Bull for Hanover — Frankfort Conference of South German States — their Negotiations with Consalvi— Concordat with the Netherlands — Redistribution of Dioceses in Switzerland — Germany : Roman sympathies of Catholic Clergy — Anti-Febronian Movement — Wessenberg's Attempts at Chm-ch Reform — Romantic and Historic Theories of Catholicism — Ultramontane -Doctrines of Görres and Droste — Feeble Policy of the Prussian Government — Catholic reaction in Silesia — Memorial of 1826 — Schimonsky and Presi- dent Merckel — Ultramontane Progress in the Netherlands — Catholic Emancipation in England. With the fall of Napoleon commenced an epoch, every effort of which was directed to allaying the convulsions of the last five and twenty years by a re-establishment of opposite principles. The Eestoration followed upon the Eevolution. If the latter had originated in the pre- sumption of the equal rights of all mankind, and the re- cognition of a philosophical right of reason, to be reahsed in the State without any regard to existing historical con- ditions of society ; now, on the contrary, tlie rights of dynasties and of privileged classes were asserted, as the 36 THE TtESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CIHIRCH. CHAP, sole divinely-sanctioned Government of the world, under « — r— ^ the distinctive appellation of the principle of legitimacy, kgilimlcy! Strange, indeed, it must have seemed at that time, that Talleyrand, so long the servant of the Eevolution, should now come forward as the most ardent champion of this new doctrine. And yet his conduct, in reahty, was consistent. There is no other alternative, he said, ' but Napoleon and Louis XVni. A principle, whatever it may be, is needed to give stabihty to the new Government ; Louis XVIII. re- presents a principle.' His object was to strengthen the Bourbon restoration, which he sought to promote, in the interests of France, not only by extending it to Naples, but also by reinstating the king of Saxony. For the same reason he looked upon legitimacy from a purely dynastic point of view, such as dealt with pubUc interests, simply like those of princely families, whilst the existence and historical development of nations remained altogether disregarded. So far, this principle exactly suited the leading states- men of the day, who sought in it at first merely a safe- guard against revolution. But as the temptation to strain its application increased, they proceeded to parcel out countries among themselves, with a genuine Napoleonic disregard of natural frontiers and relations, according to the mere numbers of souls. ^ Even the Emperor Francis — that paragon of uprightness — was no more hindered by any scruples of conscience from taking back Venetia, once ac- * In this respect Consalvi rightly remarks : ' On espere dominer la revolution en la comprimant ou en la for^ant ati silence ; et la revolu- tion d^borde meme au milieu du congres par des fissures que des mains trop interessees ou trop complaisantes lui ouvrent ä plaisir. Faire k chaque quart de si^cle changer les peuples de maitres, de lois, de moeurs et d'usages, n'a jamais ^t^ d'une habile et prevoyante politique.' Mem. i. p. 23. There follows, of course, a philippic against the liberty of the press, as the source of all evil. LEGITIMIST POLICY IN EUROPE. 37 quired by tlie shameful treachery of Campo Formio, than chap. he was prevented, by his devotion to the Holy See, from directing all his efforts to unite the Legations with his Italian possessions.^ And not one of the States included in the Kheuish Confederation, who survived the great crisis, ever dreamed of giving up one tittle of the spoil, which they owed to their subservience to the Usurper against their country. They accepted the principle of legitimacy in the manner that best furthered the interests of their newly-acquired sovereignty, which they peremptorily strove to guard against all limitation by the constitution of the German Confederation. Nor yet did that mysterious league of the three continental powers — the so-called Holy Alliance (September 26, 1815) — introduce any change in this respect. The only sincere promoter of that compact was the Emperor Alexander, who, under the influence of Madame de Krüdener and the philosopher Baader, saw in it the first step towards the realisation of his projects, namely, the union of the various Christian religions into one Church, and the annihilation of the Ottoman rule in Europe. Practically, the sole incident that determined the events of the period immediately following, was the agreement of the four great powers, which had broken the might of Napoleon, to maintain the state of things, as re-established after the long convulsions of the Ke vo- lution, and to put down whatever seemed to endane^er it. Congress i 1 "mi -ITT Vienna, as a menace to the peace of Europe. This leadmg idea Sept. 25, ^ The real intention of Austria went still further. In a note of May 26, 1814, Metternich reminded Lord Castlereagh that the pro- mises which England had made at Prague in 1813, to induce Austria to join the coalition, contained no stipulation for the restoration of the temporal rule of the pope. Thus, the inviolable right of Austria to that part of Italy remained, in fact, unabridged, as much because the emperor was king of the Romans as because he was the hereditary head of Germany. — Just as if Francis I. had never resigned the imperial crown I 38 THE BESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, became the programme of policy for the next ten years, - — r— ' adopted by the Congress of Vienna, and gave rise to con- flicts with the antagonistic currents of the time. Such a change in high pohtics could not, even by itself, re- main without influence on the relations of Church and State, although nothing was more remote from the minds of the leading statesmen at the Congress than to occupy themselves closely with such matters. Personally, they were either wholly indifierent to religious questions, or they were disciples of that philosophical doctrine of enhghtenment, which desired to retain no more of Christianity than its purified system of morals. But in either case they judged of all Chiu-ch questions simply from pohtical points of view : they furthered or opposed them, according as dynastic interests determined. In dis- regarding the desire of Consalvi for the restoration of the German Catholic Church to her former position, no less than his demand for the re-establishment of the Holy Eoman Empire ; in conforming as little to the wishes of the secularised chapters, as to those of Wessenberg, who re-advanced Dalberg's project of a German hierarchy, culminating in a national primate, their leading motive lay not in any fear of a renewal of the contest between Church and State, but solely in political and material considerations. The German sovereigns were anxious to retain the former ecclesiastical principalities and domains, as well as the possessions of the mediatised secular states ; and in the settlement of the relations between the Catholic and Evangelical Churches of their dominions, by the Act of Confederation (June 8, 1815), they resented all dictation by the central power as much for themselves, as for the rights of their territorial diets. Just as the kings of Bavaria and Wiirtemberg resisted most keenly RESTORATION OF PIUS VII. 39 any restriction of their civil authority,^ so it was due chap. . . xviit. essentially to their opposition, that the proposed article • — r— ^ on the guarantees to be granted to the Catholic and Evangelical Churches was first diluted by degrees, and finally omitted altogether from the Act of Confederation, which simply proclaimed the equality of all Christian professions in regard to civil and political rights.^ If, as regards Italy on the other hand, the Papal States were reconstituted within their former area (with the exception of Avignon), this result was in no way due to any peculiar tenderness for the Eoman Catholic Church. Pius VII. returned to Eome, like the kings of Sardinia, Spain, and Naples to their capitals. The indignities he had suffered from Napoleon had gained for him the sym- pathies of the enemies of his persecutor. His passive Restora- resistance to the all-powerful emperor had surrounded piusvii. him with the halo of martyrdom ; his health was drunk in 1814 at a banquet in London. Consalvi, who imme- diately after the re-entry of Pius VII. into Eome, resumed his former place as Cardinal Secretary of State, succeeded in turning this sympathy to excellent account. That astute politician of the Curia,^ who was not bhnd to the * Article XIII. provided in general terms that * in all states of the Confederation a representative constitution {Landständische Verfas- sung) shall be established,' but left the measure of those popular rights to the discretion of the territorial sovereigns. ^ Art. XVI. ' La difference des confessions Chr^tiennes dans les pays et territoires de la Confederation Allemande n'entrainera aucune difference dans la jouisaance des droits civils et politiques.' This article, like the XVIII. of similar import, was only inserted as part of the ' Par- ticular Provisions,' appended as a second division to the Act, at the instance of Austria, Prussia, and Hanover, for the purpose of restoring the popular rights which had been so violently destroyed by the Con- federation of the Rhine. ^ ' Consalvi etait I'homme de la situation. L'ltalie enti^re le saluait comme le digne heritier de tons ces immortels genies de hi politique, 40 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, designs of Austria upon the Legations, saw clearly enough ' — , — -- that the Catholic princes could not very well oppose the restoration of the pope, if the non-Catholic great powers recommended it. He hastened therefore from Paris, whither he had been sent to congratulate Louis XVIII. on his accession, to London, where the alUed sovereigns of Russia and Prussia were staying on a visit to the Prince Eegent. It was the first time since the Eeformation that a cardinal stepped on English soil as an official envoy. ^ He understood how to win the assent of the Regent, Wellington, and Castlereagh to the full restoration of the States of the Church, just as he had won that of Hardenberg and the Emperor Alexander, all of whom duly considered the extreme importance of a good understanding with Rome, in regard to their relations with their Cathohc subjects. Thus this question was virtually decided before the Congress of Vienna com- menced. Austria, after a stubborn resistance, was compelled to give way and surrender the Legations, and merely acquired the Polesina, together with the right of garrison in Ferrara and Comachio. In his allocution of September 4, 1815, the pope expressly extolled the great services which those sovereigns, not belonging to the Romish Church, had rendered to the recognition of his rights. But although considerations of politics, in this instance, turned the scale, the importance of this event was extremely great to the Church. Pius VII. moitie cygnes et moitie renards, qui surent faire plus de conquetes avec la parole que les batailleurs de I'^pee. . . , Insinuant comme ua par- fum, le cardinal entama et conduisit ä bien une negociation aussi epineuse. . . . ' So says his Ultramontane biographer {Mem. i. p. 38 ), and fancies he is conferring upon him great praise. He was moreover no priest. 1 Consalvi as well as his attendants, as Capacini informed Bunsen, put on during this visit the black coat and white cravat of the English clergy, (' Bunsen's Leben,' vol. i. p. 247.) REVn'AL OF PAPAL PRETENSIONS. 41 had regained his liberty of action, and that assuredly in a (;iiap. manner he had never known before. When he was ^ — r—^ elected in 1800, the Legations had already been ceded by tlie Treaty of Tolentino. His temporal independence had been gradually curtailed, and finally destroyed, by Napoleon : the old man, worried with persecution, had himself resigned it by the Concordat of Fontainebleau. His spiritual independence, moreover, had never seemed so crushed as under the empire. By his concessions in the matter of institution, he had surrendered his sole effective hold over the hierarchy. Now, all at once, his full inde- pendence, temporal as well as spiritual, devolved on him again, and therewith the possibility of re-establishing his supremacy in the Church. When Pius VII. returned to Rome, two ways were open to him. In the Catholic Church there existed at that time an evangelical move- ment, represented by men like Sailer, Overweg, and others. By patronising this movement he might have Revival of brought about a genuine regeneration of the Catholic tensions'^ Church. The other alternative was a rigid and inflexible policy of restoration ; and for this he decided. The cardinals of French sympathies, who had always been advising him to yield, fell into the background ; while those who had been persecuted by Napoleon were pro- moted to the most" important ofiices. The attenuated College of Cardinals was filled up in accordance with their principles ; the congregations were organised anew. The High Church party of the Zelanti started with the notion that all the mischief which had come upon the Church arose from that rebellion against the orthodox system of the Curia, which had been fostered so widely, during the eighteenth century, by episcopacy and terri- torialism, and towards which the Holy See had been only far too indulgent. The regeneration of the Church, they argued, could only be effected by reverting to the prin- 42 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, ciples of Catholic dogma, according to whicli the Church "^ — r— - is au independent, divine monarchy placed over the State, and entitled to demand in all cases the obedience due from her subjects to her commands. The question with them, therefore, was how to remove those ordi- nances of civil law which, both before and during the Eevolution, had given sanction and publicity to the oppo- site principles.^ The struggles between the secular and spiritual powers to realise and to oppose these fundamental views and their consequences make up the history of the Catholic Church, Restora- from 1815 dowu to the present day. The very first act Jesuits, with which this epoch began, namely, the restoration of the 1814.^^ ' Order of the Jesuits, may be considered as an epitome of the objects now sought to be attained by Eome. In Italy, Ganganelli had been forced to yield to the pressure of the Latin States, France, Spain, and Portugal, by abolish- ing the Order, for the sake of avoiding a greater evil. In Prussia, nevertheless, and in the west of Eussia, it had con- tinued to flourish under the protection of Frederick the Great and the empress Catherine. In Eussia, the Jesuits actually proceeded in 1782 to the election, on their own authority, of a vicar-general, without any protest from Pius VI. His successor re-established the Order in Eussia in 1801, at the request of Paul I. ; and there under the zeal- ous propagandism of its friend the Sardinian ambassador, Count de Maistre and the Emperor Alexander, whom he ^ That Pius VII. shared these views from the very first, is clear frora the instruction which he sent in 1805 to the nuncio at Vienna. Therein he expressly cited the rule of the canon law, * that the subjects of an heretical sovereign remained free from all obligation of fealty and allegiance towards him ; ' ' We have fallen,' he complains, ' upon such unhappy days {tempi cosi calamitosi), and the Bride of Christ has sunk to such humiliation that it is impossible for her to execute her sacred principles of just severity against the enemies and rebels from the Faith,' RESTORATION OF THE JESUITS. 43 won over, it spread considenibly. In 1804 Pius VII. at chap. "vvi T r the request of King Ferdinand, allowed the re-admission ^— - of the Jesuits to the kingdom of the Two Sicilies. In Austria also the emperor was inclined in favour of a similar measure, but his minister demanded such reservations as the pope declined to accept. Even before his departure xi-jui i^ ontainebleau he had resolved, at the instigation of the Zelanti, to proclaim the general restoration of the Order ; and he announced this step immediately after his return to his capital, by his Bull of August 7, 1814, Sollici- tudo omnium Ecclesiarum. Regardless of Clement XIV. 's famous Bull, Dominus ac Redemptoi\ which had solemnly abolished for ever all powers of the Order, and condemned as invalid any restoration to then- former condition, Pius Yll. declared that he should deem himself guilty of a great crime toAvards God, if amidst these dangers of the Christian Republic, he neglected the aids which the special providence of God had put at his disposal, and if, placed in the bark of St. Peter, tossed and assailed by continual storms, he refused to employ ' the vigorous and experienced powers, who volunteered their services, in order to break the waves of a sea which threaten every moment shipwreck and death.' That accordingly, he had resolved to do now what he could have wished to have done at the commencement of his pontificate, and decreed the re- establishment of the Order ' in all countries whatsoever.' This act marks the turning point, at which the Romish Church passed at once from abasement to exaltation, from a state of defence to a state of attack.^ Instinct with the spirit ' Not less significant was the prohibition of Bible societies which followed in the Bull of June 29, 1816. They were designated as 'a pestilence,' as 'impious machinations of innovators,' as a 'crafty device by which the very foundations of religion are undermined.' . . . ' It is evident from experience,' the pope adds, * that the Holy Scriptures, 44 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, that gave it birth, the Society of Jesus had been founded, r-— ' partly to combat Protestantism, partly to vindicate the absolute supremacy of the Papal See against the power of the State as of the bishops. Their opposition against Protestantism was first kept in the background after the restoration of the Order. Partly they were too much in- debted to Protestant princes, openly to assail the Protestant faith : partly they were too weak for the attempt. The Court of Eome needed all its energies for the re-enforcement of clerical obedience in the Church herself ; and this ten- dency was powerfully advanced by the general current of the times. The anti-religious elements of the doctrine of enlightenment had expended their outburst at the Ee vo- lution, but the very destructiveness of the explosion led to a reaction against the original seeds of the revolt. Persecution had purified the Church, and trained her to a consciousness of her true character and duties. Those voluptuous prelates who squandered the revenues of ac- cumulated dignities at the Court of Versailles ; those elegant abbes who employed their sinecures in playing the freethinker in the Paris salons, had disappeared. The French clergy had never been so pure in morals, so zealous in the fulfilment of their duties, as since the re- establishment of Christian worship. But with the over- throw of the old French Church, the principle of her national independence had perished. At first the bishops showed themselves compliant, nay, obsequious to the when circulated in the vulgar tongue, have, through the temerity of men, produced more harm than benefit. ... It is therefore necessary to adhere to the salutary decree of the Congregation of the Index (June 13, 1757), that no versions of the Bible in the vulgar tongue be per- mitted, except such as are approved by the Apostolic See, or published with annotations extracted from the writings of the holy fathers of the Church.' Compare Briefs of July 29 and September 3. As a matter of course, the congregations of the Inquisition and the Index were re-established. ALLIANCE OF TimONE AND ALTAE. 45 emperor; but in proportion as the latter interfered in «'■hap. the internal affairs of the Church, and endeavoured to --^^ — r— ' degrade the pope into the passive instrument of his will, there arose tliat opposition, which called to mind that the Catholic Church could not exist without the primate, and expressed its sentiments officially at the council of 1811. Simultaneously was formed the modern Ultramontane school of De Maistre, Bonald, Chateaubriand and Lamen- nais, which openly combated the Galilean principles as a desertion from the true doctrine of the Church, and soon enlisted numerous disciples. The Eevolution had overthrown, together with the Alliance of Church, the old system of civil polity, a rejuvenescence aita^ ^° of which had been attempted in the eighteenth century by the disciples of enlightenment, and hence it was only natural that the restoration of both Church and State should promote a close union between the two. The restored dynasties of the south-west of Europe looked to the Church in particular as their surest mainstay in the future, and considered that their own former opposition to Eome had unchained the evil spirit of disobedience which had wrought their ruin. They forgot the weak- ness of the pope towards the autocrat of the Eevolution, and beheld in him the natural ally of all legitimate powers. They thought that, by favouring religion — in other words the religion of Eome — they were about, as de Frayssinous declared, ' d'elever autour de leur trone un rempart de devouements.' That this calculation on the part of the State was an error, the result has clearly demonstrated. The Cathohc. Church desires to rule alone : she has no inward leanings to legitimacy : she lives on excellent terms alike with usiu-pers and repub- licans, so long as these allow her free scope for her designs. Unfortunately, however, the latter are not usually inchned to indulge her in that manner; while the dinand VII. 46 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, legitimate Catholic sovereigns, as well as pretenders, • — . — -^ are generally obedient sons of tlie Church. It was her interest, therefore, to profit by the favourable disposition of the governments of the day ; and hence the reason why the intimate alliance between throne and altar forms the most characteristic feature of the Eestoration in the south of Europe. Restora- ^j-^j-j jjj ^j^g i3urely CathoHc countries this alhance was tion m . . undlr'Fe ^öected without auy hindrance. In Spain, for example, not only was the Concordat of 1753 revived in its in- tegrity, but the Inquisition also was restored, which had been suppressed first by Bonaparte in 1808, and after- wards, in 1812, by the Cortes. Ferdinand VII., by a royal edict, recalled and re-established the Jesuits. He had examined, he said, the accusations against the Order, and he was fully persuaded that they were sheer calumnies, invented by the enemies of royalty and of that rehgion,^ which was the first and fundamental law of liis monarchy, and to defend and protect which had been the constant aim of his illustrious predecessors, thus showing that they merited the title of Catholic sovereigns, whose zeal in this respect he intended, with the help of God, to follow. The violence with which Ferdinand proceeded, provoked indeed a reaction of a strongly anti- clerical nature, which again suppressed the Jesuits, abolished all monastic orders, and apphed their property to the liquidation of the National Debt. But this re- action was only short-lived : the intervention of France speedily restored the government of Ferdinand, which thenceforth exhibited, in its worst form, the union of priestly rule and civil absolutism. ^ ' Y de que los verdiideros enemigos de la religion y de los tronos eran los que tanto trabajaron y minaron con calumnias, ridiculeces y chismes para desacreditar i la compania de Jesus, disolverla, y perseguir a sus inocentes individuos.' Edict, June 9, 1815, RESTORATION IN SARDINLl AND NAPLES. 47 The king of Sardinia, who, after his return to Turin ^cvm" in 1814, wholly ignored the interval of French domina- " — ■ — ' 111? 1 11- 1 1 1 • Sardinia. tion, declared to the pope, through his ambassador, his Restora desire to reclaim his subjects to pious obedience to Rome, House of to restore the former festivals of the Church, and to re- iK"^' establish, and liberally to endow, the convents and bishoprics. The French Concordat of 1801, which in Art. IV. had maintained to the crown the nomination of bishops, now ceased to have effect in this kingdom. The clergy were reinstated in their privileged position before the law ; and the enactments against non-Catholics were revived in all their rigour. With Victor Emmanuel the Jesuits also returned ; they succeeded in influencing the whole administration of the State, and usurped in par- ticular the control of the entire system of education. The restored king of Naples, Ferdinand I., refused, SSwo indeed, to acknowledge the suzerainty of the pope, and concordat to pay the tribute of the Chinea,^ which bore witness to ofisi**- the ancient dependence of that kingdom on the Holy See ; but the Concordat, nevertheless, concluded through Consalvi (Feb, 16, 1818) conceded extensive rights to Eome. The Catholic rehgion was declared the only rehgion of the realm, and was reinstated in all its rights and prerogatives. In pursuance, as was declared, (Art. III.) of the Convention of 1741, providing for the annexa- tion of certain bishoprics, a new division of dioceses was agreed upon. The number of archiepiscopal and episcopal sees was to be increased, and endowed with a fixed income by the State, derived from landed property, and exempt from public taxes. They were to have their own chapters and seminaries, the estates of the latter to be administered according to the Council of Trent. (Art. V.) The main- tenance of the parish church, where no canonical patron existed, was to be defrayed by the respective towns, ' The white palfrey presented annually at the feast of the Ascension. 48 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, either from landed property or a special rate {vectigalis •'■ — ^-^ privilegiata pecimia. Art. VIL). The king retained, but ' as a mark of special benevolence,' the permission [perpetuum indultum) to nominate to such sees as had previously- been subject to his appointment ; and an oath of allegi- ance was prescribed to all archbishops and bishops, abjuring all treasonable designs against the crown. (Art. XXIX.) With regard to most offices in the Churcli, not subject to rights of special patronage, the pope in future was to collate during the first six months of each year, and the king during the second, the presentation being always to be made in favour of subjects of the crown. On the other hand, the royal Placet was abolished : freedom of communication and of appeal to Eome were allowed, and all causes majores were declared subject to papal j urisdiction.^ The convents were to be re-estabhshed, so far as the means of endowment would permit. The bishops, besides having cognisance of all ecclesiastical, and even matrimonial, causes, were to punish, and if neces- sary, confine in seminaries and convents, all ecclesiastics who violated the laws and canons of the Church, and to censure similar lay offenders. They were also to enjoy the right of censorship over all publications con- taining anything ' contrary to the doctrine of the Church or to good morals.' The Papal That matters were conducted in the same spirit in the 1814.^ a er -^^^^ Statcs, may easily be imagined. Consalvi accepted, indeed, as best he could, the levelling activity of the Napoleonised government, which had abolished all the ancient municipal and provincial privileges and regula- tions. Not one of these was restored. There remained only shadows of municipalities : even the communal councillors were mere nominees of the priesthood. The ' The office of royal Delegate to watch over ecclesiastical j urisdiction was abolished (Art. XXV.). IN THE PAPAL STATES. 49 was organised on tlie model of a strict ^"-'^.^'• bureaucracy, but all offices were in the hands of ecclesi- - • ■ '-' astics. This was not only a usurpation, according to the principles of the Restoration, but a political blunder as well. Up to 1796 several of the Roman provinces liad enjoyed a considerable share of self-government under the suzerainty of the pope.^ By administering now the papal rule according to the principles of modern sovereignty in an absolute monarchy, the subjects were provoked to demand in turn the benefits of a genuine modern ad- ministration.'^ In 1814 the whole of the Code Napoleon^ which had been introduced some years previously, was declared tobe 'for ever abolished ;' and an edict of 1816 substituted the common law in its place, modified by the canonical and apostolic constitutions ; but, as no one was familiar with these, an interminable confusion soon arose.^ Most of the Zelanti considered even Consalvi * Their affairs were administered by a supremeboard (Buon Governo) presided over by a cardinal, but which interfered but little with the local authorities. 2 ' The structure of society in this country,' said a distinguished Roman nobleman, the Duke of Sermoneta, to Mr. Senior, ' is rotten from top to bottom. The instant the foreign element that keeps it together is withdraAvn, it will fall to pieces. Formerly the Komau states formed an aristocratic monarchy. The great Roman iamilies were the owners of the greater part of the land which did not belong to ecclesiastical bodies. The country people were their tenants, and reverenced their birth as well as their wealth. Strict entails and the celibacy of the younger brothers kept them rich. They managed the affairs of their own parishes, and, though they could not feel much loyalty towards an elected sovereign, they supported the pope as a mild though not always an enlightened governor. Tlie French Revolution came : the pope was deposed : the Roman states became a part of France. Some of the nobles emigrated, others were driven away; those who remained were ruined by exactions and by the law of equal parti- tion. . . . There is nothing now between the pope and the people.' ('Journals kept in Italy,' 1871, ii. 97.) 3 Brigandage, for instance, which, under the Frcncli rule was as VOL. II. E 50 THE RESTOEATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, infected with liberalism, and pursued their pohcy of ' r— ' restoration, within the limits of their own authority, with redoubled recklessness. Cardinal della Genga, as vicar-general at Eome, reimposed on the Jews the obliga- tion to listen every Saturday to a sermon on their con- version. Every adult member of a family had to deliver to the father at Easter a certificate of confession. The lighting of streets and vaccination were prohibited as French practices. Burial in churches was again intro- duced, though it was admitted, on sanitary grounds, to be injurious ; and even Consalvi's opposition was powerless to prevail against the practice, since the fees derived from interment brought in much money to the Church. The Inquisition, re-established in conjunction with a searching system of esjnonage^ restored all the Orders, and with them 1824 monasteries and 612 nunneries, in the Papal States. The religious houses and chapters received back all their property which had not been alienated, and for that which they had lost, an equivalent of 5 per cent, in the funds. Restora- lu Tuscauy and the Austrian possessions the work TuscLny. of rcstoratlou proceeded with greater moderation. The laws existing previous to 1799 resumed full force,^ and the dependence of conventuals on their superiors at Eome — a claim which the Bourbon government had conceded to the pope — was disallowed. Although, in the grand- duchy itself, some of the religious corporations, dissolved good as extirpated, soon revived to a fearful extent. Wessenberg says that on his expressing to Consalvi his surprise that the government was unable to exterminate the rabble, the cardinal admitted the extent of the evil, but thought that matters in Italy vrould be far worse if there Avere not so much religion in the country! (Beck, 'Wessenberg's Leben,' p. 295.) 1 Coppi, ' Annali,' vii. 337. 2 These laws included the edict of Leopold II. in 1782, abolishing the Inquisition in Tuscany ; the subjection of the clergy in criminal suits to the same tribunals as the laity ; the removal of exemptions of monasteries from episcopal jurisdiction. CLERICAL REACTION IN FRANCE. 51 ill 1809, were restored, and the conduct of education ^IHap. ])laced under ecclesiastical control, still the great mass of ^- — '— ' their former property remained in the hands of private bodies. In Lombardy the bureaucratic police govern- ment was too powerful to permit the growth of ecclesi- astical independence. Far more significant, as regards the destinies of clerical re- the world in general, was the course which events took France, in France. The Galhcan principles had lost their root among the majority of the clergy, who, by their opposition to the Eevolution and by Napoleon's despotism, were driven into the arms of Eomanism ; and this tendency was strengthened by the fact that the ranks of the clergy were being more and more recruited from the lower classes. Staunch Catholics, as the nobility still remained, they could not fail to see, that for their younger sons the chief inducements to an ecclesiastical career had vanished with the confiscation of the vast possessions of the Church. The prosperous bourgeoisie, enriched by the purchase of Church property, were unfavourably disposed towards the clergy. The Government itself leaned to Eomanism. Louis X^mi., whose intention was to reconcile old and new France, had accepted, in the charter gi\anted by him in 1830, the equality of religious sects, with the de- claration, however, that Catholicism was the rehgion of the State. ^ Eehgious equality, thus proclaimed, was at once trampled under foot. Eoyalist gangs were allo^ved month after month to maintain, unpunished, a reign of terror against the Protestants, at Nismes and its neioli- bourhood. The clerical party, Avho abhorred equality of worship, connected with this State religion, an idea which had never been defined, the desire to abolish ' the Con- ' Art. V. Chacun professe sa religion avec une egale liberie, et obtient pour son ciüte la raenie protection. Art. VI. Cependant la religion Catliolique, Apostolique, et Romaine est la religion de I'Etat. e2 52 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. xvm" ^o^^^t of 1801, which recognised Catholicism as the re- ^ — ' — ' ligion only of tlie majority of the French, and to conclude a fi^esh Concordat in its place. Consalvi could not hghtly make up his mind to overthrow his own handiwork. All that he desired was the abrogation of the Organic Articles ; and he was loth to let it appear, as if the protestations of the emigrant clergy, which had always been rejected, were now being listened to. Eome consented to open negotiations, in the prospect of obtaining new and exten- Convention slvc conccsslons. The Convention of June 11, 1817, June ii'"^' after reciting in the preamble that the happy return of the grandson of Saint Louis to the tlirone of his ancestors, allowed a more suitable provision to be made for the government of the Church, declared the re-establishment of the Concordat of 1517, passed between Leo X. and Francis I. The Organic Articles were to be repealed, in so far as they contravened the doctrine and law^s of the Church. The number of sees was to be increased from sixty to ninety : the new prelates were to be appointed by the pope, in order to avoid delay, and to receive a suitable endowment derived from real property or rerites of the State. The king, with a view of displaying his zeal for the Church, promised to remove, as soon as possible, whatever was opposed to her laws. The pope, in return for these concessions, granted nothing but the prospect of resigning Avignon for a proportionate indemnity in money. Meanwhile, the clerical reaction, by this clandestinely concluded Convention, had overshot the mark. The ministers themselves felt that they could not submit it in this form to the Chambers, whose assent was necessary to give the Concordat the force of law. Projetde A pvojet cU lol was, therefore, superadded, which K Nov. 22, g^pj.gggiy protected the 'laws of the realm, the liberties, franchises, and maxims of the Gallican Church,' both generally and in certain specified points, such as the ACTRITY OF TILE rARTI-rRETRE. 53 Placet, tlie Appel comme d'abus,^ and others ; and pro- 9V^^'- vided that in no case should the Concordat prejudice the • — r— ' * pubhc riglits, guaranteed by the constitutional charter,' and particularly the 'laAvs concerning the administration of religious persuasions, not Catholic' The pope protested against this projet in a letter to the king, on tlie groiuid that whatever he had agreed upon with him, ^vas not a proper subject for deliberation by another authority. Tlie opposition, moreover, which arose in the Chambers, not- withstandnig the appended projet de loi, compelled the Roman government to declare that they could not ex- ecute this Concordat. This opposition, however, did not hinder the idtra- clerical party from prosecuting with energy their designs. Their organ was the Conservateur, founded hi 1818 by Chateaubriand, which interpreted the principle of State religion in the sense that the latter alone was entitled to riglits, and must penetrate the whole of civil life ; and that every compromise with the spirit of the times must lead to ruin, 'la legitimite politique amene de force Activitvof la legitimite religieuse.' Lamennais declared that obe prltre."^' dience to the State could only be revived together witli obedience to the Church, the latter consisting in a com- plete subjection of the mind to ecclesiastical authority. The Defenseur, and afterwards the Memonal Catholiqiie, with Bonald, Genoude and others, attacked Gallicanism. De Maistre's works, Du Pape and Le.s Soirees de St. Peters- bourg, became the standard of the party. They repre- ' The appel was repeatedly exercised during the Restoration, namely, in 1820, against the bishop of Poitiers, who had promnlgated a papal brief without obtaining the Placet; and in 1824 against the archbishop of Toulouse, who, in a pastoral lettei-, had made proposals for the improvement of worship, the reason for censure being that pastoral letters should confine themselves strictly to the instruction of the faithful in their religious duties. But no reproof was directed against the abuse of Protestants in those pastorals. 54 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. S^;^?- sented the Ultramontaue doctrine of Church and State, - — '— ' with quite as much acuteness as sophistical fanaticism : ^ to their author the restoration of the plenary power of the pope over kings and nations was the condition of a rational order of the universe. Naturally, a large number of bishops protested, on behalf of the GaUican principles, against these views, but the latter, nevertheless, continued to spread. Missions traversed the country. Participation in processions became a matter of compulsion. The officers and soldiers of the garrison of Paris received a formal command to take part in the devotional exercises of the Church ; and a Protestant in the department of Vaucluse, who had refused to decorate his house for the procession on Corpus Christi day, was sentenced to punish- ment, and only absolved by the Court of Cassation.^ Above all, it was endeavoured to bring the whole depart- ^ Thus, for instance, lie defended the Inqiiisition by saying that everyone, if he had so wished, could have escaped their penal ordinances. 2 In pleading his cause before the Court of Appeal M. Odilon Barret caused no little scandal, by affirming that French law was of no religion (a proposition hardly tenable, one would imagine, in a country where the marriage of priests is forbidden by law). The Court of Appeal quashed the sentences against the Protestants, but Odilon Barrot was sternly taken to task by M. I'Abbe de Lamennais, then the fervent champion of Ultramontane ideas, and who was after- wards to acquire a widely diiferent reputation. In the Conservateur Lamennais complained that M. Odilon Barrot had dared to plead in full court that French law was neutral between contending religions ; that it protected all, and identified itself with none. The law, then, was of no religion, therefore it was atheistical. As M. Barrot observed, the term 'atheistical' was unfair, as it implies a decided belief, although a negative one. In a second appeal to the full court, however, he boldly adopted the word, and exclaimed, that the law Avas not only atheistical, but ought to be so, if by atheism was meant neutrality, for the law could not cease to be neutral without turning persecutor. For this language he was rebuked by M. de Serre, minister of justice, while M. de Seze, the president (who had defended Louis XVI. before the revolutionary tribunal), was so shocked as to propose to the bench the REACTIONARY LEGISLATION. , 55 ment of education into the hands of the clemy. Tlie chap- XVIII National Schools were surrendered to the ' freres ignoran- ^ — r— ^ tins ; '^ in the higher schools all teachers were removed whose sympathies were not with the new system. Eoyer- Collard, and Guizot had to evacuate their chairs at the College de France : Sylvestre de Sacy was removed from the Council of the University. The works of Voltaire and Eousseau were prohibited at the circulating libraries. Count Frayssinous, bishop of Hermopolis, and a leader of the Parti Pretre^ became Grand Master of the University, and afterwards Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs, in which capacity he effected the dismissal of all those members of the Conseil d'Etat who were not in sympathy with the Church. The dominant party now began to refuse conse- cration to mixed marriages : the archbishop of Rouen de- clared civil marriage to be null and void, and equivalent to concubinage. Civil divorce was abohshed. The poor only received public charity on production of their certificate of confession. Children were carried off, under various pretexts, from their non-Catholic parents, in order to be taken into convents, the number of which, though not permitted by the law, rapidly increased. This reactionary movement in the Church readied its climax in the law of Sacrilege. By that enactment, the L; robbery and profanation of churches w^ere made tanta- suspension of Odilon Barrot. The bench was wiser. It rejected the proposal of the president, and once more by its judgment the highest court in France endorsed the j)rinciple for which the Protestants con- tended. It was not without reason that Berryer declared the French courts to have been during many dark ages of oppression the best eafeguards of French liberty. They were at least the refuge of much sturdy good sense. (* Memoire« posthumes d'Odilon Barrot,' torn, i.) ^ The National Assembly had decreed in September, 1796, that instruction should be administered universally and without payment on all subjects which are 'indispensable for the culture of niaakind.' But this decree, like so many others, remained only on paper. .f Sacrilege. 56 THE hestohation and the catholic church. CHAP, mount to tlie heaviest crimes. The steahn«^ of church XVIII -- — . — ^ vessels was threatened with forced labour for life ; the breaking into a church with death ; the profanation of the sacred utensils and consecrated wafers (hosties) with the pains of parricide. In spite of violent opposition in both Chambers, the law was passed. Although, indeed, these enactments never came to be applied, yet the limits of endurance were overstepped ; and it was none other than undoubted royalists who began to make front against these intolerable proceed- ings. Count Montlosier came forward as their spokes- man. He had sufficiently attested his sympathy with the Church by his conduct in the National Assembly ; and now in his ' Denunciation ' of the ' religious and political system which aims at overthrowing religion, society, and the throne,'^ he assailed unsparingly the acts of the clericals, and particularly the toleration of the Jesuits in contravention of the law. These latter had forced them- selves again into France, amidst the confusion caused by Montio- the Eevolution. Through the influence of Cardinal Fesch, attack they had actually been allowed, in 1800, to found an establishment at Lyons, under the name of Peres de la Foi ; and their numbers rapidly spread. Napoleon, how- ever, expelled them again from France by his decree of 1804. Louis XVIIL, although not conceding the formal re-establishment of their order, favoured them in an indirect manner ; and they took advantage, in particular, of an ordinance of 1814, which abolished the supervision of the State over the minor seminaries, and gave the bishops full liberty to choose their teachers. Still more useful to them were the missions, which they turned to the most profitable account, in promoting their influence over the lower classes of the people. A number of ' ' Memoire a consulter sur \m Systeme religieux, politique, et ten- dcint 11 renvers^er lit i-eligion, la societe, et le trone ' : Paris, 1826. upon the Jesuits. MONTLOSIER'S ATTACK OX THE JESUITS. 57 lay congregations, affiliated to them, and headed by the cttap. leaders of the reactionaiy movement in the Churcli, ^-^ — r— — supported the designs of tlieir Order. The Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs, interpellated in the Chamber of Peers by Montlosier, was compelled to admit the exist- ence of the Jesuits, but he refused to take any steps whatever against them. The fearless royalist now brought the matter, by means of a formal information, before the Cour Boy ale at Paris, which, after protracted discussion, declared the continuance of the Order to be contrary to the laws, but with this lame addition, that the adminis- tration of those laws belonged to the department of the high police alone. The clerical party openly vented their indignation in the pastoral letters of the bishops, wdio heaped abuse upon this sentence as a triumph of wickedness, obtained by the emissaries of Satan through lies and deceit. Not only did the government find no ahiis in this, but appointed the author of the most violent of these letters, the bishop of Strasburg, tutor to the duke of Bordeaux. But this only served to excite still more the minds of all sensible men against the Jesuits. Paul Louis Courier, the most talented controversialist of French literature, attacked them with unsparing vigour. Berang;er, in his ' Chansons,' launched his sharpest arrows against tlie league of Ultramontanism with feudal pretensions. Even the episcopate grew alarmed at the audacious attacks of the Jesuits against the Gallican principles. Amidst the cry of A has les Ministres ! A has les Jesuites ! the Villele administration was overthrown. The Martignac ministry reformed the errors of its ordinances predecessor, by extorting from the king in 1828 two cduSon. ordinances; the first of them restoring all secondary ecclesia-stical schools to the control of the university, and excluding from the appointment of teachers the members of all religious societies not authorised by the 58 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP. State ; the second, limitiiify to a fixed number, 20,000, XVIII ... 777 -- — r— ^ the number of pupils to be received in all the secondary ecclesiastical schools in France. The majority of the bishops loudly protested against these measures, and, like the archbishop of Toulouse, refused to obey them. But a papal Bull, approving of the ordinances as measures of internal pohcy, not interfering with the rights of the Church, which the government had influence enough with the Curia to procure in their favour by an extraordinary embassy to Eome, succeeded in breaking -the resistance. The Jesuits quitted their schools in France, and emigrated to Switzerland. In France the ordinances at first made the most favourable impression. But this temporary popularity Unpopu- sQQ^ vanished under the Polionac ministry. Nothin«^ was lanty of o ^ D the clergy, more Calculated to exasperate the people against that ministry than the passionate partisanship of the clergy on its behalf; and it may fairly be said, that scarcely anything contributed so much to the fall of the Eestora- tion as its compliant conduct tow^ards the clergy. The result of this close alliance between Church and State was, that the tide of opposition turned with equal strength against both ; that the enemies of priestly rule became the enemies also of the Bourbons ; and that the genuine religious revival, which had taken place after the Ee vo- lution, was quenched, as soon as the dominant party in the Church declared war against the new social system of France. Voltaire, Diderot, and Eousseau, who for many years had been forgotten, once more became popular. Caricatures, satires, dramas, and songs attacked with vio- lence not only the priests, but religion. In Germany, the relations of Church and State, which after 1815 had to be entirely remodelled, assumed now a very different form of development. At the Congress of Vienna no practical result was achieved in these matters, SCHEME OF A GERMAN CONCORDAT. 59 and it was soon evident that nothing could be expected thap. from the Federal Diet. Wessenberg, foiled at Vienna in --^ — ■ — -- his efforts to re-establish a united German Church upon the principles of Febronius, was equally unsuccessful in his urgent exhortations to the German princes to convene, as soon as possible, a meeting of plenipotentiaries for regulating ecclesiastical affairs, and particularly for con- certing a common programme for the Concordat to be concluded with Eome. As Bavaria, in former times, had opposition persistently opposed the projected Concordat for the em- toaGer- pire, so it was now declared at Munich that a national cordat. Church, organised under the protection of the Bund, was incompatible with the sovereignty of the individual states. When Wessenberg thereupon warned them emphatically, that only by all the German governments holding the same language at Eome, could it be hoped to obtain there what was necessary, the Bavarian minister, von Zentner, answered, not without irritation, that Bavaria was ' big enough to have her own corporate Church establishment, and would not derogate from her own dignity in any dealings with the pope ' — an assertion which was soon to be strikingly refuted by facts. From the Diet, of course, there was as little prospect of action in this case as in general ; and thus the readjustment of Church affairs was restricted to the adoption of separate Concordats. Austria remained excluded from this path of action. Mettemich opposes a The Emperor Francis I. was, indeed, sincerely devoted to Concordat 11 ■ ^ ' n ^ forAustria. the Church. He saw m her influence the surest guaran- tee for his State and dynasty, and was greatly inclined to grant to her a Concordat, which should obviate all the gi'ievances of the Papal See, satisfy the demands of the bishops, and re-establish the unity of Church and State. But on this point he encountered the most determined op- position from his leading and most influential statesmen 60 THE RESTOUATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP. Metternicli, in particular, though wholly indifferent to >-^^ — -— ' religion, considered the satisfaction of Ultramontane de- mands synonymous with an abdication of State power. He wished as little to see the liberty of the State restricted by the domination of the priests as by that of political parties ; and it was perfectly clear to him, that every increase of spiritual authority would only lead to its aggrandisement in secular matters. The Jesuits he espe- cially disliked. To the tendencies of the emperor and court he opposed this argument, that every strengthening of Church power was only possible at the expense of the State ; that every innovation in this respect must prove as ruinous to Austria as concessions to liberalism. Francis had not the energy to conquer this opposition, especially as the execution of his wishes would have rendered neces- sary a wide and searching legislative reform. Thus then, the principles of Joseph II. continued, at least formally, in force. The relations of the Church in the newly- acquired Italian provinces were made the subject of a special agreement with the Court of Eome, which was compelled reluctantly to make large concessions in favour of the government then paramount in Italy. Austria declined to join with the South German States in nego- tiating for the Concordat. As for the other German States, the idea was wholly foreign to those times of separating Church and State in such a manner that the State should regulate, by inde- pendent and purely secular legislation, the external rela- tions of the Church to the secular power, while conceding to her free scope for action within her proper sphere. On the contrary, all agreed in this, that the relative position of the Catholic churches in particular states could only be determined by a separate agreement with the Court of Eome. The point on which the controversy turned, was how far the government, in each case, in treat- SEPARATE CONCORDAT WITH BAVARIA. 61 iuo" with Eome, should be able to enforce the recoonition chap. ... ^ xv'iir. of its rights of sovereignty ; and how far the Court of — ^-— ' Eome, on the other hand, should be able to resist tliat demand, and to acquire the sanction of the secular power for those princi[)les wherewith Rome intended to intro- duce the Ultramontane Eestoration. It is obvious tliat the Vatican gained a firmer hold over negotiations for a Concordat, by conducting them singly with separate states, instead of with the empire collectively. The grave eventuality of a German primate seemed removed at the outset ; and accordingly the regret, expressed by the pope, that a general arrangement for all the churches in Germaiiy was impracticable, was scarcely intended in earnest. Bavaria led the way, by resuming the negotiations of 1807.^ The instructions given to the royal ambassador at Eome held firmly throughout to the existing legislation ; and by evading all questions of principle, limited the con- tents of the intended Concordat to the re-establishment Bavarian and regulation of a new diocesan constitution for the Junrs,*' temtory then belonging to the national Church. The ^^^'" keynote of these transactions was the Gallican theory of territorialism, which, in respect to the institution of the bishops, went so far as to demand the concessions granted to Napoleon. The Vatican replied by simply demandinö- the re-establishment of the Catholic religion ' with all the rights and privileges, accruing to her by the disposition of God and in virtue of the canon law ; ' and the total abro- gation of all the Church legislation of Bavaria by the Con- cordat, whose articles henceforth were to regulate, in that -'O' * The history of this negotiation is described from the documents themselves in Sicherer's excellent book, sections v. and vi., which super- sedes and corrects all previous accounts. See also some interestin? remarks on the results of the Convention in Mejer, ' Zur Romisch- ii. 1. 62 THE EESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, respect, the course of law. Hence followed, as was natural, ' ■ — ' the claim of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the episcopal censor- ship of the press, the management of schools by the Church, the restitution of her rights of property, and the attendant immunities. Such a realisation, indeed, of the Curialistic system it was impossible to concede. But the ambassa- dor. Baron von Häfieün, notwithstanding his correct views on points of principle, was personally little qualified, as a Catholic ecclesiastic, to confront the pretensions of Eonie, and he had already made the most questionable admissions in her favour, when the news arrived at Eome, that Montgelas, the founder of modern Bavaria, had been dis- missed through Austrian influence. Under the impres- sion created by this event, Häffelin concluded with Con- salvi a Concordat (June 5, 1817), which, in direct con- travention of his instructions from home, surrendered the most important points of the autonomy of the State. Article I. secured to the Catholic religion ' all the rights and privileges accruing to her by the disposition of God and by virtue of the canon law.' It was conceded that the Concordat should annul and supersede all laws, or- dinances, and decrees, relating to the Church, hitherto issued in Bavaria, in so far as they are opposed to its pro- visions (Article XVI.). The Concordat was to be declared a law of the State, and nothing was to be added or altered without the consent and concmTence of the Holy See (Article XVIII.) All ecclesiastical matters, not expressly mentioned in the Articles, were to be regulated and ad- ministered accordiug to the doctrine and discipline then existing and approved by the Church (Article XVII.). These principles guided the adjustment of details ; each concession to the secular power was not recognised as a right, but granted as a papal indulgence. Certainly the Bavarian ministry was not now in the mood to ratify such a surrender of sovereign rights ; but quite as little was the XVIII. CONCORDAT WITH BAVARIA. 63 Minister of Finance, von Lercheufeld, cable to carry liis riiAP. proposition that the conckision of a Concordat should be abandoned altogether, unless those rights were guarded, botli in general and in particular. To this the Minister of the Interior, Baron von Thiirheim, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Rechberg, objected, that such pro- posals would never be accepted at Rome ; and that the only effectual policy towards that end would be one of tacit reservation, since, as Delia Genga himself had formerly de- clared, the Papal See might Avink at the exercise of many rights, which it would never have conceded by formal agree- ment.^ Alterations, therefore, might be insisted on, even in some essential points, such as, in particular, the repeal of former legislation to cases where the law directly contra- dicted the Concordat, and the reservation of the rights of the croAvn to nominate the bishops for papal confirmation. The protection of other State rights might be left to organic laws. Nothing, it was clear, could be done in the State without the consent of the sovereign ; and it would be foohsh also to invite the assent of the Court of Rome for the exercise of rights inherent in the very nature of royalty. This view prevailed ; though the ratification was refused, on the ground that the ambassador had overstepped his powers. But the asked-for amendments were largely curtailed, and only approved after much reluctance by the Vatican, to whom a speedy conclusion was of urgent moment, as it wished to make use of the Bavarian Concordat as a means of pressure for other negotiations.^ It was an important victory, thus gained by Rome over the government, which had hitherto, regardless of • It was forgotten, however, that the nuncio had added, that Rome must protect all her claims in concluding concordats, so as to have on her side the letter of the treaty, and to be able, according to the circum- stances of the time, to insist on its full execution. Sicherer, p, 382. 2 The Concordat was finally ratified on Oct. 24, 1817. 64 THE KESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, consequences, asserted the sole validity of reasons of State. XVI J I To the Catholic Church were actually conceded the ' rights and privileges accruing to her by the disposition of God and by virtue of the canon law ;' and no one could doubt what was understood by that at Eome. Then, as to the bishops, though the royal right of nomi- nation was admitted, they acquired the most absolute power of government within their dioceses. They ac- quired, moreover, the right of jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters, such as matrimonial causes and questions of discipline over the clergy, together with the right of censuring lay offenders, and of demanding the suppression of all books contrary to morals or the discipline of the Church (Article XIIL), in short, general liberty to ' ex- ercise all rights attaching to their pastoral office, whether from the declaration or disposition of the sacred canons, according to the present discipline of the Church, approved by the Holy See.'^ Likewise, by Article XVI., the Court of Eome had procured the repeal of all previous laws, ordmances, and decrees affecting the Church in Bavaria, with the addition only of the proviso ^ in qua?itum Uli (sc. to the Concordat) adversantur.' If now we add the dangerously elastic Article XIV., which promises that the government will tolerate no attacks upon the Catholic re- ligion, but will command, on the contrary, that it shall be treated with peculiar reverence by all civil authorities, we must acknowledge, in comparing the Concordat with the counter-propositions of the Vatican, that, on the Eoman side, all essential demands were carried through to the letter. The Government, however, was now in no way dis- * Art. XII. ' Id omne exercere liberum erit, quod in vim pastoralis eorum ministerii sive ex declaratione sive ex dispositione sacrorum canonum secundum prgesentem et a Sancta Sede approbatam ecclesise disciplinam competit.' (Martens 'Nouveau Eecueil de Traites, vol. iii. p. 106.) CONSTITUTIONAL ACT OF BAVARIA. 65 posed, following up its policy of tacit reservation, to ex- xv^ii' eciite the Concordat in this sense and spirit ; and thought ■ — ' it might appeal to the stipulation contained in Article XVIIT., that the King should declare the convention a law of the state, which he could only do by upholding the rights of State supremacy, the obligations of the Act of Confederation, as well as the assurances formerly given to his Protestant subjects. Nevertheless, although no un- prejudiced person can deny that such a proviso was a constitutional necessity, yet this only shows that the government ought never to have entered into any en- gagement, running counter thereto ; and even if the Vatican admitted, that an act of State was necessary to make the contents of the treaty generally bniding,*^ it was siu'ely entitled to demand, that this Act should not contain provisions so contrary to the original terms agreed on, as to render it impossible that both should be carried out. While the pope now proceeded at once to execute the Concordat, by confirming the royal nominees to the vacant bishoprics, at Munich its promulgation as a law of the State was delayed. Its contents, generally known at the end of the year 1817, had been greeted by the clergy for the most part with favour, but were highly un- popular with the mass of the people. The Protestants especially were apprehensive, and with reason, for their liberty of conscience, and gave open expression to their fears. On the 26th May, 1818, was published the Con- Constitu- stitutional Act of Bavaria, elaborated in private, im- ofTavarl«, 1818. ' This admission was not inconsistent with the protest of the Vatican against the deliberations on the French Concordat of 1817 in the Chambers ; for Bavaria, at the conclusion of her Concordat, was still left absolute, and it was only stated that the Concordat should be declared by the king to be a law of the State ; — ' Lex Status declara- bitur,' Art. xviii. VOL. II. F Eeligion. 66 THE RESTORATION AKD THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, mediately before the Concordat,^ and a royal edict, regu- ■ — r— ^ latiiig the legal relations of religious societies. In opposition to the Concordat, the Constitution guaranteed to all subjects, without distinction of rehgion, perfect liberty of conscience, and the free exercise of domestic worship. The three recognised religious bodies in the kingdom were to enjoy equal rights, both civil and pohtical. The freedom of the press was secured, with legal restrictions to prevent its abuse. All privileges derived from rank, and all immunities from taxation, were abolished ; and the equality of all subjects was esta- blished before the courts of justice and the law. The recognised churclies were allowed full liberty to regulate their internal affairs, but the State prescribed a limit to that liberty, and vindicated its supreme right of superintendence, in order to prevent encroachment. Among internal affairs of the Church were included doctrines of faith, the conduct of worship, religious in- struction for the people, the discipline of the clergy, and Edict of jurisdiction in purely ecclesiastical affairs. These prin- ciples, which the Edict of religion now elaborated in detail, were certainly worthy of recognition ; they gave to the Churches concerned free scope for development, and yet guarded the necessary rights of State sovereignty ; but it was equally certain that they presented a far sharper conflict with the Bavarian Concordat than the 'Articles Organiques' did with the French one. Instead of the sole right of the Catholic Church, the equal rights of the three recognised religious bodies were formally guaranteed, and to each was prescribed a pohcy of mutual respect. Common places of worship and burial were opened, wherever circumstances required them : the ' The publication of the Concordat was postponed till after that of the constitution, in order to limit its application by the prior authority of the latter — a device similar to the 'Articles Organiqi;es ' of Napoleon. BAVARIAN LEGISLATION AND THE CONCORDAT. 67 promised episcopal jurisdiction was narrowly curtailed ; chap. and no ecclesiastical means of compulsion were allowed - — r— ^ to influence in any way the civil or the social sphere. The promised freedom of communication between the clergy and Eome was restricted by the Placet ; and in- stead of the episcopal censorship of books, the liberty of the press was recognised in principle. In a word, the provisions of the Concordat, so far from regulating, as was stipulated therein, all matters concerning the Catholic religion in Bavaria, were now declared valid only for her internal affairs, and even then subject to the common laws of the State Under such circumstances, it was only natural that the J^°^g^*"^ Vatican should insist on this contradiction of the Con- against the Aft and stitution and Eeligious Edict with the Concordat. The Edict. ' doctrinal exposition,' transmitted by the nuncio at Munich in the beginning of 1819, dwelt prominently on the fact that the Bavarian legislature, so far from giving any preference to the Cathohc religion, as had been promised in the Concordat, was placing it entirely on the same level with the sects of Luther and Calvin, by ac- cepting the three confessions as equally true. Everyone, he complained, was allowed freely to choose his creed : the religion of the children of mixed marriages was declared the subject of special agreement, in default of which the sons w^ere to be educated in the religion of the father, and the daughters in that of the mother. Foundlings were to be educated in the religion of the place where they were found, or of the person who adopted them. What was this, but pure indifferentism in religion ? The only true religion was to prohibit its confessors from seceding to any other religious society ; for it was never allowable to forsake truth for the purpose of abandoning oneself to error. The Bavarian legislation not merely involved, but positively enjoined things which conflicted with the orincinles P C8 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, of the Catholic religion. The Edict was demanding an equal ^ — . — — and mutual respect for the religious societies existing in the State : it was demanding, therefore, for the sects of Luther and Calvin precisely what was due, in reality, only to the one true religion. All these provisions, as well as the restriction of Chm*ch discipline to ecclesiastical mat- ters, and the regulation of the Placet, were flatly opposed to the Concordat, which guaranteed the ' rights and privileges of the Church, according to canonical pre- cepts.'^ Such were the arguments of the Vatican, con- veyed through the papal nuncio. And who can deny that this contradiction existed ? If the defenders of the government pleaded that its object was thus attained, namely, to constitute the National Church, and that it had guarded, by these means, the rights of the State against any attack, in the dispute which arose with the Vatican in consequence of these proceedings, this plea may fairly be admitted. Nevertheless, the mode of action was certainly not honest ; for although, after the negotiation was concluded, no doubt may have been entertained at "Rome that the government could never cancel the rights once guaranteed to the Protestants, still the govern- ment was assuredly not justified in superadding, with regard to the Catholic rehgion, provisions which flatly contravened the Concordat. Politically, moreover, the proceedings of the government were a mistake ; for although Eome did not venture to come to an open rupture, but receded step by step, still the contradiction was not to be removed, but on the contrary came to a Royal Re- head iu the final act of the dispute, the Eo3^al Eescript of Tegemsee. Tegemsce (15 September, 1821). This instrument de- clared that the oath to the Constitution, demanded from the Catholics, was intended to affect them only in relation to matters of a civil nature, and imposed no obligation » Sicherer, p. 304. THE PROTESTANT STATES AND HOME. 69 contrary to the laws of God or the tenets of the Catliohc ctiap. Church. But this assurance was obviously irreconcilable -^— , — '-" with the Edict of Eeligion. Such a discrepancy in legis- lation is always awkward, and the government, moreover, by declaring their desire to adhere to the Concordat, gave to the Vatican the right at least to claim its literal execution, as soon as the latter considered itself able so to do. If, on the other hand, the government is excused, on the ground that no agreement whatever was practicable with the Court of Eome, except by conceding to it the expression of its principles, this excuse only demonstrates the extreme objectionableness of all Concordats. For, although even Eome may tolerate, fem/>(??'Z(»i ratione hahitä^ the open disavowal of the canon law, so long as it is powerless to do otherwise, still in the Concordat the Papal See possesses, as soon as a favourable conjunction of events occurs, the formidable weapon of an agreement ratified by, and capable of being employed against the State, while any contrary legislation may be treated as invahd. The negotiations of the Protestant Governments of Relation Germany with the Vatican assumed a different form, tant sta*tes Germany, even since the Peace of Westphalia, had been divided, in respect of her relations with Eome, into two parties — the Catholic, which acknowledged the authority of the Papal See, and the non-Catholic, among which that authority was virtually suspended, either because the former bishoprics were now wholly extinct, or because the Protestant character of the diocese alienated some portion of its inhabitants from episcopal control. In the latter case the bishops were still regarded by Eome as possessing jilenary rights over these lost portions of their dioceses ; in the former, wherever Catholicism had been entii-ely supplanted, the district in question was assigned to the Mission, for which permanent vicars-apostohc were ap- 70 THE RESTORATION AKD THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, pointed under the Congregation de Propaganda. These ' — r— ' conditions were now entirely changed by the Eevohition. Besides the Bavarian, there was only one other Catholic dynasty, that of Saxony, which ruled over a purely Protestant kingdom. At the same time, all the Protestant sovereigns had received numerous Catholic subjects with their accession of territory ; and it was obviously im- portant to them that those subjects should not stand in future under the private and irresponsible government of vicars -apostolic from the pope. Negotia- Prussia, above all, felt the need of a well-regulated Prussia Settlement in this respect. Her relations with Pome were Vatican! no lougcr such as they had been in the second half of the eighteenth century, when she first acquired extensive portions of Catholic territory in Silesia and West Prussia. Frederick the Great had behaved with much liberality to the faith of his new subjects ; and on the other hand, by turning to account the ideas of territorialism then universally prevailing, had experienced no difficulty in guarding the rights of State supremacy The sweeping system of secularisation, brought about by the Recess of the Deputation, and, still more, the acquisition of the Ehenish provinces, Westphalia, and Posen, made a re-adjustment of the relations of the Catholic Church appear necessary ; and to effect this purpose, a formal agreement on certain points with the Vatican was un- avoidable. The situation of Prussia was so far pecuhar, that she was the most influential of all the Protestant States, and, with the exception of Austria, embraced the largest number of German Catholics under her rule. The . consideration which these circumstances extorted from the Vatican facilitated, on the one hand, the work of negotiation. The latter assumed, for several reasons, a calmer and more businesshke character. In the first place, the pope could not, in this case, as with Catholic PAPAL NEGOTIATIONS WITH PRUSSIA. 71 ])riiices, appeal to the duty, bineliiig on the royal conscience, chap. to protect the true Faith in its inalienable rights. -- , '-' Secondly, inasmuch as all negotiations with Eonie are questions of })ower, great weiglit naturally attached to the position of a first-class State like Prussia, whose voice, if timidly proclaimed, was still heard in the councils of Europe. And lastly, the personal gratitude to Prussia, both of the pope and Consalvi, for her support in the restitution of the Papal States, naturally produced a result corresponding with that spirit. On the other hand, peculiar difficulties beset the foremost Protestant power in Germany; and for a long time the views of her leading statesmen wavered as to the course to be piursued.^ At first they were inclined to negotiate a formal Concordat, which should regulate the relations of the Catholic Church of Prussia ; but the errors of France and Bavaiia warned them of the bad impression likely to be created, if, for the first time, a Protestant State were to conclude an agreement of that kind with Eome, and one which could scarcely be effected without trenching, by equivocal expressions, too closely upon those rights of the govern- ment which it was necessary to protect in their absolute integrity. The question could not be entertained, that a government, whose legislation was based upon the National Code, should conibrm to the standard of the canon law, and make the substance of a civil law dependent, before its promulgation, on the sanction of the pope. IMuch rather should they jealously adhere to the form, that the pope, before obtaining certain exceptional privileges of ecclesiastical government in Prussia, should receive the previous i)erniission of the king. The real interest of Prussia in a re-adjustment of her relations with the Church, was centred in the importance of extricating * The details of the whole negotiation are given iVom State doeu- nient8 by Otto Mc^er, vol. ii. 2, and vol. iii. 1. 72 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP. XYIII. Project of i Circum- scription BuU. Nieb\thr's memoran- dum to his govern- ment. those relations from their previous state of confusion, and re-estabhshing them in a manner consistent vdih the new distribution of her territory. For this reason, it was im- portant to effect an agreement with Eome, particularly with reference to fixing the boundaries and endowments of the Prussian dioceses. Thus they naturally arrived at the idea, the only one suitable to the circumstances, of a Circumscription Bull, founded on an agreement in the nature of a treaty, such as just about this time (the beginning of 1818,) Eussia had concluded for Poland, From this point of view, a resort to Wessenberg's scheme of a national Church was quite out of the question. Nevertheless, in the draft of the instruction, dated May 5, 1818, we find several views of negotiation, both episco- palian and territorialistic, the former evinced by the readiness to concede to the bishops an extensive power of administration over their dioceses, the latter by the en- deavours to limit, as much as possible, all spiritual juris- dictions, as, for instance, by requiring that no cause should be carried to Rome in the third resort, that the papal dispensations for marriage should be restricted to a few exceptional cases, and so on. The despatch, however, of this instruction to Niebuhr, the Prussian ambassador at Eome, was delayed for more than two years ; and the latter, after having carefully surveyed the situation, addressed in October 1819 a memorandum to his govern- ment, setting forth at length what was intended to be at- tained, and what was attainable, by the proposed Con- vention. This memorandum is extremely instructive, con- sidering Niebuhr's influential position as a-pohtician.^ He was far too practical a statesman not to see, that by external pressure, such as Napoleon did actually, and Austria also might possibly bring to bear, concessions might be ex- torted from Eome, which would reduce her hierarchy to ' Mejer, vol. iii. p. 1, 93 i^(jq. ^SIEMOKANDUM OF NIEBUIIR. 73 a mere shadow ; but that Prussia was not in a position to xvm." take that course. Everything, therefore, in his opinion, ' ■ ' resolved itself into this question, how far the Eomish principle of inflexibility could be turned to account, by convincing the Vatican that, in the event of a rupture, it would suffer more severely than the secular power. Granted, that the pope would never concede an episcopal organisation of the Church, being fully aware that the government would only employ that organisation against him ; nevertheless, as Niebuhr observed in a private letter of October 1, 1815,^ it w^ould be equally wrong to put forward such demands with the threat, that in case the Vatican refused to allow the bishops to organise the Church as they desired, the government would break with it openly, and constitute the Church on their own authority. In proposing such a course it was left out of sight, that only a very small number of Catholics would acquiesce in such a step, and that, in many parts of the kingdom, nothing would so infallibly tend to make the subjects discontented and alienate them from the govern- ment, as this compulsory kind of emancipation. Three cardinal points should be noticed in the agree- ment now sought to be effected : 1, the regulation of the ecclesiastical state in the monarchy. 2, the relations of the Catholic Church of Prussia to the Eoman See. 3, the relations of that Church to the State. With regard o to the first point, Niebuhr recommended a hberal endow- ment of the bishoprics from the revenues derived from laud, and the election of bishops by the chapters, subject to a royal veto. With regard to the second, his opinion was that the government should impose no restriction on appeals to Eome, but should count it a matter of absolute indifference, whether any person addressed himself to that quarter or not, either for a dispensation of marriage or ^ 'Lebensnachrichten,' vol. ii. p. 416. '4 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. xvm' ^^ ^^^y matter of conscience. The Placet might be passed — ■ — ' over iu silence, and left to be exercised at option on oc- casions of importance, but not so as to impede the free intercourse of the spiritual dignitaries with the Court of Eome, since indirect communication could not be prevented. Finally, he pointed out, that Eome was in- sisting on two articles — one, that the exercise of episcopal authority should be made conformable to the canon law and the existing disciphne of the Church ; the other, that any question in dispute should be determined by a friendly agreement between the two courts. Up to this point, we can agree with the author of the memorial, with this one exception, that he describes the reference to the canon law as an article containing nothing dangerous. All the more questionable, however, appear his remarks upon the third point at issue. Intrinsically the relations of the Church to her spiritual head cannot be separated from her relations to the State ; and judging from the latest events of history, it cannot but appear a striking misconception of those relations, when Niebuhr speaks of the harmless character of the Papal Court, which could only grow more and more important, he said, until it sank to its inevitable decay. This mistaken estimate of Eome by Niebuhr serves, moreover, to explain his sanguine con- fidence, that the Vatican would take good care to promote no persons to bishoprics who were not in harmony with the government. Quite as little can we join with him in demanding exemption from mihtary service for every candidate for holy orders, as well as a purely seminary instruction for priests — including similar institutions for boys — in the name and on behalf of Chiu-ch liberty. However, this memorandum, though duly considered at Berlin, was by no means adopted in its details as the basis of instructions. On the contrary, th'c govern- ment adliered throughout to the idea of a Circum- BULL 'DE SALUTE ANDLVRUM.' to cu.W. XVIII. Animurum, Julv Hi, 1821. scription Bull, which should not have to meddle with any- thing that did not absolutely require the papal assent. After once Niebuhr had made himself familiar with this view, the necessary negotiations were soon set on foot, and finally brought to a conclusion, by his skilful conduct, in July 1821. The Bull De Salute Animaruin restricted Bnii De itself to a re-construction -of the dioceses, to the consti- tution of, and appointments to chapters, to the election of bisliops, with regard to whom it was promised that the j^erson elected should be agreeable (angenehm) to the king ; ^ and to the endowments, which were to be secured by ground rents (census) derived from the public forests of the kingdom. The right of the Vatican to inter- fere in Church legislation was not actually recognised : a Cabinet Order of August 23 conceded the sanction of the Crown, ' in virtue of, but without prejudice to, the rights of sovereignty, as well as those of the Evan- gelical Church, and the Protestant subjects of the realm.' ^ ' ' Vestrarum partium erit eos adsciscere quos, praeter qualitates caeteras, ecclesiastico jure pr^finitas prudentiae insuper laude com- mendari, nee Serenissinio Regi minus gratos esse noveritis, de quibus, antequam solemnem electionis actum, ex canonum regulis rite celebratis, ut vobis constet curabitis.' Brief (Quod defidelhan, July 16, 1821) to the Chapters of Cologne, Breslau, Treves, Munster, and Paderborn. This arrangement, Avhich originally was not intended to apply to the Prusso-Polish bishoprics, but was extended in 1841 to the whole king- dom, secured to the crown the absolute power of veto. That power was exercised up to 1835, at first by indicating directly to the chapters the candidates who were ' agreeable,' and afterwards by erasing from tLe list of candidates submitted to the king the names of those who were not agreeable. ^ The Cabinet order, sanctioning the papal Bull of July IG, runs as) follows : — 'Berlin, August 23, 1821. ' Whereas the papal Bull submitted to me by you, which begins with the words " De salute animarum," and is dated Rome, the 16th of July of this year (xvii. cal. Aug.), agrees in its essential contents with 76 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, The result of this negotiation was as satisfactory, on .Jlljil^. the whole, to both parties, as under the circumstances could be expected. Pius VII. openly expressed to Nie- buhr his gratitude for the manner in which the govern- ment had conducted the negotiation ; and Consalvi, in a letter to Bunsen, in 1823, acknowledged the loyalty of Prussia in the execution and interpretation of the Bull. The government obtained what was of vital importance to its interests, namely, a regulated constitution of the Catholic Church,^ involving no concession prejudicial to the sovereign rights of the Crown ; and, above all, it steered clear of the pohcy, so peculiarly dangerous to a Protestant government, of making concessions with the that arrangement, which was entered into on the 25th of March of this year respecting the establishment, endowment, and limits of the arch- bishoprics and bishoprics of the Catholic Church in the State, and of all subjects having reference thereto, and which was already sanctioned by me on the 9th of June of this year : I will hereby give, on your pro- posal, also to the essential contents of this Bull, namely, to what concerns the enactments respecting things having reference to the before-men- tioned subjects, my royal approval and sanction, by virtue of which these enactments are to be observed as the binding statute of the Catholic Church of the State by all those whom it concerns, ' This, my royal approval and sanction, I give in virtue of my sove- reign rights, and without prejudice to these rights, as well as to all my subjects of the Evangelical Church of the State. * Accordingly, this Bull is to be printed in the Collection of Laws and the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs is to take care of its execution. ' Frederick William. ' To the Chancellor of State, Prince von Hardenberg.' * The only political blunder was, that while in general the delineation of the diocesan boundaries coincided with the territorial division of the State, an exception was made in respect of Austria, on account of friendly and neighbourly relations, whereby the county of Glatz and the district of Katsch remained subject to the archbishops of Prague and Olmütz, while, on the other hand, Austrian districts continued to belong to the diocese of Breslau. An arrangement so anomalous was bound to lead to conflicts, as well for the State as for the clergy ; and this result has actually come to pass. CIRCUMSCRIPTION BULL FOR HANOVER. 77 tacit reservation of tlie intention to evade them afterwards chap. , • 1 1 1 • 1 • XVIII. by one-sided legislation. . — - Hanover, like Prussia, had originally intended to con- Circum- clude a Concordat, and that, under the influence of a buIi for - former high Westphahan functionary, upon a territorial March 2g, basis, such as the Vatican never could have accepted, more especially as it involved an explicit recognition of the Placet, and the appellatio tanqiiam ah ahusu^ the reference of mixed causes to a royal consistory, and the nomination by the Crown of bishops, on whom the pope was to confer institution within three months after their election. But in advancing such demands, nothing was gained but a detailed explanation from Consalvi of the reasons why the Curia could never entertain them ; and after negoti- ations, lasting for eight years, both parties finally agreed on a Circumscription Bull {Iinpensa Romanorum Pontifi- cum), which regulated the two bishoprics of Osnabrück and Hildesheim, their endowment and appointment, to- gether with the relations of the chapters. A patent of George IV., signed at London on May 20, 1824, gave the royal sanction to this Bull, 'without prejudice to the rights of the crown and those of the evangelical subjects.' A still more decided step in the direction of terri- Frankfort torialism,and partly also of episcopacy, was taken by the of°souTh*^ South German Governments, which, under the presidency sta'tesT of Würtemberg, and in concert with the representatives ^^^^' of several North German minor states, deliberated at Frankfort in 1818, on the principles to be observed in dealing with the ecclesiastical relations of their Catholic subjects.^ They began by adopting the salient points of the Austrian Church legislation under Joseph II., namely, the nomination of bishops by the Crown from a list of three proposed candidates ; the institution of the person, ' With regard to the whole course of these negotiations, much interesting information, according to Mejer, is given by JbViedberg 'Der Staat und die Bischofswahlen,' 1874; vol. i. pp. 90-207. 78 THE r.ESTOEATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, elected to the see, within four months by the pope, and in XVI II default thereof, by the metropolitan ; the exercise of the Their de- Placet for all official functions connected with the State ; from Rome, the asscut of the civil power in cases of excommunication ; and the strictest limitation of Church jurisdiction and influence in questions of marriage. All these principles were succinctly embodied in a Declaration, which was to acquire by papal ratification the force of an organic law of the Church. To obtain tliis sanction, an embassy was to be sent to Eome, with instructions, not to enter into details, but simply to submit the Declaration to the pope, so that he might ' formally recognise what the States had resolved to do in favour of those Catholic subjects, and to co-operate in the execution of those measures, in accord- ance with his august office.' This instrument was to be a perpetual safeguard — a Magna Charta lihertatis Ecclesice Catholico-Romance — for the Catholics of the federate States, which should secure to them their religion and liberty of conscience, as well as the necessary regulation of their Church. For that reason it had been limited to provisions on matters wherein the governments were bound to assert their interests in external order and the common welfare of the State. For the same reason it was immutable on all ' essential points ;' none but milder sug- gestions or alterations could be entertained. Only a truly naive ignorance of the situation at Eome could anticipate any success from such a course of proceeding. From the restored papacy, flushed with its recent victories in the Bavarian and Neapolitan Concordats, a few minor States were now demanding the recognition of a one-sided compact — a ' pragmatic sanction,' as Niebuhr aptly termed it — whose pro- visions the Court of Eome could scarcely have assented to ratify even in the days of its utmost weakness, directly opposed, as they were, to that papal system the principles of which the Vatican was then using every effort to en- THE UPPER RHENISH CIIURCII-PROVINCE. 79 force. Well might Niebuhr predict the signal overthrow chap. of such pretensions. The ambassadors, after waiting a — ^-^ long time, obtained nothing but a detailed statement by Consalvi, his Esposizione dei Sentimenti of August 10, 1819, of the reasons why the Declaration could not, in its essential points, be accepted by the Papal Court. This document of Consalvi's was described bythe Würtemberg plenipotentiary, Von Schmitz-GroUenburg, in his report, as one which ' destro3''ed tlie foundations of the German episcopate ; which was attempting to force upon them the Tridentine decrees in heu of the ecclesiastical law of Germany, and to establish papal absolutism in the States of the Confederation.' But it was clear that all this did not mend matters with Eome ; for the ' ecclesiastical law ' of Germany, for which the ambassador wished to obtain sole recognition, was precisely nothing more than a creature of that doctrine and one-sided practice of secularism, agamst which Eome had always protested. Nothing therefore was left to the minor States but to abandon, with good or with bad grace, the negotiations respecting their Declaration, and to enter upon Consalvi's ultimate offer of a Circumscription Bull; which was sug- consaivi's gested, no doubt, by the twofold desire to restore a firm cepted?" constitution to the shattered Church in those States, and to strengthen the hierarchy by extending Catholic bishoprics to territories hitherto wholly Protestant. After renewed conferences, the Governments declared to Consalvi, in March, 1821, their readiness to accept his proposal. They offered to establish and endow five bishoprics, viz. Eotten- burg, Freiburg, Mayeuce, Limburg, and Fulda, for Wür- temberg, Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Nassau-Frankfort, and Electoral Hesse. Freiburg was chosen as the archiepiscopal see for the whole Upper Ehenish province of the Church. The other provisions related to the election of bishops, to the Cathedral chapters, the seminaries, and other matters of that kind. XVIII Organic Articles })rivately concluded. 80 THE RESTOEATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP. Simultaneously, however, with the acceptance of this offer, the allied governments concluded privately among themselves an act called the Kirchen-Pragmatik, which, published in each of their States as an organic statute, was intended to regulate the relations of the Church, to secure the obedience of bishops and chapters, and the most important articles of which comprised the so-called ' Instru- ment of Foundation ' [Fundations- Instrument), which was to be binding on all bishops and chapters at their installa- tion as a fundamental condition of appointment. The most essential provisions of these Organic Articles were closely allied to the Declaration, expressly repudiated by Eome. Such for instance were those relating to the mode of electing the bishops, to be nominated by the sovereign out of three candidates proposed by the chapter ; to the oath of civil allegiance required from the bishop so elected before his consecration ; and to the re-establishment of the original constitution of metropolitans, according to which the archbishop is to confer the institution on the newly- elected bishop, in case the papal confirmation is delayed beyond six months after his election. While, however, the allied States thus sought to renew ,idaSoiers- i}^q qM tactlcs of tcrritonalism, the Curia, on its part, que, Aug. ^ , ■"- 16,1821. essayed to anticipate the move, by meeting the above proposal of the governments with the issue of a Circum- scription Bull, ready-prepared, for the Upper Ehenish province of the Church. This Bull agreed in general terms with their offers and proposals, but gave them a totally different interpretation. According to those pro- posals the regulations in question were to be made by the governments ; according to the Bull they proceeded from the free disposition of the pope, who was entrusted by the State with the administration only of the endow- ment. The circumscription of the dioceses was purely geographical, so that Protestants also were made subject Bull Pro- urrER RiiENisn church constitution. 81 to episcopal control.^ This anomaly, of course, did not chap. escape the notice of the governments; but nevertheless >3\"-^ the conviction was finally forced upon them, that the main substance of the Bull was to tlieir advantage, and that, as to papal formulas, however unacceptable they might seem, no one need take any serious objection, since the validity of every Bull depended on the sanction of the civil power ; and the present one, after J^n^^j^^ the precedent estabhshed by Prussia, would only be j^'^uJ''^''' promulgated with due reservation of the rights of the 3i, i829. crown. This w^as to be done by the proviso, ' in so far as the Bull shall agree with the proposals, agreements, and regulations concerning the boundaries, endowment, and administration of the five bishoprics (mentioned therein), and their incorporation into a Church province, and shall ensure the co-operation of the pope for the execution of such agreements ; provided always that such assent shall not be construed to apply to any other provisions, formulas, or articles of the Bull, which might interfere with the common ordinances, or with any particular law of the State.' It was resolved, therefore, without explicitly promising to accept and execute the Bull in its integrity, to inform Consalvi in reply, with best thanks for his good offices, that an official copy had been communicated to the ecclesiastical executor, ap- pointed by the pope, for him to deal with according to his office ; and that the governments would occupy themselves at once with the measures necessary to pro- mote a confidential understanding respecting the choice ' ' Supradictas idcirco civitates et ecclesias in Archiepiscopalem et Episcopales erectas, cum praedictis locis et parceciis quinque supra- numeratis ecclesiis, pro respective diocesano territorio attributis illonim incolas utriusque sexus, tam dericos quam laicos, pro clero et populo per- petuo assignamus.' VOL. n. G 82 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, of bishops. At tlie same time, however, the govern- ' — r— ' ments mutually agreed that the instrument of foundation should be prepared in terms accordingly; that the Kirchen-Pragmatik should continue in full force and- effect, and that any suoplementary questions should be referred to the ' Declaration.' A policy so full of self-contradictions was bound to prove the source of subsequent errors. At all events, it is strange to find the Wlirtemberg minister, von Wau- genheim, tlie prime manager of the whole negotiation, boasting at its conclusion of having gained, on all essen- tial points, what Councils, the Hundred Grievances of the German Nation, and the Punctations of Ems had vainly striven to attain, — namely, the re-establishment of the episcopal system in all its fullness and dignity. The truth was, on the contrary, that the campaign, so boldly begun, had been completely unsuccessful. The govern- ments had failed in their design to extort a recognition of their joint authority from the pope by the threat of reviving otherwise, from the last period of the empire, the scheme of a National Church of Germany. The reason Avhy they had not ventured to break openly with Eome, after the flat rejection of their Declaration, was simply because they could not resist the conviction that a re-organisation of the utterly distracted relations of the Church could never be effected without the concurrence of the Vatican. They accepted, on the contrary, pretty much all that the Vatican offered, and then endeavoured to ]3rotect themselves by a series of one-sided and con- tradictory enactments. The pope no sooner heard of the Kirchen- Frag taatik^ than he demanded its repeal, before consenting to confirm the election of the bishops. On this point, as well as on the definitive mode of nominat- ApHi'i], iiig bishops and prebends, disputes followed, which lasted for several years, and in 1827 led to a new Bull, Ad Bull Ad dominici 1827, ROME AND THE NETHERLANDS. 83 dominici gregis custodiam, wliicli the governments again published only with reservations. The Netherlands, also, as well as the Swiss Cantons, endeavoured about this time to effect a similar under- standing with Eome, respecting the position of the Catholic Church. As regards the former, in the Old Provinces the public exercise of Catholic worship had been interdicted up to 1798, but had been allowed in the Southern provinces, acquired in 1648, where Catholicism preponderated. There a system of Church government continued to exist, under the Nunciature at Brussels, Avhose jurisdiction was extended, in the seventeenth century, to the Old Provinces, in the cha- racter of a missionary district. In these provinces Utrecht had longest withstood the invasion of Pro- testantism ; at a later period the archbishop was obliged to remove his see to Cologne, and exercise his functions merely as vicar-apostolic. When the dispute concern- ing the succession to the see broke out, which led to the separation of the so-called Old Catholics, the Protestant government consented to the re -establishment of the archbishopric as well as the bishopric of Haarlem, though the concession was not recognised at Eome. The Revo- lution gave equal rights to the Cathohcs ; but no re- organisation of the hierarchy was accomphshed under French rule. After 1815, when the Catholic rehgion had become that of the large majority in the new Idng- dom, formed by the acquisition of the Belgian provinces, the government, in order to conciliate their new subjects, sought to effect an agreement with the Papal See for the re-organisation of the Catholic Church. They proposed to extend to Holland, with its population of G00,000 Catholics, the French Concordat, previously vahd in Belgium. But this the Vatican distinctly refused. The Concordat of 1801, extorted under the pressure of cir- 84 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CIIURCII. CHAP, cumstances, had rendered concessions necessary, for V — Jil- which no reason any longer existed. Eorae therefore could now only negotiate ex integro. This, however, was rendered very difficult by the policy the government was pursuing in their legislation affecting the State Church, a policy which evoked the violent opposition of the Belgian clergy. Not until 1827 was the problem solved by the conclusion of a Concordat and a Circumscription Concordat Bull.^ By thc foHTier the French Concordat of 1801 was Kether-^ cxtcndcd to HoUaud. With regard only to the nomina- i8!'i827"°^ tion of bishops, which King Wilham I., being a Pro- testant, could not perform, it was agreed that the chapters should transmit to the king the names of the candidates, belonging to the native clergy, whom they proposed. If among those candidates there were any not ' agree- able ' to the king, their names were to be erased from the list, and their places supplied by others, so that a sufficient number might remain for the election. Three new sees were erected, Amsterdam, Bruges and Bois-le- Duc. The bishops were to have the free nomination of their vicars-general, and the absolute control of the seminaries, which the king promised hberally to endow. The reason of this extension of authority was given in the preamble of the Circumscription Bull, which declared it expedient that the same Church constitution should extend to the entire kingdom.^ The hierarchy was con- sequently re-established in the Netherlands, the pope declaring, in the Bull of August 17, 'to the honour of God and of the Mother of God, the Holy Virgin Mary, whom the Belgians particvüarly revere as their Patron.' But besides this, the Vatican obtained the promise, that attendance at the ' Philosophical College,' as it was 1 The entire documents are given by Martens * Nouveau Recueil ' xi. p. 244 sqq. 2 ' Quocirca illud in primis declaramus, nt , . . in uno eodemque regno universse ecclesiasticse res una eademque ratione regantur et per tractentvir.' THE IIIERAKCIIY RE-ESTABLISHED. 85 ('TT \1». XVIII. called, which the king, following the traditions of Josephism, had established at Louvain, and which every candidate for the sacerdotal office in the Catholic Church liad been required to frequent, should cease to be obli- gatory, the priests being now left again to fulfil their course of training in seminaries eä solum ratione insti- iue?idos, quam episcopi prcescripserint Obviously, the importance of this result sufficed to outweigh the scruples of the pope against concluding a Concordat with a Pro- testant sovereign, and giving him the same rights, with the above exception, as those contained in the Concordat with France. The pope went so far as to allow the archbishops or bishops, after receiving canonical institu- tion, to take an oath of allegiance to the king, swearing obedience and fidelity, and promising ' to carry on no communication, to assist at no council, to maintain no suspicious correspondence, whether within or without the kingdom, which may disturb the public peace ; and to disclose to the king, their master, any intrigues against the State that might come to their knowledge.' The same oath was to be taken by the inferior clergy before the constituted civil authorities. As the king, however, promulgated the Circumscription Bull with the express reservation ' Sans approbation des clauses, formules, ou expressions qui sont ou pourront etre contraires aux lois du royaume,' it never came to be executed, and the Belgian Eevolution rendered the whole Concordat futile. In Switzerland, likewise, the relations of the Catholic Re-distri- Church seemed to call for re-adjustment. The Eestora- dioceses" in tion brought about a close union between the aristocrats iand.^^'" and the Catholic clergy, and the Eomish party made use of that alliance to promote, as far as possible, the re- establishment of the hierarchical system. Before the Eevolution, the Nunciature at Lucerne had been the centre of the hierarchy : the Catholic chief cantons were 86 THE KESTOEATION AXD THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, partly under the German bishopric of Constance, partly ' — r— ' under the Upper-Itahan bishopric of Como. Coke, though standing on Swiss soil, exercised its jurisdiction chiefly in Tyrol. The other sees were of small importance, and some of them had been entirely separated from S\vitzer- land. The French Concordat cut off those portions of Swiss dioceses which then belonged to France, and united them with French ones ; but it dissolved, at the same time, the metropohtan union of the Swiss ^dth the French archbishops. With Wessenberg, who as Dalberg's vicar- general at Constance, exercised considerable influence on Swiss teiTitory, the nuncio at Lucerne soon came into open conflict. The Vatican wished to fi'ee Switzerland entirely from Constance ; and as the cantons concerned were striving likewise to shake off all foreign connection, Dalberg was compelled to yield, and in 1816 the separa- tion was effected by a papal Bull. But the establishment of a national bishopric was frustrated by the jealousy of the cantons : and the project never came to common action. The ambassadors, who appeared at Eome in 1818, had no commission from the Diet, but represented only Berne and Lucerne, who were anxious to unite the Basle dioceses and the vacant Swiss portion of Constance into a new bishopric, with its head-quarters at Lucerne. Most of the other cantons, however, opposed this design : Soleui'e, Aargau, and Thurgau -svished to transfer the see of Basle to Soleui^e. Schwytz, Uri, and Unterwaiden disclaimed any influence Avhatever on the re-aiTangement of the dioceses, and referred the matter solely to the pope, who at once appointed the abbot of Einsiedeln bishop of these three cantons. Subsequently, however, this was changed : the diocesan portions, separated from Constance, were di\'ided between Coh'e and Basle ; the former being enlarged into a double bishopric of Coh'e and St. Gall, which embraced, besides the Grisons and St. Gall. Schwytz, GEXEE.VL ADVANTAGES GAINED BY ROME. 87 Uri, Unterwaldeu, Glai'us, Appenzell, and Schaff hausen. Ji^Iap. The see of Basle was removed to Soleiire, and received ' — -' the addition of Lucerne, Soleure, Zug, Basic, Aargau, Thurgau, and the former princely-episcopal Basle ])ortion of Berne. The remainder of the old cantons belonged to Lausanne, with which Geneva,^ Pays de Vaud, Freiburg, and Xeufchatel were now united. The diocese of Sion alone remained unchanged. Li surveying the general results of this period of aav^ytl^,^^ Concordats, it cannot be denied that the Vatican had f •""•' ' ^y gained vast concessions. It had not yet, indeed, re- conquered its ancient position in the world, but it had, nevertheless, regained an amount of importance which made it necessaiy for all States to negotiate with Eome. Impelled by the urgent need of the governments to recon- struct the ancient constitution of the Chm'ch, so com- pletely shattered by the Eevolution, these States had been forced to accommodate themselves to agreements, in the natm-e of treaties, which, though not actually re- establishing the curiahstic system, yet contained nothing contrary to its principles. And if the governments pro- tected their rights by one-sided reservations and organic laws, Eome had acquired, at all events, a basis of opera- tions, recognised by the secular powers, from which she could pursue the further re-establishment of the hierarchy. In Germany, moreover, the Curia was favom-ed in Hierarohi- these designs by the ciurent of the time. The large tionottuc majority of the German clergy had been disposed, dming cier-y. the eighteenth century, towards episcopacy, and ac- quiesced, without any great reluctance, in the Josephist ^ In this stronghold of Calvinism the Catholics first obtained an equality of civil rights in 1816, when the king of Sardinia stipulated the protection of their -worship for the twenty-one communes he had ceded to the canton at the consress of Vienna. Tyrolese bisho 1806. ÖÖ THE RESTORATION AND TIIE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, system of Church leo^islation. Even the circle of Münster XVIII. . ' r— ' Cathohcs, such as Fürstenberg, Overberg, Katerkamp, Stolberg, and the Princess Galitzin, who, like Sailer, sought to deepen Catholicism by piety of the heart, were thoroughly anti-ultramontane, as was shown by their cordial intercourse with professed Protestants. But with the Eevolution and secularisation came a total change. The higher clergy, who had lost their independence together with their temporalities, and for the most part were treated rather badly by their new masters, began to feel that the only means to recover their position was to attach themselves closely to the centre of the hierarchy, statement The first symptoui of this tendency was given in the ancesby ^Statement of Grievances,' submitted in 1806, by the prince-bishops of Coire, Trent, and Brixen, to the papal nuncio della Genga, against the Church government of Bavaria in Tyrol. The memorialists protested against the extension of religious toleration to those countries which had hitherto remained untainted with heresy ; against the abolition of the episcopal censorship of books, the with- drawal of schools from ecclesiastical supervision, the abolition of the spiritual Forum, of the immunity and clerical administration of Church property ; and against civil legislation with regard to marriage. To the terri- torialism of Josej)h II. was opposed in all its ruggedness the curialistic system, which denied to the State all legislative power in Church matters, and restricted its rights to those of strengthening and supporting the ex- in Tyrol, ecutiou of thc cxistiug laws of the Church. The bishops, in close alliance with the nuncio, offered a tough re- sistance to the government. In the Tyrolese revolt of 1809, political antipathy leagued itself with religious embitterment against Bavarian rule ; the priests preached warfare against the enemies of the Church and the Catholic movement ANTI-FEBRONIAN MOVEMENT IN GERMANY. 89 Fatlierland. One of their most prominent leaders belonged chap. to the order of the Capuchin Friars ; and Hofer sum- ■ — r-^- moned all his compatriots to rise in defence of their ancient religion. His first step was to restore the con- fiscated property of the Church, and to place the manage- ment of the schools upon the old footing of clerical control. He suppressed all school-books which were not compiled in the spirit and according to the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, and filled the professional chairs at Brixen and Innspruck with men animated by the same piinciples. This religious movement survived even the suppression of the revolt, and found expression in the peasant - league of the ' Mamiharter ' in the valley of Brixen, which contested the right of the government to interfere, in any manner whatever, in the affairs of the Church. About this time there was formed in the south of Cathi.Uc . ... uniun Germany a union of Catholic ecclesiastics and laymen, against tor tJie purpose of combatmg the prmciples of terri- torial ism and Febronius. At its head were Zirkel, the suffragan bishop of Würzburg, Adam, the canonist of Eichstiidt, and the canonists Stapf and Frey of Bamberg. Immediately after the fall of Napoleon they addressed a memorial to Eome, ' On the sad condition of the Church in Germany ; ' and the principles of this league were espoused also by those who in the first instance had appeared at the Congress of Vienna, though without any special credentials, as the representatives of the German Catholic Church. They called themselves ' Orators ' (Oratoren) : they were in close alliance with Consalvi ; and were accredited by the pope as agents for the Catholic Church in Germany. They demanded the restitution of all the ecclesiastical possessions not yet alienated, together with compensation for the rest ; the endowment in landed property of bishoprics and bene- 90 THE EESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP. XVI II. Wessen- berg's at- tempts at Church re- foi-m. fices ; but, above all, the reinstatement of the Chnrch in her inalienable rights of government, and the regulation of her position towards the State on the principles of the canon law. They obtained, indeed, nothing positive in this respect, although Frederick Schlegel worked zealously to secure the incorporation in the Act of Confederation of a guarantee, such as they desired, of the rights of the Catholic Church and of a constitution framed in con- formity with those rights. Equally unsuccessful, on the other hand, were the efforts of their episcopalian opponent. Baron von Wessen- berg. As vicar-general of Dalberg at Constance, he had gained distinction by his beneficent reforms, and by his revival of interest in the Church and of a spiritual form of worship. By a series of ordinances ^ he had intro- duced the German language into the public services of the Church, circulated the Bible, improved the system of education, corrected the abuses of image-worship, and the lax morality of the clergy, curtailed the excessive number of holy days, and revived the old* practice of pastoral conferences.''^ But these very measures brought him into conflict A\dth the papal nuncio at Lucerne, with regard to the Swiss portion of his diocese. Two acts in particular led to an oj^en censure from the pope ; the first being his agreement with the government of Lucerne in 1808 to establish a seminary, the second his grant of an indulgence to the city, dispensing with fasting on Sundays from the high price of the articles of food used in fasts. But his projects of Church reform 1 These ordinances, extending from 1801 to 1827, are given in the * Sammhing BischoHicher Hirtenbriefe und Verordnungen seiner H. d. D. Fürsten-Primas d. Rheinischen Bundes, Bischof zu Konstanz. Für das Bisthum Konstanz,' 1808-1827 ; 2 vols. One ordinance for- bids the clergy to frequent wine-houses and carry ' shilielahs ' — ' quae cum Ilerculis clava comparari possent.' "^ ' Archiv für die Pastoral- Conferenzen in den Land-Kapiteln des Bisthums Konstanz.' Freiburg, 1822-1825. TMÜSSENBERG'S SCHEMES OF REFORM . 91 weilt beyond tlie mere removal of notorious abuses.^ His J"^]'- study of Church liistory had led him to perceive, that the • — r— ^ essence of Church government consisted in treating all ecclesiastical matters in ' well-ordered assemblies of all the members of the community ; ' that the primacy of the Eoman pontiff was in no way based on divine institution but on historical development ; that the principles of the Councils of the fifteenth century were the true principles of the Church ; that the Tridentine decrees were the result of the lamentable reaction against the Eeformation ; and that the only legitimate unity of Catholicism consisted in the continuity of the faith transmitted by the Church, not so, indeed, as to preclude further progress and development, but to take its measure from the decision of collective Christendom and its legally-constituted assembhes. The incongruity of this theory of liberal Episcopahsm with the historical facts of Cathohcism has already been demonstrated. Nevertheless, Wessenberg hoped to realise it by means of a German National Church, and to attain that object he was co-operating zealously with Dalberg. After the fruitless termination of the Paris Council, he addressed himself to the Congress at Vienna with a memorial on the reform of the German Church. But while his antipathy to Ultramontanism made him recognise all the more clearly the dangers consequent on its revival, he met with no hearing from the statesmen assembled at Vienna in his efforts to make his plans of reform a national cause. Even the guarantee of the Confederation, which in characteristic manner he restricted to the Catholic Church, was never obtained.''* ' Compare Beck, Wessenberg's ' Leben und Wirken,' Freiburg, 1862 — a -work, however, very obscurely and very partially compiled. ^ The guarantee was to have run thus : — ' The Catholic Church in Germany shall receive, under the guarantee of the Confederation, a con- stitution securing her rights and the means necessary for supplying her requirements.' 92 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP. That his aspirations after unity by the negotiation of a --^^ — r— ^ German Concordat, and by the regulation of CathoHc affairs ' according to the purified principles of the Councils of Constance and Basle,' met with no better success, has already been mentioned ; and we liave noticed the defeat of the governments of the Upper Ehenish Chiu:ch-pro- vince who were under his influence. All these efforts necessarily brought him into conflict with the restored His quarrel papacy. Appointed vicar- general by Dalberg in 1814, when the separation of the Swiss portion of the diocese took place, his dismissal was demanded by the pope in a Brief (November 2, 1814), suppressed by Dalberg,^ who in the next year formally presented him as his coadjutor and successor to the bishopric. After Dalberg's death in 1817 the Chapter appointed him capitular- vicar or administrator of the diocese sede vacante ; but no sooner had his appointment been notified at Eome^ than a severe reprimand was returned from tlie pope, rejecting Wessenberg ob gravissimas causas, and com- manding the Chapter to make a worthier choice. The Chapter wrote back a spirited defiance ; and the pope, who had begun by ignoring, now tried to coax the grand duke of Baden with a view to obtain his sanction to the dismissal of Wessenberg, against whom, as he alleged, and against his * erroneous doctrines, evil ex- ample, and audacious opposition to the commands of the Apostolic See,' complaints had been transmitted from the ^ Wessenberg himself declared afterwards, in a letter to Consalvi, that neither he nor the Chapter knew anything about this brief until after Dalberg's death, when it was found among his papers. For the correspondence and other documents in this controversy see appendix to the official ' Denkschrift über das Verfahren des Römischen Hofes,' translated under the title of ' Wessenberg : Reformation in the Church of Germany.' London, 1819. ^ This act was superfluous, not being required by the Council of Trent, and impolitic, for it was done without informing the grand duke. ms QUARREL WITH ROME. 93 whole of Germany.^ But he received a peremptory and chap angry refusal. The excitement produced by this con- troversy now induced Wessenberg to go to Eorae, there to justify himself in person against all accusations. That his errand indeed would be fruitless was certain from the very first, and the grand duke, while encouraging the step, confessed he had small hopes of its success. No notice was taken of him for seven weeks after his arrival ; and when at last he received a letter from Consalvi, it was plain that what the Curia demanded from him, as from all refractory members of the Church, was absolute surrender and retractation. Advances, indeed, were made to him on the point of form, and Eome would have been satisfied with a general declaration of obedience, nay, in that case, would have consented even to confirm him. But Wessenberg trusted too much to the weight of his name and personal character, and refused to abandon his plans of reform, though he might have told himself how his appeal to the rights and liberties of the German Church must be received at Eome. He returned, indeed, to his diocese for a while, where he was inundated with addresses complimenting him on his conduct, and, like Archbishop Codde at Utrecht, presented the spectacle of a bishop, who acknowledged the general authority of the Papal See, holding ofiice in express defiance of the pope. The grand duke of Baden, who had espoused his cause from the first, endeavoured to support him now, and addressed a memorial ^ on his behalf to the Diet. But there the matter rested. The echo of his panegyrists, who pub- lished his praises in a multitude of pamphlets, died away. With the change of government an unfavourable reaction set in against him at the end of 1818, even at the Court. ' Brief of May 21, 1817, in * Reformation in Germany,' pp. 2, 3. 2 See the memorial (Denkschrift) in the ' Reformation in Germany,' •ut supra. XVIII. XVIII. 94 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP. The efforts of the clergy, who were devoted to his cause, to obtain for him the archiepiscopal see of Freiburg, were baffled by the refusal of the pope to institute him ; and when in 1827 the reconstitution of the Upper Ehenish Church province was finally ratified, Wessenberg resigned his appointment as administrator at Constance. Thus terminated the active ecclesiastical career of this talented and well-intentioned man, who presents an additional example of the impossibility of reforming the Catholic Church.^ In saying this, we have certainly no intention to deny that Wessenberg exercised an im- portant influence, and possessed numerous adherents among the German clergy themselves. The principles of Febronius were still powerful, but so far fi'om being universally paramount as before, they were now gradually losing ground. Moreover, the opponents of Wessenberg, such as Frey and Zirkel, did not preach simply the curialistic system, but exposed with striking force the impracticability of his plans, and in so doing met with wide-spread sympathy. In Bavaria the clerical move- ment, stimulated by the strenuous opposition of the Crowu Prince to the police system of government, vigorously asserted its power. The prince-bishop of Eichstädt and the archbishop of Bamberg complained, on the promulgation of the Edict of Eeligion, that ' the sworn enemies of our holy religion had succeeded in shaking the pillars and the fabric of Church government, and making the power, granted to the bishops by Christ Himself, dependent in future on the secular government.' At the command of Eome, numerous ecclesiastics refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Constitution : and '&" ^ There is no occasion to speak here of Sailer, the most eminent and the noblest of the Catholic teachers of that day, for he did not interfere in questions of Chiircli and State. THE TtOMANTIC AND ' HISTOrJC ' SCHOOLS. 95 many of tliem took it only ' witli the reservation of the chap. XVIII rights and laws of the CathoUc Church, the pope, and > — r-^ ism. the bishops.' This movement gained support from the tendency, then prevalent among the flourishing school of the Eomanticists to idealise the Catholic Church, as re- Rmumth gards its history, its worship, and its doctrine, by ignor- SthoUc- ing the evils of the present situation, and glorifying the splendour of medicevalism. Adam Müller, in his politico- theological writings, attempted to show that true liberty was realised only in the institutions of a feudal state. Frederick Scldegel, in the same spirit, eulogised im- perialism and the papacy. The former he demanded as the realisation of the ideal Christian State, which, from its nature, must be a constitutional monarchy. The pope he calls the ' vigilant Tribune of the people of Christen- dom,' on behalf of all who are oppressed. The restora- tion of Church independence is, in his view, the only safeguard against revolution. In close connection with this Eomantic, was the xheffw- Historic theory of Catholicism, which regarded Pro- testantism as the beginning of revolution, and the Eomisli Church, resting on the rock of Peter, as the only sure anti-revolutionary support. This theory it was that induced a number of Protestant jurists and poli- ticians,— men hke Haller, Jarcke, Philipps, and others, to go over to the Catholic faith, just as the Eomantic theory had attracted Stolberg, Schlegel, and, amongst several other men of art, Overbeck and Veit. In the treatment also of ecclesiastical law a revolution uitramon- now occurred, and a rupture with the views of Febronius. trhL of The first sign of this change was given by the 'Manual £1^'''^ of Ecclesiastical Law ' of Walter, which appeared in 1822, and exerted afterwards such an active influence on thought. The leading publicistic champion of the whole movement was Gürres. Himself a former pupil of the school of revo- 96 THE RESTOEATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, lution and of bitter hatred against tlie Church, the fiery elo- '^ — ■ — ' qiience of his Rkenish Mercury aroused the national senti- ment of Germany during the War of Liberation with Napo- leon, The reaction suppressed his journal, and brought him into more and more vehement opposition to the bu- reaucratic Protestant government, which finally compelled him to leave the country. In his mystico-prophetic work ' Germany and the Eevolution,' he denounced in the warniest language the subjugation of the Church by the civil power. If in former times the champions of liberty had sided with the State against the hierarchy, it was now their turn to interfere on behalf of the Church, so shamefully oppressed, and to rescue her from the thraldom of civil aggression. Ai'bitrary power was bound to succumb before the phalanx of the hierarchy and its head. As yet, however, Gorres appears far from an orthodox disciple of the Curia. His indignation against political disunion and oppression made him see in Church domination the only refuge for mankind ; but the consistent development of these views was bound to lead him gradually to Ultramontanism, whose organ, in fact, the Catholic became. Closely allied with Gorres was Clement von Droste, then vicar-general at Münster, who in 1817 had violently denounced the Placet^ and in 1820 on his own responsibility forbade the clergy of his diocese to attend the University of Bonn, where Hermes was then teaching. On being called sharply to account by the government for this act, he answered that the Church repudiated altogether, for herself and her con- stitution, all authority or influence of the secular power. ^eaj- It would undoubtedly have been easy at that time [heP^uJ- ^^^ ^^^^ Prussian government to win over the majority of ^'^■^ the Cathohcs. Hermes and his school controlled the govern- ment. Catholic faculty at the University of Bonn, and, through that, the education of the Ehenish clergy. Ecclesiastical WEAK POIJCY OF TRUSSIAN GOVERXMENT. 97 law was re[)resented by Droste-Hiilshof, a man of chap. Gallican sympathies. The archbishop of Cologne favoured J^lIiL- this tendency in every way, and appointed Hermes a member of the Commission of Examinations, and an honorary prebendary. lie himself was a thoroughly mo- derate man, and seriously endeavoured to maintain a good understanding with the government. With a view to prevent denunciations by the clergy, he forbade them to correspond with foreign bishops. He resisted the attempt to re-establish all the old festivals ; he inter- dicted pilgrimages to distant parts, and the pomp and parade of images of saints at processions ; and directed all his energies to the proper training of the clergy. It is readily intelligible that such a course of discipline was eminently distasteful to the Ultramontane party, which from the first had confronted the Protestant government Avith hostility. But that i^arty was then still limited in num- bers and influence. The urban populations in particular had been trained in the principles of Josephism, of the Eevolution, and of the Empire ; and the government could easily have gained them over by satisfying their just political demands. But this very concession was stubbornly refused, and attempts were made to reconcile the Ultramontanes by a policy of indulgence. The con- sequence was, that the natural allies of the government were repelled, without the other party being conciliated ; since the Ultramontanes, so far from being grateful for concessions, made them only the starting-point for fresh demands. Already, before the conclusion of the Concordat, difficulties arose at Aix-la-Chapelle between the clergy and the civil power with regard to mixed marriages, which evoked an order from the king (March 1, 1819) declaring that 'the proceedings of the Catholic clerg}^ Avere con- trary to the principles of the royal government.' Similar things were seen in Silesia, where, among a VOL. II. H 98 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, CHAP, mixed population of Protestants and Catholics, an undis- XYllI Catliolic re- action in Silesia. turbed religious peace had reigned since the annexation of that province to Prussia.^ With regard to mixed marriages, after an energetic protest from Frederick II. against the demand of Eome to make the Catholic edu- cation of the issue of such unions a condition of dis- pensation, a modus vivendi had been privately sanctioned in 1777, allowing the clergy — ' dissimulatione quadam ubi impune grassantur hsereses ' — to proceed in all cases according to local relations. The clergy, indeed, were attached to a mild system of episcopal administration : they embraced the system of Fenelon, Pascal, Sailer, Overberg, and others of like opinions. Their leading members were on terms of friendly intercourse with pro- fessed Protestants ; and there were no apparent symp- toms of a conflict with the government. Matters affect- ing the churches and the schools were dealt with by Protestant and Catholic councillors in common, under the presidency of the civil governor of the province. The gymnasia, the seminaries, and all affairs concerning the whole province were supervised likewise by the same authorities without any distinction being had of creed ; and with all their differences of opinion, the several parties agreed in the conviction that the most favourable results were attained in the safest way by an emulous and peaceful co-operation. The spirit of Silesian Catholicism is best reflected by the ' Diocesan paper for the diocese of Breslau,' which laid especial stress on the importance of infusing life into the common worship of clergy and ^ What good relations existed between Protestants and Catholics is shown by the circi^mstance, that atBrieg, when in 1809 the introduction of the new municipal constitution was celebrated by a festive procession and a solemn service in the Protestant church of St. Nicholas, some of the Capuchin monks, then not yet secularised, took part in their robes of office at the solemnities at the altar. CATHOLIC REACTION IN SILESIA. 99 laity, and recommended for that purpose the introduc- chap. tion of the German language, and the spread of the ■- , -^ Bible. But with the restoration of the papacy, and more particularly with the promotion of Schimonsky in 1817 as prince-bishop of Breslau — a man who had been trained in the ' Collegium Germanicum ' at Eome — a reactionary spirit began to prevail ; and extraordinary indulgences^ the increased veneration of saints, more constant pil- grimages, and the prohibition of the Bible were now the order of the day. Against these innovations a memorial, signed by eleven parish priests, was presented (November 2, 1826), to the prince-bishop, setting forth the unsatisfactory state of the Church in Silesia, and praying for some reforms in the liturgy and ritual, and above all for the performance of services in the language of the country. This memorial was pub- schi,„on- lished soon after with additions in an anonymous book sky and the •^ memorial- entitled 'The Catholic Church, especially in Silesia, re- istsofi826. presented in its failings by a Catholic Priest,' in which the author, who was well known to be Father Theiner, laid bare the shortcomings of clerical management in the seminaries and national schools, and ventured to criticise the compulsory celibacy of priests.^ The prince-bishop issued a sharp pastoral (January 18, 1827) against these ' intrigues,' as he termed them, which he sought to fix upon the memorialists, and threatened with ecclesiastical penalties any arbitrary innovations in worship and ritual. An humble appeal, addressed immediately to the sovereign by a number of Catholic land-owners and clergy of Silesia, and recommending similar reforms, merely met with the reply that the Crown could not enact any ^ ' Die Katholische Kirche, besonders in Schlesien, in ihren Gebre- chen dargestellt, von einem Katholischen Geistlichen.' Altenberg, 1827. The English reader will find its contents set forth in the ' Foreign Quarterly Review ' of that year (vol. i.). 100 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP, changes of worship, but that the memoriahsts must apply >- , '-' to the prince-bishop. Encouraged by this vacillating con- duct of the government, Schimonsky proceeded with his penalties against the memorialists, and deprived two of Eeportof them of office. President Merckel, the civil governor, Merckei!* took thcsc Under his protection, and submitted to the king a report on the situation.^ He demonstrated therein, that although circumstances were not ripe for the introduction of the German language in public wor- ship— desirable in itself as such a change undoubtedly w\as — yet the government was in duty bound not to encourage, or even to tolerate any persecution of the pre- tended innovators, since such conduct would estrange the clergy and schoolmasters from all spiritual activity, would make both the absolute creatures of Eome, and would deprive the government of all influence over them. Merckel recommended, as a positive measure of relief, that the Catholic seminaries for primary instructors^ should be placed under the special supervision of the provincial authorities, and a higher standard of qualifica- tion required from the teachers ; that their appointment by private patrons should be confirmed by the govern- ment, who should grant subventions for new schools in poor communities, special attention being paid to the training of the clergy themselves. He proposed that no pupil should be admitted to study theology, until he had passed a prescribed examination ; that a general educa- tion should be required from the students themselves ; that the seminaries for priests should be raised to a higher 1 It was published in the ' Zeitsclirift für Preussische Geschichte und Landeskunde,' May, 1872, p. 270. 2 ' Schul-lehrer-Seminarien,' corresponding with the ' Ecoles Nor- males' in France. The discipline and management of these institutions in Prixssia, which were due to the necessity of a constant supply of trained school -masters, were regulated by the law of 1819 (tit. iv.). (See Cousin's 'Report on Public Instruction in Prussia,' 1831 — Mrs. Austin's transl.). ULTRAMONTANISM IX THE NETHERLANDS. 101 Standard of eiriciency, and that none but really eminent aiAP. men should be appointed prebendaries. It is not elear - — . — - that the cabinet followed out tliese suggestions. The prince-bishop, on the mediation of Bunsen and Count Sedhiitzky, a Silesian nobleman and Schimonsky's immediate successor, consented to stay his penal pro- ceedings against tlie memorialists. But the movement nevertheless was broken. During the ten years after 1820, a good understanding on the whole was maintained in Germany between the government and the Catholic Church. The latter was conscious tliat she was not strong enough for attack ; but she prepared herself for it by setting her house in order and organising her forces. In the Netherlands also Ultramontanism raised its f^^l""^^^' head. Tlie clergy, incensed against King William by gg^'j^Vr- '^* their exclusion fi'om the monopoly of education, took i^"*!«- advantage of the popular discontent excited by his mea- sures of State, to push their own pretensions. When by a trick of political arithmetic the king had secured the necessary votes for the new Constitution (August 24, 1815), the bishops of Ghent ^ and Tournay protested against its grant of liberty of conscience and equality of i-iglits to the various confessions, and forbade the oath of allegiance to the constitution to be taken in their dioceses. • Mgr. de Bi oglie declared in a pa;^toral that the equal liberty con- ceded to all religions exposed the Belgians to the admission of the lamentable principle, that all religions were equally good, and that salvation could be attained through one as well as through another — a notion wholly alien to the spirit of the Catholic faith. The admission of all subjects to all offices might result, he said, in ' incurable evils for our holy religion,' since, in that case, posts of importance might be filled by non-Catholics. William I., however, took a somewhat ungenerous revenge for this opposition, by making the publication, two years afterwards, of two papal Bulls without the royal placet, the pre- text for bringing the oiFending archbishop before a jury, and oidering the sentence, which was one of deportation, to bo nailed to the pillory in his absence. 102 TIIE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCPI. CHAP. The government maintained towards them a feeble, yet ^ — r—- offensive attitude. It adopted the pohcy, so suicidal in earlier times to Joseph II., of giving an anti-Cathohc cha- racter to the whole system of education. Thereupon, its opponents proceeded to organise clerical seminaries,^ and finally compelled the king to surrender, in the Con- cordat of 1827, the obligatory attendance of theological students at the colleges of the State. The government now allowed the oath of allegiance to the Constitution to be taken by Catholics with sophistical reservations ; but at the same time they openly supported the Sentinelle, the scornful assailant of the Catholic religion ; provoked the Liberals as well as the clergy by petty administrative measures and vexatious prosecutions ; systematically ignored all Belgians in the promotions to high offices of State : and thus aroused the hostility of the whole nation. Catholic Catholicism gained its most important victory at the ti^a'ia ^*" end of this epoch by its emancipation in England. The Brfuin. Uniou witli Ireland brought the question into prominence. Pitt, who in carrying out the Union had derived his chief support from tlie Irish Catholics, had seen the anomaly of excluding three-fourths of the people of that country, on the ground of their religion, from the common legis- lature ; and had intended, if not actually promised, to follow up the Union by a measure which should give to the Catholics those rights under the British, which he had given them under the Canadian constitution.'^ But • An ordinance of June 20, 1829, allowed Catholic bishops to reopen their seminaries subject to certain regulations prescribed by the king. The Concordat, without openly enacting freedom of education, declared it to be a ' constant object of the care of government.' ■'' Goldwin Smith's ' Irish History and Irish Character,' 18G2, p. 186. The project of Union sent by his cabinet to Lord Cornwallis recited in Article iv. : ' All members of the United Houses to take the oaths now taken by British members, but such oaths to be subject to such CATHOLIC EMAXCirATION IN ENGLAND. 103 his proposals were shipwrecked by the obstinate resist- chap. ance of George III., whose scruples of conscience, care- J^"^' fully nursed by Lord El don, saw in his coronation oath an insurmountable obstacle to all concession, and who declared that he would regard as his personal enemy anyone who proposed a measure of that kind.^ Scarcely had the Imperial Parliament assembled than Pitt resigned, and on his resumption of office in 1804 he carefully abstained fi'om bringing forward the question. Year after year, however, when Pitt was removed, the subject was revived by Grattan, but only to be rejected ; and even statesmen, who half sympathised with the justice of the Catholic claims, voted against them as premature. Notwithstanding the menacing progress of discontent in Ireland, which caused the Insurrection Act to be put in force in 1815, the stubborn Tory ministry under Lord Liverpool turned a deaf ear to all measures of relief. Under the brief administration of Canning, who had favoured their demands, the Cathohcs remained com- paratively quiet ; but when the duke of Wellington became prime minister in 1828, the violence of popular agitation, inflamed by the Catholic Association and O'Connell, who was returned as member for Clare, brought the country to the verge of rebellion, and made further resistance too perilous to be entertained. The Corporation and Test Acts were repealed in 1828, a declaration ' on the true faith of a Christian,' so as to ex- clude the Jews, being substituted for the Sacramental test. When Parliament met in 1829, the Speech from the Throne recommended in general terms the removal of alterations as may be enacted by the United Parliament.' (' Corre- spondence,' ii. 436.) ' A bill introduced in 1807, for admitting Catholics to hold higher commissions in the army and navy, was withdra-\\ni by the ministers out of deference to the kin^. It Avas carried in 1817. 104 TUE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. CHAP. XVIII. Catholic disabilities ; and these assurances were followed ' ' " up directly afterwards by the Cathohc Eelief Bill. The time was indeed critical. In the Lords the diike of Welling- KeiSm ^^^ frankly confessed that the choice lay between con- 1829. cession and civil war. ' I am one of those,' he said, ' who have probably passed a longer period of my life engaged in war than most men, and principally, I may say, in civil war ; and I must say this, that if I could avoid, by any sacrifice whatever, even one month of civu war in the country to which I am attached, I would sacrifice my life in order to do it.'^ The bill, introduced into the House of Commons by Mr. Peel — the real author of the mea- sure— passed the third reading by a majority of 178 in a house of 462. Catholics were admitted to parhament and to all ofiices of State, except those of regent, lord- chancellor of England and Ireland, and viceroy of Ire- land, on taking an oath, proposed in place of the oath of supremacy, to support the existing institutions of the State and not to injure those of the Anglican Cluu-ch. The securities to be demanded from the Catholics — so often the subject of former debates — were now reduced to more modest proportions. The Cathohc bishops were forbidden to assume the titles of existing sees ; and no insignia of ofläce were to be displayed in any place of worship but those of the Estabhshed Church. No more Jesuits were to be introduced into the country ; those already there were henceforth to be registered. Peel rejected the plan of a Concordat, on the ground that it would never lead to a sincere union. He refused also to give the Catholic clergy a State salary : they were simply placed on the ' See his remarkable Memorandum of 1825, advocating the removal of all civil disabilities from Roman Catholics, and refuting the historical argument in favour of excluding Catholics from the privileges of a Protestant Government. Wellington's Correspondence 1819-1825, vol. ii. p. 595 sqq. CATHOLIC EMANTIPATIOX IN ENGLAND. 105 same footinc^ as Dissenters. The bill, with these securities, chap. . XVllI. passed the Lords by a majority of 213 to 109, and on -^— >-- *- April 14, 1829,^ received the grudging and rehictant assent of the king. One must undoubtedly agree with Peel that the Act was not only a measure of justice but an imperative necessity. ' I have for years,' he said, ' attempted to maintain the exclusion of Eoman Catholics from parlia- ment and the high offices of the State. I do not think it was an unnatural or unreasonable struggle. I resign it in consequence of the conviction that it can be no longer advantageously maintained ; from believing that there are not adequate materials or sufficient instruments for its effectual and permanent continuance. I yield therefore to a moral necessity which I cannot control, unwilhng to push resistance to a point which might endanger the establishments that I wish to defend When the Eoman Church,' he concluded, 'despises equality, and will only be satisfied with domination, then the battle, if in- evitable, will be fought for other objects and with other arms. The struggle will be — not for the abohtion of civil distinctions — but for the predominance of an in- tolerant religion. I contemplate the progress of that struggle with pain ; but I look forward to its issue with perfect composure and confidence. We shall then have dissolved the great moral alliance that has hitherto given strength to the cause of the Eoman Catholics. We shall range on our side the illustrious authorities which have heretofore been enhsted on theirs ; — the rallying-cry of " Civil Liberty " will then be all our own. We shall enter the field with the full assurance of victory — armed with Emand- . . . J r i • • p«tion de- the consciousness of havmg done justice and oi bemg in fencd too the right.' '^ Noble words! and such as all will surely ^"°°" • Hansard, ' Parliam. Debates,' 2ncl. Ser. xxi. 614-694. ^ Hansard, March 5, 1829. 106 THE RESTORATION AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. xvm' ^^"^cho. But equally sure it is that the measure has not ~ • — ' fulfilled its proper object, namely, the conciliation of Ire- land. It came, like so many reforms of that period, too late, and was only wrung from a reluctant government by the fear of rebellion. Had Emancipation been granted with the Irish Union, Ireland would have been spared a bitter and an angry struggle, which rallied the whole Catholic population in common hatred against the govern- ment, and bound them in the chains of a priestly t}Tanny, which from that day to this has never been broken. Emancipation thus became merely the starting-point of a new Ultramontane movement in England, and of fresh struggles with Ireland. Above all, the ' Irish vote ' in the House of Commons, henceforth almost exclusively Catholic, and siding alternately with either party, accord- ing as ultramontane interests dictate, has added materially to the difficulties of parliamentary government.^ ' A remark of Goethe's on this subject is veiy characteristic. When ]\L Coudray, the architect, observed to him that parliament would affix so many conditions to Catholic emancipation that it would never become dangerous for England, he replied, ' With Catholics all measures of precaution are useless. The Papal See has interests beyond what we imagine, and means to enforce them silently, of which we have no idea. We shall not have any clear knowledge of the Irish affair, for it is much too complicated. But this much we can see, that the country suffers from evils which cannot be remedied by any mea- sures, and therefore, not by emancipation. If it has hitherto been a misfortune that Ireland had to bear her evils alone, it is now a mis- fortune that England also is drawn into them.' (Eckermann, ' Gespräche,' ii. 67-76.) 107 CHAPTER XIX. THE STATE .^:n'D the catholic church from 1830-1848. Effects of the July Eevolution — Italj^ : Insurrection of the Legations — Memorandiuu of the Great Powers — Integrity of Papal States guaranteed — Papal misgovernmeut and Priestly rule — Spain : Progress of Ultra- montanism — Belgium: Revolution of 1830 — Union of Catholics and Liberals — Clerical ascendency — The Union dissolved — France : Popular reaction against the Clergy — Distui-bances in Paris — Timidity of the Government — Anti-Clerical Legislation — Liberal Catholic movement — Lamennais and the ' Avenir ' — Catholicism incompatible with Civil Liberty — Conduct of Education demanded by the Clergy — Aggressive Attitude of the Jesuits — Ireland : The Tithe Grievance — Question of Appropriation — Fiu-ther Concessions to Catholics — Germany: Growing dislike of Ultramontanism — Austria : Ultramontane Progress imder Ferdinand I. — Re-admission of the Jesuits — Mixed Marriages in Hun- gary— Prussia: Dispute with Rome respecting Mixed Marriages — The Archbishop of Cologne and the Government — The Contest repeated in Posen — Triumph of the Vatican — Germany : Ultramontane Progress in Bavaria — The ' Holy Coat of Treves ' — German Catholic Movement under Rouge and Czerski — Switzerland : Contest between Liberals and Ultramoutanes — Catholic League of 1831 — The Jesuits invited to Lucerne — War of the Sonderbiuid — Victory of the Liberals — Italy : Election of Pius IX. — His Political Reforms — Early Signs of Ultra- montanism. The July Eevolution burst the bond between throne and altar, whicli to the Bourbons and ultra-Eoyalists had seemed tlie surest guarantee of restored legitimacy. The Restoration had to make the bitter experience, that pre- cisely such an alliance served only to engender among the bourgeoisie., who, in consequence of the rapid strides of material prosperity, were becoming daily a more powerful factor in political life, the apprehension of a twofold servitude. Wliile the o-ovcrnment, therefore. 108 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, on many points in contradiction to the law, favoured in -- , -' the most marked manner the Catholic Church and her institutions, evaded the claims of other confessions to an equality of civil rights, and treated Ultramontane or- thodoxy as a passport to the service of the State ; this line of policy missed completely its aim just with those classes who were to be weaned by the Church from the principles of the Eevolution, and produced, on the con- trary, the opposite effect.^ The dynasty, moreover, at the very moment of its downfall, found not the slight- est support in the clergy, for whose sake they had com- promised tliemselves so heavily.^ However, if the Eevo- lution of 1830 was directed as much against the eccle- siastical, as against the political principles of the Eesto- ration, still the epoch now inaugurated indicates in no way a retrogression of the Catholic Church. On the contrary, she stepped forward with rapid strides from that position of inaction, which she had hitherto main- tained in all countries except in the south-west of Europe, and exchanged the attitude of defence for one of attack. And she understood how to turn the very triumphs of ^ Perhaps the most cutting expression of exasperation against this miscalculated self-abasement of the secular power is given in the verses of Beranger : — ' Plagons dans chaque prone Non point le trone sur I'autel Mais I'autel sur le trone. Comme aux bons temps feodaux Que les rois soient nos bedeaux.' 2 The extent of Charles X.'s blindness is shown by the flict, that when, immediately before the issue of the Ordinances, the Russian ambassador Pozzo di Borgo went to him to warn him urgently against those measures, the king replied, ' Ne craignez rien, hier encore la Sainte Vierge a paru ä Polignac' This fact was told me by a diplomatist, to whom Pozzo on his return related the answer he had received, the ambassador adding, ' Quand les ministres ont des apparitions, les rois sont perdus.' rOPULAR OUTliREAKS IN ITALY. 109 Liberalism to her utmost cadvaiitage. Wliile continuing chap. to recommend herself to absolute governments as ■ — -< — • the sole support against revolution, in constitutional countries she employed the very principles she con- demned to strengthen and enlarge her power in the name of liberty. At the first moment, it is true, matters seemed to take a bad turn for the Vatican in its own home. With Leo XII. (della Genga), who was raised in 1823 to the papal throne, after a reign of twenty-three years by Pius Vn., the party of the ' Zelanti ' had waxed all-powerful. Consalvi, his enemy, was overthrown, and survived his former master only five months. But this unsparing suppression of all attempts at hberality excited a ferment. The Ee volution of July, in Paris, gave the signal for in- insurrec- surrections ; and immediately after the election of Gregory Legations. XVI., the Legations and Marches were in a flame. A Con- gress of popular representatives, gathered together by the insurgents, declared ' that the pope was deprived for ever of his temporal sovereignty.' Even Eome was menaced with danger. Austria, regardless of the French threats of war, interfered at the request of the pope (Feb. 19), and speedily re-established his authority ; an act which he acknoAvledged, with fervent thanks, ' to the faithful soldiers for their victory over the rebels, who, with sac- rilegious hands, had sought to carry misery and devas- tation into the territory of the Levites.' Meanwhile, the other powers thought it necessary to demand reforms in the Papal States, in tlie interests of the peace of Europe ; and accordingly the ambassadors of Austria and France held a conference with those of Piussia and Prussia, as well as with an English plenipo- tentiary, for the purpose of effecting a common under- standing on the measures to be recommended to the pope. The prime mover of the conference was France ; its soul 110 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHUnCII, 1830-1848. Great Puwers. Mav 21 1831. CHAP, was the Prussian ambassador, Bunsen. After protracted ^ ' — ' discussions, a collective memorandum was at length pre- dimTo/the pared and, after revision by Bunsen, presented to the pope, through his Secretary of State, Cardinal Bernetti. It recommended : 1. The separation of administrative and judicial func- tions, and the admission of the laity to all offices con- nected with both. 2. A municipal system based upon fi'eedom of popu- lar election, and the representation of communal interests by notables. 3. The organisation of provincial councils, chosen from the new municipalities. 4. A central establishment in the capital, or supreme board, charged with the general supervision of adminis- tration, with the audit of the public accounts for the service of each year, and with the care of the public debt. Such board to include persons chosen by muni-, cipal councils, who, in union with the advisers of the sovereign, should form an administrative giunta or con- sulta} 5. As regards the judicial system, the fidl execution and development of the promises and principles of tlie Motu Proprio of 1816. But although the Vatican received this document with apparent favour, the subsequent negotiations led to no result. The blame of this failure was due essentially to Austria, who had insisted, at the very outset, that the guarantee of the temporal rule of Eome must go hand in hand with the proposed reforms, and now strengthened the hands of Cardinal Bernetti, by laying down that guarantee as the preliminary sine qua non. Besides this, the powers were not unanimous as to the shape that ' Farini, i. p. GO (Gladstone's translation) ; and Bunsen's ' Leben,' i. p. 544. THE TEMrORAL rOWEK GUARANTEED. Ill guarantee should take. France wanted the five powers cfiap. to determine wliat means might be necessary for the pro- - " .^ ' - tection of the pope, as occasion should arise. At all events, she herself must decline any guarantee whatever, before the required reforms were carried out. Austria, on the other hand, demanded that the pope should be allowed the right to appeal, in the event of fresh dis- turbances breaking out, to whatever power should offer, under the circumstances, the most suitable prospect of assistance. Meanwhile, Bernetti crossed the negotiations by communicating to the ambassadors in confidence the contents of a Motu Proprio, containing only sham re- forms. Thereupon Austria declared curtly that the integrity emperor would guarantee the integrity of the Papal states States, and therefore also the full temporal sove- ^"'^™'^* reignty of the pope, according to the letter of the Vienna treaties. In this Eussia concurred, since after the sup- pression of the Polish insurrection, Gregory XVI. had preached to the Polish bishops the duty of submission, whereas formerly the official Eoman journal had shown itself favourable to Poland.^ Prussia and England held pretty much aloof, and France could do nothing alone. Thus the Vatican came out victorious from this diplomatic 1 It was principally the violent language, by whicli pious Catholics were apparently encouraged by Rome to denounce the wrongs of Poland and Ireland, that led enthusiasts to believe that the papal system could accommodate itself to liberal institutions. But scarcely was the stability of the political and international arrangements of 1815 seriously threatened, than the pope took fright and threw over the cause of Poland. The Emperor Nicholas had become too valuable an ally for the maintenance of the political system, endangered by the revolution of 1830, for it to be possible that the pope should continue to appear the patron of those who wounded him at his tenderest point. The pope accordingly levelled a manifesto against the Polish insurrection. If the Catholics of Poland were oppressed, those of other countries were instructed that they could only assist their suffering brethren with their prayers. 112 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CrHJECH, 1830-1848. CHAP. XIX. Papal mis- govern- ment under (iregorv XVI., i830 -184G. Roman in- fluence in Spain. contest. It had yielded nothing, and had obtained a guarantee of its temporal sovereignty. During the long reign of Gregory XVI. the system of absolutism and abuses remained externally unshaken. An end was put, it is true, to the judicial scandal of the Uditore Sanctissimo, by its suppression in 1831.^ But there was no thought of secularising the administration. On the contrary, the pope would have none as Prelati who were not priests. An auditor of the rota fulfilled the duties of Minister of War. The Jesuits were all- powerful. Every suspected person was persecuted with rigour; when Gregory died, there were reckoned no less than 2000 exiles and political prisoners. Herr Von Usedom, who about this time went as Prussian ambas- sador to Eome, thus describes the pope and his govern- ment : ' Himself a monk and a scholastic theologian, he ruled his country as a monastery, his subjects as monks. The slightest infraction of obedience was unpardonable ; the mutual rights and duties between superiors and in- feriors were unknown terms. To all questions there was but one answer. Obedience ; one sole mode of governing. Severity. So also in the sphere of the mind, there was no intelligent insight into the movements of the time ; but one answer only, Believe what the Church teaches ''^ Similarly, in the other Italian States, Rome had nothing to complain of, after the first ground-swell of the July Eevolution had been allayed. In Spain, though the cause of the apostolic party and of Don Carlos, who had de- clared the Virgin his Generalissima, was ultimately forced to succumb, the government of Maria Christina and Isabella IL was equally zealous in behalf of Catholicism, and yielded only a partial assent, under the pressure of the Eevolution and the necessities of finance, to the dispo- sition of Church property by the State. * See Guizot, ' Memoires,' ii. 436 sqq. ^ 'Politische Briefe und Charakteristiken,' Berlin, 1848, p. 244. BELGIAN REVOLUTION— CATHOLICS AND LIBERALS. 113 By the Belgian Revolution the Vatican obtained a chap. great positive advantage, without taking any actual part « — .-^—^ in its achievement. The narrow-minded obstinacy of SelduUon, William I. had succeeded, in spite of the material pros- ^^^*^' perity of the country, in exasperating the nobility and clergy, no less than the Liberals. The first were well or- ganised, but singly too weak to make head in the chamber against the compact Dutch majority. It is true they had an efibctive political support in the French clericals ; but they were well aware that they dared not re-echo the exclusively Ultramontane principles of such allies in the face of a Protestant Government. They formed, there- Union of fore, in 1828, a union with the Liberals ( Union Catholique- and^° ^"^ liberale), which resulted in mutual concessions by both '^"*^^* parties. The Cathohcs accepted the hberty of the press, the independence of the judicature, the responsibility of ministers. The Liberals accepted the independence of the Church from the State, and freedom of education. In vain did the government, at this crisis, attempt to re- concile its desperate adversary, the clergy, by concessions ; while it made no effort to disarm the Liberals, who would have been much more inclined to come to terms. It was this union which, under the stimulating influence of the Eevolution of July, led to open insurrection, and finally to the independence of Belgium, a task which could never have been achieved without the clergy.^ The pro visional government at Brussels, hastily constructed on the ruins of the committee of public safety, began by de- creeing (Oct. 16, 1830) the abolition of all laws whicli restricted the liberty of the Church, or upheld the eccle- siastical supremacy of the State. In the project which was submitted to the National Congress (Nov. 8) by the ' * The roads were covered with peasants marching under the guidance of priests to support the insurrection.' Bulwer, ' Life of Lord Pahner- ston,' ii. p' o. VOL. II. I Powpr of tlip clerical party 114 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP. ' Commission Consultative,' appointed by the provisional --" r '-- government to prepare a constitution, these principles, it is true, were not as yet absolutely recognised. But under the influence of a letter from the archbishop of Malines, framed vv^ith remarkable cleverness, which represented the demand for the absolute autonomy of the Church as the necessary consequence of her newly-acquired liberty, the National Congress rejected all restrictions on the supremacy of the Church over the State, although the maintenance of worship and of its ministers was hence- forth, as before, to be provided for from the public purse. The Catholics showed themselves, in this matter, much farther-sighted than the Liberals.^ No doubt they w^ould gladly have raised Catholicism to the religion of the State ; but as they could not do that, they took care to secure for themselves at least full hberty of action ; rightly anticipating that, by that means, the compact or- ganisation of their Church, in a country where no rival of equal strength existed, must soon secure her decisive supremacy. The hierarchy was wholly free from all con- trol of the State. The latter salaried it, but the pope ap- pointed the bishops, as the bishops appointed the priests. The right of association was exercised without restraint by the erection of monastic houses, orders, and congre- gations. Not only were the old orders re-established, but everywhere new convents were founded.'^ These, it is true, acquired no corporate rights, such as would en- ' Characteristically enough, the clerical party was opposed to the cuudidature of the Duke de Nemours because they saAv in him the champion of French liberalism. Lord Palmerston told the Belgian representative, M. Van de Weyer, that the Internuncio Capaccini had declared he had no objection to the election of a Protestant king, since such a sovereign must necessarily be more inclined than a Catholic one to respect the rights of the Church. ^ In 1846 there were 779 convents, with 11,968 inmates, the same number as at the time previous to Joseph II. 's reforms. GROWTH OF CLERICAL POWER. 115 able them by law to receive donations or possess landed chap. property ; but it was easy to evade this provision, by - — --^ having the property thus obtained registered in the names of individual members. Freedom of education emanci- pated the Catholic seminaries from all State control. When the government declared the Universities of Ghent and Liege to be State institutions, and withdrew them from the influence of the Church, the Catholic party founded in 1834 the free Cathohc University at Louvain, which shortly numbered as many students as the two State Universities combined ; and, as no theology was taught in the latter, became the nursery of all those ecclesiastics who were not satisfied with the instruction given in the episcopal seminaries. But it was in the primary schools that the clergy gained their chief ascen- dency, particularly as they were enabled, by the abun- dant means at their disposal, to administer instruction gratuitously, and as the population, especially in the Flemish provinces, were well satisfied to leave the edu- cation of their children to the schools of the congre- gations.^ Lastly, the low standard of the electoral census gave the vast preponderance to the lower classes, over whom the influence of the priests was the greatest ; and this influence was enhanced in importance by the fact that the franchise was lower in the country and in the small towns than in the large ones, which did not com- prise the general bulk of the nation. Thus, by a constitution extremely liberal, the clerical party in Belgium gained a power such as they enjoyed at that time in few absolute monarchies. It is true a con- ' The primary schools before the Revolution were under the control of provincial boards nominated by the government, who conferred the necessary diplomas on teachers. Liberty of education took away all coercive powers from these boards, and restrained them to a simple supervision of schools wholly or partially supported by the State. They were abolished altogether by a decree of the regent in 1831. 1 2 IIG THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, siderable time intervened before this power was openly ■-^-,^^— ' manifested, and so long as external pressure made union a necessity the Catholics and the Liberals held together. But when the infant kingdom was firmly established by the final recognition of Holland, then the eyes of the Liberals were gradually opened to the fact that, in the name of Hberty, they had been preparing the way for the clergy in their efforts to assure the supremacy of the Church over the State in all questions which concerned her own interests. The coalition was dissolved : the Liberals opposed the Catholic party, being anxious to keep the secular power free from the domination of the Church. The struggle in the Belgian Cliambers was henceforth between Church and State. The want of moderation among the Catholic party exposed them repeatedly to defeat, but, on the whole, they have shown themselves tlie stronger party by their compact organisation ; ^ and, as the Liberals even, whenever they were at the helm, never ventured to assail the absolute liberty of the Church, she has continued steadily to advance. The example of Belgium proves, that in a country so purely Catholic as she is, the separation of Church and State, in the sense that the former is wholly emancipated from civil sovereignty, leads infallibly to the domination of the State by the Church, dericai re- ^^^ Fraucc, tlic first conscquenccs of the Eevolution of action in J^]y wcrc uot favourablc to the Church. The clergy had 1 ranee. -^ , . '-'•' linked their fortunes so closely with those of the Bourbon dynasty, that every priest in the kingdom felt his own existence imperilled by their overthrow, more especially as the government was too feeble to give them efficient protection against ill-treatment by the populace. The ^ King Leopold accordingly declared, ' With us the Catholic party a^one have a firm bond of union ; the Liberal party is like a rope of sand.' (Stockmar, ' Denkwürdigkeiten, p. 692.) ANTI-CLERICAL REACTION IN FRANCE. 117 celebration of a mass for the repose of the soul of the chap. XIX Due (le Berri (Feb. 14, 1831), arranged by the clergy and • ^-^-^ the legitimists on the anniversary of his death, served as a signal for a popular outbreak. The report spread that the Carhsts were crowning a Bourbon, and that the priests were hatching a pohtical plot under the disguise of religion. The mob broke in and pillaged first the house of the cure, adjoining the church of St. Germain TAuxerrois, and afterwards the church itself, which was treated with every mark of desecration. The funeral catafalque was overthrown ; altars and confessionals were demolished ; the holy water spilled, the images of the saints broken in pieces ; the priestly robes profaned by the carnival antics of riotous buffoons ; the cross, adorned with fleurs-de-lis, which surmounted the roof, flung down amid the shouts of the rabble outside.^ These acts of vandaHsm were followed up next day by the sacking of the arch- bishop's palace ; even the neighbouring cathedral of Notre Dame was in danger of destruction. From the capital these disturbances spread to the provinces. Everywhere the crucifixes were torn down from the churches and public buildings ; the seminaries were plundered and set on fire ; no priest was safe from open insult. All this, no doubt, was a perfectly intelligible, however unjustifiable, reaction against the fanaticism and spiritual despotism of the previous reign. Nevertheless, the apathy of the Apithy ministry of M. Lafitte, who looked on at these excesses ministry, with folded arms, deserves the gravest censure, and their conduct was worthily impeached in the Chamber of Deputies. They intended, probably, to teach a lesson to the clergy, of whose hostility to the new regime they were well aware : but in so doing they merely unchained the passions of anarchy. They should either have for- bidden altogether the performance of the mass, if they • Lesur, ' Auuuaire,' 1831, p. 80 sqq. ' Times,' Feb. 17, eod. anno. 118 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, regarded it as dangerous to public order, or, haviug — ^-r-— ' allowed it, they should have protected the freedom of worship against the populace. So far from choosing either course, they took no heed of the warnings of the police, who predicted a disturbance of the peace, and they adopted no adequate precautions for the protection of the church, or even of the archbishop's palace. They pandered so far to the mob by ordering the removal of the crosses from all public buildings and churches, and the king, at the request of M. Lafitte, indulged the general raid by effacing the Bourbon lilies so plentifully em- blazoned on the obnoxious emblems. The government further issued an edict forbidding any priest to appear in public without Ms ecclesiastical robes : which in many places was tantamount to a sentence of domiciliary im- prisonment on the clergy, and doubly unjust at a time when the priestly garb was represented in caricatures and on the stage as the mask of craftiness and vice. These anarchical outbreaks, however, exhausted their fury. The government, already fully occupied with its contest against the Legitimists on the one hand and the Eepublicans on the other, saw clearly the imprudence of making complete enemies of the still powerful clergy. They resisted the demand of the Left to compel priests to serve in the National Guard. They forbade the prefects to interfere in purely ecclesiastical affairs, and contented them- selves with depriving the Church of those inadmissible privi- leges which she had gained from the Eestoration. Yet these The clergy conccssions did not stand alone. In the revision of the of their constitutional charter by the Chamber of Deputies, the pnvieges. ^^.-g-j^^l Articlc VL, whicli declared Cathohcism the religion of the State, was expunged, and, in lieu thereof, there was inserted in the former Article VIL, which dealt with the payment of the clergy, the proposition, taken from the Concordat of 1801, that the Catholic religion was that ABOLITION OF ECCLESIASTICAL PRIVILEGES. 119 * professed by the majority of the French.' ^ The law of chap. Napoleon was renewed which incapacitated ecclesiastics — — r— - from holding any landed property. Charitable endow- ments and bequests to the clergy were to be made only in rentes of the State and with the sanction of the govern- ment. All the bishops who had been appointed members of the Chamber of Peers by Charles X. lost their seats in that assembly ; the other bishops did not appear at the sittings. The salaries of the high dignitaries of the Church were reduced, and those of the parish priests augmented. The Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs, an office formerly created by Villele, and administered by a bishop, who conducted also the management of public instjaiction, was now abolished, and its duties assigned to the Minister of Justice.^ With regard to public instruction, the Eesto- ration had empowered a number of religious societies to open elementary schools, conceding to their members the privilege of exemption from the examination otherwise required, on production of a certificate of obedience to their superiors. This privilege was now abohshed, but the clergy, notwithstanding much opposition, retained through the influence of Guizot their own influence in the elementary schools : and it was specially enacted that the parish priest should always be a member of the local school-board. While thus the clergy were deprived of all their They re- obnoxious privileges and restricted to their proper sphere popuk/ity. * Art. vi. of Revised Charter (Aug. 14, 1830). * Les ministres de la religion Catholique, Apostolique, et B-omsiine, professee par la majorite des Fiancais, et ceux des autres cultes Chretiens, regoivent des traite- mens du tresor publique.' The word ' seuls,' inserted originally after ' regoivent,' was expunged by the deputies, so as not to exclude the Jews. (Lesiir, ' Annuaire,' 1830, p. 225.) 2 A separate Ministry of Public Instruction was created after the ex- ample of Prussia, where the separation had been effected by the law of 1819. 120 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP of activity, thereby losing also their indirect influence over r-^— ' politics, the jealousy and ill-will of public opinion, for- merly displayed against them, visibly disappeared. The attempts of the Abbe Ohatel to found a National Church on rationalistic principles, which had met with some sym- pathy in the days of ill-temper against the hierarchy, soon fell into ridicule, as did also the ' Eglise Primitive Chretienne ' of the New Templars. Liberal Qu thc othcr hand, a decided rise took place in the under authority of that school of Catholicism which, after the for Church example of Belgium, claimed the independence of the dencr"" Church in the name of liberty. At the head of this movement, which manifested itself mainly outside the official Church, was the Abbe deLamennais. Originally a pupil of the school of De Maistre, he had fought by the side of the ultra-royalists for Ultramontanism. Later on, in his pamphlet, De la religion conaideree dans ses ra.p- poris avec Vordre politique et civile he came forward as the enemy of all independence on the part of the secular power, and made the legitimacy and sovereignty of princes directly dependent on their subjection to papal authority, the sole guarantee, as he affirmed, for the maintenance of public justice and the suppression of tyranny. Against the sovereign who should renounce obedience to the pope he allowed to the people the right of revolution. How- ever agreeable such principles were to the Ultramontanes, no less than fourteen archbishops and bishops protested against them in the name of the Galilean liberties ; and the government prohibited the book. When the Mar- tignac ministry deprived the Jesuits of the conduct of the minor seminaries, Lamennais, full of indignation, rebelled against the edict. No government, he declared, deserved to be obeyed unless it submitted to the law of God, as embodied in the papacy ; he even compared the bishop from whose hands the decree had issued (Feutrier, Minis- LIBERAL MOVEMENT UNDER LAMENNAIS. 121 ter of Ecclesiastical Affairs) to Judas. To break these chap. shameful chains of slavery, Lameunais became all at once •^^^-r— - an enthusiastic champion of liberty. ' Sortez done de la maison de servitude,' he exclaimed to the priests in his book Prog res de la Revolution, which appeared in 1829, ' brisez les fers, qui vous degradent, et vous empechent de remplir votre celeste vocation.' The example of the Belgian opposition against Holland inspired him with admiration. He entered into alliance with the Belgian clericals, and defended their coalition with the Liberals on the ground that liberty alone could confer upon the Holy See and the Catholics the true power of resistance against the encroachments of the government. The pres- sure which the State now exercised on the Church was w^orse than the persecution by the heathen emperors of Eome, for the latter only killed the body and never dreamed of seeking dominion over the internal hfe of the Church. Lamennais therefore was eager for the separa- tion of Church and State. He demanded indeed that the State should restore to the Church, who was to renounce all claim to the further payment of her ministers, the pro- perty of which she had been robbed. But he launched his heaviest weapons against Gallicanism, which he stigmatised as the bastard child of Catholicism and a violator of the Church, by delivering her over to the bond- age of the State. Thus • he welcomed the Eevolution of July, notwithstanding its anti-Church character. Roy- alty, he said, had fallen simply through its assertion of those servile doctrines, on which it had leaned in order to prostitute religion for political purposes. To liberty alone he looked forward for a regeneration of genuine Catholicism. To pave the way for this liberty, Lamennais, with his disciples Lacordaire and M. (afterwards Count de Mon- talembert), founded the daily journal LAvenir, Avitli the 122 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. motto 'Dieii et la Liberte.' The Church as he there repre- sented her, no longer sold to royal favour, but also no longer fattened on by the State, was to develop unhmdered her in- ternal strength and to win irresistibly the minds of the people. From this point of view he proceeded to attack with violence the Concordat of 1801. Such compacts, he said, might have been concluded safely enough in former times and with trustworthy monarchies, when certain rights were conceded by the Holy See to the sovereigns, as the repre- sentatives of the people. But they became objectionable, when the countries ceased to be Catholic. A Church grafted on the State could bear for its fruit only an official religion, a political clergy. The free patriarchal government of the highest — that is, the papal — intelligence was alone capable of re-estabhshing the independence of the Church ; whereas, at present, all communications between the bishops and their head were forced to pass through the douane of the Council of State, there to receive the seal of bondage. In the same spirit he called upon the Catholic clergy to renounce their civil salaries. The millions of the State were the price paid for the sacrifice of liberty of con- science. Ireland was showing that a Catholic country, though burdened with the maintenance of an heretical Church, was able to endow her own clergy sufficiently. Very questionable, indeed, were the political opinions ex- pressed in the Avenir. ' Sovereignty,' it was declared, ' is given by God immediately to the people, and through the people only to the sovereign. On this condition only is the right of the ruler a divine right, namely, that he pro- tects the equally divine right of the people to liberty. As soon as he attacks this right he forfeits his legitimacy.' Thus ran the programme of the new school, in unmis- takable sympathy with the doctrines of Mariana and Bellarmin. And as with these, so the programme of the Avenir ends with this lame and impotent conclusion : — THE 'AVENIR' AND THE ' AGENCE.' 123 ' Only however, in the case of Cathohc nations can tliis chap. riglit be exercised without danger ; because only in such --^*^— - nations is seen, instead of mere subjective opinion, the lively operation of tlie divine law, pronounced infallibly by the pope.' For the propagation of these views, their three pro- moters now established an association, under the name of Agence Generale potir la Defense de la Liberie Religieuse^ directed by a council of nine members under the presidency of Lamennais. They instituted legal proceedings against the municipality of Nismes, for not having opposed the destruction of crosses in that town. They demanded absolute liberty of education, without any examination of teachers, or any supervision by the State or the University. When the government, in virtue of the Concordat, no- minated some new bishops, Lacordaire conjured the latter not to degrade themselves into the mere creatures of the civil power, and to repudiate their nomination.^ Those bishops, whose Catholic orthodoxy seemed open to question, were denounced, and the faithful in their dioceses were called on to resist their authority. For the Catholic clergy was demanded the right of choosing their own ecclesiastical heads, who were only to apply to the pope for confirmation. At first, undoubtedly, the doctrines of the Avenir and the Agence found sympathy among the parish clergy and the young. When Lamennais and Lacordaire were prosecuted (Jan. 1 831), their acquittal was hailed with acclamation •} and at the prosecution, which ended in the condemnation of the newspaper, whole communes sent con- tributions towards covering their expenses — 20,000 francs were collected in this manner, and soon afterwards a sum of 80,000 francs was sent by the editors to L^eland to relieve ' 'Avenir,' Nov. 25 and 26, 1830. ' See Älontal ember t's * Le Pere Eacordaire,' Paris, 1862. Lacordaire defended himself in person : his speech is given at length in the Ave}nr. 124 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, the starving peasantry.^ But the triumvirate, nevertheless, - -^ , '-- had miscalculated. The revised charter had sanctioned, indeed, religious liberty, but by no means, as in Belgium, a separation of Church and State and absolute liberty of education. When, therefore, Lacordaire and Montalembert proceeded to open a free Cathohc school, without obtain- ing the necessary permission, an agent of police ejected the schoolmaster and his pupils, and a prosecution was in- stituted against them by the Government. Montalembert, who had recently succeeded to the peerage on the death of his father, was entitled to a trial by the chamber of Peers. The sentence was practically an acquittal, being only a fine of 100 francs. But the Avenir was discontinued : the editors announced it suspended (Nov. 15.), and appealed to the decision of the pope — an extraordinary mistake, which was bound to check the further progress of the movement. The lai'ge majority even of the clergy were little pleased with this league between Catholicism and demo- cracy. Neither the bishops of legitimist opinions, nor those who showed a spirit of conciliation to the new regime^ felt any particular desire to resign their snug emoluments, and to make theu existence depend on voluntary oblations. But, above all, both detected equally in the demagogical con- duct of Lamennais, who persecuted, ^vith all the weapons of fierce and vindicative hatred, everyone who thwarted or opposed his ideas, a source of serious danger to the Church. Eome, meanwhile, as may easily be understood, had at first followed with eager sympathy the battle undertaken by Lamennais against Gallicanism and for the liberty of the Catholic Church. There the Abbe was hailed as the latest French father of the Church, and his portrait occu- pied a place of honour in the boudoir of Leo XII. Latterly, ^ The Eoman Catholic bishops, in synod assembled, returned a letter of thanks to the editors, in which they eulogised the Avenir as a ' truly Christian journal.' Lamennais, ' Affaires de Rome,' Paris, 1838, p. 51. THE MOVEMENT DENOUNCED BY ROME. 125 the Curia would even have been disposed to let him and chap. his friends proceed, hi this matter, exactly like the Belgian — 1-^^^ clergy ; for, as Macaulay strikingly observes, Eome allows herself as little to be carried away by enthusiasm as she re- jects it ; she simply employs it for her own advantage. But tlie bare notion, that the pope would approve the entire programme of the Avenir and would sanction, therefore, for example, the renunciation by the clergy of all State endowments, and the doctrine that Catholicism had no- thing to fear from freedom of enquiry, was one that could only spring from the muddled brain of an enthusiast. It was useless, therefore, that the adherents of the new school, after the death of Leo XII., addressed a humble but eloquent exposition of their doctrine to his papal successor, then awaiting election. It was equally useless that, at the end of the same year, Lamennais, Lacordau^e, and ]\Iontalembert — ' the three pilgrims of God and liberty ' as they called themselves — went in person to Eome to gain Gregory XVI. over to their cause. They were treated with kindness, but all discussion of their plans was care- fully avoided. An interview with the pope was only granted them on condition that no mention should be made of the very matter they had come to urge. Lamen- nais, chafing with impatience, returned to France ; his feUow-journalists followed him soon after, but not until they had addressed a letter to the pope, insisting on a decision between them and their opponents. After a long Encyclical delay the Vatican broke silence by the Encyclical of niovement, August 16, 1832, which prepared a sudden dissolution of issl^ ' the union between Ultramontanism and liberty. Gregory 'SXl. addressed himself therein, in terms of unmeasured violence and coarseness, not only against all revolutionary tendencies, then universally prevalent, as he said, but against all and every effort after Hberty. He declared the present time to be the hour of darkness, when un- 126 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, bridled wickedness, shameless knowledge, and unbounded XIX . . . . ^^— license were triumphant. The divine authority of the Church was being assailed, subjected to worldly considera- tions, and shamefully enslaved. The holy doctrine was being falsified ; errors of all kind were being propagated abroad, openly attacking the Catholic faith. Among special instances of such errors he quoted Indifference, that perverse opinion that salvation was attainable by every confession of belief ; that ' putrid source from which flows the absurd and erroneous notion, or rather frenzy, that liberty of conscience is to be granted and guaranteed to all alike.' What was this but to proclaim universal liberty of error, whence spring perpetual changes of the mind, the corruption of youth, the pest of communism ? All states, once flourishing in wealth, power, and glory, had gone to ruin solely through the boundless license of opinion, the freedom of speech, and the mania for innova- tions. Hence his invective against the liberty of the press, wHch he stigmatised as something that can never be sufii- ciently execrated and condemned.^ Although the Avenir and its supporters were not expressly mentioned by name, yet the triumvirate, who learned the contents of the Encyclical at Munich on their return to France, understood perfectly well that its cen- sures were levelled against themselves. They promised to discontinue the publication of their journal ; they dissolved the Agetice, and submitted to the judgment of the Holy Lairtennais See. But Lamcnnais, who had long stood out against sur- ;the render, and vainly attempted to pursue further argument with the pope, could not acquiesce in composure ; and after a violent inward struggle with himself, the democrat conquered the Ultramontane. His residence at Eome had destroyed all his illusions about the papacy. Instead of * ' Libertas ilia teterrima, ac nunquam satis execranda et detes- tabills.' revolts LAMENNAIS REVOLTS AGAINST THE CHURCH. 127 the sanctuary of trutli, he had found there notliing but chap. oppression, deceit, and petty intrigues. The pope, whom - ^ y -- he had approached with trembhng reverence and awe, as though he were the Deity Himself, in order to receive the hght of truth, had first, through fear of compromising himself, been silent, and then had cursed all that Lamen- nais proposed, as the groundwork for the future edifice of the Church. A disenchantment so complete naturally produced, in his passionate nature, as total a revulsion of feeling. With the same fire with which he had fought against the enslavement of the Church by the State, he now turned in his Paroles cVun Croyant in 1834, against ecclesiastical tyranny, and refused to acknowledge any law but that of God, of justice, love, and liberty. The work, written with ravishing eloquence, produced a powerful sensation. But its influence was far from last- ing. The author had fallen into the dreary chaos of the so-called Eeligion of Humanity, and soon involved himself in a struggle against all authority, in which his very name was soon forgotten.* It would be erroneous, however, to ascribe the failure f^' m"v*f- of this movement solely to its democratic character and "]fYained the passionate spirit of Lamennais. Noblemen of mode- rate liberal principles, hke Montalembert and de Falloux, failed equally, later on, in the task of reconciling Catholi- ' Guizot forcibly describes this phase in his character and career : ' Reste seul en proie de la lutte interieure de son ancienne foi et des idees nouvelles, qui grandissaient en lui, sous le souffle de son orgueil offense, I'Abbe de Lamennais essaya d'abord de quelques apparences de docilite, melees aux reserves d'une colere mal contenue et trouvant la cour de Rome decidee ä ne s'en point contenter, il s'engagea enfin par la publication des "Paroles d'un Croyant," dans une revolts declaree qui devint bientot une guerre implacable contre le pape, l'ßglise Romaine, I'episcopat Fran9ais, les rois, la monarchie, toutes les autorit^s religieuses ou politiques, qui, selon lui, tenaient sous un joug odieux les esprits et les peuples, et leur ravissaient la liberte et le bonheur aux- quels ils avaient droit.' (' Memoires,' iii. p. 99.) 128 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CTiAP. cism with liberty. Eome is willing even to acquiesce --^-r^-- when, in countries like Belgium and America, where a monopoly of Catholic privileges is impossible, the Catholics employ the liberty given by the laws and the constitution to strengthen their power, and thus to gain an influence in politics. But she will never approve those principles of liberty in themselves, for they are wholly at variance with her own. ' Wliat then would become of the Inqui- sition with your hberty ? ' asked a cardinal of Lamennais, when the Latter was explaining to him the advantages of his system to the Church. In this question lies the whole contradiction. Eome herself has no prejudice for any particular form of government ; she gauges the measure of its worth by the readiness of the State and the people to submit to the laws and edicts of the Holy See. But, precisely for that reason, she can never regard with approval the self-government of a nation, for such self- government involves of necessity the independence of the civil power. All representative institutions are hateful to the hierarchy, for they contradict its principles. Step by step it has suppressed them in the government of the Church, first by excluding the laity, then by making the priests the mere assistants of the bishops, and finally by making the bishops the mere servants of the pope. Poli- tical liberty, therefore, per se, can never suit the taste of Necessary Eomc. But Still Icss docs CathoHcism, from its very intolerance t -i i • i of the essence and nature, allow one to demand toleration, the Church. recognition of freedom of conscience, or even of the equality of religions before the law. ' II est de I'essence de I'Eglise Catholique d'etre intolerante,' said Consalvi with perfect truth. Inasmuch as the Catholic Church claims to have the sole, absolute, and plenary possession of religious truth, she cannot possibly admit that a single particle of truth is contained in any doctrine differing from her own. On the contrary, all that she rejects is AVIIY THE MOVEMENT FAILED. 129 error, founded only on ignorance, or sinful rebellion ^^j'^^- ngainst infallible authority. The Romisli Church is quite • • — -" consistent, tlierefore, when, in order to secure her faith against all attack, she persecutes and oppresses by every possible means, directly she is able to do so, not only every deviation from that faith, but also all freedom of thought and enquiry, which may lead to heresy. The Inquisition and the Index are the necessary consequences of the system on which the Catholic Church is based. Differ- ences of time and circumstances can alter nothing in that system. Since religious truth remains eternally the same, so also must error always be suppressed. Those who seek to reconcile these immutable principles of intolerance with the independence of the State, and with religious and political liberty, will always involve themselves in con- tradictions that are insoluble. The Catholic Church tolerates only what she cannot alter. She will never cease to condemn institutions which rest on principles contrary to her own, however serviceable to her those institutions, under many circumstances, may become. Of the whole movement, represented by the Avenir clerical and the Acjence, practically one problem alone remained, reieas^^ This was liberty of education, which the Charter of 1830 fro.rsta'te- had promised in one of those ambiguous generalities which "^°°*'^'''- constitutional documents are apt to exhibit.^ HereMon- talembert, Lacordaire, and their friends, w^ho had sepa- rated themselves from Lamennais, had the episcopate on their side, for the bishops were anxious to withdraw the seminaries and the schools of the religious Orders from the superintendence of the State. Guizot, as Minister of Public Instruction, was pretty well inclined to grant this demand. But the Chamber of Deputies set their face against it, and insisted that the head master of every school * Section 69, * Dispositions particulieres.' ' II sera pourvu par des lois separees pour Tinstruction publique et la liberty d'enBeignemeut.' VOL. II. K 130 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. ^xix^' slic>"^^^ i^ot only take the oath of allegiance to the Consti- '•' — ■ — ' tution, but should swear further that he did not belong to any luiauthorised society. The law, however, was not enacted ; and the question could not be resumed until after 1840, when Guizot became President of the Ministry, and brought forward his original programme, namely, the maintenance of State institutions for education, but the liberation, at the same time, of those which Avere strictly private. The Catholic party which, under the Eestora- tion, had upheld the unity of Church and State, now demanded an absolute separation of the two, after the Belgian pattern. In this demand they were supported by the Ideologists of the Left, who, under the guidance of Lamartine, defended this solution of the question in the name of Liberty. But the violence of the ultramontane polemists in the press, and in the pastorals of the bishops, as well as the dreaded influence of the Jesuits, who now came forward with increasing boldness, and assumed the direction of the whole movement, compromised the success of this policy. Aggressive Durinff the first years of the July monarchy, the demands of '-' *' _ •' «^ ' the Jesuits. Soclcty of Jcsus had kept very quiet. Its members, for the most part, were disguised under the title of Lazarists or Eedemptorists ; and the government, first from care- lessness, and afterwards from shyness of prosecuting them, allowed them to do as they liked. Soon they came openly forward ; in 1842 they appear to have numbered close upon a thousand,^ and their establishments had increased to twenty-nine. They wielded a powerful influence over a portion of the clergy ; and even the bishops reluctantly ' MM. Michelet et Quinet estimate them at 960 (' Des Jesuites,' Paris, 1843) ; others at considerably less. The numbers, however, ■were difficult to ascertain exactly, the society itself being still illegal. Their houses were usually held by some lay or clerical friend of the congregation as trustee, in order to evade the provisions of the law. AGGRESSION OF THE JESUITS IN FRANCE. 131 yielded to them through fear. They conducted indirectly chap, the management of the primary schools of the clergy. — — ^-^ While reserving for themselves the instruction of the sons of wealthy parents and of priests, that of the daughters they endeavoured to procure for the sisters of the Sacre Coeur, an Order closely allied to their own. Above all, they strove to withdraw from State control their schools, houses of noviciate, and such Uke institutions — all of them established in defiance of the law — by denouncing in the name of freedom of instruction that mild exercise of civil supervision as an intolerable tyranny. But this farcical parade of liberal principles by the venerable fathers was too transparent to escape detection, and served only to revive the old hatred which the Order had always en- countered in France, When, in spite of their attacks upon the rights of the University, M. Villemain, the Minister of Public Instruction, introduced a Bill (Feb. 2, 1844) which partially conceded some of their demands, the resistance of the Liberals was too strong to be gain- sayed. PubUc opinion and the Chambei^s demanded that the government should enforce the existing laws against illegal religious societies. Interpellated by Thiers ^ — who, by the way, when Minister, had similarly allowed the Jesuits to do as they liked — the ministers were obliged to admit that the laws in question w^ere in full force, but urged that the time and mode of their enforcement must be left to their discretion. After a debate, lasting for two nights, it was resolved ' That the Chamber, relying on the government for the execution of the laws of the State, passes to the order of the day.' But Guizot, in spite of this warning, had not the courage simply to close the institutions of the Jesuits. He sent M. Eossi, a member of the Eoyal Council of Public Instruction, as French am- bassador to Kome, to induce the pope to make the society » ' Moniteur,' May 3, 4, 1845. K 2 132 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHA P. dissolve its establishments in France, lea\^ng its members, in • r-^—- case they wished to remain in the country, to submit them- selves as simple priests to the jurisdiction of the bishops. This demand was, in some degree, a bold one, preferred, as it was, to a pope like Gregory XVI., and considering the power which the Jesuits exercised at Eome. Eossi for a long while did not venture to touch upon the subject ; but after a violent scene between Louis Philippe and the nuncio, and the ambassador having represented to Car- dinal Lambruschini that the only alternative lay between independent proceedings on the part of his government and compliance with their demand, the pope yielded an apparent consent, and Eossi thought he might safely report to the Cabinet ' La congregation des Jesuites va se disperser d'elle-meme '— a result which the Moniteur announced with triumph. The general did indeed write to the French provincials, that Providence imposed upon the Society the duty of making a voluntary sacrifice, in order to save the whole body ; and the most important houses of noviciate were closed. But most of their estab- lishments remained open, notwithstanding the ordonnance, and the members of those which were closed founded new establishments in towns where the Order had hitherto not been represented. By these means the Society itself spread over France a network of Ultramontane rallying- points, to which free scope for action was given later on by the February Eevolution. On the whole, the result of the July monarchy was not imfavourable to Cathohcism. The latter had lost the compromising protection of the Eestoration, but had gained much greater liberty of movement. In single instances, indeed, the government reminded Catholics of the rights of the State, as for example, when the burial rites of the Church were denied to Count Montlosier, for having refused on his death- bed to retract his writings. But THE TITHE GRIEVANCE IN IRELAND. 133 where the clergy did not openly challenge public opinion chap. by acts of intolerance, the government let them have - — ^^^ their way, and ignored the visible increase of their power. Gallican principles were not regarded with favour at the Tuileries ; for those bishops who still adhered to them were mostly Legitimists. The French Church became more and more Ultramontane; already in 1841,Gueranger, Abbe of Solesme, began his attacks upon the Gallican litirrgy, an onslaught which provoked great indignation at the time, but led afterwards to the substitution of the Breviarium Romanum. In Ireland, during this period, the agitation still con- The tithe tinned. Emancipation had failed to tranquilhse the ireknli" "^ Catholics, and the movement for a repeal of the Union was chiefly incited by the hope of getting rid of the dominant Church. The anomaly of the Protestant estab- lishment was enhanced by a practical grievance, the pay- ment of tithes for its support — a burden which pressed heavily on a numerous, but indigent class of cottier tenants, and led to constant conflicts between the clergy and the peasantry. An Act had been passed in 1824 for the voluntary composition of tithes ; but the remedy was altogether inadequate, and in 1831 the situation was too critical to be disregarded. Tithe-proctors w^ere murdered in open day, and an organised system of terrorism pre- vented the Protestant clergy from levying their means of subsistence. The archbishop of Dubhn declared in evi- dence before a Committee of Enquiry that the tithe- system could only be maintained by the point of the bayonet. Wlien the clergy were starving, it was idle to shirk the question of expediency, by insisting on the legality of tithes. Accordingly, an Act ^ was passed in 1832 empowering the Lord-Lieutenant to advance 60,000/. to provide for the immediate wants of the clergy, and • 2 and 3 William IV., c. 41. 134 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. ^xix^' niaking tithes a debt recoverable by the Crown. A -" — ^~~^ further measure ^ made composition compulsory and per- manent. But a year's experience sufficed to sliow that the government, in undertaking to collect the tithes, had undertaken a task beyond their power; only 12,000/. out of the whole arrears of 100,000/. being recovered. As a temporary expedient the government resorted to a loan; but the difficulties of the tithe-question were increased now by the problem of appropriation. Eeform and reduc- tions were urgently needed in the Irish Church,^ and the ministry of Lord Grey recognised the necessity by intro- ch?rch ducing in 1833 the Irish Church Temporalities Bill. tie™Biuf '" Sinecure benefices were to be abolished ; first-fruits were 1833. ^Q i^g replaced by a tax on clerical incomes, and the saving thus effected was to compensate for the abolition of church-cess, by defraying the repair of churches and the maintenance of service. The question was, what to do with the surplus after satisfying the needs of the estab- lishment ; for a large profit would evidently accrue from the grant of perpetual leases of Church lands by the State. The Bill proposed that whatever funds remained, after redeeming the charges on parishes for building churches, should be applied hereafter ' as Parliament may direct,' thus leaving the question open for future consideration. But the Church party feared in this the ultimate aliena- tion of the revenues of the establishment ; and the prin- ciple of appropriation had to be abandoned to secure the » 2 and 3 William IV., c. 119. 2 The State-Church was found at this time to number little more than one-tenth of the whole population of Ireland. Out of an aggregate of 7,943,940 persons, 852,064 belonged to the Establishment, 6,427,712 were Roman Catholics, 642,356 Presbyterians, and 21,808 Protestant dissenters of various denominations. In 151 parishes there was not a single Protestant ; in 194 there were less than 10 ; in 198 less than 20 ; in 860 less than 50. (First Report of Commissioners on Public Instruction : Ireland, 1835, p. 7.) QUESTION OF APPROPRIATION. 135 passing of the Bill.^ But the question of the right of the chap. State over any proceeds of Church property was revived _^_ the next year by the afhrmatory motion of Mr. Ward.^ Question of j, . . appropria- A minority of the Cabinet seceded, and Lord Althorp "on. only succeeded in evading the difficulty for the moment, by promising a Commission of Enquiry. The proposal of the Whigs in 1834: to convert tithes into a land-tax, payable to government by the landlords, and subject to redemption, was defeated by the Lords, notwithstanding the provision that the proceeds, after redemption, should be invested in land for the benefit of the Church. Sir Eobert Peel, on accepting office, took his stand on the inviolability of Church property ; but he was willing to commute the tithes into a rent-charge upon the land, with a reduction of 25 per cent. His ministry, however, was brief. On April 3, 1835, Lord John Eussell succeeded in carrying his resolution ' that any surplus revenues of the Church of Ireland, not required for the spiritual care of its members, should be applied to the moral and reli- gious education of all classes of the people.' ^ The Whigs returned to office ; but the settlement of the question was delayed by the persevering opposition of the Lords ; until finally in 1838 the Ministers abandoned the 'Appro- priation clause,' and the Commutation Act* converted tithes into a permanent rent-charge on the land. During the second ministry of Sir E. Peel, who sue- Further ceeded Lord Melbourne in 1841, further concessions were toIhT'""^ made to the Catholics. The Charitable Bequests Act of ^^^^°"''- 1844 removed the anomalous jurisdiction over Eoman Cathohc endowments by a board hitherto exclusively Protestant. Testamentary dispositions were allowed to • 3 and 4 WiUiam IV., c. 37. ' See Hansard, Third Series, xxiii. 1397. ' ' Coram. Journ.,' xc. 202, 208. * 1 and 2 Vict., c. 109. 136 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, be made by Eoman Catholics to their churches and her XIX - - . '-- institutions, the religious Orders alone excepted. The annual grant to the Catholic College of Maynooth — an institution established in 1795 to meet the necessity created by the exclusion of the priesthood from French places of education diuring the period of the Eevolution — was augmented in 1845 to a sum proportionate to its requirements. Finally, three new colleges were founded, where the system of combined secular, but separate re- ligious instruction, which had worked successfully in the national schools, was extended to the academical branch of education. These colleges being open to all denomina- tions, sectarian religion was excluded from the regular course of studies ; and the Catholics, like other sects, were allowed separate lecture-rooms for rehgious teaching. They denounced, indeed, these colleges as ' godless,' but the scheme was conceived in the spirit of comprehensive- ness and liberality. Growing In Germany the period of the Eestoration was not uitramon marked by the alliance of throne and altar. But the Ge"rraany. strugglcs of the oppositiou in France against Ultramon- tanism were followed with lively sympathy, and under the influence which the active political life of the neighbour- ing country exercised during the stagnation of home politics in Germany, an equally intense hatred was mani- fested against the Jesuits, and a similar fear of their designs. Niebuhr, who had formerly, when at Eome, regarded the Papal See as harmless and doomed to dissolution, wrote in 1826 to Perthes, after having hved several years in a Cathohc country : ' all that is bad is now awakened to its fullest extent, the whole system of priests, all, even the most gigantic plans of conquest and subjugation ; ' and Perthes himself tells us, that the mildly-tempered ' History of Eeligion ' by Count Stolberg, the convert to Catholicism, which had formerly been industriously circulated by the ULTRAMONTANISM IN GERMANY. 137 strictest Catholics, was now regarded with suspicion. It chap. was said, he adds, that Stolberg had never been able to ^ — ^^-- stifle his inward sympathies with Protestantism, or to comprehend many tenets in the Catholic Church ; that the archiepiscopal vicariate at Vienna was opposed to the cir- culation of the work, and that pious priests declared they dared not venture to recommend it in public.^ In none of the German states, however, ^had the influence of the ultramontane party been so strongly manifested, as to excite, as in France at the outbreak of the Eevolution, the hostility of public opinion. All the greater was the political significance of that event ; and the powerful im- pulse it gave to the Liberal party produced on the different governments an unfavourable impression, which indirectly benefited the Catholic party as the so-called champions of Conservative interests. The hoUowness indeed of their pretended support should have been evident, at least to every Protestant state, by the example of their collusion in the Belgian Eevolution, no less than by the Encyclical of 1832, which w^as equally levelled against Protestantism. The compliance displayed by the governments w^as answered only by larger demands and more open resist- ance. In Austria, after the death of Francis I. (March 4, uitramon- 1835), Metternich remained true to his resistance against f^^l^l^' clerical concessions, eagerly as they were importuned by ^^^gj Fg^- a powerful faction at court, headed by the Archduchess «ünand i. Sophia.^ But with her for his opponent, he was not strong enough to carry out his principles consistently. Accordingly the old laws remained, indeed, in force, but * Perthes' 'Leben,' iii. 197 sqq. 2 There is no foundation for the statement of Count Beiast in his despatch to Count Trautmannsdorf of July 2, 1869 : * Ce fut le Prince Metternich, qui proclama hautement pendant les dernieres annees du regne de Fran9ois I. et de tout le regne de Ferdinand I., que les choses ne pouvaient plus marcher ainsi, et qu'il fallait conclure la paix avec 138 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP. XIX. Re-admis- sion of the Jesuits, The Jesuits opi)osed in HuDgary. were laxly administered and in part actually evaded. The result was perpetual collisions between the authorities and the clergy, who were daily growing more inflated with arrogance and presumption. They demanded the enforce- ment by the police of obedience to the ordinances of the Church, as for instance, in the matter of fastings ; and they sought by every means in their power to harass and per- secute the Protestants. The Jesuits, above all, who between 1820 and 1830, notwithstanding the influence of the Court party, had only been allowed to settle in Austria as Kedemptorists or Liguorians, were now pubhcly re- admitted. At Court the fall of the Bourbons was represented as the punishment for having betrayed the Jesuits in 1828. Metternich, intimidated by the Eevolutiou, was loth to reject any measures that appeared suitable to stem the revolutionary tide. He yielded ; reserving, however, that amount of supervision over the institutions of the Order, which the law had conceded to the State in all ecclesiastical matters, and preventing the formal recall and re-establishment of the Order, so that admission in every case was to depend on the special leave of the government. This leave was almost always granted, and, thanks to their imperial protectors, they spread themselves over nearly all the territories of the crown. Their greatest victory was in Tyrol, where, at the instigation of Giovanelli, the ' Theresianum ' at Innspruck, and the gymnasium attached to it, were delivered over to their hands. Hungary alone opposed their intrusion, and that as re- solutely as she opposed in general the encroachments of I'Eglise Catholique sur le terrain des principes.' Metternich held firm to his fundamental principles. It is true that the Court clergy actively exerted their influence to bring about a change of feeling ; but when an attempt was made in 1834 to effect an agreement with Rome, the negotiation broke down at its first stage. The system of Josephism was still too firmly established to make a satisfactory result possible for the Church. ULTRAMONTANE AGGRESSION IN HUNGARY. 139 Ultramontanism. Mixed marriages, so vehemently re- ^xix.' sisted by the bishops, who in their pastorals openly " ' "" ' denounced the Protestants as ' heretics,' formed a fertile subject of contention. The ride was, that such marriages should be concluded before a Catholic priest, who was not allowed, however, to hinder them in any manner. If the father was Catholic, then all his children were to be educated in his faith ; if he was Protestant, then only his sons were to follow his religion. The question was dis- cussed at the Diet of 1830-31, when a petition was pre- sented to the king, praying him to regulate the dispute, as well as that relating to proselytism, the Catholic priests having refused to give a certificate to those who had passed the necessary instruction. Meanwhile, the clergy reintroduced the Education-Beverse., i.e. the contract by which the children of mixed marriages were bound to the Church of Eome. The Protestants, indignant at this measm^e, made their complaints heard in the Diet, and ^"^g"°° °' warmly demanded its abolition. A royal edict of July 5, marriages. 1843, granting equal rights to all confessions, recom- mended that the education of the children should be left to the free choice of the parents. But this proposal pleased nobody ; and the magnates proposed to solve the difficulty by declaring that the children should in all cases follow the religion of the father. The bishops protested in the Upper House and presented a memo- rial to the Emperor Francis, teeming with invectives ao:ainst Protestantism, and culminating in the assertion that peace and concord in a State could be attained only by unity of faith. This zeal of the Church militant was highly embarrassing to the government. By sending the wily Bishop Lonovics to Eome, they obtained a partial compromise. The Vatican consented that the validity of mixed marriages solemnised by Protestant pastors should be considered legally valid, and that the Catholic priest, 140 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, on receivino^ a declaration of agreement as to education XIX . -- — r— ' from tlie affianced pair, should be allowed to give his ' passive assistance ' at the ceremony, and certify its con- clusion in the marriage register. This compromise was accepted by the diet notwithstanding the opposition of the bishops, and it was added, that although the affianced pair were free to make any agreement they chose about the education of their futiure children, yet such agreements were to be regarded merely as private, and consequently could not be made compulsory by law.^ This compliant conduct of Eome in the very question, which she had specially singled out as the starting-point of her campaign against the secular power, showed that no real conflict was to be apprehended in Austria either with the clergy or the Vatican, since both were unremitting in their endeavours to gain the goodwill of the government, on which the preservation of the temporal rule at Eome so largely depended. Minted Very different was the course of events in Prussia. Tn Pr'S. The time was gone by when Pius VII. had expressed his gratitude for the services rendered by Frederick William towards the re-establishment of the temporal rule, and boasted that in Prussia the Catholic Church occupied a better position than in many of the Catholic States. Nie- buhr, who after the conclusion of the Concordat of 1821 (De Salute Animarum) had hoped that on all practical ^ The Protestants were still worse off than the Catholics, being un- able, if a divorce took place, to marry again. With regard to prosely- tism the Diet resolved (Art. IK., § 5-10), that a Catholic, intending to join the Protestant Church, should declare his intention to the priest of his former religion in the presence of two witnesses, and repeat the declaration at the end of four weeks. The priest was then to give a certificate of his declaration ; if he refused, the two witnesses could draw it up; and it was then to be given to the Protestant pastor. — ' History of the Protestant Church in Hungary to 1850,' translated from the German by Dr. J. Craig, 1854, p. 441. — [Tr.] ÄIIXED MARRIAGES IN PRUSSIA. , 141 points it might be supplemented by an amicable arrange- chap ment, found himself deceived as soon as the first question — — r-^ of the kind was mooted, namely, that of mixed marriages. The kiniT had issued an edict m 1803, that in such mar- Royal edict riages the sons should no longer be brought up in the religion of the father and the daughters in that of the motlier, but that all legitimate children should follow the religion of the father, unless both parents made a different agreement. As in consequence of that arrangement mixed marriages were solemnised in the Old Provinces by Catholic priests without any opposition, a cabinet order in 1825 ex- tended it to the Western Provinces, and prohibited the Cathohc clergy from misusing their influence, to extort from the parties the promise to have all their children educated as Catholics. Nevertheless, the clergy repeatedly refused to publish the banns or perform the marriage until a written promise had been given to educate the children in the Catholic faith. Bunsen now, as Prussian envoy at Eome, was commissioned to bring about a papal instruction which should remove this difficulty, but at the same time the bishops were empowered to apply to Eome for fresh directions, Bunsen thought he had gained his object, Papaiin- when he obtained the formal promise, (1) that all mixed obtaiSbj marriages which had been concluded ' extra formam ^'*°^^°' Concilii Tridentini' should be considered good ; (2) that the priest might permit marriages, even without having re- ceived any promise as to religious education ; (3) the bishop, in the same manner, in the cases when he may accord a dispensation to Catholics. The first was no concession at all, since the Catholic Church has never declared mixed marriages to be null and void, and the simple permission papaj ^jrief to celebrate them, without any promise as to religious gtmcdon to education, by no means solved the difficulty. The Brief, ^^s^r^r which Pius VIII. then issued, together with the instruction March 25 to the Rhenish Westphalian bishops, failed entirely to ^^^o. 142 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, satisfy the Government. That Brief explicitly declared, XIX. that the Catholic Church had always disapproved of mixed marriages, and had only tolerated them on con- dition that the children should be brought up in the Catholic faith. It was the duty, therefore, of the bishops, to oppose such marriages by every means in their power ; only, should the opposition of the clergy prove unavailing, the censure of the Church properly attaching to the offenders might be tacitly overlooked, and the priest might lend his passive assistance [assistentia passiva) at the marriage ceremony, but not perform any act which might seem even to imply approval of such marriages. To this last injunction the king refused his assent, no less than to the one that the bishops were to oppose the con elusion of such marriages, and he demanded that these points should at least be passed over in silence. But such an alteration of the Brief was the more impossible of acceptance at Eome, as meanwhile, with the elevation of Gregory XVI. to the papal chair, the Ultramontane party had become masters of the situation. Not only did the pope refuse to the French ambassador any modifi- cation of the terms respecting mixed marriages, but he even prohibited the Bavarian bishops from allowing the ' passive assistance,' and only upon the urgent represen- tations of Louis I, permitted the censure of the Church against those who contravened her instructions to be winked at, and the banns published on the production of a certificate attesting that no impediment to the marriage existed beyond the prohibition imposed by the Church on account of difference of religion. The Since nothing therefore was to be obtained at Eome, KTego- the government endeavoured to come to an arrangement thetishopi with the bishops, and Bunsen was summoned for this purpose to Berlin, together with the archbishop of Cologne, Count Spiegel. The object now sought to be MIXED MARRIAGES IN PRUSSIA. 143 attained was so to interpret the Brief as to soften down, ^^j|?- as ftxr as possible, its application, and to enable the bishops ^ — ■ — - to permit whatever was not expressly forbidden. As ofTunei9° such points the archbishop conceded, in a secret con- ^^^'^' vention with the cabinet (June 19, 1834), that all pro- mises as to the religious education of the children should be dispensed with ; and that the cases when only ' passive assistance ' was to be rendered, should be reduced to a minimum, thus recognising by imphcation the marriage ceremony in all other cases. ^ Had this arrangement been carried out, the government of course would have gained in substance what they desired ; that this was not done, Bunsen ascribes solely to the dilatory execution of the convention by the ecclesiastical department. The negotiations had not been concluded, when the death of Archbishop Spiegel in July put a new face upon affairs. This event undoubtedly contributed to the unfavourable turn the matter took, but it can scarcely be maintained that the interpretation given to the Brief was in accord- ance with its letter, since the papal missive prohibited every act that seemed even to approve of mixed mar- riages, including therefore the benediction by the priest. In this contradiction between the Brief itself and its ex- planation lay the necessary germ of new dissensions, for the priests could not fail to observe it, although the arch- * The following passage from a letter to the Crown Prince shows what Bunsen thought he had obtained : ' The bishops by the terms of the Brief will in future let the marriage ceremony be performed with all formalities, without the priest demanding any promise whatsoever. Only in the event of the bride exhibiting wilful and culpable levity when being reminded of her maternal duties — in other words, never — will the marriage ceremony be refused by the Catholic priest. In that case, however, he is bovmd to receive in the sacristy, without fee, the declaration of both that they are husband and wife, and to declare them in return to be such, and to inscribe their names in the Church register.' (' Correspondence' edited by Ranke, 1873, p. 25.) 144 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, bishop succeeded in obtaining the agreement of the • — r-^— ' bishops to his convention. This convention, as well as the instructions to be given to the clergy, was intended to be kept private, but even before it had entered into operation, it was divulged by a Belgian newspaper, and a storm of indignation arose in the Ultramontane press against this treason to Catholic interests. The cardinal secretary of state, Lambruschini, addressed a violent note to Bunsen, reproaching his government with evading the meaning of the Brief by means of a secret convention, and nulhfying the principles on which it was based. Droste von At this momcnt of tension, the Cabinet at Berlin com- archb^Jhop mitted the fatal mistake of recommending Baron Droste 1836? °^°^' von Vischering, the suffragan bishop of Münster, to the Cathedral Chapter at Cologne, as successor to Archbishop Spiegel. According to Bunsen, this choice was prompted by the predilections of the Crown Prince for his strict ascetical tendencies. The Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs had taken the precaution, it is true, to sound him, through a confidential agent, M. Schmiilling, whether, in case he was appointed, he would adhere to the convention entered into by his predecessor. Droste replied that he ' should certainly beware of not upholding, and still more, of violating the convention entered into, in conformity with the papal Brief,' and that he would execute it, on the contrary, ' in the spirit of charity and the love of peace.' Notwithstanding, however, this assurance, couched, more- over, as it was, in somewhat ambiguous terms, the Cabinet should have remembered that Baron Droste had hitherto invariably shown himself the inflexible champion of Ultra- montane pretensions ; particularly when, as vicar-general, he had already come into conflict with the civil autho- rities by prohibiting the divinity students of his diocese to attend the lectures of Professor Hermes at Bonn. The civil governor of Westphalia, von Vincke, had been for DISPUTE WITH ARCIIBISirOP OF COLOGNE. 145 years on terms of enmity with him and his brother, tlie chap. bishop of Münster ; and at Eome his character was so ^.^^^' ' clearly understood that, when Bunsen announced there the intention of the king to recommend him, the cardinal secre- tary of state exclaimed involuntarily : 'Is your government mad ? ' But the Berhn cabinet considered itself protected by his promise, and Baron Droste was accordingly promoted in May 1836 to the archiepiscopal see. Only too soon had the ministers to learn how egregiously they had been deceived, and how accurate were those who, like Perthes, had predicted that his appointment would revolutionise the whole position of Catholicism in Prussia, and make a struggle inevitable. Very soon fresh complaints were heard against the refusal of the priests to solemnise mixed marriages. Droste, on being interpellated, de- clared that when giving the above-named promise he was ignorant of the terms of the convention itself, and had not since then taken any pains to ascertain them, as the convention had only been framed to facilitate the execution of the Brief, not to paralyse its effect. The Brief, he said, remained his standard of reference : he was willing to follow both as far as possible, but wherever the instruction could not be reconciled with the Brief, he should guide his conduct by the latter. On being asked by the royal commissioners to specify those points of divergence, he answered : Above all the mar- riage ceremony. He had instructed the clergy never to give the nuptial benediction until a promise had first been given to educate all the children as Eoman Catholics. The struggle hnd now fairly begun, and was soon to wax hotter. Immediately after the death of Spiegel, the pope issued a Brief (September 1835) condemning tlie doctrines of his protege^ Professor Hermes, and prohibiting VOL. 11. L 146 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CIIUKCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, the study of his writings.^ Acting upon this Brief, Droste sJ^^^' > forbade the CathoHc students of theology at Bonn to Droste von attend any longer the lectures of the Hermesian pro- nnd'the'^^ fcssors, althougli the latter had declared their readiness profesoir to submit their papers to him for inspection. He would only allow them to attend the lectures of Professors Klee and Walter, whose sentiments were known to be curia- listic. Equally futile were the efforts of the curator of the university, who, by dint of liberal overtures, endea- voured to induce the archbishop to adopt a milder line of conduct. Droste, so far from yielding, required each candidate for orders, or for the office of confessor, to sub- scribe to eighteen theses, the last of which contained an illegal oath, promising absolute obedience to the arch- bishop, from whose judgment, according to the order of the Catholic hierarchy, no appeal was admissible except to the pope.^ Proceedings, such as this, the Prussian government refused to tolerate any longer in silence ; for it was clear that the oath alone contained a direct attack upon the civil allegiance of the clergy to the crown. The Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs informed the archbishop that it was ^ It cannot be disputed that the doctrine of Hermes, who accepted the dogmas of the Catholic Church merely because they were justified, in his. opinion, by the postulates of reason, was not a Catholic doctrine in the Roman sense of the term. As long, however, as he and his patron, the archbishop Spiegel, were alive, Rome left him unmolested : the Brief was not published until a year after Spiegel's decease. The professors Elvenich and Braim went, indeed, to Rome, in order to pro- cure its revocation, and to justify Hermesianism. But of course their errand was fruitless ; they were simply required to surrender. ^ The oath was as follows: — ' Spondeo ac promitto archiepiscopo meo reverentiam et obedientiam in omnibus, qu« ad doctrinam et dis- ciplinara spectant, sine omni restrictione mentali ; meque ab archi- episcopi mei judicio, secundum hierarchite Catholicaa ordinem, ad neminem nisi ad papam, totius ecclesias caput, provocate posse et debere confiteor.' ARREST OF DIJOSTE VON VISCIIERIXO. 147 impossible for him to continue in office, unless he sub- ciiap. mitted at once to the law ; but that, in case such submis- -^.^^— si on was contrary to his conscience, the king would allow His him to resign the archbisliopric, without any proceedings wit"the being taken against him for what had passed. This offer S™' Droste rejected, and announced to the chapter and clergy of Cologne that the government was seeking to thrust him from his archiepiscopal throne in revenge for his demands respecting mixed marriages, but that he should know how to defend the rights of the Church. Alarmed by the excitement kindled throughout the country by this language of defiance, fomented, as it was, moreover, by ecclesiastics in Belgium, the government thought it necessary to interfere with energy and decision. Bunsen himself urged this step, since nothing more could be done by negotiation. The Vatican, he said, imagined that the government would not venture to take action ; and not until that illusion was dispelled could anything be gained at Eome. Accordingly, Droste was informed that, in case he insisted on his last declaration, he could no longer be allowed to exercise his spiritual fimctions, nor even to reside in his archdiocese ; but that, in the event of his resigning at once all further duties connected with his office, he would be permitted to choose in Westphaha any place of residence he liked. As the archbishop, however, declined to make any promise, and declared that he would only yield to force, he was arrested and removed to llinden, but not until his secretary had succeeded in burning the papers, which justified the charges of the government.-^ Bunsen even afterwards expressed his 1 Some letters of his, however, discovered by means of a search- ^varl■ant, and authenticated as in his handwriting, were published in the ' All.c^emeine Preussische Staatszeitung,' May 7, 1838. They show that he had long entertained a design to introduce the Jesuits. See Quart. Kiv. vol. Ixxxiii., p. 101. T 9 148 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, opinion that by this prompt action the Cabinet had avoided XIX. a serious conflict, for the archbishop had intended to take Unpopular ^ef^ge in the cathedral, to plant himself before the altar, severity of ^q order the doors to be opened, and to challenge open the govern- _ ^ -L ' or nient. forcc. Considering the man, such a step was probable enough ; but if the ambassador expected that the action of the government, in thus making ' the Prussian eagle,' as he expressed it, ' bring its pinions to strike with effect,' would exert a wholesome terror upon the hierarchy, while giving time to enlighten the people as to the dis- pute, he was egregiously deceived. The bishops, in a letter to the king, publicly retracted their assent to the convention, and not only did the government find no support among the people, but the latter saw in the arrest of Droste nothing but an arbitrary measure of an odious absolutism, and passionately espoused the cause of the archbishop, who had hitherto been extremely unpopular. Nay, even the Hermesians, who had felt his lash, joined cordially with their former opponents in repelling this invasion of ecclesiastical rights. The South German as well as the foreign press rose with indignation against this attack upon the liberties of the Church. Görres, above all, by his ' Triarier,' and ' Athanasius,' to whom he absurdly compared the suffering Droste, produced a powerful impression. This tone of pubhc sympathy was intensified by the conduct of Eome. A few weeks after the arrest of the archbishop, the pope issued an Allocu- tion, which was presented to the entire diplomatic body, in which he denounced emphatically the ' violation of the liberty of the Church, the usurpation of her sacred juris- diction, this trampling under foot the rights of the Catho- lic Church and of this Holy See.' Bunseu's attempt to put matters straight again by means of fresh negotiations was hopeless, therefore, from the very first : he only com- promised his government by declaring that the measure had been solely a provisional one ; that the king had never CONFLICT WITH ARCIIBISIIOr OF TOSEN. 149 intended to exercise an act of jurisdiction, or to assert ^^^^]y- the right of deposing, or even of suspending, the arcli- — ^ — ' bishop as such ; that he had reserved, on the contrary, the canonical judgment to the pope. To this the secre- tary of state simply replied, that there could be no ques- tion of any negotiation, until the archbishop had been restored to his diocese. Under these circumstances, the elaborate puhlicandum of the ministers, written to justify their proceedings, was as powerless to produce any per- manent impression, as the scattered Protestant pamphlets which endeavoured to defend them. The only favourable circumstance was that the chapter at Cologne, whom Droste had embittered by his imperious rule, and who had complained in 1837 of his tyranny to the pope, evinced goodwill towards the interim administration of the archbishopric. The conflict, meanwhile, had been aggravated by the conflict archbishop of Posen, Dunin, declaring to the government, ^reh- after the issue of the Brief of 1830, that he could no Sm^"^ longer allow the principles laid down in such a papal edict to remain unheeded in his diocese. The govern- ment replied that a Brief, intended for the Western Pro- vinces, did not concern him at all ; matters, therefore, must continue to be guided by the practice hitherto prevailing, and which he himself as Capitulary Administrator shortly before had recognised. The archbishop insisted that the will of the head of the Church thus formally expressed w^as binding on all Catholics alike, and early in 1838 addressed a pastoral to his clergy, threatening with sus- pension every priest who should solemnise a mixed mar- riage without promise being given of a Catholic education for the children.^ All exhortations and negotiations remained fruitless, especially as the pope, in a fresh Allocution, * A Russian ukase, published in Poland at this time, enjoined that if either of the parents belonged to the Greek religion, all the children should be educated in that faith. — [Ti:.] loO THE STATE ATs^D THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, declared his full approval of the conduct of Dunin, adding, ■■ — r— ' that the government was plotting to tear away the Catholic population of Prussia from the true and sole centre of their Church. Penal proceedings were forthwith insti- tuted against the prelate. He protested, but in vain, on the ground of the incompetence of the court. He was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in a fortress, and declared incapable of ever resuming office. The king absolved him from imprisonment in a fortress, and ordered him to remain for the present at Berlin, but he returned notwithstanding to Posen, whereupon he was arrested and removed to Colberg. Mistakes of In survejing the tangled history of this dispute, we nSnr^^™" cannot but confess that the government had taken up a false position from the first. They proceeded on the assumption that matters were still exactly as they had been under Frederick the Great, when the hierarchy in its weakness yielded at least a tacit obedience to the civil law. The time when, perhaps, a tolerable agreement might have been efiected, passed by unused ; the first steps of Ultramontane aggression were not resisted with any energy ; the government at that time imagined that the Church of Eome was too feeble to prepare any serious embarrassment for the secular power. Bunsen, in par- ticular, wholly failed to understand the altered position of affairs at Eome ; he undervalued the power of that hierarchy, ' whose excesses leaned on nothing firmer than the influence of superstition upon the conscience :' just as if this very influence, to judge from all historical expe- rience, had not always been the most powerfiü lever in human affairs. He hoped to quell religious fanaticism by a genuine education of the clergy, and ' by main- taining the gymnasia, seminaries, and Catholic faculties in good harmony with the episcopal authorities,' entirely foi-getting that for this purpose the goodwill of those IMPUIJCY OF THE GOVERNMENT. 15 L auLliorities was indispensable. In the next \)\mx\ in Prussia, the king's will was law. An instruction, ad- dressed by the Minister of Public Worship to the curator of the University of Uonn, distinctly stated that the Crown alone was the supreme fountain of ecclesiastical as of civil law, so that the head of the Church could not regu- late her religious life by means of any ordinances or decrees, except with the previous knowledge and appro- bation of the king. Frederick William III. was conscious of the best intentions, on his part, to deal justly by his Catholic sub- jects, and believed that he ought to promote mixed mar- riages, in order to make the two confessions draw near to each other.^ Since now the clergy in the Eastern Pro- vinces had hitherto complied ^vith the edict of 1803, he saw no reason why that edict should not be extended to the Western ; but he never anticipated that by so doing he would touch a problem which could never be solved by the efforts of a well-meaning bureaucracy. This edict even in itself was open to attack, inasmuch as it made the religion of the father, in the absence of any contrary agreement, determine the education of all the children, whereas fairness demanded that the sons alone should follow the religion of the father and the daughters that of the mother, unless the parents made a voluntary agreement otherwise. But, besides this, matters were wholly different in the Ehenish provinces. There, since the time of the French domination, civil marriages existed, which gave to those who refused to yield to the demand of the clergy, with respect to the education of the chil- dren, the power of contracting valid alliances. But so far ' The yame notion suggested the edict that Catholic soldiers should attend once a month the Protestant miliüiry service, and vice versa, the execution of which order the king Avas only induced to suspend by the uigent representations of Bunsen. CUAl" XIX. 52 THE STATE ANU THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1 8i8. CHAP, was the government from regarding that arrangemert as -'-^^^— ' an advantage, to say nothing of extending it to the whole of Prussia, that Bunsen actually held out to the Vatican the prospect of abolishing civil marriages altogether, if the pope would show corapHance with the wishes of the king. When now the opposition against the cabinet order began, two courses were open for the government to pursue — namely, to negotiate with Rome or with the archbishop. The Brief of 1830 proved how the situation had been mistaken in choosing the former, whereas an arrangement might easily have been effected with the archbishop, as is evident from the convention of 1834. Even at Eome they remarked to Bunsen : ' Why do you demand everything from us? Let "the bishops do their part ; a peaceable understanding between you and them will be sufficient for us.' But the Brief was there, and the attempt to evade its distasteful provisions by a con- vention with the archbishop, which it was impossible to reconcile with the Brief, could not fail to defeat the object proposed, since that convention could no more be kept secret from the Vatican than from the people, and tlie former was obviously bound to protest against it. Finally, the measure of imprudence was filled by promoting a fanatical Ultramontane to the archbishopric. Droste can scarcely have been honest in saying that when giving his promise to observe the convention, he was wholly igno- rant of its contents, and had taken for granted its having been concluded ' in conformity with the Brief.' Certain it is, however, that the contradiction between the two documents existed. The government, by its conduct, had placed itself in this dilemma: it could not tolerate the open resistance of the archbishop, nor could it solve the difficulty by any measures of coercion. In Posen the situation was the same, only that the archbishop there could not be reproached with any mala fides, since one FREDEraCK WILLIAM IV. 153 can scarcely blame a Catholic ecclesiastic for regarding a ciiap. papal Brief as the guide for his conduct. All the other -^v^— bishops of the Eastern Provinces declared in like manner their adherence to it, with the exception of the prince- bishop of Breslau, who, however, found himself obliged in 1840 to resign his see. I cannot therefore consider it an act of weakness that Frederick William IV., at his accession to the throne in 1840, complied with Dunin's request to be allowed to re- turn to his diocese, notwithstanding that the prelate refused to retract, and merely directed his clergy, since the laws of the country did not allow the promise as to religious education, to avoid anything which might seem to imply the concurrence of the Chiu'ch with those laws, consequently to refuse any religious act, including even passive assistance. As for Droste, the king saw clearly that he could not to^^Jiet- allow him to return to the see of Cologne, and as Eome ^"^jg^f^.^ recognised the more conciliatory attitude of the new wiuiam government, an agreement was made upon the basis that Droste himself should renounce all idea of returning,^ and accept Geissel, the bishop of Speier, as coadjutor, a pre- late, quite as hierarchical indeed in his sentiments, but whose manners were more complaisant, and who for this reason had been recommended by King Louis as a mode- rate man. The king met still further the wishes of the clergy, by abolisliing the Placet and permitting free com- munication of the bishops with Eome. The Hermesian professors at Bonn were summoned to submit ; those who refused were prohibited from giving lectures, but were permitted to retain their salaries. Neither of these measures can seriously be blamed. The Placet had proved in the Cologne dispute a thoroughly ineffective weapon, the Brief being everywhere obeyed, although it had never received the royal assent. Again, the restric- ' Droste never foigave the pope fur not insisting upon Lis conipluto restitution. 54 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, tions imposed on the intercourse of tlie bisliops with — A^— Eome had become untenable with modern postal rela- tions, and only led to clandestine correspondence. The reservation that the government expected to be informed of the contents of all communications with Eome, and that no papal decrees affecting the State and its civil relations should be published or executed without its consent, proved indeed wholly impracticable. With regard to the Hermesian professors, so long as any Catholic faculties existed at all, it was impossible to allow any doctrines to be propounded in them, which the pope had expressly condemned. On the other hand, the king undoubtedly was guilty of a grave blunder in establishing a Catholic department in the Ministry of Public Worship, and it was not without good reason that Görres hailed that step as a signal victory to his cause. Experience has amply shown that the Catholic council- lors of this department, though charged with the main- tenance of the sovereign rights of the State, have laboured solely to extend the rights of theh* Church. riumpii of Though the quarrel was over for the present, peace lie (juiia. ^^g purchased by the triumph of the Vatican, and this success stimulated the advance of Ultramontanism as powerfully as had previously been done by the exaspe- ration at the violent measures of Frederick Wilham III. The Catholic Church accepted the peace, proposed by the king, merely as a stepping-stone to further aggression. Bishops who discountenanced these Ultramontane ten- dencies within their dioceses, were denounced at Eome and to their flocks, and every means was taken to render unpleasant the performance of their duties. The most pro- minent example of this terrorism was the noble prince- bishop of Breslau, Count Sedlnitzky, who voluntarily resigned, to prevent interminable conflicts.^ ' We are bound, of course, to admit, as he states iu his autobio- ULTRAMONTANE MINISTRY IN BAVARIA. 155 All this prodiiCGcl of necessity an effect upon other ^i^'V'- German states, especially Bavaria, where just as much as " — '-—' at Vienna the government had remained, with malicious and ill-dissembled joy, the spectators of the embarrassments of the Prussian government in the Cologne dispute, and had done nothing to restrain the violent polemics of Görres and others. Not without reference, moreover, to the perplexities of Prussia, was the promotion at that time of the Ultramontane Councillor of State, von Abel, The Abci to the head oi the mmistry, which governed in a pure Bavaria. party spirit for nearly ten years. Munich became the centre of restored Catholicism, which led the struggle for the liberty of the Church and against Protestantism, es- pecially in the ' historico-political journal' founded by Görres. King Louis, nevertheless, clung firmly to his rights of sovereignty and held certain views, against which all the representations of his minister were fruit- less. He would hear nothing of the admission of the Jesuits, and favoured the Benedictines as men whose religion was imbued with a taste for learning. But the contradictory elements of his character showed themselves in this, as in the political sphere. Just as, in spite of his Teutonic enthusiasm, he watched zealously over the main- tenance of Bavarian independence and the rights of the Crown, so he was not prevented by his patronage of cul- ture from being a thoroughly Catholic ruler. On the contrary, he admitted the Eedemptorists, who now organised on a large scale the system of missions in the Cathohc provinces, until the king's attention was drawn to their abuses, whereupon he made the establishment of each mission subject to his special sanction. Not before the refusal, however, to sign the patent which was to raise the notorious Lola Moiitez to a countess of Landsberg, graphy, that he no longer stood on Roman Catholic ground. Indeed^ he went over, later on, to the Evaiigelicul Church. THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP. XIX. Revival of Catholic was the Abel ministry overthrown, and the Hvely sym- pathy the Cabinet met with from the Cathohc party exposed the latter to the enmity of the king. In the other German states, meanwhile, the Ultramon- tane spirit was stirring; in Wiirtemberg, perhaps, least of all ; in Baden not until the Archbishop von Vicari had taken the helm, and prohibited the solemnisation of mixed marriages, without a promise of Catholic education. The same thing was done by the bishop of Fulda,, who prevented also the intended establishment of a Catholic faculty in Marburg. In Hesse-Darmstadt two mode- rate bishops, following each other in succession, main- tained intact the good understanding with the govern- ment. Closely allied with these efforts of the Catholic party tiXs^^^ The ^^ rekindle among the people an enthusiasm for the faith, orrlLes"'''^ were their constant and successful endeavours to put once 1845. more in motion the whole machinery of pilgrimages, pro- cessions, and the worship of relics. Of this last absurdity the example which excited the greatest sensation was the exhibition, in the autumn of 1845, of the ' Holy Coat of Treves,' a display of which, announced in a circular by Bishop Arnoldi of that town, attracted upwards of a mil- lion and a half of pilgrims. The Prussian government opposed no obstacles to this solemn mummery ; but such a farce — to use the mildest term — might well provoke the criticism of the sober-minded, who showed that tradition equally pointed to the existence of twenty other so-called seamless coats of Christ.^ Even a Cathohc priest, Johan- ^ See ' Der Heilige Rock zu Trier, und die Zwanzig andern Hei- ligen Ungenähten Röcke, Eine Historische Untersuchung,' von J. Gildemeister und Dr. H. von Sybel: Bonn, 1845. This erudite trea- tise points out, that if Leo X. asserted the genuineness of the coat at Treves, his equally infallible predecessor had done the same for the coat at Argenteuil, and other pontiffs had given the preference to that in the church of St. John Lateran. THE 'GERMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.' 157 nes Eonge, revolted with indignation against the exhibition chap. as a piece of rank idolatry and imposture, and declared ^~i~^il-^ in a public protest to Ai'noldi, whom he described as the ' Tetzel of the nineteenth century,' that, as bishop, he ought to know that Christ had bequeathed to His apostles and disciples, as to all His followers, not His coat, which be- longed to the executioners, but His Spirit. This letter, rhetorical and badly-worded as it was, created a profound impression at the time ; the first edition of 50,000 copies was sold at Leipzig in a fortnight. It was the testimony of a Catholic against a Catholic scandal, and the appro- bation it met with, even within that Church, showed that the victory of Ultramontanism was not so universal as had been supposed. At the time, indeed, when this protest appeared, it The Cer- was not generally known that Eonge was already at HtTchurchT variance, not only with the Eoman Catholic Church, but with Christendom in general. What he wanted was the formation of a German Catholic Church. And soon a general movement arose in that direction. The Catholic community of Schneidemiihl, in Posen, was the first to follow his example, by seceding in a body, as a German Catholic Church — a step which they justified in a state- ment of nine articles, accompanied by a formal confession of faith. Similar congregations were formed in other places ; and at Easter, 1845, the first General Council was held at Leipzig, for the purpose of arranging a common basis for the new Church. It was there abundantly shown, that wliile it was possible to agree in the purely negative position of separation from Eome, opinions were by no means clear or unanimous as to the positive creed to be adopted for holding the new fabric together. Out- side the original grounds of secession — such as papal authority, the celibacy of the priesthood, auricular con- fession, and service in an unknown toni^ue — all was 58 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 18:30-1848. SPix^' contrariety and discord. Thus tlie congregation of — ' — ' Schneidemühle had retained all seven sacraments ; others would have only two ; it had adhered to transubstantia- tion ; others had rejected that doctrine.^ All that they finally agreed on was a vague declaration of belief in God the Father, Jesus Christ the Saviour, and the Holy Ghost ; in a holy, universal Christian Church ; in the forgiveness of sins, and in life everlasting. At first, indeed, it seemed as if another Cathohc priest, John Czerski, who had already formed a so-called Christian Catholic community, would adopt a more positive line of conduct : but he united with Eonge in a common struggle against Eome. Eonge soon proved himself a vain and hollow man, who, intoxicated by his sudden fame, had no stuff in him whatever for a Church Eeformer. That the Protestant Eationalists agreed with him should occasion no surprise ; but that a man like Gervinus should have hoped to see this movement give birth to a National Church, based solely on Christian morality and divested of all dogma, can only be explained by his total misconception of the power requked to con- stitute a Church. It was an easy thing, no doubt, by stripping off every shred of dogma, to improvise soon enough a kind of German Catholicism ; but for this very reason it became more and more void and formless, and finally perished, without leaving a trace behind it, in the events of the succeeding years. As the German Catholic movement, however, not- withstanding its want of internal strength and cohesion, had testified to the existence of a powerful counter- current against the growing pretensions of the clergy ; so, just before the close of the period now under review, a ^ For the various confessions of faith see Laing's ' Notes on the Schism from the. Church of Eome, called the German Catholic Church': London, 1845, The ' Apostolic Christians,' by IL Smith (London, 1845), is also a work of much interest. — [Tr.] CATHOLIC LEAGUE IN SWITZERLAND. 159 similar agitation was produced in Switzerland by the crL\p. que.stion of the Sonderbund, and the complications to — ^^-^ which it led. In that country, as elsewhere, Ultramon- tanism had raised its front with ever-growing audacity. The redistribution of the dioceses after 1815 had practi- cally subjected the Catholic population to the dominion of the papal nuncio, and under his influence the Jesuits found admission into Friburg and Yalais. The Eevolution of July had led to tlie overthrow of the aristocratic govern- ments in most of the cantons; and as a counterpoise against these victories of the Liberals, the Ultramontanes formed in 1831 the Catholic league of Sarnen, consisting p^.thoiic of seven Catholic cantons. From that time forward the '^'•^'^'''^f o.inien, estrangement between the rival confessions increased ; and ^'^■'^^ Church questions gave the clue to poHtics. At a revision of the cantonal constitution of Yalais in 1844, the Catholic party had succeeded in obtaining the exclusive toleration of their religion, and the prohibition even of private wor- ship to the Protestants. In Aargau, on the contrary, where the Eadicals gained a majority,^ the Great Council in 1841 had decreed the suppression of all religious houses, and had confiscated their property to the canton, for pur- poses of rehgious worship, education, and charity. The Supprei seven Catholic cantons — Lucerne, Uri, Schwytz, Unter- walden, Zug, Friburg, and Valais — protested against this ^^''s""'' measure at the general Diet, on the ground that Article XII. of the Federal Pact had guaranteed the maintenance of convents and chapters, together with their property.'^ The deputies at the Diet were imdecided, and simply sion of cün- vent.s in ^ A dissputed election at Zurich in 1845, which was carried by the Radicals, gave them a majority in the general Diet of the Confederacy. 2 ' L'existence dea chapitres et couvens, la conservation de leura proprictes, en tant que cela depend du gouvernement du canton, sont gavanties. Ces biens eont sujets aux impots et aux contributions.' (Art. xii ) THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CIHIECH, 1830-1848. passed a resolution disapproving generally of what had been done, and requiring that it should be modified, but without prescribing how. Angry debates followed in 1841 and 1842. The Argovian government offered at first to restore three-fourths of the suppressed female con- vents ; but this compromise was rejected by the Diet ; and the dispute was only ended by their offer in 1843 to surrender them all. But the question of the Jesuits led to far more serious commotions. They had already settled in considerable numbers in Friburg and in Valais, where in the contest with the Liberals, between 1840 and 1844, they actively supported the Catholic hierarchy. At the Grand Council of Aargau in 1844, M. Keller, the director of the Catholic seminary, who had already obtained the suppression of the convents, succeeded in carrying his motion for the expulsion of the Jesuits, though the proposition intro- duced by the Argovian deputy was defeated at the general Diet in July. The excitement shortly afterwards grew intense, when the presiding canton of Lucerne, after an animated debate in the Grand Council (October 24), resolved to call in the Jesuits and entrust them with the conduct of public instruction. The majority appealed to the fact that the management of education was an attribute of cantonal sovereignty, and that the legislature of Lucerne had as much right to entrust the Jesuits, wdio had already settled in Friburg and Valais, with the work, as had Zurich to appoint David Strauss to a chair at the university. From a legal point of view this argument was unassailable ; but the measure resolved on w^as executed with extreme terrorism over the Liberals, and the installation of the Jesuits produced tremendous commotion. Free bands of volunteers, under Colonel Ochsenbein, attempted to force their way into Lucerne and assist tlie Liberals. Eevolts broke out in otlier WAP. OF TTTE SOXDEEBUNB. 101 cantons : at Berne the leader of the Catholic party, Jacob en a p. Leu, was assassinated. In face of this outbreak the ^.^^^'-^ seven Cathohc cantons resolved to place themselves in a state of defence, and to repel, by means of an armed and separate league, all attacks upon their territory and on the sovereign rights which had been guaranteed to them by the Federal Pact of 1815. The legahty of this league was discussed at an extraordinary Diet, the objection being founded on Article VI. of the Pact, which declared that ' no alliance shall be formed by the cantons among each other, prejudicial either to the general Confederacy, or to the rights of other cantons.' The Eadical party in the Diet, under the leadership of Ochsenbein, who had been elected President, succeeded in carrying a resolution (July 20, 1847) that the Sonderbund was incompatible TheSon- with the constitution ; and another (September 3) that the declared Jesuits should be expelled from Switzerland, as dangerous '^^^^^^' to the public peace, which the Confederation was bound to protect. The Diet thereupon issued a proclamation dis- solving the Sonderbuud ; but the latter repudiated the decree, and the consequence was civil war. Want of con- cert among the great powers prevented the mediation con- templated in particular by Austria and France.^ General Dufour, the Federal commander-in-chief, rapidly conquered 1 Guizot, as Metternich afterwards told Bernhard von Meyer, the former secretary of state at Lucerne, urged Austria to march her troops into Switzerland in order to give France a pretext for following her example. The cabinet at Vienna hesitated to take this step, and thus Dufour gained time to crush the Sonderbund, That Metternich, after long wavering, should have taken the part of the Sonderbund, is intelli- gible enough ; but not that France should do the same. Count Rossi emphatically condemned Guizot's policy. * By all means,' he said, ' let us make common cause with Austria on all points of really common interest ; but if once we espouse her principles or connect ourselves, however remotely, with her system, we are lost. Conservatives indeed we are^ but always liberal-conservatives. If we pursue a different course in the Swiss affair, as it seems likely we shall, then I fear for tlie VOL. II. M 162 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. cTTAr. Friburg and Lucerne,^ whereupon the remaining cantons > r^— ' of the Sonderbund vokmtarily laid down their arms, and comphed with the resolutions of the general Diet. Triumph of Liberalism had thus achieved a victory, the results of Liberalism _ ^ _ . ill Italy, which were becoming daily more momentous. But it was destined to celebrate a still greater triumph, and that in the very centre and stronghold of Catholicism, when a pope was now elected, who placed himself at the head of the movement for reform. The state of Italy, at the death of Gregory XVI., was critical in the extreme ; the Prus- sian ambassador. Count von Usedom, describes it as fol- lows : ' On all sides,' he writes, ' I found discontent with the present political stagnation, an uneasiness which would either itself accomplish, or at least tolerate, the overthrow of aU existing institutions. Outwardly, indeed, there was still a general calm ; but the current of the universal movement had already seized the minds ; rapidly — nay, daily more rapidly — it was eating through the slender covering of ice, which lay in silence on the siurface. That movement had long since stepped out from its phase of conspiracies and Carbonari-lodges into the hght of social life. It ruled at that time the whole intellectual portion of society in Italy. Persons of education and of property, the higher no less than the middle classes, had become imbued with the ideas of political liberty and national independence, and professed those ideas openly and with- out exception, whatever their other diversities of opinion. This general unanimity of sentiment rendered the current of progress irresistible, the catastrophe inevitable. The system of Gregory XVI. belonged to those which can never be bequeathed, precisely because it was recognised continuance not only of this ministry, but even of the government; nay, even of the dynasty itself.' ('Political Letters,' p. 86.) ^ General Dufour's own account of this campaign has been pub- lished posthumously by Sandoz, of Neufchatel, 1875, ELECTION OF TIUS IX. 1G3 to be untenable. The Conclave rejected its representative, cjiai>. the former Secretary of State, Lambruschini, and elected — — ■ — - the gentle Cardinal Mastai Ferretti, Avho ascended the papal throne as Pius IX.' ^ Pius had enjoyed but a slender school education ; only from the age of eleven to sixteen had he boarded at a college of the Piarists at Volterra; he had never been to a University. Being at Eome in 1815, he applied for a commission in the corps of the papal guard of nobles, but failed to obtain it, from his tendency to suffer from epileptic fits ; and the next year accordingly he entered the Church, and commenced his theological studies — never, indeed, very profound — under Father Graziosi. A long sea voyage being recommended to him for his health, he went in 1823 as secretary to the nunciatmre to Chih, whence he returned substantially cured. In his subsequent career he gained distinction from his zeal and activity on behalf of benevolent insti- tutions, as well as by his preaching and his efforts to im- prove Church music. Archbishop of Spoleto in 1827, he was made cardinal in 1840 by Gregory, and six years later became cardinal bishop of Sinigaglia, his birthplace. So httle had the thought entered his mind of the triple crown being conferred upon himself, that he went to the Conclave with nothinsr but a travellinf^ bajr. As the Election of 1*1 lis I A ballot proceeded, the number of his votes gradually in- J«ne I'o," creased. At the third accessus^ on the morning of the second day, when chosen scrutineer, he read his name ' ' Politische Briefe und Characteristiken,' 1849. Still bitterer is the description given by the duke of Sermoneta : ' Assassination,' he said, speaking of the murder of Rossi, ' is almost the only classical custom which we have preserved. In other things we are more Turkish than European. . . . Our system of government is eminently Turkish. It consists of a central despotism and provincial despots, whom they call pashas and cadis, and ice call cardinals and prelates in the provinces.' (Senior, ' Journals in France and Italy,' ii. 99.) ii2 164 THE STATE AND THE CATHOLIC CHimCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, twenty-six times. This frightened him excessively : XIX. with a trembling hand he unfolded the papers at the fourth balloting, held that same afternoon. On finding his name repeated eighteen times in succession, his emo- tion overpowered him, and he was forced to pause before continuing his scrutiny. The balloting and accessus ended on the second day (June 16), in his being chosen unani- mously. The next morning the Cardinal Eiario Sforza announced the election to the people, amid the thunder of the cannon at the castle of St. Angelo.^ That same day, but twelve hours too late, Cardinal Gaysruck arrived with instructions to the Austrian ambassador to insist on the right of veto against the election of the new pontiff. And Austria was right in her alarm at tliis election, for the new pope was not only an enthusiastic ItaUan, but felt it his duty to break with the old regime, and to fulfil the promises put forward, but not observed, by his prede- cessor. He wished to inaugurate a new policy of love and confidence towards his people. Without fear or hesi- tation, undeterred by the counsels of distrustful friends, he began by publishing the Amnesty, which restored to life thousands of exiles and prisoners, many of M^hom had asked in vain of what their crime was supposed to have consisted. The impression produced by this act was pro- digious. On September 8, the people accorded Pius a solemn ovation on his way from the Quirinal to the Santa ^ The newly elected pope announced his election to his brethren at Sinigaglia in the following letter : — 'Eome, 16 June, 11| o'cl. in the afternoon. ' The good God, who abases and exalts, has condescended to raise me out of nothing to the highest dignity on earth. His holy will be praised ! ' I recognise indeed the enormous burden which has thus been placed upon me ; equally do I recognise how insufficient, not to say, how wanting altogether is my power to support it. Pi-ayer therefore ms POLITICAL REFOEiMS. 165 CHAP, Xix. Maria del Popolo. ' Slowly his gilded coach moved along the Corso, which was covered with flags, wreaths and inscriptions. Before him, clad in humble garb, trooped the crowds of the amnestied, and with branches of palm paved the way for him through the jubilant multitude, who hailed him as the herald of peace.' ^ A new municipal constitution for Eome soon followed, wis poiiti- _, . 1 p 1 • r^ calrelorms. Deputies were summoned irom the provmces to a State con- sultation, and a dehberative assembly was thus formed. A civic guard was next organised; greater liberty was given to the press ; the laying down of railroads, prohibited by Gregory, was sanctioned ; laymen were promoted to offices of State. All these measures rapidly raised Pius IX. to an unexampled pitch of popularity, and when he finally protested against the occupation of Ferrara by the Austrians,^ he was the national hero of the whole of Italy ; even Mazzini placed his hope in him. It is certain that all this was not mere weakness on the part of Pius. The rule of Gregory XVI. had heaped up so much discontent, that his successor was obliged to choose a different path. The Eoman people were firmly re- solved that the Papal States should no longer be the only is needed. Beg and pray for me, my brethren ! The conclave has lasted eight-and-forty hours. ' Should the town on this occasion desire to arrange a public demon- tration in my honour, then take the necessary measures of precaution. My most lively wish is, that whatever sum might be fixed for this purpose should be devoted to some object conducive, in the opinion of the civil authorities, to the public welfare. ' As to you, my dear brethren, I embrace you in Jesvis Christ with all brotherly fullness of heart; and I entreat you, so far from rejoicing, to have pity on your brother, who bestows upon all of you his apostolic blessing. 'Pius IX.' 1 * Politische Briefe,' p. 230. '^ Antonelli at that time expressed his regret that his cardinal's cloak prevented him Irom drawing his sword against Austria. IGG THE STATE AND THE CxVTIIOLIC CHURCH, 1830-1848. CHAP, country in Europe governed by priests according to the —^C-^-^ canon law. But one thing was overlooked. Pius IX. was willing to be as national and politically liberal as the circum- stances allowed, but he was in no way inclined to let toleration and enliglitenment prevail in Church matters. Encyclical, The Eucychcal of November 9, 1846, on his assumption 1616. ' of office, was so sharply Ultramontane as openly to represent even at that early period the principle of infalli- bility. Bitterly and in sweeping language he accused the age of waging the most fearful war against the Church, not only the Atlieists, ' but also those who dare to inter- pret the word of God according to their own opinions, or by the hght of their own reason, whilst God Himself has set up a living authority to teach the true meaning of His divine revelations, and to adjust all disputes in matters of belief and morals by an infallible verdict. Therefore, the word of God must be taken wholly in the meaning which this chair of St. Peter at Eome has determined, and shall determine in future.' Here then we find an almost hteral assertion of the claims sanctioned twenty years later by the Vatican Council. The pope specially secured him- self by his Allocution of December, 1847, against any in- ference being drawn as regards his spiritual, from his political position, and he protested against the notion, that he could ever seek to derogate in the least degree from the authority or traditions of the Holy See. He designated it as the most grievous injury to himself, if anyone should infer from his benevolent measures in the states of the Church, that he believed that salvation was possible outside the CathoHc Church ; of such a suppo- sition he could not sufficiently express his abhorrence. Pius IX. therefore has never from the very first allowed any doubt to exist as to his relations towards tlie Church, but he failed to discern the discrepancy inherent ms CONTRADICTORY CHARACTER. 167 riTAP. XIX. tradicton' conduct and cliarac- t«ir. in his conduct, so different in the spheres of politics and of the Church, a discrepancy destined so soon to be re- vealed. In this sense Prince Metternich was right, Hisoon when, on heaiiug of the papal reforms, he exclaimed that a liberal pope was the crowning folly of the day. But the personal character of Pius IX. serves further to ex- plain the conflict which ensued. He is excellent in heart, pure in morals, simple, gentle, kind, liberal, sincere, after his manner pious ; but he is weak, obstinate, narrow- minded, without any ideas of his own, and extremely vain. He cannot think clearly or reason acutely, but acts upon the impulse of the moment ; he has little knowledge, and is as superstitious as a Neapohtan fisherman. He frequently changes his views and inclinations, but does not easily pardon those who may have offended against his authority. He is one of those few popes who has not enriched his family ; he is a stranger to luxiu-y, but he is accessible to flattery, and believes that men are easily led by it ; he has a profound distrust of independent minds. The Papal See, at such a critical time, could not have found another man, so honourable in general, and yet so dangerous. 168 CHAPTEE XX. THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815 1848. Protestant Revival after tlie French Revolution — Anti-Rationalistic Move- ment under Schleiermacher — Prussia : Churcli Reforms of Frederick "William III. — ' Evangelical Union ' of Lutherans and Reformed — Synodal Oonstitution of the New Ohui'ch — Introduction of the ' Agenda ' — Clerical Resistance imder Schleiermacher — Persecution in Silesia — Presbyterian Oonstitution in Westphalia and the Rhine Provinces — General Failure of the ' Union ' — Frederick William IV. — His dislike of Monarchical Episcopacy — His Scheme of Ohiu-ch Organisation — Ordi- nation Formula of 'Union' Theologians — Endowment of Evangelical Church — Germany : Evangelical Union in Nassau — in Rhenish Bavaria — in Baden — in Rhenish Hesse — Hostility of Catholic Government in Bavaria — The 'Genuflexion Decree' — Austria: Persecution of Protestant Zillerthalers in Tyrol— General Progress of German Protestantism — Theological Parties — Liberalism and Free-thinldng — Switzerland : Mis- chievous System of State Domination — Formation of Free Churches — Netherlands : Re-constitution of the Protestant Church — Free Church in Holland — France: Ill-treatment of Protestants — Russia: Persecution of Lutherans in the Baltic Provinces— Great Britain: Removal of Civil Disabilities from Dissenters — The Tractarian Movement — Early Phases of Ritualism — Lay Patronage in Scotland — The Veto Act — Collision between Chm-ch and State — Disruption of 1843 — Formation of the Free Church — United States : Separatist Principles of Chm-ch and State, If the corresponding reaction in the Church evoked by the French Eevolution affected Cathohcism substantially in the sense of a revival of its hierarchical principles, that re- action was bound to produce in Protestantism an internal change, in conformity with its principles, and a re- awakened consciousness of the ideas from which it had sprung. Here the manly philosophy of Kant and Fichte, and tlie obscure but intellectual speculation of Schelliug, had KELIGIÜUS KEVIVAL UNDER SCIILEIEKMACIIER. IGü eil AI' XX. I^repared the road. In concert with the Komautic school tliey dethroned and destroyed the dull rationalism of so called common sense. Their labours gave birth to the man who was destined to bring about a new era in theology, Frederick Schleiermacher. Ilis writings first revived the l^f^^f^f doctrine that religion was not a mere appendix to morality, '^'l'j.^'^Yöad not mere learning, but a direct fact of human existence rooted in the mind. Starting originally with pantheistic ideas, his early opinions betrayed strange aberrations from Christianity, and he wrapped his idealism in the mists of an ambiguous phraseology. But by visible degrees he developed his views into a more positive belief, and his pulpit became the rendezvous of all who felt the urgent pressure of a deeper religious want. When the catas- trophe of 1806 occurred, he leagued himself with those who aspired to accomplish the salvation of the Fatherland by a moral and rehgious regeneration of the nation. That object found its fulfilment in the wars of liberation ; and the jubilee of the Eeformation was celebrated in 1817 with the enthusiasm of a re-aw^akened people. This rehgious revolution, which with Schleiermacher led to a totally new development of theology (we name only Neander, Bleek, Nitzsch, Lücke, Hase, Ullmann, Tholuck) could not fail soon to acquire a corresponding influence on the formation of the religious community, the Church; and Frederick William III., who in the hard t'J'mh^^ school of adversity, through which he had passed, had be- Frederick come a profoundly religious man, himself took in hand the m. work of reform. Already, before the wars of liberation, he had occupied himself with a reconstitution of the Pro- testant Church, and he saw that it was no longer possible to maintain the union of civil and ecclesiastical authority. Accordingly he made the first step for the re-establish- ment of a Church constitution, by decreeing in 1815 the institution of provincial authorities under the name of 170 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAP. Consistories. But he also thought that the time had now ^-^-^ — ' arrived for giving practical effect to the idea of union/ which had been transmitted to him as the inheritance of his ancestors ; and in this sense had already been con- stituted the theological faculty of the new University at His project Berlin. The union he desired was quite as little a work ant union, of Calculating political wisdom as of confessional in- difference ; it was the pure outflow of personal piety and Church sentiment. He was far from underrating indeed the value of the evangelical confessions of faith ; he under- stood perfectly well that a Church requires a definite creed, since the principle that the Holy Scriptures are the standard of doctrine becomes objectless, when no doctrine exists whereby to define that creed in contradistinction to those of other Churches. He rejected therefore the pro- posals of henceforth simply binding the clergy to the Gospel, since its authority was invoked equally by the Catholic as by the Greek Church, and by all sects, but just as differently interpreted. Quite as little did the king take his stand on exclusively Calvinistic principles. Predestination was a doctrine he could not reconcile himself to, and he found that Luther's conception of the Lord's Supper was the more profound and intrin- sically the more complete of the two. But he believed that the differences between the two branches of the evangelical Church had lost their meaning, that the unity of both was of prior importance, and that every- thing depended on opposing to the spirit of free-thinking a regulated Church system resting on positive founda- tions. * Compare Miililer, ' Geschiclite der evangelischen Kirchenver- fassnng der Mark Brandenburg,' 1846 ; J. Müller, ' Die evangelische Union, ihr Wesen und ihr götthches Recht,' 1854; Stahl, * Die luther- ische Kirche und die Union, 1857; Brandes, 'Geschichte der evange- lischen Union in Preussen,' 1872 ; two volumes, going as far as 1840. Formation of the Evanfjeli- cal Church. THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH TN PRUSSIA. 17 In this sense he issued the summons of September 27, chap. 1817, in which he called upon his evangelical subjects to celebrate the approaching jubilee of the Eeformation 'by forgetting at last all Church disputes, and joining together to form one united Evangelical Church in the spirit of Jesus Christ.' His idea was this, that neither should the Ee- formed Church go over to the Lutheran, nor the Lutheran to the Eeformed, but that both should form one new united ' Evangelical Church,' in which the ' Non-essential,* i.e. the dogmatic, differences should be removed, and the main truths, in which both agreed, should be firmly- adhered to. It soon became evident, however, that if this object was to be attained, it would not be attained in the manner suggested by the Commission, which had deliberated on the summons, and declared, that though they did not wish to abandon the distinctive confessions of faith, but rather to honour and retain them, yet they were unwilling to recognise any longer their authority as binding. This was a contradiction in itself, for what is a confession, unless a test and index of Church member- ship? If they desired, as was the king's intention, to create a Church rising above the former distinctions of creed, they ought clearly to have determined how far, and on what points, those creeds might be found to harmonise, and practically therefore to have agreed upon a new one. And such, no doubt, was the idea enter- tained by the king. What he wished for was a union of creed — {Consensus-union) — as is clear from the Cabinet Order of April 9, 1822, in which * the drafting of the instrument of the union ' is made the principal task of the assembly of notables to be convoked. The summons, couched in dignified language, met with general approbation. The king himself inaugurated the union by uniting the previous court and garrison con- gregations into one evangehcal Christian one, and partak- 172 THE STATE AND TIIE PliOTESTxVNT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAP. XX. Scheme of the Berlin Synod. Opposition to the Union, iiig with them the Lord's Supper ; and, in hke manner, all the Berlin clergy, under the leadership of Schleiermacher, who at the beginning of October were assembled for the synod, joined in a common celebration of the Holy feast. But the resolution of the synod, which invited the con- gregations at Berlin to join the union, was conceived in a very different spirit from the royal summons. Its purport was to bring about a ' union in ritual and worship, with- out touching upon dogma ;' and this for two reasons, first, because the ' union ' it contemplated was not intended to effect a change from one confession to another, and secondly, because, with the general revival of Christian zeal and devotion, marked distinctions of dogma were bound to reappear. This was by no means, therefore, a union comprising a ' consensus,' but a confederation of tlie two rival Churches under one government, involving the mutual ehgibility of candidates for orders, and a common celebration of the Lord's Supper. In this divergence of first principles lay at once the seed of future differences. But besides this, the ' Union ' met with strenuous opposition from Lutheran territoiies, such as Saxony, and especially at Kiel, where the concise theses of Clans Harms produced a powerful counter-movement. On Prussian territory, likewise, symptoms of opposition began to manifest themselves, as in Silesia, where Pro- testantism had preserved its Lutheran character most strongly, although the Lutherans there lived on the best possible terms with the Eeformed. Still more dangerous to the Union than these adversaries were its friends in the camp of rationalism, such as Eohr, Bretschneider, Schultz, and Zimmermann, in whose eyes it did not go far enough, and who wished for a complete removal of the traditional barriers of confessional dogma, and the establishment of a united Church on the basis of the so-called rehgion of reason. Add to this, that the higher bureaucracy of that ITS SYNODAL COXSTITUTinX. 173 time, who dreaded nothing more than the letting loose of ^JJ^^- popular forces, regarded the whole project of union with ^ — ■ — ' unconcealed disfavour ; fearing, as they did, that the great intellectual movement, which was pressing forward to a reconstitution of tlie Church, would awaken a correspond- ing demand for political liberty. Eor this reason, there- fore, in particular, they were labouring in these circles silently to neutralise the earnest endeavours of the king to give an independent organisation to the Church. Frederick William III. had procured in 1815, as already mentioned, the re-establishment of properly constituted ecclesiastical authorities in the provinces, by instituting the consistories, who were to conduct the entire management of Churches and schools, both Catholic and Protestant. This arrangement was so far altered in 1817, as to divide the management between the consistories and Governments, the former being entrusted with the administration of tlie internal afiairs of the Church and the higher educational institutions, the latter with the national schools, and ques- tions externally affecting the Church. Unsuitable as this abstract division was for the independent life of the Church, since her internal no less than her external wants can only be administered on a common princijjle of unity by an authority purely ecclesiastical, nevertheless this change seemed a progress compared with former con- ditions. Nor was this all ; for after the clergy had already held meetings of their own accord to dehberate how best to improve the administration of the Evangelical Church, a Commission was appointed with instructions to draw up proposals for this purpose. Starting from the proposition Synodal ^ that the Church must be governed on Church principles, tion of the this Commission recommended the introduction of a chTirch. synodal constitution. In every community a presbytery was to be formed, consisting of the clergyman, the even- tual patron, and a number of lay-members. The clergy 174 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CnUIlCIIP:S, 1815-1848. CHAP, of a ' circle ' ^ were to meet once every year in synod, wit^l: — . under the presidency of the ' Superintendent,' these latter from time to time in provincial synod under the presidency of the General Superintendent, who was also the head of the provincial Church authority, the consistory ; the supreme direction was to devolve upon the upper consistory or upon a minister. The king entered into these proposals with warm in- terest. He appointed a special Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Education ; he improved the organisation of the consistories, by dividing their duties between the management of the affairs of the Evangelical Church and the Provincial School Board (Provinzial-Schidcol- legium)^ and he decreed that immediate preparations should be made for a synodal constitution. Presbyteries also were really instituted, circle and provincial synods were held, but beyond that the matter did not advance a step, because the Minister of Public Worship, von Altenstein, was opposed to it. ^Notwithstanding all the king's exhortations to push forward the convocation of the general synod, again and again no agreement could be arrived at as to the instructions, and finally even the enthusiasm of Frederick William cooled before this vis fheS-'s '^neriice. He dropped the question of a synod, for, since projects, iiis Q^ji ministry could not agree about it, he feared, and rightly feared, that it might only lead to still more vex- atious disputes. The presbyteries were gradually discon- tinued ; the circle synods came to nothing, and tlierewith ended the attempt to develope by these means the con- stitution of theEvangehcal Church for the whole monarchy. The king felt acutely this checkmating of his plans, more ^ A circle (Kreis) corresponds most nearly to the French Departe- ment ; as the Gemeinde, or administrative unit, does to the Commune, and the English parish. The Bezirk, or district, forms an intermediate link between the two. Introduc- tion of the INTRODUCTION OF THE AGENDA. 175 especially since lie had reckonecl upon the synods for the ^^x^' introduction of the ' Union.' Instead of it, ' he ex- ' — ■ — ' perienced everywhere resistance, and saw that the very thing he had intended to be an act of peace and reconci- liation turned out only a fresh occasion of strife.' ^ Nevertheless, Frederick William III. refused to relin- quish his favourite idea. His opinion was that the Union, so far as it had become a fact, could best be pro- tected by the exercise of his royal authority.'-^ This was to be done by the introduction of the ' Agenda.' Already, in 1816, Frederick William had introduced into the gar- 'Aiend rison churches at Berhn and Potsdam a new liturgy, com- piled by himself, which was to express once more the fundamental features of a common evangelical belief, and serve as a common tie between the two rival and separate Churches. This liturgy was sharply criticised by Schleier- macher, but his criticisms were only a motive for the king to improve it, and as the sj^nods, which were also to deliberate upon it, proved abortive, he determined to introduce it in 1821 as a Church 'Agenda' for tlie royal Prussian army, ^ Brandes, vol. ii. p. 340. ^ If only they had taken to heart at that time the warning of Planck who, although himself entirely devoted to the Union, in his pamphlet, ' Ueber die Trennung und "Wiedervereinigung der getrennten Christ- lichen Hauptparteien,' which appeared in 1803, forcibly expressed his conviction that the ' union ' was only possible when ' both parties acknow- ledged the coalition already brought about between their respective doctrines and opinions, and that it was worse than foolish to think of pulling down the outer wall of separation so long as the parties did not yet feel that the causes were already removed, for which they formerly deemed the erection of that wall of separation necessjiry.' Otherwise, he argued, a new life could only bring with it new bitterness, and tear open afresh the old wounds already healed. He concluded, therefore, that it would be prudent to postpone still longer a formal union, since only secondary advantages could be expected from it, whilst substantial injury would^arise from a reaction in the popular mind, not yet suffi- ciently prepared for its acceptance. 176 THE STATE AXD TTIE PROTESTANT CTIURCITES, 1815-1848. CHAP, ag ^q\\ as for the Court Church and Cathedral at Berlin, ■ ^ — ' with the design of extending it ultimately to the wliole National Church, and thus putting an end to the prevailing want of precision and arbitrary diversity in Church liturgy. Accordingly an enquiry was addressed to the clergy of the kingdom, whether they were prepared for the intro- duction of the new ' Agenda.' Only about the sixteenth part declared for it ; the rest put forward scruples of the most various kinds. Many of these objections, which could be seriously considered without surrendering the fundamental idea, were yielded to, and the result was that, after a renewed enquiry, two-thirds of the clergy resolved upon accepting it. In order to examine further the objections that were raised, special provincial com- missions were formed, which, while adhering firmly to the fundamental character of the ' Agenda,' admitted a variety of individual forms, according to traditional peculiarities. Thus supported, the government went a step farther. While still refraining from imposing the acceptance of the ' Agenda,' as a matter of duty, on clergymen newly ordained to a church, where the congregation possessed another liturgy assented to by the sovereign, they decreed that no clergyman, who should be appointed to a churcli in which the ' Agenda ' was already introduced, should be allowed to depart from its observance in future. Where it had not been introduced, no deviation from the former practice should take place, and if such deviation should occur, the old liturgy should be restored within the space of three months. Candidates for orders should be specially exhorted, however, to accept the ' Agenda,' and the ques- tion should be put to them at their examination, whether they would join the Union. Herein already lay an in- direct form of compulsion, since it soon became evident tliat only those could reckon on promotion who met tlie CLERICAL OrPOSITION UNDER SCIILEIERMACIIER. 177 wishes of the government. These measures called forth chap. . XX. strenuous resistance. Schleiermacher criticised, with pun- >— ^4-^ — ' gent severity, the alleged riglit of the king to determine the liturgy of the National Church, by virtue of his prero- gative of sovereignty, and repudiated that right as con- trary to tlie liberty of the Church. The king was not offended by these strictures, but at the same time he refused to abandon his cause, and invited the author to propose a compromise. Schleiermacher declared it im- possible to carry out the ' Agenda,' and proposed that a special liturgy in addition should be composed for each province, to be accepted or declined at option. This pro- posal, however, Frederick William refused to entertain, and insisted on maintaining his rights of sovereignty against what he conceived to be an invasion. The clergy Clerical op- of Berlin who, with Schleiermacher, proved refractory, under were threatened with a disciplinary process, but they macher. justified themselves in a pamphlet, which clearly explained that the 'Agenda' was merely an efflux of the Union, which had given the explicit assurance that no change of doctrine was intended, and that nothing therefore must be introduced which was alien to the confession of the congregation, as was the case with the 'Agenda,' for instance, in its order of the Lord's Supper. The king tried to refute these scruples in an anonymous reply, ' Luther considered in reference to the Prussian "Agenda" of the year 1822.' But Schleiermacher vindicated his position in a written rejoinder. The minister, von Alten- stein, now proposed to take summary proceedings against him and his adherents, but the king would have no violence ; he shifted his ground a httle, and reverted to the compro- mise proposed by Schleiermacher. In 1828 liturgical com- missions were appointed, which added such a variety of formularies to the new ' Agenda,' that those of the clergy, who had hitherto protested, were persuaded for the most VOL. n. N 178 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAP, part to accept it. Althoiigli the authority of the govern- XX. ment was thus preserved, still the fundamental idea of the king to bring about a common liturgy for the whole Evangelical Church was frustrated : the whole dispute about the ' Agenda ' had only served to damage and dis- credit the work of the Union. ^ Persecu- In Silcsia, meanwhile, the resistance to these measures sTiesia. was far more serious and significant. The king's later concessions marked the extreme limit of his compliance on the question of the liturgy. But a number of Lutheran congregations in that province refused to accept the 'Agenda,' even in this modified form, prepared as it was notoriously to serve the object of the Union. Tliey refused to obey the authorities of a United Church, and to surrender to them the Lutheran Churches ; the clergy appealed especially to their oath of allegiance to the Lutheran confession. This resistance provoked the king to the utmost. Designedly misinformed of the real cha- racter of the movement by Court theologians, such as Eylert, and advised by a minister, who only understood to confront adverse opinions with force, he resolved to step in with severity. Professor Scheibel, the leader of the opposition, was deposed ; the refractory clergy were kept in prison for years, because they would not promise to renounce intercourse with their congrega- tions. The latter were deprived of their churches ; divine service was interdicted and prevented by force, all attempts to conduct it being summarily punished. Tlie excitement and discord, provoked by these measures, were unspeakable. The noble-minded Colonel von Arnim, of Blücher's regiment of Hussars, Avho was ordered to pre- vent the Lutherans from conducting open-air services, wrote to tlie general in command, that he was ready any day to saciifice his life for the king, but that he begged to be spared the duty of carrying on war against defence- rJIENISII-WESTrilALIAN CONSTITUTION. 179 less men, women and children, who assembled together chap. XX to pray. Many of the best subjects emigrated and > — r-l— ' became the worthy pioneers of the German exodus to America. In spite of all this, however, the movement was not suppressed ; on the contrary, it spread far beyond Silesia. The convictions of creed were sharpened, and their diver- gencies became more prominent as their area was en- lars^ed. The only quarters where the Union met with J}^^ ^ . , . Union in fewer difficulties were Westphaha and the Ehine pro- westphaiia vinces. In these territories, formerly so infinitely divided, i^wne the Lutheran, as well as the Eeformed Chiurch, had been ^"'°^^"*^^^* established on the basis of the Presbyterian and Synodal Constitution, which had already given facilities for mutual approach. To this cause of success was added the con- viction of the need of a compact organisation of Protes- tants against the Catholic Church, then so powerful in those parts. After the termination of the French rule, a union of the two confessions for a common Church con- stitution and government had been arrived at, before the summons of 1817, in some districts of these provinces, now united under the rule of Prussia, But the question there was not one of a ' Consensus-Union ; ' there was no desire to abandon the doctrinal distinctions between the two confessions, but, on the contrary, to maintain them in their entirety, particularly the respective creeds : the Union there was consequently solely a community of worship and of constitution. With respect to the 'Agenda,' they acknowledged that a common Hturgy was necessary, but they declined to discuss the scheme of the govern- ment, on the ground that the right of settling the liturgy belonged not to the king, but solely to the synods. Ultimately they accepted as a compromise an ' Agenda,' modified according to the requu-ements of the provinces, in return for which the government renounced tlie idea N 2 180 TIIE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAP, of extending to tlie Western Provinces the purely con- «.^ r^-^ sistorial constitution, such as prevailed throughout the Eastern. The government, in fact, felt that here, where the Presbyterian and Synodal Constitution was not merely the creatm^e of tradition, but for the most part also in full legal operation, they were not strong enough to enforce their will, and accordingly yielded so far as was possible without completely abandoning the consistorial element. Their Thus, after long negotiations, a Church constitution comtuu- was effected in 183,5 for the Ehine provinces and West- 1835?^ phalia, wliich ever since then has existed in full working order as a living testimony of the happy effects of a Pres- byterian constitution in Lutheran, no less than in Ee- formed communities, and, at the same time, as the only possible realisation of the idea of union, but which in no way corresponded to that intended by the king. He had perceived, moreover, before sanctioning this arrangement, the hopelessness of carrying out his original intentions. Cabinet and this perception induced him to issue the order of 28,1834.^' February 28, 1834. In one respect, indeed, this edict marked an advance in his policy, by not only forbidding the enemies of the Union — that is, the Lutherans — to constitute themselves into a separate rehgious community, but by commanding the extension of the 'Agenda' to non- united Churches. On the other hand, it. definitely aban- doned the ' Consensus-Union,' which had been aspired to in 1817, and formally renounced the project of abolishing the rival creeds of the two Evangelical Churches, de- claring, moreover, that adherence to the Union, which was to remain a matter of free choice and determination, expressed merely a spirit of moderation and charity, such as should no longer permit differences on single points of doctrine to operate as a reason for denying religious com- munion. The intended union of creed became, therefore, FAILURE OF TIIE KING'S SCHEME. 181 a mere union of worship and government, so that the chap, .... . . XX congregations, in spite of joining it, could remain either r-^— ' Lutheran or Eeformed. The unity of the territorial Church lay in the episcopal supremacy of the king, in a conmion constitution and a common form of worship. Inasmuch, however, as the edict still clung to the erro- neous assertion, that the introduction of the 'Agenda' did not involve any adhesion to the Union ; whilst it still admitted that the 'Agenda' was so arranged as to be used by both kindred confessions alike ; and even insisted anew that the Union should remain a matter of free choice, and yet forbade its opponents to form a separate religious brotherhood, there remained in this compromise the elements of contradiction, from which the work had suffered from the very first. In surveyinor the whole melancholy progress of thi s affair, Mistaken , ^ n 1 -r 1 ^ • ° • ^ . attempt to we cannot but confess that it the best uitentions ot a prmce, enforce so truly pious and so sincerely anxious for the welfare of royal'^ ^ the Church, led to such unsatisfactory results, the cause of '^^ ° failure lies above all in the curse which rests on every attempt of the civil power to carry out a reform of the Church with temporal instruments. The Union, such as the king designed it, would only have been possible if it had met with the free concurrence of the Church, and this very concurrence could not be obtained, because the synodal machinery ceased to work. But no sooner did he try to carry the project into effect by virtue of royal autho- rity,^ than he called forth a resistance to which he was obliged to capitulate, while gaining nothing by his resort to those measures of violence, which damaged heavily the moral authority of his work . Frederick William IV. acknow- ledged this by not only putting an end to the persecution of the Lutherans, but by allowing them an ecclesiastical > 'The "Acrenda" rests upon the regulations issued by me.' (' Cabinet Order of July 28, 1834.') 82 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAP, constitution, without, however, extending to them the ^-^4-^ — ' privileges of pubhcly recognised rehgious communities.^ Frederick With Frederick Wilham IV. began a wholly new era .ly., 1840. for the relations of Church and State. He was far indeed territorial from sharing the theory of Hegel that the Church was cwhand ouly the inner side, so to speak, of the State ; on the contrary, he looked upon the episcopal power of the sovereign as an abnormal and irregular right, founded upon territorialism, and saw in it the ' cause of German defencelessness against the pretensions of Eome. The State alone is to help here, for the State alone has here the limbs, which can be stirred. But this is a struggle between fish and bird. Their dominions are as different as water and air ; the struggle consequently cannot be fought out. It would be a totally different thing if the German Church of the Gospel stood on her own feet, with organs of her own, and not, as at present, on the feet of the State, and with the authorities of nearly forty territorial sovereigns.'^ The king, therefore, longed ' with all his soul, and with all his strength,' as he expressed it, for the moment when he should be able to renounce ' the hateful epis- copacy of the territorial sovereign, and resign his Church Transfer- suprcmacy iuto the proper hands.' But for that purpose chur°(!h su- ^^ "^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^7 ^^ ^^^ cxisting constitutions — premacy. j^q^ ^q i}^q Presbyterian, for after having forsaken the old Eeformed principles, it was aiming at a representative Church system, and its adherents wished to ' play the same part in the Church, which they claimed to play in ^ At a synod at Breslau in 1841 a separate Lutheran Church was formed under the jurist Huschke. 2 I may remark, that the essays of the king, written in 1845, have been lying in their integrity before me, from which Richter has given copious extracts in his work, ' König Friedrich-Wilhelm IV. und die Verfassung der evangelischen Kirchf ,' Berlin 1861. FREDERICK WILLIAM IV. 183 the State;' not to the Rhenish-Westphalian, which was chap. ' a contemptible piece of workmanship and bore con- ^—^4-^ — ■ temptible fruit.' The Episcopal party had indeed an historical basis, but ' that basis was the state of the Eomish Church of the sixteenth century, which had certainly not been evangelical, and of the episcopate of that period, which had been desperately unapostolic' The Consis- tonal party, finally, was only defending the existing state of things as the ' national-German and necessary Lutheran constitution. Its members did not wish to patch up the old garment, but only to brush it ; but the brushing of old garments profited the holes better than the cloth.' To place the ecclesiastical supremacy of the sovereign into the hands of either of these parties was a remedy worse than the disease. The proper depositaries of such power were, on the contrary, Churches apostolically formed, and comprehensive enough to admit of due machinery for supervision, in which the original offices for that pin-pose, viz. those of elders, overseers, and bishops, as well as that of deacons, received once more their rightful position. The king thus summarized the details of his sclieme : — The king's 1. The country was again to be divided into apo stolically constituted churches, according to which nS'' 2. A presbytery and diaconate were to be formed in each Church, the former to consist of the parochial clergy and chosen lay elders, the latter of candidates for the priesthood and laymen, on whom, as representatives of the Church, shoiüd devolve the care of the poor and sick. 3. The congregation was to be recognised as the third order, consisthig of heads of families of irreproach- able character, ' who for a long time had been members of the Church, and communicants at the Holy Table.' 4. Each Church circle {Kirchenkreis), in the sense of the present district synod, was no longer to be under a royal superintendent, but under an ecclesiastical over- scheme of Church 184 TIIE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAF. seer — a bishop who was to receive his commission from v.^ — C-^ — ' the Church collectively. He was to be the sole repre- sentative of his Church in her external relations ; he was to protect, on her behalf, the freedom of administration by the congregation, to regulate the affairs of his diocese with the assistance of the ministry, and to conduct the ordination of the clergy, not of course in the Catholic sense of an exclusive right to it, but for reasons of general order and convenience, as was done also in the Ehenish Westphalian Churches. 5. The ecclesiastical authority and disciphne exer- cised by each Church was to be recognised as binding on all her members. The change to this new order of things was to be resolved on after due deliberation by the rightful organs of the existing Church, such as the general synod — already contemplated by Frederick William IV. — and the king himself. An Ecclesiastical Commission, under the presidency of the Minister of Public Worship, was to undertake the execution of the resolutions agreed upon. First of all, the districts under each superintendent (Su- perintendentur-hezirke) were to be recognised as churches ; the bishops were to be appointed at first by the king, and afterwards by the synods, whereupon they would have to direct the further work of organisation. When all was ready, the formal transfer by the king of his ecclesiastical supremacy was to follow by a solemn act, at which the archbishops of Canterbury and Upsala, and the bishop of Abo, were to be invited to attend.^ ' The sovereign would ^ Characteristic of the king is the manner in which he contemplated the performance of this act : * I propose for that purpose, without however prescribing it, the following form. The transfer should be effected by delivering the crozier from the king to the Church. The bishop receives it from the royal commissioner, and hands it over to the elders ; these deliver it again to the deacons, who set it up before the congregation ; whereupon, every member who has fulfilled the ms ABORTIVE PLAN OF CIIURCII-GOVEHNMENT. 185 now become, instead of the Snmmus Episcopus (which he chap. could not be), the supreme director and guardian of the ■ — r-^ — ' Church (which lie was bound to be by law).' For the due maintenance of his rights the consistories should be continued, and a general consistory formed under the presidency of the Minister of Public Worship. If this fundamental organisation were preserved in the living stones of the Churcli, then the construction of the consti- tution by provincial and general synods would not be difficidt, and ' the forms of the Rhenish- Westphalian Cliurch constitution, so fatal in other respects from the basis on which they rested, might be accepted without scruple or danger.' Without entering here upon a criticism of this pro- The scheme posed organisation of the Church, the question at once carried out. occurs, why did the king not proceed to carry out a scheme from which he promised to himself so abundant a blessing? The reason w^as not in any way, as many imagined, that he was unable to settle with himself in which of the evangelical episcopal communities he should have the first bishop consecrated, but that he wished to remain passive, until the legitimate organs of the National Church had openly expressed their desire and will ' to exchange the present formlessness for a form.' Wishes for a change made themselves heard, it is true, and indeed, by the legitimate organs of the Church,' when the synods — first of the district, later on the pro- \incial, and finally the general synod — were convoked. requisite conditions for an ofEce-bearer steps forward, while the con- gregation sing a hymn, and clasps it with his right hand. Finally, the oldest deacon presents it to the oldest priest present ; the latter returns it to the bishop, who places it upright on the altar, or against a crucifix behind the Holy Table. The Church supremacy is thus transferred by the king, its previous possessor, to the Chui'ch. The latter receives it according to her ordinances, and then places it under the protection of the Lord at the foot of His cross.' 186 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAP. Many projects were there mooted, for instance with re- ^ — r-^ — ' spect to the constitution of the different congregations, whicli coincided nearly with the ideas of the king ; but, with reference to the collective constitution of the Church, the proposals tended to a representative system, which the king would not hear of ; and as the nation, on the other hand, did not know his views, the matter con- tinued at a standstill. Some few improvements were effected, such as the enlargement of the power of the consistories, the reorganisation in 1845 of the Ministry of Ecclesiastical Affairs, and finally the institution of the Supreme Council of the Church. But all proposals, which were opposed to his ideal — although scarcely anyone knew what that ideal was — he stubbornly repelled. In the field of Chiurch matters as in that of politics, he was not a man at all of initiation and action, and thus his ideas re- mained substantially without any practical result. All that reached the public ear was the rumour that the king wanted to introduce the English episcopal constitution, a notion which, baseless as it was in reahty, received some countenance by the establishment of the Prusso-Anglican bishopric at Jerusalem. Ordination With regard to the Union, the king stood firmly in Unkin ^ ° principle to the decree of 1834, by conceiving it simply gians? as a commuuity of worship and government. But this was far from satisfying the chief representatives of Union theology. Their wish was to realise the old idea of the Consensus-Union, but they had seen clearly that the latter could not be carried into effect with a double confession, but must have a confessional declaration ot its own. This declaration now was to consist, not in the simple acceptance of the Augustana and the removal of all other confessions, a measure which would scarcely have inet with any obstacles among the Eeformed, but in a new ' Ordination Formula,' which, while retaining the QUESTION OF PROTESTANT ENDOWMENT. 187 different confessions, sliould be respected, nevertheless, as chap. Question of Protestant tlie symbol of union. The general sj^nod, convoked in 1846, was fixed upon for arranging the formula required, and actually succeeded in passing resolutions to this effect ; but the enterprise excited such offence, and 'was so directly opposed to the views of the king, that he refused to ratify the proceedings. Such were the failures to arrange the constitution of tlic new Evangelical Church in Prussia. Equally fruitless was the attempt to settle the question of her endowment. The edict of October 30, 1810, by which the entire ^ndoj^- ' ' '' ment. Catholic and Protestant Church property had been confis- cated, promised rich endowments to the supreme eccle- siastical authorities, the parochial benefices, and the schools and charitable foundations attached to the dif- ferent chiurches. Whilst to the Cathohc Church this promise was fulfilled in the most hberal manner imme- diately after the issue of the Circumscription Bull, the provision for the Evangelical Church was hmited to the foundation of a seminary for preachers, and the establish- ment of a fund of 200,000 dollars, to compensate the clerg}^ and schoolmasters for having revoked their immunity from indirect taxation. Even this fund was reduced in 1824 by being made to provide salaries for the Catholic bishops (!), so that the evangelical clergy were left with a vague and undetermined claim to the remainder, subject, moreover, to the approval of the Minister of Ecclesiastical Aflairs for the time being. The intentions of Frederick William I\^. to assimilate the endoAvment of the Evan- gelical to that of the Cathohc Church, remained in the stage of preparation.^ If we turn to the other Gennan states, we find a Evangeii- Union, in one form or another, brought about in a series Nassair'" ' Geilach, ' Die Dotationsansprüche und der Nothstand der evange- lischen Kirche in Preussen.' Leipzig, 1 374. 188 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAP, of those whose populations were either preponderatingly XX Eeformed, or at all events strongly mixed. First in Nassau in 1817, where a confessional test was dropped altogether, and the ecclesiastic was simply bound ' to teach the Christian doctrine according to the principles of the Evangehcal Church, such as he himself had drawn it from the Bible after honest enquiry, and to the best of and in Jiig couvictiou.' In Eheuish Bavaria the Lutherans united Bavaria, with tlic mucli uiorc uumcrous Eeformed, to request the king to assent to tlieir Union. He granted for this pur- pose a general synod, which elaborated in 1818 the necessary instrument, providing that the creeds of both confessions, ' should be held in proper respect, but that no other ground of belief, or standard of doctrine, should be recognised but the Holy Scriptures alone.' The Pro- vincial Consistory remained under the Upper Consistory at Munich ; besides this were introduced presbyteries, as well as diocesan and general synods. In the Lutheran Church of Bavaria, on the right bank of the Ehine, synods were established, but no presbyteries. Würtem- In Würtcmberg, where the Protestant population was Saxony, purcly Luthcran, any question of a union was obviously Hanover. RS impossible as in Saxony, Hanover, etc. : the attempts made in those states to bring about a reform of the Church constitution led to no practical result. Baden Act The instrument of the Baden union in 1821 was not 1821?'°°' accomplished until after long struggles, since the old part of the grand duchy, the Margravate, was Lutheran, and the new part, which had belonged to the Palatinate, was Eeformed. This instrument recognised the Augsburg Confession and the Heidelberg Catechism, if and so far as the right of free enquiry was demanded in the former, and sanctioned in the latter. An Upper Church Council administered the ecclesiastical authority of the territorial sovereign. Each congregation received a separate Church ion m Rhenish 1822. PROTESTANTS OrPRESSED IN BAVARIA. . 189 council, which chose delegates for the special synod or chap. collective assembly of the parochial clergy; above the ■ — r-^— ' latter stood the creneral synod. In Ehenish Hesse the Un o •' Rhi Union declared in 1822 'the symbolical books, acknow- Hesse ledged in common by the two separate confessions, as the standard of doctrine, with the exception of the doctrine of the Lord's Sii})per, contained therein, which had hitherto been a subject of dispute.' In all these states, meanwhile, the supreme episcopacy Oppression of the sovereio-n remained completely untouched ; nay, in tants ia -r-, . T • o Bavaria. liavaria, there was not even, as m fcaxony, a supreme Church authority, co-ordinate with the Catholic sovereign, and really independent in evangelical matters. The Upper Consistory was subject to the Catholic jMinister of Public Worship, and was unable to protect the Protestants against the partisan ill-will of the government. Whilst the Catholic press was allowed to attack them violently, the censorship made the Protestant papers well-nigh dumb. Peculiarly unjust was the so-called ' Genuflexion Decree,' cenu- which ordered all soldiers on duty to foil on their knees iSl.^ during the consecration of the elements, and at the pro- nouncing of the blessing at the Catholic service, as well as when meeting the Host ; a decree, which w^as expressly abolished in 1803, when Bavaria ceased to be a purely Catholic state. This provoked intense excitement among the Protestants ; the men refused to obey the order, but the government would not revoke it, and a lively contest arose in consequence. The CathoHcs would not allow this glorification of their service to be snatched away from them. Döllinger, in the pure spirit of sophistry, defended the genuflexion as a mere form of salutation, by Avhicli he drew upon himself annihilating replies from Harless,^ Thiersch, and Count Giech : step by step the government 1 Harless, through his manly defence of Protestantism in the Chamber, as well as by his pen, was obliged to quit Bavaria. XX Persecii- tion of Protestants ill Tyrol. 190 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 181o-1848, CHAP, was forced to recede, until at last, in 1845, tlie obnoxious order had to be rescinded. But the ill-will against Protestantism continued ; every obstacle was opposed to the formation of Protestant congregations; the Gustavus Adolphus union was prohibited ; even legitimate complaints were rejected, and the evangelical general synods were prevented from bringing them forward. Still more disgraceful than this partisanship of the Bavarian government was the conduct of Austria towards the Protestants in the Zillerthal, in flagrant contravention of the German Act of Confederation.^ Notwithstanding the brutal expulsion of the Lutherans by the archbisho]^ of Salzburg in 1729, evangehcal traditions had been pre- served in a few neighbouring valleys. In one of these, th.e Zillerthal, nine men, fathers of families, resolved in 1826 to give notice of their secession from the Catholic com- munion, and to apply for the necessary permission to take part in Protestant worship. These worthy peasants seemed to know nothing of the 16th Article of the Act of Confederation, which Austria herself had promised to observe, and which provided that 'difference of religious persuasion can, within the territory of the German Con- federation, form no ground of difference in the enjoyment of civil and political rights.' They appealed solely to the Toleration Edict of Joseph IL, and declared themselves ready to submit to the six weeks' instruction in Catholic doctrines, which, according to that law, every person, baptised within the pale of the Eomish Church, had to submit to, previously to his joining another communion. The priests in vain attempted to dissuade them from their purpose ; and a year after- wards a direct refusal was given by the official of the local government. Nevertheless, the number of inten- ' See ' Die evangelischen Zillerthaler in Schlesien,' von Dr. Rhein- wald. Berlin, 1838. rrtOGRESS OF GERMAN rPtOTESTANTISM. 191 ding converts increased, and when the Emperor Francis chap. liiniself visited the Tyrol in 1832, their number had ' — ^-^ — ' increased to 240. They sent a deputation to him at , Innspruck, with a petition setting forth their grievances. Tlie deputies were graciously received, and the emperor assured tliem in an audience, that he ' used religious com- pulsion to none.' They obtamed, however, no relief : the l)rovincial diet, in open contradiction of the official de- claration of the government at Vienna, declared that the Toleration Edict had not been published in the Tyrol, and were not valid in those districts, besides being con- trary to the fundamental law of unity of belief. The provincial estates, the mere tools of the Jesuit coadjutor Giovanelli, declined even to agree to the proposal of the government, that the Zillerthalers should 'emigrate to some other province of the Austrian empire, where a Protestant congregation already existed,' and demanded their expulsion. The Court yielded ; Protestant converts were compelled to leave their homes, and to accept the place of refnge in Silesia, offered to them by the king of Prussia. Not another German government had the courage to protest against this act of intolerance and open vio- lation of the fundamental Act of Confederation. In surveying the progress of German Protestantism at General this period, we cannot fail to see that it was an age of Ge^rmln " religious revival. Theology and philosophy combined to i^m!^"''''*' overcome rationahsm with the weapons of scientific en- quiry. The period of transition was represented by the ' re- concilement ' theology of men like Julius- Müller, Nitzsch, Lücke, Eothe, and others, which, resting chiefly on the foundation laid by Schleiermacher, and partly in alliance with Hegel, was endeavouring to vindicate by scientific means the essenc^e of Church belief, but to liberate it from all that Avas considered non-essential. It stood firmly, therefore, by the Union throughout ; but in this very 192 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAP, struggle for its maintenance, fresh strength was acquired "^ — ^^ — ' by the confessional movement, which, in opposition to the proposed amalgamation of creeds, defended their distinc- tions as the legitimate foundation of Church hfe. These ' reconcilement ' theologians, by their scientific labours in a positive direction, exercised a great influence upon the cul- ture of the clergy, but a comparatively small one on the masses of the people ; whilst their opponents, the advocates of the confessional system, although far inferior as to scien- tific acquirements and weight, met with powerful support from the people, so far as the latter still sympathised with the Church. This, indeed, could not be said of the middle classes, who were daily increasing in importance. The Protestant citizen of that period was for the most part either indifiereut, or a pertinacious adherent of the old rationalism. A thorough-paced Liberal in his politics, in the sense, that is to say, of that liberalism which sees freedom of spirit in opposition to the government, he looked with suspicion on any civil interference with Liberalism Churcli matters. But the bureaucratic police State, w^hich, thinking, fi-^ll of distrust, strove to suppress every free movement of national life in the sphere of politics as in that of the Church, made this opposition appear justifiable. Before 1848, it was thought necessary for a genuine Liberal to be a downright free-thinker in rehgious matters, and thus only can be explamed the importance acquired by such movements, wholly untenable in themselves, as that of the Protestant Friends, or 'Friends of Light,' as they were called. Persecution in high places gave them a temporary popularity : as soon as, in 1818, they were allowed to do as they liked, they crumbled away, and fell into well-merited oblivion, state Of the Protestant Churches in Switzerland at this in swiuer- pcriod there is little to be said. In spite of the similarity land. ^£ Protestant doctrine, no attempt was made or has since FREE CHURCH IN SWITZERLAND. 193 been made, as Döllinger observes, to establish a collective chap. Protestant Church ; and in most of the cantons the indepen- — ^-^-^ — - dent Church institutions had completely fallen into decay. State Churchdom — represented by republican govern- ments— was dominant tliroughout, and here with par- ticularly evil consequences, since the guidance of the State liad to submit to so many party changes. Liberalism and Eadicalism openly showed, as soon as they became supreme, how little either of them intended to allow the independence of the Church. Thus when,in 1830, the Berne clergy, after the liberal revision of the cantonal constitu- tion, moved for the introduction of a Church constitution based upon a presbyterian system, they were granted merely a deliberative synod. At Geneva, the institution of elders was entirely lost. The Church of Calvin J?*^,^'!"? "^ •^ Calvinism perished in the revolutions of 1841 and 1846; and all iq Geneva. ecclesiastical authority passed over to the ' venerable compagnie ' and the government. In opposition to the rationalism, rampant in this official Church, a 'Free Church ' was formed, with a positive system of doctrine ; and the example of secession was followed in the canton de Vaud, under the leadership of Vinet, the most influen- tial champion of the separation of Church and State. In Neuenburg alone, where the Eeformation had been from tlie beo;inninoj the work of the congreo^ations, and not of tlie government, was the Church able to preserve her old independent constitution. In the Netherlands the revolution had so completely Re-consti- overthrown the Church organisation already mentioned, tileRe-^ that a total reconstruction was indispensable after the re- churt^ii establishment of the State. The ' general order of the Nether- Chiu'ch government of the Eeformed Church ' erected, in ^'*°''^' ^^^^' conformity to the previous state of things, but now equally in the sense of the presbyterian and synodal con- stitution, a series of Church authorities, constituted in VOL. 11. o ]94 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848, CHAP, successive gradations, and culminating together in the - — -r^ — ' General Synod — a unity, in which the Church had for- merly been always deficient. Its permanent committee, the general synodal commission, consisted of seven members, whom the king aj)pointed out of fourteen, proposed to him by the synod, as the standing representative council Free of the Church. In Holland the abolition of the symbol- Church m . . , _ . . Holland, obhgation led to a secession, and to the formation m 1838 of a separate Church under Cock and Schölte, which, foohshly persecuted by the government, rose to 60,000 members. iiitreat- lu Fraucc the period of the restoration naturally Protestants brouglit manifold troubles upon the Protestants. These m France, |^gg^^-^ ^j|-|-^ regular persccutions and blood-shedding by the fanatical rabble, which the government disgracefully allowed to go on, and which were only terminated by the energetic intervention of the foreign Powers. Notwithstanding this, the Protestants were continually insulted in the most outrageous manner, not only in sermons but in pastoral letters. The article of the penal code was enforced against them, which was directed against assembhes of more than twenty persons, and prohibited such meetings whenever they were held for reasons apart from public worship.^ The convocation of synods was not to be thought of; the only concession made — which was due to Louis XVIII, 's personal sense of fairness — was when in 1827 a Protestant, the celebrated Cuvier, became director of non- catholic worship. The July monarchy first made rehgious equality a reality, but although its most powerful minister was a Protestant, his co-religionists in vain en- * Sec. vii., ait, 291. 'Nulle association de plus de vingt personnes, dont le but sera de se reunir tous les jours, ou ä certains jours marqti^s pour s'occuper d'objets religieux, litteraires, politiques, ou autres, ne pourra se former qu'avec I'agrement du gouvernement, et sous les conditions qu'il plaira a I'autorite publique d'imposer a la societe.' LUTHERAN PERSECUTION IN BALTIC PROVINCES. 195 deavoiired to obtaiu from the state a larger share of inde- chap. pendeuce for their Church constitution. Guizot was ^-^ — - labouring much too anxiously to make his foreign policy appear hke that of a Catholic great Power — witness the Tahiti and Sonderbund questions — to allow himself to be diverted into a course of action at home which might com- promise him with the majority in the Chambers. It was obvious that the ill-success of Protestantism favoured Vinet's separatist doctrine of Church and State, even in Protestant France ; where it found its most influential advocates in the ' Societe Evangelique ' and in the period- ical ' Le Semeur.' In the Baltic provinces, whose German population ^""JP*^® Iiad preserved the hving Lutheran faith together with provinces. their nationahty, the Protestants at this period fell on evil days. Even in Livland and Esthland, where the rio-ht of Protestant worship had been guaranteed since 1702, at their incorporation into the Eussian Empire, the grant was quahfied in later times by intolerant enactments. A ukase in 1838 apphed to these provinces the Eussian law respecting mixed marriages, which provided that all the children should be educated in the Greek religion. No Lutheran or Catholic clergyman was allowed to baptise any child whose parents belonged to the Orthodox Church, and proselytism was punished by exile to Siberia. Mean- while, a Greek archbishopric was founded at Eiga, and promises of various kinds, such as grants of land, remission of taxes, and exemption from military service, were put forward by itinerant preachers to tempt the people to join the Orthodox Church, Seduced by these delusive pro- mises, and urged by the pressure of a famine, about 100,000 of the poorest Letts and Esths resolved in 1840 to pur- chase prosperity by passing over to the ' Foreign Church.' Too soon they found themselves the victims of deception ; and when, bitterly repenting of their apostasy, they im- 0 2 196 TPIE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAP, plored to be allowed to return to the Lutheran Church, r-^ — - they were confronted by the mandate of the Eusian code — the Swod — which punishes every desertion from the Orthodox faith.^ In England, during the first thirty years of this cen- tury, the official Church still remained the only one recognised by law, and in possession of enormous pro- Dissenters perty, which was increasing every year with the develop- in England ^ "^ ' . , ^- _f? -^ -^ .. ^ ^ and the Hicnt oi ludustry. ihe Dissenters were compelled, not only to maintain their own churches, but to contribute to the support of the episcopal clergy. No certificate of birtti could be received as legal evidence unless the child had been baptised by a clergyman of the Established Church ; no valid marriages could be celebrated by Dissenting ministers ; their dead could not obtain Christian burial but through the offices of the Church ; all public employ- ment was closed to Dissenters as to Catholics. The abolition of the Corporation and Test Acts, in 1828, put an end to this last grievance, and a series of concilia- tory enactments diuing the next decennium brought Eemovaiof further relief to Nonconformists. In 1836 — a year civil dis- 1 /. T 1 in 1 abilities, memorable for enlightened reforms — a general system of civil registration removed the anomalies arising from djstinctions of creed. The Dissenters' Marriage Bill al- lowed Nonconformists to solemnise marriages in their own chapels, with the option, extended equally to mem- bers of the Estabhshed Church, to substitute for the religious ceremony a civil contract before the registrar. A bill to admit Dissenters to Oxford and Cambridge, after passing the Commons in 1834, was thrown out by the Lords ; but two years later the advantages of an acade- mical education were secured to them by the institution, ^ See ' Geschichtsbilder aus der lutherischen Kirche Livlands,' von V. Harless. Leipzig, 1869 ; ' Der Deutsch-Russische Conflict an der Ostsee,' von "W. v, Bock. 1869 ; and * Edinburgh Review/ vol. cxxxii. TRACTARIAN MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND. 197 under royal cliarter, of the University of London. In chap. 1836 the vexed question of titlies was settled in England --^-^^ — - and Wales, by their commutation into a rent-charge on the land, payable in money, but varying according to the average price of corn for the seven preceding years. Church rates were scarcely as yet a grievance of para- mount magnitude ; and the two attempts of the legislature to settle the question proved failures. The bill of Lord Grey in 1834, to substitute for church rates an annual grant of 250,000/. from the Consolidated Fund, to be de- voted to the maintenance of church fabrics, was abandoned, in consequence of the opposition of the Dissenters ; and three years later, the scheme of Lord Melbourne to pro- vide a fund out of the surplus revenues, accruing from an improved administration of Church lands, was rejected by the Church.^ With the exception of the above-mentioned concessions to Dissenters, the Church remained in full possession of her privileges, and retained her old con- nection with the State, which exercised its jurisdiction, however, in matters of doctrine with great impartiality and forbearance. Meanwhile, within the limits of the episcopal Church, Tractarian . . . , 1 • 1 movement there appeared signs of a Catholicizing tendency, which at Oxford. found open expression about 1833. Dr. Pusey, a canon and professor at the University of Oxford, was the centre of this — the so-called Tractarian — movement. He gath- ered round him a number of talented and learned theolo- gians, and insisting with them on the apostolic succession of bishops, as recognised by the Anglican Church, de- manded a ' return to the ancient, Apostolic Church.' The newly-formed party openly attacked the Thirty-nine Articles — the standard and symbol of the State Church — and demanded that the doctrines they embodied should ^ The first bill for the abolition of Church rates — the forerunner of a series of unsuceessiul proposals — was introduced and rejected in 1841. 198 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAP, be brought into harmony with the ' CathoUc Mother >-^-.-^ — • Church.' Meanwhile, Cathohc forms of worship were introduced into church services in many places ; and some clergymen even urged from the pulpit, as means of salvation, the worship of the Virgin Maiy, the invocation of saints, and auricular confession. But this conduct pro- voked a powerful opposition in the country, and the mass of the people indignantly demanded that the Crown, the Parliament, and the bishops should stamp out these ^hSesof 'papistical intrigues.' In consequence of this popular Ritualism, movement, which served to check for the moment the advance of Eitualism, a number of its most distinguished adherents — among them Dr. Newman and the present Cardinal Manning — formally went over to the Church of Eome. Dr. Pusey, however, abstained from taking tliis extreme step, and, with the largest part of his fellow- thinkers, remained, at least outwardly, in communion with the Anglican Church. After this, the large majority of persons believed the danger to have passed away, and there followed a period of apparent tranquillity and peace, which the Eitualists understood well to turn to their profit for the furtherance of their designs. Henceforward they declared that their efforts were in complete accord with the ' essence ' of the Anghcan Church, and that their sole object was to make the 'cold' and 'jejune' Protestant service, by means of appropriate ornamentation and light- ing of churches, devotional music, solemn processions, and so forth, satisfy the religious requirements, hitherto so neglected, of the worshippers. Lay What the High Church was in England, the Presby- in Scot- terian Church was in Scotland. As regards the appoint- land. r. ^ ^ ^ •• pi • ^ ment of the clergy, the position ot the government in the former country was occupied in the latter by the lay- patron, who nominated the minister for approval by the congregation and induction by the presbytery, if found THE FREE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND. 199 unexceptionable in ' life, literature, and doctrine ' — tlie cttai>. nomination, however, being practically equivalent to ap- — ^-^^ — - pointing him, since the ' call ' ^ by the congregation had become a mere form. But the Church had never re- nounced the rights of the congregation, which, in earlier thues, it had cost her such struggles to secure ; and now the reawakening of a religious spirit, and partly also the stimulus given by the Eeform Bill to the demand for popular privileges, revived the old Puritanical desire for independence. The people preferred choosing their own pastors to having them forced upon them. Anti-patronage societiec sprang up in all directions ; and the 'non-intrusion' party, headed by Dr. Chalmers, became the ruling party in the Church. In 1834 the General Assembly passed an The Veto enactment — the Veto Act — which granted to the majority coii'ision ' of male heads of families, being communicants, the right Schurch of veto on the presentation. An unacceptable presenta- ^^'^ ^^^^^' tion by Lord Kinnoull first brought the matter before the law courts, when the Court of Session, and finally the House of Lords, gave judgment awarding the civil bene- fice to the presentee, and enjoining the presbytery to take him on trial. The latter stipulation, however, not being insisted on by the patron, the question rested for two years, until another case occurred, w^hich determined the spiritual rights of the congregation, and ended in the famous Disruption of 1843. The presbytery in this in- stance, under instructions from the General Assembly, rejected the nominee, who immediately obtained an inter- ' The document addressed to the presentee ran as follows : * We ■whose names are subscribed, etc have agreed, with the concur- rence of the reverend presbytery, to invite and call you to undertake the office of pastor amongst us, and we promise, on your accepting this our call, to give you all suitable respect and obedience in the Lord.' The ' call ' was intended to serve as evidence to the presbytery, prior to their examining the personal fitne.ss of the nominee, that a field existed for his ministry. Buchanan, ' Ten Years' Conflict,' i. 2ÖG. 200 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAP. XX. Disruption of 1843. The ' Free Cliurch.' Separatist principles in the United States. diet from the Court of Session against the substitution of another in his place. In this conflict of authority, the majority of the presbytery determined to obey the civil power, and admit the obnoxious candidate to the cure of souls. Thereupon they were suspended by the General Assembly ; the case was brought before Parliament by Lord Aberdeen, and a law was passed to smooth over the difficulty. But the offer of compromise came too late. To a memorial of the General Assembly (May 1842), embodying a petition for the abolition of patronage, and a ' claim, declaration, and protest anent the encroachments of the Court of Session on the spiritual jurisdiction of the Church,' the Government rephed, through Sir James Gra- ham, that the Veto Act was incompatible with the rights of patrons as secured by the statute ; that the General Assembly was guilty of unlawful aggression in resisting the judgments of the civil courts ; that the rights, claimed by the Church, were ' unreasonable,' and that the Govern- ment ' could not advise her Majesty to acquiesce in these demands.' On May 18, 1843, the final rupture occurred. The non-intrusion members of the General Assembly, to the number of 169, after recording their reasons in a protest, which declared that ' the jurisdiction assumed by the civil courts is inconsistent with Christian liberty and with the authority which the Head of the Church hath conferred on the Church alone,' pubhcly seceded from that body and from the Establishment, and founded the ' Free Church ' of Scotland, which soon numbered seven hundred congregations, renounced all connection with the State, maintained herself by the voluntary liberahty of her members, and carried into effect the presbyterian consti- tution. In the United States, the principle of separation of Church and State, as established by the constitution of the Union, led niore and more to the removal of those SEPARATTON QUALIFIED D^ AÄIEEICA. 201 confessional restrictions that still had lingered in the con- chap. stitntions of the individual States up to the end of the ' — -^—^ last century. It would be eiToneous, however, to attri- bute this change to religious indifference, as is the case with continental liberalism, which regards religion as superfluous in proportion as civilisation increases. No- where, on the contraiy, more than in America, is rehgion sodai in- felt to be a vast social power, in spite of its being split up religion! into an infinite number of sects. Even those who believe nothing, carefully guard against parading their unbelief, because irrehgion is considered a stigma. For the same reason, moreover, the separation of Church and State is far fi'om being an absolute one, such as is striven for in such diverse manners on the Continent. It exists in this sense, that the State is not permitted to intermeddle in Church matters, as long as the latter trespass not on the province of law and morality, and that it treats the indi- vidual confessions solely as private corporations, which themselves supply their own requirements. But with all this, the institutions of the United States absolutely pre- suppose the continuance of Christianity. And that, indeed, not only in its moral injunctions, by forbidding polygamy, adultery, obscene representations, contempt of religion or disturbance of Divine Service, but also in a positive sense. Thus the constitutions of most of the States refer in their preamble to God ; thus everywhere the observance of the Sabbath is protected by law, because any noise or drunkenness would disturb the devotional worship of the large majority. Thus religious fasts and thanksgiving days are appointed. The churches are not liable to taxation ; in most of the States the clergy are exempt also from military service, although not eligible for civil offices. A will made in favour of a society of atheists was annulled by the Supreme Court of Justice in Pennsylvania, on the groujid that the State-law recog- 202 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES, 1815-1848. CHAP, nised none but literary, charitable, and religious societies. >- — r— The form of civil oath is still retained ; and although those who, like the Quakers, object on religious grounds to invoke the Deity, are allowed to substitute a solemn declaration, still the latter, if falsely made, is equally pimishable as perjury. Nay, the Federal Government appoints chaplains for Congress, who open every sitting with prayers, and military chaplains for the army and navy ; and sailors, even when off duty, are enjoined to attend Divine Service. The reason of these seeming deviations from the anti-Church and State principle lies in the general conviction that a nation without religion must inevitably sink into moral and pohtical decadence. Just as little, on the other hand, have the practical Americans allowed that principle to prevent them from interfering in matters strictly ecclesiastical, when the un- restricted liberty conceded to the Church seemed, in their opinion, fraught with danger to the State. We shall revert to this, however, later on, as well as to the dark aspects of this separation of Church and State, as existing in the United States of America. 203 CHAPTEE XXI. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN REVOLUTION AND REACTION, 1848—1859. Effects of the February Revolution — Italy : Papal Constitution of 1848 — Pius IX. and the National Movement — His Flight to Gaeta — Causes of his Failure — Germany : Catholic Movement for Church Independence — Debate in the Franlcfort Assembly — Episcopal Demands — The Würz- burg Articles — The Bishops' Memorial to the German Governments — Question of State Interference in the Church — Constitutions of 1848 and 1850 — System of State-guardianship svu-rendered — Freedom of the Church in Prussia — Resistance to Clerical Demands in Bavaria — Conflicts in the Upper Rhenish Church Province — Ketteler's Appointment to See of Mayence — Memorial of the Five Bishops — Italy : Restoration of Pius IX. to Rome— Difficulties of the French Protectorate — Revival of Papal Misgovernment — France : The Ministry and the President — Napoleon's Letter to Colonel Ney — Lave of Instruction, 1850 — The Coup cVEtat— Alliance of Caesarism and the Hierarchy — ultramontane Intolerance — Italy : Absolutist Policy of Pius IX. and Antonelli — Influence of the Jesuits — Dogma of the Immaculate Conception — Progi-amme of the Civüiä Cattolica — Er.;^-^5Qd : Papal Aggression in 1850 — The Ecclesias- tical Titles Act— Spam : The Concordat of 1851— Holland : Alliance of Democrats and Ultramontanes — Re-establishment of the Hierarchy — Apathy of the Liberals — Austria : Imperial Patent of March 4, 1849 — Episcopal Assembly at Vienna — Demands of the Bishops — Reports of Count Thun — The Emperor surrenders to the Hierarchy — Concordat of 1855 — Final Overthrow of Liberalism — Germany (L^pper Rhenish Chm-ch Province) : Concordat with Wiirtemberg — and with Baden — General Advance of Catholicism — United States : Growing Political Power of the Catholic Clergy. The Febriiaiy Eevolution surprised the Catholic Church chap. no less than the Sovereigns. In France, however, it ^^-4— manifested no anti-Church character, because Catholicism had never been in intimate relations with the fallen government; and for this very reason the clergy were 204 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, easily consoled for the overthrow of Loiiis Pliilippe. The XXI death of the worthy archbishop of Paris on the barri- cades of June remained an isolated event : the priests blessed the trees of hberty, and found under the Ee- public at least a still greater scope for their influence than before.^ The constitution of November 4 guaranteed full hberty and equal protection to all religions ; and the ministers of all those which either then were, or should thereafter be recognised by law, were declared by Article VII. entitled to a salary by the State. At Eome, the movement, fostered by Pius IX., speedily outstripped his calculations.^ After constitutions had been promised in Piedmont, Tuscany, and Naples, the 1 The ' Moniteur ' of March 29 announced that a tree of liberty had been planted at Passy on the previoiis Sunday. A second tree had been planted in front of the Church of St. Vincent of Paul. The clergy had taken active part in the ceremony, and before the benedic- tion the priest had delivered a brief harangue, as follows : * Citizens, brothers, and friends, — Before planting this tree, symbol of the freedom which you have won and of which you make so noble a use, you have called religion to bless it. You are right. It was its Divine Founder, who on Calvary first taught the world the doctrines of liberty, equality, and fraternity. Since then the Gospel has not ceased to preach the enfranchisement of peoples. The pontiff who rules the Church, has he not been the first to proclaim it ft-om the height of the Vatican ? Your archbishop, has he not associated himself with this manifestation ? The sympathies of the clergy then are assured to you. The clergy springs from the people, belongs to the people ; its garment, with the exception of the colour, is the cloak of the people. . . . You know it, citizens, friends, and brothers ; a revolution which respects God and His religion is called to great destinies. May Heaven preserve it pure from all excess ! May the love of fraternity dwell in our midst ! Let us remain tmited in this sentiment, and our Eepublic will be im- perishable.' 2 ' The February revolution,' said the duke of Sermoneta, ' made us mad. We are naturally imitators, and therefore copy Avhat we see suc- ceed elsewhere; our agitators saw a set of French journalists turned into Ministers, and thought to try their own luck.' (Senior, ' Journals in France and Italy,' ii. 98.) TAPAL CONSTITUTION OF 1848. 205 pope was o])liged to do tlie same for his dominions. On ^-J^^^- Marcli 14, 184S, a])peared the ' Statu to Fondamentale ' — ^A-^-^ for tlie temporal government of the Papal States, the stitutiüC" preamble of which declared that, though the pope had f^^t ^'^' intended to reform old institutions in accordance with the spirit of the ajre, he would not form a lower estimate of his people, or place less confidence in them than had been shown by neighbouring sovereigns, and that he relied on their gratitude ' towards the Cliurch and to this Apostolic See, of which God has entrusted to us the inviolable and sovereign prerogatives.' At the same time, it was plainly- announced that ' in all points, which are not provided for by the present Act, and in all matters affecting the Catholic religion and its rule of morals,' he reserved for himself and his successors the full exercise of their sove- reign authority. The constitution itself was peculiar enough. The College of Cardinals, as the inseparable ad\asers of his Holiness, was to constitute a Senate, although they were by no means all Italians, still less Eomans. Next to, but inferior to this Senate, two de- liberative Chambers, the High Council and the Council of Deputies, were to be erected ; the former to be nomi- nated by the pope for life, the latter to be elected by the people. The hberty of the press was promised, but the censorsliip of the Church was to remain in force in all matters affecting religion. Even in quiet times such a constitution would be impossible ; still less could it prove an anchor of safety at such a stormy period of excite- ment. Add to this, that in Italy the national movement pjusIX.' was even stronojer than the political. Not only did national ~ 1 1 1 movement bodies of Koman volunteers, whose colours the pope ofitaiy. had to bless, march to the assistance of the Lombards against the Austrians, but even the papal general Durando crossed the Po without any orders from the Vatican. In vain did Pius IX. strive to allay this excite- 206 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, ment by writing to tlie Emperor of Austria, "and con- ^ — ^r-^— juring him to terminate a war in which he could never conquer the minds of his opponents. The Eomans, on the other hand, he exhorted to moderation. He dis- avowed General Durando, who in his proclamation had stated that the holy father had blessed the swords of his soldiers, ' destined, in union with those of Charles Albert, to exterminate the enemies of God and of Italy.' He de- clared, in an allocution, delivered in the Secret Consis- tory, on April 29, that he had ordered his troops to move to the frontier simply in defence of the integrity of the States of the Church ; if he was now forced into making war on Austria, he must proclaim clearly and openly, that such a measure was altogether alien from his counsels, inasmuch as, conformably to the function of his supreme apostolate, he ' embraced all kindreds, peoples, and nations with an equal solicitude of paternal affection.' In like manner, he declined all complicity in the schemes which, accoi'ding to Mazzini's ideas, should make him the head of an Italian federate Eepublic. This allocution, undoubtedly, under the circumstances of that time, was an act of no small courage ; but it deprived the pope of all his former popularity, and the conflict, in which he was involved with the revolution, was now rapidly hastening to a crisis. Not even Count Rossi (the former French ambassador and now minister of the pope), who fell by the dagger of an assassin, when he had scarcely assumed the reins of government, would have been able to arrest the avalanche in its Embarrass- desccut. Auarchy grew daily more rampant ; the so- Six. called Swiss guard, three-fourths of which consisted of Poles and Frenchmen, fraternised with the spreaders of sedition. The pope submitted to it all, but declared at the same time to the ambassadors that he was merely yielding to violence, in order to prevent more bloodshed ; FLIGHT OF riUS LX. TO GAETA. 207 and that none of liis concessions were binding on his ^^^l' conscience. All this time he was meditating flight. The ■ — -^ to Gaeta. Adriatic provinces, the headquarters of constitutional Liberalism, entreated him to accept their offer of asylum, and declared their readiness to put down the revolution, if he would promise to maintain the constitution. But Pius IX. preferred to look abroad for aid. First of all he applied, through the French ambassador d'Harcourt, for admission into France, or for such support as would enable him to re-establish tranquillity. Cavaignac im- mediately made arrangements for sending four men-of- war with 3,500 troops to Civita Vecchia, in order to pro- tect the personal liberty and security of the pope, and to offer to him France as a place of refuge ; a step which was approved by the National Assembly on November 30. The plan was, that Pius, with the assistance of the Bavarian His flight ambassador, Count Spaur, should escape to Gaeta, and from thence proceed to France. The escape succeeded : that same evening Harcourt sailed fi^om Civita Vecchia "with the Papal luggage, but on arriving at Gaeta found that his illustrious protege, who had had a brilhant welcome, felt himself thoroughly comfortable in the fortress, and preferred his residence there to a journey to France. From Gaeta Pius IX. protested against the Ministry of Mamiani forced upon him, and declared all its measures to be null and void ; insisting in particular that the sepa- ration between lay and ecclesiastical powers and attri- butes, as well as the appointment of laymen to superior offices, had been extorted from him. The efforts of Gioberti, the then Sardinian Minister, still to Avin him over to the project of an Italian federation of princes, and to prevent his invoking foreign aid, resulted in total failure. Thus ended the first and only attempt of a pope to govern in a liberal spirit. He had already shown con- 208 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, spicuously, that he entertained the highest opinion of his --^A-^— ecclesiastical position ; from an early period his aim had S^'poHücai been to exalt once more the power of the Holy See to its faüure. summit of mediaeval grandeur. As Farini strikingly ob- serves, ' he worshipped his own person as the represen- tative of God.' He had imagined not only that unlimited spiritual dominion might be compatible with a moderate enjoyment of political liberty by his subjects, but that the reforms he meditated would add a new lustre to the Papacy, and impose silence on its enemies, who were denouncing the government of the Papal States as neces- sarily evil in itself. Even had the progress of politics been peaceful, this idea would have proved an illusion ; but with the movement for nationahty the conflict became inevitable. Pius IX. had always been an enthusiastic Italian ; he considered his nation as the first in the world, and believed it to be under the special protection of Providence. Between 1860-70 he declared to a diplo- matist that Europe could never consent to the unity of Italy, because the latter would then become the first of the great Powers : even Gioberti's plan of a ' Primato ' he had not regarded with disfavour. But all these sympathies had to be stifled directly they came into conflict with his spiritual position in the Church. War in itself he abhorred, and deemed it utterly unper- missible for a pope : he feared, as he intimated in the allocution, a schism in Germany, when his troops were fighting with their fellow-Itahans against Austria. It was this conflict of his conscience with the demands of his people which led to the catastrophe. Assuredly he found it was no easy matter to invoke foreign aid, but all scruples had to vanish before the conviction, that this alone could really re-establish his temporal independence, the indispensable condition, as he believed, of his spiri- tual supremacy. CATHOLIC TARTY AT THE FRANKFORT ASSEMBLY. 209 Wliilst thus in iLuly tlie woi'k of Pius IX. fell to pieces, <"" >i'- iu Germany the clergy, having now recovered from their ^ ■-^— - first terror at the Eevolutiou, were striving zealously to protit by the situation. The most active of the Democrats did not understand how to take advantage of the newly- acquired liberty of union and of the press, with the same adroitness as the Ultramoatanes. Catholic clubs arose on every side, whose programme, while insisting on constitu- tional demands, held out foremost to the people the pro- spect of an alleviation of taxation, if they would choose good Catholics, such as even then were mustering in imposing numbers for the Assembly in the Church of St. Paul at Frankfort. The Catholic section, which now TheCatho- came forwari for the first time in a German parliamentary thVFraniT- assembly, presented a strange medley of heterogeneous biy'.tlis!'" elements, both social and political. It numbered among its ranks not only members of the ancient nobility, but such as had sprung from the humblest spheres of life — high Conservatives, and those who leaned towards democracy. On that account they were far from agree- ing on all questions ; but on the main point, namely, to procure the utmost privileges for the Catholic Church, and to \\^thdraw her from the supervision of the State, they were unanimous and conducted their operations with con- summate skill. They represented the Church as a purely private association, wliich had a right, like other private societies, not only to absolute independence, but to the pre- servation of its property and endowments. This position is defined most clearly in the address of Eadowitz to his electors of September 17, in which he explains the con- duct of his party with regard to the articles of the funda- mental law. The general freedom of belief and conscience could not be attacked. As for the Tyrol (where just then a petition of the masses had been presented to the Emperor for the maintenance of the unity of belief), her pecuhar VOL. n. p 210 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-18.^9. CHAP. XXI. Their de- mands for Church indepen- dence. Speech of Radowitz in their defence. relations, brought forward for discussion by the deputies, were perfectly recognised by the ' Union,' but it seemed neither advisable nor possible, to insist upon them as a common ground of objection. They accepted likewise the independent right of every subject to his creed, the voluntary character of every act connected with the Church, and the validity of civil marriage, carefully guard- ing, however, against the religious rite being made dependent on the civil act which preceded it. But their real wishes the party best explained in the resolutions intended to define concisely the 'just and necessary demands of the Catholic Church in Germany.' The terms of these resolutions were as follow : — 1. All religious societies now existing, or hereafter to be formed, are, as such, independent of the civil power ; they arrange and administer their affairs independently. 2. The appointment of Church officers is not subject to the co-operation of the civil power, the right of patron- age notwithstanding. 3. The publication of ecclesiastical decrees is subject only to the same restrictions, imposed on all other publica- tions. 4. To every religious society is guaranteed the posses- sion and free administration of its property as well as of its institutions destined for the purposes of worship, in- struction, or charity. These four resolutions, of which the first laid down the principle of the independence of the Church, whilst the three others insisted on the most essential corollaries of that principle, were defended by Eadowitz, their chief supporter, at the National Assembly. He pictured the untenable character of the State-Church system hitherto prevailing, and endeavoured to prove that in order to preserve the political regeneration of the country intact from sectarian controversy, it was necessary to proceed to a sepa- RADOWITZ DEFENDS THEIR CLAIMS. 211 ration of Church and State, in such a manner that the latter cttap. should not surrender its legitimate rights, nor the former ^-i^^ acquire any part of them. The State was simply to abandon the police system of prevention, and restrict itself to legal methods of repression. The liberty of the Church was not more liable to abuse than the liberty of tlie press, or of the right of union, which no one dreamed any longer of contesting. Equally baseless was the fear that an independent Catholic Church would endanger Protestantism. If the former was trying by all lawful methods to propagate her convictions, by all means let the Evangelical Churches do the same ; in Belgium no complaints were heard from the Protestants as to the en- croachments of Catholicism. It was sought to scare them with the threat that the independence of the Church would open the door for the re-admission of the Jesuits into Germany. That fear had no foundation : the Order had been only a stop-gap for the temporary objects of the sixteenth century. For Germany its occupation was gone ; the constitutional organs of the Church, which alone were essential to her existence, sufficed completely for her wants. ' Whatever advantage,' he said, ' we might expect for the Catholic Church of Germany from the Order of the Jesuits, would be wholly incommensurate with the profound dis- turbances and dangers which their presence must neces- sarily entail. Nay, although we should be obliged to declare against the motion, wliich would attack the general liberty of the Church and of union, by excludin^^ by law any Order, nevertheless if from any quarter we should be met with the proposal to introduce the Order of the Jesuits into German territory, we — I mean the Catholic members sitting among you — would unite in the higher interests of the Catholic Church to raise our voice with no uncertain sound against the execution of such a scheme.' p2 212 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP. No doubt Eadowitz had full faith in the practical value ' — <— ' of these propositions ; but how strikingly has that been dis- proved by history and by the subsequent course of develop- ment, which would have dragged the noble but ideological politician into the same conflict into which Montalembert and all the so-called liberal Catholics had fallen. But how- ever much the majority in the Paulskirche were infatuated with the word Liberty, they were uuable, in Eadowitz's opinion, to rise superior to past prejudices, in contemplating the relations of the Church to the State. The resolutions of the Catholic section received only 99 out of 45G votes ; and so effectual proved at least the warnings of single clear- sighted men, that in Article V. of the fundamental law, the liberty of all religious societies ' to arrange and administer their affairs independently,' was qualified by the addition, ' subject to the general laws of the State.' The This result of the debate by no means satisfied the convoked Grcrman bishops, whose instructions guided the action of l^J^'f the Cathohc section in the Parliament at Frankfort. The Coiognr.^ archbishop of Cologne, Johann von Geissel, who already in May had been deliberating with his suffragans as to the attitude they should adopt towards the movement, took the initiative, by explaining to his colleagues in a Memorial the necessity of a Synodal Assembly. The German Church, he said, once so distinguished for her lustre and influence, had sunk into her grave with the fall of the Empire, and with the disintegration of the nation had become, as it were, a ' mere adscriptus glehce, and vassal of the State.' The re- establishment of political unity, he argued, must terminate also the dismemberment of the National Church, and restore her ancient dignity. That object could only be attained by a meeting of all the bishops. Such a meeting would not only make a powerful impression on public opinion as the first vital symptom of a re-awakening consciousness, on the part of the Church, of her former DEMANDS OF THE BISHOPS. 213 unity and greatness, but would be charged with the ^^xi^' especial duty of considering her new relations with the " — -' — ' State. The bureaucratic strait -lacing of the Church was no longer to be endured, but democracy was her deadliest enemy. The vote at Frankfort had proved uufavourable, nor was anything better to be expected from the Prussian Parliament at Berlin (Geissel himself was one of its members). The Church thereforij must help herself, and for that purpose the bishops would have to come to an understanding with each other about the measures to be taken, to register, as grandly as possible, the solemn asser- tion of her unity, and of her connection with the Eoman See, the ' articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesice.' The bishops obeyed this summons, and met at '^y^, Würzburg on October 22, 1848. After some prelimi- Articles, nary discussions they agreed on ürty-two articles, accom- panied with a series of agreements, not intended to be made public. The most important resolutions were the following : — 3, 4. Every exercise of the Placet by the State with respect to Church offices is an injury to the liberty of the Church. Nevertheless, whenever the Placet is supported by Concordats or agreements valid in law, it shall be re- spected provisionally. 7. The bishops now assembled assert their inalienable right to maintain free communication with the Apostolic See, the clergy, and the people ; as well as to promulgate all Papal and Episcopal ordinances and Pastoral letters without the Placet of the Sovereign. 8. The doctrine of the so-called appellatio tanquam ah abusu is essentially opposed to the inahenable right of the Catholic Church to independent legislation and juris- diction in all ecclesiastical affiiirs. 9. No servant of the Church can with a good con- science have recourse to such an appellatio. 214 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. Edaca- tional demands of the bishops. 11. For the Cliurcli herself to effect a separation from the State, is not recognised as a task incumbent upon her ; but if the State should repudiate the alliance, the Church, in that case, without approving of the step, will tolerate what she cannot prevent ; she will not, however, on her part sever the ties of union, knit by herself and with the mutual concurrence of both parties, unless the duty of self-preservation should command it to be done. For the fulfilment of her Divine mission the Catholic Church claims nothing but the fullest liberty and inde- pendence, no matter what form the Government of the State may assume.^ A scries of Articles are devoted to the influence of the Church over education. Here indeed the bishops could not simply dictate their terms, since the State had the schools for the most part in its hands ; but they pointed out tlie main objects to be striven for, namely to make in- struction the monopoly, as far as possible, of the priests. 19. The bishops will urge and exhort all Catholic communities not to accept any new teacher, not accre- dited by the Church, as qualified to impart religious in- struction. 21. The Catholic teachers are to bind themselves to be guided entirely by the directions of their ecclesiastical superiors in the education of the young. 22. No one can give Catholic instruction in any educational institution whatsoever, who has not been authorised for that purpose by the Church. 23. 24. The bishops alone determine the books for ' Observe the masterly skill with which this Article is drawn iip. No longer is a separation of the Chnrch from the State demanded, as in the church of St. Paul. The bishops gladly accept the existing pro- tection, but recognise corresponding obligations only in so far as they conflict in no way with the elastic idea of self-preservation, reserving, however, in every case absolute liberty of action. THE WÜRZBURG ARTICLES. 215 religious instruction within tlieir dioceses. They direct chap. xxr. and superintend the rehgious instruction in all public institutions for education. 25. The Church claims, in the widest possible sense, the liberty of doctrine and instruction, as well as the es- tablishment and direction of her own institutions for education and instruction. 28. The bishops assert their inalienable right to educate the clergy according to canonical precepts, to establish freely all the necessary institutions and semi- naries for that pui'pose, to direct those that exist, to administer their property, to appoint and to dismiss the principals and teachers. 30. The bishops alone are entitled to examine the merits, and conduct the appointment, of all candidates for office in the Church. 31. Any participation by the State in the examina- tions is an essential curtailment of the liberty of the Church. 82. The bishops demand the free administration of cimrch all Church property according to canonical rule. andjuris- 33. They do not renounce the right of claiming as hitherto the assistance of the secular power. 34. Every ecclesiastic who deserts the Church shall be dealt with according to canonical procedure, and a sententia judicis shall be decreed ; but it is left to every bishop to pubhsh this sentence or not. 37. Members of other sects who have forsaken the Catholic Communion have no claim to the property of the Catholic Church, no matter whether single individuals or even whole communities have thus seceded. Members of sects like the following, viz., German-Catholics, Eon- geanians, the Friends of Light, are wholly inadmissible. Articles 38 — 42 relate to the holding of Diocesan Diocesan synods for the purpose of quickening piety in the clergy '''"" ** 216 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP. XXI. Scheme of a National Council. Memorial of the bishops to the Ger- man Govern- ments. and people, and restoring cburcli-discipline, of suppress- ing abuses, of issuing instructions in cases of difficulty, of publishing papal constitutions ; the right of decision at such synods being vested solely in the bishop. The results of each synod are to be communicated to all the bishops by the Metropolitans. 44. The episcopate declares, that popular missions are at the present time most desirable, in order to le- awaken the dormant life of the Church. 45. In view of the state of affairs in Germany, the bishops anxiously desire to hold a German National Council. For that purpose they propose to ask the consent of the Pope, and afterwards to establish at Eome a common ' Agency ' for the German bishoprics ; the Pope to be requested to confer upon the agent the rank of a Eoman Prelate, Though neither National Council nor Agency came to pass, since Eome, as is well known, does not love such national Church institutions ; though even the Diocesan synods remained for the most part on paper, because all deliberations of that kind bear within themselves dan- gerous germs of reform ; yet these resolutions cannot be studied too closely, for they contain the whole programme of the Catholic policy of restoration for the next twenty years ; and it was only a well-merited reward, when their intellectual author. Archbishop Geissel,was raised in 1850 to the dignity of Cardinal. Together wth these resolutions the bishops issued a Memorial, addressed to the German Governments, which appears to have been framed with uncommon skill to fit with their position at the time. It repudiates all sympathy with anarchical designs, but demands for the Church all tliat is contained in the universal call for freedom from administrative guardianship. The Church is all the more entitled to claim her share of the promises EPISCOPAL MEMORLVL TO THE GOVERNMENT. 217 made by the princes to their people, since the oft-heard chap. talk of mistaken liberty had awakened in her only the .^^!l_- desire, amid the contest of rude violence with thrones and constitutions, to devote all her energies to her proper mission, namely, to act as guardian of the faith and of morals, which have their root in the faith. Eighteen centuries showed that it was she alone, firmly resting on the rock which no violence of storms can shake, who had civilised and educated nations, who had nursed art and science, had endeavoured to knit together sovereigns and their subjects by the ties of justice, who had opened to public and private need the inexhaustible fountain of her compassion, and tlius had known how to establish order and liberty in all relations of civil life upon the only true foundation of the faith. With regard to the realisation of the demand for ecclesiastical hberty, the bishops will respect the treaties concluded with the Holy See; but whenever they should prove to be hindrances to the life of the Church, they will address themselves to the Pope in order to invoke his mediation for the removal of such obstacles. But where neither treaties exist, nor ordin- ances of ecclesiastical law, they will feel themselves obliged to assert the freedom and independence of the Church in the regulation and administration of her affairs. ' To this her original principle she will revert, without fear or hesitation, should her position in the State cease to be that of a public, privileged corporation. Towards those who profess other doctrines of faith, the Church has always asserted and will always assert the principle, that she embraces all mankind with equal love, and therefore even those who do not belong to her; that she at all times observes that equal full measure of love and justice, ichich secures civil peace between the members of different confessions (!) without, however, favouring an indiflerent- ism, destructive at once of all religion, or a common 218 THE CATHOLIC CIIURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, system of worship in opposition to her ordinances.' Fore- ' — • — -' most among tlie rights of the Church is the divine riglit of imparting doctrine and education to mankind ; and from this it follows, that she should have the power freely to determine the means requisite for that purpose, and to have entirely in her hands the training and discipline of those who carry on her work of education. This is to be effected in conformity with the resolutions ; and above all they claim the most complete hberty of union with respect to the Orders, Congregations, etc., and likewise the independent administration of the property of the Catholic Church, and of her charitable foundations. The sole legal rights attaching to this property are vested in the community of the one united Catholic Church. In conclusion a solemn protest is recorded against the odious suggestion, that the necessary connection of the bishops with the Holy Father is un-German and dangerous, whereas that same connection is inseparable from the idea of the Catholic Church. Skilful One cannot sufficiently admire the skill in the com- tionVthe position of this Memorial. On the one hand it claims the most absolute liberty and independence for the Church, giving the most comforting assurances of her toleration, in the teeth, however, of all historical experience. But within the Church the bishops ask only liberty for them- selves ; they want really to retain the absolute power over their subordinate clergy and their flocks. On the other hand, to the shaken and trembling Governments it holds up the Catholic Church as the only mainstay against re- volution. And so deeply were those Governments then absorbed in political questions, that not one of them pro- tested against this programme of the bishops, so fraught with importance for the future. Hand in hand with these proceedings went the most prolific exercise of the newly- acquired right of union. Catholic associations were formed QUESTION OF STATE INTERFEEENCE. 219 on all sides, under the direction of the clergy, and soon chap. numbered their members by thousands, who asserted the — ^^^ absolute liberty and independence of the Church, and treated all political as well as social questions from an exclusively ecclesiastical point of view. After the shipwreck of the National movement, it be- Question of came a question of especial importance, what position the ference^r' different Governments should assume towards the de- affaTrTof mands of the Catliolic Church.i Already before the '^'^^''''^' debate at Frankfort on the fundamental law, the Com- mission on the Constitution, appointed by the Prussian Parliament, had proposed in their draft to extend to all religious societies the free and independent manage- ment of their internal affah's and the administration of their property, without setting up any rule to determine what those internal affairs actually were. The Govern- ment objected, that language so general would open up a dangerous conflict between Church and State ; that there existed a negative right against every religious society — a right, in other words, so far to superintend the Church as not to tolerate transgressions in the independent management of its affairs — which must be conceded to the State, unless it should be ruled over in its own house ; and that nothing but the positive interference of the State in the internal affairs of the Church should be recognised as inadmissible. In answer to this the Cathohcs, who were numerously represented on the Commission, insisted that precisely because the separation of the internal and external affairs of the Church was so difficult, the autonomy of religious societies should be extended to the latter. Finally they agreed simply to accept the article of the * Compare Richter, * Die Entwicklung des Verhältnisses zwischen dem Staate und der Katholischen Kirche in Preussen seit der Ver- fassungs-Urkunde vom 5 Dec. 1848.' (Dove, ' Zeitschrift für Kir- cheurecht,' i. p. 100 seq.) 220 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP. Frankfort fundamental law : ' Every religious society ' — ^,— ' regulates and administers its affairs independently,' with- out, however, its addition : ' but remains subject to the general laws of the State.' Thus worded, with the further amendment only, that instead of ' every religious society ' Constitu- was inserted ' the Evangelical and the Eoman Catholic Sand Church, as well as every other religious society' (§ 12), ^^^^' the article was embodied in the Constitutional Charter of December 5, 1848, as well as into the Definitive Charter of January 31, 1850. In harmony with this principle were the enactments which followed, the one granting free com- munication between religious societies and their superiors, the other relating to the promulgation of Church decrees. With regard to the right, hitherto vested in the State, of nominating, electing, or confirming to all appointments in the Church, Article XV. of the Constitution of 1848 simply declared it abohshed, whereas the Constitution of 1850 ' qualified its exercise by the proviso ' so far as it properly appertains to the State and does not rest on patronage or special legal privileges.' In this manner the co-operation of the Government in the election of bisho[)s was secured in conformity with the agreements made in 1821 and 1841 with Eome. With respect to Churcli patronage, the project of the National Assembly had simply proposed its abolition : both constitutions merely declared that a special law should be issued to regulate it, and prescribe the conditions under which its abolition was to be effected. With regard to the question of marriage, the Constitution of 1848 determined (§ 16), that its legal validity should depend on its being concluded before the civil officers appointed for that purpose, and that the religious cere- mony should only be performed after the completion of the civil contract. The Constitution of 1850 merely held out, in general terms, a prospect of legislation on civil marriage. As to religious instruction in the national THE CHARTERS OF 1848 AND 1850. 221 schools, the charter of 1848 declared, that it should be chap. ' superintended and controlled ' by the religious societies - — ^r^-- of the locality (§ 21). These words the charter of 1850 altered into ' conducted,' adding, as a further principle, the provision, that the Christian religion should be made the basis of all arrangements connected with the exercise of religion, without any detriment to religious liberty. It was obvious that principles, so general and com- prehensive, required the formal sanction of a law, to be issued either by the State alone, or in concert with the Churches concerned. But the former alternative was not realised, and the latter, which had in fact been contemplated, was frustrated by the declaration of the Prussian bishops.^ that they had already assumed the rights conceded to the Catholic Church, and were pre- pared to resist 'any attempt to circumscribe them anew by any so-called explanatory additions.' More- over, they had already at an earlier stage (July 1849) protested against all still remaining restrictions ' as con- trary to the rights of the Church, inherent in her by virtue of her divine foundation, and therefore inalienable.' The Government simply acquiesced, and with regard to Conces- other articles of the Constitution advantageous to the Govert-*^^ Church, showed a disposition to meet the bishops half- "^'^*" w^ay in their interpretations. Thus with Article XVII. in particular, relating to religious societies, the formation of which was permitted by the general right of union, but which could only obtain corporate privileges by legal enactment, those privileges were now repeatedly granted by a cabinet order. Again the right of union, conceded formally alone to Prussians (Art. XVIII. ), was now volun- tarily extended to foreign members of religious societies. Thus was broken the former system of State guardian- The state ship resting on the Landrecht. Not only did the State itegTa?" surrender its direction of the Church, but, as in Belgium, SrÄch. 222 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, the right of supervision. Nevertheless, as in that country « — r~^ so in Germany, the principle of a separation of Church and State was by no means carried out consistently ; for the State, while retaining no longer any influence over the training^ and appointments of the clergy (saving those to bishoprics), nevertheless, by transferring to them the con- duct of religious instruction, and the inspection of schools — chiefly by ecclesiastics — virtually surrendered the entire management of education in the national schools. The Church was left to administer freely not only her own property, but ' all funds and endowments of institutions and foundations devoted to the purposes of her worship, of instruction, and of benevolence ' (Art. XVII.). The promised law on civil marriage never made its appearance, and consequently all subjects were left to fulfil the con- ditions under which alone the Church performed the nuptial rite. Although the clergy no longer enjoyed any jurisdiction in secular affairs, the civil courts were directed to comply with the requisitions of the ecclesias- tical tribunals in questions of Church discipline and marriage. To put down pulpit declamations impugning the rights of the civil power, or of other confessions, there remained only the coercive weapons given by the law of the Church uuion. lu a word, the Catholic Cliurch enjoyed in in Prussia. ^Tw^^^?,, after 1850, all the advantages of a Free Church, without her burdens and drawbacks. Not only had all former restrictions been removed, but she retained also all the prerogatives which attach to a privileged ^ A ministerial decree of the 28th February, 1851, declared ex- pressly that the education of an ecclesiastic in a foreign country does not exclude him from any office, provided he is possessed of civil rights. The bishop is empowered in like manner to allow the cure of souls to foreign ecclesiastics wherever they possess a fixed residence in the country. Those who assist with exercises, missions, &c. . . . shall not be interfered with, provided they keep within the common law. Jesuits alone, or such ecclesiastics as have studied in their colleges, require a special ministerial permission for their appointment. EPISCOPAL DEMANDS IN BAVARIA. 223 Church, and which she amply used for her advantage chap. amidst the constant overtures of the Government. No < — r-^ wonder, therefore, that she was fully satisfied with her new position, or that her power visibly increased, as was inevitable, during the next twenty years. In Bavaria the bishops reverted consistently to their Episcopal former demand for the abrogation of the edict on religion, Bavaria! ^ as stultifying the Concordat, and an edict which they had never recognised, nor ever would recognise. They demanded in particular the abolition of the Placet and of the Recursus ad principem. They obtained, it is true, many practical concessions, the Government promising to interpret doubtful clauses of the Edict as far as possible in the sense of the Concordat ; granting beforehand the Placet for the proclamations of the Jubilee and Indul- gences ; discontinuing the despatch of Commissaries at the election of monastic superiors ; promising, at the appointment of teachers of religion, to ascertain the opinion of the bishops immediately concerned ; and con- ceding to the episcopate the right of inspection over all religious instruction.^ But with respect to the actual rights of State supremacy, Maximilian II. remained in- flexible, and faithful to the doctrine imbibed from Dahl- mann, that the clergy must not be allowed to exercise any dominion in the State.^ In this policy he was vigorously supported by the Second Chamber ; and the bishops ^ Eoyal decree on the ex'jcution of the Concordat. (' State Archives,' xxiii. p. 173.) 2 A zealous pupil of Dahlmann, discontented with the Bavarian policy, and not on good terms with his father, he nursed wirhin hiin^ when Crown Prince, the thought of a total rupture with his Church. Dahlmann opposed this, and showed him how seriously he would in- jure, by so doing, the good cause of the Bavarian people. ' I keep only to the one side of the matter. The clergy must never be allowed to have any dominion in the State, and I urge upon him on all sides how such dominion would destroy religion and the State.' (Springer, 'Dahlmann's Leben,' vol. i. p. 269.) 224 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, yielded to what was inevitable. Nevertheless the Ultra- XXI montane party made great progress in Bavaria during this period. The Jesuits themselves, being excluded from the kingdom, successfully directed their influence to filling the episcopal sees and the theological chairs with pupils of the ' Collegium Germanicum ' at Eome. When Koch, the Minister of PubUc Worship, refused to give a vacant professorship to a man of this kuid, he was denounced to the king in a pamphlet ' Zur Belehrung für Könige ' (1866). The papal nuncio enjoined the bishops to promote Ultramontane priests, and compelled them to give preference to those who had been educated at Eome. By this means the clergy gradually became Ultramon- tane ; these men sent secret reports on their brethren, the bishops, and influential laymen to Eome ; they established journals and unions, and introduced missions into the country for the propagation of their doctrines. Conflicts in Meauwhilc in the Upper-Ehenish Province of the Pi^eSsh^"^' Churcli matters came to serious conflicts. The soul of these was the new bishop of Mayence, William Emanuel, Baron Von Ketteler. Ever since his entry into the Church he had devoted himself with fearless energy to her interests. His first act of boldness, and that at the worst period of revolution, was to conduct a procession of the Corpus Christi from Berlin to Spandau. At the graves of Lichnowsky and Auerswald he branded the sentiments fi^om which that cowardly murder had pro- ceeded. Such a man seemed to the Curia the very one desirable for sweeping out the old Febronian leaven still remaining in the Upper-Elienish Province of the Church, and for putting an end to the Kirchen-Pragmatik of the governments. An opportunity was soon presented by the occurrence of a vacancy in the see of Mayence. Leopold Schmid of Giessen, though a distinguished pro- fessor of theology, and elected in canonical form by the Church Province. KETTELER'S PROCEEDINGS AT MAYENCE. 225 Cathedral Chapter of that town, was refused nevertheless ctiap. the papal confirmation ; and in open violation of canonical --^^r— ' rules, and by virtue of an illegal d(3volution, the appoint- ment was conferred upon Ketteler, who occupied the aiicint-^ second place in the list of candidates proposed by the "ee"f'^ Chapter.^ The Government looked on without stirring. Fayence. When all was over, indeed, tliey issued a lame protest against the proceeding, as one that departed from all pre- vious agreements, and could not be allowed to serve as a precedent. But, nevertheless, they accepted the bishop thus foisted upon them. Ketteler's first act was to restore the decayed seminary for priests at Mayence ; attendance at which was made compulsory on all students of theology, the result being to cripple hopelessly the theological faculty at Giessen. Next he plainly declared to the Government that the cancelling of the relations hitherto existing between Church and State in the Grand-duchy was the essential condition of a good understanding for the future. To the Minister who pointed out that the legal s^^^m-s, ashitlierto, had existed undisputed, he replied with the remark that the Pope had always protested against the false principles of the Pragmatik ; and that if the Church had suffered for twenty years, her patience must not be construed as assent ; and he began forthwith to exercise a jurisdiction wholly unrecognised by the Government. Still more im- portant, however, became his leadership of the campaign undertaken in common by the bishops of the province. Tlie old archbishop of Freiburg, who hitherto had been in ill odour enough at Eome as a former subscriber to the protest of the Constance Chapter against the persecution of Wessenberg, submitted entirely to the guidance of his younger and more bellicose suffragan, who found further ' For the details of this unworthy proceeding see Friedberg, * Bischofswahlen,' vol. i. p. 29G sqq. VOL. II. Q 226 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. companions in sentiment in the bishops of Eottenburg, Fulda, and Limburg. These five prelates now addressed, in March 1851, a memorial to the Governments concerned, peremptorily demanding full liberty for the Cathohc Church.^ The IJpper-Ehenish bishops, they declared, had borne the large curtailment of their most important privileges with a patience scarcely paralleled in the earlier history of the Church. But it had become evident, that since the Church in Germany had been robbed of those rights due to her by divine authority, the generation now growing up was losing also their belief in the Church as a divine institution ■ — a belief required, if only for the purpose of ensuring civil order. The question, therefore, was not the removal of single anomalies, but the abolition of a whole system, the continuance of which was bound to bring about the total ruin of the Chiurch in the Province. The bishops, accordingly, demanded, as necessary for the fulfilment of her mission by the Church, her absolute liberty, and the abrogation of all laws curtailing that hberty, especially the recursus ad principem, as involving resistance to her lawful authority. They declared, further, that every Christian State was bound in duty to provide the Catholic Church with the means essential for the attainment of her objects. They claimed a fixed endowment, to be derived from the property of the sequestrated chapters, abbeys, and rehgious houses, together with the free ad- ministration of this fund. This step of the bishops was a challenge sufficiently bold to rouse the difierent Governments to deliberate in * Extract from memorial in * Staatsarchiv,' xxiii. pp. 178, 180 sqq. Compare 'Der christliche Staat und die bischöfliche Denkschriften.' Heidelberg, 1852. A feeble reply to this work has been published under the title of ' Der paritätische Staat und die Forderungen der Bischöfe der oberrh. K. Prov.' Mainz, 1852. THE UPPER-RHENISH BISHOPS. 227 common on counter-measures of repression. They agreed, chap. in consequence, on an Ordinance, wliich, while altering on > .^^^-^ many points the Pragmatik, adhered firmly to the Placet for all regulations not affecting the purely internal ad- ministration of the Church, as well as for all papal decrees, and for synods and their resolutions. To this the bishops replied in a protest, that, in obedience to the Apostolic injunction they 'must obey God rather than man.' They were resolved to respect, as their official rule of conduct, the Catholic dogma only, and the constitu- tional law of their holy Church, which was based there- upon, and firmly to resist all regulations hitherto put in force by the Governments. The latter met this answer with a decided repulse. They declared that open resist- ance of this kind could not be reconciled with the laws of the country, which the bishops had sworn to obey, and that eventually they would make their power felt in the proper quarter. The bishops, however, stood firmly to their ground, and simply persevered as they had begun. The Governments, one after another, abandoned their position, and commenced separate negotiations with Eome, which dragged on for years ; while further conflicts with the bishops were avoided by repeated concessions on the part of the civil authorities. Before entering, however, on a consideration of the Forei-n Concordats, in which this policy found its preliminary fnvoked'^by expression, it is necessary briefly to sketch the altered n^^^'^'' position of affairs, created by the restoration of the tem- poral power of the Papacy. Whilst, in the absence of Pius IX. at Gaeta, a democratic republic was being orga- nised at Eome, a resolution of the Consistory of Cardinals (Feb. 7, 1849) had invoked the assistance of France, Austria, Spain, and Xaples, for the re-establishment of the temporal sovereignty, indispensable for maintaining the liberty and independence of the Pope, as the head of the Q 2 • 228 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP. XXI. Oudinot's expedition to Kome. Catholic Church. After the defeat of Piedmont at Novara (March 23), it was demanded further that the Pope should be conducted back as absolute prince, without any condition being attached to his restoration. This demand, however, created difficulties. France wislied that the Pope should give certain guarantees respecting the future exer- cise of his temporal rule. In this Prince Schwarzenberg declined to join, urging that by interfering in the internal affairs of the Papal States, they would involve themselves in inextricable difficulties ; and he prepared to intervene with Naples and Spain. Such a solution, however, the French Government would not allow. They proposed and received a credit from the National Assembly for an expedition which, as they promised, should only serve to prevent Austrian aggression and secure the independence of Italy. On April 25, General Oudinot landed with 10,000 men at Civita Vecchia, and demanded the sur- render of Rome, accompanying his demand with the assurance, that France in no way arrogated to herself the right to regulate interests ' which are essentially those of the Roman people, but are bound up with those of the whole Christian world.' De Tocqueville, who had mean- while assumed the Mnistry of Foreign Affairs, demanded, tlirough the French ambassador at Gaeta, a recognition of the general principles, which the Pope had proclaimed in his ' Statuto ' of March 14, 1848 ; — namely, a reorga- nisation of the judicial system, a code of ci\^l law, elec- tive municipal councils, a ' Consulta ' which should have a final vote in all questions of taxation, and finally the secularisation of the administration. But the latest experiences of Pius IX, had been the turning-point of his mind. He who had approached his people so lovingly, had been rewarded by them with base ingratitude. His advisers, one and all, were telling him that he was only reaping the consequences of his mistakes ; that stubborn FRENCH EXPEDITION TO ROIME. 229 resistance to reform was the first condition of the stabihty chap. of his temporal power. He abjured his liberal heresies, - - ^. '-- and from that day to tliis, has never again indulged in any SusfiTf '^ exhibitions of the weakness of reform. M. de Courcelles '•eforms. therefore could obtain nothing : Antonelli complained of interference in the internal administration, and tlie Pope replied, that he was the same at Gaeta as at Eome ; that France might do as she pleased ; but that to a real amnesty he would never even listen. The ambassador came to Eome empty-handed, and General Oudinot could offer to the city, which had hitherto resisted his arms, no other terms of capitulation but this, that she should place herself ' sous la protection et les principes liberaux de la Eepublique Fran9aise.' These terms the municipality declined : the French marched in witliout any stipulations at all, and the Pope also was unconditionally restored. His res- T T T • Till torationto Oudinot was content with declarmg that he w^ould not Rome, permit any executions.^ To the numerous persons not included in the amnesty he afforded means of escape, and himself assumed the command-in-chief. The French Ministry intended to publish a protest in The French the ' Moniteur,' setting forth the demands of France and how she had been treated, and thereupon to withdraw her troops from Eome. To have done this, indeed, would merely have caused the surrender of the city to the Austrians, and it was plain enough that the President would never submit to such a result. He endeavoured to save his position towards the liberal party by a high- flown letter to Colonel Ney (August 18, 1849), in f^^^^\^f^ which he declared, that France had not gone to Eome in order to crush Itahan liberty, but to protect it against its own excesses and to give it a sure foundation, by bringing ' Meanwhile these were going on with loose regard to law in the Northern provinces occupied by the Austrians. Ministry and the President. Coliinel Ney. 230 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, back to the Papal throne a sovereign who had been the * — ^^— ' jBrst to place himself at the head of all truly useful re- forms. He understood the temporal power of the Pope to mean : a general amnesty, administration by lay offi- cials, the Code Napoleon, and a liberal Government. French armies had once destroyed the abuses of feudaHsra ; it should not be said, that in 1849 a French army had left behind it opposite results. This note incensed the Vatican extremely, but officially it was completely ignored,^ and remained a dead letter. The Pope gave the French not a word of tlianks for their assistance, which cost him nothing. He would much rather have seen the Austrians at Eome, although he had to maintain them in the Legations, because he trusted their system, whereas he was ever in fear of a revolution from Paris, which might possibly imperil once more his existence. At first there was again the promise of some reforms, but in point of fact the old ecclesiastical misrule was restored, and made doubly worse by the revenge which priestly domination sought to take for the past.^ To the French Government, whose position had been * In return, Antonelli issued from Portici a circular on the 8th September to the governors of the provinces, disputing the authenticity of the note, or, at all events, its official character. ' A note, nominally- addressed by the President of the French Republic to Colonel Ney, commanding at Rome, has filled with joy the hearts of the rebellious and of the sworn enemies of the Papal Government, insomuch that these, though thinly scattered, meditate imposing onerous conditions upon His Holiness. The anarchical party lifts once more its head, and hopes to retrieve its past defeats : but in this note it is deceived. Although circulated by several newspapers, it is merely the result of a private correspondence, and has no sort of official character whatever. Nay, it was read with the greatest displeasure by the French commandant at Rome,' &c. . • . 2 The documents proving the cruel treatment of all persons sus- pected in politics are found in the ' Dccumenti Officiali,' published in 1860 by the provisional government of the Legations, on the Papal Government there from 1850-59. NEW EDUCATION LAW IN FRANCE. 231 made all the more awkward by this result, since the chap. XXI. President had published his letter witliout the knowledge of the Ministers, nothing finally remained but to put a good face on a bad matter, especially as in the new Legis- lative Assembly they were dependent on the support of the ultramontane party and the Government. The President, meanwhile, to soften their indignation at his letter to Ney, offered them a pledge of his kindly disposi- tion in the Education Bill, introduced in January 1850. In the debates on this measure, it was made abundantly Education clear that by the Catholic party hberty of instruction had 15, isoo. been acquiesced in simply as a weapon against the July Government. The bourgeoisie had revolted altogether from freethinking after the Sociahst Eevolution of 1848, just as the nobility had done so after 1791. The vast majority of the propertied classes were unanimous on this point, that nothing but rehgious education could effec- tually tame the revolutionary spirit of the masses. The Liberals now, under the guidance of Thiers and Cousin, offered large concessions to the Catholics. The Uni- versity still continued to enjoy a formal monopoly in the conduct of instruction,^ but clerical influence was pre- dominant in that quarter. The Conseil Superieur de V Instruction Publique had counted hitherto a number of members who were chosen by the Council of State, the University, and the Supreme Court of Justice. It was ^ The University had been founded by Napoleon in 1808 as a body ' exclusively charged with public instruction and education throiighout the empire.' The decree of March 17, which founded it, provided that * no school or establishment of any kind can be formed " hors de I'uni- versite," and without the authorisation of its chief.' This excepted only the seminaries for the special training of the clergy, which were left under episcopal control. ' L'Universite sous Napoleon,' said M. Royer-Collard, ' n'avait ete que le gouvemement applique ä la direction imiverselle de I'instruction publique.' (Speech of M. Ville- main, 'Ann. Historique,' 1844.) 232 THE CATHOLIC CIIUECH, 1848-1859. CHAP, now enacted that all its members should be chosen by ^ — r-^— ' the Minister of Public Worship, subject in each case to revocation by the President and the Cabinet, and that the Council should include four bishops. Especially important, however, was the article which released the communes from their obligation to establish and support elementary schools,^ provided gratuitous instruction was supplied from other sources; a stipulation which, coupled with the further one, that the qualification of priestly office should suffice to dispense with the examination by the State, tended inevitably to concentrate the national education in the hands of the clergy.^ Nevertheless, the clergy refused to trust the President, on account of his revolutionary antecedents. Eome, above all, could not forget, and that intelligibly enough, his share in the insurrection of 1831, and knew perfectly well that under Cavaignac he had resisted tlie proposed ' Under M. Guizot's law of June 28, 1833, every commune was bound to maintain at least one elementary school. If the revenues of the commune were insufficient, the department had to provide them ; if the latter could not, the deficit was to be supplied by the State. 2 Montalembert in his essay, ' L'Espagne et la Liberte ' (' Biblio- theqiie Universelle et Revu.e Suisse,' April 1876, p. 639), written shortly before his death, but published posthumously, acknowledges his mistake. Speaking of the sitting of the Assembly on February 24, 1850, in which *avec son illustre ami et collegue M. Thiers, il gagna la bataille decisive qui fit ouvrir en France tous les colleges des Jesuites,' he says, that at that time he sincerely believed he was acting in harmony with his faith and his love of liberty. But he exclaims, ' Noiis avions tous tort alors; cela est clair. En bonne theologie M. Renan seul avait raison ; lui et ses pareils, qui soutenaient que le Catholicisme et sour- tout les Jesuites etaient absolument incompatibles avec la liberte. Seulement il fallait nous le dire aloi^s. C'etait alors, et non pas main- tenant, qu'il fallait nous apprendre que la liberte est une 'peste, au lieu d'en profiter, grace ä nous, pour venir, vingt ans plus tard, Finsulter et la renier en meme temps que nous.' He might, however, have re- membered the Encyclical of August 16, 1862, which had unmistakably explained what the Catholic Church thinks of civil liberty. NAPOLEON III. AND THE CLERGY. 233 intervention in favour of tlie Pope, as an interference ^^J^f- between sovereign and people. "~~" The Coup d'Etat first seemed to erive the guarantee The coup Till "-''•''"'» that Napoleon had broken with Liberalism and would Dec. 2, be forced to lean for support upon the Church. After the Pantheon had been restored to the Catholic worship by the decree of December 6, and was dedicated once more to St. Genevieve Patronne de Paris, the whole body of the bishops, with the strictly Ultramontane bishop of Chartres at their head, declared for Napoleon, and Mon- talembert, in a public letter, registered his vote for the prince, ' who, for the space of three years, had rendered such immeasurable services to the cause of order and Catholicism.' The Pope wrote to Montalembert, declar- ing his full approval of this step ; the clergy celebrated the new master of France as the saviour of society; and a few weeks after the famous December 2, a solemn Te Deum was performed in his honour in that Cathedral of Notre Dame, where the Domine fac Salvum had so often before been played, with all its variations, in honour of so many recipients of sovereignty. The era had now commenced of the alliance between Alliance between Csesarism and the hierarchy. The education law of 1850 Cffisarism soon placed the entire conduct of education under clerical hierarchy, control, since the examination by the State could be dis- pensed with by a priestly lettre d' obedience. Of 1,400 higher educational appointments, 1,100 fell gradually into the hands of the clergy, and almost all the higher female instruction into those of sisters of orders. But, above all, the clergy assumed the management of the popular schools. They alone possessed the means of olTering free schools to the communes, and conducted them by eccle- siastics, mostly school-brothers and school-sisters. Never- theless, as no general obligation of school-attendance existed, the result was that the number of children who 234 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, attended showed a marked diminution from the former >-™',^ average. According to a statement made by M. Barry, the Minister of Instruction, in many departments three- fifths of boys, and a httle larger proportion of girls, re- ceived no school education at all. The so-called depart- mental universities {Academies Universitaires), together ■ with their theological faculties, still remained under the Government ; but in order to checkmate the influence of every independent professor, the bishops founded, by the side of each academy, a seminary, in which the pupils not only boarded but heard theological lectures from pro- fessors appointed by authorities of the Church. Inas- much as no ecclesiastic obtained a living who had not passed through the seminary, the Government, unless its professors were to lecture to empty benches, was obliged to arrange a compromise and allow its candidates to be previously approved by the bishops. Intolerance The rcsult of all this was that the younger clergy be- montane camc purely Ultramontane. They preached from the pulpit ^^^'^^' not the religion of love, but blind obedience to the omnipotence of the Church ; and revelled in wanton in- vective against heretics, Freemasons, and Protestants. At the head of this movement were the bishops of Nismes, Poictiers, Montauban, and Toulouse, the last of whom, Mgr. Duprez, issued a circular in 1862, inviting a celebra- tion of the night of St. Bartholomew. The clerical press gave their active support to this system of intolerance : the ' Annales de la propagande de la foi ' were, circulated by hundreds of thousands ; the Univers singled out every bishop who still betrayed any Gallican tendencies, and denounced him to his Catholic congregation and to the Curia ;^ the Pope called the paper ' une grande institu- 1 The papers found in the Tuileries, at the revolution of September, include a letter of Cardinal Cagiano to the bishop of Montpellier, in which the latter is advised voluntarily to resign his see out of regard ULTRAMONTANE INTOLERANCE IN FRANCE. 235 tion Catholique,' which celebrated the Holy Inquisition and chap. the glorious days of the Ligue, and combated classical cult- >_ — ^^_ ure as the cancer of modern society. Against these reckless attacks of Veuillot, who placed the whole fanaticism of clerical demagogism at the service of the ultramontane policy, the protests of the more liberal Catholics like Dupanloup, Sibour, Ozanam, soon became unavailing. Tlie Government did nothing to check these proceedings ; on the contrary, they favoured the ultramontane move- ment, because its adversaries for the most part belonged to the opposition. Lacordaire, in consequence of a vigor- ous sermon after the coup d'etat^ was excluded from all the pulpits of Paris. In the provinces the prefects, fully alive to the fact that their position depended solely on the good will of the Minister, sought support from the bishops, whose tenure of office was undisturbed by poli- tical changes, and who were willing, therefore, to earn epis- copal gratitude by furthering directly the interests of the Church, and by quietly oppressing the Protestants. With regard to official papers, it was stipulated that the comite de surveillance should include at least one ecclesias- tical member, without whose assent nothing relating to rehgion could be inserted.^ The clergy on their part did not prove ungratefiü for such effective support. to his health, since the Pope was towards him * tres-mal impressione'' (No. XL p. 25). At Paris there existed a regular clerical police, under the direction of Mgr, de Segur, who denounced all of moderate views. 1 See, for instance, the conditions under which the prefect of the Aveyron, Baragnon, promised to support a local paper. Art. 2 : ' La redaction de " L'Aigle " en ce qui touche les articles non communiques sera surveillee par un comite dont la composition devra etre agree par M. le prefet. Un membre du clerge en fera necessairement partie.' Art. 3. ' Aucun article de doctrine religieuse ne pourra etre insere dans le joxu-nal sans I'approbation du membre du clerge faisant partie du comite. Toute nouvelle, tout article d'administration, de politique, de litterature, qui pourra interesser la religion, sera soumis au visa du meme membre.' 236 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP. XXI. At all elections their influeDce was secured for the Go- vernment, they were for ever impressing on the people, that the imperial rule alone could master anarchy, and they outbid each other in flatteries towards Napoleon.^ The Crimean War, long premeditated and prepared, was popular with the clergy as being directed against the Greek Schismatics ; even Drouyn de Lhuys declared at the very outset of the quarrel about the Holy Places, that they wished ' to liberate the Catholic religion from a state of subjection equally unworthy of herself and of France.' Accordingly the relations also of the Vatican to France assumed at this period a very cordial form. There was no longer any question of repeating former demands ; the French garrison at Eome was made permanent ; the ambassador there. Count Eayneval, defended every- thing that was done in the Papal States, and the official press described the state of aflairs as thoroughly satis- factory, whilst every unprejudiced person knew perfectly well that nothing but the foreign garrison was bolstering up the temporal rule of the Pope. The latter had now, with respect to his temporal government, relapsed com- pletely into the ways of Gregory XVI., but he left this part of his administration to Cardinal Antonelli, who, after his return from Gaeta, became the all-powerful Secretary of State.^ Hard and cunning, a master in the art of dissimulation, with adroit manners and a thorough * Cardinal Matthieu, archbishop of Besan9on, in acknowledging the present from Napoleon of a copy of his ' Julius C^sar/ wrote thus : 'En lisant ce bei et etonnant ouvrage, j'ai pense que Jules Cesar etait bien heureux d'avoir conquis les Gaules et compose ses commentaires, car sans cela I'Empereur eut fait I'un et I'autre.' (Papiers secrets du Deuxieme Empire, No. 10, p. 41.) 2 Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli was born in 1806 at Sonnino, a villao-e in the Abruzzi, formerly notorious for its brigands. Edu- cated in the lloman Seminary, he never became a priest. He entered the administration, and became first a migistrate, then a prefect, PIUS IX. AND THE JESUITS. 237 knowledge of the world, the Cardinal had been superior, cbap. from the first, to the weakness of political or religious convictions. Having cast off his national liberahsm of 1846, he made it his task to maintain the Status quo at home, and in his relations with abroad, to translate the 710)1 possumus into the language of diplomacy. Pius IX., on the contrary, devoted his whole zeal to the re- strengthening of the hierarchy. In his lofty conception of his spiritual sovereignty he was still more confirmed by the Jesuits,^ who since his exile at Gaeta had taken complete possession of him, and who never ceased to urge upon him, that the best weapon against the revolution which was threatening his temporal power would be the increase of his spiritual one. It now remained to complete the re-estabhshment of papal absolutism in the Church as well as in the State. As to the former, it was necessary to crush whatever vestiges still existed of episcopal independence, and this task could be most effectually performed by inducing the Church herself to proclaim the absolute authority of the papal monarchy. Already at Gaeta had been sketched the plan of this campaign. The Jesuits fastened on Pius IX. at his weakest point — his mystic enthusiasm for His subsei- the Virgin, whose worship, as he himself said, had been tKesuits. nearest his heart from his very childhood ; and they then Secretary-General of the Interior, then Minister of Finance. He has never meddled with theology; the only science he loves is mineralogy : his collection is said to be without its equal, and he writes the most amiable letters to Protestant savants whenever the object is to acquire some rare fossil. ^ The Jesuits have often been troublesome to this pope, as to his predecessors. In a moment of bitter, but just resentment, as Pressense informs us in his ' Concile du Vatican,' he gave to Father Theiner the documents for his ' Life of Clement XIV.,' the most compromising book for the Order that ever appeared, because it came from the Pope. But after such ebullitions he has always relapsed under their dominion. 238 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, represented to him that there was nothing more suited ' r— to advance the honour, glory, and worship of Mary than to exalt the doctrine of her Immaculate Conception into Dogma of a dogma of the Church. From Gaeta, accordingly, was macuMe issucd ou February 2, 1849, the Encyclical which noti- Conception. ^^^ ^^ ^-^e bishops thc appointment of a commission to decide on this question, and at the same time demanded their views about the matter. The commission, through the Jesuit Passaglia, gave their vote to this effect, that ' to the Virgin Mary must be ascribed, on the ground of Scripture (!), tradition, and worship, a conception imma- culate from all stain of original sin, on account of her holiness transcending all that is human, and which is wholly incapable of any natural explanation.' The so-called liberal Catholics betrayed on this occa- sion the most lamentable weakness. Only a few writers, and those not belonging to the clergy, protested against this Mariolatry : the Correspondent, the organ of Mon- talembert, Falloux, Dupanloup, and others, as well as the Univers, defended the impudent innovation. Of 476^ bishops not one pronounced against the dogma itself ; thirty-two demurred to its promulgation simply as in- opportune, and four on the ground that the assembly proposed to be convoked for deciding upon it was incom- petent. That assembly was never intended from the first to take the form of a Council, indispensable, according to the doctrine hitherto prevailing, to decide on dogma, but merely an episcopal conference, such as, in fact, assembled in November 1854, to the number of about 196 prelates. They were not invited, however, for delibe- ration, but simply to be present at the proclamation of the new dogma by the Pope, who gave them distinctly to understand that he would allow no discussion either on ' The answers to the appeal were collected and printed in nine quarto volumes. Cardinal Wiseman makes the number 602. See his * Pastoral announcing the Definition.' London, 1855, p. 2. — [Tr.] DOGMA OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 239 the dogma itself or on the opportuneness of its definition, chap. On December 8, Pius IX., after high mass, adorned the - — r-^ image of the Virgin in the Capella del Choro with a crown of diamonds, in token that he had that day pre- sented her with the only jewel that was wanted in her coronal, and issued the Bull Ineffabilis Deus^ in conse- quence of which, 'after invoking the entire Heavenly Court (!) (universce Ccelestis Curice), and under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the holy apostles St. Peter and St Paul, and our own authority,' the Immaculate Concep- tion was declared binding on all the faithful as a doctrine revealed by God.^ The real importance of this act consisted not in the The bishops dogma itself, but in the manner of its proclamation, which f^ thdr^ plainly signified the infallibihty of the Pope. If the Pope ^^^^''^^''■ could fabricate a dogma without the co-operation of the episcopate, then councils were obviously superfluous.'^ The bishops by keeping silent had virtually accepted Infalhbility ; there remained to them only the formal act of abdication. The Curia, on the other hand, in return for such compliance, zealously favoured their efforts to bring the lower clergy and the theological faculties into strict subjection to their authority. Professor Hirsch er, at Freiburg, who, with a significant reference to the rights of congregations, recognised by the ancient constitution of the Church, had advocated the revival of synods, was forced to recant.^ Günther's philosophy was condemned as rationahstic, and its adherents were forbidden to pro- ^ Accordingly, later on, September 25, 1863, there was prescribed for the Catholic Church, by the bull Quod jam pridem, a new officium for the Immaculate Conception, 'because we have recognised it as necessary that the rule of prayer should agree with the rule of faith.' ^ The archbishop of Malines, one of the most zealous champions of Infallibility, was quite right, therefore, when he exclaimed, ' Saint Pere, vous venez proclamer deux dogmes en meme temps ! ' ^ * Die kirchlichen Zustände der GegenAvart,' 1849. 240 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, pagate it. All means of effective opposition were taken XXI from the clergy and the faculties by the concessions of the Governments to the bishops, and by their support of the Pope. It was laid down as a first principle, that the education of the clergy was to be exclusively in the hands of the bishops, without any interference of the State. The whole fabric of German theology, it was said, rested on a false basis ; the true system was that of Thomas Aquinas, the purest organ of Catholic theology, which should be taken from the universities and placed imder the bishops. The education of the clergy in the episcopal seminaries, from boyhood until ordination, was declared a sine qua 7ion of a better future. The founda- tion even of a Catholic university was contemplated in order to re-establish the principles of Catholic science ; and Pius IX., by a brief of January 28, 1869, promised a plenary indulgence to all who contributed funds for this purpose. The professors of Catholic faculties who refused to submit to the doctrines of Ultramontanism were de- nounced by the chief organ of this movement, ' Der Katholik,' conducted by Bishop Ketteler. Towards the various states the medieeval relations of subordination to the Church were reasserted in all their vigour. The Medieval ' Civilta CattoHcä,' which by a later brief of 1866 was the CMtä constituted the official organ of papal authority, and was erected into a sort of journalistic congregation, represented these relations thus : God has instituted simultaneously the civil and the ecclesiastical powers for the external government of this world. He willed that between these two powers certain relations should subsist, in order that both might be able to fulfil their destination in common. Now it is absurd to say that the ecclesiastical power is to be subordinate to the civil, since that would be subverting the natural hierarchy of things, by seeking to place the spiritual below the temporal. The opposite rule, there- fore, alone remains — to subordinate the temporal to the PROGRAMME OF TUE ' CIVILTX CATTOLICÄ.' 241 spiritual. This relation is precisely analogous to that chap. which exists in man between body and soul, where the — ^r-^— former is subject to the latter ; as the body needs the soul, so tlie temporal government needs a spiritual rule in order to be j ust and good It is necessary, therefore, that whoever possesses the sovereign power of the tem- poral government, shall be guided by the Pope, whom God has placed at the head of the Church and appointed the supreme lord and guardian of truth and of the immu- table rules of justice. It is consequently the Pope's first duty to regulate all purely ecclesiastical matters, the extent and limits of which he alone knows, in absolute independence of the State. With regard to mixed matters, such as marriage, burial, and the management of chari- table institutions, the civil power must request the Church to designate and define them, in order that it may not misinterpret ecclesiastical as mixed or even civil ques- tions ; and it has likewise to effect an understanding with the Church, whenever it desires to regulate the tem- poral side of these mixed questions. But wherever the civil law comes in conflict with the Divine and canonical laws the Pope, as interpreter of the latter, has the right to amend or to annul the former. And as he alone, by virtue of his Divine authority, can know what is sin, he also has the right to correct or to nulhfy laws which regulate pm-ely temporal matters, for if the Pope con- demns such laws as sinful, his condemnation is a proof that they are really contrary to truth. ^ In point of clearness this programme leaves nothing to be desired. It cuts away the root from the so-called Liberal Catholicism, and it was strictly followed out. The first step of the Curia in this direction was the re- Papai estabhshment of the hierarchy in England. The Catholic fuTugiaad, 1850. ' Compare also the book of the Jesuit Liberatore, a personal friend of Pius IX., 'La Chiesa e lo Stato': Napoli, 1871. VOL. II. R 142 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAr. Cliurch in that country had hitherto been governed by / \ '-' eight vicars-apostohc ; the Pope now declared, in a brief of SejDtember 30, 1850, that, considering the ' already large number of Catholics,' and ' how the hindrances which stood in the way of the spreading of the Catholic faith are daily being removed,' he judged that the time had come for restoring ' the ordinary form of episcopal rule in that kingdom.' For that purpose he divided it into one metropolitan and twelve episcopal sees, and invested their occupants with ' all the rights and privileges wdiich the Catholic archbishops and bishops in other countries have and use, according to the common ordinances of the sacred canons and apostolic constitutions.' This brief, which explicitly declared its object to be ' the well-being and advancement of Catholicity throughout England,'^ was followed by a pastoral of Cardinal Wiseman on his appointment as archbishop of Westminster: 'Your beloved country,' he said, ' has received a place among the fair churches which, normally constituted, form the splendid ao-oTCi^ate of Catholic communion. Cathohc England has been restored to its orbit in the ecclesiastical firmament, from which its light had long vanished, and begins now anew its course of regularly adjusted action round the centre of unity, the source of jurisdiction, of hght, and of vigour.^ This language and this act of papal aggression stirred the Protestant sentiment of the nation to its depths.^ 1 Papal brief, Ann. Reg., 1850, App. 405. 2 Pastoral, Ann. Reg., 1850, App. 411. 3 Mgr. Talbot defended the bull as a necessity. ' In consequence principally of the Irish immigration,' he said, * the number of Roman Catholics in England had become too large for the existing form o£ ecclesiastical government. The vicars-apostolic are merely the papal deputies. He is the bishop of England, just as he is the bishop of Rome ; and as his vicar-general in Rome makes a periodical report to him, and takes his directions on every question that occurs, so the PAPAL AGGRESSION IN ENGLAND. 243 Violent counter-demonstrations took place among both chap. Churchmen and Dissenters, and Lord John Eussell, the ^ — ^-^- Premier, in a letter to the bishop of Durham, stigmatised J^g^natlon"' the aggression of the Pope as ' insolent and insidious.' ^ Cardinal Wiseman endeavoured to allay the popular storm by a conciliatory address (Oct. 20), and the scheme of the proposed episcopate was reduced to more moderate pro- portions. But when the question came, how to repel the attack, it was found that this was not so simple. Did the Pope by governing Eonian Catholics in England wrest from the Queen any part of her ecclesiastical supremacy ? The Catholic Eelief Act of 1829 forbade the assumption of any titles belonging to the bishops of England and Ireland ; but the titles of these new bishops being taken from places not appropriated by existing sees, their assumption was not illegal. Statutes, indeed, were still in force prohibiting the introduction of papal bulls or letters into the country, but they had long since fallen into dis- use ; and such communications had been allowed to circu- vicars-apostolic referred to him every English matter that was not mere routine. The considering all this became an intolerable burden ; our decisions were long delayed, and from want of local knowledge, often mistaken. It Avas necessary to bring England within the common law of the Church, and for that purpose to appoint a hierarchy which would possess defined and well-kr.OAvn powers. This could not be done with- out dividing the country into bishoprics, for a Roman Catholic bishop has always a territorial, not a congregational jurisdiction. We were not aware that we were even in danger of giving offence. If we had had the slightest suspicion of the storm which we were aboiit to excite, it would have been easy to avoid it. The bull was signed three years ao-o, and has been acted on ever since. If instead of formally, perhaps I may say ostentatiously, promulgating it, we had merely continued to act on it quietly and silently, the fact that there was a Roman Catholic archbishop of Westminster would have gradually oozed out, and at length have become notorious without alarming anybody.' (Senior's * Journals in France and Italy,' ii. 95, 96.) 1 Ann. Reg., 1850, p. 198. He associated this aggression Avith the movement of the Tractarian party. R 2 244 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP. XXI. Ecclesiasti- cal Titles Act, Feb. 7, 1851. Concordat with Spain, 1851. Holland. Alliance of Democrats and Ultra- montanes. late without molestation as natural incidents to the internal disciphne of the Church of Eome. To prosecute Cardinal Wiseman for such an oifence would have only been to make him a martyr. In these straits the Ministers finally resolved to introduce a bill prohibiting the assumption of all ecclesiastical titles involving territorial jurisdiction without the previous consent of the Government.^ But in so doing they encountered opposition in Parliament from both parties. The Catholics complained that the bill not only contravened the principles of religious toleration, but deprived tliem of a privilege conceded by statute, since such territorial titles already existed in Ireland, where they were now proposed to be prohibited. The bill finally passed with a multitude of amendments, which only increased its stringency ; but as a legislative measure it remained a dead letter.^ The Church of Eome receded not an inch from her position : the Catholic bishops quietly continued to bear the titles bestowed upon them by the Pope, and in 1870 the inoperative Act was repealed. With Spain the Curia concluded a Concordat in 1851, which restored to the Church two-thirds of her secularised property, invested the Cathohc religion with a monopoly of power, and handed over the whole conduct of educa- tion to the clergy. The next blow was aimed at Holland. Here the democratic Minister Thorbecke, placed in 1848 at the head of affairs, had met with support from the Ultra- montanes against the Conservatives and Old Liberals * Feb. 7, 1851; Hansard, 'Deb.,' 3rd series, cxiv., cxv., cxvi. The original proposal of the Government was to forfeit also to the crown all endowments acquired by the Catholic bishops. May's ' Constit. Hist.,' vol. iii. p. 233, ed. 1871. 2 In his * Recollections and Suggestions ' Lord Russell passes this campaign over in silence. THE HIERARCHY RESTORED IN HOLLAND. 245 in the contest with the reaction then setting in, and in citap. . XXI return he had made the Cathohc Herr von Sonsbeek his --!:,__. Minister of Foreign Affairs. The latter now instructed the ambassador at Eome to urge upon the Pope the reintro- duction of the episcopal hierarchy into Holland, adding that the present administration would offer no obstruction, but that another perhaps might raise difficulties, and they had better therefore act without delay. Accordingly^ the papal nuncio at the Hague officially communicated to the Ministry the intention of Pius IX. to re-organise the Dutch bishoprics. He was informed in reply that, Ee-estab- according to the fundamental law of the State, every ofu'T*" religious community had the power to administer freely ^^^^^''^''^hy. its own affairs. At the same time, with regard to the future establishment of bishoprics, the Government would hold themselves released from the obligations of the Con- cordat. Immediately after (March 1853), a Papal Allocu- tion announced that, the flourishing kingdom of England having been happily won back to the constitutional organisation of the Catholic Church, the Holy Father could no longer withhold the same beneficial institutions from the countries of Holland and Brabant. Close upon this announcement followed the bull (Ex qua die, March 4, 1853), which re-established the hierarchy in Holland, by founding the archbishopric of Utrecht and the four episcopal sees of Haarlem, Bois-le-Duc, Breda, and (Evermond. These proceedings, as in England, caused the utmost indi-na- excitement among the Protestant population. The glory proteltlnL of their history, the battle for the Eeformation, was called in the Allocution the work of a man hostile to God : the country itself was styled the Spanish Pro\ inces, as in the sixteenth century. The Ministers, on being questioned in the Chamber, restricted themselves to the statement that they must await more precise communications front the Holy See ; but they made a sally, at the same time, 246 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. cwfP- against the movement, which Thorbecke designated as ■ ■ — ' mere Protestant folly. The movement, it is true, over- threw him, and led under his successor to a law on religious societies, which regulated them in many respects on principles of police. But here, as in England, the bishoprics continued ; and here also Liberalism, with its principle of laisser alter, has only proved that this principle, intended to render possible the maximum of liberty to the individual, finally leads to the tyranny of individuals over the masses. In both of these old Protestant countries, each of which, during this period of reaction, had a Liberal Ministry, Catholicism made extensive strides. Imperial But the grcatcst Catholic victory gained during this Austria, pcHod, was the Austrian Concordat, which fully revealed is'ly*! ' the intentions of the Papacy with regard to modern society. That empire had, during the storms of the re- volutionary years, passed through the same course of development in Church politics as Germany. The Austrian clergy also, in repeated assembhes, had de- manded the hberty of the Church,^ and the imperial Patent of March 4, 1849, which promulgated the new Constitution, recognised in general terms the right of self-government, as inherent in all churches and reli- gious societies, subject to the general laws of the State. To give effect to these promises, the Ministers, shortly afterwards, requested the bishops to repair to Vienna,^ * They demanded that the principles of the Canon Law and the Council of Trent should be put in force. The Moravian episcopate concluded their memorial with the words of Pius VIII. to the bishops of the Upper-Ehenish province of the Church (Brief of June 30, 1830) : ' Ecclesia libera est institutione divina, nullique obnoxia terrenae potes- tati ; intemerata sponsa immaculati Agni Jesu Christi. At per pro- lanas illas novitates in probrosam redigitur miserrimamque servitutem.' (Roskovany, ' Monumenta Catholica,' vol. ii. p. 292.) 2 It must be observed that the Hungarian bishops were not repre- eented at this meeting. These, on the contrary, at a conference on the DEMANDS OF THE AUSTIIIAN BISIIOPS. 24' and invited their suggestions for a rearrangement of tlie chap. relations of the Church on the basis of those statutory --' '. - provisions. Though the bishops, in their general declara- tion, hailed it as a beneficent change that the Catholic Church should be allowed in future, as section ii. of the Patent guaranteed, to ' order and manage its own affairs Episcopal independently,' yet Avith respect to the provision ' subject, viLmia,'' however, like every other society, to the general laws of ^^"^ ^°' the State,' they made the reservation that the Church, by virtue of her divine right, could never be dependent, in the sense attaching to any other society, on the regulations of the temporal power. The condition of their obedience was to be that the ' civil law should never overstep its proper limits, never interfere in nor disturb the legitimate exercise of ecclesiastical power.' They pledged them- selves, indeed, ' not to introduce any change in existing arrangements without full and valid reason ;' they acknow- ledged further that many of the regulations issued by the Government in excess of their rightful sphere of activity, were in themselves well fitted for their object ; but they re- served to themselves the power to transplant, as it were, those regulations into the territory of the Church, and to ' breathe into them the spirit of religion, which alone can make them bring forth perfect fruit.' In eight special declarations the bishops, through a committee appointed to confer with the Government, 20tb October, 1848, joined the Revolution, feeling that to desert the national cause would deprive their Church of all influence over the people. Accordingly, in a pastoral of the 28th October they called upon them to defend their threatened fatherland, and exhorted them to pray for the Hungarian arms and for the enlightenment of their infatuated enemies, and commanded strict obedience to the Hungarian authorities. They even sent a deputation with a statement to the ill- informed Emperor, criticising in the sharpest terms the abuse of the royal name to shelter the atttick on the free constitution of Hungary ; but the protest remained unavailing. 248 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, further developed tlieir views, entering more fully into sJ^'f^' - details on particular questions. The Government acknow- ledged that the assembly of bishops, Avhilst zealously defending the claims of the Church, had laudably en- deavoured to place the maintenance of ecclesiastical rights in harmony with the essential interests of the State. The assembly, however, was not an ecclesiastical synod, which, as the Pope, to whom the bishops had sent an account of their proceedings, observed, could only be summoned by express permission from the Holy See.^ The government, therefore, could not come to a separate uuderstanding with the bishops, but resolved to carry out provisionally the promises contained in the Patent of March 4. This was done by two exhaustive reports of April 7 and 18, 1850, addressed to the Emperor by Count Reports of Thuu, the Miulstcr of Public Worship.^ The first of these 'jhun! explained at length the importance and necessity of a 13,'mih'^^ comprehensive readjustment of the relations between the Church and the State, and insisted that this object must be effected by joint action, and be guaranteed by a formal treaty with the Holy See. Since, however, such a treaty would require full and detailed negotiations, while all who took an interest in the Catholic Church were await- ing with lively impatience the realisation of the promises made in the Patent of Maich 4, the Ministers proposed that all those questions raised by the assembly of bishops, should, wherever it was practicable, be determined pro- visionally ; but that, in regard to the others, the negotia- ' Brief from Gaeta, July 9, 1849. The Pope therein expressed a hope that the Emperor, well knowing how much the Catholic Church and her immutable doctrine contributed to the happiness of his subjects, would not only not allow the rights of the Church to be violated, but would grant her perfect liberty. 2 These reports, in original and translation, are given in * Corre- spondence respecting Relations between Foreign Governments and the Court of Rome.' ('Pari. Papers,' 1851.)— [Ta.] REPORTS OF COUNT TIIUN. 249 tioiis witli the episcopal committee should be continued, chap. and preparations be made for a Concordat, so far as miglit be necessary, with the Papal See. With regard to the general principles to be observed, the report fully accepted the view of the bishops, in their introductory declaration, that the legal relations of the Catholic Church in Austria towards the sovereign, so far from being cancelled by the grant of religious equality con- tained in section ii. of the Patent, must be guided solely by the peculiar nature of her constitution. ' The Cathohc Chiurch,' said Count Thuu, 'rests on the firm ground of conviction tliat not only the doctrine concerning her faith and morals, but also the fundamental principles of her constitution, have been communicated to her by divine revelation : she cannot therefore, like other societies, make arbitrary alterations in her own statutes. Accord- ingly, any Power, desirous of coming to an understanding with the Catholic Church in this matter, is bound to acknowledge those statutes (!) The spirit of mistrust, hitherto manifested by the State, paralysed the inner vitality of the Church, without offering to the temporal power any guarantees against ecclesiastical abuses.' It was recommended, therefore, that the Placet, hitherto required for the free communication of the bishops with Eome, should be abolished, and that pastorals alone should be submitted for previous inspection to the authorities of the State. The hberty of the Church required, in like Ecciesiasti- '' . -"^ , , caljunsdic- manner, the unobstructed establishment of ecclesiastical tion. jurisdiction. The Government, on the other hand, might lend her the support of the secular arm, when the epis- copal sentence was recognised to be in conformity witli law. In case, therefore, the spiritual authority should apply for the aid of the executive power, the latter must ' reserve to itself the right of inspecting the record of examination, in order to satisfy itself that the procedure 250 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-18Ö9. CHAP, is in accordance with the ecclesiastical laws, which in this s_l^'_^ respect are alone to be considered.' (!) Should an eccle- siastic so abuse his privileges that the Government deem it necessary to remove him from office, they must first, out of the respect due to the Church, communicate with his spiritual superiors. In cases of clerical crimes or mis- demeanours, the records of procedure in the temporal court are to be communicated to the bishop, so that the latter, previous to awarding any spiritual punishment, may judge for himself the degree of guilt which the con- victed, party has incurred in relation to the Chiu^ch. With respect to Church appointments, the sovereign is to retain his right of nomination, but the advice of the bishop shall previously be taken, and the State is no longer to have any influence with regard to the examination of candidates for priestly office. Count Thun's second report treats of the relations of the Catholic Church with regard to Education. He lays it down that neither can the Church give up her own separate establishments devoted to this purpose, nor the State resign the independent direction of those which it has founded. But in so doing neither must ignore the other. The Church is entitled to demand that the religious instruction, which by section iv. of the Patent she is entitled to provide in the national schools, shall be given in accordance with her principles ; that no one, there- fore, shall teach religion or theology wlio is not authorised to do so by the Church. The State, on the other hand, is to retain a directing and superintending influence^ over the management of these national scliools. The entire education of the clergy is to be placed in the hands of the bishops. All these proposals were assented to by imperial * ' Leitend und überwachend auf die Volkscliulen einzuwirken. (Report o£ April 13.) Count Thun's re- port on Education, April 13, 18J0. CONCESSIONS TO THE HIERARCHY. Zbi resolutions, and carried into effect by the ordinances of chap. April 18 and 23. It was mainly the influence of -— ^^— Othniar von Eauscher, bishop of Seckan, who died ^'Yu'lj^t^ November 24, 1875, and who, as Cardinal and Prince- Bishop of Vienna, played a prominent part in the histoiy of Austria at this epoch, that succeeded in gaining over the Government to these concessions. A man of great talent and learning, he had been entrusted by the Arch- duchess Sophia with the education of her two sons, the present Emperor and the late Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico ; and, on the accession of the former in 1848, was called to participate in the most important affairs of the State. He succeeded in convincing the Emperor and his highest functionaries that it was necessary to break with the traditions of Josephism ; that the suppression of the revolutionary movement, and the centralisation of the administration, by which the Government was endeavour- ing to establish the unity of the monarchy, could only be effected by an alliance with the Church and by restoring the old CathoHc basis of the State.^ The impression produced upon the nation by this surrender of the State to the hierarchy was one of crushing- humiliation, and a petition was circulated for signature, protesting against the ordinances. The bishops, on the other hand, endeavoured to refute the complaints, as arising from misconception or malevolence. They re- corded their thanks to the Emperor in a high-flown and pretentious address, promising to crown the edifice of law with the superstructure of rehgion ; and the Pope, in his Allocution of May 20, expressed the hope that the Emperor would complete the work of re-establishing the ' In a pastoral of June 17, 1849, the bishops had declared that ' nationality is a remnant of paganism, the difference of languages a consequence of sin and the defection from God.' 1855. 252 THE CATHOLIC CHUECH, 1848-1859. ciTAP. liberty of the Catholic Church m Austria — a work already - ^ \ '- ' inaugurated in so grand a spirit. The clergy, meanwhile, did then- utmost to profit by these favourable circumstances, and to bring the matter to a definite solution. And this was really done by the Concordat Coucordat of 1855, which brought the empire under the Sept. 18,'"^' dominion of the Canon Law to an extent scarcely pai-alleled in the days of Ferdinand II. This had certainly never been the intention of Schwarzenberg, the original advo- cate of an Austrian Concordat. He desired to use the power of the Church merely as a support for political absolutism, and for this very reason wished to remain master in his own house. The imperial rescript which sanctioned the proposals of Count Thun, and directed him to make the necessary preparations for an agreement with the Holy See, designated as its sole object those questions not yet disposed of, and which required the consent of the Curia. As such questions were named in particular the maintenance by the Government of its influence to exclude from all ecclesiastical appointments men who might endanger civil order. Even when, after Schwarzenberg's death, Eaiischer had obtained the con- sent of the Emperor to a still more comprehensive agree- ment, and for that purpose had gone to Eome with the Cardinals Schwarzenberg and Scitowzky,^ a work of such magnitude and importance as the Concordat afterwards became was not yet even thought of. However, the negotiations gradually led from one question to another, ana the fatal admission having once been made, that the State recognised in principle the laws of the Church as binding on the civil power, it is not to be wondered at ' This is the official statement of Count Beust in his despatch to Count TrautmannsdorfF of the 2nd July, 1865. ('Staats Archiv.' xvii. p. 265.) XXI. THE AUSTRIAN CONCORDAT. 253 that Eoman tenacity was victorious on all points/ and that chap. even the few exceptional concessions made by the Curia were not embodied in the Concordat itself, but com- prised in a supplementary note.'^ After this there could obviously be no longer any question of regulating by this convention the liberty of the Church, according to the principles of the civil constitution, which, as the resolutions of 1850 at least announced, had been mean- while suspended. On the contrary, the question now was, as Art. I. expressly stated, to put the Catholic religion for ever in possession of ' all the rights and privileges, which she must enjoy according to the com- mand of God and the stipulations of the ecclesiastical laws.' She is, therefore, to be not only the privileged religion of the State, but sole mistress. To what conse- quences this principle must lead may be inferred, if we recollect that the Eoman Church, on the one side, claims jurisdiction over all baptised Christians, be they Catholics or not, and has therefore the right to compel non- Catholics to submission ; and that, on the other side, separation from the Church is in itself considered a crime. ^ Consequently, not only general liberty of con- science and worship, but even the existence of the Protestants, were irreconcilable with the leading prin- ciples of the Concordat. To the Church, accordingly, merely full liberty in the management of 1 In the brief of 5th November, 1855, to the Austrian bishops, the Pope stated that the Emperor, 'complying more and more with our request,' had solicited him to conclude a Concordat. ^ Jacobson, ' Ueber das Oesterreichische Concordat' 1856; Reyscher, 'Das Oesterreichische und das Wlirtembergische Concordat' 1858. ^ ' Quisquis a Catholica Ecclesia fuerit separatus, quantum libet laudabiliter se vivere existimat, hoc solo scelere, quod a Christi unitate disjunctus est, non habebit vitam, sed ira Dei manet super eum.' (' Breve of Leo XII.,' July 2, 182G, in Roskovany, vol. ii. p. 225.) 254 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, her internal afiairs/ and freedom of communication for XXI. ' ^ \ ' •' the bishojDS with the Pope as well as with the clergy and the people ; but the whole education of the Catholic youth, in all public as well as private schools, is to be administered in accordance with the doctrines of the Catholic religion, and under the direction of the Church, none but Catholic teachers being eligible for appointment to the institutions destined for that purpose. Not only are the bishops given full liberty to censure books in- jurious to religion and morality, and to hinder the faithful from reading them, but the Government undertakes to prevent the circulation of such books by every suitable and convenient means (Art. IX.). All ecclesiastical causes, together with matrimonial affairs, are to belong solely and entirely to the jurisdiction of the Church. The Holy See 'does not object' to clergymen being summoned before the secular court on account of crimes and other misdemeanours against which the criminal laws of the empire are directed ; but it is incumbent on that court to inform the bishop of it without delay ; and in apprehending and detaining the offender, regard is to be shown which a proper respect for the clerical pro- fession demands. . . . Clergymen will always suffer the punishment of imprisonment in places where they are separated fr^om laymen, either in a monastery or in some other religious house (Art. XIV.). Episcopal crimes or misdemeanours, as settled by the Tridentine decrees, are to be adjudicated upon by the Pope ; but the Emperor, by a secret article, reserved to himself the right, without ^ Art. IV. gives the episcopate complete liberty * pro regimine diocesium id omne exercere, quod sive ex declaratione sive ex disposi- tione sacrorum canoniim secundum prajsentem et a Sancta Sede appro- batam Ecclesise disciplinam competit.' The validity of the ' discipline ' is withdrawn from the cognisance of the State, and made simply to depend on the approbation of the Curia. THE AUSTRIAN CONCORDAT. 255 XXI. prejudice to this promise, of provisionally decreeing what chap, was necessary, should a case occur of high treason or lese-majeste. Effective assistance is promised for the execution of episcopal sentences against ecclesiastics forgetful of their duty. All the authorities of the empire are to show to the servants of the sanctuary the respect and veneration due to their position, and to take care tliat no hindrances be laid in their way in the exercise of their office. Not only are the clergy free to dispose of the property they leave at their death according to the laws of the Church, but her ordinances are likewise to be carefully observed by the lawful heirs in cases of intes- tacy. The livings are to be given away by the bishops in accordance with the decrees of the Council of Trent, the Emperor exercising the right of presentation to those canonries and livings which rest upon the right of patro- nage derived from the fund for religion or education, yet so that he must present one of three candidates pro- posed by the bishop, and private patrons in like manner. The right of nominating bishops is to remain with the Emperor, subject to the advice of the* bishops belonging to the ecclesiastical province of the vacant see. The en- dowments of livings and seminaries are to be augmented as far as possible and then- number to be increased accord- ing to requirements (Art. XXYI.). The property, com- posing the 'Fund for Eeligion and Education' (founded by Joseph II. from the secularised prebends and convents), is, in its origin, the property of the Church, and will be administered in her name under the in- spection of the bishops (Art. XXXI.). For ecclesiastical tithes, abolished by the civil law, a composition is to be granted, in the shape of a corresponding charge upon real property or upon the . pubhc debt of the State (Art. XXXIII. ). In the supplementary note by Eauscher (Aug. 18, 1855), it was promised further (Art. V.) that 256 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, no professor of ecclesiastical law should be appointed XXI without the previous approval by the bishop of his faith and doctrine ; that in future no non-Catholic should be appointed to the University of Pesth ; that all students of theology or members of orders should be exempt from military service, and that parish priests should not be liable to have soldiers billeted upon them. To these special .provisions were added two general regulations, so sweeping in their nature as to destroy entirely the independence of the State. Article XXXIV. of the Concordat provided that ' all other matters, apper- taining to ecclesiastical persons or things, of which no mention is made in these Articles, will be ordained and administered according to the doctrine of the Church and the existing discipline, as approved by the Holy See.' ^ The practical effect of this was to give the Canon Law in Austria the same force as a civil statute of the realm. Besides this — a fact which was not divulged until 1867 — Eauscher, now raised to be archbishop of Vienna and a cardinal, had secretly promised, in the name of the Government, that lao law should be pubhshed relating to any confessional or inter-confessional question, whether touched upon in the Concordat or not, except with the consent and concurrence of the Papal See. As the latter of course claimed the right to decide whether the question was one of a confessional or inter-confessional character, the real centre of legislation, whenever the Curia decided in the affirmative, was transferred to Eome, as was shown by the marriage law of 1856. Well might the Pope triumph over such a lion's share of advantage thus gained by the Concordat, although he ' ' Caetera ad personas et res ecclesiasticas pertinentia, quorum nulla in his articulis mentio facta est, dirigentur omnia et administrabuntur juxta Ecck'siae doctrinam et ejus vig'^ntem disciplinam a Sancta Sede approbatam.' EVIL RESULTS OF THE COT^CORDAT. 257 represented the transaction as if he had only compHed with chap. the urgent request of the Emperor, while the hitter had -- ^ ■ '-' not carried into effect his most modest demands. The official Vienna Gazette (November 13, 1855) stated more accurately the views which had determined the policy of Austria. Great tasks, it stated, had been committed by Providence to the Austrian Empire, because it wi^.s a powerful Catholic State, and history bore witness that its dynasty had always accepted this high mission in the most disinterested spirit of self-sacrifice. The Concordat gave to her the fullest claim to the title of Protector of the Catholic Church. But this grand work was likewise for the interest of the State. Disturbing events had ex- posed to the different governments their weaknesses, to society its precipices, and thus had revealed the means for attaining salvation. Eeligious feeling alone was able to strengthen once more the loosened bonds, but for this purpose liberty must be given to the Church, and her co- operation with the State must be regulated in this spirit. It was an honour to Austria, and would prove her blessing, that she had been the first to undertake this task, the final consummation of wdiich was sealed by the Concordat. How little did the result correspond with such high- HierarcM- flow^n predictions ! The Austrian hierarchy indeed effaced ti'on.°°"*°'^ the last vestiges of Liberalism. Those bishops in Hungary and Lombardy, whose views were still slightly tinctured with Josephism, were speedily compelled to recant. The Jesuits and their kindred orders spread in multitudes over the country. The number of convents and estates in mortmain rapidly increased ; processions grew more and more frequent ; Catholic associations and benevolent in- stitutions were multiplied ; the education of the people became the monopoly of the clergy. Nothing was done to promote the theological training of ecclesiastics ; on the contraiy, the bishops, who alone appointed and de- VOL. II. s 258 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 184a-1859. CHAP, posed the professors and teachers in seminaries/ intro- - — r^— duced everywhere the scholastic method of theology as in use among the Jesuits. The priests were helplessly exposed to the arbitrary will of their episcopal superiors ; the promise put forward in the Concordat, to augment as soon as possible their endowments, was never fulfilled. The average stipend remained 420 florins, as had been fixed in 1782 ; while the revenues of the bishops, on the contrary, were largely increased from the Fund for Eeligion, originally assigned for the general benefit of the Church. With regard to ecclesiastical property, the extensive powers of supervision and co-administration, formerly vested in the State, were reduced to the right of assenting to the sale and mortgaging of ecclesiastical estates, so that all restrictions against mortmain were abolished. No ecclesiastical foundations were to be abolished without the consent of tlie Holy See. As for the religious orders. Art. XXVIII. determined that all their members should observe the rules of the constitution to which they be- longed, and that those who possessed a superior general at Eome should enjoy the free administration of the order, free communication with their subordinates, and full liberty of visitation. The bishops should have the right to introduce new orders and congregations of both sexes, according to the canons, subject to the duty of giving notice to the Government.^ The introduction of the ^ Art. VI. 'Nemo sacram tlieologiam, disciplinam catecheticam, vel religionis doctrinam in qiiocunque instituto vel publico vel privato tradet, nisi cum missionem tum auctoritatem obtinuerit ab EpiscofO diocesano, cujus eandem revocare est, quando id opportunum censuerit.* 2 It is to be observed that throughout this Concordat, wherever the relations of the Church and State are touched upon, the most elastic and ambiguous expressions are used : — ' Conferre cum Caesarea Majes- tate consilia,' or ' communicare cum Gubernio Imperiali consilia.' Did this mean that the consent of the Government was necessary, or simply that a friendly understanding should be aimed at? The German TIIE STATE SUBSERVIENT TO THE CHURCH. 259 Canon Law on marriage opened up for Eome a rich mine ^"^f" of wealth in the dispensations, which were necessary — -r— - for all mixed marriages and for those in the prohibited degrees. The sum total of the results obtained by the Concordat Surrender was this, that the Church of Austria, constituted as a state. personality, not only became completely emancipated from the State, but made the State subservient to herself. The Emperor, it is true, had reserved to himself the right of nominating the bishops ; but that right was to be ex- ercised as before with the advice of the bishops, par- ticularly of those belonging to the ecclesiaotical province of the vacant see ; and the Pope, moreover, had the power to refuse institution to unacceptable nominees. The only actual right retained by the State was that of providing for the expenses of the Church. And since, moreover, the Austrian was only a part of the Eoman Catholic Church, her independence amounted solely to this, that she was bound hand and foot under the absolute dominion of the Pope, who ruled in Austria, with the sanction of the civil law, as second sovereign in the realm, just as had been the case at any period in the Middle Ages. If, however, Rauscher's prophecy, that a new era in the spiritual life of Austria would be inaugurated with the Concordat, was fulfilled only in the sense of a spiritual decline, which estranged Austria still more from Germany, yet the victory achieved by Eome was for the moment so signal and important, that its effects reached far beyond the empire and its provinces.^ official translation seemed to require the consent of the Government; but for the Curia, which had certainly deliberately chosen the word ' consilium,' only the original text was binding. ' No one at that time was louder in praising the Concordat than Professor von Schulte, at present one of the principal leaders of the Old Catholics. In his ' System of Catholic Ecclesiastical Law ' (Giessea s 2 260 . THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP. With regard to the governments of the Upper-Rhenish *- — r^— ' province of the Church, it has already been observed how, in face of the hostile attitude of the episcopate, they could not long maintain their original position of resolute resistance to arbitrary aggression. Wlirtemberg began by entering into negotiations with the bishop of Rotten- burg, which led to the proposed Concordat of January 16, 1854. But although that agreement contained the most ample concessions on the part of the civil power, it was not ratified at Rome, since the Pope wanted a new Con- cordat for the whole of the Upper-Rhenish province of the Church,^ which should secure for those territories the same rights which had been acquired by the Church in Austria, an object zealously recommended by Austrian diplomacy to the South German Courts. Although the very example of Austria plainly showed under what con- ditions alone peace could be concluded with Rome, still they allowed themselves to be persuaded by the assurance of Antonelli — conveyed through the President of the Prussian Ministry, Von Manteuflfel — that by negotiating 1856, p. 187) he declared that this great act was the expiation of all that had been sinned in Austria against the Holy See since the days of Joseph II., and that other countries would not be able any longer to refuse the fulfilment of what eternal justice demanded. ' The Pope recommended the charge d'affaires of Wlirtemberg at Rome to advise his sovereign to apply to the Holy See, declaring that he could not order the bishops to discontinue their opposition to the government until he took the matter into his own hands. Antonelli, who himself had described the conduct of the bishops as unprecedented, informed the Prussian charge d'affaires that it was contrary to the prin- ciples of the Holy See to disavow zealous servants, but that it possessed abundant means to terminate the conflict before the breach had become irreparable ; and that if the governments concerned would address them- selves direct to Rome, with a view to negotiate a kind of Concordat, the Pope would silence the bishops, and the latter would doubtless come to terms. (Friedberg, * Der Staat und die Bischofswahlen,' 1874, i. p. 314, ii. p. 204.) April 8, löö7. CONCORDAT WITH WÜRTEMBERG. 261 direct with Rome means would be found to effect an chap. agreement, since the Holy See was far from inclined, ' at - ^ . '-- that moment ' {a I'heure quit est), to support all the claims of the bishops. In February 1856, Baron von Ow, the ambassador of Wiirtemberg at Vienna, was sent to Eome to negotiate a Concordat, which was concluded on April 8, 1857, together with an Instruction of the Curia to the bishop of Eottenburg and a Eoyal Declara- tion, in the character of a binding treaty. The Concordat Concordat itself is substantially a facsimile of the Austrian one, tember^""^' saving such modifications as circumstances rendered neces- sary.^ It was obviously impossible to demand from a State like Wiirtemberg, only one-third of whose popula- tion were Catholics and whose king was a Protestant, the unqualified vahdity of ecclesiastical law, and consequently the exclusive privileges of the Catholic Church, the right of spiritual censorship, the absolute re-establishment of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and other powers of that kind. Nevertheless, the changes introduced in existing relations were sufficiently momentous. The Placet was expressly, the recursus ah abusu tacitly, abolished ; the episcopal oath of fidelity, formerly extending to the established laws of the country, was now made to refer only to the person of the sovereign, and that with the quaUfying addition ' as becomes a bishop ' — in other words, in con- formity with the laws of the Church. Article IV. pro- vided that the bishop, in the government of his diocese, should be free to exercise ' all the rights which belong to him in virtue of his pastoral office, or by the disposition of the canons, according to the present discipline of the Church, as approved by the Holy See.' This elastic pro- vision was not further defined ; and the ' Instruction ' 1 Compare Hofacker, 'Das Wiirtembergische Concordat,' 1860; Golther, ' Der Staat und die Katholische Kirche im Königreich Wiir- temberg,' 187-i. 262 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, merely directed that such canons were not to be renewed . ^-,-1^ which had become obsolete, with the sanction of the Apostolic See, owing to differences of relations arising from place or time. But, according to the Eoman theory, all these rights, belonging to the bishop, are enjoyable by him not only over the Catholics, but over all Christians whatsoever within his diocese. The bishop was autho- rised further to confer all benefices except those which were subject to a right of patronage legitimately acquired. These rights of patronage, indeed, had increased in Wlir- temberg to a large extent through the mediatising at the beginning of this century, since the Government claimed them, as attributes of territorial sovereignty, for all offices, where the appointment had previously rested with the bishops immediate of the empire. One half of these the Government left to the free nomination of the bishops, together with all those which did not rest on any special title of law. In these cases, as with presentations by other patrons, the Government resigned its right of con- firmation, usually exercised hitherto, while the Instruc- tion simply directed the bishops not to confer any benefices on ecclesiastics who, on weighty and well-substantiated grounds, and in respect purely of civil or pohtical con- ditions, were displeasing to the Government. The autho- rities of the Church were to prescribe and direct the examinations — hitherto conducted in common — as well of students to be received into the seminaries as of candi- dates for benefices. The bishops were to be free to estabhsh and regulate the management of seminaries, in the form laid down by the Council of Trent, to appoint and remove the teachers and professors, to introduce into thek dioceses religious orders and congregations, approved by the Holy See, after consulting in each case {consilia conferre) with the Government, whose voice, however, was not final and conclusive. Article V. gave CONCORDAT WITH WÜRTEMBERG. 263 to the episcopal tribunal the right to exercise jurisdiction, chap. by the rules of the canons and in accordance with the -— ^^r— ' Tridentine decrees, in all ecclesiastical causes. Only the civil effects of matrimony were left to tlie secular judge, who was permitted also by his Holiness, ' out of regard to the circumstances of the time,' to take cognisance of and decide all purely civil suits, in which clergymen were parties, such as those respecting contracts, debts, and in- heritance. Eeligious instruction was placed under the direction of the bishops, who were allowed also to ' exer- cise influence in the national schools, in a manner com- patible with the existing laws, and the proper unity of administration.' Finally, with a view to give to those Catholics who studied at Tübingen an opportunity of hearing lectures on philosophy from Catholic professors, the Government undertook, in filling the chairs, to pay due regard, as far as practicable, to the appointment of Catholics. It must certainly be confessed that the Vatican had every reason to be satisfied with such results, and to expect from the Concordat the extension of the Catholic faith. Here, as in Austria, the importance of these pro- ceedings consisted in the fact, not that the Curia renewed its old claims to an independent position of the Church within the State, but that both governments scrupled not to procure for these claims a legal title resting on solemn compact. Especially remarkable, in a State so prepondera- tingly Protestant like Wiirtemberg, was the introduction of the Canon Law, so far, indeed, as such a thing was possible at all. For this very reason the Concordat was so profound and searching an alteration of all previous relations between Church and State in the kingdom, that one can scarcely understand how the royal decree which published it could declare, that the autonomy granted to the Catholic Chm-ch was in accordance with tlie con- 264 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, stitutional right of supervision enjoyed by the king, and XXI could begin to give effect to resohitions which were openly opposed to the existing constitution. Baden Still worsc, If possiblc, was the Concordat of Baden, June 28, ' wMcli was uot finally concluded until June 28, 1859.^ 1859 . . Here the proceedings of the bishops had been far more reckless and intemperate than in Wurtemberg. The archbishop of Freiburg forbade the mass for the soul of the Grand Duke Leopold, who died in April 1852. The examination of seminarists was conducted without the assistance of the commissary deputed by the sovereign ; criminal jurisdiction was exercised by the Church without regard to the existing law ; the appointment of priests in particular was conducted with sole reference to hierarchical interests. After Wurtemberg had thus given way, Baden yielded likewise, and came to an understanding with Eome, first about an Interim, which already gave a plain foretaste of the ' Definitivum. '^ It was evident, from a glance at the Concordat, that someone versed in ecclesias- tical law — the man was Dr. Eosshirt — had assisted in its compilation. Thought had been taken of the oath to be demanded from the priests, of the possibility that the archbishop might extend his jurisdiction to Protestants, of the exclusion of foreigners from ecclesiastical appoint- ments, of the co-operation of bishops at examinations, and the reorganisation of the ej^iscopal tribunals, etc. The 1 'Das Badische Concordat,' Preuss. Jahrb. v. 188. 2 In the general synod of 1855 Hundeshagen proposed in a formal motion to request the Government to repudiate, in the convention to be concluded with the Curia, all recognition of the Canon Law, and to reserve expressly the rights of the Evangelical Church. If, indeed, the latter was impossible, the former was all the more imperative. Nevertheless, the synod rejected the motion, on the ground that the peace in which the members of the two confessions lived together was a sufficient proof that no danger of any collision existed. (' Preuss. Jahrb.' V. 204.) CONCORDAT WITH BADEN. 265 assent of the Government was reserved for the introduc- chap. tion of rehgious orders ; on the other hand, still larger ~^^^1l^ concessions were made to the independence of the arch- bishop. Tlius, with regard to the system of education (Article X.), it was promised, in the final note of the Government, that in case any professor at the University of Freiburg, not belonging to the theological faculty, should contravene in his lectures the Catholic doctrine of faith and morals, all possible respect should be paid to the complaints preferred by the archbishop ; that, if he so required, the pupils of the higher seminary should be separated at the lectures from the rest of the students, etc. And here, as in Würtemberg, the Government in- sisted that the Concordat, whose opponents the Pope, already at its conclusion, had given over to the ' wrath of Almighty God and His holy Apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul,' was made ' without prejudice to the inalien- able, supreme right of protection and supervision enjoyed by the sovereign of the country.' The Duchy of Nassau likewise negotiated at Eome Nassau. for an agreement, but the negotiations led to no practi- cal result. In Hesse-Darmstadt the minister von Dalwisrk con- Hesse- ■t -I T • -I nr 4 • • ^ ^ 1 ^^ n Darmstadt. eluded m 1öo4 a secret convention with the bishop of Mayence ; which was not ratified, however, by the Curia until 1856, after the Government had made further and very considerable concessions. By this instrument the Catholic Church in the Grand-Duchy virtually obtained all that had been comprised in the Concordats of Würtem- berg and Baden, concluded immediately with Eome. The electorate of Hesse alone held firmly to the right Electoral Hesse. principle, namely, to refuse all negotiation with Eome, but to effect an understanding with the bishop of Fulda with reference only to his special wishes. These victories of the Curia over the various govern- 266 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, ments naturally enhanced, to an ever-increasing extent, - — r^-- the influence of the clergy over the whole national hfe. Education was virtually their monopoly ; the missions, directed chiefly by Jesuits, worked upon the masses, by their drastic sermons and devotional exercises, with quite as permanent an efiect as the pilgrimages and processions. A network of clubs or ' unions,' which were in close connection with each other, and had large pecuniary re- sources at their command, embraced the entire Catholic world. The Ultramontane press made a powerful ad- vance ; and in the various orders and congregations, which were rapidly spreading in all directions, Eome found a militia ready at any time to fight for her most extravagant pretensions. Accordingly, the attitude of CathoHcism to Protestantism naturally became more harsh and uncompromising. Already in a speech of February 3, 1853, the presiding ambassador of Austria, Baron von Prokesch, had not scrupled to tell the plenipotentiaries of the thirty-three Evangelical princes and Free States re- presented at the Federal Diet, that ' all the mischief and misfortune that had come upon Germany since the sixteenth century, originated in the Reformation, which had broken the unity of the Church, and thereby de- stroyed all the glory and grandeur of the august edifice of her temporal counterpart and image.' Bishop Ketteler declared in his pastoral of 1855, inviting the clergy to attend the anniversary of St. Boniface : — ' Just as the Jewish nation lost its mission on earth when it crucified the Messiah, so the German nation lost its high calling for the kingdom of God when it rent asunder the unity of the faith which St. Boniface had founded. Since that time Germany has scarcely done anything but to destroy the kingdom of Christ, and to bring about a heathen conception of the world.' And at the Jubilee itself the bishop of Strasburg preached a sermon in the cathedi'al of licism. GENERAL ADVANCE OF CATHOLICISM. 267 Mayence, in wliich he solemnly called upon tlie Queen of chap. England ' to restore the tiara, which she was wrongfidly — r-^—^ wearing upon her head, to him who was its rightful owner — the Pope of Eome,' — language which gave occasion for the eloquent protest of Bunsen, in his ' Signs of the Times.' Everywhere then, during this period, we see the General powerful advance of the Eoman Cathohc Church.^ The cllho-''"^ alliance of Throne and Altar, which during the Eesto- ration had only ruled the Latin countries, became general during the decennium after 1850. The governments thought to find in the Catholic Church the safest support against revolution ; and not only granted to her the independence, which she had first of all found the coiurage to demand diuring the Eevolution, but even ' The only defeat it suffered, witli the exception of Sardinia, which we shall shortly consider more closely, was perhaps in Belgium. There the immediate attacks of the bishops' pastoral letters against some pro- fessors at the University of Ghent ; and still more the Charitable Foundations Bill of 1857, which, although not openly purporting to confer the rights of corporations on charitable institutions, aimed at giving them a legal title to the acquisition of endowments under a deed of gift emanating from a fictitious donor (the administrateur special), roused the Liberal party from the apathy into which they had sunk in consequence of the reaction throughout Europe. Violent com- motions ensued, and Brussels became the scene of popular disturbances. King Leopold soon interfered, and ordered the bill to be withdrawn, notwithstanding that the ministry still commanded a majority. In a letter addressed to them he said, ' 11 y a dans les pays, qui s'occupent de leurs affaires, de ces emotions rapides, contagieuses, se propageant avec une intensite qui se constate plus facilement, et avec lesquelles il est plus sage de transiger que de raisonner,' Perhaps it was scarcely flattering for the Liberal party, when the king declared that it was necessary to come to a compromise, as it was difficult to reason with them ; but nevertheless he was certainly right in perceiving that there are cases where the parliamentary support of the day is not sufficient. The ensuing elections gave a decided majority to the Liberal ministry of M. Rogier. 268 THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 1848-1859. CHAP, placed at her disposal the resources of the State for turn- v.."^,^'-- ing that independence to full account. Catholic And in the United States, meanwhile, the Catholic I'^^wicr" Church made use of the opposite principle of separation of Church and State, continually to augment and develop her power. The Irish immigration swelled the number of Catholics in that country to five millions, and as these were wholly uneducated, and consequently the pliant tools of the priests, the clergy soon became, with the help of universal suffrage, so important a factor in poli- tical life, that each party endeavoured to win them by concessions, which again increased their power. Thus the Catholic Church in North America, which still at tlie beginning of this century had been poor and feeble, be- came rapidly wealthy and powerful. At the close of 1859 the property which she possessed in some forty dioceses was valued at 800 milhons of dollars ; and the Democrats, who had regarded it as impossible that the hierarchy should ever become dangerous in a country so preponderatingly Protestant, found themselves already obliged to bid for their support. But the Curia, cleverly as it understood to turn these advantages to account, yet proved, in other respects, its shortsightedness by overstraining the bow ; and by so doing, provoked a reaction, which hit it just at its most sensitive point, namely, the stability of its temporal power. 269 CHAPTEE XXII. THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. Sardinia : Eesistance to Papal Aggression — Constitution of 1848 — Abolition of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction — Civil Marriage Bill— Convent Act — Cavour at the Congress of Paris — Italy : Count Rayneval's Report on the Papal States — Napoleon III. and Italian Independence — War between France and Austria — The Legations annexed by Sardinia — The Sep- tember Convention — Papal Efforts to retain the Temporal Rule — Napoleon III. denounced by the French Clergy — His temporising Policy — The Turin Government and the Pope— Question of the Status quo— Cavours ' Free Church and Free State ' — His Overtiu'es rejected by Pius IX. While Eome, during tlie ten years which followed chap. 1850, seemed to march from one victory to another, sup- ^ — ^— — ' ported by the universal movement of reaction, one dark reStTthe spot remained on the horizon. Sardinia, small and isolated, ^^p^^^- but firm in her resistance to the alien influences that sur- rounded her, steadily refused to revoke the free constitu- tion she had acquired in the stormy period of 1848, and to re-establish the alliance of Throne and Altar. Up to that period, indeed, she had been the ' promised land ' of the clergy — a very paradise of priests. As recently as 1841, Charles Albert had confirmed in the Concordat their immunity from civil jurisdiction. Even the laity were subject to ecclesiastical punishment for blasphemy or heresy ; the penalty of death awaited anyone who treated the consecrated wafer with contempt.^ The whole system of education was in the hands of the religi- 1 See ' Codice Penale ' Arts. 161, 1G2, 169. Civil 70 THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. CHAP, ous orders ; the censorship of the Church suppressed all — r— - intellectual hfe ; the ecclesiastical right of asylum was absolute and supreme. The new Statuto or constitution not only sanctioned Xodiced the liberty of the press/ but proclaimed the equality of ^stSuto' ^11 subjects before the law. All jurisdiction was to em- S^ *' anate from the king, and to be administered by judges appointed by him ; and no one was to be exempt from their authority. Anxious, however, to obtain, if possible, from the Pope a spontaneous abdication of those tem- poral powers of the clergy which were incompatible with the principles of the ' Statuto,' the Government sent a plenipotentiary to the Vatican, who should declare the wish of the king to negotiate a new Concordat, based on the abolition of the privileges of the ecclesiastical forum. This apphcation met with a lecture from the Pope, followed by a rejection of the proposed basis of agreement ; and when the envoy, the Marquis Pareto, proceeded to submit the scheme of a Concordat,^ all that he obtained was the offer of a more restricted arrangement, such as had recently been concluded with Tuscany. The ministry now recog- nised the hopelessness of a compromise. By a law of October 1848, public instruction was placed under the Secretary of State, assisted by an administrative council, with an admixture of spiritual directors to watch over 1 Under a law passed in Oct. 1847, before the constitution was published, books imported from abroad might be admitted without passing through the ecclesiastical censorship ; and only a licence of the civil government was required for the printing of books and journals within the kingdom. (' Quart. Review,' June 1855, p. 46.) 2 ' Allocuzione del 22 Gennaio,' 1855, &c., p. 57, quoted ihid. p. 50. Rome significantly declared in its correspondence with Sardinia, that * Concordats are inviolable on the side of the civil power, first, because they are of the nature of international treaties, and next, because they deal with the universal laws of ecclesiastical discipline, which depend upon the discretion of the Roman Pontiff. (' Alloc.,' p. 17.) ANTI-CLERICAL LEGISLATION IN SARDINIA. 271 the interests of religion. The Jesuits of foreign extrac- chap. tion, who had found an asylum in Sardinia during the ^ — ^— ' French occupation of 1796, and in Piedmont at the Eestoration, were expelled, together with the nuns of the ISacre Cceui\ and their property was appropriated to educational purposes.^ Another measure provided for Tiie the abolition of tithes. The Siccardi laws of 1850 re- iaws,i850. moved at length the anomaly of exceptional jurisdictions, by making all ecclesiastics amenable, in civil as well as criminal causes, to the ordinary tribunals. The right of asylum was now abolished : religious corporations were forbidden to purchase landed property, or accept dona- tions or legacies, without authority from the Government. The Nuncio protested against this 'degradation of the priesthood ; ' and when the king gave his assent to these measures, abruptly quitted Turin. The archbishop, Franzoni, who publicly called upon his clergy to resist the new laws, and not to recognise the ' incompetent ' lay tribunals, was sentenced to a month's imprisonment and a fine of 500 francs. Count Santa Eosa, one of the ministers, was refused the last sacraments of the Church, when on his death-bed, unless he retracted his participa- tion in the Siccardi law. But the Government, supported by the popular indignation which this act created, and which ended in the expulsion of the archbishop, proceeded resolutely with its policy. They introduced a bill on civil civii Mar- marriage,^ forbidding papal dispensations, but modified by isw! ^ ' the concession that the civil act should not precede the > * Atti del Govemo,' 1848, p. 594. 2 The bill, presented on June 9, 1852, passed through the Chamber of Deputies, but was rejected by the Senate. It was not finally carried until 1865. The original idea of Siccardi was to separate the legal contract from the sacrament of matrimony, leaving the performance of the latter ceremony to the option of the contracting parties. (Gal- lenga's * History of Piedmont,' vol. iii. p. 407.) The priority of the civil act is not obligatory according to the existing law. 272 THE ITALLiN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. CHAP. XXII. Convent Act, May 29, 1855. religious ceremony, but should follow it witliin twenty- four hours, thus taking the chief sting from the declara- tion of the Pope, that marriage, without the religious rite, was sheer concubinage.^ A royal edict, instigated chiefly by the Marquis d'Azeglio, liberated, after centuries of oppression, the Waldenses, who were enabled, with English aid, to open churches at Tm-in and Genoa, and to circulate the Bible, so long withheld from the people, in the language of the country. The Convent Bill abo- lished all ecclesiastical sinecures, together with all such rehgious houses as were ' deemed of no practical advan- tage to the civil society,' those only being excepted which were devoted to pubhc education, to preaching, and to the care of the sick.^ It was proposed, indeed, by some to confiscate the whole bulk of ecclesiastical property, and to substitute, as in Fi'ance and Belgium, a salaried for a beneficed clergy. But such a general seizure the Government resisted. The bill, as introduced by Eatazzi, was intended to make the Church maintain herself, and relieve the State from the burden of contributing to her support.^ The proceeds derived from the sale of con- fiscated property were to form a Church fund, which, under the administration of a mixed board, should be applied to the relief of the poorer parish priests, and to other purely ecclesiastical purposes. Similarly, they re- jected the demand of the Left, that the State should superintend the teaching given by professors in semi- naries ; and they refused to tolerate any attacks upon the Catholic religion, which, according to the ' Statuto,' was ' Allocuzione — Documenti, No. li. p. 193. 2 No less than 334 houses belonging to various monastic orders, and containing 4,280 monks and 1,198 nuns, were closed. There still remained, however, 264 houses with 4,000 inmates. (Reuchlin, * Geschichte Italiens,' vol. iii. p. 232.) 3 An annual grant of 928,412 francs, or 37,000?., had previously been voted in aid of the impoverished clergy. CAVOUR AND THE CONGRESS OF PARIS. 278 the religion of the State. It was precisely the moderate ^^^^ character of these reforms, angrily contested as they were ^ — '— by the clergy and most of the nobility, that won for the only constitutional state in Italy the sympathy of all the liberals in Europe. While Austria was concluding her Concordat, and the Pope complained of ' the incredible, most cruel acts against the Church, her venerable rights, and the inviolable authority of the Holy See,' Piedmont, as Lord Derby expressed it, ' shone like a bright spot in the universal darkness.' A few years later, the great statesman who was guid- cavour and ing the rudder of the tiny vessel with so firm a hand Co^nsress of against the waves of reaction all around, found his oppor- tunity, offered by the alliance of Sardinia with the West- ern Powers, to plead the cause of Italy at the Congress of Paris ; to expose, above all, the scandalous condition of the Papal States ; and, notwithstanding the furious opposi- tion of Count Buol, to induce England and France to de- clare that the situation in the Peninsula was untenable.^ Count Walewski confessed the unmistakable anomaly of a government that required the permanent support of foreign troops to maintain itself in its own territory, and announced the readiness of France to withdraw her forces from Eome, as soon as this could be effected without peril to the Holy Father. Lord Clarendon agreed to the offer of evacuation, but urged the necessity of extirpating the root of the evil, and demanded from the Papal Government the promise of serious reforms. Eussia and Prussia held back ; Austria disputed the grievances alleged by Cavour, ^ Cavour's scheme, at least for a temporary settlement of the difficulty — as appears from his two state papers addressed to Lord Clarendon — was a confederation of Italian states with constitutional government and a guarantee of independence against Austria ; and the secularisation of the Legations with a lay vicar under the suzerainty of the Pope. See ' Correspondence with Sardinia respecting the State of Affairs in Italy,' Pari. Papers, 1856.— [Tr.] VOL. II. T 274 THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. CHAP, but could not help admitting the desirability of the pro- > — r^- posed evacuation. France now attempted to induce Austria to recommend reforms in the spirit of Bunsen's Memorial of 1831. But at Vienna the French scheme was so modi- fied by a counter-project as to render its original features undiscernible ; and the Paris cabinet declined to come forward with any farther proposals of seeming reform. Report of At this juucturc, the French ministry received a Raynevai. damaging blow by the pubhcation, through some in- discretion, in an English newspaper,^ of a report of Count Eayneval, the French ambassador at Rome, and a devoted servant of the Curia, vindicating the Papal Government against all reproaches. This task, indeed, the ambassador could only achieve, partly by making wrong statements, to the efiect that robbery and corruption were not more prevalent in the Papal States than in other countries ; partly also by passing over a multitude of sore points in silence ; and finally by setting up a wholly illusory dis- tinction between priests and Prelati. In reply to the charges against priestly government, he declared that only a few Priests and pncsts wcrc iu the administration, most of those who were considered priests being Prelati. But in reality the whole difierence between the two is simply this, that the latter do not, of necessity, take any irrevocable vows ; — a circumstance that makes not the smallest difierence in their pohtical or social position. Both, in point of fact, are subject to the same laws ; both have the ideas, the interests, the passions of the ecclesiastical caste.^ Eiche- 1 See * Daily News,' March 1857. ^ Roman ' prelates' may of course be priests, but they are not neces- sarily so. The conditions of admission to the Prelatura, as defined by the constitution of Alexander VII. in 1609, are (1) legitimate birth, (2) good morals, (3) the age of 25, (4) five years' study of law at the imiversity, (5) to be ' doctior utriusque juris,' (6) two years' practice at an ecclesiastical court, (7) examination and a certain income. Hin- sehiu.s (' Kirchenrecht,' vol. i. p. 387) defines their position as follows : ITALY SUPPORTED BY FRANCE. 275 lieu and Mazarin were cardinals, but they ruled on purely chap. secular principles, because they were ministers of the King - — V-^ of France : a Prelato, on the contrary, as a minister of the Pope, will always act in sole obedience to the cosmo- politan interests of the Holy See. The Curia was highly grateful at the time to Count Eayneval for undertaking the thankless office of defence ; ^ but in reality he had rendered it very bad service indeed, by proving that the reforms demanded by the Powers would in no way re- move the difficulties of the situation ; and that a govern- ment, based on liberal principles in secular affairs, was incompatible with papal authority. Matters consequently remained, externally speaking, in statu quo ; but inwardly the Italian question was ripen- ing to a crisis. The most important gain that Cavour had brought with him from the Congress at Paris was that he had won over the French Emperor to the cause of Italy. Napoleon III. had made his first appearance xapoieon on the European stage by joining the insurrection in the the^cause Eomagna. In his letter to General Sercognani (Feb. " *"^' 28, 1831), he had called the movement ' une cause sacree,' and he never forgot his first political love. From dynas- tic motives he had conducted the Pope back to Eome ; but he had felt keenly the offensive reception of his letter to Ney ; nor could he shut his eyes to the fact that France * Prelates of the Roman Curia in the present sense are the clergy, who exercise certain functions of the supreme Papal Government of the Church, either singly or associated in bodies, either independently or assisting the cardinals. The " prelacy " is generally the avenue of pro- motion to the cardinalate.' ' Mr. Lyons, the English agent at Rome at that time, refers fre- quently in his report to this memorial, which he affirms was drawn up in concert with, and from data supplied by the Curia, for the purpose of securing the continiiance of the French protectorate. See ' De- spatches from Mr. Lyons respecting the Condition and Administration of the Papal States.' London, ISGC- [Tr.] 276 THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. CHAP, was playing a most humiliating part in bolstering up the ^ Papacy by her occupation, while not being able to receive June 14, the smallest concession in return. When now the attempt of Orsini had profoundly agitated the Emperor, and recent circumstances had somewhat cooled the sympathy of the Enghsh ministry with Sardinia, Cavour deemed the situation ripe for invoking the assistance of Napoleon; and he showed to him, at the interview at Plombieres in the autumn of 1858, that the right way to render harm- less the daggers of conspirators was to make himself the liberator of Italy. ConcmTently with the famous New Year's speech of the Emperor to Baron Hübner, the Moniteur began to pubhsh the letters of Edmund About on the ' Eoman Question,' which exposed, in language of the keenest sarcasm, the real condition of the Papal States.^ M. de la Gueronniere's pamphlet, 'The Em- peror Napoleon and Italy,' which foreshadowed the course of policy, declared^ with all reverence for the ecclesiastical dignity of the Pope, that the abuses of his temporal rule, and the discontent of the population, were such, that peace could only be preserved through the aid of the French garrison. The Pope was irreconcilably opposed to national aspirations: he must therefore be made independent of all questions of nationahty and foreign comphcations, and occupy himself with the duty of re- forming his government at home. This was quite enough to cause the ultramontane party grave disquiet. They felt instinctively that the defeat of Austria in Italy would put the papal power itself in jeopardy, and several French bishops came to Paris to dissuade the Emperor from his undertaking. When the war broke out, and the Legislative Body granted ' These letters, which, as the author informs us, he was obliged to discontinue, were afterwards recast into a pamphlet published at Brussels from more copious materials. THE LEGATIONS ANNEXED BY SARDINLV. 277 readily the necessary millions, some strict Catholic mem- chap. bers demanded satisflictory assurances of the safety of the Pope and the independence of the Holy See. The pre- tween**" sident of the Council of State gave this assurance in the Au^^'J^ifa!*"'* most unequivocal form, and the Emperor himself declared ^^^^' in his proclamation of war, ' Nous n'allons pas en Italia fomenter le desordre, ni ebranler le pouvoir du St. Pere que nous avons replace sur son trone.' The papal terrir tory was declared neutral. But the ' inexorable logic of facts ' was stronger than official declarations. After the Austrians had withdrawn from the Legations the latter rose, renounced the Papal Government, on the ground that the Pope had de facto abdicated his sovereignty by surrendering their noblest prerogatives into the hands of foreign generals, and established a provisional govern- ment at Bologna. Neither the tears nor the excommuni- cation of Pius IX. could induce the provinces to tender back their submission, and the papal army did not venture on reconquest. A deputation prayed King Victor Emmanuel to con- The Lega- sent to annexation, which was soon after completed, and annexed by in a letter to the Pope of December 31, advising him to give up the Legations,^ Napoleon accepted the situation, unpalatable as it was to liimself personally. The enraged Pontiff might now protest against such counsel, and remind the Emperor of his former promises. The Giornale di Roma might stigmatise the official pamphlet ' The Pope and the Congress, '-which expounded the programme for the new position of France, as ' a web of hypocrisy and calumnies.' The Eoman question had now been fairly set afoot, and could not again be brought to a standstill. Nine months later, after Garibaldi's capture of Naples, Sar- dinia advanced into the Marches, and by the day of Castel- fidardo the Pope found himself reduced to the so-called * See ' Moniteiir,' January 11, 1860. 278 THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. CHAP. XXII. September Conven- tion, 1864. efforts to retain the temporal rule. Patrimonium Petri. In May 1861 Cavoiir proclaimed Eome the capital, and in the following month France recognised the establishment of the new kingdom of Italy. With the death of this illustrious statesman the Italian movement was arrested. His successors endeavoured as vainly to come to terms with Napoleon as the latter with the Pope, and, after Garibaldi's attempt to take Eome by force had been defeated at Aspromonte, the question was laid to rest till the autumn of 1864, when the world was surprised by the September Convention, by which the king of Italy pledged himself to abstain from all encroach- ments on the papal territory, to protect it from external violence, and to transfer his capital to Florence, France promising in return to evacuate Eome within two years. The Convention was carried out, but the second and imprudent rising of Garibaldi compelled Napoleon to occupy Eome a second time. From the decisive importance that has always attached to the temporal rule, in connection with the power and prestige of Borne, these events could not fail to react powerfully upon Catholicism at large. The papal allo- cutions, which exhausted the catalogue of curses and threats of punishment from ' the Holy Canons, Apostolic Constitutions, and Councils ' against those who 'attack any manner the States of the Church,' aroused the whole epis- copate, as also the religious clubs under its direction and the Ultramontane press, to a common crusade for the threatened temporal power of the Pope. The collections for Peter's Pence were organised on an extensive scale; the sons of the Catholic nobility entered the papal army in crowds ; every possible means was invoked to exert pressure upon the various governments and induce them to interfere on behalf of the papal cause, as the States of the Church were the property of the whole of Cathohc Christendom. Finally, in June 1862, the Pope summoned NAPOLEON DENOUNCED BY lUS CLERGY. 279 together most of the Catholic bishops of Europe to assist ctiap. at the canonisation of the Japanese martyrs, the motive for • ."^T"-^ which was plainly stated to be, that ' the Church in these times of oppression stands in need of new intercessors with God ' ; and on this occasion an address was signed by 21 cardinals, 4 patriarchs, 53 archbishops, and 137 bishops, assuring the Pope of their devotion, and declaring the necessity of his temporal dominion.^ But with all this, the course of events was not arrested. Austria, defeated abroad, deeply distracted at home, and forced to submit to the violation of the scarce concluded Peace of Zurich, was as powerless to intervene against the will of France as in Spain was Queen Isabella, who burned with zeal to vindicate her title of ' Catholic Majesty.' Eng- land ojDenly took the part of Italy ; Eussia and Prussia condemned her conduct, but remained passive, and finally recognised the new kingdom. The position of Napoleon, as may be conceived, was Napoleon difficult in the extreme. The clergy, whom he himself bJThT''' had raised to power, and who had hitherto been the firm ciS-g^ support of his government, threatened him openly with defection. The pastorals of French bishops yielded nothing in violence to the papal allocutions. The Bishop of Poitiers in a reply to the pamphlet ' La France, Eome, et ITtahe,' compared the Emperor, in a scarcely veiled allusion, to Pilate. In the Legislative Body the clerical deputy, M. Keller, called him the 'executor of Orsini's will.' The tone of the Univers became so dangerous that the paper had to be suppressed. The Legitimists sent deputations to Eome, who in high-pitched language de- nounced the Napoleonic dynasty. Even the Liberals ' The bishop of Perpignan formulated this in the words : '• Cette soTiverainet^ est un fait protege par un dogme ' — the dogma that the Church was to teach all nations demanded the independence of her head, whose duty was to direct that teaching. 280 THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. ^xxii' ^^ ^^^ ^^^ school, Thiers, Villemain, and Guizot, rose up ■ — ' to support the cause of the Pope, and strove to prove that mstem- ^j-jg clestruction of his temporal power and the unity of policy- Italy were opposed to the interests of France. In face of all this agitation, and as far from wishing wholly to forsake the Pope as to abandon his own work in Italy, Napoleon constantly repeated his endeavours to reconcile both parties on the basis of the status quo. But principles which mutually impugn the very right of existence are not moved by exhortations to come to terms. The Ciuria ad- hered to its no7i poss'umus, Italy to her Roma Capitale, The Emperor could only maintain a middle position be- tween the past, which he himself had helped to destroy, and the future, which he feared. He certainly cherished no tender feeling for the temporal power of the Pope, but he dared not allow the September Convention to be violated, for, as he said to Lord Clarendon, every village pulpit would become a tribune against him if he allowed Garibaldi to enter Eome.^ This temper of the country soon found expression in the Legislative Body itself, formerly so tractable, but which now refused to rest content until it had forced irom the mmister Eouher the memorable declaration, ' Jamais I'ltalie ne s'emparera de Eome.' Italy and On tliis status quo alone, therefore, the Curia and Question of Italy confronted each other. The former, after the fall of Gaeta, had to abandon the hope of recovering, through a counter-revolution or foreign intervention, the possession of her lost provinces, and on this fact Cavour built his hope of a reconciliation. Such a reconciliation might perhaps have been conceivable, had he regarded the ex- istino- state of possession as final and definite, as indeed Napoleon had demanded, and the pamphlet ' The Pope 1 This was told to the author of this book by Lord Clarendon, after his visit to Paris in the spring of 1868. the status quo. 'THE POPE AND THE CONGRESS.' *i8l and the Congress,' inspired by him, had expounded in crap. detail. According to this theory, Cathohc doctrine and - — -,— ^ pohtical expediency aUke concurred in proving the necessity of the temporal power of the Pope. From a religious standpoint it was important that he — the sove- reign, politically speaking, and the head of 200 millions of Catholics — should be subject to no man. How was it possible that infallible and absolute spiritual power should be united in om person, together with the power enjoyed by the political prince, who yet remains dependent on the changes of earthly relations ? No constitution could reconcile such incompatible demands. It was necessary, therefore, that a wholly exceptional dominion should be assigned to the Pope, who found himself in such a wholly exceptional position. His power could only be a pater- nal, absolute power : his territory must be large enough to enable him to remain a temporal prince, but it must not be so large as to oblige him to play a part in politics. The sphere of action, which past events had created for this exceptional destiny, must be in Eome, the Eternal City. There the temporal rule of the Pope should be the image of that of the Church ; the people should be denied the noble activity engendered by political life ; they should have only a municipal orga- nisation, but in return pay but few taxes. To them there remained art, the memory of a glorious past, the proud ambition to form the centre of Christendom, the occupation afforded by matters of the Church. Eome would thus, amidst the tumult of politics, form an oasis of peace. The different Catholic States were to con- tribute proportionally towards the expenses of worship and the Papal Government. It would be easy, indeed, to estabhsh grave objections to the practicability of this plan, particularly the objection of the Eomans themselves to be sacrificed for the benefit 282 THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. CHAP, of the Church ; but, on the other hand, it must be V — , - 1^ confessed, that this solution, which sacrificed a small mino- rity to the interests of the Catholic world, offered the possibility of a mutual compromise. K Pio Nono could not reconcile it with his oath to cede the Eomagna or the Legations, his successor, nevertheless, could do so, just as Pius VII. had concluded the treaty of Tolentino. If only the temporal power was maintained, and means were given to the Pope to conduct the government of the Church, not so much depended, after all, on the mere ex- Cavonr's tcut of his territory. But Cavour was far from wishing to Church and negotiate on such a basis. He was convinced, and rightly so, that the Cosmopolitan States of the Church would always remain the centre of the struggle against the National State, as long as the former remained an indepen- dent territory. Moreover, Rome was in the eyes of the large majority of the nation the natural capital of Italy. As such, therefore, he laid claim to her. The Pope was to surrender all liis temporal dominion to the king of Italy, but he should be allowed not only to retain the majesty of his position as Primate, but to remain at Eome, whilst throughout the whole of Italy absolute liberty should be granted to him in all matters concerning the Church. The Holy See was to be richly endowed ; the churches were to keep their property ; the papal ambas- sadors were to enjoy all their diplomatic privileges. In this manner, as Cavour thought, the interests of Catholic- ism would be reconciled with those of nationality. Proof would be given that Eome could be the capital of Italy, without any injury ensuing to the independence of the Church; nay,thePapacy itself would rest upon a much firmer basis, and command far more reverence and esteem, by supporting itself simply upon its spiritual authority.^ 1 Two fellow-labourers of Cavour's have explained to us his idea of a Free Church in a Free State : ' Political power, established to pro- cavour's 'free church and free state.' 283 It is intellioible enoui^li tliat this solution should have chap • j^^^.v. -"-0 been proposed to the Italians ; for however much they hated the temporal rule of tlie Pope, they were anxious, nevertheless, that Eome should remain the centre of Catho- lic Christendom. That the Pope, an Italian, seated in the heart of Italy, should perpetuate, at least in a spiritual manner, the old Eoman lordship of the world, had been a satisfaction to them even in those centuries of their political weakness, and this proud ambition they would not sm-render now that they had risen to be a nation. Least of all were the Eomans inclined to do so. They wished certainly to gain the glory of governing a great State, but they were loth to lose, for that object, the lucrative sources of advantage they derived from the centre of Catholicism : should that loss be theirs, their national capital itself would be but a poor compensation. Not merely by ItaHans, however, but by others, and for the most part by the more enlightened Catholics, a reconciliation of that kind was desired. They appealed to the fact, that the temporal power was no dogma, that there was a time when the Eoman bishops were not sovereigns, and yet enjoyed greater veneration than Leo X. in all his glory. It was the very temporal power, moreover, which had led to the secularisation of the Church, because the Pope in his quality as Italian prince would always become entangled in worldly quarrels. If cure respect for liberty ; and religious authority, exercised without hindrance over Catholic souls, should work together, each moving in its ovm sphere, for the progress of civilisation. Cavour believed that the Papacy would never develop its nobler energies as well as its hereditary wisdom in politics, until its roots were planted in the soil of liberty • that it would find its best support in the voluntary respect of the people that liberty of conscience, once recognised at Rome, would be secured to mankind.' (Artom et Blanc, * CEuvre Parlementaire du Comte Cavour,' p. 587.) See also Cavour's speech in the parliament at Turin on March 26, 1861. XXII. 284 THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. CHAP, he were merely the spiritual head of the Church, he would ' '— ^ be freed from all such anxieties ; the present archbishops fuityt'She c>f Cologne and Mayence enjoyed far more influence than question. ^^^ their predecessors immediately under the Empire. This argument, it is true, has an attractive side ; but for all that, it rests upon an idealistic fallacy. The Pope, no doubt, will always get entangled in temporal difficulties through his temporal rule ;^ but the anomaly really hes far deeper. The temporal rule is only the consequence of the claim of the Papacy to represent a visible succession of Christ. The Pope is not a first among equals, but sole monarch of the Church. The archbishop of Cologne can be a subject of the king of Prussia ; but the Pope can never be a subject of the king of Italy, and this he would be if he were to reside at Eome, side by side, as it were, with the civil sovereign, and restricted to the mere spiritual primacy. Everyone must be either governor or governed ; no third alternative exists between these two conditions. ^ Dr. Döllinger, who admitted the false relations in which an eccle- siastical administration stands to a modern system of statesmanship, mentioned five possible solutions of the Roman question. 1. Eestora- tion by the Austrians, which would include their permanent occupa- tion, and probably entail new political convulsions. 2. The trans- planting the Papal See to France, as designed by the first Napoleon, which would produce the ' incalculable naischiefs ' of a Gallicised Papacy. 3. A Congress of the Catholic Powers, with a partial restora- tion of temporal sovereignty, which he considers the most rational solution under the circumstances. 4. The temporary Avithdrawal of the Pope to some other Catholic country ; until the administration has been secularised, when he will enter, on his return, on an entirely altered position, and find the priesthood reconciled to the people. This possibility is mentioned by Dr. Döllinger without comment. 5. The total loss of temporal dominion — an * eventuality to be looked in the face,' and not without its spiritual advantages to the Head of the Church, ' if Italy or Europe, be destined to become the theatre of new revokitions.' (Lecture at Munich, April 9, 1861. See ' The Church and the Churches,' McCabe's transl. Appendix, p. 465 sqq. TURIN OVERTURES REJECTED BY THE POPE. 285 Either the Pope must have remained sovereign at Eome, chap. or have become the subject of his successor. Pius IX. > — V^- might lose, as Pius VII. had lost before him, his temporal rule ; but to suppose that a pope, who was still in posses- sion of Eome, would ever be induced by moral pressure — and such alone Cavour wished to employ — permanently and by a solemn compact to abdicate his position, in order to devote himself entirely to his spiritual field of activity, was a notion flatly contradicted by history and the very essence of the Eoman Church, and one which can only be explained, in an otherwise so practical states- man as Cavour, by the fact that he shared the views of the so-called liberal Cathohcism, which regards the Church capable of reahsing an ideahsm she herself has always protested against. Consequently, Cavour 's negotiations with Eome of necessity collapsed. Father Passaglia,^ The Turin himself an advocate of separation, who brought with him rjectedi by from Turin an offer of the most absolute freedom of ^^'^^''p^- spiritual action, in return for the siurrender by the Pope of his temporal dominion, failed to find a hearing for his overtures. The answer of Pius IX. was conveyed in his Allocution of March 18, 1861, in which he repudiated all alliance or compromise with the ' theories of the so-called modern civilisation,' When Cavour had passed from the scene, and his successor Baron Eicasoli renewed the proposals of the statesman in whose footsteps he trod, the only reply was an article in the Giornale di Roma, de- nouncing them as ' impudent, ridiculously senseless, and a mere servile repetition of the principles of the Eevolu- tion.' This development of the Eoman Question coiüd not ^»den • . n 1 annuls the fail to exercise an influence on the conduct of the Concordat. • In his pamphlet ' Pro Cau.sa Italica ' he had already repudiated, on religious as on other grounds, the idea that temporal sovereignty Avas necessary or even useful for u{)holdiug the dignity of the Pope. 286 THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. CHAP, various sfovernments towards the Catholic Chmxh in XXII . . ' — V— ' their respective states. In Germany, this result was the more natural, since simultaneously with the loss of tem- poral power by the Pope the pohtical reaction came also to an end with the regency in Prussia and the defeat of Austria. The conclusion of the Baden Concordat happened almost exactly at the same time as the battle of Solferino. Its promulgation excited at once a lively agitation in the country. Addresses and deputations prayed the grand-duke to refuse his assent to the Conven- tion. The University of Freiburg, now threatened to be placed under the archbishop, protested against the demand to restrict her hberty of teaching. After the Landtag also had joined the opposition, and onMarch 30, 1860, had voted by a large majority an address to the grand-duke, praying him to annul the Convention, arranged without the consent of the Estates, since its introduction involved a radical change in the constitution, the grand-duke formed his re- solution to the same effect, and dismissed the ministry under which the Concordat had been brought about. The Con- cordat itself was superseded by the law of October 9, 1860, which attempted to reconcile the legitimate independence of the Church with the preservation of the sovereign rights of the State ; and the provisions of which were carried out, in the course of the following years, by a series of edicts and ordinances, Wörtern- In Würtembcrg matters were so far different, since ^ergannu s ^^^ Govemment, as mentioned earlier, had already begun to execute the Concordat of 1857. Single voices in the press and the Chamber of Deputies had called attention, indeed, to its questionable features ; and the Committee on Public Law was instructed to report on the matter. But nothing further was done, and the university of Tubingen alone took any active measures in that direc- tion, by resolving to exclude the Catholic theological Concordat. WÜRTEÄIBERG ANNULS THE CONCORDAT. 287 fjiciilty from its body, since its independence had been chap. destroyed by its subordination to the bishop of Eotten- ■ — ^.— ^ burg. The general change in the poHtical situation, and, above all, the course of events in Baden, now set on foot in Wiirtemberg also a general movement against the Concordat.^ Early in 1860, the Committee on Public Law issued their report. The majority agreed with the principles of the Concordat, and recommended the Government to arrange the necessary measures for its execution ; adding, however, the declaration later on, that such execution did not result as the completion of a contract, but by virtue of State legislation, which alone could assure autonomy to the Catholic Church. The minority, on the contrary, expressed their decided opinion that the Concordat was incompatible with the supremacy of the State ; and that the Government should be urged, therefore, to stay its execution, and regulate matters by the ordinary course of legislation. The ministers saw that they could not venture to persist any longer in their arbitrary proceedings. Accordingly, with regard to Article XII., which declared that ' whatever royal decrees and edicts are not in conformity with the Convention shall be abrogated, and such laws as are contrary thereto shall be altered,' they explained that such alteration, so far as concerned points which required the assent of the Estates, could only have been treated as prospective ; and, accordingly, they introduced a project of law for the execution of the Concordat, describing it as a pubhc, legal contract, but denying that it was binding for ever on the State. Should other cii^cum stances occur, which demanded consideration, both contracting parties would have to determine them, by amicable settlement, according to Article XIII. This position was already not very clear. Undoubtedly it was the duty of the Government to insist • Compare Golther, p. 195 ssqq. 288 THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. CHAP, on the execution of the Concordat which they had them- XXII. . . ^-^V— ' selves concluded ; but instead of making its legal validity depend simply on the consent of the Estates — so far as such consent was constitutionally necessary — they started a theory about its capability of alteration, which was obviously open to attack for this, if for no other reason, that when a convention has been ignorantly concluded, neither of the contracting parties has the power to compel the other to an agreement about its alteration. But even this position, such as it was, was not adhered to with firmness by the Government in the debates on the prelimi- nary draft of law. They adopted, gradually, the principles of the majority of the Committee, and declared that if every single article of the Convention had passed into tlie civil laws and ordinances, the binding character of the agreement itself was abolished. To this untenable deduction, however, the Chamber declined to agree ; and accepted, by a large majority, the proposal of the minority of the Committee. Thereupon, the Government announced, in a royal rescript to the Estates and a note to the Curia, that the Concordat, in consequence of the non-compliance with the conditions on which it had been concluded, had broken down, and was therefore void in point of law. Thus, in Würtemberg also, the relations of the State to the Catholic Church were regulated now by the law of the land.-^ Hesse-Darmstadt had concluded no Concordat ; and the convention, privately arranged between the minister annulled. Yoii Dalwigk and Bishop Ketteler, collapsed before the anti- clerical movement, then predominant in the south-west ^ In September 1861 the Chamber of Deputies extended civil equality to all religions by altering Art. XXVII. of the Constitution as follows : ' Les droits civiques sont independants de la confession reli- gieuse.' The Chamber of Deputies in like manner was thrown open to members of all confessions, Würtemberg being the last State of the Confederation where that inequality existed. Convention in Hesse- Darmstadt ULTEAMONTANE DEFEATS IN AUSTRIA. 289 of Germany. On the subject of the law intended to regii- chap. hite the legal status of the Church, no agreement was found ■ ^ ^ '-' practicable between the two Chambers ; but the convention was abolished in 1866, after the bishop himself had re- nounced it ; audit was arranged, until a definite law could be agreed upon, to proceed according to the principles already recognised by a unanimous resolution of both Chambers. In Nassau, President Werren, who had become noto- rious through his illegal favouritism of clerical interests, was forced to quit the field before tlie vigorous opposition of the Liberals. But the heaviest defeats suSered by the Curia towards mtramon- the end of this period were in that very country A^ustriV where it thought its hold was the firmest and most secure. ^^^^"^ ^^^^' The Italian campaign, disastrous as it was for Austria, had not, it is true, immediately the efiect of shaking the rule of the Ultramontane party at Vienna ; on the con- trary. Count Thun still continued to profit actively by the Concordat. He determined that, although the emperor nominated the bishops, their installation by the sovereign should be dispensed with, and induction to benefices should take place through the constituted organs of the Church. He arranged that for any alienation or assess- ment of Church property tlie sanction of the Holy See or its plenipotentiaries should be required ; and he permitted Roman ' \dsitors ' to enforce a new system of discipline upon rehgious houses. Even after the fall of Thun the Ultramontanes of Tyrol were allowed to carry on, in open defiance of Schmerhng's Protestant Patent of 1861, their campaign for the maintenance of the unity of faith, and openly to insult the Evangelical Churches.^ The ^ The prince-bishop of Trent issued a pastoral on May 12, 18G3, in which he stated, 'After Luther, in order to gratify his passions, had raised the standard o£ revolt against the Church of Christ, tlie most abandoned men of all Europe soon flocked around him.' VOL. II. U reaction alter Sadowa. 290 THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. ^^n' ^i'^^ster of State failed in his attempts to shake the ' — ■ — -" position of the Jesuits ; and Bach, as ambassador at Eome, took good care that the Concordat should not be meddled with ; whilst his chief, Count Eechberg — unsuccessfully it is true, but, at any rate, to the full extent of his diplomatic power — laboured to promote the temporal interests of the Papacy.^ In the face of this, it mattered comparatively little that Schmerling began again to vindicate the rights of the State against the bishops, and that the Eeichsrath passed a resolution refusing to the Church any right of property in the fund set apart for education. But what really forced Austria, notwith- standing all the counter-struggles of the reaction, into the path of constitutional policy, was the patent fact, that the maintenance of the old regime brought nothing but fresh disasters to the empire. After Schmerling's irresolution had brought in 1865 Belcredi's ministry to the helm, and therewith secured once more the triumph of the clericals,^ that party victory led the State to Sadowa ; and with that J^Jy^' crowning disaster the policy of the Concordat was sealed.^ Anti- Early in 1867, Baron Beust, a Protestant, was sum- *" ^"""'^ moned to direct the new ministry, and in May began a ses- * In his despatch of October 15, 1863, he said : * The Holy See can always rely on whatever assistance Austria is able, according to circum- stances, to render. That Rome should refuse to surrender any of her rights is considered at Vienna as a matter of course. Let this fact suffice to account for any changes that may happen in the course of the next two years.' 2 Thus, in the spring of 18G6 the law for Tyrol was passed which, in flagrant contravention of the Federal Act, made not only the establishment of non- Catholic communities, but even the acquisition of landed property by non- Catholics, dependent on the consent of the Landtag. 3 The saying is at any rate hen frovaio, which is ascribed to Antonelli at the news of Prussia's victory : Casca il mondo (the world is tumbling to pieces). ANTI- CLERICAL LEGISLATION. 291 sion of the Eeichsrath, which is memorable in the history chap. of Austria. The new fundamental laws of the State, -^-^^-^ which sanctioned the equality of all subjects before the law ; the liberty of faith and conscience ; the free exercise of civil and political rights, irrespective of creed ; freedom of teaching and learning ; the supervision of education by the State, and so forth, were plainly incompatible with the maintenance of the Concordat. Herr Miihlfeld pro- The posed simply to abrogate it; but his proposal was Constitu- rejected ; and the Lower House, deeming it preferable to neutralise its provisions indirectly by counter-legislation, adopted the abstract motion of Dr. Herbst, affirming the expediency of new laws to regulate the action of the State on the three subjects of marriage, education, and religion ; and a committee was appointed to prepare the necessary bills for that purpose. The New Marriage Law, introduced in the autumn Laws on session of 1867, transferred all matrimonial jurisdiction to EdiclTtion, the ordinary civil tribunals, and provided that if a priest Kdision, refused to perform the rites of marriage, the civil ^^^'*-^^- magistrate, on satisfying himself of his refusal, should himself sanction and register the marriage. The School Law left religious teaching in ecclesiastical hands, but ordained that all other branches of instruction should be made entirely independent of any religious body. All schools maintained by the State, the provincial, or municipal authorities were to be open to all citizens without distinction of creed, and any candidate was ehgible as schoolmaster on passing a State examination. All funds held by the State for purposes of education, except where a reservation had been made by the testator, were to be applied for that purpose, without prejudice in favour of any particular sect ; and school boards were to be appointed for each district [Bezirke), their organisation being left to the Landtag. TT 2 292 THE ITALIAN QUESTION AND THE PAPAL STATES. CHAP. These two bills were passed, by large majorities, r-^ through the Lower House of the Eeichsrath, and in the following spring (1868) were carried after a stormy three days' debate in the Herrenhaus.^ They were followed by the third measure, recommended by the committee, the law for regulating the legal status of the various religions (Interconfessionelles Gesetz). This bill, which was also carried, set aside the stipulation as to Catholic education, and provided that in the case of children whose parents had died without expressing their wishes on the subject, the sons should be brought up in the father's, and the daughters in the mother's religion, the children being left free to choose for themselves at the age of fourteen. JN'o one was to be compelled to contribute to the services, or to send his children to the schools, of a church to which he did not belong. No priest was to deny the right of burial to members of another confession, in case the churchyard was the only one in the parish. Papal After such chancres, nothing obviously was to be ex- Allocution . '='. • 1 V» n t> -r» against the pectcd irom ucgotiatious With Kome ; and i3aron ±5eust 22,1868. probably only consented to their being carried on in order to prove their sterility. The only result was a violent protest from the nuncio, and an intemperate allocution from the pope, denouncing the fundamental laws as ' truly godless,' the confessional laws as ' destructive, abominable, and damnable,' and anathe- matising all of them ' by virtue of our apostolic authority, in particular all such clauses as are directed against the rights of the Church, as absolutely null and void for all time.' (June 22, 1868.) Herein the Curia renewed, undoubtedly, its old pretension to annul secular laws, whenever they conflicted with the interests of the Church ; but in so doing it only gave an opportunity to the 1 For an interesting account of this debate see the May number oE ' Unsere Zeit,' 1869. FUTILE RESISTANCE OF THE HIERARCHY. 293 Cliancelloi: of the Empire energetically to repel this chap encroachment. The government had still a difficult ^-^ — ^ problem to settle with the bishops, who resisted the new laws to the extent of open rebelhon.^ They absented themselves from the Herrenhaus after the vote of March 21, 1868, and petitioned the emperor to withhold his assent to the new laws, a step which gave the latter an opportunity of proving his fidelity to constitutional doctrines, by referring them to his ministers. But the mass of the people acquiesced in the new legislation,^ and the laws themselves remained in force. Austria added one more to the hst of European states who, on the eve of an (Ecumenical Council, renounced the temporal sovereignty of Kome. ^ Schwarzenberg, for example, in a pastoral to the Bohemian bishops, directed his clergy to refuse confession and absolution to any couple joined by a civil marriage. 2 That the resentment of the bishops was not shared by the people at large appears from Beust's note of June 17 to Baron de Meysenburg at Rome : ' Les esprits, violemment excites ä I'epoque de la discussion des lois religieuses dans les Chambres, se sont subitement calmes depuis. Les populations les plus profondement devouees ä la religion Catholique, Celles qu'on reprösentait comme pretes ä s'agiter, ont accueilli les nou- velles mesures legislatives sans murmures.' (Rohrbacher, ad ann.) 294 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCH.. CHAPTEE XXIII. THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. Papal War against Civil Power — Pius IX.'s Alliance with the Jesuits — Their Exaltation of the Papacy — Programme of the Syllabus — First Proposals of a General Council — Allocution of 1867 to the Bishops at Kome — The Council convened — Counter-movement in Germany and France — Address of Coblentz Catholics — Bavaria consults the Universities — Declaration of Gemian Bishops at Fulda — Dupanloup's Warning Pastoral — Circular of Prince Hohenlohe — Passive Attitude of the Governments — Count Bismarck's Instructions to Count Arnim — Opeuing of the Council — Papal Restrictions on Freedom of Debate — Composition of the Council — Dis- proportion of Numbers and IntelUgence — Divisions in the Minority — Count Daru's Attempt at Intervention — Consistent Neutrality of Coimt Bismarck — Arbitrary Conduct of the Majority — Timid Opposition of the Minority — Close of the General Debate — The Constitution voted — 1^ W^ithdrawal of the Minority — The Dogma of Infallibility proclaimed. CHAP. The constant endeavour to rule the consciences and ' ^—^ through these the temporal affairs of mankind has charac- mentofthe tcrised and determined the whole development of the carsystem. Eomau Catholic hierarchy. The necessary postulates for this were the divine origin of its constitution and the secular independence of its head. The Eeformation, which denied the first, stripped the Eoman Church of a large province of authority, but over the territory which she still retained her sway was all the more secure, and the temporal rule of the pope remained untouched. The philosophy of the eighteenth century weakened the Church internally, but from the ordeal of the revolution she came forth with fresh strength and vigour, and understood how to utilise every stage of that grand progress, which began PIUS IX.'S ALLIANCE WITH THE JESUITS. 295 witli 1789, to re-establish and extend her shattered chap. power. If, after the lapse of fifty years, she looked back ^ — ^. — ^ upon what she had gained, she had every reason to con- template her progress with satisfaction. In a clear sky, however, broke out the storm, which ^.^Sre in its rapid course threatened the very centre of Church ^^1}"p^o^ej_ authority more seriously than had been the case since the times of Aistulph. The Italian kingdom was not merely a transitory danger, but the embodiment of those modern ideas, wliich are arrayed in irreconcilable hostility to the principles on which the hierarchy reposes. Eome had incessantly combated this foe wherever it had appeared ; now she found herself attacked by it in her own home, and vainly did the Vatican look out for a Pepin, who should put a stop to the first profligate attempts of the heir of the pohcy of the Longobards. Precisely because the Curia felt, with the instinct of self-preservation, that a vital blow was struck when its temporal rule was assailed, it prepared itself for a life-and-death struggle with all the resources and appliances still remaining in its power. For this purpose the so-called liberal Catho- licism was manifestly useless. However readily it re- nounced its favourite principles with regard to the Eoman question, and branded as a crime on the other side of the Alps what on this side it defended, the leadership in the contest could devolve on that institution alone which, by its organisation, ever ready for the fray, had already once saved the power of Eome. The Society of Jesus was The Pope's the sole and fitting instrument to fight the battle of the ^uuThe Papacy. Its influence already up to this time had been ''^*""^- predominant, it now obtained the dictatorship. The pope was to the Order what Louis XIII. was to Eichelieu. He continued to exercise in the Vatican the monarchical representation of the Church as Antonelli exercised it in 296 TIIE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. the field of diplomacy. Henceforth the government of the Catholic world was centred in the Jesuits.^ The plan of campaign chosen by the Order embraced the temporal as well as the ecclesiastical territory. With regard to the first, they calculated carefully the possi- bility of mutual conflicts amongst the various Powers themselves, and cautiously nurtured all germs of dissen- sion and discontent, since the situation appeared such, that the Curia had as little to lose by a general war as by a revolution. The former might overthrow the still loose and unstable structure of the Italian kingdom, and, on the other hand, the inevitable revulsion, which follows every revolution, offered a broad basis for their hopes. The result has certainly proved how egregiously they mis- calculated on important points. The venerable fathers, with all their cunning and astuteness, have often been biassed by narrow Italian views ; repeatedly, in spite of all their spies, have they been falsely informed, while for those moral agencies which decide great issues, but of which they themselves know nothing, every standard or means of guidance is wanting. There can be no doubt, however, as to the fact of clerical influence upon the Polish rebellion of 1862, the Mexican tragedy, the wars of 1866 and 1870 ; and when the Nuncio Meglia openly expressed at Munich his hopes of a revo- lution, the avowal indeed was very imprudent, but can only seem strange to the simple-minded, who are not aware that Eome had favoured every revolution which promised advantage to her interests. 1 It was not so much the general himself, who conducted the cam- paign (Berkx has, on the contrary, disapproved of many measures, as, for instance, the plan of an official review, the ' Civilta Cattolica ') as individual conspicuous members of the Order, who exercised especial influence over Pius IX., and with his assistance overthrew all oppo- sition. Amongst these may be named Tarquini, Curci, Piccerillo, and Liberatore. TIIEIR EXALTATION OF TILE PArACY. 297 On ecclesiastical territory the plan of operations aimed ^"|.^- at exalting the spiritual power of the Papacy to its highest —— ^^ — ' pinnacle, and thereby restoring at once, in its original JxaTation extent, its necessary foundation, the temporal rule. The PapLcy latter could not be erected, indeed, into a dogma, since the logic of facts presented to such a course the immediate prospect of far too bitter a discomfiture. The proper aim should rather be, on the one side, to withdraw from the collective civilisation of the age, which had abandoned the Papacy, its fundamental groundwork, and on the other side, to follow out the Ultramontane doctrine to its utmost consequences, to exalt the absolute monarchy of the Church into a universal and compulsory form of faith, and to bring Catholicism, thus united, in a compact line of battle, into the field against modern ideas. The in- struments to execute this scheme were at hand. Pius IX. himself ofiered a support all the more effectual, since with scanty training in theology, he still clung with genuine fervour to his Ultramontane convictions, and thus ' purified the machinations of the Jesuits in the fire of his piety.' ^ The machinery of the Order and the Society was organised with consummate skill, and zea- lously elaborated, no effective opposition was to be ex- pected from the bishops, and where any sign of hostility was manifested, it was relentlessly beaten down.^ The first decisive attack resulted in the Encychcal of 1 Pressense, * Le Concile du Vatican': Paris, 1872. P. 149. 2 See the letter of Pius IX. of October 6, 1865, to M. Darboy, archbishop of Paris, who defended himself with energy against the im- mediate power claimed by the Roman See over the episcopal dioceses, and was therefore summarily called to account. The prelate was sharply censured in particular for having been present at the funeral of Mar- shal Magnan, who had been notoriously a Freemason Q Officielle Aktenstücke zum Concil,' i. p. 95). Freemasonry is to Pius IX. the sum and siibstance of ungodliness. See his allocution of October 25, 1865, ' Multiplices inter Machinationes ' in Eohrbachcr ad ann. 298 THE SYLLABUS AND TPIE VATICAN COUNCIL. 8th December, 1864, and the Syllabus^ appended to it, in which all the errors condemned by the Papal See were collectively enunciated. In a motley crowd this cata- logue comprehends not only those doctrines which con- tradict beyond all dispute the Christian revelation and civil order, but those also which form the very pith and marrow of our modern civilisation. In Article IV. are condemned not only Socialism, Communism, and Secret Societies, but even Bible Societies, and all associations of clerical liberals. Article VII. places perjury and rebel- hon on a par with the principles of non-intervention. But the main attack is directed against those doctrines which impugn the independent dominion of the Church as against the State, society, and learning. As such heresies are specified, for example — Prop, xxiii. To maintain that Eoman pontiffs and (Ecumenical councils have transgressed the hmits of their power, usurped the rights of princes, or erred in the establishment of the rules of faith and morals.^ Prop, xxiv. Or that the Church may not employ force, nor exercise, directly or indirectly, any temporal power. Prop, xxvii. Or that the ministers of the Church and the Eoman pontiff ought to be excluded from all care and dominion of things temporal. Prop. XXX. Or that the civil immunity [immunitas) of the Church and its ministers depends upon civil right. Prop, xxxiv. The doctrine of those who compare the Eoman pontiff to a prince free and supreme over the whole Church, is a doctrine of the middle ages. 1 Compiled by the Barnabite monk, afterwards Cardinal Bilio. 2 Gregory VIL, however, had declared at the seventh Roman Council, * Agite nvmc, quaeso, Patres ac Principes sanctissimi, ut omnis mundus intelligat et cognoscat quia, si potestis in cselo iigare et solvere, potestis in terra Imperia, Regna, Principatus, Ducatus, Marchios, Comitatus et omnium hominum possessione tollere unicuique et con- cedere.' Was this solemn declaration ever revoked ? BIPORT ANCE OF THE SYLLABUS. 299 Prop. xlii. To maintain that in the conflict of laws, ^fu' civil and ecclesiastical, the civil law should prevail. • — ^~-^ Prop. Iv. Or that the Church is separable from the State, and the State from the Church. Prop. Ixxiii. Or that marriage has a binding force if the Sacrament be excluded {si sacranientum exclu- datur). Prop. Ixxvii. Or that any other religion than the Eoman religion may be established by a State. Prop. Ixxx. Or that the Eoman pontiff can and ought to come to terms with progress, hberalism, and modern civilisation (cum recenti civilitate). It is quite true that these propositions introduced nothing materially new, each of them, indeed, being furnished with quotations from earlier papal decrees. Nevertheless, the codification of all the doctrines laid collectively under the anathema of the Holy See was in itself an act of extreme significance. It was at once the most decisive blow against liberal CathoHcism. While Gregory XVI. had been content to designate some of the modern ideas of liberty as madness (delir amentum), in the Syllabus all were equally condemned. Montalembert, in August, 1863, at the Catholic Congress at Maliües, had pleaded with all the fire of his eloquence on behalf of freedom of conscience.^ The Encyclical was the sum- * * Ne nous laissons jamais entrainer ä dire sous I'empire d'une protection illusoire, " L'Eglise seule doit etre libre." N'imitons jamais , ceux, qui en France sous Louis Philippe et sous la Repiiblique demand- aient la liberte comma en Belgique, et des qu'ils se sont crus les plus forts, ou ce qui revient au meme, les amis du plus fort, n'ont pas h^site ä dire, " La liberte n'est bonne que pour nous ; car la liberte doit etre restrainte ä mesure que la verite se fait connaitre. Or nous seuls, nous avons la verity, et par consequent, nous seuls devons avoir la liberte." Eepetons plutot les belles paroles de Lacordaire, " Catholiques, si vous ne demandez la liberte que pour vous, on ne vous Taccordera jamais. Donnez la ou vous etes les maitres, afin qu'on vous lu donne la ou vous etes des esclaves." ' 300 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP, mary answer of Eome to this demand. The attempts of ^ — . — ^' the Bishop of Orleans and his friends, who exhausted every effort to explain away the worst points of that Encyclical by means of subtle interpretations, proved an utter failure. Not all the hair-splitting artifices of inter- preters, who sought to persuade themselves and others that the Church of Eome recognises a freedom besides her own, which is not only harmless but advantageous, can avail anything against the blunt and brutal plainness with which the Ciu'ia invariably rejects the principle of freedom, whether of conscience, of worship, or of the press. With all his niceties of distinction, which are intended to prove that not freedom itself, but its abuses, were attacked by the Syllabus, Bishop Dupanloup will never satisfy either true Catholics or true liberals, for to attempt to reconcile the Catholic Chiu'ch with freedom is to attempt to square the circle. ' Veuillot, therefore, has expressed quite accurately the Catholic doctrine as follows : " II n'y a, il ne pent y avoir de Catholicisme liberal. Les Catholiques hberaux, qui sont vraiment Cathohques, ne sont pas liberaux, et ceux, qui sont vraiment liberaux, ne sont pas Cathohques." Early in 1874, Pius IX. stated in a brief to the Catholic com- mittee at Orleans, that less perhaps was to be feared from open impiety than from a friendly knot of adherents of equivocal doctrines, who, though rejecting the extreme consequences of their error, still preserve and nurtiu:e with obstinacy its first germ ; who will neither compre- hend nor yet reject the whole truth ; and hence are endeavouring, as best they may, to bring the doctrines of the Church into harmony with their own opinions. And in September 1875, he sent a brief to the Catholic Con- gress at Florence, in which he warned the members against the intrusion of false brethren. " Eepoussez loin de vous less embuches tres funestes du Catholicisme THE DOGMA OF INFALLIBILITY rREPARED. 801 liberal, qui rendraient iniitiles vos zeles travaux." ' — chap. 1-1 TT^ M , XXIII. 'Journal des Debats. - — . — - Both Encyclical and Syllabus, moreover, were an open invasion of the domain of civil right, since almost all constitutions guaranteed the principles therein condemned. And this attempt at aggression proved so far satisfactory to its authors, that, although the liberal press made light of it, the governments did actually nothing.^ The latter, as well as the liberal Catholics, might insist, ^^qP^^jT as they pleased, that the Encyclical was a mere expression tj^ '^^^^^ of papal opinion, but no dogma. But, meanwhile, due biiity. provision had been made to deprive them of even this loophole of evasion, for the first step had been taken on the road which was to lead to Infallibility. At first, it appears that, in this matter, the Jesuits had to overcome some reluctance on the part of the pope, for Pius IX. was convinced that he already possessed infallibihty — his Encyclical of the 9th November, 1846, had announced it — and in the next place, he feared the disquiet and eventual struggles which a general council would occasion. To relieve him of this apprehension, it was sought, first of all, to bind the bishops beforehand. They were directed to hold provincial synods — assemblies which in other respects Eome was known to discountenance — and to devise decrees for the recognition of the new dogma. These decrees were to be remitted to the congregation of revision, which corrected them so as to make the doctrine of Infallibility appear to be accepted, in a form more or less veiled, by all Catholics alike. For the same purpose the breviary was interpolated with inci- dental assertions of in falhbility. On December 6, 1864, The Pius IX. proposed the council in a session of the Con- proposed. ' The prohibition of the French Government to the bishops officially to proclaim the Syllabus was practically useless after the latter had once been made generally known. 302 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCH.. xxm* gregation of Eites, when 19 out of 21 votes were col- " — ■ — ' lected in favour of the project, and in the follow- ing March a commission was appointed to prepare the materials.^ The affair came to hght when in 1867 the Allocution pope, in an allocution of June 26, addressed to the 1867. ' five hundred bishops assembled in Eome for the eighteenth centenary of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, announced his intention to convoke, as soon as circumstances per- mitted, a holy (Ecumenical General Council, in order, by consulting together in common and by united efforts, to apply the necessary remedies against the evils by which the Church was oppressed. In this manner they would succeed in dispersing the darkness of error which had settled on the minds of men, in making the Church an invincible host, and in annihilating her enemies.^ The manner of this announcement indicated still a 1 Cardinal Antonelli was decidedly opposed from the first to the whole campaign of infallibility. The Pope might indulge in theo- logical novelties like the Immaculate Conception, which he considered innocent, but he was far too acute a politician not to see that no good could come of the dogmatic assertion of a principle which was sure to provoke the opposition of the modern State, whilst in fact the Curia reigned already supreme. However, not having the weakness of principles, he yielded as soon as the matter was decided. 2 This announcement gives the pith of the prolix explanations, which contain, however, besides the usual complaints and imprecations, many significant expressions. It was impressed upon the bishops that there was no more effective protection against the harassments of the Church than close adherence and obedience to the centre of Catholic unity, the Holy See {obsequium erga nos et Apostolicam Cathedram). The pope declared his assurance that the bishops, as often as they appeared before the person of Peter, who lived in his successors, even should they only touch the ground which the apostolic primate had moistened with his sweat and glorious blood, would be strengthened by its virtue. He had never doubted that the grave where the ashes of St. Peter had rested breathed forth a secret strength and healing efificacy, Avhich would stir up the sliepherds of the Lord's flock to increased devotion and courage. THE COUNCIL CONVENED. 303 certain measure of reserve ;^ but this quickly disappeared chap. before tlie enthusiastic reception accorded to the message J^^^Jiil- by the assembled bishops.^ ' Believing as we do,' they fj^resFf declared in their address of July 1, 'that Peter has thePope, spoken through the mouth of Pius ; therefore, whatsoever i867. ' you have spoken, confirmed, and pronounced for the safe custody of the deposit, we likewise speak, confirm, and pronounce ; and with one voice and one mind we reject everything which, as being opposed to Divine Faith, the salvation of souls, and the good of human society, you have judged fit to reprove and reject.' It filled them with the greatest joy to hear it was the intention of the Holy Father to adopt the extremest means at the extreme ciisis of Christendom, and to convoke an (Ecumenical Council ; this resolution, suggested by God himself, would become a source of blessing to the Church.^ The pope thanked them for all this, declared the Council now a necessity, and placed it under the protection of the Mother of God, ' beneath whose foot, from the beginning of things, the head of the serpent was subject, and who alone, since then, has crushed and destroyed all heresies.' On the The festival of her Immaculate Conception (Decembers, 1869) convened the Council was convoked, according to letters apostolic of June 29,1868.^ This manifesto, in spite of its immeasurable bombast, ' ' Ac illud etiam, ubi priinum optata Nobis opportunitas aderit, efficere aliquando posse confidimus.' 2 It is said, that, at the instigation of the Jesuits, a member of the assembly, when the Coimcil was mentioned, called out as if by inspira- tion, * Blessed is the body which has borne thee,' and that the words made a deep impression on the pope, 3 The attempt made to get the papal infallibility acknowledged in the address proved a failure even then. ^ The Greek and Protestant Churches were also invited, as sheep who had gone astray, to return at this fitting opportunity into the bosom of the Church. (Papal letters of September 6 and 13, 1868, in 304 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CH \p. did not specify, any more decidedly than the earher allo- -^ \ -' cutions, what the subject of the consultation was to be ; but in the most general language, submitted to delibera- tion what the greater honour of God, the unimpaired purity of the Faith, the suitable celebration of Divine service, the eternal salvation of men, and so forth, might demand. An article in the Civilta Cattolica of Feb- ruary 6, 1869, first lifted the veil, by designating, as the main subjects for the Council, the confirmation of the Syl- labus, and the proclamation of the dogmas of the Assump- tion of Mary, and the Infallibility of the Pope ; expressing, at the same time, the hope that the infallibility would not be discussed, but defined unanimously by acclamation. The Stimmen aus Maria Laach, the Univers, the Monde, and numerous pamphlets by Manning, Dechamps, Plantier, Fessler and others, zealously seconded the leading organ of the Jesuits. Counter- Agalust this agitation and the programme of the in°Ger°* CivHtä, there arose meanwhile a powerful counter-move - France!^"*^ meut in Germany and France. The articles in the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung on 'the Council and the Civilta ' (10 March, sqq.),^ written under Döllinger's guidance, combated the arrogance of papalism with a crushing array of historical criticism. Maret, the dean of the faculty of divinity at Paris, defended the Gallican principles in his book Le Concile general et la paix ' Times,' August 25, 186 i).) But the pope, in a letter to the archbishop of Westminster (September 4), remarked that ' no place can be given in the approaching Council for any defence of errors which have been condemned.' The Vatican certainly was not sanguine enough to expect any success from this invitation ; its only object was to uphold its claim of jurisdiction over all baptised people. ^ These letters were subsequently expanded into a book, 'The Pope and the Council, by Janus,' 18(59. This learned exposition tears away all historical foundation not only from infallibility, but from the Divine right of the papal primacy. Warning protests of catholics. 305 reliqieuse. Soon after followed the Abbe Gratry of the chap. X\III Oratory, with his letters to Mgr. Dechamps, which, guided — -, — ^ by the hand of German science, exposed all the falsi- fications and forgeries of the papalists since the false decretals. Montalembert, in reply to a charge of incon- Montaiem- sistency between his ultramontanism of 1847 and his test against Galhcanism of 1870, explained his principles in a letter tanL™."'^" of February 28. The Galhcanism, he declared, of ^vhich he was the resolute adversary twenty-five years ago, was solely ' the vexatious interference of the temporal power in spiritual interests.' But never had he thought, said, or written a word in favour of the doctrines and pre- tensions of the Ultramontanes of the present day, which aimed at a theocracy, or dictatorship of the Church ; on the contrary, he had done his best to reprobate that dic- tatorship in his works. The revival of Galhcanism was due to the lavish encouragement given, under the pontificate of Pius IX., to exaggerated doctrines outraging the good sense as well as the honour of the human race. ' I have but one regret,' he concluded, ' that of being prevented by illness from descending into the arena with those who, like the bishop of Orleans, have had the courage to stem the torrent of adulation, imposture, and servility. Thus should I deserve my share (and it is the only ambition remaining to me) in those litanies of abuse daily launched against my illustrious friends by a far too numerous por- tion of that poor clergy which is preparing for itself so sad a destiny, and which I formerly loved, defended, and honoured far more than any other has yet done in modern France.' ^ In a similar strain, an address of Catholics of ' In his later letter of November 7, 1869, to Dollinger, he said, * Vous admirez sans doute beaucoup I'eveque d'Orleans, mais voiis I'admireriez bien plus encore, si vous pouviez vous figurer Tabime d'idolatrie ou est tombe le clerge Fran9ais. Cela depasse tout ce qu'on aurait jamais pu Timaginer aux jours de ma jeimesse, au temps de VOL, II. X 306 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP. XXIII. Address of Coblentz Catholics, June, 1870. The B.ivarian Govern- ment consults the Univer- sities. Coblentz, in June of the same year, to the bishop of Treves, protested most energetically against the proposed new dogmas, and demanded that the Church should renounce all active participation in politics, the State meanwhile resigning all claim to influence the Church ; that the academical training of the clergy should be con- ducted without impediment or restraint ; that the laity should have a share in the Christian social life of the parochial community ; and that the Index librorum pro- hibitorum should be abolished as an unworthy and even ineffective weapon. These sentiments were reechoed by the Catholic congress at Pesth in the autumn of the same year. All these declarations placed the ecclesiastical autho- rities, so far as they were not themselves inclined to infallibility, in a position of great perplexity. They feared serious confusion from the realisation of the Ultramontane demands, and yet did not venture to come forward against them, as they were openly favoured at Eome. To the questions propounded by the Bavarian prime minister, Prince Hohenlohe, as to what changes would be caused in the relation of Church and State in Germany, if the propositions contained in the Sj^llabus and the infallibility of the pope should be declared articles of faith, the theo- logical faculty of the University of Munich answered in a form carefully guarded by reservations, that in such a case, ' it was very possible ' that some ' not unimportant changes ' might be introduced, which might prove difficult of solution ; but that it would rest with the wisdom of the Council, if the negations of the Syllabus were transposed into positive propositions, to take such measures as would prevent the growth of unnecessary conflicts between its Frayssinous et de Lamennais. De tous les mysteres que presente en si grand nombre I'histoire de I'Eglise, je n'en connais pas qni egale ou depasse cette transformation si prompte et si complete de la France Catholiqne en viie hasse-cour de Vanti-chamhre du Vatican.^ BAVARIA CONSULTS THE UNIVERSITIES. 307 decrees and the conscience of Catholics on the one hand, chap. and the rightful constitutions and laws of civil society on ■ — . — ^ the other. Infalhbility, in the first place, concerned chiefly the internal and purely spiritual matters of the Church ; it had only an indirect bearing on secular affairs, in so far as the doctrine implied a divinely ordained sovereignty of the Papacy over monarchs and governments. How far, however, this assumption of spiritual authority over the civil power would bring about a change in the relations of the Papal See to the several states, de- pended mainly on personal considerations, and could not therefore be more closely discussed. The Ultramontane minority of the faculty endeavoured to dissipate the fears of Prince Hohenlohe in a separate declaration, by de- claring that the Syllabus contained nothing new, and did not even state which of the views contained in the compass of the prohibitory negations was to be esteemed the true one. A legitimate independence of the State would in no way be rejected— but merely the subjection of the Church to the State. With regard also to the con- demnation of many doctrines, as, for example, that of the separation of Church and State, and of the equality of civil rights enjoyed by different confessions, the Syllabus merely stated that such doctrines were not to be striven after as a formal ideal, but it did not deny that their practical realisation might be winked at, under certain given relations. The infallibility of the pope would in no x w^ay involve his dominion over secular affairs. In like manner, the Ultramontane majority of the faculty of Würzburg denied that any danger accrued to the State from the possible dogmatising of questionable doctrines.^ ^ The judicial faculty at Municli declared, on the contrary, that tiie former relations of Church and Suite were fuiidanientally changed, and that well-nigh all the legal relations of the Catholic Church in Bavaria would be called in question. 308 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN CUtJNCIL. CHAP. The German bishops felt that, at such a critical con- XXIII ^ Declara- tion of German bishops at juncture, they dared not be altogether silent, and accordingly they assembled, nineteen in number, on the 6th of September, at Fulda, in order to deliberate on the Se't^9 publication of a pastoral letter. Although the large 869. ' majority consisted of anti-infallibilists, no decided position could yet be taken up against the programme of the Jesuits, since the minority, who were inclined to infalh- bility, opposed such a pohcy, and to disregard their wishes would destroy the unanimity so desirable in the declara- tion of the episcopate. Accordingly, the expedient was ^ adopted of the mildest possible generalities, to pacify the German Catholics, by the assurance that tlie reports and surmises of danger were totally unfounded. It was im- possible to suppose that the freedom of deliberation at the Council could be prejudiced. The bishops alone in their collective capacity, as witnesses of the tradition of their dioceses, would decide. They were certain that the pope would neither restrain the freedom nor curtail the period of debate, nor allow a minority to be tyrannised over by the majority. Nothing would be determined, until all that science and learning could afford had been produced.^ No dogma could be proclaimed which was not founded on Scripture or apostolic tradition, or which conflicted with the principles of justice, with the rights of the State, with civilisation, with rightful liberty, the welfare of the people, or the true interests of science. The Council would set up no new and no other principles than those which faith and conscience had inscribed in the hearts of all Catholic Christians. ^TOtes°r^ Studiously ambiguous, nay, even untrue, as these against the assurauccs wcrc, besides flatly contradictinsj the real proposed *' *-" dogma. ^ The 'Katholik' declared that the closing of a discussion, and the AvithdraAval by the president of the right of speech, were unknown to the practice of councils. 013STINACY OF THE VATICAN. 309 apprehensions of the majority, this pastoral was re- chap. ceived witli high dis})leasure at Eonie. It was regarded - — f—^ as an indirect warning of opposition ; and this resentment was increased by the subsequent receipt of a direct warning, in a private letter of a number of the bishops to the pope, urgently entreating him to desist from the definition of the questionable doctrine. Similar dissua- sive appeals arrived fi'om Austro -Hungarian })relates. Even Dupauloup, who had assured the clergy of his diocese that the Council was about to accomplish a grand work of ' peace in truth, and peace in charity ' for the Church, finally raised his voice in public against the opportuneness of the new dogma. ' My deep conviction is,' he said, ' that if it had been resolved upon to make the Papal power hated, nothing more efiectual could be done than to reopen these vexed questions. When once the new dogma has been proclaimed, no priest, no bishop, no Cathohc of any kind, will be able to reject the doctrine, so hateful to all governments, that all civil and political rights, as well as all the precepts of faith, depend for their validity upon the will of a single human being.' All these warnings, however, served only to provoke Their Pius IX., and to strengthen the influence of the Jesuits, unheedS. who represented to him that this very disputing of his authority made it all the more necessary to exalt it above all doubt and question. He had long ago, in person, openly espoused the cause of the infalhbilists, whose pamphlets, pastorals, and addresses he eulogised in briefs. In the most important of the commissions, which had been appointed in the winter of 1868-69 to prepare the materials for the Council; they formed an overpowering majority ; a few opponents, such as Haneberg and Hefele, whom it was thought impossible to ignore altogether, beiuo; entrusted with insignificant business. Cardinal Eeisach,^ the devoted servant of the pope, was appointed ' lie died shortly before the opening of the Council. 310 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCH.. CHAP. XXIII. Circular of Prince Hohenlohe, April 9, Answer ( Austria. Of France. president of the Council, Fessler, Bishop of St. Polten, a zealous champion of infallibility, was made secretary. Silence was imposed by oath upon all who were employed in the work of preparation. Those hostilely disposed were systematically kept at a distance ; the pope hence- forth refused all audience to Cardinal Guidi, who had expressed himself frankly about the Council. The Curia was much encouraged in these proceedings by the passive attitude of the different governments, whom it resolved to exclude from the Council, on the ground that they no longer fulfilled, since their secularisation, the condi- tion of Catholicity, under which representatives of the civil power were formerly admitted. On the 9th of April, 1869, Prince Hohenlohe sent out a diplomatic circular on the subject of the Council. After pointing out the great and dangerous importance which that assembly, from its avowed programme of deliberation, would possess for all governments having Catholic subjects, he proposed that a conference should be held in order not to leave the Court of Eome in further uncertainty as to the position they intended to occupy. The answers to this proposal were decidedly negative. Count Beust replied that, inasmuch as nothing had yet been settled about the programme of the Council, it would not be advisable to oppose the fact of a diplomatic conference to the mere hypothesis of pos- sible encroachments on the supremacy of the State ; since, apart from the difficulty of arriving at any definite under- standing on such insecure ground, perhaps the appearance might be created of an intention to control and curtail the liberty of the Catholic Church, and the tension of mind be needlessly increased. The despatch of Prince Latour d'Auvergne acknowledged that the governments, although considering all purely internal affairs of the Church as withdrawn from the range of temporal competence, nevertheless would be entitled to make their voice heard PASSIVE ATTITUDE OF THE GOVERNMENTS 311 CHAP, xxiir. if the deliberations aiTected privileges which it was their solemn duty to maintain. For the present, however, ^ he did not regard the necessity for the exercise of this right as clearly demonstrated. To interfere in the manner proposed would only involve the imperial government in painful discussions, without promising any certainty of its views being carried into effect. The existing laws ^ afforded all necessary securities against any possible decrees of the Council which might conflict with the public law of France. At the same time, it should in no way be said that the government regarded with indifference the progress of deliberations, the importance of which, in the present situation, was unquestionable. The ministers would exert their influence in the spirit of reconciliation, while reserving full freedom of action for future con- tingencies. Italy replied simply that she would reject of itaiy. anything which might be contrary to her laws. The Meuabrea Cabinet was disposed at first to assure the rights of the State by insisting on the participation of its representatives, as sanctioned by all historical precedents,^ but afterwards, under the influence of Minghetti, they decided otherwise, and explained in a circular (October 1869), that the right of the bishops to attend the Council was based on the general liberty of conscience, not on an act of political favour, such as might entail upon them responsibility to the government for their proceedings. England held entirely aloof: public opinion in that ^ country regarded infallibility as a question rather of curi- osity than of practical interest to the State. Eussia alone forbade her Catholic bishops to attend the Council. Count Bismarck, in a despatch of the 26th of May, 1869, peremptorily rejected the proposal of Baron Arnim, the ' This position was explained in a pamphlet, of which only a few copies were printed, ' Le Concile (Ecumenique et les droits de I'^tat.' Firenze, Kegiu Tipografia, 1SG9. 312 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCH.. CHAP. Prussian Minister at Eome (May 14), ' to demand the ^~- — r— ' admission of German representatives to the Council, m Neutral ordcr to obtaiu through them timely information as Prussia. to tlic progrcss of tlic deliberations ; to record, if necessary, a protest ; to gain influence ; to rally the wavering ; and to obviate political machinations, such as might be attempted under the cloak of ecclesiastical dis- cussions.' * For Prussia,' he said, ' there is but one principle of action, constitutionally as well as politically — that of absolute freedom in Church matters, including / resolute resistance against every encroachment on the province of the State, The government cannot consent to lend a hand to the irregular ftision of the two powers, such as would result from the despatch of envoys to the Council,' At the same time he declared his readiness to negotiate confidentially with the South-German govern- ments, ' in order to bring to bear, if possible, a joint influence upon the Curia, which should give the latter clearly to understand that any aggressive designs would encounter the determined opposition of the German governments, This conduct of the various Cabinets has been re- peatedly censured as deplorable weakness and short- sightedness ; and it has been maintained that a com- mon, energetic assertion of State rights would have given a different turn to the whole subsequent course of events. That opinion I cannot share. Clear as were the intentions of the Curia, equally certain is it that the programme of the Council, as then formulated, offered Difficulties little, if any, pretext for negotiation or protest ; nor was certed it possiblc for auy government to make articles in the action. Civiltä or pamphlets the subjects of diplomatic action. In addition to this, there was the difference in the relations of Church and State in the individual countries. How could it be hoped to obtain corresponding instructions instruc- tions to Arnim. DIFFICULTIES OF COMMON STATE ACTION. 313 from Spain, where the Catliohc rehgion alone was re- chap. cognised, and from England, where it was officially - — ~l^-l-- i«:ynored ; from France, who protected, but also re^fulated Bismarck's it, and from Prussia, where it enjoyed the utmost liberty of action ? Count Bismarck was surely perfectly right, when in his instructions to Baron Arnim he drew atten- tion to the fact that ' the participation at all of the civil power in a Church council rests upon a footing as entirely foreign as it is obsolete at the present day — upon a re- lation of the State to the Church, which belongs altogether to the past, and only had a meaning when the State stood confronted with the Catholic Church, as the Church, sole and all-embracing.' 'Even at the beginning of the Council of Trent,' he remarks farther, ' this ancient rela- tion was still existing, when the Protestant governments were not considered as irrecoverably severed from the Church. The latter occupied even then a fixed, and to a certain extent a legally established position — one, that is to say, recognised by the Church in her laws — towards the State. The Canon Law, with the entire arsenal of its definitions on the boundaries of the civil and ecclesiastical spheres, had still at that time a signi- licance and practical meaning for the State. On that account, the governments, on their part, could interfere, under settled legal forms, as they did, in fact, through their envoys, in the deliberation and regulation of eccle- siastical afiairs at the Councils. In like manner, the question was afterwards forced upon them, whether by accepting the conciliar decrees, they would be recognising the changes ejQfected by the Council in matters of Church and State, as a part of their public law. That relation is now entirely changed.' The situation cannot be more conclusively stated ; and Objections 1 • 1 • 1 1 /^ to sending equally pertment are the remarks, m which the Chancellor envoys, shows how the governments, by demanding the admit- 314 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP. XXIII. The Council opened Dec. 8, tance of their representatives to the Council, would fall into an utterly false position. The ambassadors, even if, as was most improbable, the Court of Eome should admit them, would be regarded by the assembly with distrust, as intruders. Their individual votes would have no importance ; as plenipotentiaries of governments, they would eventually be forced to register a veto, which however would never be granted to them ; while a mere protest would be beneath the dignity of the State, espe- cially as, in that event, the assembly would probably pass it over in silence.^ The Council was opened with great pomp and so- lemnity on December 8, 1869.^ No unprejudiced observer can fail to see that its sole object, from the very first, was the proclamation of infallibility. -This gained, the dog- matic definition of the Syllabus and the Assumption of the Virgin might easily be renounced for the moment, since the pope could at any future time revert to them. The ^ These instructions throughout must be described as a masterly exposition of the principles which govern the relations of the modern State to the Church. It is all the more to be regretted, on that account, that this standpoint has not been adhered to in later legislation. 2 Compare Pressense, ' Le Concile du Vatican,' 1872; Friedrich, ' Tagebuch während des Vaticanischen Concils,' 1871 ; ' Kömische Briefe vom Concil,' by Quirinus in the Augsburg ' Allgemeine Zeitung.' These letters, the work of different authors, notwithstanding all Ultra- montane strictures, give on all essential points a thoroughly faithful picture of the proceedings. See also Frommann, * Geschichte und Kritik des Vaticanischen Concils,' 1872, a work as impartial as it is valuable for its erudition. Among the numerous pamphlets two are important, as having been inspired by the Archbishop of Paris, viz. : — ' Ce qui se passe au Concile,' and ' La derniere heure du Concile.' No one, however, who desires to form an accurate idea of the pro- ceedings should omit reading the ' Epistolae virorum obscurorum de SS. Concilio Vaticano, et de sacrilegä usurpatione gubernii Subalpini, scriptEe ex Gesu in Germaniam,' Leipzig, 1872. Written by an eye- witness, in a curious mixture of Latin and Italian, they are at once a piquant satire, and, as a high Roman dignitary observed, ' la sola vera storia del Concilio.' RESTRICTIONS ON FREEDOM OF DEBATE. 315 sole question therefore was, what means the opponents of chap, the Vatican would resort to in order to prevent the ex- ^ — ^^ — ^ ecution of its scheme. Already the external arrange- ments for the Council plainly showed that Eome was determined not to tolerate any open measures from the opposition. Whilst at Trent the sole right of the envoys to introduce propositions had been violently contested, the pope now assumed to himself the sole The pope . ... . , assumes mitiative, m the prom-amme sketched out for the pro- the sole , 7 . . . , „ *■ initiative. ceedmgs, as resultmg in prmciple from the primacy. At Trent the order of business had been discussed and ap- proved by the whole assembly, just like any other de- cree : at the Vatican Council it was arranged before- hand by the pope in his bull Midtiplices. The bishops were invited to bring forward their own proposals, but they were directed to submit them previously to a com- ^ mission nominated by the pope, and containing twelve cardinals ; and even if they passed the censorship of that commission, Pius reserved to himself the right of deciding as to ^their discussion at the council. The presidents of the congregations, which were the real centres of the proceedings, were likewise papal nominees. At the election of members, conducted by the Jesuits and the Propaganda, just as in all the most important commissions, the infalhbilists maintained an overwhelm- ing majority; and all attempts at remonstrance were fruitless. The decrees were read out just as they came Restric- from the commissions, with the preamble ' Pius, bishop, freedom of servant of the servants of God, with the approbation ^^^^'^* of the Holy Council,' and were proclaimed immediately after the vote. ' We decide with the consent of the Holy Council, as read aloud.' They reverted therefore to the form, introduced by Alexander HI. at the Eoman Council of 1179, and which Innocent III. used at the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 ; whereas the Council of 316 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP. Trent had framed its decrees independently, and the latter XXIII . » '^ — . — ^ had been subsequently ratified by the pope. The meet- ings of the Council were held in a place the acoustics of which appeared to be calculated to make hearing impossible ; but the pope insisted on continuing in the Aula, on account of the neighbourhood of the so-called Cathedra Petri,^ whence a mysterious power was sup- posed to proceed. Only a few of the bishops spoke Latin fluently enough to be able fully to express their opinions : none of the opposition party had been able to prepare themselves for the deliberations, for although two years of prehminary labour had amassed a prodigious quantity of material, they had not had access to any documents. Added to this, there were the different pronunciations of the Latin; the mysterious secrecy which, in contradiction to all earlier councils, surrounded the proceedings ; the refusal to allow anything relating to the Council to be printed at Eome. The circulation of the writings of Dupanloup, Maret, and Gratry was strictly prohibited, whilst those of Manning, Dechamps, and Mermillod were propagated broadcast. Everything showed that from the very commencement no such thing as earnest discussion was intended, but merely an empty form, a sham Council. Composi- With respect to the composition of the assembly, a council. majority of infallibilists, numbering more than 500, con- fronted an opposition of about 200. The former consisted of 62 bishops of the Eoman territory, Q'^ Neapolitans and Sicilians, 80 Spanish and South American bishops, 27 French, 4 German, a few English, Americans, Belgians, and Swiss, 110 titular-bishops (in parübus infideliuin), the ^ The supposed episcopal chair of St. Peter, made of oak with ivory sculptures, encased in a bronze shrine of poor taste by Bernini. The wretched scaffolding which separates the A^lla from the rest of the Church of St. Peter, and disgraces its magnificent architecture, is still maintained as if it was to be used once more. COMPOSITION OF THE COUNCIL. 317 Italian cardinals, the generals of religious orders, patriarchs, f'n ap. etc. Nearly 300 of these, including numerous missionary -^^A — ^ bishops educated by the Propaganda, were papal boarders — that is to say. placed out at the expense of the pope and more or less maintained by him. Even on financial grounds, therefore, the Curia could not desire too protracted a session of the Council.^ The majority of these prelates, such as those from Spanish America and the East, were wholly destitute of theological culture, and followed blindly the lead of fanatics like Manning, Mermillod, and Dechamps. 'These men,' said a Eoman cardinal with a sneer, 'would obey, if the pope ordered them to teach four instead of three Persons in the Trinity.' They sat silent in the Council as in the congregations ; but they voted with admirable unison — the Italians, because they depended for their existence, after the majority, upon the pope. This held good not only of the 62 who repre- sented the Eoman territory, but of all the Neapolitan bishops, the Italian government being anxious to reduce the number of the sees, and the sole hindrance to this being the pope, who would have let anyone fall who opposed him. The leading Ultramontanes among the French were the bishops of Nismes and Poitiers. The German infallibilists were represented by the bishops of Würzburg, Eichstädt, and Paderborn; the English by Manning and Cullen ; the Belgians by Dechamps. The opposition minority comprised 200 bishops, of ^he very different shades of opinion. Their ranks included minority. all the Portuguese bishops, all Germans, with the excep- tion of the three above-named, the large majority of the Austro-Hungarians, half of the French, and of the North Americans, a few Irish, and a fair number of Orientals. ^ Pius himself is credited with the pun, 'Facendo mi infallibile, mi faranno fallire.' (While declaring me un-failahle, they will cause me* io fail.) 318 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP, Of the French prelates, the most influential were ' — r— ^ Darboy, the archbishop of Paris, and Dupanloup, bishop of Orleans. The former was especially hated at Eome, because, superior to all alliurements of outward vanity, he had persistently refused to show the smallest complaisance in dogma, even for the price of a cardinal's hat, and yet they dared not attempt to silence or openly to ofiend so formidable an opponent. They revenged themselves, all the more, on Dupanloup, once the most honoured son of the Church, in the days when he had defended the tem- poral power of the pope. The boldness with which he and his friends Montalembert, Maret, and Gratry now stepped forward openly against the infallibilists vexed the Vatican sorely, and it was resolved to make him feel his disgrace. Of the German and Austrian bishops, Hefele of Rot- tenburg, Krementz of Ermeland, Dinkel of Augsburg, Eauscher of Vienna, Schwarzenberg of Prague, and Stross- mayer of Agram, were the most prominent. The one fact, that the father of the Austrian Concordat now took his place among the liberals was significant enough. Dispiopor. Uad the votes been weighed, instead of counted, pretty weight well all the theologians of learning and character would numbers, havc bccu fouud ou the side of the opposition. But still greater was the disproportion if the dioceses which they represented were considered. The majority included, first of all, the 62 Roman bishops, who represented three quarters of a million of people still attached to the temporal rule. The arch-diocese of Cologne numbered nearly 1| mil- lions, Breslau IJ millions, and Paris 2 miUions of Cathohcs. The five milhons of Neapolitans possessed 68 votes at the Council, while the twelve millions of German Catholics had only 14. But, besides this, on the side of the majority were 110 titular bishops, without any community and of the purest papal complexion ; together with the Spanish DIVISIONS AMONG THE MINORITY. 319 prelates, who \yere nearly all the nominees of Isabella, chap. Could the disproportion between the representatives and . ^^^"- , those they represented be carried farther ? However, it was not merely the compact majority of Divisions the 500 which made the position of the minority so difficult, minority. nay even hopeless. There was the fact, above all, that the minority was divided against itself. Only the smaller number among them were really opposed in principle to the dogma which transferred the infallibility of the Church to an individual ; the larger number disputed merely the opportuneness^ of its proclamation, fearing that such a step would lead to personal dilemmas and conflicts in their dioceses as well as with the government.''^ They had by no means broken with their Ultramontane past ; but those very antecedents, on the other hand, rendered all effective opposition impossible. The plea of inopportunity could not avail against an article of faith. In the non-'placet of such people, therefore, there was, as Friedrich justly remarks,^ a secret 'placet for the infallibilists ; the latter needed only to push the matter to such extremities that any further persistence in opposition to the dogma should appear a greater evil than its inopportuneness. It was evident from the proceedings of the Curia that nothing was to be gained by complaints, protests, or individual remonstrances. The minority would never get the chance of a hearing, unless they declared their determination, at the very outset, to answer every act of violence by seces- sion en masse^ and thus to deprive, in fact, the Council of • IMus himself replied to the query, whether he considered the dogma as opportune, by saying ' No, but necessary.' 2 ' Primi sunt paucissimi, quia opinio hsec potest esse illorum solum- modo qui multum studiarunt, et Scripturam, Patres et historian! eccle- siasticam bene cognoscunt. Secundi sunt plurimi, et non erit difficile eos reducere ad rationem, quia oppositio eorum non habet fundamentum dogmaticum.' — Epist., p. 18. 3 P. 248. 320 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP, its oecumenical character.^ But while they delayed taking -^1, — '- such an energetic step against the chartered regulation, which cut away from them all freedom of action, they took refuge on a vacillating platform of law, which increased the difficulties of effective resistance, already brought about by their disunion. Certainly the opposition appeared too strong, both from their numbers and the personal importance of thier leaders, to render it easy to carry the dogma by simple acclamation ; but had they been allowed to talk as much as they pleased, they would never have achieved any practical result. When now in January the majority demanded, in a Postulatum. or petition to the pope, signed by 410 mem- bers, the public and positive definition of infalhbihty,^ whilst the counter-petitions, though still not venturing actually to oppose the dogma itself, but merely insisting on its inopportunity, were simply rejected, a few leaders of the minority turned, in their helplessness, to their Attempted govcmments for protection. France had evidently here trorby°' the most influential voice ; for her troops alone rendered France. possible botli the Council and the temporal rule. Count ^ On this point Baron Arnim justly observed in his letter of January 8, 1870 : ' It was important, above all, to begin by impugning the validity of the Council, as at present composed, and to repudiate the binding force of its constitution and the regulation of business which the Curia had foisted upon it. If at the very first the net had been torn away, which the Vatican and the Jesuits had thrown over learned but timid heads, infallibility itself would have fallen through the meshes.' The author of the ' Epistolse ' says that such a step was much dreaded by the Jesuits, and adds * Sed per fortunam aut per pauram haec idea nulli venit in testam.' — P. 16. 2 Strange to say, Baron Arnim was not fully convinced that the Vatican would proceed to the definition, and thought it possible that they would be contented with this demonstration, and would give a virtuous example of great moderation. His notion, also, that a ' mani- festation of Catholic Germany, extending its influence to Rome,' would be sufficiently uncomfortable to the fathers of the Council to effect a change for the better, may well be designated an illusion. NEW DIPLOMATIC INTERVENTION. 321 Daru, "who replaced Prince Latour d'Auvergne in Olli- chap. . . . . XXIII. vier's ministry, had, at his accession to office, ex- ^^— 1" pressed himself, in a speech in the Senate, entirely in the spirit of his predecessor. But the disquieting news from Eome induced him to address a letter, on January 18, to one of the French prelates, in which he declared that, in case the dogma of Infallibility was pro- claimed, the continuance of the French garrison would be impossible. This threat, however, as well as subse- quent allusions (February 5) to the failure of the financial negotiations between Eome and Italy, which had been arranged by France, to the collapse of the Concordat, and to the dangers threatened by the revolutionary party, remained unnoticed by the Curia. The latter was con- vinced that the emperor would never venture to break with Eome in his difficult position at that time ; and the subsequent demand of Count Daru for the admission of a special envoy to the Council met with a decided refusal. Equally fruitless was the activity of Count Beust. He ^utUe Ti-i-TT •• PI -n protests of declined, indeed, to imitate the example of the French ßeust. Cabinet, nor would he put in any protest against eventual decrees of the Council ; but he constantly repeated his warnings against the indiscreet proceedings of the Court of Eome, and pointedly referred to the awkward rela- tions which those proceedings must prepare for Austria. To believe, indeed, that Eome would pay any attention to that fact, appears in a measure naive ; for there it could not but be a matter of rejoicing to be able thus to take revenge upon the chancellor who had torn up the Concordat. Count Beust obtained nothing but evasive answers from Antonelli, who either pretended to know nothing of what was going on at the Council, or remarked that hitherto the Council had only dealt with proposals that had been laid before it, and about which the assembly would decree as it deemed best. The only clear and VOL. II. Y 322 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCH.. CHAP, consistent position was occupied again by Count Bismarck. ^ — r— ^ He declined, in his instructions of January 5, 1870, ad- ^o^Hc^'^oT* dressed to Baron Arnim to submit, in the name of the Bismarck, government, demands for the German episcopate to the Curia or the Council. By so doing the government would place themselves in a false position towards both. They would express a sort of recognition of the authority claimed by Curia and Council, and thus abandon the only possible standpoint, namely, that ' we, as a govern- ment, stand on a perfectly foreign and free footing towards the Council, and are entitled to bring its decrees before the forum of our laws and of out State life.' This position sufficed already to show the inexpediency of a permanent conference of the ambassadors at Eome, such as Arnim had suggested under the title of an An ti- Council, ^ apart from the fact, that the conference, considering the different principles that guided its members, would offer no prospect of success. The only feasible thing to be done, was to encourage, and morally to support, the German bishops, and to give them the assurance that, in case of the worst, their rights in their own countries should be protected. The ambassador might also inti- mate to them that changes, deeply penetrating the orga- nisation of the Catholic Church, such as the curiahstic party, with their absolutist tendencies, would probably strive to effect, would not remain without influence upon the relations of the Church towards the State, and at the same time upon their own position towards the govern- ment. For these relations were based upon the existing organisation of the Church, and the recognised position of the bishops therein ; were these relations altered, then ^ By the way, a most unfortunate expression to choose, for at that very time an assembly of atheists, similarly called, was meeting at Naples, who declared that the idea of God must be extinguished, as the root and keystone of all absolutism. NEW ORDER OF BUSINESS. 323 the duties of the (:fovernment would be altered also, not chap. . XXIII. only in a moral, but also in a legal sense. But so long - ' ' ■ '-- as the discussion was strictly limited to the ecclesiastical province, a prominent Protestant power like Prussia was not called upon to commence a struggle against Curia and Council. It would be tlie bishops, on the contrary, who would have to guard their position and the spiritual interests of their dioceses. The government could only let the episcopate know, that they would protect it against all violence, if the bishops would protect their own riglits. Everything depended on whether the bishops would have the courage to do this. All real action on ecclesiastical territory must be left to them. If the government were to seek to undertake the guidance of their action, or even to demand it merely for certain definite steps, it would be entering upon a field in which the Curia would have the advantage. It would be difficult to state more forcibly, than was done in this despatch, the only right and practicable position for Prussia. But the German bishops, like the whole of the opposition at the Council, were exactly wautino; in that courage to make a stand for their con- victions, which Bismarck assumed as the condition of his New regu- support ; and the Curia, who were well informed on this quicken point, proceeded with corresponding recklessness. The Feb. 22," regulation of business, according to its view, allowed the opposition ' too much freedom in evil.' A decree was issued on February 22, which adverted to its defects, and began with the mocking remark, that the Holy Pon- tifi*, ' having regard to the complaints repeatedly made to him by the Fathers, that the discussions were protracted to an unreasonable length,' had determined to make some special regulations for the congregations. The real meaning was that an end should be put to debate: Upon the distribution of a scheme to the Fathers of the r 2 324 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCTL. Council, those wlio had any remarks to make were henceforth to submit them in writing, within a reasonable period to be fixed by the Cardinal Presidents, to the Sec- retary of the Council. The latter was to forward them to the respective Commissions, who should then consider them or not at their discretion, with reference to the scheme to be laid before the Council. No discussion was to be allowed, but simply the votes taken, which those who re- ceived permission to do so, might elucidate by summing up their arguments. On the motion of ten fathers, however, the presidents could allow a vote to be taken as to the termination of the debate. Further, the right was given to the pope to publish decrees, which had obtained a mere majority of votes — 'id decernetur quod majori Patrumnumero placuerit' — an arrangement which flagrantly contradicted tlie traditions invariably maintained by the Church, according to which a Council can only decree articles of faith unanimously {nemine dissentiente), or against an infinitesimal minority ; so that, even at the Council of Trent, important decrees, relating to the sovereignty of the pope himself, had to be withdrawn, after the minority had declared against them. This new coup de main^ which, if successful, was bound minority. ^^ |g^^ ^^ ^|^g definition of papal infallibility, offered, however, a fresh chance to the opposition of effectually checkmating the plans of the Curia, by declaring unani- mously and decidedly that their future co-operation at the Council would depend on the recognition of the necessity of moral unanimity for the validity of dogmatic Concihar decrees.^ But they wasted this opportunity by ' Friedrich discerned this when he wrote on March 9 : * I can discover only one successful method of removing all this misfortune, namely, if our bishops leave the Council under protest, and declare, in due form, that they no longer admit it to be QEcumenical. ... I hear that the opposition intend to persevere until a motion, on the initiative of Inertness of tlie FIRST PROPOSAL OF INFALLIBILITY. 325 protests^ of different groups, which the Ciiria answered by citap. introducing an Appendix to the decree concerning the --'. -- primacy, in the scheme for the Constitutio de Ecclesiä. Appendix This Appendix represented as a dogma of belief that scheme z?e tlie Eoman pontiff could not err, when, in the exercise of March 7. his office as supreme teacher of all Christians, he defined with his authority what was to be held by the whole Chiurch in matters of faith and morahty ; and that this prerogative of infallibility was co-extensive with the in- fallibility of the Church. This bold challenge stirred the indignation of the p,'°^4*^^„''/ governments no less than of the Opposition. Count Daru Austria. demanded the removal of all passages fi'om the Schema that were dangerous to the State, and exposed the hollow- ness of Antonelli's assertion that infallibility was nothing new. The ambassadors of Austria, of the North German Confederation and of Bavaria addressed urgent warnings to the cardinal secretary of state.^ But the latter, who in no way guided the proceedings, but served merely as a diplo- matic screen, answered either with silence or with eva- sions ; and Ollivier, who had succeeded Count Daru early in May, resumed his ' previous position of abstention ; ' ^ the bishops, shall be brought in against them; but I cannot understand on what principle such conduct is based. If the opposition, on the ground of the new regulation, take an actual part in the congregations, they cannot with propriety declare against it when it comes to be applied.' ^ Legati acceptant adressas et protestationes, sed nunquara verbum respondent. — Epist., p. 16. The Archbishop of Paris said afterwards, ' On nous a fait jouer ä Rome le role de sucristains, et pourtant nous etions an moins deux cents, qui valions mieux que cela.' — Hyacinthe, 'La Reforme Catholique,' p. 119. And yet these two hundred sub- mitted to this treatment. 2 The * Epistolae ' give a graphic account of how Antonelli put off this interference. The French and Austrian ambassadors, moreover, were personally devoted to the Holy See, and simply acquitted them- selves perfunctorily of their instructions, without insisting. 3 Letter to Marquis de Banneville, May 12, 1870. 326 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP. XXIII. Timid opposition of the minority. as the surest safeguard against tlie dangers arising from the arrogance of the Curia lay in the revolt of sentiment which such an act of self-exaltation was bound to produce among all classes of society. Such were the obstacles to diplomatic intervention. Nor was anything more attained by the minority. They submitted, indeed, to the dogmatic commission exhaustive dissertations on the primacy and infallibility, which con- tained a wealth of scientific lore and in part were out- spoken enough. But only a few of the minority openly declared that the proposed dogma should be rejected as unfounded either on Scripture or tradition. By far the most opinions were directed only against the ' opportunity ' of a dogmatic definition, by picturing the dangers which it would entail upon the Church ; and others endeavoured even to make proposals of compromise. Such an oppo- sition, so timid and divided, was naturally but little suited to shake the leaders of the majority, for whom the carry- ing through of infallibility had now become a matter of vital importance ; and just as powerless were the counter- pamphlets, which Eauscher, Schwarzenbei-g, Hefele, Dupanloup,^ and Kem^ick had printed abroad, to produce any impression on those who refused to be convinced.^ On the other hand, the infallibilists understood to exert a 1 The Bishop of Orleans was at that time one of the best hated men by the Curialistic party, who called him, in allusion to his name, ' Lupus Orleanensis.' He acknowledged openly that during his former short visits to Rome he had never realised to himself the rottenness of the temporal government. — Epist., p. 24. 2 Bishop Clifden urged, on behalf of the English and Irish bishops, that the denial of. the dogma had been made an essential condition of emancipation, and that Catholics would be held to have violated all honour and good faith if they now proclaimed doctrines which they had obtained their civil rights by repudiating. — Friedrich, ii. 259, In Ireland the dogma was never heard of as an article of belief until the Vatican Council. Keenan's ' Controversial Catechism '—a Catholic compilation, largely circulated by clerical authority, and bearing the TENIIDITY OF THE OPPOSITION. 327 sensible pressure upon their opponents, by organising in chap, their very dioceses addresses and deputations, demanding tlie definition of inmlhbility/ which, as the Ultramontane papers triumphantly announced, formed the best proof that those bishops did not at all represent the faith of their dioceses. The opposition were utterly mistaken, if they hoped that remonstrances could dissuade tlie pope from the idea which had governed his whole life. Argument must be in vain with a man, who, originally destitute of all intellectual clearness and real knowledge,^ had fallen imprimatm* of living bishops — contained the following question and answer, expunged in the latest edition : — 'Q. Must not Catholics be- lieve the Pope to be in himself infallible ? A. That is a Protestant invention ; it is no article of the Catholic faith.' ^ Thus, the clergy of Rheims sent to their * fallibilist ' archbishop an address of this kind, with a request that it might be presented to the pope (Friedrich, p. 330). The bishops were punished in this matter for the reckless manner in which they had exercised their power over the priests, who were thoroughly Ultramontane, since they hoped to find in the pope a protector against the bishops. This fact appeared plainly in the remarkable publication ' Le Concile et le bas Clerge ' : Paris, 1870 — for instance, at page 10 : ' L'opinion Gallicane afFaiblit le pouvoir du Pape qui est loin, mais eile fortifie celui de I'Eveque qui est pres.' In a letter of a ' vieux cure ' to his bishop, the Avriter said, * Pourquoi nos Eveques tiennent-ils, pour ainsi dire, leur clerge en erat de siege, ä ce point que Fun d'eux a cru pouvoir dire en plein Senat, " Mon clerge est un regiment ; il doit marcher, et il marche." " C'est la faim qui est le nerf de notre discipline " disait un jour, sans rongir, un grand vicaire. La faim quel triste abus ! Abuser de ce qu'un pauvre pretre a faim, qu'il a ä sa charge un pere, line mere qui comp- tent sur lui, pour I'obliger ä se soumettre ä toutes les exigences du caprice, en lui disant, " Pas un mot, pas une plainte, pas un murmure, pas meme I'ombre d'une velleite de resistance ä I'autorite, ou vous etes aneanti. Sic volo, sicjubeo." ' (' Der Katholik,' Mayence, 1851 ; New Series, iv, 448.) How welcome now was the opportunity of out- bidding the bishops in loyalty ! 2 < Nihil intelligit de rebus ecclesiasticis, ita ut quando ilH parlatur omnia frantendit et deducit consequentias tuttas contrarias, quando autem vis rectificare sbaglios suos, non admittit errasse et inviperiscit in te et imponit tibi silentium sicut puerculo scholari.' — Epist., p. 9. XXIIl. 328 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCH.. CHAP, through constant flattery ^ into a state of mind, which only -^^ — '-' differed from tliat of the visionaries of the middle ages inas- much as he spoke relatively the language of the nineteenth obstinacy ccutury. Hc Hstencd neither to advice nor warnings, of the Pope. ]3^^t only to his pretended inspirations. When Cardinal Guidi objected, that in his Allocution, in which he was wilhng to couple infallibility with certain conditions, he only mentioned tradition, Pius replied, 'La tradizione son ' io (' I am tradition.') When a deputation of French bishops earnestly entreated him not to push matters to extremities, and reminded him of how much they had done for him, he answered, that even the most zealous of them had only done their duty, and could find therein no excuse for disobedience. In a general audience given to a deputation of all nations, he said, that the Council would execute the business of God, without heeding sundry conceited wiseacres, who were afraid of touching certain questions, and dared not swim against the stream. It could only excite feelings of profound depression, as a bishop well remarked, to see a man, at the very moment when he wished to exalt his own dignity nearer to the Deity, recklessly exhibiting the most petty weaknesses and passions. But it was evident that it was impossible to reason with such a temperament. Pius treated with reckless scorn every member of the ^ "What Avas rendered to him in this respect borders on the incon- ceivable. A deputation assured him that the Holy Virgin, who owed to him the most beautiful gem in her crown, could not possibly let herself be outdone by him in generosity. The archbishop of Avignon said in a sermon during the Council, that God had thrice become flesh, in Bethlehem, in the sacrifice of the Mass, and in the Vatican ; and the editor of his latest speeches, Don Pasquale de Franciscis, introduces them with the words : ' Eeceive, as fi-om the hands of angels, this Divine vokime of the angelic Pio Nono.' P. 4. Compare for similar utterances Michavid, * L'^Etat actuel de TEglise de France.' EECKLESS CONDUCT OF THE POPE. 329 opposition as liis personal enemy.^ He denounced, in a chap. brief, tlie letter of the bishop of Orleans as full of ' hollow, ^ — ^—- hostile sophisms, which alone have caused the disquieting of consciences.' Even the solemn mass for the dead was refused at first to Montalembert.^ On the other hand, he commissioned his nuncio at Paris to thank all the French, who were inclined in favour of infallibility, for their submission.^ Against the Austro-German bishops in particular he lost no opportunity of venting his spleen. The German spirit, he said, had corrupted everything. ^ Even the most unworthy police measures against them were not disdained. Antonelli declared that in Rome every Catholic priest was subject to the Pope and the Inquisition. The bishops might make excursions into the country, but they could not leave the Council with- out permission. Books sent from abroad were kept back for weeks at the papal post-office. Father Theiner was removed from his office as Prefect of the Archives for having allowed Hefele and Strossmayer to examine the Tridentine Regulation. 2 A few hours after the news of Montalembert's death had reached Rome (March), the Pope happening to be receiving a large body of foreigners, chiefly French, at once disbxu-dened his mind on the sxibject of the deceased Count : — ' II etait malheureusement de ces Catholiques liberaux, qui ne sont que des demi-Cathohques. II y a quelques jours, il ecrivait des paroles' — here he paused, expressed his hope that Montalembert had died a good Catholic and said that pride had been his great fault. When next morning several French bishops and many laymen assembled before the Church of St. Louis (belonging to the French), they found Veuillot stationed there to inform them, that the Pope had forbidden any service to be held for the Count. The intense feeling of indignation existing among the French by this proceeding was privately intimated to the Pope. Accordingly some days after- wards he drove privately to an out of the way church, where he ensconced himself in the tribune, and directed a bishop to say mass ' pro quodam Carolo.' It was then announced in the ' Giornale di Roma,' that in consideration of the former services of Count Monta- lembert, his holiness had ordered a mass to be said for him and had himself assisted. 3 The pamphlet ' Ce qui se passe au Concile ' gives the list of all the briefs and other documents by which the Infallibilist writers were encourajied. 330 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCH.. CHAP. All the efforts of the opposition resulted only in ' — . — ^ making the Pope resolve on decisive measures. The earlier proposition was replaced by a new one, on May 10, which appeared to have been framed with the object of expressing with the utmost rigour and exactitude what the minority, with their scruples, were anxious to avoid. Already on the 13th the general debate began, which, after a long tournament of words, was brought to a close Sr^emrai ^J ^^ abrupt division on the motion of more than 100 june^s bishops, ou Juuc 3. This step so exasperated the minority, that their most important members, such as Strossmayer, Darboy, Dupanloup, and others, advised that they should abstain firom further debates, and record a solemn non- placet at the final voting. But Hefele declared himself against proceeding to these extremities, as the latter object could always be attained, whilst the first measure would cut off all hope of settling the dispute. His argu- ments prevailed ; and thus nothing more was done than a protest, which of course remained absolutely ineffectual. It must be confessed that, in itself, the termination of the debate, after nearly all arguments on either side had been expended, could not be called unreasonable, but it was certainly a fatal error on the part of Hefele to oppose the only step that offered a prospect of success. The opportunity of resistance, once neglected, could not be utilised again ; and the non-placet at the final voting came too late. Amidst general despondency, and with a weariness increased by the unusual heat of the weather,^ the opposition entered upon the special debate on the chapters of the scheme, which lasted until July 4. With the voting came now the final decision, the gravity ' A motion of several bishops to adjourn the Council on that account was most ungraciously rejected by the pope, and Veuillot in the Univers had the rudeness to exclaim to the minority : ' Well, if the precious Avine of infallibility can only ripen in that furnace, let them roast.' THE SCHEME 'DE ECCLESIA' VOTED. 331 of which was represented once more in eloquent terms by chap. the last mamfesto of the opposition, La demure Heure du - — ■ — ' Concile. But the minority again showed themselves un- equal to their task. They frustrated, it is true, the attempt of the Cima to take them by surprise, when it was pro- posed to insert off-hand in Chapter iii. of the decree, a paragraph, ascribing the fulness of Church authority to the Pope alone, and thereby excluding the episcopate. But when the preliminary vote was taken on the whole Constitution in the general congregation of July 13, the TheCon- opposition only numbered 88 non-placets, while 62 voted voted^" with the placets juxta modum, i.e., with certain quali- '^^^ ^^' fications ; and 451 registered an absolute placet} The minority, thus melted down, would still have gained a considerable success, if they had plainly declared their wish to repeat their non-placet at the concluding vote in the solemn plenary session, had the Curia been forced to the conviction that such a session must take place. But that session, indeed, would never have been held ; for even Pius IX. would never have ventured to proclaim a dogma against eighty-eight votes of the most dis- tinguished prelates. But their courage did not suffice for such a step. Desertion After a renewed attempt to obtain from the pope some minority, slight modification of the Constitution had proved un- successful, in spite of Ketteler's prostrating himself at his feet, fifty-six bishops addressed a letter to Pius, in which, while repeating, it is true, their negative vote, they declared that ' the filial piety and veneration which had led their deputies to the feet of his holiness would not allow them to say non-placet publicly and in the face of the father of the Church, in a matter so nearly affecting * No less than 91 were absent, among them the Secretary of State. See ' Eight Months at Eome during the Vatican Council,' by Pomponio Leto. London, 1876. Engl, transl., p. 204. 332 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP, the person of his hohness.' — This was not a defeat, but a XXIII. gjjjjple desertion of their colours. If veneration for the obstinate old man, who himself was never deterred from his fixed idea by any intimidation on the part of his oppo- nents, did not allow them to say no, still the Council was not an executive, but simply a dehberative assembly.^ If this expedient is to be regarded merely as the result of the lamentable pusillanimity with which the minority drew back, &tep by step, from every decisive act, it is altogether incomprehensible that a diplomatist, so well initiated in the proceedings as Baron Arnim could have advised such a step. In his second letter of June 17, addressed to a prelate, which moreover predicts so forcibly the consequences of the proclamation of infallibility,^ he ^ Even now Catholics of the most unimpeachable orthodoxy severely blame the pusillanimity of the bishops. Segesser, the leader of the Swiss Ultramontanes, says in his remarkable pamphlet ' Der Cultur-Kampf ' (third edition, 1875, p. 22 sqq.), ' We think it was the sacred duty of the fathers Avho, in the congregation had given their non-placet, and still in the audience of the pope had maintained their vote, to confirm it in the public session. If they had been of opinion that dogmas might be defined by majority, they were always at liberty to submit to such a resolution. If, on the contrary, they maintained that unanimity, or (^wasz-unanimity, was necessary, they were not justified in making such unanimity possible by staying away simply in order not to offend the pope. They avoided, indeed, a schism ; but it is very doubtful whether the consequences which have arisen are not worse than those which might have arisen had the bishops remained faithful to their opposition.' 2 ' From the day,' he writes, ' on which Infallibility is proclaimed, with the consent or the tacit connivance of the Episcopate, the Govern- ments, as the representatives of the modern political and national in- terests, will find themselves attacked by the Eoman Church. I do not, indeed, aflärm that the enactment of Infallibility will immediately result in a state of things much worse than what has been induced by the practices prevailing in Rome for the last thirty years ; but I am afraid the history of the CEcumenical Council will prove to the satis- faction of all that there is a power at Rome warring against the poli- tical progress and organisation of the modern world. More than this, The minority withdraw. PROCLMIATION OF INFALLIBILITY. 333 did not, indeed, recommend such a statement of ex- chap. planatious as the one above mentioned, but he advised -- — , — '-^ them to 'repeat once more, before the pubhc session, their non-placet in a written protest, and to leave Eome, without affording scope for further transactions.' This proceeding, which was actually adopted, remained entirely without eöect, since every protest given outside the Council was regarded, in a parliamentary sense, as not existing. At the voting only the formally tendered non-placets were taken into consideration ; not those of members who either stayed away or abstained from voting. Moreover, in written protests there was no security that the protesting parties would persevere in then- opposition. The Curia foresaw that as soon as the minority had dispersed, one after the other would drop off; and this in fact happened. IsTot the smallest atten- tion, therefore, was paid to the document, but its authors were simply rebuffed. On July 18 the dogma of Infalli- P'ociama- bihty was proclaimed by Pius IX., with 533 against two infaui- votes.^ The outbreak of the Franco-German War scattered the Council to the four winds. It had fulfilled the task which its originators had imposed upon it; but the temporal sovereignty, which was to have been restored to its full extent by the fulness of spiritual power, finally the German bishops in all probability will show themselves so utterly dependent upon the mischievous central power at Rome, that at the eleventh hour they will not only abandon their own deliberate opinions, but actvially accept as revealed truth what they have denied before, and what the secular power can never put up with.' ' The two dissentients were Ricci of Cajazzo, and Fitzgerald of Little Rock. Two of the 88 who formed the minority of the 13th voted now with the majority. A terrible thunderstorm was raging that day over Rome. ' Caerimonia fuit tristis et gelida ; aula depopu- lata . . . . S. Pater erat imprimis arrabiatus, postea abbattutus et stancus.' — Epist., p. 44. 334 THE SYLLABUS AND THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP, collapsed. The shortsightedness which marked the Italian - — , — ^ policy in regard to the issue of the war, and the hollow- ness of the pretexts for occupying Eome, may be ad- mitted without reserve. But the httleness of the men by whom this judgment was executed makes no difference in its importance in the history of the world. Providence often makes use of unworthy instruments to accomphsh grand designs. The same year which saw the overthrow of Ceesarism immediately after the plebiscite, witnessed also the Nemesis which overtook the spiritual pride of the Pontiff, now exalted to its highest pinnacle, and showed to him who arrogated to himself a divine nature, that God is a jealous God, who will allow to none other the honour due to Himself. 335 CHAPTER XXIV. THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUJvTIL. Triumph of Rome over the Episcopate — Dogmatic Constitution of Jiily 18, 1870 — Liberal Catholicism in Germany — DöUinger rehuked by the Curia — Anomalous Attitude of his School — Argimients of Schulte examined — Question of CEcumenicity and Freedom of Council — The Dogma tested by Scriptm-e and Tradition — Congresses of Old Catholics at Munich and Cologne — Chimerical Hopes of a reunited Christendom — Church Con- stitution of the Old Catholics — Consecration of Bishop Eeinkens — Divi- sions in the Old Catholic Party — The Movement compared -with the Reformation — Its untenable Character — Its Protection by the State — False Policy of the Government in Prussia— Conduct of Bavaria — Pro- bable Future of the Movement — Altered Relations between Catholicism and the State— Austria rejects the Concordat — ^The Reservation of ex Cathedra. The Vatican Council was substantially the struggle ^^y between the last remnants of episcopal independence and ^7-^^ — ' papal absolutism, and it terminated in the unconditional Romrover victory of the latter. The Curia, it is true, had already copate^.'^' for a long time virtually governed the Church with un- limited sway. A Council, which might have rendered its power doubtful, did not exist, and could not be called together without special appointment from the Vatican. Step by step the bishops had lost their former position of independence. Even against the open usui'pation of absolute power by the pope, in his proclamation of a dogma on his own authority, they had not ventured to offer any opposition. But not even all this would satisfy Pius IX. His absolute monarchy was to be acknowledged, as the orthodox doctrine of the Church, by that very organ 336 THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. xxiv' ^^ which episcopacy had hitherto found its chief support } ' — • — ' And this object he succeeded in accompKshing, when the bishops, in their decree of July 18, invested the pretensions of tlie pajDacy with the authority of a dogma, by which they renounced for the future all independent rights, and reduced themselves to the position of mere instruments and officials of the Universal Pontiff. Doginatic ^hc Pästor JStemus, or ' First Dogmatic Constitution Constitu- ' O tion, Pastor of the Cliurch of Christ,' gives the curialistic theory of ^temus, ' o _ J July 18, the position and power of the Pope in all its rugged severity. The substance of its four chapters is as follows : — 1. Upon Simon Peter only did Christ confer the jurisdiction of Chief Pastor and Euler over His whole flock. Let those therefore be anathema who deny that Peter alone, in preference to the other Apostles, whether to each separately or to all collectively, was endowed by Christ with a true and proper primacy of jurisdiction, or who affirm that this primacy was transmitted not im- mediately and directly to Peter, but to the Church, and through it to him as a minister of that Church. 2. Peter lives, presides, and judges till now, and always in his successors, the bishops of the Holy Eoman See, which was founded by him and consecrated by his blood. Hence, whoever succeeds to Peter in this chair, he, by the institution of Christ Himself, obtains the primacy of Peter over the Universal Church. 3. Wherefore all the faithful of Christ, as the defini- tion of the (Ecumenical Council of Florence already teaches, are bound to believe that the holy Apostolic See and the Eoman Pontiff have the primacy over the whole world ; and the Eoman Pontiff is the successor of Peter, and the true Vicar of Christ, and the head of the whole * * Opus est facere S. Patrem padronem in domo sua, et reducere episcopatum etiam in theoria, quod in praxi jam factum est, ad imam positionem conformem ideaj et bisognis Ecclesije.' — Epist., p. 19. CANONS OF PAPAL INFALLIBILITY. 337 Cliiirch, and the father and teacher of all Christians, and chap. . . . XXIV. that to him, in Blessed Peter, full power was given by our ■ — V-^ Lord Jesus Christ to feed, rule, and govern the Uni- versal Church. . . . Tliis power of jurisdiction of the Eoman Pontiff, which is truly episcopal, is imme- diate ; and pastors and faithful of every rite and rank, Avhether singly and separately, or collectively, are bound to it by the duty of liierarchical subordination and true obedience, not only in things which pertain to faith and morals, but also in tilings which pertain to the discipline and rule of the Church.^ Further, from this supreme power of the Eoman Pontiff of governing the Universal Church, it follows that he has the right of communicating freely with the pastors and flocks of the whole Church in the exercise of this his office. Whereupon we condemn and reprobate the opinion of those who say that this communication of the Supreme Head with the pastors and flocks may be lawfully impeded, or who make it dependent on the secular power. . . . He is the supreme judge of the faithful, and in all causes which are of ecclesiastical cognisance recourse may be had to his judgment; the judgment of the Apostohc See, whose authority has no superior, can be reviewed by none, and no one is allowed to judge its judgments {judicium a nemine fore retractandum). 4. But since it has always been held by the Holy See that ' the supreme power of the magisterium is also con- tained in the Apostolic Primacy .... and since in this our age, in which the salutary efficacy of the Apostolic office is more than ever required, not a few are found who oppose its authority or judge it tobe necessary ^ That this ' teaching of Catholic truth, from which no one can deviate without injury to faith and to salvation ' (salvd fide et salute), can prejudice in no way the ordinary jurisdiction of the individual bishops, is maintained by these, indeed, but not proved. VOL. n. z 338 THE EESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCH.. CHAP, solemnly to assert the prerogative which the only begotten XXIV Son of God designed to join to the supreme pastoral office Therefore, Sacro approhante Concilio, we teach and define it to be a dogma divinely-revealed, that when the Eoman Pontiff speaks e.v Cathedra, that is, when in discharge of the office of Pastor and Teacher of all Christians, he defines, in virtue of his supreme Apos- tohc authority, a doctrine of faith or morals to be held by the Universal Church, he enjoys, by the Divine assist- ance promised to him in the person of Saint Peter, that infallibility with which our Divine Eedeemer willed His Church to be endowed in defining doctrines of faith or morals ;^ and that, therefore, such definitions of the Eoman Pontiff are irreformable of themselves (ea;_ sese irreformahiles), and not from the consent of the Church.^ With this astounding document, the papal system is carried to a pitch of presumption, beyond which nothing more is possible ; for every dogma which may be pro- claimed by Pius IX. or his successors, however extra- ordinary it may be, must be considered just as much a pm-e emanation of infallibility, as every new claim in the Church and for the Church is the result of the omni- potence of the universal bishop.^ From a Protestant ^ Accordingly the Civilta was not ashamed to declare that when the pope thinks it is God who is thinking in him. 2 This last formula Avas added at the last moment to the decree, at the suggestion of the Spanish bishops, and in defiance of the entreaties of the minority for some modification. Its object was to cut away the ground from those who, as, for instance, in the case of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, accepted the statement of the Pope's in- fallibility, on the supposition that the Church, tacitly, if not expressly, endorsed his utterances. The first wording of the amendment, * irre- formabiles ex sese absque consensu Ecclesise,' was rejected by the Assembly. ' Eight Months at the Vatican Council,' p. 208. 3 In this respect Renan undoubtedly has defined with accuracy the situation : * Comme Richelieu et Louis XIV. ont ecrit d'avance les traits essentiels de la revolution, de memo Pie IX. a decide que I'unite INDIFFERENCE OF CATHOLIC LAITY. 339 point of view all that can be said of such a dogma is chap that it is anti-Christian ; that it openly defeats the cause -^A — '- of true religion ; that both in itself and in the means by which it was accomplished, it has laid bare to demonstra- tion the deep-seated rottenness of Eoraanism ; and that its solemn ratification by a council professedly oecumenical, has given a fresh and striking proof of the infallibility of such assemblies. And further, it is certain that in the proclamation of the new dogma there is a manifest con- tradiction. If the pope is infallible, he must always have been so ; consequently the Council is fallible and its declaration has no value ; not the Council, but only the infallible pope himself can declare that he is iufallible. If, on the other hand, the Council is infallible, the pope must be faUible ; for an infalhble organ of the Church can never transmit its infallibility to another one. Xevertheless, it would be an error to ascribe the The • 1 1 • 1 p 1 X Vatican 3 victory of the Curia simply to the tricks of the Jesuits or triumph the weakness of the bishops. It was achieved because it to inäitrerl was the ultimate consequence of the infallibility of the cTthoUc Church. The episcopal theory was vanquished, in prin- ciple, ever since the foilure of the great councils of the IGth century. Accordingly, the Catholic masses, whose life is regulated by, and penetrated with their faith, but who are for the most part extremely ignorant on religious matters, felt themselves wholly unconcerned with the question of infallibility, and saw nothing very novel or alarming in the dogma. As for unbelievers and sceptics, they cared not one way or the other. If they had aban- doned, at least outwardly, the estabhshed religion, it was to pass, without reserve, to free thinking, and to regarding all theological discussion as a waste of time. This was catholique perirait revolutionnairement, pav exces de pouvoir : toute force se brise quand eile a atteiut son maximum.' (Revue des Deux Mondes, Fevr. 1874 : 'La Crise Religieuse en Europe.') z 2 laity. 340^ THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP, particularly the case in purely Catholic countries, such as " ' — ' Italy, Spain, and Belgium ; even in France only a few learned ecclesiastics ^ and laymen shrank from the extre- mity, so repugnant to their theological knowledge. But it was different with the Catholics hving in coun- tries where mixed confessions prevailed. Here an oppo- sition arose against the new dogma, which rejected it on the ground that the decree of the Council was, in substance as well as in form, invalid. This view is represented by the theology of German Catholicism. This school, has, it is true, for a long time occupied a very peculiar position within the united Church. ' Le Cathohcisme liberal,' says Liberai°^ Presscnse,^ ' n'est nulle part aussi hardi, aussi decide qu'en Catholics Allemagnc. On n'habite pas impunement cette terre many. classiquc dc la libre söience.' The unavoidable contact with Protestant theology could not fail to react in time upon the Catholic, because the latter was forced into controversy with Protestantism, and therefore, in measur- ing swords with so formidable an opponent, was obliged to be careful in its assertions. In the interests of defence against Protestant attacks the German Catholic theolo- gians acted like the liberal Catholics in general. They endeavoured to avoid and soften away the most important points of official dogma and canon law ; and, where this was not possible, to represent them as compiled ^ Among these wera the Abbe MichancI and Father Hyacinthe. Gratry retracted immediately in a letter addressed to the Archbishop of Paris (November 25, 1871) : — ' Tout ce que sur ce sujet, avant la decision, j'ai pu ecr're contraire aux decrets, je I'efFace.' The Arch- bishop himself said to Hyacinthe, ' Ce dogme n'a pas I'importance que vous lui attribuez, et au fond il ns decide rien. Je n'y etais pas oppose comme theologien, car il n'est pas faux, mais comme homme, parcequ'il est iaepte-' — Hyacinthe, 'La Reforme Catholique,' i. 119. ^ 'Le Concile du Vatican,' p. 125. Renan in his essay even maintains that a German Catholic, with a little culture of mind, has almost Protestant habits of thought. GERMAN LIBERAL CATHOLICS. 341 under the influence of the middle ages, and destitute of cttap. vahie for the present time. In this manner they con- - ■' " . - - structed a scientific system of Cathohcism, Avhich should prove to the world that the Catholic Church was not in reality the ' decried, stationary, and stultifying insti- tution ' that its enemies supposed.^ But however valu- able the philosophical works of Hermes and Günther, the dogmatic writings of Möliler, and the ecclesiastico-histo- rical writings of Döllinger and Hefele, still the system itself rested on very weak foundations. Scientifically, it was incomplete, since enquiry w^as only carried so far as was possible witliout open opposition to Catholic autho- rity ; but it Avas nevertheless indisputably a contradiction to the doctrine alone recognised by Kome, and which was taught in all pm'ely Catholic countries. In order to escape from this dilemma, the school sought, on the one hand, to represent the Ultramontane view, which, if monstrous, was logical enough, as an exaggeration of the Jesuits, in no way binding on the Church, and, on the other hand, to attest the genuineness of their Catholicism by hostility tow^ards Protestantism and by a ready fur- therance of all claims of the Church to authority.^ Notwithstanding this, however, the German theologians remained in very ill odour at Eome.^ ' Their position towards the Curia,' says Eenan, ' was that of learned advocates defending, with a mass of texts and authorities, 1 Circular of Prof . Himpel at Tübingen, May 16, 1863. 2 It is only necessary to recall the dishonourable part played by Döllinger in Abel's genuflexion edict. At the WUrzbvu-g Assembly in 1848 he was among the most zealous advocates of Church authority. 3 Pius IX. said significantly of one of their champions, 't^ buonissimo teologo, ma cattivo Cristiano.' ' His holiness speaks with indignation of philosophy,' writes Für in his ' Letters from Rome,' p. 23, . . . ' He is resolved to proceed Avith severity, and the Index will have plenty of work ' (p. 69). The author, formerly a professor at Innspruck, then ' Uditore della Kota ' at Rome, and therefore certainly not open to sus- 342 THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP. XXIV. Their rela- tions witli Home. a client who took a malicious pleasure in destroying their arguments as fast as they were painfully building them up.' Wherever, therefore, these theologians showed a weak side that was open to attack, the Curia never failed to let them feel its displeasure. The more strenuously now that Eome, driven into straits by the development of the Italian question, en- deavoured to press all. the forces of Catholicism into blind devotion to her service, so much the more doubtful became the position of these scientific Catholics. Their conscience forbade them to agree to the inviolability of the Ecclesiastical State, for they knew only too well the manner of its acquisition ; and yet, even the most consi- derate hints of Döllinger ^ on this point were answered with angry censure. The proclamation of the Immaculate Conception they were bound, of necessity, to regard as an picion as a freethinker, gives a graphic picture of the profound ignorance and arrogance which he found prevailing at Home, and assures us that there only he had learned to appreciate German science. Casuistry, scholasticism, and the canon law were the only branches of study that were actively cultivated. (Pp. 14, 15.) * In his ' Church and the Churches,' published at Munich in 1861 , he not only admits the misgovernment of the Papal States, but confesses that the French garrison protects the pope, not against Piedmont, but against his own subjects and volunteers. 'What is there,' he says, ' to prevent us from thinking that a state of circumstances may arise in which, when elections to the papal dignity occur, the persons chosen shall no longer be decrepit, aged individuals, but men in the prime of their years and their strength ; a period too in which the people shall be reconciled to their government by free institutions, and share in the conduct of their own concerns ? ' (P. 430, McCabe's transl.) DuUinger considers that concessions of religious freedom Avould be harmless, because no one at Eome would become a Protestant. As a reason for the bad state of papal finances in former times he alleges that the popes ' could not withdraw themselves from the obligation to support the Catholic powers in the religious struggles of the sixteenth and seven- teenth centuries, and especially from furnishing contributions in money, troops, and ships for the wars against the Turks' (!). {Ibid. p. 368.) THEm RELATIONS WITH THE PAPACY. 343 invasion of the rights of Church Councils ; but they never wtap. ventured to j^rotest against it when accomphshed. In a — .— -^ lectm-e which Dölhnger deHvered on this subject,, the papal nuncio ostentatiously rose and left the room. When, in 1863, at the opening of the Catholic Congress, he declared his preference for German, as compared with Ultramontane theology, he was violently attacked by the partisans of the latter ; his programme was defeated ; and a telegram was sent to the pope, announcing that the question of the relations between science and authority was decided in favour of the subjection of science. Pius IX. replied by sending his blessing ; but in a brief of December 31, to the archbishop of Munich (Tuas Ubenter), he expressed his disapproval of such assemblies, and observed that subjection was required not only to dogmas but also to papal constitutions, the Indea;, etc. Only on condition of accepting the principles of this brief were the bishops to allow such assemblies to be held, — so the nuncios at Vienna and Munich declared in a circular of September 4, 1864. Döllinger's speech was implicitly condemned by the Syllabus ^ ; and the Civilta Cattolica ^^ maintained that the bones, not only dry but putrid- - the Universities — could only be galvanised into life by listeuimr to the words of the Council, at which the infallible pope would declare the law of God. But, although the German theologians submitted to They revolt all these individual rebuffs with the utmost resignation, faiubnity?" they felt — as indeed, they could not help feeling — at the approach of Infallibility, that if ever it became a dogma, their whole edifice of theology, as it had stood * Art. XIII. ' Methodus et principia, quibua antiqui doctores scholastic! theologiam excoluerunt, tempomm nostrorum necessitatibus scientiarumque progressui minime congruunt.' 2 18G8, ser. vii. vol. iii. p. 277. ' Ossa, non pur aride, ma fctcnti — le Univerriitä.' 344 THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCH.. CHAP, hitherto, must inevitably collapse, and their position, with - - \ '- - regard to Protestant science, must at once become unten- able. The question, therefore, was one of life and death ; and they entered on the combat with the utmost decision and promptitude. Döllinger, says Eenan, on being con- sulted as to the new dogmas, rephed that if they were promulgated all would be lost.^ This great strategist saw that the new dogmas would render it impossible to argue any further against the Protestants. The side of the fortress in which he was defending himself was very narrow, and he declared it was as much as he could do to hold his ground ; if it were narrowed still further, the defence would become absolutely impossible. The ma- jority of the known theologians of the German Catholic Universities concurred in this opinion. Anomalous And yet it is just the most famous literary productions, this school, pubhshed during this struggle, that show in the clearest light the anomalous and hybrid character of this German Cathohc theology. The book ' The Pope and the Council,' by Janus, is one of the most eloquent and at the same time most unanswerable bills of indictment against the Papacy that any age has produced, and yet it has not the courage openly to break with an institution which has brought about the evils it exposes. It strips that institu- tion of every legitimate pretension to divine origin ; it points out its insignificance in the ancient Church ; it lays bare the frauds and falsifications of the middle ages ; and what is the result ? The corruptions of Jesuitism and the unacceptableness of papal infallibility. Could the author or authors really believe that they still stood on Eoman Catholic ground ? The case is the same with Schulte's famous w^ork, ^ See also the Declaration of the Nuremberg meeting, at -which Döllinger was present. (' Catholicism and the Vatican,' by J. Lowry Whittle. 1872, p. 32 sqq.) ILLOGICAL POSITION OF SCHULTE. 345 'The Councils, the Popes, cand the Bishops,' which chap appeared shortly after the Vatican Council, — a book of the - — ^,— ^ most massive erudition, but full of contradictions and auifuTeof obscurity. The author divides the history of the Church Schuite. into two parts : on the one side stands the ' Ancient Church,' reaching up to the eighth oecumenical council of Constantinople, in 869, and whose decrees are regarded as valid : on the other side stands the ' Church of the Middle Ages,' resting on the false foundations of the pseudo-Isidorian decretals, and whose authority is re- jected and ignored. The Tridentine decrees are only quoted so far as they tell against those of the Vatican Council. An arbitrary division of this kind is contra- dicted by all the laws of historical continuity. It is im- possible to accept even the theory, that the Church pre- served her apostolic origin in unsullied purity throughout the first three centuries. It is still more baseless to date her decay from pseudo-Isidore, who marks only the summit in the range of that policy which the Curia had already been pursuing for a century. But, apart from these objections, the chronological division adopted by Schulte militates directly against the principles of the Catholic Church, which stands or falls with the supposi- tion of a continuity extending through all succession of time. To contest something which hitherto has been considered an article of faith, is uncatholic ; for it is to renounce, in other words, the infallible authority of Church teaching. With regard, now, to the dogmatic constitution of July 18, 1870, Schulte declares it to be both in substance and in form invalid ; — ^in substance, because it contradicts His Scripture and tradition ; — in form, because the Council against the was neither oecumenical nor free. It seems obvious, irüfaiü- however, that as regards the Catholic Church, only the ^' ^^^'' formal validity of that dogma can come in question ; for 346 THE. RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCH.. CHAP, a legislative power, which has no superior authority to ^~-?J^ control it, is sovereign within its own domain, and its decrees are unconditionally valid so long as they touch not on anything naturally impossible. Such is the meaning of the Enghsh saying, that ' Parliament can do everything but make a woman into a man.' if to-morrow the Houses of Lords and Commons were to pass a bill, with the assent of the Crown, to abolish the Magna Charta and to introduce the Inquisition, that would no doubt be a very unreasonable law and one contrary to the British Constitution. But it would none the less be a law judi- cially binding on all subjects of the realm ; — unconstitu- tional, but legally" binding, as one would say in English legal phraseology. The question, therefore, of substantial invalidity is limited to cases where something actually impossible is resolved upon. Now, as regards the legis- lative power in the Catholic Church, it was a maxim uncontested up to 1870, that only the Pope and Council together could pronounce a dogmatic decision on articles of faith ; just as, to pursue the parallel, the civil constitu- tions of England and of Prussia require that only the Crown and both houses of the legislature united can make a statute of the realm. It is perfectly correct, though from a legal aspect unimportant, to affirm, as Schulte does, that in the ancient Church the councils alone established the faith ; and the reason is plain ; for the Eoman primate at that time did not exist, and therefore possessed no importance. But it is equally certain that for more than a thousand years the consent of the pope has been indis- pensable ; no more striking proof of this can be given than the failure of the Councils of Constance and Basle, which sought to revive in that respect the practice of the ancient Church, ü^or, again, is it enough to say that, wliereas at Trent, the decrees were published in the name of the council and confirmed by the pope, the contrary HIS ARGUaiENTS AGAINST INFALLIBILITY. 347 happened at the Vatican. All that this proves is, that in chap. tlie sixteenth century the council was still the stronger -- . '- - power of the two, and that the pope is again the stronger in the nineteenth, as he had been in the twelfth. The sole fact of importance is this, that the concurrence of the two powers is now, as it has always been, a necessity ; and since this concurrence has taken place, as regards the constitution of infallibility, one should conclude that it became thenceforth a dogma just as valid and incontest- able as that of the Immaculate Conception by the pope alone was one-sided and invalid, and such, therefore, as no Cathohc need hold to be binding on his conscience. But, again. Schulte maintains the constitution of 1870 His to be invalid, on the ground that the Council was neither theCouncu oecumenical nor free. Here the question, however, arises, petenT."^' Who is to decide on this matter ? Assmredly not private divines,^ however learned, who, after the Council had pronounced the decision they contested, demurred in general to its authority. Very possibly, the governments, had they been represented as formerly, would have been able to prevent some resolutions ; but as their envoys were not present and they chose rather to announce that the Council should enjoy full freedom upon the territory of the Chiu-ch, the Council had only to come to terms with the pope : it alone, therefore, was in a position to judge whether it was cecumenical itself and possessed the necessary freedom of deliberation. That the Opposition did not protest by their secession against the restriction of its freedom, as well as against the whole proceedings of the pope, and thereby deprive at once the assembly of its oecumenical character, was an act of moral cowardice ^ The synodal representation of Old Catholics declared in 1864 that it was a 'calumny' to accuse them, as was done by the German bishops in their pastorals, of conceding the decision in matters of faith to the private judgment of individuals. 348 THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP, and a great blunder, but it could invalidate no resolution ' — ^— ' of the Council. That could only be done, if the latter were to meet again and rescind its former decrees with the consent of the pope — an event, indeed, which is hardly within the range of contemplation. It is the same in this matter as in the sphere of civil politics. It is well known, for example, that Walpole obtained a majority for his most important laws by bribing members of parliament. Unquestionably, the parliament is always entitled to repeal a law so made ; for the power which has made a statute can also unmake it. But what would be said if, without the law in question having been re- pealed, a lawyer should treat it as inconsistent with right, on the ground that it had been passed by means of bribery? Or what would a government, which had concluded a treaty of extradition with France under Napoleon III., have answered, if it had occurred to M. Thiers to declare that agreement to be invalid, on the ground that an assembly of mere creatures of the Emperor, such as the Corps Legislatif at that time had been, was no freely consenting representative body ? His plea Nor, indeed, is there any better ground for this ex tent with post facto attack on the vahdity of the constitution of member^- July 18, 1870, iu the Standpoint of formal legality, on ^ ^^' which alone it depends. He who declares a decree of the highest authority of the Catholic Church to be contra- dictory to reason, history, and his own conscience, must first retire from the communion of that Church before he can justify his position ; just as a citizen who declares a new civil statute to be intolerable has nothing left to him but to emigrate. But apart from these crucial objections to Schulte's argument, his pleas in themselves seem devoid of foun- dation. It cannot but strike one as strange, even at first sight, to find the oecumenicity of the Vatican Council dis- ms PLEAS INCONSISTENT WITH CATHOLICISM. 349 puted, when certainly ever since the fourth Lateran chap. . • XXIV. CouDcil in 1215, the world has hardly witnessed such a - — r— ^ gathering of the representatives of collective Catholicism. The disproportion between the numerical weight of the bishops and the importance of their dioceses has already been exposed ; ^ but that circumstance cannot affect the vaUdity of the decrees, since, according to the existing law of the Church, all bishops in Council are equal among themselves. Consequently, those bishops even who have no dioceses at all — in partibiis inßdelium, as the phrase is — enjoy an equahty of position with those who exercise a locally appointed jurisdiction. At a General Council the episcopate appear as the universal organ of the Church ; and their quahfica- tion consists in the episcopal consecration transmitted in apostolic succession. When Schulte objects, that in the ancient Church the bishops appeared at the Council simply as witnesses of the faith in their respective dioceses, he is just as accurate, no doubt, as when he says that they were then elected by the people and the clergy. But his objection leads to nothing, for that right, which was enjoyed by the ancient Church, is of little practical avail to her at present — no more, indeed, than the old lex Bajuvariorum would be for the Bavarians of the nine- teenth century. The titular bishops, however vicious their origin as an institution, enjoy an equal right of voting with the other bishops at Church councils ; nay, they formed the very element, whereby the eecumenicity of so many of those councils was established ; and the case was the same with the cardinals, generals of the orders, and abbots, who never received consecration from a bishop. Finally, least of all can any rational objection to the legal constitution of the Council be founded on the absence of the ambassadors of the civil powers. 1 See ante, p. 317. 350 THE EESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP. XXIV. ATf^ument derived from Scrip- ture and tradition. Sucli a representation, if customaiy in earlier times, is not indispensable ; to say nothing of the fact that the powers themselves did not desire it in this instance, and that France alone, and then only at the eleventh hour, demanded it. That the Curia sought every device to restrict the freedom of the Council is certainly not to be disputed ; but it is equally certain that this restraint had not gone so far as to take from the minority the possibility of coming to a free resolution. Had the opposition, under the plea of coercion, seceded with a protest from the Council, and placed themselves under the protection of the ambassadors of State, no one would have ventured to molest them. But they have no reason to complain of the consequences of this omission, for volenti non fit injuria. And were then the earlier Councils, whose authority is undisputed, in reality free ? Was the council of Niceea free, where Constantine dictated from behind the scenes their resolutions to the bishops? Can the minority of 1870 accuse the Vatican assembly of dis- orders like those which disgraced the first Council of Ephesus ; or can they pretend that Pius IX. interfered as actively as did Theodosius at Byzantium in 08 1 ? Was the fourth Lateran Council free, where no one ventured to dispute the decrees of Pope Innocent? Was the famous Council of Trent really free ? No one who has read what Sarpi, Eanke, or even ' Janus ' ^ have recorded of that Council will maintain that sucli was the case. Nor less untenable is the objection — ^if indeed the pretext can be entertained at all — that the dogma of in- fallibility is invalid, because it contradicts Scripture and tradition. Are then the dogmas of absolution, purgatory, and tlie worship of images and relics conformable witli Scripture ? And yet the Council of Trent confirmed ' P. 388 sqq. THE ARGUMENT OF TRADITION. 351 tliese all anew. As for tradition, the question comes to chap. this — what meaning or interpretation is to be attached to ■ — ^^— ^ an idea so vague and elastic? Measured by the pro- position of Vincentius of Lerinum (434)/ as quoted by Schulte, tliat that only is truly Catholic which ' is believed everywhere, always, and by all,' scarcely one of the specific Catholic dogmas will stand the proof. Were indeed, if we come to the second century, transub- stantiation, auricular confession, and the seven sacra- ments believed in ' everywhere and by all ' ? Nor has this principle of the ' Old Catholic Church,' which pre- supposes that the episcopate, assembled in council, were only witnesses of the faith of their dioceses, ever since prevailed in the dogmatic definitions, which for the most part were the consequence of violent struggles. If, on the other hand, one accepts tradition in the much more rational and genetic sense of Möhler, namely, as a gradual development of the doctrine as delivered by the mouth of the Apostles ; it is clear that it requires a verifjdng authority, authentically to declare what the substance of tradition really is. The Council of Trent, therefore, was perfectly logical Avhen, perceiving that it was impossible to vanquish Protestantism by Scripture, it made tradition of co-ordinate authority with Scrip- ture. The essence of true tradition is not determined by historical research, but by the doctrinal office of the Church ; and this collateral thesis is the fundamental one, namely, that tradition is nothing but the infallible doctrinal office of the Church, which interprets alike Scripture and tradition, and establishes doubtful doctrines, especially through the union of her members in Council together with the pope. The Old Catholics, by striving to maintain tradition * Proof 298. ' Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus cre- ditum est. Hoc est etenim vere proprieque Catholicum.' 352 TPIE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP, and yet clinging to the definition of Yincentius of Leri- -^~r~^ num, argue in a circle, as, indeed, their Bonn Catechism of 1875 suffices to show.^ Whoever rejects the infallible doctrinal office of the Church no longer stands upon the ground of Catholic membership. ^ At the Vatican assembly pope and council have spoken authentically. The last token and memorial of the validity of their decision, namely, its formal acknow- ledgment by the Church, has been given, since the collec- tive episcopate submitted to the new dogma. '^ Tliat ' Art. 211-13. ' By tradition we understand the doctrines of faith deUvered by the Apostles, and propagated therefore throughout the Church, without interruption, from one generation to another. Tradition is to be found in the writings of the teachers of the Church since the times of the Apostles, and in the consentaneous faith of the collective Church. Those doctrines alone belong to the deliverance of the Apostles on which the teachers of the Church agree.' Art. 215. ' A Council decides truly about matters of faith, if the decision agrees with Scripture and tradition, i.e., the general faith of the whole Church.' And then it is asked, What is to be done if a Council has given a dogmatic definition in contradiction with the general creed of the Avhole Church? In that case the Church, i.e., the community of the faithful, is bound to reject such a decision. But the Catechism does not answer the question, how it can be discovered whether such a decision agrees with the general belief of the Church or not. ^ Schulte (' System,' p. 100) declares, ' The foundation of the Church involves of necessity the establishment by Christ of a special class gifted Avith infallibility by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.' 3 Care has cleverly been taken not to press too urgently the leading members of the opposition. The most dangerous of them, Archbishop Darboy, fell a victim, unfortunately, to the Communists at Paris. From the Hungarian bishops the Vatican was content with a tacit acquiescence. Strossmayer, up to this day, has neither recanted nor published the decrees in his diocese; but he is allowed to do as he likes, as he does not openly revolt against them. The German bishops, including Hefele, have collectively recorded their submission, and caused the dogma to be acknowledged in their dioceses. It is absurd, how- ever, to attack them for this ; the reproach which they really deserve is their desertion of their colours at the Council. When once the latter had spoken, submission became simply a Catholic duty. • Their b;id [unich, 1871. FIRST OLD CATHOLIC CONGRESS. 353 dogma, therefore, must be regarded as an integral part of chap. the orthodox Catholic faith. To assert, as the Old Catho- ^i^'-^ lies assert, that the true Catholic doctrine demands its repudiation, since the official Church had identified her- self with the Ultramontane party, is vain sophistry, for properly there is no Catholic Church but the Roman and the Greek. They began by declaring, at the first Old First oid Catholic Congress at Munich ^ (September 22-24, 1871), con^rSat that they held fast to the ' Old Catholic creed as attested JJ in Scripture and tradition,' to the Old worship, and the Old constitution of the Church, and to the Tridentine decrees, which, to say the least, are somewhat obscurely worded. They recognised not only the 'divinely- consti- tuted hierarchy of bishops, priests, and deacons,' but the ' primacy of the Bishop of Eome, as it was acknowledged, on the authority of Scripture (?), by Fathers and Councils in the old undivided Christian Church.' What the Old Cathohc faith and constitution consisted of was not indeed defined: what was expressly rejected were the Vatican dogmas of the Infallibility of the Pope, and of his ordinary and immediate episcopal jurisdiction.^ They Declara- tion of Old Catholic confession. conscience only was shown by their declaring that the Council had defined the Infallibility of the Pope to extend merely to such limits as were preserved by the faith and practice of the Church — a statement to which their opposition at the Council gave the lie. ' The English reader will find a full account of the proceedings of this Congress in Whittle's 'Catholicism and the Vatican,' 1872. [Tk.] "^ ' From the point of view of the confession of faith contained in the Tridentine Creed, we repudiate the dogmas introduced under the pontificate of Pius IX., in contradiction to the doctrine of the Church, and to the principles continuously followed since the Council of Jeru- salem, especially the dogmas of the Pope's infallible teaching, and of his supreme episcopal and immediate jurisdiction.' — Art. I. in ' Stenogr. Bericht über die Verhandlungen des Katholischen Congresses, Mün- chen,' 1871, p. 221. Professor Huber, who, as a member of the Drafting Committee, introduced the Declaration, pointed out that the repudiation of newly-fabricated dogmas applied to the dogma of the VOL. n. A A 354 THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCH.. CHAP, declared further, that ' a council, which was not, as the XXIV < — ^-^ Vatican Council was, deficient in the actual external con- ditions of oecumenicity, but which, in the general sentiment of its members, exhibited a disregard of the fundamental principles and of the past history of the Church, could not issue decrees binding upon the consciences of the mem- bers of the Church.' But it was not stated who was to decide whether this was the case or not. As the con- ference, however, proceeded, those who took their stand on adherence to antiquity fell gradually into the background. Second ^* ^^ second Old Catholic Congress at Cologne coS?** (September 20-22, 1872), the position taken up at Munich 1872. ^as still formally adhered to. Professor ' Maassen, for example, declared, ' The basis of our agreement is the Church as she stood up to July 18, 1870. If we forsake that, we substitute arbitrary opinions for law ; we become sectarians, feeble and careless of genuine reform.' On the other hand, at the Union Conference at Bonn, in 1874, Bollinger declared, ' With regard to the Council of Trent, I believe I can say, in the name of my colleagues, that we hold ourselves in no way bound by all the decrees of that Council, which cannot be regarded as an oecumenical one.'^ Here at once was a formal separation from the Dutch Old Cathohcs, whom they had welcomed as fellow-brethren in belief at Munich, but whose bishops subscribe to the Tridentine Confession, as a certificate of their orthodoxy, and send that certificate to Eome. The Old Catholics now seek to vindicate their Catho- licism by insisting on reverting to the ancient Church, which embraces only the period before the schism of the East. But even this position is not fully adhered to ; for at the Congress at Cologne in 1872, when a proposal to Immaculate Conception. Art. III. provided for the admission of the Catholic laity to a ' constitutionally- regulated participation' in Church business. » Official Report, p. 8. PROSPECTS OF A REUNITED CHRISTENDOM. 355 that effect was advocated,^ Schulte, who was President, chap, . XXIV. expressly declared, ' Xot all, what we believe ; not all, - — ^— 1" what we hold to, is defined in the first seven oecumenical councils. On the contrary, since the separation of the East and West, much has been formulated which, according to oiu: inmost conviction, is true, and which must be carefully distinguished from the false.' All this does not bode well for the hopes of a reunion Chimerical with the Eastern Church, to be followed by a union of all reunited Christendom, which Döllinger fondly hopes from the dom.*^"' future. And there are other reasons which lead us to regard this hope as somewhat chimerical. His explanation of the origin and progress of the difference respecting the famous Filioque clause, in a speech delivered in 1875 at the assembly at Bonn, can be accepted as unexceptionable. The six theses of John of Damascus, comprising the doc- trine of the Holy Ghost, give essentially the doctrine of the Greek Church, which never denied that the Holy Spirit, in His earthly manifestation, proceeded and still proceeds through the Son to the faithful ; the Greek Church only maintained that in the Divinity everything was to be traced to one common cause (a«r/a), and impugned the right of the pope to make additions to, or changes in, the old symbols. But if the origin of the schism was one of dogma, this does not exhaust the present grounds of difference. The Greek Church was, already at the moment of its separation, widely divided from the Eoman Catholic. Language, theology, and particularly the government of the Church under the rising supremacy of the Eoman bishop, formed a strong antithesis to the Eastern Church, which seceded upon the doctrine of the first seven councils, estabhshing, after so many struggles, ' The proposal to specify that period as the basis of reform and reunion was suggested by the Russian arch-priest, and strongly sup- ported by Michaud ; but overruled by a large majority. [Tr.] 356 THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COTINCTL. CHAP. XXIV. the orthodox faith. The Greek Church henceforth remained stationary in respect of dogma; while Eome turned to the West, and therewith to a new phase of development. It was this difference, permeating the whole individuality of the two Churches, that frustrated all attempts at reunion ; and Döllinger, in his efforts to reconcile them, will have no better success than had the Synods of Lyons and Florence, or the Lutherans of Tübingen (1574-1581). It is impossible to reconcile differences which have grown up for centuries by going back to the root from which they sprang. You cannot bring the Church of the nineteenth century to the level of the Church in the second, any more than a man of sixty can go back to the views of a man of twenty. The same remarks apply to the Anglican Eitualists, who by leaning on the Old Catholics would fain emerge from their isolation. The union of the different branches of the Eastern Church and of the Eitualists and Old Catholics is a vain chimsera, if only for this reason, that their doc- trines of Church government are irreconcilable. Imagine the Eussian Synod, which in fact is the Czar in disguise, pretending to govern the new community in Germany and Switzerland ! Proper Thc truth is, that, as Professor Huber, of Munich, principles i • i i /> i • p • of reunion, exprcsscd it, the real foundations of union are still to be secured by ' a grand historical process of revision.' It is all the more strange, however, that the accomplishment of this should be delayed, since the party counts as its leaders the foremost champions of the hitherto Catholic theology of Germany, who, at least, after four years of consideration, should have arrived at some clear concep- tion of what is to be regarded as the tenable basis of reform. But if these theologians think to win the masses by such a seemingly prudent policy of reticence and re- servation, as for instance, by retaining, with only sHght QUESTION OF AN OLD CATHOLIC BISHOP. 357 modifications, the old forms of public worship, they will cjiap. much deceive themselves ; for the whole history of religion --^A — ^ shows that nothing but a bold and manly energy of confes- sion and practice, indifferent of consequences and rejoicing in the faith, can ever work upon the popular mind. For the indiiferent members of the Catholic Church, who inwardly feel no need of any Church at all, it is far more convenient to remain, outwardly speaking, in the pale of the old communion, and now and then, for the sake of peace and comfort, to take part Avith others in the received forms, than to join in the battle and trouble themselves about things which leave them inwardly devoid of interest and cold. But the great mass of the clergy and the laity stand, as indeed from their education they must, within the ultramontane camp. Hence the instability and vacillation of the Old Catholic leaders, who alter their tone, according as reforming or conservative tendencies prevail. Hence theh' fraternisation with foreign communities of every kind, and their compromising alliance with those who welcome any form of resistance to Rome. With their Church constitution, it is true, the Old Questioa Catholics have something more tangible to show ; but Cathoii even this suffers from the policy of contradiction and half-measures which characterises the whole movement. The first great difficulty was to get a bishop. In the two cases of the Arians and the Jansenists, a portion of the organised Church renounced obedience to the Eoman See ; bishops with their communities separated themselves from the former general communion ; but, with the exception of the relations with the Primate, they preserved their ecclesiastical status ; the authority of their bishops, both in doctrine and jurisdiction, remained unshaken. But not a single bishop sided with the Old Catholics. They were simply individuals who rejected the authority of the organs of the Church, as hitherto constituted, because tliey bishop. 358 THE RESULT OF TIIE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP. XXIV. Consecra- tion of bishop lieinkens. Ang. 12, 1873. believed their decision to be wrong. This was, in fact, adopting the Protestant principle, with the exception that they did not accept the sufficiency of Scripture or Justifi- cation by Faith, but maintained, in a vague manner, tradi- tion and the hierarchy. This involved the necessity of getting a bishop, ordained and consecrated by another in possession of the Apostohcal gift, which is transmitted by the laying on of hands. In order to obtain this they applied to the Jansenist archbishop of Utrecht, who, on their assurance that they maintained the symholum fidei as prescribed by Pius IV. after the Council of Trent, con- sented to consecrate Bishop Eeinkens,^ after his election by the self-styled Synod at Cologne (June 4, 1873). Archbishop Loos having died the day of the election, the bishop of Deventer performed the consecration at Eotter- dam (August 12). It will be asked, why did not the Old Catholics simply join the Church of Utrecht ? The an- swer is, that their object was not communion of faith and doctrine with that Church, but merely to get a bishop duly consecrated according to Catholic principles. But although they achieved this object, it is clear that the position of this episcopal head is totally different from that of the Dutch archbishop. Dr. Eeinkens is not the successor of another bishop : his diocese has no historical nor territorial existence ; his powers are not those de- fined by the Council of Trent ; his creed differs from that of the Church of Utrecht, and has still to be defined ^ Dr. Reinkens was previously professor of ecclesiastical history at Breslau, where he was on intimate terms with the prince-bishop Förster. He is the author of a treatise on ' Papal Infallibility,' pub- lished in 1870, and of another, entitled 'Die Päpstlichen Dekrete,' which appeared after the Vatican Council. He took the oath of allegi- ance required by the Constitution on October 7, 1873, in the presence of the Minister. The oath was altered for this occasion, adhering as closely as possible to the old form, but prescribing unqualified obedi- ence to the laws of the State. OLD CATHOLIC CHURCH CONSTITUTION, 359 by the representative organs of the new community, chap No continuity, therefore, exists between the latter and - . L> Catholicism as it stood before the Vatican Council. Anomalies Stranger still were the proceedings at the election of election, the new bishop. It was declared that he was to be elected by a synod, so long as the formerly legally elected bishop and chapters, who by accepting the Vatican de- crees had become apostates, refused to revert to the true Catholic principles, to be defined at a new and really (Ecumenical Council; and he was solemnly forbidden, until this should come to pass, to enter into any relations with those members of the hierarchy. On the one side, it was acknowledged that the bishops elected before the Vatican decrees must be considered as legally instituted ; on the other, ftiU episcopal authority was claimed for the new bishop, elected in a way which was in open contra- diction to that prescribed by the Catholic Church. The Church has excommunicated the Old Catholics : the latter reply by forbidding their bishop all communion with it, until it has publicly recanted its errors, just as if the Eoman hierarchy cared to establish such communion. A minority, consisting of a few thousands, challenges the whole ofiicial Catholic Church — as if it were likely that the latter would be converted to the true principles as maintained by that minority — and at the same time claims all the prerogatives of the hierarchy whom it repudiates. At their first synod, assembled at Bonn (May 27-29, constitu- 1874), under the presidency of Bishop Eeinkeus, the Old g?^°^"^« Catholics estabhshed their new constitution by adopting chS.^ 671 bloc the synodal and parochial organisation provision- ally approved by the congress at Constance in the previous autumn.^ It rests upon representative and democratic principles. The members of each local community consist • ' Beschlüsse der ersten Synode der Altkatholiken des Deutschen Reinhes,' third edition. Bonn, 1875. 360 THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP, of all inhabitants of a parish who profess the Catholic- XXIV that is, the Old Cathohc — religion, and have notified their profession to the leaders of the local committee of Church management (Kirchen-vorstand) (Art. XXXVI.). The latter, which consists of the pastor and a number of lay- men, is elected by the majority of the congregation in meeting assembled, in whose proceedings all male adult members, in the enjoyment of the rights of citizenship, are entitled to take part. The congregation, in like man- ner, elects the curate, as well as the delegates to the synod, the majority of which elects the bishop and the synodal council that assists him — composed of four clerics and five laymen, at whose meetings he presides, and has a casting vote. The synod consists of the bishop and his council, all the clergy ofiiciatmg under his jurisdiction, and one delegate from each congregation of not less than one hundred or more than two hundred members, larger congregations or parishes having the right to send one delegate for every two hundred quahfied adults. Now waiving all discussion as to the intrinsic merits of CathoHc this constitution, one thing is evident, that it is not Catholic. comtitu- The Catholic Church is essentially a constitutional one. Catiioiic. A man is a Catholic, not, like a member of Protestant communities, by accepting a certain number of dogmas, but by belonging to a clearly defined and visibly con- stituted organisation : by acknowledging its offices ; by receiving from its hands the sacraments as well as the doctrine of the Church ; and by obeying what the Church through its lawful organs ordains. Nobody is more explicit on this pointy than Schulte himself in his earlier writings. ' The Church,' he says,^ ' has a definite organ- isation, based on the fundamental difference that exists between the hierarchy and the laity ; the former teaches * ' Lehre von den Quellen dea Katholischen Kirchenrechts.' Giessen, 1860; p. 7. The Old OLD CATHOLIC CHURCH CONSTITUTION. 3G1 and leads, the latter hears and obeys. The institution of f'HAp. the hierarchy is Divine ; it forms the necessary ground- - — '-. — - work of the Ciiurch.' And again : ' By Divine dispensation, only the pope and the bishops are called to the govern- ment of the Church ; the other members of the hierarchy are subjected to them. The constitution of tlie hierarchy proceeds from above downwards, beginning with the summit of the pyramid. Such a sequence is the more necessary, as it is the only one that corresponds with the history and essence of the Church. Our Lord has not instituted Christian communities and curates, on which to build the Church, by constituting afterwards the episco- pate and the primate ; but even before He definitely called the Apostles to preach the Gospel to the whole world, He had instituted a chief in the person of Peter, to whom He subjected the other Apostles. Without the pope, there is no Church.'^ As the first and last hnk of the hierarchical chain, the centre in which all power of the priestly order, of the doctrinal office, and of juris- diction resides, and the source from which it emanates again, stands the primacy of the Eoman bishop, instituted by the founder of the Church, and resting on immediate succession to the Apostolic office of Peter.^ It is clear, therefore, that the above-mentioned constitution of the Old Catholics is in flat contradiction to Catholic principles. It rests on the Protestant principle, which constructs the visible Church on the community of behevers, while the Old Catholics lack that which is essential for all Protes- tant confessions ; namely, a well-defined symbol or creed. Their doctrinal unity was, from the beginning, negative — the struggle against Eome. They began by rejecting only the Vatican decrees of July 18, 1870; when ex- communicated, they denied the jurisdiction of tlie existing Church ; and finally they subjected the whole Catholic 1 'System,' p. 85. ' Ibid. ■p. 178. 362 THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCH.. CHAP. XXIV. Divisions among the Old Catholics. doctrine and discipline to a shifting process, which has not yet ended in any clear result. They now wish to re-establish the principles of primitive Christianity; but they are divided amongst themselves as to how they should go back to discover them. The conservative section would fain preserve as much as possible of ancient dogma; the more advanced party go back to the first three centuries ; and there are others who, even in that period, find symptoms of decay. It is evident that on such various principles no lasting religious community can be built. Practically, therefore, the whole movement must be regarded as a failure : it is not made to find its way to the hearts of the people, who care nothing about the patristic quibbles in which Old Catholicism so largely deals. After four years of active agitation, and with all the support of governments and liberal politicians, the official synodal report of the Bonn meeting in 1875 only gave a total of 47,737 members,^ representing 100 con- gregations, among whom were 15,006 adult males, and 54 clergymen ; numbers which, as opposed to the fifteen millions of Eoman Catholics, prove the impotence of the whole movement. It shows, in fact, a staff without an army. Truly does Eenan say in his essay already quoted, * This small Chm'ch comprises among its members several professors, doctors of divinity, priests, and persons of the upper-middle class ; but the mass of the people do not join it, and a Church can have no real existence unless it is supported by the masses. I see in this new Church many pastors, but a small flock ; much knowledge of the canon law, but few christenings, few burials, few marriages : and what is a Church that does not christen, bury, or marry? ' ' Of these Prussia contained 18,765, and 22 priests. According to the Report of the Synod, as quoted in the ' Times ' of June 1876, this number has actually decreased to 17,203. [Tr.] THE MOVEMENT NO 'NEW REFORMATION.' 3G3 It is idle, tlierefore, to speak of Old Catholicism as a chap. New Eeformatioii,* wliile in it the necessary conditions of ■ — ■ — ' a successful reformation in Church doctrine and discipline The move- have always been wanting. The Eeformation would never Retorma- have succeeded had it simply protested against existing abuses Its real force lay in the positive evangelical teaching in which the Old Catholics are lacking. This is the reason also why the movement has not brought to the front any men of real eminence. A reformation pre- supposes reformers, men who embody in their persons new ideas, and are able to act with decisive influence on wide circles of society. Second-class men, however learned and respectable, can never become religious reformers. It might be considered unfair to measure the Old Catholic leaders by the standard of a Luther or a Calvin ; but they can scarcely object to be compared with Gerson, Cardinal d'Allemand, or the chiefs of Port Eoyal. And what has become of the reforming aspirations of these men? Even the movement commenced in Italy fifteen years ago by Liverani, Perfetti, Passaglia, and their associates, was more calculated to rouse popular sympathy; yet those efforts ended in total failure. We may entertain personal sympathy and respect for men who felt themselves compelled by the Saturnalia of Ultramontanism to break — certainly not until after a severe inward struggle — with their own past. Their revolt was a protest of the irresistible rehgious conscience ; and we are far from comparing their aspirations with those of shallow demagogues like Eonge and his associates. On the contrary, they were mostly earnest and religious men, who at the beginning took the position of opposing fathers at the Council. We must admit, fuither, that they were pushed to extremities by many of tlie German bishops, ' 'The New Reformation.' A Narrative of the Old Catholic Move- ment from 1870 to the Present Time. "With a historical introductiou by ' Theodorus.' London, 1875. 364 THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAP. XXIV. Untenable nature of their position. State protection of tlie Old Catliolics. who were endeavouring to make Eome forget their former opposition by an exuberant zeal for the new dogma. The archbishop of Cologne, for instance, demanded from the professors of theology at Bonn the declaration not only to abstain from teacliing anything contrary to the Vatican decrees, but to declare them to be right ' sincero corde.' This was asking more than the decrees them- selves demanded, which only say, ' Si quis contradixerit, anathema sit,' not ' Si quis non crediderit.' N^evertheless, all this cannot blind us to the fact that their posi- tion is untenable. If they could not make up their minds to become Protestants — as in fact the Ultraraon- tanes call them — the only thing left to them was a passive protest, accepting the ecclesiastical censures, witliout erecting new altars. So in fact did Döllinger, who warned his fellow-countrymen against forming a new Church. The leaders, who heeded not his advice, are few in numbers. They form a little band of men, gifted with warm hearts, aspiring to a refined culture ; of a mild way of thinking, but with more or less confused ideas. Strong enthusiasm, an iron will, and inexorable consistency of purpose: these are the qualities which, so far as the records of history extend, have always been the foundation of lasting dominion over mankind : among the men of the Old Catholic movement they are not to be found. Tliey have nothing to oppose to the passionate agitation that forced the masses to follow the heriban of Jesuitism, except a culture which is not understood, and a frame of mind which is not shared in. The ' Times ' was, therefore, right in saying, on the occasion of the Union Conference at Bonn in August 1875, that the mass of the people cannot see what the Old Catholics are fighting about, and that the whole fight, indeed, is what the Eeformation was not — a ' dispute in the study.' ^ 1 ' Times,' August 16, 1875. STATE RECOGNITION OF OLD CATHOLICS. 3C5 What t]ie Old Catliolics lack in internal strenrrth they chap. XXIV. have endeavoured to supply by means of State protec- • — -'-r— ^ tion. The governments who were anxious to combat the Eoman Clnirch, believed that they could make good use of a pai'ty which pretended to be the true, Old Catholic Church, and yet opposed to the organisation of the official Churcli a new one of their own construction. This seemed to oflfer the possibility of a policy which, without attacking Catholicism in principle, purported to maintain its Catholic character, while tending to bring it more into harmony with the interests of the State. Nor did the Old Catholics hesitate to accept the proffered allianre. They preached implicit obedience to the government, and made that obedience the condition of office in their community. By so doing, however, they were looked upon with sus- picion by true Catholics, as subservient instruments of the governments ; while the latter must have seen by this time that, if they ever believed the movement would spread to the masses, so that in the eyes of the State the term Catholic would change its meaning, and be applicable to the anti-infiiUibilists, thus converting the Ultramontanes into mere dissidents, they have been egregiously mistaken. But, apart from this, the governments have taken up paise a wholly untenable position, in recognising and accepting tSgUlm- the Old Catholics as members of the Catholic Church, as ^^!^^J^^ if the question was only a domestic quarrel within one religious community. It Avas not easy, indeed, as we have shown, to contest the formal validity of the Vatican decrees. But the dispute has long since outgrown that issue; and no unprejudiced person can deny that it is now no longer two groups in the same religious community, but two distinct Churches which stand opposed to each other, with aims and objects wholly separate and contra- dictory. The State might endow the Old Catholic com- munities ; it might even, where their members were 366 THE RESULT OF THE VATICAN COUNCH.. CHAP, sufficiently numerous, admit them to a share of the Church ^^-^ property ; but pohtical reasons, which moreover were mis- calculated, should have deterred it from adopting the contradictory course of treating the Old Catholics, on the one side, as a new organisation, and, on the other, as members of the old Church. Only from the first of these two points of view was it possible legally to recognise any Old Cathohc bishop ; for, as regards the official Church, the boundaries of the collective German bishoprics are determined by an agreement with the Eoman See, which has never been cancelled. There is no room, therefore, for a new bishopric, floating indistinctly, so to speak, over the heads of the existing ones ; and the alleged analogy of the Prussian military bishop is inconclusive, for he obtained by formal agi'eement with the pope, just like the other bishops, a fixed and settled territory of juris- diction, together with his charge of souls for the Catholic soldiers in the army.^ Couductof In Bavaria, meanwhile, the question of Bishop Eavaria. -i-»., , i — ' That the period of reaction could not be favourable to Evangehcal hberty in the other Latin countries, is in- telhgible enough. We need merely remind the reader of the incarceration of tlie married couple Madiai, of the sentence of Cecchetti in Tuscany to a year's im- prisonment for reading the Diodati Bible, and of the persecution of Matamoras in Spain. Sardinia alone pre- Protestant sented an honourable exception to this policy of op- Sardinia, pression. To the VValdeuses, as we have seen, who had suffered persecution in their valleys up to 1848, and had only been allowed to have divine service performed in the French language, the Edict of February 17 secured tlie enjoyment of all civil rights, and the circulation of the Bible assumed large proportions. With a united Italy came the abolition of those intolerant laws of the former States, which had interdicted, under heavy penalties, any other worship but the Catholic. The Waldenses removed their institution for theological in- struction to Florence, and under their influence numerous small Protestant communities soon grew up. In Sep- tember 1870 they entered Eome with the troops of Victor Emmanuel ; and on March 4, 1871, the first meeting of the Itahan Bible Society was held under the eyes of the pope, who so often had cursed this ' plague of Christen- dom.' Meanwhile, other powers besides the Waldenses are promoting successfully the evangelisation of the peninsula ; though, in consequence of the religious in- differentism of the Italians, the progress of the move- ment cannot as yet be measured by any large numbers of converts,^ and is only protected by the loyal conduct of ' It is certainly striking to find now at Rome next to a Catholic Church a shop with the inscription iu large characters, ' Libraria evangelica,' in which books are sold such as Gavazzi's 'La favola del viaggio di S. Pietro a Roma.' )80 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848, CHAP, the government against the aggressive hostihty of the - ^ ' - - Ultramontanes. policy of Count Thun. In Spain. In Spain, as recently as 1855, a motion for religious toleration was rejected by the Cortes by 103 against 99 votes. The revolution of 1868 first broke the spell of intolerance, and introduced religious liberty by law. The new government, following the reaction caused by the clerical policy of Queen Isabella, decreed the expulsion of the Jesuits and the dissolution of the religious societies which had been founded, under her patronage, in defiance of the law. The beginnings of Protestant communities were formed under shelter of this legislation ; but their position is still very precarious and insecure. niibeiai^ In Austria the administration of Count Thun was not likely to open a favourable prospect to Protestantism. Autonomy, it is true, was granted to the Protestant Church,^ but the idea of autonomy — very different, in- deed, from that enjoyed by the Cathohc Church — was summed up in the provision, that the members of presbyteries should be allowed to meet without giving notice to the authorities, and without the presence of a State Commissioner. While the Cathohc bishops held their synods undisturbed, the heads of the Evangelical Church, nominally possessing equal rights with those of the Catholic Chiurch, were not even allowed to hold a meeting of the local congregation, much less of larger synods, without the permission and supervision of the police. The important offices of General Inspector and of the District Inspectors among the Lutherans were abolished, as well as that of the Curators among the Reformed. The pastor Steinacker at Trieste was dis- missed from his benefice without sentence or legal pro- cess, simply because he had taken an active part as ' Patent of December 31, 1851, practically annulled, however, by the decree of July 3, 1854. PROTESTANTISM IN HUNGARY. 381 secretary at a conference, in 1848, on the relations of the chap. Evangehcal Church, wliich had been brought about by ■ — r-^ Bach himself, who had succeeded Stadion in 1849, as Minister of Public Worship. Borczinski, a lay brother who had gone over in Silesia to the Protestants, was thrown into prison on his return. The Hunojarian Protestants, indeed, refused to submit Protes- 1 A 1 1 T TT 7 T 1 • tantism in to such treatment. Already under Haynau s dictatorsJiip Hungary, they raised vehement complaints against liis terrorising measures ; ^ and defended themselves, to the best of their power, against the invasion of Jesuitism, by which Bach hoped gradually to exterminate both Magyarism and Protestantism. The representations of the magnates, sup- ported by Frederick William TV., succeeded in 1856 in inducing Count Thun to propose a draft constitution for the Church, restoring a portion of her synodal autonomy ; but both Lutherans and Calvinists rejected the scheme, being determined not to submit to the Supreme Church Council, to be appointed by the . emperor. This bold- ness was answered by measures of double severity. A number of Protestant gymnasia and lycasa were deprived of their official character : the Protestant schools were forbidden to receive Jewish children : all remonstrances against this usurpation remained fruitless. After Sol- ferino, however, the importunity of the Hungarian Pro- testant? became so inconveniently urgent, that the cabinet at Vienna at length awoke to the necessity of doing some- thing decisive. Yet even now Count Thun refused to abandon altogether his old policy ; and simply put forward anew his project of 1856 as a Protestant patent. ' See his edict of February 10, 1850, containing directions to the commanders of the military districts (Craig, lit sup., p. 450); and the memorials of the Protestant clergy to the Archduchess Maria Dorothea and the emperor (ibid. Appendix, Nos. iii. iv.). The Protestant leader Baron Vay, who afterwards became chancellor of Hungary, was con- demned by one of Haynau's commissions. [Tb.] July 24, 1859. 382 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP. XXV. Patent of 1859. October 20, 1860. Schmer- ling's Protestant Piitent, April 8, 1861. An imperial decree of November 8, 1859, declared the protests of both Lutherans and Calvinists against the con- stitution to be invalidated by the Patent. The execution of this Patent now provoked a contest, which was carried on by the government with all the instruments of bureau- cratic and military power. Legal proceedings were multiplied wholesale. Men of the highest consideration were thrust into prison ; but they held out with firmness, and to their opposition was essentially due the October diploma, which decreed the abolition of the central autho- rity of the Ministry of Public Worship, and one result of which was the dismissal of Count Thun. Zsedeny, who had just been expiating in prison his resistance to the policy of the late minister, now entered the new Hunga- rian Chancellery as first fimctionary ; and for the here- ditary domains of the empire, with the exception of Dal- matia, the Protestant Patent of M. Schmerling, v/ho had succeeded Dr. Bach, secured to all members of the Evangelical faith their presbyterian and synodal consti- tution, under the control, however, of a Supreme Church Council, which embraced the consistories of both con- fessions, and whose members were nominated by the emperor. Still the admission of the laity, as well as the General Synod, existing beside the Supreme Council, marked a great advance. As long, indeed, as the Con- cordat remained in force, the bishops still possessed a formidable weapon against freedom of Protestant worship ; and in Tyrol the clergy ventured openly to refuse obedi- ence to the Patent. But if this opposition could check reform for a while, it could not extinguish it. The * Sistirung ' ministry of Belcredi was the last attempt of the reaction, which collapsed after the defeat at Sadowa (July 3, 1866). With the accession of Count Beust (February 7, 1867) a new era of policy was inaugurated. The new confessional laws of 1868 for Cisleithia, as well IN AUSTRIA AND GERMANY. 383 as those of Baron Eötvös, the new Minister of Public chap. XXV Worship in Hungary, finally secured for the Protestants > — V— ^ full freedom of worship. They facilitated the formation Reaction of new local communities, and the secession of Catholics ff^sldowa to Protestantism, and abolished the compulsory enact- ments of the Reverse respecting mixed marriages. Under the influence of this legislation Protestantism has made de- cided progress in Hungary, and particularly in Bohemia. In Germany the development of Protestantism during J'"'''*^''- . ^ ... tantism in this period was fraught with very difierent importance for Germany. its relations with the State. While the Catholic hierarchy made use of revolution, equally as of reaction, to obtain a position of absolute independence, the Protestant Churches entered into the struggle bound hand and foot. The rude outbreaks of demagogical violence brought together, it is true, the best elements of Protestantism at the first meeting of the Evangelical Church Union at Evangeii- Wittenberg in September 1848 ; nor would it be fair to union at*^ disregard what useful results this assembly, as well as its blrgfika successors, has achieved for the reawakening of religious life. But in contrast to the . meetings of bishops these assemblies were only voluntary unions, or at most, ac- cording to their composition, mere pastoral conferences, whose deliberations had no binding authority. Moreover the decided Lutherans were either absent altogether, or soon withdrew. The interest felt in these meetings, as well as the influence they exercised, visibly decreased ; and they remained quite as barren of any real value for promoting the independence of the Evangelical Church, as did the conferences at Eisenach for the settlement of her administration. What really determined the position of German Pro- state inter- testantism was the conduct of the governments, and espe- Prussia, cially that of the leading Protestant power in Germany. The Prussian constitution of 1 850 had not, it is true, laid tion 1850 384 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP, down the principle of a separation of Church and State, -^A-^-' as favoured by the constitution of the empire ; but it had recognised rehgious societies as independent orders, and by expressly naming the two great ecclesiastical bodies had given a legal sanction to their historical and national status. Considering now that the Cathohc hierarchy was allowed to enter unhindered into possession of the most complete autonomy, it might have been expected that the S°"'*r*^" Evangelical Church likewise would be released from tlie control of purely civil authorities, and be secured in future against the disturbing influence of political fluc- tuations, in order to enable her to reorganise herself. But only feeble starts were made in this direction, and there the matter halted. To Article XII. (later Article XV.),i which gave to religious societies the right to ' regulate and administer their own affairs independently,' the second Chamber, on the motion of the deputy Herr Fubel, had added the provision ; ' It is the duty of the sovereign, in the exercise of his powers of Church government, to bring about an independent constitution of the Evangehcal Church, with a view to enabling her to assume and exercise the rights assigned to her ; ' but the first Chamber rejected the proposed article. This repulse, however, did not prevent the minister Von Laden- berg from preparing the way for a reorganisation, by taking the opinion of the consistories, the theological faculties, and individual expounders of ecclesiastical law.^ But no practical result followed from these enquiries. The appointment of the Supreme Church Council (January 26, 1849) was to pave the way for the independence of the Church ; but until this independence could be secured, the authority invoked for that purpose was simply that of the crown, which the king delegated to his advisers for ' It is now repealed. 2 These opinions were published and edited by Richter, 1849. THE 'UNION' UNDER FREDERICK WILLIAM IV. 385 tlie exercise of Clmrch government, but did not divest ^xxv!' himself of by law. ■ — ^"~-" Matters remained mitil quite recently in this position ; for although on June 29, 1850, a parochial organisa- tion was given to the Cliurch in the eastern provinces, it was never carried out in practice. In reply to tlie memorial of the Supreme Church Council, which insisted on the necessity of a synodal representation, embracing all constituent elements of tlie Church, the king repeated his former declaration, that it would be mischievous to apply constitutional princi[)les to the Church ; and the further assurances of the Council that such was not at all their intention, met with no response. After this, Frederick William IV. interfered only once more, in a positive manner, in the relations of the Church ; namely, by a Cabinet Order of March 6, 1852, respecting the Cabinet ' Union,' whereby he extended to her constitution the March g, fundamental principles of the Edict of 1834. After the written acknowledgment of the ' Union,' which can- didates for membership were required to sign, had been removed, and the readoption of their former confessional designations had been left to the will of the congrega- tions, the distinctive system of Church government was now also abolished. As the essential conditions of mem- Ijiership of the Union the Cabinet Order designates the common celebration of the Holy Supper, and the coa- lition of the two confessions into a national Evangelical Church. As the object of Church government it points out the administration of the national Church in general, bat also the protection and maintenance of the con- fession of foith, and of all regulations founded thereon. For this purpose the members of the Supreme Church Council are divided into Lutherans and Eeformed ; and - for all questions ' of such a nature that their decision can only be collected from one of the two denominations,' VOL. ir. c c 386 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP, an itio in partes is arranged, according to confessional " r-^ distinctions.^ With this measure, by which the king gave legal sanction to the ever-increasing confessional movement among the Protestants, his active interference in eccle- Revised siastical matters concludes. To the only living monu- tion^of ' ment of Church legislation at that time — namely, the wt^ ' revision of the Ehenish-Westphahan Church Constitution cSch. of 1851, which recognised in full terms the sovereign rights of the State and the Crown, and simply carried out, in a purer and more perfect form, the Presbyterian principle, his conscience prevented him at first from assenting. To give his royal sanction, he argued, to a measure of that kind, would be ' to participate in what was recognised to be an error ; ' more especially since this was already the second attempt made in the Ehe- nish Provinces and Westphalia, within the last seventeen years ' to bolster up the divine fabric of the Chmrch by human handiwork and a human constitution.' Only because the authorities of the Church in those parts promised themselves great advantages from the introduc- tion of this revised constitution, and because he desired to do justice to the earnest Christian spirit which animated the work, was the king induced to empower the Minister of Public Worship and the Supreme Church Council to ratify the revised constitution, with due reservation of the powers of Church government and of the other privi- leges enjoyed by the Crown. (Cabinet Order, June 13, Passive 1853.) Frederick From his conduct in this matter, as well as from his iv, **™ subsequent letters to Bunsen, it is evident that Frederick 1 It is not known that such an itio in partes has actually taken place. The Cabinet Order of July 12, 1853, made no alteration in these arrangements of ecclesiastical law themselves, but simply pro- vided against their misinterpretation. THE 'UNION' UNDER FREDERICK WILLLiM IV. 387 William IV. held firm to his ideal theory of the Church, chap. . . XXV. But if eveu at au earher period of his reign he Avas — ^.-^— ' wanting in the necessary energy to carry out his views, that energy, whatever its amount, was completely crushed by the revolution. He did not understand how to pro- tect the Church from even the heavy material injuries which those stormy years entailed upon her, — for instance, the burdensome imposts on real property, scarcely lightened by niggard driblets of relief ; the confiscation of various independent funds, akeady very small ; and the abohtion of clerical exemption from taxation — immunities which had represented but a scanty reward for their manifold labours in the pure interests of the State, for example, by their gratuitous inspection of schools, by their conduct of registration, and the preparation of all the certificates, hsts, and statistical tables which the latter duty involved.^ This passiveness of Frederick Wilham IV. as well as the profound bitterness he felt at the humiliations, which the last few years had prepared for himself and his con- victions, were the principal causes that, during the latest years of liis reign, placed a lever in the hands of the ceriach famous ' small but powerful party.' Of its three leaders fKrlnt General von Gerlach had the task of giving practical effect p^rtT." ' with the king to the views which his brother advocated in the second Chamber, and which Stahl had reduced to a doctrinal system. This party desired no independent ^ Chm'ch : on the contrary, they saw in the closest connec- tion of Church and State the only remedy against revo- lution and hberahsm. The November review of the Kreuz-Zeitung of 1852 protested, ' in the name of the Evangelical Church,' against her liberty being derived ' from the muddy source of the Act of Constitution with the broad stamp ' (i.e. of democracy), ' and the designa- ' Gerlach, 'Dotations- Ansprüche,' p. 31 sqq. c c 2 388 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP. XXV. Their mis- chievous principles of State- Church- doni. tion as a grant of self-administration, of that process of mutilation, so dangerous to her very existence, which aimed at lopping off from the body of the Church her principal member, the Christian government, with its august prerogatives in the Church, and thus destroying her constitution, now three centuries old.' It was, therefore, precisely that legalised intermixture of the coercive power of the State and the doctrinal authority of the Church — the subject formerly of such cutting opposition from the Eationalists and radicals — that this party now raised into a guiding principle of policy. The Church was and still remained absorbed in the State : the State was and still remained restrained and regulated by the Church. The State had to lend the necessary weapons for enforcing definite Church prin- ciples, which were to organise anew the whole popular life. The counter-efforts of political opponents were combated, not as contrary to history and practical ex- perience, but as a rebellion against Divine commands ; and the opponents of orthodoxy w^ere denounced as dangerous to the State. This system was fraught with consequences equally pernicious for Church and State; for it pursued its aims not by promoting a free alliance between the two powers, but by compulsorily intruding each into the province of the other. In political life, instead of a sound policy based on solid interests, was substituted a sickly ' Teridenz-politik,' which treated the concrete problems of the day solely from the ])oint of view adopted by the dominant party. With incompre- liensible coldness and apathy this party, notwithstanding all their talk of a Christian-Germanic State, obstinately opposed all national questions ; nay, they glossed over even the most flagrant insults to the honour and prestige of their own country with the pompous watchwords of warfare against revolution and of the solidarity of con- THE 'KREUZ-ZEITUNG' PARTY. 389 servative interests. So far from excusing the humiliation ^^]f^' at Ohnlitz (1852) as an inevitable misfortune, they cele- - ^ . '-^ brated it as a moral victory. They surrendered the duchies and the electorate of Hesse to their oppressors, and regarded the decline of the moral influence of Prussia as a just punishment for the sins of the ' mad year.' When the Vienna Presse scoffingly declared ' The Em- peror points the way : the Margraves must follow,' the Kreuz-Zeitung answered with the couplet : Austria and Prussia hand in hand, Germany else must helpless stand, ^ and was only disturbed in this absolute compliance, when, in the Crimean war, Austria seemed like deserting the high-priest of legitimacy, the Emperor Nicholas, whose death, Herr von Gerlach was not ashamed of declaring in the House of Deputies, Prussia ought to mourn like the loss of a father. Meanwhile, as regards the internal rela- tions of the Church, every movement for liberty Avas sup- pressed. Inconvenient promises of the Constitution were declared to be mere ' legislative monologues ;' and a spas- modic but spiritless attempt was made to patch up and put in working old institutions, which were paraded in triumph as of Divine ordinance, though they had long since lost all root in real relations, and simply prolonged their existence by means of the police-government of the State. Nor was the effect of this system less mischievous for the Church herself. There was no question of any inward religious renovation, or revival of spmtual conviction. An official Christendom was set up, the wilHng acceptance of which en hloc was the test of a loyal disposition, and the condition of promotion. It was altogether overlooked, that none but untrustworthy adherents could be obtained in this manner ; while they were only damaging the real ' Oestcrreich und Preussen Hand in Hand, Deutschland sonst aus Rand und Band. 390 TUE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP. XXV. Overthrow of their party. Introduc- tion of district synods in Prussia. interests of the Church, since by this favouritism in high places they were placing Christianity itself in a false hght, and were concentrating on its head the hatred which should properly have been reserved for the Byzantinism of the dominant party. The political struggle was embittered by intruding religious elements of discord into the fray ; and the Church was degraded not only by ruling her henceforth, as before, through the State, but by making her the slave of a political party. Hence it was intelligible that the overthrow of that system was universally hailed as a deliverance from an incubus of oppression, and that lively satisfaction was expressed at the promise of the prince-regent to resist with all earnestness those efforts which ' aim at making rehgion the cloak of political designs.' The party of the Kreuz -Zeitung refused, nevertheless, to abandon their cause as lost, and by means of the opposition in the Upper House, succeeded in frustrating the carrying out of institutions which required the assent of popular repre- sentatives, as for instance the facultative civil marriage. The Minister of Public Worship, von Bethmann-Hollweg, - — a man equally qualified for his office by his warm interest in the Chiu-ch as by his fruitful experience in presbyterian and synodal life, found himself restricted, accordmgly, to that field of action in which the con- currence of the Landtag was not required. The Cabinet Order of February 27, 1860, resumed the question of the Church constitution by decreeing its introduction into all Evangelical communities, in which there existed as yet no parochial board of management, for its mternal and external affairs. Where these administrative organs already existed, they were to proceed without delay with the institution of district synods. By a royal edict of June 5, 1861, these synods were first introduced into the province of Prussia, and they were extended during the CHURCH CONSTITUTION OF BADEN. 391 following years to the other provinces in the eastern chat. portion of the kingdom. The outbreak of the political > — r^— ' conflict, which caused the dismissal of the Manteuffel ministry, interrupted also for a long while the further progress of the constitution. But during the total change introduced in Prussia w^ith the regency, the pohtical effect of which spread rapidly over the rest of Germany, and continued even after the fall of the Auerswald ministry, a corresponding impetus was given for a change in various points in the relations of the Church, though not always in an agreeable direction. In the Bavarian Palatinate, in consequence of some mass petitions, the Consistory was remodelled on liberal Church principles, and a new synodal constitution, on a corresponding pattern, was thrust upon the Protestants. Similar com- plaints regarding the Lutheran Church in the Ehine pro- vinces led to the summary abolition, by a ministerial order, of a number of beneficial reforms, which had obtained full legal recognition by the synods introduced after 184S. Baden, however, in particular became the field for charch the architects of the Chm-ch of the futiure. Here the in-. ^'''"*''' troduction of a new Agenda had already excited a lively opposition ; and after the abolition of the Concordat, the Evangelical Church also recognised the necessity of re- arranging her constitution. The grand duke's procla- mation of April 7, 1861, having promised to the Chiu-ch the independent conduct of her affairs, the Upper Church Council was reorganised on liberal principles ; and there was submitted to the General Synod of the following year the draft of a constitution for the Church, which was accepted in all its fundamental articles, and introduced with the approbation of the grand duke. Eepeatedly, and especially by its originators, this constitution has been held up as a ' model for the whole of Evangelical Germany.' But in reality it marks an enormous retro- tion of Baden. 392 THE STATE AND THE TKOTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP, gression ; and nothing can be more unfair or unfounded ^- . '-- than to compare it with that of Ehineland and Westplialia. While the latter carries out consistently the presbyterian principle, and recognises those only as members of the local community who adhere to its confession of faith/ the Baden Protestant acquires his full congregational rights by the mere fact of residence in the parish, and for this qualification nothing further is demanded of him tlian that he should not occasion pubhc scandal by con- tempt of religion or dishonourable conduct. So far indeed from having carried out, as its panegyrists boast, the pres- byterian system in its purity, the Baden constitution has degenerated into the old State-Church parochial system, which was only reorganised on the principles of a pure democracy. Only those of civil disrepute were excluded from the right of electing members for the parochial church council, though their personal eligibility reqidred the positive voucher of good report and a proved religious spirit. Even this, however, is not made a condition of the viilidity of election, so that the precept simply amounts to a recommendation for the original electors ; and the local coimcil has no rights whatever of Church discipline. Its The Baden constitution, therefore, is wrono; not only defective ... ' n ./ character, in its uiacliiue of cxecutiou, but in its principles, which contradict altogether the presbyterian system. Its funda- mental elements consist, not of the spiritual community, but of the aggregate of those wdio are registered as members of the parish. The constitution of the Church is to be founded, not on the religious conviction of the faithful, as evolved by the progress of history, but on the loose and ever-shifting groundwork of public opinion on Church matters. It is the old fallacy, in a new form, of the Contrat Social^ which bases the State and every corpo- ration on the collective will of private individuals, and dis- ^ See § 1-3 of the Rheuish-Wcstphuliau Constitution. ITS DEPLORABLE RESULTS. 393 daiiis to recoii-nise the ethical character of those relations, chap. . . XXV. Avhicli 110 one, however fain to do so, can really ignore. ' — ^r— ' Built on such false and anomalous foundations, the synodal superstructure of the Church could be of little practical value. At first the Liberals were forced to pay some consideration to tlie personal convictions of the grand duke and of the majority of the clergy and peasants. The Augsburg Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and that of Luther remained untouclied ; and it was only forbidden to make cliildren learn them by heart. Soon, liowever, even this precaution was not deemed sufficient : and the Liberals now clamorously demanded a revision of the Agenda and the abolition of Bible read- ing and the Catechism in public instruction. The government is steadily, though slowly, yielding to this pressure, and it has just enacted a law abolishing all denominational schools.^ The result of twelve years' trial of this constitution its has been deplorable in the extreme. The number of eccle- rellüts!^^*^ siastics in Baden has diminished to such an extent that there are only half as many candidates for orders as there are clergymen annually removed by death. The theo- logical faculty at Heidelberg, ^vhich is in the hands of the Liberal Coryphaei, counts at present only nine pupils, compared with the 110 students in 1863. The seminary for preachers has only three candidates, and of this slender staff of recruits many look for appointment to benefices out of Baden, being loth to expose themselves to the agitation attending the election of a parish clergyman by the community. The principle, publicly proclaimed, of ecclesiastical self-taxation is prudently not enforced, for it would have imposed too serious a strain on the strength of Protestant conviction : in its stead the Good Friday ' It remains to be seen how far the late ministerial change •will have an influence in the reverse sense. 394 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP, collection has been changed into one for Evangelical XXV . . • — ^— theologians. Church life, meanwhile, has visibly decayed in the congregations. At Carlsruhe the number of electors for the parochial church council dwindled gradually from a percentage of forty in 1861, to twenty-seven in 1865, seventeen in 1868, and nine in 1871. In a purely Evangelical community scarcely a single elector appeared at the first election of new officers, in spite of a sufficiently long advertisement of the election. No one attends as a listener at the diocesan synod. The liberal churches are gradually deserted : the Upper Church Council itself attests the perceptible decrease of communicants, the growing immodesty of the young, the inordinate passion for enjoyment and for lounging in public-houses, and the loosening of the ties of family Hfe.^ The The Baden Church constitution is, in fact, the child of Union. '^'^ that party which is represented by the ' Protestant Union,' and which parades its principles as those of true religion and of the Church of the future. It is worth while, there- fore, to examine this claim somewhat closer. Starting with the unimpeachable doctrine that religion, as the immediate communion of man with God, is something which solely concerns the individual, and suffers no compulsion, and that, above all, Christianity is not so much a doctrine as a hfe, the Protestant Union thinks to bring about the union of the Evangelical Church by hberating altogether her doctrine from any definite creed, and by introducing parallel formularies of worship, either of which anyone can choose, according to his needs. In this false con- clusions fi-om premisses otherwise correct lies the funda- mental error of the Protestant Union. Every com- munity must have some connecting link ; and that which unites a religious community is their common behef. ^ Compare the further information given in the * Resultate einer Kirchlichen Musterverfassung,' Deutsche Blätter, April 187-i. THE SO-CALLED PROTESTANT UNION. 395 Every form of belief, therefore, must be able to state chap. what are its substance and contents ; and since the - — ^^— - substance of belief, as of everything else, is always some- puliation thing definite, therefore every belief has necessarily ^(,q^c"j'^;^i, its exclusive aspect, and this exclusiveness the various Churches denote by their respective creeds. No creed, of course, will ever be able to exhaust the fullness of Christian truth, and even the most comprehensive one will admit further of a variety of interpretations ; so that one ought not to boast of the mere letter, but rather acknow- ledge the fact, that divine truth mirrors its rays in infinite refractions on the human soul. But some limits there must be to liberty of doctrine within every community of believers ; for that liberty must not be made to cover an indifferentism towards all points of difierence. If it ever were to happen that the views, perhaps of Strauss or Hartmann, about ' the Universe ' and, on the other hand, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, could be pro- claimed together with the Augsburg Confession in the Evangelical Church, that Church would be no longer a community at all, but a doctrinal chaos — a field of battle, where parties, diametrically opposed to each other, fight out their quarrels. One may discuss therefore each cri- ticism of a particular creed, but he who demands that an Evangelical Church should reject a creed altogether, simply demands something that is unreasonable. The members of the Protestant Union of course imagine they can prevent such consequences by seeking to renovate the Chiurch according to their principles, ' on the basis of Evangelical Christianity and in harmony with the collective develop- ment of modem civilisation.' But if it is asked what is meant by the ' basis of Evangelical Christianity,' one re- ceives an answer which either hides the real kernel of the matter with empty phrases, or denies outright the truth Composed of Eevelation. Pastor Spiegel declares that Strausss' tJ/nker.« 396 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP. ' Life of Jesus ' has never been refuted ; and in a >-\ ' • pamplilet by the minister Lang of Zurich, bitterly com- plaining that the pulpit of the Lutheran Church at Osnabrück was not consigned over to him, we find the following passage : ' The doctrine of Luther cannot be patched ; it must be destroyed. The Church mythology, which formed the groundwork of the speculations of Erasmus, as of Luther, must be totally upset — the my- thology, that is to say, of a supernatural God, who, as an Omniscient and Almighty Being, presents a dualistic con- tradiction to all that is finite — the mythology of a fall of man, by which the original powers of man's nature are said to be broken — the mythology of a God, who comes down from heaven upon the earth and becomes Man, — lastly, the mythology of a heaven, Avhich lies elsewhere than in the human mind, and therefore carries with it the luicertainty of possession ; of a future bhss which seeks its guarantee in something else than the feeling of present happiness.' Partly of And aluiost still more perverse than these Eadical believers, freethinkers, who m plainness of speech at least leave nothing to be desired, but who have never been disavowed by the Protestant Union, are those semi-unbelievers, who conceal under a cloud of words their denial of the miracles, who argue to-day against the Divinity of Christ, and to-morrow go through acts of Church worship whose sole meaning rests on the presumption of that article of faith. Their conduct can only be explained either by boundless ignorance and mental confusion, or by open dishonesty ; and, for that reason, honest enemies of Christianity, like Strauss and Hartmann, have scourged their inconsistency with well- merited severity.^ ^ Strauss, ' Die Halben und die Ganzen ' (against Schenkel), p. 53. ' Two methods of thought stand ojiposed to each other — on the one side, that of the Church ; on the other, that of modern ideas. Each DENIAL OF REVELATION BY Till'] PROTESTANT UNION. 397 Yet these two last-mentioned schools of thought cnxy practically sum up the principles of the Protestant -^-^^-^ Alliance ever since the death of Eothe. Its only member who holds firm in general to the Christian Revelation is Bauragarten — a spiritual Michael Kohlhaas, who, exaspe- rated by the actual injustice done to him by the Church government in Mecklenburgh, would like now to split into fragments the whole fabric of the Church, and who has joined for that very purpose this society, in wliich, even on his own admission, he stands absolutely alone. ^ lie now stands firmly on its own ground ; but neither admits of contact with its opponents ; we cannot infer from the hypothesis of the one the con- sequent existence of the other.' (P. 6i.) 'My mission is directed against the coining of false money ; and I maintain that the tendency you espouse derives wellnigh its sole support from the coining of false money.' Again, in his ' Der Alte und der Neue Glaube ' (p. 395), he says : ' Certain it is, that if the old belief is absurd, the modernised one, — namely, that of the Protestant Alliance and of the Jena doctors, is doubly and trebly absurd. The old belief of the Church contradicted only reason, it never contradicted itself: the new one contradicts itself in all its parts ; how then can it possibly agree with reason ? ' Harfcmann expresses himself still more severely in his latest pamphlet, ' Der Selbstzersetzung des Christenthums : ' ' Liberal Protestantism consists of a vague, poverty-stricken, and dull system of metaphysics, withdrawing itself as far as possible from critical examina- tion ; of a mode of worship, fortunately divested of all mystery, but none the less self- contradictory, and of fragments of ethics torn from metaphysics and therefore irreligious. It rests on a conception of the iiniverse, which, in its worldiness and optimistic contentment with the world, is in reality wholly incapable of allowing any religion to assert itself, and which, in common with the remnants of religiousness it retains, must sooner or later wear itself away in worldly indolence and comfort.' ^ Under the guidance of Baumgarten an attempt was made, it is true, at the sixth ' Church day ' of the Protestants, to set up a confes- sion of faith, and the following was proposed for that purpose. ' The sole ground of the Evangelical Chiuxh is the Person of ChriKt, His teaching, and His Avork. The only mark of a Christian is the accept- ance of Christ's Gospel in the fullness of conviction, and its ratification by love.' And yet even this formula, which allows one to think any- 398 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP, is discerning too late, that not tolerance but intolerance XXV. - — r-^ of orthodox principles is the spirit of the Protestant Union, and has broken with it, as he did formerly with the Church. The evangelical basis of the Protestant Union is to abandon, therefore, all revelation ; and at the cost of this surrender the necessary ' harmony with the collective development of the civilisation of our time ' can easily be arrived at. This result could be regarded, no doubt, as a positive gain, if one were certain that this development had always taken the right direction. But as this can scarcely be pretended, it is contrary to all common sense to wish to determine the conception of religious truth according to the loose and fluctuating notions entertained by the ' spirit of the times ' on what is called civilisation. «^Union ' "^ movcmeut of this kind, based on contradictions and 'Ttiwe negations, and which wanders downward from an express )^ith denial of what Scripture has recorded of the Person of Church . ^ . . unity. Christ to Strauss's belief in the 'Universum,' represents indeed no community at all. At any rate, it is a hopeless undertaking to build on such false and slippery founda- tions the edifice of a Church. The Protestant Union proclaims, indeed, the principle of a community, but it has lost in fact the keystone of every evangelical Church constitution, namely, the community of confession. Its community is simply the parish, that is to say, the aggre- gate of those who do not belong expressly to any other religious brotherhood. It favours in words the separa- tion of Church and State ; but in the State in which it thing or nothing, was too binding for the assembly, and it was resolved to sanction it • simply as a relative, but a unanimous expression of their mind ' (Compare * Zur Logik des Protestanten-Vereins,' Gotha, 1873). Thus the statement of Professor Lipsius, that unlimited free- dom of doctrine and confession destroys altogether the idea of a com- munity, becomes practically valueless. THE STATE-CHUECH I'EINCIPLES. 399 rules it lias quietly preserved the alliance of the two, in chap. its most rugged form of expression, the supreme episcopacy ^^ — ^-/—^ of the sovereign. When the Consistory of Hanover refused permission to the above-mentioned Lang to promulgate his views in a Lutheran church, the Union lost no time in invoking the secular arm, and must fain obtain an instruction from the Minister of Pubhc Worsliip that the Consistory had acted within the limits of its competence. Even in Prussia, the opposition, once so active, of the Union against the Upper Church Council has ceased, since the latter has turned the edge of its attack against the ' positive ' movement ; and what was once fiercely combated as a hierarchy greedy of dominion, is now represented as the embodiment of the majesty of the State. Thus the separatist principle, which was its state- formerly celebrated as the solution of all difficulties, has principles, lost its favour, and the State Church has become the object of their desires. This, indeed, is intelhgible enough ; for if once this object were achieved, the Pro- testant Union would attain a position of considerable importance. With the dissolution of the national Church, each party, hitherto represented in her communion, would constitute itself upon the basis of a separate confession ; while the Protestant Union, which has no confession, and will have none, would sink into nonentity ; nor would it hardly be able to coimt on any sacrifices from its adherents, since hitherto it has not even known how to procure the necessary means for appointing a secretary.^ This explains, moreover, why it fights so zealously for its recognition by the territorial Church, and so enthusias- tically advocates a national Church for Germany ; whereas common consistency should require it to leave a community whose confession it rejects. As it has done in Baden, so it ' * Verhandlungen des 6 Protestantentags.' Berlin, 1873, p. 8- Mistakes of the ' Con- fessional ' party. 400 THE STATE AND THE TROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP, seeks to do tlirougliout Germany, namely, to rule the Church through the medium of the State. If, after all, the party hi question can have no Church future, this is explained by the sterility and blunders of State- Churchdom on the one hand, and by the errors of the ' Confessional ' movement on the other. The latter, during this period, rose to ever-increasing importance, both practically and in respect of scientific learning, and pushed the reconcilement-theology altogether into the rear. Two rocks, however, obstructed its complete development, neither of which it was able to avoid. While rightly in- sisting on the necessity of a definite confession, it assigned too dominant a position to the details of orthodoxy, and undervalued the importance of a Church constitution, in other words, of the independence of the Church towards the State, by adhering primarily to the principle of the supreme episcopacy of the sovereign. But besides this, many of its leaders maintained an exaggerated view of Church ofiice, which by no means agreed with the prin- Eepristi- ciplcs of the German reformers. They reverted in fact n til in' i- •' nation school of to the episcopal system of the seventeenth century, which gians. limited the universal priesthood of the faithful to the relations of the individual to God, but divided all eccle- siastical authority between the clergy, as teachers, and the sovereign, that the independence of the Church is virtually comprised in the independence of the former as towards the latter.^ From this error, it is true, tlie ^ This ' repristination ' was first defended in a book of Stahl's, which appeared in 1840, * Die Kirchenverfassung nach Lehre und Eecht der Protestanten,' the contradictions of which to the views of Reformers were pointed out by Richter at the time (' Die Grund- lagen der Lutherischen Kirchenverfassung in Wilda und Reyscher.' Zeitschrift für Deutsches Recht, vol. iv.). Later on, this theory has been refuted in detail by Höfling, ' Grundsätze Evangelisch-Lutheri- scher Kirchenverfassung,' third edition, 1853. Harless, in his * Etliche Gewissensfragen, hinsichtlich der Lehre von Kirche, Kirchen- amt und Kirchenregiment,' Stuttgart, 1862, has excellently eluci- dated the principles of the system. THE PRO VINCI AL CHURCHES AND PRUSSIA. 401 Lutheran Church in Bavaria, under the guidance of x^J^'v^' Harless and Höfling, kept in general as free as did the Old Lutherans in Prussia, each of whom, it may be added, enjoyed a Synodal Constitution. On the otlier liand, this anti-Eeformation view of office was defended by theolo- gians like Vihnar, Klieforth, Hengstenberg, Mlinchmeyer^ and others ; and by politicians like Stahl, Gerlach, Hassen- pflug, Victor von Strauss, and Leo, who represented in some respects purely Catholicising opinions. Although this theory of an official Cliurch was only realised in Mecklenburgh, it has brought incalculable mischief to the beneficial development of the constitution of the Evan- gelical Church. The impotence of the State-Churchdom, as hitherto incorpora- existmg, was strikingly shown at the incorporation of provincial Schleswig-Holstein, Hanover, Hesse, Nassau, and Frank- by Prussia, fort into the kingdom of Prussia. With the peculiar confessional status of these provinces, there could be no question of their subordination to the central Church government at Berlin. The Duchies, as well as Laiien^ berg, were purely Lutheran ; in Hanover 82 per cent, of the population were Lutheran, and 5 per cent, were Eeformed : in Hesse was found a mixture of Lutherans and Eeformed, together with a certain proportion of ad- herents of the Union. Nassau had the same, but in another manner than in Prussia. At Frankfort the two confessions stood side by side. This variety of con- fessional distinctions corresponded to those of their Consti- tutions. Although Prince Bismarck had declared already in 1865, after the incorporation of Lauenberg, that the act would entail no change in the Church constitution of that small territory, still in the provinces, especially in Hanover, fears were manifested lest the confessional status might be endangered by the central and supreme autho- rities of the Church. Tlie king met these apprehensions VOL. n. D 1) tion, 402 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP, by issuing the decree of December 8, to the Upper N. — r— ^ Consistory of Hanover, in which he promised the full maintenance and further development of the existing constitutions, and made the union of the Evangelical Church consist simply in the voluntary sentiment of brotherhood. On the other hand, it seemed evident that the subordi- nation of these Provincial Churches to the Minister of Public Worship, occasioned by the temporary dictatorship of the King, could not become any definite arrangement. Accordingly proposals were almost immediately put for- ward for a re-adjustment of the relations. The most important proposal was that of Fabri,^ who demanded Scheme of that Uniou itself, as a principle of Church government, a Church ' i i o confedera- should bc abandoned, and replaced by a Confederation, an independent constitution of Provincial Churches,^ under a bishop and consistory, synods of presbyteries, districts, and provinces, and a representation of the collective Church, in her relation towards the civil power, through means of an Upper Church Council, to be newly estab- hshed together with an assisting Council. Such a programme seemed to follow so naturally from existing relations, that Professor Friedberg at Halle arrived quite independently at almost exactly the same result.^ On the other hand. Professor Hinschius declared himself, with equal decision, against autonomous Provincial Churches, and demanded a common form of government as the smallest bond of union to be aimed at.'^ At Ber- ^ ' Die politische Lage und die Zukunft der Evangelischen Kirche in Deutschland.' * Die Unions und Yerfassungsfrage.' Gotha, 1867. 2 Which were not to be made to correspond with the political divisions of provinces. ^ ' Die Evangelische und Katholische Kirche der neu einverleibten Länder.' Halle, 1867. * ' Die Evangelische Landeskirche in Preussen luid die Einverlei- bung der neuen Provinzen.' Berlin, 1867. NEW CHURCH CONSTITUTION IN PRUSSIA. 403 liu, however, neither of these lines of action were adopted ; chap. on the contrary, that took place which, considering the - — ^^-^— - position of afiairs, was the most improba.ble and the most unfortunate, namely, nothing. The Upper Church Council went no further than theological discussions, which put all parties out of humour. The new provinces remained under the Minister of Public Worship, in a kind of personal Union in the Church, and were governed according to political relations on the one hand, and the dispositions of the Ministry, on the other. Hanover, who had roofed in her constitution just before her incorporation, isolated herself completely. Hesse, who lacked this ex- clusiveness, had rules imposed upon her, when she became a source of inconvenience. After a long delay, provincial Synods were arranged in 1869 for the eastern provinces ; and on September 10, 1873, there was promulgated []°°^"f"' for them the Evangelical district and synodal constitution i873. which contemplates, moreover, the accession of the Ehe- nish and Westphalian provinces into the General Synod, while preserving intact the dualism of the new provinces. Scarcely, however, was this constitution pubhshed, than it was modified in important points, in order to win the consent of the Chamber of Deputies. It was carried by the government under high pressure through the Extraordinary General Synod, notwithstanding that this assembly had no legal competence to alter a constitution pronounced to be definitive. It was pushed through the two chambers of the Diet, and was formally ratified on June 3, 1876. The characteristic features of this work And of of liberalism are the entire overthrow of the presbyterian system, and the estabhshment of an ecclesiastical consti- tutionalism founded on the representation of numbers. The presbyterian system rests on the fundamental prin- ciple that only those who share the belief of the Church are entitled to participate in its government. This prin- 404 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP, ciple is abandoned ; no profession of faith is required from • — l^-l- the electors to lay offices in the Church, and only those are excluded whose life has given cause of moral offence, or who by permanent and wilful abstention from pubhc worship and the sacraments have resigned their active membership of the Church. A further principle of the presbyterian system is that only those who enjoy an office in the Church, and fulfil its duties, are entitled to vote in the election of her representative authorities ; and in this manner the different synods rise in organic growth from the community. The clergy and the presbyters, or elders of the communities, elect from their body the members of the district synod {Kreis-synode), the provin- cial synod, and the general synod, and nobody is eligible but an actual office-holder in the Church, the clergy being represented at least in equal numbers with the laity. In the new Prussian constitution, each of these prin- ciples is abandoned. According to the law of 1873, the ecclesiastical council of the local congregation might elect elders who have ceased to hold any office ; and in larger communities even deputies from among per- sons of consideration, experienced, and good repute in the district. But by the law of 1876, even the old and well-established presbyterian principle that the ecclesias- tical council of the community is to elect the members of the district synod, is overthrown. The franchise is given indiscriminately to all the representatives of the commu- nity, and all its members are eligible. The equipoise between the clergy and the lay deputies is abandoned. The latter, from whom no rehgious qualification is required, will double the numbers of the former. Their majority is, therefore, assured from the first, and in the larger towns they will be even more largely represented, though it certainly cannot be pretended that their intelli- gence, which served as a pretext for this proportionate REVISED CHURCH CONSTITUTION IN HOLLAND. 405 increase of numbei-s, is one of a religious character. The ^^]^- presbyterian principle is not that of mere numerical ~ — ^^ — ' representation ; the larger comraimities may have more numerous councils, but they send only one deputy to the synod. The Prussian law regulates the representation with reference to the number of population, and the choice of representatives is not limited to the members of the community. The provincial synod was the nucleus of the old presbyterian system, particularly in the Huguenot Church ; and deservedly so, for it represented the religious peculiarities of the province. It is now dismissed as much as possible into the backgroimd, and neutralised by the nomination of a number of represen- tatives by the sovereign. In this way the synods have for the most part only a transitory importance, as consti- tuting the elective bodies, from whom the general synod is selected, for which the king in like manner nominates thirty members. It is this assembly, therefore, convoked according to the old system only on exceptional occasions, in which the representation of the Church centres, and which conducts her government. With a view to neu- tralise the pernicious consequences of this desertion of all estabhshed presbyterian principles, in favour of ecclesias- tical constitutionalism, the central government of the Church is made as strong as possible. The Supreme Church Council rules as it pleases; but it is itself subject to the Minister of Public Worship, without whose consent not even that of the king can be asked for any measure. The result is that the Chm^ch is surrendered to the influence of the masses, and at the same tmie placed at the mercy of the State. In Holland a revision of the Church constitution of ^^^^1* Lhurca 1816^ was effected in 1852, which, while retainini^ the Constim- '-' tion of fundamental forms, divided the national Church into forty i852, ' See ante, p. 193. 406 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP, provincial ' circles' and forty-three classes. The Com- XXV. . . ^ — r— ' munal Cliurch Council consists of preachers, elders, and deacons, all of whom are chosen by the congregation : in larger communities there exists a Special Church Council, which is composed only of preachers and elders. The assembly of classes (Klassenversammlung), consisting of elders and preachers, chooses their class authorities, who conduct collectively the supervision and discipline of the Church, and also the provincial authorities, who control the classes. The provincial synod, which before the revolution was the most important organ of representa- tion, is set aside altogether, as it was by the law of 1816. The General Synod, with its committee, remained the supreme authority for all ecclesiastical affairs. By these arrangements the element of elders has obtained a stronger representation, and the Church as a whole has decidedly System of gained in independence towards the State. On the other education, hand, shc has lost her former influence over the national schools, by the latter being constituted in 1857, through the united eflbrts of the Catholics and Liberals, as parochial schools on a purely secular basis, in which all religious teaching is carefully excluded. Eeligious instruction is left to the Churches alone, who are only allowed to use the school-buildings for this purpose. This system, which at first was lauded as the genuine carrying out of the prin- ciple of a separation of Church and State, has led, on the contrary, to results which cause anxiety even to the liberal theologians of Holland.^ ^ A former Minister of State and member of the States- General writes, with regard to this, as follows : — ' L'enseignement laique n'a pas donn^ en Hollande les fruits qu'en attendaient ses d^fenseurs. Sous I'influence du courant liberal et moderne, qui a profond^ment altere le Protestantisme aux Pays-Bas, la laicitö n'a pas tarde ä dögönerer en tme sorte d'hostilitö entre le Christianisme ou du moins contre ce qui en constitue I'essence. La jeime generation d'instituteurs, sortant des ecoles ou cet esprit domine, I'a fait penetrer dans les ^coles mixtes et INTERNAL PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 407 Eeverting to the Established Church in England since chap. the period last under review/ we find that her progress — ^-^-^ has been marked by gi'cat internal activity and a healthy progress spirit of self-reform. Tlie incorporation of the Ecclesias- '^^^^li^ ^f tical Commissioners in 1838 had paved the way for a i^ngiand. series of long-needed reforms. The Episcopal Act equal- ised the incomes of bishops, and set free for the benefit of the parochial clergy benefices and dignities previously held in contmendam, the re-adjustment of diocesan boun- daries making efiicient episcopal superintendence no longer an impossibility."^ The reduction of cathedral establish- ments enabled the augmentation of poor livings from their surplus revenues. The Plurality Act, passed in 1838, was gradually removing, as each benefice in ques- tion fell vacant, the long-standing evils of non-residence. The liberahty of the laity has conspicuously aided the efibrts of the clergy in the relief of spkitual destitution in populous places : the Primate recently stated that nearly thirty millions of money has been spent during the last forty years in the restoration or building of churches. It is due to a member of the episcopal bench that the pro- mhient evils of patronage, involved in the sale of next presentations, have received the attention of Parliament ; and the Bishops' Eesignation Act of 1869, which provides for the due discharge of the episcopal office in the case of bishops incapacitated by age or infirmity, has recognised laiques. M. Thorbecke, qui personnifiait le mouvement liberal, exer^a une influence prepond^rante sur le parti liberal, et le maintint dans les bornes de la moderation ; depuis sa mort, le liberalisme de Hollande tourne de plus en plus au radicalisme.' (^Albrespy, ' La Liberie comme en Belgique,' 1876, p. 46.) • See ante, p. 197. * Compare ' Memoirs of Bishop Blomfield,' London, 1863 — him- self the chief promoter of these reforms. The increase of the number of the clergy from about 11,000 in 1831 to 14,613 in 1841, and to 1 9, 1 95 in 1861, exceeds in the proportion of eight to five the increase of the population in the same period. — 'Quart. Rev.', January, 1868, p. 253. 408 THE STATE AND THE PKOTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP, tlie principle that the episcopal, like other offices and - — ^~r-^ dignities, is a trust. ^ro^re*^ On the other hand, it is impossible to deny that the Dissent. enomious increase of dissent has seriously compromised the position of the Church as a national establishment. Internal schism among the various sects,^ deprives them to a large extent of that force which springs from cohe- sion— the Wesleyans alone have been split up into nine sections — but the removal of their civil disabilities has given them a political importance which has found fre- quent expression in Parhament. The vexed question of Church-rates — their earliest grievance during this period •^ — was finally settled in 1868 by a legislative compromise, which surrendered the principle of compulsion, but gave a legal sanction to voluntary payments, and provided machinery for their assessment and collection. The University Tests Act of 1871 dispensed with the require- ment of any rehgious test or formulary for admission to lay academical degrees, excluding the Dissenters only Church ^^^^ headships of colleges and professorships of Divinity. parties in Within the English State-Church meanwhile, three England. '^ , , opposite tendencies have been exhibited, each of them resting more or less on corresponding varieties of doc- trine. The High Church party demands to be freed from the unhmited dominion of the State and the auto- nomy of Convocation, which is a pure synod of the clergy. The Broad Church party, on the contrary, wishes to maintain the present relations, on the ground that State control only can render possible a tolerant conception of ecclesiastical symbols, while autonomy ^ The Legislature interfered in 1844 by means of the Dissenters' Chapels Bill to protect the endowments of rival sects from being wasted in ruinous lawsuits. That measure provided that where the founder had not expressly defined the doctrines or form of worship to be observed, the usage of twenty-five years should give trustees a title to their endowment. — May's ' Const. Hist.,' iii. 200. PUBLIC WOBSHir REGULATION ACT. 409 would lead to the splitting up of the Anglican Church chap. into a multitude of sects. The third, or Low Church — r-^ party, lay particular weight on practical religion and philanthropy, while their Evangelical tendencies incline them to friendly relations with the Dissenters, under whose guidance a large portion of the working-classes are ranged. As regards the upper classes, a wide spread feeling of attachment to the National Church, whether due to tradition or sympathy, has not prevented the in- roads of unbelief and indifierentism on the one hand, and of what is known as Eituahsm on the other. The progress, Ritualistic indeed, of the latter has been so alarming as to provoke the ™°^^™®'^*' interference of Parhament. As early as 1851 the inno- vations in public worship had called forth a memorial, containing 230,000 signatures, to the Queen, who sent it to the Primate. Practices, alleged to be avowed imita- tions of Eomanism, led to angry Htigation, and in 1859 to popular disturbances in a London parish. The Eitual Commission which reported in favour of restraining novel- ties in respect of vestments, recommended the adoption of some easy and effectual process of complaint and redress for aggrieved parishioners.^ An address to the Arch- bishops (May 5, 1873), signed by 60,000 persons of weight and influence, drew further attention to the mag- nitude of the evil. The Archbishops in their reply (June 16) recommended moderation, but they showed their sense of the gravity of the situation by introducing in the following session a Bill, the object of which, as ex- pressed, not indeed by its episcopal sponsors, but by its supporter. Lord Beaconsfield (Mr. Disraeli) was to ' put down Ritualism.' The measure gives power to any arch- Public deacon, or churchwarden, or any three aggi'ieved parish- RegukUoa ioners to complam to the bishop against changes intro- ^^*' ^^^'^' duced, without lawful authority, in respect of ritual or ' First Kqiort, August 19, 1867. 410 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP, worship ; a right of final appeal lying to the Archbishop, > — r— ' who may refer the case to the Privy Council. A new tribunal is created, under a civil judge, who must be a member of the Church of England, for exercising the jurisdiction of the provincial courts of Canterbury and York. But the hope that the inferior clergy would be restrained by these provisions from their Eomanising tendencies, would establish an understanding about the ritual to be followed, and thus put an end to the unceas- ing controversies on that subject, has proved as mistaken as the expectation that the Act would rouse the Protestant feeling of the population belonging to the Church. Action. I^^ ^^ Episcopal Allocution/ issued from Lambeth Palace (March 1, 1875), and signed by the Primate, the archbishop of York, and twenty-four bishops, the heads of the English Church acknowledged for the first time the dangerous position in which she stood. While recog- nising the vast increase of spiritual activity, they lamented especially the ' interruption of sympathy and mutual con- fidence between the clergy and the laity,' through the ' feeling of distrust awakened by changes in the mode of performing public worship, which, though sometimes un- important in themselves, were introduced without autho- rity and often without due regard to the feelings of parishioners.' They noticed the ' refusal to obey legiti- mate authority, not only as against the bishops, but even the highest judicial interpretation of the law ' — the ' grow- ing tendency to associate a doctrinal significance with rites and ceremonies which do not necessarily involve it ' — the * dissemination of practices repugnant to Scripture and the principles of Apostolic Church, as set forth at the Eeformation.' But this exhortation, to which the bishops of Durham and Salisbury refused to subscribe, has been of no avail; and the protracted debates in the Convo- » See * Times,' March 8, 1875. MR. GLADSTONE AND RITUALISM. 411 cation of Canterbury, where the proposed ritual was dis- chap. cussed in its minutest details, have led to no practical > — r— ^ result. The Public Worship Eegulation Act remains little more than a dead letter ; because the bishops know that if they enforced it energetically, they would provoke a schism in the Church. It cannot be doubted that the position taken up by Attitude nrz-iiT ' 1 ■ 1 • -, of Mr. j\lr. (iJadstone in these questions has exercised a great Gladstone, intluence. He had formerly been an adherent of ritualism, and maintained that it corresponded to the essence of the Church of England. He adheres to this view still, after his crusade against Vaticanism. In his essay pubhshed in the ' Contemporary Eeview,' under the title of ' Is the Church of England worth preserv- ing ? ' he declares that a vigorous enforcement of the ec- clesiastical laws would lead to the disintegration of the Church. She can only continue by giving room to the different tendencies existing within her limits, and to the various modifications of ritual and liturgy, which are the expression of those views. The Church of England should be large-hearted and tolerant in respect of ritual as weU as of doctrine. The ritualistic movement has nothing disquieting for the independence of the Church ; and it is of the highest importance to spare the feelings of a respectable party, which will neither be Eoman, nor exclusively Protestant. Admitting to their utmost the purity of the motives that have prompted Mr. Gladstone to express these views of the present movement, it is scarcely conceivable how he can blind himself to the effect such language must produce when uttered by a man in his position. Eitualism in itself would be without any power, if it were not the pretext for introducing Eomanising doctrines ; and every encouragement given to it must pave the way for the progress of the Catholic Church and the dissolution of 412 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP, the Church of England. Puseyism and the milk-and- ' r-^— water popery of Dr. Newman cannot hold against the inroads of Ultramontanism any more than can the weak plant of Old Catholicism. It may be doubted whether this state of things can last ; and we think it would be a gain to the Protestant cause if the Eituahsts would openly secede from the Church, to which in fact they no longer Question of bcloug. That at the present time a national Church, lishment which cmbraccs scarcely half the population of the country, should be governed by Parliament and the Privy Council, is in many respects an anachronism, must be admitted. But we doubt whether the moment for its disestablishment has yet arrived. It is easier to predict the inconveniences which such a step would entail, than to specify the practical advantages to be attained.^ The Church of England is so deeply entwined in the history and the institutions of the country, that its dissolution would involve a most serious political revolution ; and it satisfies moreover the religious wants of a large portion of the people, which prefers the maintenance of the great religious truths to the nicer theological divisions which underlie the various shades of Dissent. The Dissenters deserve all admiration for their pursuit of practical reli- gion, but they make their system of faith rest on the assertion of one-sided and often very questionable dogmas. But whatever the ultimate issue may be, we have not the slightest doubt that England will maintain her Protes- tant character ; and if the forms of her national Church decay, will find new forms for the old spirit. ' In the House of Commons Mr. Miall's motions for disestablish- ment (May 9, 1871), and for a Royal Commission to enqmre into the property of the Church (July 2, 1872), were rejected by large majori- ties, drawn from both sides of the House. Parliament plainly shows a weariness of a subject which involves at present the discussion of abstract propositions. A motion for the disestablishment of the Church in Wales (May 24, 1870) was rejected by 209 against 65. SCOTCH TATRONAQE AND THE FREE CHURCH. 413 The same session of 1874, which was remarkable for chap. tlie campaign against Kituahsm, witnessed also the aboli- ■ — '-^^-^ tion of those rights of patronage, with regard to the Estab- patronage lished ChmTh in Scotland, which had been restored by £^1874? the Act of Queen Anne. The election and appointment of ministers to vacant Churches were now vested in the congregations, subject to regulations to be framed by the General Assembly. The Crown surrendered its right of nominating to parishes — the only form of patronage it possessed, since there are neither deaneries nor canonries in Scotland. Compensation was to be awarded to lay patrons, on petition to the sheriff of the county, to an amount not exceeding one year's stipend. In case of a vacancy in a parish not being filled up by the congrega- tion within six months, the right of appointment was vested in the presbytery, who might appoint a minister tanquam jure devoluto. The measure, introduced by the Government in deference to the wishes of the estabhshed clergy, was opposed by Mr. Gladstone on the ground, among others, that no overture was made in it to the Free Church to Attitude of resume their connection which had been broken off by church! the Disruption in 1843. Without examining ftirther the merits of this argument, it is sufficient to point out that the subsequent action of the Free Church tends to show that any such overtiures would have been in vain. Apartfrom the fact that the concession came too late, the quarrel, at the time of the disruption, had gone be- yond the mere question of patronage to the broader prin- ciple of the exercise of spiritual jurisdiction by civil courts.^ The resolution, passed by a majority of 116 votes 1 See ante, p. 199. The Protest of the Commissioners to the General Assembly (May 18, 1843) complains, ' That the Courts of the Church, by law established, and members thereof, are liable to be coerced in the exercise of their spiritual functions ; and, in particular, 414 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. CHAP. aQ;ainst 33, in the commission of the Free Church General XvV ^ — ^v-^— ' Assembly (November 19, 1874), is an authoritative declaration on this point. While maintaining the ' duty of a national recognition and promotion of scriptural truth,' it reiterates a protest against the principles of law laid down by the House of Lords and the Legislature during the proceedings which led to the disruption. To hold that the Church is bound to obey the directions of the civil court relating to the civil rights of her members or to the statutory duties of her ecclesiastical authorities, is to encroach upon the scriptural liberty of Christians. The Patronage Act, it is stated, does not profess to change this principle of law, but tends rather to confirm it. Claims of this description, however their intrinsic merit may be regarded, are obviously incompatible with the present position of the Established Church in Scotland ; and the resolution, therefore, is quite consistent in de- nouncing the existing connection of Church and State in that country as ' upheld on unscriptural and inequitable bases.' Disestab- But tlic most memorable act of ecclesiastical legis- S'lrish °^ lation during the period was reserved for Ireland. The constant outrages by the Fenians and the continued sus- pension of the Habeas Corpus Act, brought the condition of that country before Parliament in 1868; when the Conservative Ministry, through Lord Mayo, proposed, among other measures of relief, to create a new Catholic University by Eoyal Charter, and to meet the religious difficulty by a policy of ' elevation and restoration.' The scheme, described by its opponents as one of ' level- in the admission to the office of the holy ministry, and the constitution of the pastoral relation, and that they are subject to be compelled to intrude ministers on reclaiming congregations in opposition to the fundamental principles of the Church, and to the liberties of Christ's people.' Church. DISESTABLISHMENT (W IRISH CHURCH. 415 ling up,' was in plain terms concurrent endowment ; ^ ^xxv' equality being brought about by endowing the Catholic " — -• — ' clergy and by increasing the Regium Donum^ or annual grant to Protestant Nonconformists. Mr. Gladstone met these proposals with counter-resolutions, affirming that the time had come when the Protestant Church of Ireland ' must cease to exist as an Estabhshment.' The Govern- ment was defeated on these resolutions by a majority of 61 ; but the Suspensory Bill — a temporary measure, to prevent the creation of further vested interests in the Church — was defeated by the Lords after its passage through the Commons. An appeal to the country, how- ever, resulted in the triumph of the Liberals and the accession of Mr. Gladstone to the Premiership with a majority of 120. The final Bill for disestablishment was introduced on March 1, 1869, and became law in the same session. The legislative union of the English and Lish Churches was now dissolved. The Irish bishops lost their seats in the House of Lords ; the Maynooth grant and the Regium Donum were commuted. Com- missioners were appointed to arrange compensation for ecclesiastics and patrons. The jurisdiction of all Church courts, as formerly constituted, was abolished ; but the existing ecclesiastical law and ordinances were to subsist by contract, until alteration by the new representative body of the Church, which was to be formed into a cor- poration. The gross value of the Irish Church property was estimated at 16,000,000/. With regard to the sur- plus, after satisfying the life-interests of incumbents and other charges, it was finally agreed to apply it ' mainly to the relief of unavoidable calamity and suffering in such manner as Parliament shall hereafter direct.' The Act did not come in force until January 1, 1871, ' Earl Russell stated in his speech on the Irish Church Bill that he would have preferred concurrent endowment, but that it was now too late. 416 THE STATE AND THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES SINCE 1848. but the Protestant bishops lost no time in preparing for disestabhshment. In September 1869 a General Synod was convoked at Dublin — the first one that had met since 1713 — which proceeded to devise a scheme of a general Church body of the clergy of each diocese to elect repre- sentatives, and this synod was shortly followed by a General Convention.^ Some differences arose with regard to the question of lay representation. It was resolved (March 24, 1870) that the primate should be selected in future by the bench of bishops out of their own number ; and a new ecclesiastical court was established, whose first duty has been to decide on a question of ritual. The prospects of the Disestablished Church are not altogether encouraging. It has developed different parties with re- markable rapidity ; and the question of revision, on which the clergy and laity are opposed, has been pushed almost to the verge of schism. A large number of incumbents have taken advantage of the Act by commuting their hfe- interests into capital, in the hope of obtaining more lucra- tive appointments in England ; but this exodus is partly explained by the fact that the staff of clergy was more numerous than the Disestablished Church could afford to support. The Sustentation Fund alone shows an increase of receipts ; in other respects the last report of the repre- sentative body, submitted at the General Synod in April 1876, reveals a prospect which shows that the financial difficulties of Disestablishment are far from surmounted. 1 Cardinal CuUen (November 1, 1869) spoke of the Irish Protes- tants as ' groping in the dark, in a vain effort to build up with mortal hands an edifice worthy to be called divine.' 417 CHAPTER XXVI. THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. America : Statistics of Catholic Progress — Political Influence of the Hier- archy— Their Attempts to control Education— Protestant Parties of Oppo- sition— Question of Secular Education — The Voluntary System a Counterpoise to Ultramontanism. Great Britai]^: Uncouciliatory Attitude of Catholics — Irish University Bill — Mr. Gladstone and Vaticanism — Progress of the Hierarchy — • Aversion to coercive Legislation. Fraxce: Ultramontane Eeaction since 1870 — Official Support of Clericalism — Ultramontane Demands in Education — Bill of M. Jules Simon — University Education Law, 1875 — Dangers of Radicalism. Spain : Constitution of 1869 — Liberty of Worship opposed by Rome. BELGitrji : Clerical Domination — The Priests and the Liberals. Italy: The Government removed to Rome — Law of Papal Guarantees — Religious Corporations Bill — Results of Recent Legislation — Relations between the Vatican and the Government — Prospects of Reconciliation. AtrsTKiA: Legislation of 1874 — Regulation of Internal Autonomy of the Church — Protests of the Pope and Bishops — Firm Attitude of the Government — Position of the Old Catholics. Switzerland : Radical Dictatorship at Geneva — Appointment of Bishop MermiUod — His Quarrel with the Government — Civil Constitution of the Church — ^^Catholic Disunion — Conflict in the Bernese Jura — Removal of Bishop Lachat — Establishment of State-Chm-ch in Berne — Revision of the Federal Constitution. Germany : Friendly Relations with Rome before the French War — Reversal of State policy in Prussia — New Catholic Party of the Centre — Harsh Conduct of the Government — Church Legislation of 1871 — Case of Dr. Wollmann — Expulsion of the Jesuits — The Falk Laws — Confusion of Civil and Spiritual Competence — Resistance of Catholic Laitv — The Wiirtemberg Law of 1802 — Supplementary Legislation against the Church — Banishment of recusant Clergy— Compulsoiy Civil Marriage Law VOL. II. E E 418 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. — The Struggle in 1875 — The Pope and the Emperor — Encyclical to Prussian Bishops — Withdrawal of State Salaries — Administration of Ohm-ch Property — Bismarck's Circular on the next Conclave — What the Catholic Church will never assent to — Survey of the Struggle — The Way to conquer Ultramontanism. CHAP. XXVI. Paramount If, in the brilliant circle of princes and statesmen as- sembled at the Congress of Vienna, anyone had ventured to importance suggcst that, bcforc two generations should have passed and State awaj, tlic qucstiou of the relation of Church and State ques ion. ^q^^j^j staud out forcmost among those v^hicli involve great national interests, such a prophecy would probably have been met by the incredulous smile of those who then ruled the destinies of Europe. They considered a struggle be- tween Church and State as a thing of the past, and were far from believing that the latter, which owed her restora- tion from deep abasement simply to the goodwill of the sovereigns, could ever become dangerous to the powerful modern State. ^ It has been reserved for our time to dispel these fond illusions ; to show that only the utter exhaustion which followed the desperate struggles of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the utter religious barrenness of that later epoch, could engender the behef that philosophy would henceforth take the place of religion ; and to reassert the grand truth, attested by all history, that religious passion is, for good or for evil, the strongest moral power of humanity. In proportion as that ex- haustion was succeeded by new hfe in the Church, the 1 It is strange that even so acute an observer as Ranke could in 1838 introduce his ' History of the Popes during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries ' with the following observation : — ' What is id that even to-day can make the history of the Popes important to us ? Not their relations with us, which exercise no considerable influence, nor fear of any kind, ti.e times are past where we need fear anything, we feel ourselves too well protected.' — Preface, p. xviii. Macaulay (Edin. Review, October, 1840) took a different view, notwithstanding the praise he bestowed on the book. CATHOLIC PROGRESS IN AMERICA. 419 powers of positive religious belief recovered their force ; cjiap. and with the progress of this movement the relation - — ^-r— ^ of Church and State has become once more the great question of the age. We shall endeavour to give a rapid survey of this question, as it stands in the different countries. (a) America — Great Britain} While the great struggle about slavery in America, CathoUc which led to the contest between North and South, con- America, tinned, public attention was to a large extent withdrawn from religious issues. But this great question once settled, the nation has become seriously alarmed at the rapid growth and rising pretensions of Catholicism. It is difficult, indeed, to arrive at a definite statement of the exact number of its adherents, as the census does not give the absolute strength of the various denominations. But of the enormous increase of Catholics there is no possible doubt. In 1776 they numbered about 25,000 in a population of three miUions ; in 1808 they w^ere 100,000 in a total of 6^ millions ; in 1830, 450,000 out of 17 millions ; in 1860, 4.^ millions out of 31 millions ; in 1870, 8.^ milhons, or one-fifth of the whole population. They have more than doubled, therefore, every decade ; while the general population increased at the rate of 35 per cent. The explanation of this fact is to be found in the acquisition of territories formerly belonging to Catholic States, such as Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, and in the vast immigration from Catholic countries, Ireland alone sending more than two millions between 1830 and 1870. Still more startling is the accumulation ' The facts contained in this portion of the chapter are mostly taken from an essay of F. Ellingwood Abbot, ' The Catl»olic Peril in America,' in the Boston 'Index' of June 8 and 15, 1876. We must demur, however, to the conclusions which the author of that essay has drawn from his statement of facts. 420 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, of ecclesiastical wealth. In 1850 it was estimated at -^^^ 9,254,758 dols. ; in 1860 at 26,774,119 dols., or an increase of about 189 per cent. ; and in the last decade it rose, at the rate of 128 per cent., to 60,985,565 dols., the Catholics having distanced all Protestant denominations except the Methodists. Political It is but natural that such a power must exercise a influence of . . r> • i zv i the hier- vast uiiiuence in a country oi universal sunrage, where '^^'^'^' everything depends upon the votes of the people. Here, even more than in most European countries, the Catholic laity, consisting chiefly of ignorant Irishmen, have no ideas of their own. They seem strangers to the intellec- tual atmosphere in which they live, and are blind instru- ments of their priests, who may under any pretext rouse their fanaticism. The clergy cannot, of course, enforce their principles of canon law before the civil courts of a State which regards all religious communities as simple voluntary associations ; but, on the other hand, they are subject to no restriction from the civil power.^ The sixty-four bishops, with the newly elected Cardinal McClosky at their head, constitute a hierarchy with abso- lute power over the priests and the Catholic press ; and since the entire church property in a diocese is vir- tually in the hands of the bishop, the laity, no less than the inferior clergy, are powerless against him.^ ' The usual method of procedure is this : the bishop is constituted sole and personal proprietor of the Church property, but the very day he takes possession of his see, he signs a deed transferring the whole to his successor, whose name is filled up, together with the date, as soon as the first bishop dies or resigns, and who appears as purchaser of the property. In California even this evasion is unnecessary, since at the time when the State became a member of the Union, the Church there was already in possession of large property. This arrangement does not exclude the bishops, in cases where it suits their purposes, from making use of trustees. In some States the priests are by law trustees, in others the latter must be laymen ; but these being of course Catholics, are mere men of straw, while the clergy practically govern. rOLITICAL POWER OF THE HIERARCHY. 421 Now the plan and object of this hierarchy, which is fast chap. becoming the richest corporation in the land, is to throw the whole weight of the ' Catholic vote ' into the scale of whatever party is willing to support the Catholic claims. It is a fiict that the Tammany ring, which })lundered for several years the public Treasury, was mainly supported by the Irish vote ; the members of the ' ring ' appro- priating, in retui-n, large sums to Catholic institutions,* which during three years got no less than 1,396,389 dols., while the Protestants had to be satisfied with 112,293 dols. In the same way, at every election, where there is a sufficient number of Catholic voters to turn the scale, they employ the franchise as a means to obtain their special ends ; and the Cathohc press is already boasting that in 1900 they will elect their own President. But the principal battle-field is the question of Educa- Their edu- -VT 1 1 1 -r» /-li 1 • cational tion. No one, better than the Eoman Church, appreciates campaign, the truth, that whoever has the school, has the future in his hands ; and the Catholics are well aware that, notwith- standing their rapid growth, they lose a large number of Catholic children through the constant contact of de- catholicising influences in a stiU preeminently non-Catho- lic community. They began with complaints against the use of the Protestant Bible in public schools, read ' with- out note or comment.' They appeared satisfied when the educational boards gi'anted the introduction of a transla- tion approved by the Catholic authorities ; and until 1852 no further objection was made. They then protested against a system wliich did not include separate instruction in the Catholic faith and Catliolic Church doctrine ; and accordingly directed their attack against all public schools which bore either a Protestant or a secular character. ' The Catholics have founded savings-banks and similar establish- ments, which are of course exclusively managed by Catholics, and only accessible to such. 422 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. Meanwhile they set eagerly about establishing Catholic - — V-^ parish schools. ' It is our solemn injunction, and most positive demand,' said Bishop Gilmour of Cleveland, Ohio, in his Lenten Pastoral of 1873, ' to see that every church in the diocese should have its school. Wherever a congrega- tion cannot at once build both school and church, let them first build the school-house and wait for the church. There is httle danger of the old losing their faith, but there is every danger of the young doing so. If we are Catholics, we must leave after us a Catholic youth ; and experience has shown that this cannot be done unless the children are early taught, and daily taught, that they are Catholics.' The laity have not failed to respond to these appeals, and the ' Catholic Directory ' shows that every diocese contains numerous parochial schools, — in Baltimore, to wit, there are 61, with an attendance of 13,916 scholars — which in many places have seriously lessened the attendance at the public schools, and in some have almost broken those schools up altogether. JSTor is this crusade against the public schools, which the Catholics affirm to be managed in the interests of Protestantism, satisfied with the erection of separate schools by the Catholics at their own expense. The clergy strive, and that successfully, to get the management of public schools themselves into their own hands. Wherever they succeed in this attempt, their next step is to elect Catholics as members of the School Boards ; and in this way to obtain the direction of the schools, the selection of Catholic teachers, and the use of funds for this special purpose. S^eiTsuc- ^^^^ success of tliis hierarchical plan of campaign is cess. aided by the divisions among the various Protestant sects, which in many places are too weak to hold out against tlie powerful organisation of Romanism, reposing on a theory which forms a self-consistent and logically compacted whole. It is aided, further, by the politicians THE EDUCATION QUESTION. 423 wlio are ready to make any sacrifice for party success, chap. and scruple not therefore to bargain with those who hold ■ — r-^ the balance of tlie suffrage that leads to power. Lastly, it is aided by the average inferiority of the public schools, to which an impartial observer, Mr. Matthew Arnold, bears testimony. The material prosperity of the country is an obstacle to systematic education. Almost the only servants are negroes, Chinese, or Irish of the first generation : children's labour amongst the middle classes is too lucra- tive to be dispensed with ; the whole family has to work. In the western and middle States the elder children are occupied on the farm ; and can only go to school, therefore, in winter — a period often of only four months ; the summer school is merely for the young. Even in the eastern States the school attendance is irregular : in New York 1,028,210 children Avere enrolled in 1870, but the average attendance was only 493,648. Although the public schools cost vast sums (in New York the cost in 1874 was 2,800,000 dols.), they have no good teachers. The latter are usually paid by the mouth, at a rate wholly inadequate to secure trained instructors. Only 3 per cent, can be called trained ; these are partly college -students or clergymen not yet in place. Most of them, however, are women ; the j)roportion being, according to the last census, 2,100 out of 2,400,^ a result due not to choice but to necessity, men being able to make so much more in other professions. If we consider, further, that there is no national system of education, the erection of schools being a matter left to each State, county, or city, it is not surprising that as no thorough culture is to be found in the public schools, the Cathohcs, in thus supporting at whatever cost their own schools, and working hard to raise them to a higher standard of efficiency, should meet with general success. ' These facts are taken from the United States Census of 1874. 424 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. XXVI. Protestant parties of opposition. This state of things has roused, however, the Pro- testant majority from the indolence with which until lately they regarded the progress of Catholicism. In the reaction which has set in we may distinguish four parties. The first wants to revert to the former system of main- taining state education, but reading the Bible without note or comment, and also Protestant hymns and prayers. The second adopts the Catholic premiss that religious education is of paramount importance ; denounces the State schools as a mistake, and demands purely denomina- tional schools. The third demands an amendment of the Constitution, establishing a distinct national recognition of Protestant Christiapity. Oj^posed to these three are the Liberals, who claim a purely secular education and system of government, insisting also that all public grants for religious purposes should be forbidden, that the exeuiption of religious institutions from taxation should be abolished, the use of the Bible in the public schools suppressed, the oath and all laws aiming at the enforcement of Christian morality abrogated, and no peculiar privileges or advantage conceded to any religion in particular. This party acknowledge that they have accompHshed little as yet in the way of tangible results ; but they are confident in their principles and proud of the partial adherence of President Grant, who in his message of December 7, 1875, recommended to Congress an amendment of the Constitution, making it the duty of every State to establish free public schools, irrespective of sex, colour, birthplace, or religion, forbidding the teacliing of any religious, atheistic, or pagan tenets* and prohibit- ing the granting of any public money for the benefit of any religious sect. It is much to be doubted, however, whether this move- The State has certainly the right to forbid that public moneys, collected from the taxes paid Question of education, mcut wiU succccd PROTESTANT Ori'OSITlON TO TUE HIERARCHY. 425 by all citizens alike, should be applied for the purposes of chap. a particular denomination; nor can any objection be - — . — - raised against the abolition of that exemption from taxation, which Church property generally enjoys, or of the immunity of clergymen from military service and serving on juries. An Act of Congress (July 1, 1862) has even enacted, that no corporation devoted to religious purposes shall possess landed property in one State to the value of more than 50,000 dollars ; and the laws of the various States define liow large the capital or revenue of Church societies may be, what shall be the maximum salary of the clergy, and what the conditions of enjoying corporate rights. But the establishment of a purely secular in- struction in public schools would certainly not answer the purpose of checking the progress of Catholicism. It is impossible to make attendance in these schools compulsory on all children ; and thus the consequence would simply be to give a new impulse to the parochial schools of the Catholics, who would withdraw at once their children from the public schools ; moreover, expe- rience has amply shown that the demonstrations of science and the influences of secular civihsation are utterly powerless against the intellectual unity of the Catholic system. A much weightier consequence of tliis Catholic expan- J'i'p*^j[|!^y' sion has been to rouse the zeal of Protestant denomina- *» the hi< r irchy. tions. The most thoroughgoing of the above-named parties, called the Christianisers or Evangelical Eadicals, who seek to give a distinct Protestant character to the whole administration, can scarcely expect to succeed, notwithstanding the earnest enthusiasm and intense fixity of purpose of its adherents ; for the number of Catholics is too large to submit to such a system, and the latter would subvert those constitutional princi})lcs which hitherto liave prevailed in this respect. The second 426 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. XXVI. The voluntary system a counter- poise to Ul tram on- party, the Evangelical, composed of different sects, demand a system of education wliicli shall be at once unsectarian and Christian, though opposed to Catholicism as well as to infidelity ; schools conducted, as they were generally in former times, with the Bible and Protestant prayers, hymns, and books ; and they seem to have a fair chance of success, wherever Catholics do not command a majority. But the most powerful antidote against the Ultramontanes are certainly the denominational schools. It is true that they favour a spirit of narrow sectarianism ; but this is the consequence of so many sects existing in America. The voluntary system, as a whole, has unquestionably its dark sides. It makes the clergy ab- solutely dependent on the members of the congregation, who pay them ; they cannot well oppose things the public disapproval of which would make them unpopular, nay, might entail their dismissal. Not a preacher in the South as we have noticed before,^ ever uttered a word against slavery. And since they are bound to please the masses, they easily address themselves to their weaknesses, and prefer the sensational harangue to the simple proclama- tion of Evangelical truth. Politics, accordingly, are constantly brought into the pulpit ; between 1865 and 1867 the chaplain of Congress prayed daily that President Johnson might be humbled, and his own party exalted with glory. ^ Besides all this, the voluntary system leads to the greatest inequality in the position of the clergy. While popular preachers at New York draw large sala- ries from their admirers, others in small communities ^ See ante, Vol. I. p. 8. 2 * The best known preacher in America gains his notoriety solely by the freedom with which he discusses on Sunday morning, from a text of Scripture, the acts of public men and the turn aflairs are likely to take.' (Jennings' ' Eighty Years of Republican Government in the United States ' London, 1867.) IRISH DISCONTENT AND THE PRIESTS. 427 must live by the work of their hands ;^ while as reojarcls chap. XXVI the Churches themselves, their unlimited liberty tends - — '-^^ essentially to make them mutually exclusive. Yet, with all these drawbacks to the voluntary system, it cannot be denied that, in a population made up of so many various congregations, it is the only logical solution of the difficulty ; and the result shows that its achievements are considerable, and that it does not prevent religion from maintaining a great position in the national life. In England those who hoped that the abolition of Unconciiia- civil disabilities would have converted the Catholics into tmic of citizens of the State like any others, have been grievously England, disappointed. They find that unlimited liberty has given an enormous advantage to that aggressive system, of which the basis is the denial, and the object the sup- pression, of most things that Englishmen prize most highly. Undoubtedly there were strong reasons of equity and justice, which advocated the disestablishment of the English Church in Ireland. But subsequent events have dispelled whatever hopes coiüd fairly be entertained that the measure would pacify the spirit of Ultramontane aggression in that country. The concessions of Mr. Gladstone only encouraged the turbulent classes in Ireland to put forward additional demands ; the Home Eule agi- tation followed the Church Bill and the Land Bill as the Eepeal agitation had followed Catholic emancipation. Fenianism, it is true, has never met with support from the Vatican ; it w\as condemned by a special decree (January 12, 1870) among other secret societies dangerous to the Church. But the priests find their interests served by bidding for the support of the Home Eulers, and if ' Lord Robert Montagu, in his ' Four Experiments in Church and State and the Conflicts of Churches,' 1864, sliows from American evi- dence how inadequate is the supply of churches and ministers under the vohmtary system — [Tr.] 428 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. their overtures are somewhat contemptuously received, when accompanied with spiritual pretensions, they under- stand to make capital out of pohtical disaffection.^ Two notorious cases have recently exposed their efforts to in- fluence the elections in a manner that brought down the strongest condemnation from the judicial bench. ^ But in Ireland, as elsewhere, the main pretensions of the priesthood are concentrated on the question of educa- tion. Scarcely had the Irish Church Bill been passed, when a Catholic manifesto, issued from a meeting at May- nooth College (September 1, 1869), announced the de- mands of the hierarchy, and a few weeks later Archbishop McHale and the Tuam clergy inveighed against the ' malignant influence of the Protestant Church, continued in educational estabhshments in deference to Protestant ascendency.' These demands were put forth categorically in a later Pastoral of the Eoman Catholic bishops.^ They insist on the total abolition of mixed education, as ' dan- gerous to faith and morals,' ^ and assert their right to the ^ Fifty-one Liberal Home Rulers were returned at the General Election in 1874. Mr. Butt is reported, however, to have said that he would never tolerate religious ascendency. 2 At the Galway Election thrt ats of punishment in a future life were brought to bear against the opponents of the Home Rule candi- date. Mr. Justice Keogh, in reporting against the election, denounced several priests and one prelate as guilty of a ' gross conspiracy.' The persons implicated were acquitted, however, by a Dublin jury, and the judge was burnt in effigy by the mob. The counsel for the defence argued at the trial that the clergy are justified in advising their flocks on the discharge of a moral duty. ^ 'Pastoral of the Irish Hierarchy on Education,' Dublin, 1871. * No man,' said Cardinal Cullen in November, 1871, 'can approve of mixed education but free-thinkers, infidels, and atheists.' ■* Proselytism was one of the reasons urged for denominational education, it being alleged that the mixed system in primary schools led to Protestants endeavouring to seduce Catholic children from their faith. Lord O'Hagan, hoAvever (the Irish Chancellor, and a Catholic), declared in Parliament in ISGl that no case of proselytism had ever IRISH UNIVERSITY BILL. 429 sole superintendence of both the higher and lower ediica- chap. tion of the Catliolics of Ireland. In all primary schools - \ '-' that are exclusively Catholic, there is to be a ' removal of all restrictions upon religious instruction.' As to inter- mediate education, they demand that all existing endow- ments, whether derived from Catholic or Protestant bounty, shall be thrown into a common fund, and applied to open scholarships or grants in aid of middle-class schools, on the principle of payment by results. The State, in short, is to surrender all control over Catholic education to the priesthood, and content itself with pro- viding the necessary funds for that purpose. These claims were worded in sufficiently peremptory language, but in reality they only reechoed the doctrine of the Syllabus, which stated that ' the Government of the public schools of a Christian State cannot, and ought not to, belong to the civil power.' It is characteristic, however, of the spirit that dictated them, that the very bishops who had repudiated the notion of concurrent endowment, when the question of Protestant disendowment Avas raised, now demanded a monopoly of endowment for Catholic education. The same general pretensions were advanced when in insh um- 1873 Mr. Gladstone introduced his Bill relating to Irish bIiCists. Universities, in which he attempted to extend to higher education in Ireland the same principles of strict equality which he had already applied to the Church. It was then made abundantly clear that equality, whether religious or educational, will never satisfy those whose real object is ascendency. It may fairly be admitted that Catholic parents had a substantial grievance, in seeing their sons been proved against a national scliool in Ireland. The fact is, that a rule, existing since 1868, makes such practices impossible, by declaring that * no child, registered as a Roman Catholic, shall be present when religious instruction is given by a Protestant.' 430 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, practically debarred from the best university training, • , — ^ unless they sent them to Trinity College or the Queen's Colleges, whose traditions are almost wholly secular. A Eoraan Catholic University had been founded at Dubhn in 1851, on the model of that at Louvain, and the bishops, in their above-mentioned Pastoral, had demanded for it a charter and separate endowments. But this University has been in a languishing condition since its foundation ; and a memorial of its alumni to Cardinal Cullen (Decem- ber, 1873) confessed that ' during that period not a single graduate has been appointed to any position whatever in the faculty of philosophy, of arts, or of science.' The main principle of the Bill was the incorporation of the ' ancient historical ' University of Dublin, as a central in- stitution, and its emancipation from the various colleges, which would have full powers to form schemes for self- government, the Legislature giving them only an open career and fair play.^ But the cardinal fault of the mea- sure, the defeat of which involved the ultimate fall of the Ministry, was the exclusion from the new University not only of theology, but also of moral philosophy and modern history. For what, indeed, is a University education which excludes those two most important branches of learning ? And could not Ultramontane tenets be intro- duced just as well in the teaching of mediasval history? The error is the same as that committed by the advocates of secular schools. Nothing is decided by the exclusion of religious instruction, for the same questions arise fi'om history and even from natural science. A Cathohc teacher must view the history of the Popes and of the Eeformation from the opposite point to that adopted by a Protestant ; and a freethinker will laugh at the Biblical narrative of the Creation. The system, in short, if - ' Speech of Mr. Gladstone, on introducing the Bill, February 13, 1873. CATHOLIC PROGRESS IN IRELxVND. 431 carried out, would reduce education to spelling and ma- chap. thematics ; for the religious point of view is so command- — ■ — '-' ing that it takes in the whole field of instruction,^ Since this last and fruitless effort to disarm Catholic Mr. ciad- aggression in Ireland by equahty, Mr. Gladstone has dis- Vaticanism covered, when in the cold shade or, as it may be, in the bracing air of opposition, the dangers with which Eome threatens England. Four years after the Vatican Council, which at the time of its occurrence he regarded with equa- nimity, he has found out that Eome has 'refurbished and paraded the rusty tools of the past,' and denounces ' the design of Vaticanism to disturb civil society, and to proceed, when it may be requisite and practicable, to the issue of blood for the accomplishment of its aims.' Mr. Gladstone's error is, that he thinks there is anything new in these practices of Eome ; but at the same time, it is certainly true that the Catholic Church has made great progress in England. Cardinal Manning has given an unmistakable answer to those who at the restoration of the papal hierarchy in 1850 maintained that Pro- testant England had nothing to fear from Eome. In a speech, delivered in October 1875, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of that event, he very adroitly appeals to the sentiments of justice, and declares that Catholics claim no ^ ' In England,' writes Cardinal Manning, ' such mixed and godless schemes of University education have become inevitable, by reason o£ our endless religious contentions. England has lost its religious unity, and is paying the grievous penalty.' (Letter to Roman Catholic Primate of Ireland, 1873.) In his speech, however, at the Ware Synod in the same year, he declares that ' the growth of a numerous middle-class, throiigh the number of educated converts,' makes the University ques- tion in England one of pressing importance for Catholics. The project of a national Catholic University has dwindled down to the modest dimensions of a college at Kensington under Mgr. Capel, who has to contend with the wish of many Catholic parents to share in the advan- tages offered by Oxford and Cambridge since the abolition of tehts. 432 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, privileges, but only that liberty which is granted to every V ^^^^L' Englishman. He maintains that his Church is a popular one, hinting that it has nothing in common with the aristocratic and class interests of other religious commu- nities. Liberty of movement had been sufficient to raise the Church to perform a work, which in former times would have required a century ; so that if ever England should prove hostile to the Catholic revelation of Divine truth, she would lose the last remnants of her Christian inheritance. Progress of j^^^i^ -^ell might tlic CathoHc Primate point with pride archy. ^o the cxpansivc energies of his Church. Looking at the 'Catholic Directory' for 1876, edited by his secretary, Mr. Johnson, we find that there are now in England twelve bishoprics under the metropolitan of Westminster ; a cardinal archbishop, an archbishop in partihus, sixteen bishops, and 1772 j^riests. The number of places of worship is 1061, being twenty more than in the previous year, and 215 convents. The peerage shows a list of thirty-six Catholic members, the baronetage forty-seven. Scotland has 233 churches with 244 priests. It is to be observed, however, that while hundreds of thousands of Irishmen live in the great manufacturing districts of both countries — 207,700 in Scotland alone, and probably as many more descendants from such, w^ho are nearly all Catholics — nevertheless, not a single English Catholic occupies a seat in the House of Commons, every one of the fifty Catholic members being Irish. The whole British Empire, colonies included, contains twelve arch- bishoprics, seventy-one bishoprics, thirty-six apostolic vicariates, and seven apostohc prefectures. These facts constitute undoubtedly a mighty progress. In 1758 Horace Walpole wrote in his flippant way, ' There are no religious combustibles in the temper of tlie times. Popery and Protestantism seem at a stand. AVERSION TO COERCIVE LEGISLATION. 433 The modes of Christianity are exhausted, and could not chap. furnish novelty enough to fix attention.' What would . ^-^J^i^ he have said, if, a century later, he had been alive to hear Cardinal Manning's triumphant statement, and witness the first Catholic peers of England heading a procession to a sanctuary where Christ is said to have appeared two centuries ago to a French peasant girl ? Grave as these facts are, there seems, however — if we Aversion to coercive except a small but violent party — to be a general una- legislation, nimity of opinion that any recourse to legislation, in order to combat this progress by curtaihng the liberty of Catholics, would be objectionable, and would only play into the hands of Eome. Everyone, on the contrary, will reecho Sir William Harcourt's criticisms on the un- necessary awakening of theological strife. 'No public man who has a due sense of responsibility will set flames to such a material ' (as theological controversy) ' unless under the pressure of absolute necessity, and if compelled to deal with it, he will restrict himself within the exact limits of political action. There is nothing more danger- ous ormoremiscliievousthanto confound the province of practical statesmanship with that of theological contro- versy. If you are called upon to act, whatever may be the difficulty of these questions, you may be compelled to deal with them. But the error which is most strenuously to be avoided is that of denouncing men whom you can- not and do not intend to control, and of arousing the bitterest of all sentiments, that of theological hatred, in the breasts of the difierent sections of a people which embraces various creeds.' And a little further on he says mth great force : ' I think ingenuity and eloquence can- not be worse employed than in persuading men who are as good citizens as ourselves that their reUgion calls upon them to be bad subjects. It may be all very good logic and unanswerable casuistry, but it is very bad politics. I VOL. II. F F tane reax3- tion since }870. 434 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, do not mean politics in a party sense, but in its higher " — r— ^ meaning — the polity which aims at compacting the interests and uniting the sections of an entire empire.' (b) France, Spain, Belgium, Italy. uitramon- The ccclesiastical policy of Napoleon III. had not been, as that of the Bourbons, one of absolute subjection to the clergy. But he had favoured them as a means of government; he supported the temporal power by his army in order to win the support of the army of French priests for the elections. His Italian pohcy, which proved unable to preserve the integrity of the Papal dominions, alienated the clergy, though he did not venture to with- draw the privileged position he had given to them. Thus the Church remained in possession of all her power, while recovering her liberty of action towards the Go- vernment, and proving her influence by forcing it to secure the Pope against the Garibaldian expedition of 1867. In this way the Church was saved from the discredit which came upon the whole Imperial system after Sedan, and was set free to profit by the revulsion of feehng pro- duced by the national disasters and by the horror engen- dered by the savage outburst of hatred shown by the Commune against Christianity. A great national cala- mity exercises almost invariably a powerful reaction on the religious sentiment of the nation. From Jena may be said to date the revival of German Protestantism. In France this influence has been correspondingly mani- fested since the defeats of 1870-71, not indeed in the sense of a genuine religious regeneration, but in a blind subjection to the rule of the clergy. Since July 18, 1870, hberal Catholicism, so far as it still existed, has been doomed to silence. Its intellectual champions, such as Maret and Gratry,^ submitted to the decisions of the * We have quoted already the letter to the Archbishop of Paris, in which Gratry recanted Avhatever he might have written against the ULTRAIMONTANE REACTION IN FRANCE. 435 Vatican Council. The Old Catholic movement remained chap. destitute of any significance. IJltramontanism had be- come the official creed of the Church, and found in France, humbled by defeat, the most congenial and favourable soil for its warfare against modern ideas. The episcopate did not wait for the peace to recom- mence the campaign for Eome. In the middle of February 1871 the archbishop of Eouen went to the German head-quarters at Versailles, nominally to obtain a diminution of the war indemnity ; but in reaUty to intercede for the restoration of the temporal rule of the pope, as the most exalted mission of the German Empire, and the achievement of which would render the greatest service to Catholic and conservative interests. Im- mediately after the signing of the peace, the bishops organised mass petitions to the National Assembly, de- manding an intervention for the temporal rule. The nature of this intervention was not particularised, but in any event it must have led to a rupture with Italy. The least thing demanded was that France should abstain from diplomatic intercourse with Italy : only with the greatest Efforts for difficulty, and after purposeless, and violent debates in the tervention. Assembly, could M. Thiers succeed in passing to the order of the day. There can be no doubt that at first the Church was hostile to the Eepublic. She distrusted the ability of M. Thiers to keep that Eepu]:)lic .really Conser- vative ; and she knew also that, notwithstanding his Vatican decrees. The archbishop answered in a letter of December 8, highly praising his entire docility towards the decision of the Church. ' Cette soumission est la gloire et la veritable grandeur du pretre et de I'eveque ; c'est aussi la seule securit(5 de la conscience. Par ces nobles et genereux exemples nous prouvons au monde que nons sommes sinceres lorsque nous soutenons que la lumiere de la foi est superieure a la lumiere de notre faible et vacillante raison.' — * La Reforme Catho- lique,' par le Pcre Hyacinthc, p. 41. No doubt the only logical view for a Catholic, but at the &ame time the sacrificium intellect/Is in plain terms. FF 2 436 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, opposirion to the Italian policy of the Empire, he would - — ,— ^ never submit to her ascendency. The Orleanists, as tra- ditional Liberals, were still more hateful. Napoleon IV. and his mother might be submissive enough to the Church, but they were out of the reckoning for the present. Accordingly, she sided openly with the Comte de Cham- bord, of whose subservience to the Church there could be no doubt. ^ Had the restoration of the Comte de Cham- bord been successful, war would in all probability have been inevitable ; for the latter declared already in 1871 to a deputation of his adherents at Geneva, that there were two points in his programme he could never sur- render, namely, the white flag and the restoration of the States of the Church. This position underwent a change when the Comte de Chambord, by his famous letter of October 25, 1872, made his acceptance an impossibility ; and shortly after- wards M. Thiers was replaced by Marshal McMahon, who was decidedly favourable to the Church. For the present, the clerical party finds itself restricted, in regard to the Eoman question, to offensive speeches and vitu- perative pastorals; and the government at length (Sep- tember 1874) abandoned the futile demonstration of sending a man-of-war to anchor at Civita Vecchia for the nominal protection of the pope. At home the Catholic party makes everything dependent on the posi- tion which people occupy towards the Church. Who- ever is not for them is an enemy. The majority of the upper classes second these pretensions, even if they are sheer infidels at heart, because they see in the Church an indispensable ally against revolutionary and socialist tendencies, and because the bishops have the longest arm in the country, and their word is weighty for the distribution of places and honours. A Legitimist ^ The clerical papers, such as the * Monde ' and the ' Univers,' called him plainly the king. REVIVAL OF TvELTGIOUS PILGRIM AGES, 4 37 deputy began with moving an order for universal prayer throughout France. The law of March 1872 against the ' International Society ' threatened with penalties any demand for the abohtion of religion. A decree of the clericalism, prefect of the Ehone ordered that all civil burials should take place before seven o'clock in the morning. The prefect of Lyons closed the schools in which no religious instruction was given. In the debate on the law relating to military chaplains, the Assembly rejected the motion of several Protestant and Jewish deputies to release the soldiers of their respective persuasions from the obligation to appear at Catholic solemnities. On the other hand, the law of July 25, 1873, declared the building of a church at Montmartre, dedicated to the Sacre Coeur, in conformity with the request of the archbishop of Paris, to be advantageous to the pubhc interest (d'utilite publique). The archbishop appealed for contributions, saying that Clirist asked an altar to be erected on the hill on which His martyrs suffered. There His Holy Heart would be honoured, and the alliance of France with God be solemnly renewed ; ' Qui refuserait d'apporter sa sig- nature k ce traite de paix entre le ciel et la France ? ' The pilgrimages to Lourdes and Paray-le-Monial were favoured in every manner by the authorities, and actively joined in by Legitimist deputies. The characteristic feature of these pilgrimages, in Srim"^ which hundreds of thousands took part, lies not so much »sea. in the pretended apparition of the Virgin to a peasant girl, to whom she is reported to have said, ' I am the Immaculate Conception, and wish that people should come here in procession,' nor in the supposed miracles which the water at Lourdes is said to work, as in the fact that the French clergy officially sanction this super- stition. There is nothing astonishing in the pope saying that these pilgrimages present ' a spectacle which delights 438 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, men and angels,' for Eome has always favoured such ^ — r— ^ exhibitions, as a connecting hnk between the centre of the hierarchy and the Cathohc nations. But in France, at least, the clergy in former times, if they tolerated such superstitions, did not openly encourage them. Here, however, we have thirty-five bishops guaranteeing by then- authority the reality of these miracles. A new con- gregation, that of the Sisters of the Immaculate Concep- tion, has been founded as guardians of the shrine. A statue of the Virgin has been erected, and inaugurated with great pomp, and torchlight processions and fire- works, and Mgr. Mermillod informed his hearers, in a sermon preached on the occasion, ' C'est de la Vierge, c'est de son intervention, qu'il faut attendre la restauration du Christianisme integral.' ^ Similar apparitions have been related in other parts, the Virgin always being the authority appealed to, in order to secure the triumph of the Church, while Christ and God are comparatively unnoticed. But it cannot be denied that France, in cultivating this superstition, is sinking to the level of Spain and Italy ; and that Monta- lembert went not a step too far, when, in his indignation against the unworthy successors of Bossuet, Fenelon, and MassiUon, he complained to DoUinger of the abyss of idolatry into which the French clergy had fallen, and the utter transformation of Cathohc France ' en une basse- cour de I'antichambre du Vatican.' One quotation will suffice to prove this. Bertrand, bishop of Toul, declared in a pastoral at the close of 1875, ' Pas d'intermediaire entre le Pere et Pierre. Les secrets de I'infini sont les * Precisely the same train of thoughts runs through Pio Nono's querulous allocutions and speeches. At a reception of a French depu- tation he assured them that by the prayers and intervention of the Immaculate Virgin and the Saints, God would awaken from His slumbers and hear their demands.' (Sept. 1875.) THE CLERGY AND EDUCATION. 439 secrets ä eux deux, il (le Tape) parle avec I'assurance chap. meme de Dieu le Pere.' ^-^.—L^ The chief attack of the Ultramontane party was SSÜ directed to the question of Education. Tho Empire had SatS latterly somewhat altered the law of 1850.^ The Minister Duruy, notwithstanding the opposition of the clergy, had seriously endeavoiu^ed to improve the instruction of the young.'"^ Jules Simon now submitted the project of a BiUof law, mtroducmg universal and compulsory attendance at Simon, school, but retaining religious instruction, and while not interfering with the schools of the Orders, forbade the certificates of ecclesiastical superiors to be held in future as sufficient vouchers for admission to the department of teaching. This proposal was assailed as irreligious by the party, headed by the bishop of Orleans. The obli- gation of school attendance was stigmatised as tyranny to parents and children. The bill died a natural death with the retirement of Jules Simon in May 1873, and the old arrangements continued in force. Freedom of in- struction now became the watchword of the Catholics^ because they alone possessed the necessary funds for establishing schools and universities ; while they resisted the hberty of dehvering public lectures, because these are the expression of modern ideas and are largely attended. Towards the attainment of these objects they have university 11 TT • -x T-i Education made an important step by the law on University iLduca- Law, juiy • tion, which passed its third reading on July 12, 1875, by ' 1 See a7ife, p. 233. '■^ His prcposed improvements, in other respects, were confined to very narrow limits. The draught of amendments, prepared by the Minister, did not even receive the assent of his colleagues, amongst whom M. Eouher was decidedly opposed to compulsory instruction. For tlie whole question see M. Br^al, ' Quelques Mots sur I'lnstruction publique en France.' Paris, lö72. ' Essais sur I'lnstruction pub- lique.' Par Ch. Lenormunt. Publits par son ßls. 440 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, a majority of 316 against 266. The clerical party, snp- ^- — r— ^ ported by the Liberal doctrinaires^ succeeded in obtaining the complete independence of this branch of instruction from all State control. The main object of the bill was to abolish the monopoly, hitherto enjoyed by the University of France, of opening schools of law and medicine, and of conferring degrees. The Catholics obtained liberty to establish free universities of their own, but not the power to confer separate degrees. On this point, however, a compromise, suggested by the bishop of Orleans on the rejection of the original demand of the clericals, was finally adopted in Clause 13, which allowed students of Free Faculties, on proof of compHance with their rules, to present themselves for degrees before State Faculties or before a mixed jury, composed in equal parts of pro- fessors from the State and Free Universities. This gave the Ultramontanes in effect all that they demanded. The nominees of their own universities on the juries were sure to be enlisted in their interests ; those of the State might at least be so also ; and if only one of the latter voted with their own representatives, they had the majority at once. No sooner had the bill passed, than they erected a number of Catholic universities, to the support of which 'they devoted millions of francs. They knew that the present situation was favourable, and that if, as was very likely, it should change, many of their adversaries would hesitate to attack institutions once established. This idea proved to be correct. The elections brought about a change of Ministry, and M. Waddington, the new Minister of Public Instruction, introduced a bill, leaving the law as it was, except the one point of conferring degrees, the right of which he vested again in the State alone. In the remarkable motifs with which he introduced this measure, he said, ' Freedom of instruction is not in question ; but that freedom does not include the right of UNIVERSITY EDUCATION BILL. 441 conferring degrees, which belongs to quite a diflerent chap. province of legislation. The greater the freedom, the • ^-^ more stringent and effectual must be the control. The conferrhig of degrees is not the crowning of freedom of instruction, but its corrective. Interests of public health, of morality, of public safety are involved in this question ; the degrees give access to public offices and other calhngf?, which must be open to all, but to all on the same con- ditions. In order to obtain this equality there must be one judge, and that judge can only be the State.' Nothing could be more reasonable. The free uni- versities might educate their students as they hked ; but the latter, if they wished to obtain a degree, were to present themselves for that purpose before State Facul- ties, and had only to give proof that they had attended certain lectures. But while the whole Liberal party hailed this bill with vehement applause, the Catholics imme- diately raised the cry of persecution, and Dupanloup declared that it was only the beginning of a general attack upon the Church. Absurd as this may seem, yet from the strictly Catholic point of view it is perfectly logical. There are no causce minores in these matters : the absolute principles on which Catholicism reposes must be vindicated even in the smallest details : to attack these in any manner is to attack the system itself. The bill passed the House of Deputies by a large majority, but was rejected in the Senate by five votes. It would be an error, however, to regard this state of things as final : it wiU last only as long as the pre- sent majority of the new Legislature continues. As soon Dangers of as a Eadical majority takes its place, the religious strug- gle will recommence.^ In proportion as the Conservative * A symptom of this hostility is to be found in the language of the liadical papers, on the recent vote in the Senate rejecting the BiU. It is denounced, not because it serves a bad cause, but because it 442 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. XXVI. circles of society surrender themselves to the Church, and ^~" — ' — ^ as her wealth and influence increase, the hatred enter- tained against her by the Eadicals and Sociahsts grows more intense. Voltairianism has turned into open Mate- rialism, whose aim is to annihilate religion altogether. In a novel of Flaubert, immoral enough, but characteristic of the condition of France, entitled ' Madame Bovary,' an apothecary figures as the representative of this tendency. His idea is, that, as the priests cannot be killed off out- right, they should at least be bled once a week. It has become the custom among freethinkers to refuse all religious ceremonies at funerals, on w^hich so much stress is laid in Catholic countries. In February 1871, the newspapers reported fi'om Toulouse that Citizen Lebal- leur had been buried amidst the sound of trumpets, and with the Eed Flag carried before his coffin ; and that the Republican prefect had boasted at his grave, that he had died an incorruptible Democrat, and a good Materialist and Atheist, in the hope that the coming generation would see the earthly paradise of a imiversal Eepublic. Notwithstanding, therefore, her great progress, the Church in France, as opposed to Eevolution, may fall into a still more serious danger than she has ever yet encountered since 1793, woSpin Ii^ ^P''^^^ ^^^ ^^^ Constitution of 1869 formally sanc- Spain. tioned the liberty of religious worship.^ The Court of opposes the tendency plainly manifested at the last election by uni- versal suffrage to the House of Deputies. ^ Recent events have shown that the liberty conferred by clause 11 is not so absolute as was supposed. The Government has found it prudent to forbid Protestants to give any public notice of their ser- vices, whether by placard or otherwise, or even to keep the doors of their churches open during divine worship. The bishop of Minorca has just published the following circular in his diocese : ' We renew and reiterate our sentence of the highest order of excommunication against heretics of every sort, kind, and description, against their pupils CATHOLICISM IN SPAIN AND BELGIUM. 443 Eome indignantly protested against tliis violation of the chap. Concordat of 1851, which had provided that no form of - — ^— ^ worship, except the Catholic, should be publicly exer- cised. When this grant was confirmed, after the acces- sion of the present king, the pope renewed his protest (August 13, 1875), and in a brief, addressed to the arch- bishop of Toledo, complained in violent terms of the infringement of treaties, by sanctioning the toleration of non-Catholic forms of worship, as a violation of faith and of the rights of the Church, which opened the door to the propagation of errors, and would provoke a series of evils for this august nation, which has always maintained the principle of Catholic unity. Not more edifvinsj is the spectacle presented by Bel- ciencai , . '' ° n -, o domination guim, where, m consequence ot the unfortunate manner lu Belgium. in which the separation of Church and State has been effected,^ free institutions have been made subservient to the domination of the clergy. It is true that in 1872 the Ministry of M. d'Anethan was forced to retire — having been heavily compromised by the bankruptcy of its protege, the Papal Count Langrand Dumonceau — before the universal indignation, which Leopold II. wisely turned to account, by dismissing the Cabinet, although it had or adopted children, against their fathers, mothers, preceptors, and all who sit at meat with them. We IxiUy excommunicate all who aid or look kindly on them ; we excommunicate the domestic servants of all heretics ; we excommunicate all and every person or persons who dare to let a house to a heretic or Protestant for school or services, and everyone who gives money, or makes a loan, or leaves a legacy to such persons ; we excommunicate everyone who lives on terms of friendship with such heretic, and everyone Avho dares to say or write one word in their defence. The clergy of my diocese are commanded to read this out on three successive Sundays during Divine Service, and take good care that all its injunctions shall be carried out to the letter.' ' See (mte, p. 113. 444 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, the majority in the Chamber.^ But although the -- — r— ^ clerical party has tolerated since then the moderate Ministry of M. Malon, because they cannot yet afford to dispense with its services, they rule none the less for that reason. The national schools are under the absolute control of the clergy.^ The middle-class schools alone, which belong partly to the town communes, partly to the State, are comparatively independent. The daughters of parents in the upper classes are uniformly educated in convents. The free University of Brussels is far inferior in importance to the University at Louvain, where simply the doctrines of the Syllabus are taught.^ In the State Universities of Liege and Ghent the Ultramontane Minis- ters are constantly pushing in more of their adherents. The number of convents is rapidly increasing ; in 1846 there were 779 with 11,968 inmates; in 1866, 1,316 with 18,196, and it is calculated that there are now two convents for every three parishes. The regulations against mortmain are systematically evaded : the Orders constitute themselves into societies, whose members ap- point each other mutually as heirs of the property. The legacies bequeathed to churches and convents have amounted since 1831 to an annual average of 100,000 francs, and the donations are still more considerable. The real property, belonging to the various orders and con- gregations in Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Liege, Mons and Namur was estimated in 1874 at twenty- three ^ Laveleye, * La Crise recente en Belgique.' Anvers, 1872. See also his article in the * Fortnightly Review.' October, 1872. 2 By the law of 1842 the inspection of schools by the clergy is limited to the religious instruction, and he is required even, as a delegate of the bishop, to have an exequatur from the government. But practically he rules supreme over the school, and no teacher objec- tionable to the clergy could retain his post. ^ Compare the pamphlet of Professor Ch. Perin at Louvain, entitled * Les Liberies populaires,' 1872. THE PRIESTS AND THE LIBERALS IN BELGIUM. 445 millions ; their personal property admits of no valuation. ^^^^• Every larger town has its newspaper, which is under the ^ — '-^ direction of the bishop. Hotels or cafes, which take in Liberal papers, are denounced by the clergy. In some parts there is a system of confessional tickets, which are given to those who attend the Easter confession. These are demanded as certificates of character ; anyone who cannot produce his card would be pointed out as a man to be avoided, and if in business, he would probably lose his customers. Even the independence of the judges is Political threatened, by refusing absolution to those whose decisions the priests, run counter to the interests of the Church. ^ But the power of the clergy is shown above all at the elections. The pulpit becomes a political tribune, from which the priests inveigh against the Liberals, as men destitute of honour and morality, who aim at abolishing religion. Throughout the country they have organised clubs, which, under the pretext of offering social attractions to the working classes, control the elections, and bait for mem- bers with cheap beer and tobacco. The priests lead the rural electors to the voting urn like so many sheep : the nobility and the large landed proprietors, who are Ultra- montane to a man, dictate to their tenants how to vote. This, state of things sufficiently explains the Ultra- montane majority in the Chamber.^ The whole Flemish portion of Belgium, which embraces one-half of the king- dom, sends only two deputies not belonging to the clerical party. Opposed to these, the Liberals are weak, and they S'S?^*'^^ find themselves, moreover, in a position full of contra- liberals, dictions. The very weapon — religious freedom — which 1 For the proofs of this see Laveleye, ' Le Parti Clerical en Belgique,' p. 24. Bruxelles, 1874. ■^ At the last elections the moderate Catholic ministry has retained the majority, against which the Liberals vainly opposed violence, de- spairing to obtain their ends by legal means. 446 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, they had thought to use against the Chiu-ch, is now, as ■ — r-^ M. Laveleye confesses, being turned against them. Yet only a very small minority of them are inclined at pre- sent for an open rupture with the Church, notwithstanding that she condemns the hberties they defend, particularly since the movement, represented by the association, called La Libre Pensee, aims at a purely negative system of freethinking. Family life and education, however, are impossible without religion ; and thus the Liberals find themselves obliged to submit on the one side to the Church, the influence of which they combat on the other. Others, more far-sighted like M. de Laveleye, recognise the fact that pure negation can only produce disorder, that society is impossible without religion, which has created civilisation. ' We in Belgium,' he says, ' feel only too painfully the dreadful void, which the weakening of religious conscience, the natural result of the forced opposition against the only form of worship we know has engendered.' ^ He concludes that the society of the future must adopt the Christianity of the Gospel ; but by this elastic term he means, not the Gospel of St. Paul or St. John, but a Christianity reduced to a religion of equahty, charity, and self-sacrifice, without miracles, dogmas, or priests, in short, a confession, as it were; of Eousseau's Vicaire Savoyard, which denies the specific Christian character. A third school, the Radicaux auto- ritaires, propose to have recourse to force, in order to vanquish Ultramontanism. Liberty alone, they say, is not able to make nations progressive : the propagation of error must be prevented. To try persuasion is to waste time : coercion is needed — not indeed ferocious measures, but prison, fines, and exile.^ " < Protestantisme et Catholicisme dans leurs rapports avec la liberte et la prosperite des peuples.' 1875. 2 Hermann Pergameni, ' Revue de Belgique.' October, 1875. The Italian Govern- ment and Rome. THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT AND ROME. 447 In Italy the Vatican decrees produced scarcely any chap. impression at all, amidst the universal religious indif- ^^^^' ference that prevailed among the people. But the government of Victor Emmanuel, which liad offered no hindrance to their proclamation, found it necessary, after the eventful summer of 1870, to take steps of far-reaching importance. The September Convention had proved a failure, and the reoccupation of Eome by the French in December, 1867, had only served to increase the hatred of the temporal power among both the Italian and the Eoman populations. When the French garrison with- drew, and all apprehension of its return was removed by the disaster of Sedan, it became necessary, indeed, for the Italian Government to act, as the Minister Visconti Venosta said in his despatch of September 8, in order to save Eome and the papacy ; for by remaining passive they would have been unable to restrain the Eadicals, and nobody can doubt that Garibaldi would have made short work not only of the temporal power but of the papacy itself. This would have probably led to an interference of the Catholic Powers ; and the Italian Government, by taking the initiative, prevented the spiritual power of the papacy from being involved in the fall of the temporal. The incorporation of the Eoman territory made it necessary for the Government to remodel entirely its relations with the Church and her supreme head. It set about this task with the full consciousness of its difficulty. Victor Emmanuel, in receiving the deputa- tion which reported to him the result of the Plebiscite (October 9, 1870), spoke as follows: 'As king and as a Eoman Catholic, I remain, in proclaiming the unity of Italy, firm in the purpose to secure the liberty of the Church and the independence of the So^-ereign Pontiff; and with this solemn declaration I receive from your han"'=! the Plebiscite of Eome.' A royal decree, issued the occupa tion of Rome. 448 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, on the same day, declared, ' Eome and the Eoman pro- . '-- vinces form an integral portion of the kingdom of Italy. The Pope retains the dignity, inviolability, and all the prerogatives of a sovereign, A special law will determine the conditions, suitable for guaranteeing, with territorial franchises (anche con franchigie territoriale)^^ the inde- pendence of the Pope and the free exercise of the eccle- siastical authority of the Holy See.' Circular of Tlic Minister Visconti Venosta wrote thus in his Circu- venostaon lar of Octobcr 18, addressed to the Italian representatives abroad : ' In going to Eome Italy encounters there one of the greatest questions of modern times. It is to recon- cile the national and religious sentiment, while protecting the independence and the spiritual authority of the Holy See in the midst of the freedom inherent in modern society The temporal power of the Holy See was the last relic of the institutions of the middle ages. At a period in which the ideas of sovereignty and property were not clearly separated, in which moral force had no effectual sanction in public opinion, the confusion of the two powers may not have been without utility. But in our times it is not necessary to possess a territory and to have subjects in order to exercise a great moral autho- rity. A political sovereignty which rests not on the consent of the populations, and cannot be transformed according to social exigencies, can no longer exist. Com- pulsion as to matters of faith, rejected by all modern States, found in the temporal power its last asylum. Henceforth, every appeal to the secular sword will be suppressed even at Eome, and the Church will in her turn reap the benefit of freedom. Freed from the em- barrassments and the transitory necessities of politics, the * It was then intended to leave to the Pope the Leonine city, and thus to preserve a tenaporal power restricted to its narrowest possible limits. ITALIAN OCCUrATION OF ROME. 449 religious authority will find in the respectful adhesion of cuai'. the consciences of men its true sovereignty. Our first ^^— , — ^ duty, therefore, in making Eome the cai)ital of Italy, is to declare that the Catliolic world will not be menaced in its beliefs by the effect of our achievement of unity.' ^ The guarantee of this promise, the minister observed, would be given by securing to the Pope, on the one hand, a position which should enable him to exercise freely his ecclesiastical sovereignty, and, on the other hand, by carrying into full effect the separation of Church and State. The Pope answered the Circular only by protests. In an Apostolic letter of October 20,^ adjourning sine die the reassembling of the Vatican Council, on the ground that he was ' impeded in divers ways in the exercise of his supreme authority,' and that the fathers of the Council could not, in the present state of affairs, have the ' liberty, security, and tranquillity ' necessary for further dehbera- tion with him on the business of the Church, he denounced the ' sacrilegious invasion of the august city of Eome,' and described himself as the prisoner of a hostile power. And in an Encyclical of November 1, he excommunicated all and everyone who had taken part in the spoliation of tlie Church. But these thunders of the Vatican did not deter the If'"?^ Papal government from the prosecution of their plans ; and on (^^^ran- O -T r ' tees, May May 13, 1871, they proceeded to carry out their promises is, I'sri. by the Law of the Papal Guarantees.^ The ministry, in introducing this measure, admitted that a definitive solution could only be arrived at on condition that the • Correspondence respecting the Affairs of Rome. Parliamentary Papers, No. I., 1871, p. 91. 2 Correspondence, p. 78, quoting the Ossewatore Romano, Octo- ber 21. ^ The official title is, 'Legge sulle prerogative del Somnio Ponte- flce et della Santa Sede e sulle relazioni dello State cun la Chiesa.' VOL. II. G G 450 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. XXVI. CHAP, pope would accept the guarantees. Only on the suppo- sition of his agreement had they been willing to leave to him entirely the Citta Leonina ;^ but since it was impos- sible to obtain that agreement, they must do what they could to redeem the promises given to all the govern- ments. The first part of the bill, relating to the personal rights and prerogatives of the pope, conceded to him the sanctity and inviolability of his person ; the honours of a Catholic sovereign throughout the kingdom ; a civil list of 3,225,000 lire; the free enjoyment of the Vatican and Lateran palaces, with all edifices, gardens, and property appertaining to them and the country residence of the Villa Gandolfo, which were declared exempt from the jurisdiction of the State ; the establishment of a post and telegraph office in the Vatican ; together with the free transmission of all his messages ; the active and passive right of embassy, with the corresponding diplomatic privi- leges ; and, in case of the vacancy of the Holy See, the un- molested liberty of the Conclave. Far more important are the regulations, contained in the second portion of the bill, treating of the general relations of the Church and State. The pope is allowed to correspond freely with the episcopate and the whole Catholic Church, without any impediment on the part of the government. The royal Placet and Exequatur are abolished, except in cases concerning property, and the use of the temporalities belonging to ecclesiastical bodies and institutions. No cardinal or any other ecclesiastic shall be responsible for any ecclesiastical act, performed in Eome, having reference to the functions of the Holy See. All foreigners also, who are entrusted with any similar fimctions at Eome, enjoy all the personal gua- rantees which properly appertain to Italian subjects. ' See Memorandum of Italian Government, August 29, 1870. Correspondence, p. 14. LAW OF TAPAL GUARANTEES. 451 The full exercise by the pontiff of his authority and ctiap. spiritual jurisdiction, as well as of his disciplinary powers, ^^^--^ is free from the interference of the civil power. Conse- quently appeals ab abusu, and every other appeal to the temporal power in matters belonging to ecclesiastical authority, are abolished. In return for this, the employ- ment of secular compulsion is excluded for ever from all ecclesiastical measures. In the city of Eome, the semi- naries, academies, colleges, and Catholic institutions founded for the education of the clergy, will still be dependent on the Holy See, without any interference from the scholastic authorities of the government. Councils, chapters, and other ecclesiastical assemblies can be held without permission from the crown. The nomination to all ecclesiastical appointments in Italy is left to the authorities of the Church, but the nominees, except the ' suburbican' bishops of Eome, must be Italian subjects to entitle them to the temporalities, and must give notice to the govern- ment of their nomination. In other respects the royal right of patronage is retained, with the exception of Eome and the dioceses belonging to her. The oath of alle- giance to the king, formerly demanded from the bishops, is abolished. As a set-off against this autonomy of the Church, the misuse of official power by the clergy is guarded against by an alteration of Articles 268-270 of the Penal Code, to the effect that any violation thereof by an ecclesiastic in the performance of his ministerial functions is liable to penalties of exceptional severity. The custody and conduct of the registers of the popu- lation are entrusted to the communal authorities. It is left to the individual to baptise his children, to solemnise his civil marriage, and to have his belongings conducted to the grave with the funeral offices of the Church. Whether the Church will render her services fo;- these a G 2 452 THE STEUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, purposes is left to her, as also the registration of births, • r— marriages, and deaths ; but these registers are not avail- CototT-^ able as public evidence. All religious corporations are June 19''*'* ^ßp^'ived of their corporate rights, and their property con- 1873. ' fiscated ; in return for which the State grants them pen- sions. They continue only to exist as voluntary societies. Their educational privileges are abolished ; their members being required, like any others, to fulfil the conditions which qualify them for teaching ; and the theological facul- ties in the State universities are closed. The bishopric and the parish still retain their legal personality ; but the whole property of the Church is expropriated and converted into rente of the State. After its liquidation has been completed, the entire revenue is distributed among the departments of instruction, the charitable foundations, and the churches, the latter being granted an independent power of administration, subject to the supreme control of the government. The execution of these provisions of the law of June 19, 1873, so far as regards the conventual establishments, has been entrusted to a commission, called the Giiinta liquidatrice^ which has nearly completed its labours. In 1872 the number of convents and houses of religious con- gregations in Rome amounted to 232, with 4558 inmates. The commission had to ascertain the income of these institutions and the purposes to which it was applied, to fix the pensions of their members, to refund to them the dowry which they brought to the convent, to sell the real property, and to replace it by the necessary amount in consols. Not a single house has been allowed to pass into private hands ; they are all to be transferred to the State, the city, or other institutions of public utility. The fortune of these monastic establishments has turned out to be less considerable than was expected ; the entire surplus realised is estimated at about 41 million francs, KELIGIOUS CORPORATIONS ACT. 453 which, according to the law, is to be applied for com- chap, miinal purposes. The orders themselves have ceased to -^^-^ enjoy the privileges of corporate bodies and of exempted discipline ; they are not dissolved, but reduced to the position of voluntary associations. Many of their members have returned to their families ; the sick and aged have been provided for in asylums ; others are employed in the service of hospitals or churches ; and the rest continue their associated life in private liouses. By these reforms a great revolution has been achieved, which cannot fail to exercise a salutary influence. It cannot be denied that financial considerations entered largely into the confisca- tion of Church property, though from the confusion created by this operation, and the enormous quantity of landed estates put up for sale, the breaking up of this prodigious mass of property will ultimately produce for Italy results as favourable, in point of economy, as did the sale of the property of the State Church and the emi- grant nobility in France. A special difficulty was presented by the generals of Question of ^ ^ *' ^ • 1 ^ 1 nionastic the monastic orders, who represent with the pope the orders. unity of their members scattered over the globe, as well as by the foreign establishments at Eome. With regard to the generals of the orders, the government originally intended to recognise their existence. But this step was regarded as a dangerous concession to the Papacy ;^ and a compromise, proposed by Baron Bicasoli, was carried by a small majority, and adopted by the ministry. It was arranged that the present generals should receive a pension of 400,000 lires (£1G,000) a year from the State, to be ' A motion to insert a provision in the bill for the summary expul- sion of the Jesuits was only rejected by a narrow majority. Two schools, however, of the Roman College at Rome were closed, for dis- obeying the law of 1859, relating to their instruction of lay subjects. See Correspondence, id svpva, p. 98. — [Tu.] 454 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, handed over to the pope as an increase of his endowment, XXVI • r— ^ ■ and should be allowed during their lifetime, if they re- mained so long in office, to occupy part of their present residences. With regard to the foreign ecclesiastical estabhshments, it was arranged that they should be per- mitted within two years to make over their endowments in favour of the churches, with which they were con- nected, in conformity with their statutes. The govern- ment undertook to come to an agreement, in the interim, with their foreign proprietors. Sir^^fa- ^^ ^^^^ legislation there are details open to criticism ; tioo- but viewed as a whole it seems for Italy to be the only correct, and indeed the only possible solution. There could be no question of any negotiations with the pope. He continues to represent himself as a prisoner, and indignantly rejects the guarantees as a ' mockery of the Kingdom of Christ,' since they prove the manifest inten- tion to impose laws upon him, whom God has appointed the interpreter of all laws, natural and divine. This does not prevent hini, indeed, from making full use of the advantages thus granted to him, with the exception of the Civil List, which he designates as Judas money, and which he can well afford to dispense with, since his in- come derived from Peter's Pence, donations, and bequests of the faithful is valued by those who are acquainted with it at an average of 10,000,000 francs.^ The enmity of the Curia involved of necessity the enmity of the episcopate : with the latter, therefore, any attempt at negotiation on the part of the government was as hopeless 1 Between 1860-1870, the sum of 97,400,000 francs was received in oflFerings under this head. When the Italians entered Rome, they found 8,000,000 francs in the Roman Treasury, which they appro- priated as State property, but half of which, being Peter's Pence, the Council of State afterwards restored to the Pope. Correspondence, pp. 114, 137. RESULTS OF RECENT LEOISLAI ION. 455 as with the pope. All that could be done was to regu- chap. late the position of the Church by civil enactment. The • — . — -' question is whether the Government succeeded in defining properly the limits of the two provinces. Now, as re- gards the general features of their internal legislation, the ministers decidedly acted with wisdom in relinquishing those weapons of a former age, which had long since be- come rusty and impotent, such as the Placet^ the Exequa- tur, the oath of the bishops, the recursus ah abiisic, &c.,^ and in placing the Church in the position of a corporation, thoroughly autonomous, but subject, in respect of her external relations, to the common law. In the con- dition of the inferior clergy the overthrow of the temporal power had made but little change. The secularisation of the orders has gratified their suppressed but immemorial dislike of the regular clergy ; and if they regret the suspension of the ecclesiastical pomp which formerly sur- rounded the pope, they are probably aware that his so-called imprisoimient is self-inflicted. The bishops have full liberty for the internal afiairs of their dioceses ; those newdy appointed, who do not ask for the Exequatur, re- ceive no salary ; but they get it, nevertheless, from the pope, and the attempt of the present ministry to tax this income will prove abortive, because it never can be satis- factorily proved that they draw from this revenue. The government has given no support to the movement in the diocese of Mantua, where certain parishes have elected their priests, and are of course excommunicated by the bishop ; nor could it do so, not being competent to deal with the internal afiliirs of the Church. If, on the other hand, the results of this legislation show a shady side, the cause of this lies partly in the defective ' The impotency of these weapons is most strikingly shown in tlie recent struggle of the Brazilian Government with their episcopate, which has ended in a compromise. 456 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, execution of the laws, partly in the pressure of surround- • — r— ^ ing circumstances. The gravest fault was, perhaps, the parsimony displayed in regulating the income of the lower clergy, the poor country curates in particular being hardly able to hve on their salaries. At any rate, by treating them in this fashion, the GovernTnent deprived themselves of their best allies against the hostile power of the bishops. If, as cannot be denied, the language of the clerical press, the pastorals of the bishops, and the sermons of the priests overstep all limits of decency in their violent invectives against the government ; ^ if ecclesiastics are recognised, who are appointed by the bishops, without having given any previous notice of their nomination ; yet all this is a consequence not of the laws themselves, but of their slovenly execution. It is deplorable enough, no doubt, that the young repiain for the most part wholly destitute of any rehgious instruction ; but this is not the fault of the Government ; for the law of November 15, 1859, insists firmly on its being imparted in the national schools, but the priests everywhere refuse to undertake the duty thus enjoined upon them. That the autonomy of the Church would make Italy a second Belgium, is a contingency not to be feared, because the Italian Govern- ment has amply protected its rights of civil supremacy, particularly with regai'd to education, and because the influ- ence of the clergy is small in all matters not ecclesiastical. These, however, are purely Italian questions. Not so the law of guarantees, whose aim was to prove to the ^ The government appears resolved, however, not to tolerate any longer this abuse. A note of the Minister of Justice, of February 12, 1874, to the Procurator-General at Rome, recognises the inviolability of the Pope for speeches and official manifestoes, but points to the responsibility incurred by those who give further publicity through the press to such papal declarations as contain language offensive to the laws or institutions of the State. The note concludes by directing the law officers of the government to keep a watchful eye over, and report, all reprehensible speeches by the clergy. THE LAW OF GUARANTEES EXAMINED. 457 whole Catholic world that the ecclesiastical power of the ottap. . XXVI pope had suffered no limitation by the loss of his tern- ^ , ^ poral rule. This measure has been assailed from two p','.^r,IlXc"^ opposite sides. The clerical writers, who demand the '^'i'' '^' , restoration of the temporal power, maintain that the law is nugatory and sacrilegious ; that the pope is robbed by the Subalpine Government of his liberty to govern the Church according to his Divine mission. The freedom of speech in which Pius IX. indulges in his Allocutions, and the warfare conducted by his organs against the insti- tutions of the kingdom, go far to prove the contrary.^ But much more so the attacks from the other side. The law of guarantees, it is said, not only protects the spiritual power of the pope, but makes him absolutely irrespon- sible and inviolable against any other power. His person is sacred ; every offence against it is liable to heavy penalties ; but nothing is said about offences committed by the pope against any foreign Power. Can it be allowed that the pope, nnder shelter of this immunity, should openly attack other sovereigns and States ; declare solemn enactments to be null and void for their subjects ; and abuse the asylum of the Vatican by harbouring re- bellious bishops like Cardinal Ledochowski, who inter- feres from Eome with the government of the diocese, from which he has been deposed by a formal judgment? This is not the irresponsibility of a secular prince, shel- tered by the responsil)ility of his Minister, or at least his country, and by the consciousness of his country's in- terests. We have here, on the contrary, a man who looks only to the interests of his spiritual dominion ; who is fettered by no national ties of allegiance, yet exercises a vast power over the Catholic populations of the world, and is protected by that very Government which he ' An able refutation of these clerical attacks is given in the pam- phlet ' Pro populo Italico,' a reply to M. de Reiimont's ' Pro Romano Pontifice,' Berlin, 1.^71. 458 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, excommuuicates as his gaoler. This is contrary to all ^^^^Jh^ estabhshed relations of international polity, and ought to be changed.^ Now, we are far from denying that the position of the pope, according to the law of gua- rantees, is anomalous ; but his former position was equally so, only in a different way. The question is whether, and how, it can be remedied ? Here we must be permitted to observe that the relations of other Go- vernments to the pope are not international. Of course, so long as the temporal power existed, its chief might make a treaty of commerce or extradition like any other Sovereign. But the Concordats were no international treaties ; they were concluded not with the head of the Pontifical State, but with the head of the Catholic Church, who as such was equally the head of the Catholic Church of the nation concerned. With the loss of his temporal power the pope has lost his sovereignty ; he cannot even be called a spiritual Sovereign, for there is no room for two sovereignties — i.e. supreme powers — in the State, The law has simply invested him with certain extraor- dinary privileges and immunities, which are generally accorded only to Sovereigns, but may by consent be given to other personages, as, for instance, in Germany the mediatised princes have preserved some of their per- sonal rights as former members of the Empire. But all this is no question of international law. It is simply a figure of speech to say that the pope has declared war against Prussia or the Bund ; though the phrase is none the less misleading on that account, for the only war that international law knows of, is carried on with guns and soldiers, neither of which the pope has at his disposal. And if the irresponsibility, which the pope turns so largely 1 Compare Prof, von Treitschke's essay in the ' Preussiche Jahr- bücher,' voL xxxvii., and Bluutschli, ' Die rechtliche Unverantwort- lichkeit des Römischen Papstes, 1876.' FOIOBEAIJANCE OF THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT. 459 to account, is evidently an anomaly, how can the present chap. state of things be changed ? We have heard as yet no -' \ -' satisfactory answer to this question ; for the two sugges- tions of Bluntschli, viz., that the popes should promise to respect the laws of other countries, or that an interna- tional treaty should define and limit the privileges of the pope, are equally illusory. No pope will ever give such a promise, and the Powers will never agree upon the terms of such a treaty. Moreover, it must be borne in mind, that nearly all the Powers, who have Catholic sub- jects, have asked for a law guaranteeing the unrestricted exercise of the spiritual government of the pope, and that no one has taken exception to the law as it has been passed. It was only some years later, when ecclesiastical conflicts arose in some countries, that Italy was asked to change the law, which allowed the pope to interfere. But the position of the Italian Government in this re- Prudcnt spect is a very difficult one. It is certain that, while not hesitating to take any decisive step which seemed neces- sary for the consolidation of the new kingdom, the Ministers have acted with great forbearance towards the clergy and Catholic institutions. They have accepted the assistance of the Eadicals, when it was necessary ; but they have never made common cause with them ; and the reason is that they cannot afford to alienate that large section of the population which regards irreligion as a stain on civil life. No one who has not been in Italy can measure the influence of the clergy. The temporal power was cordially hated and despised; but this did not prevent the people from being devout Cathohcs, and so far, with the exception of some Eadicals, all Italian politicians are clerical, just as in Belgium the members of the Left fulminate against the priests, but have their children educated by them. The late Minister Sella said once, ' A Government which has to deal with attitude of the Italian Govern- ment. 460 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DcVY. CHAP, subjects, who still believe that their sins against the «— — , — -' public exchequer can be pardoned by the priests, must not be on too bad terms with the latter.' The Govern- ment saw, moreover, that an alliance with the sworn enemies of the Church would have committed them to a party in whose ultimate aims the monarchy has no place ; and they justly concluded that if the two grand factors which have made Italy, namely, the dynasty and the army, were to be retained, there must be no irreparable breach, no open war, with the Church.^ Moreover the personal tendencies of the king, who has never shrunk from the fulfilment of his Italian mission, are decidedly averse to any such rupture. Although excommunicated, he has no objections to the spiritual claims of the pope, and has never been troubled by the Vatican or any other decrees. Accordingly, notwithstanding the anathemas launched against the spoliation of the Church, he has contrived to live in decent harmony with his bishops and clergy. These tolerable relations would be at an end, and the latent hostility of the clergy would become- open war, if the Government were to touch the law of guarantees. Directly the pope was called to account for the exercise of his spiritual functions, or subjected to the civil law of the realm, he would leave Kome and go to Malta or some other place where he would be equally unassailable. Foreign governments would have won nothing, and the Italian Government would have let loose a universal storm of indignation from the Catholic world in general, and from their clergy at home. They have therefore de- clined to interfere in answer to diplomatic requests ; in ' The Senate has sanctioned a regulation relative to Art. XV. of the Penal Code, to the effect that whoever, by publicly attacking or insulting a w^orship authorised by the State, offends the religious feel- ings of its members, shall be liable to two years' imprisonment or a fine of 1,000 francs. PROSPECTS OF PAPAL RECONCILIATION. 461 fact there is no Ministry that could carry such a law. chap. The Speech from the Throne of November 20, 1876, J^^^ declares, it is true, the necessity of providing against the abuses of the liberty which is granted in Italy to the Cliurch to an extent unknown in any other Catholic country ; but it limits the measures deemed necessary on tliat behalf to the terms contained in the law of guarantees itself. If, however, the relations of the Church and State in Prospects the kingdom of Italy are actually on a fairly satisfactory ciuatiom footing ; if, as is asserted, Pio Nono counteracts his public anathemas against Victor Emmanuel by privately sending him his blessing ; still there is a wide gulf between such a state of things and open reconciliation ; and the latter is certainly out of the question during the lifetime of the present pope. At his election he has sworn to maintain unimpaired the temporal dominion of the Holy See ; and he cannot eat his own words and publicly acknow- ledge the spoliation which he has so often denounced, whatever may be his sympathies for Italy. With his successor, in some respects, it is different. The temporal power is no Catholic dogma ; and the Italian cardinals must have lost their traditional acuteness if they ftiil to see how utterly circumstances are changed. When the Eoman Court indignantly rejected Cavour's maxim, ' A free Church in a free State,' they were still in possession of St. Peter's patrimony, and hoped to recover what had been lost. Tliey cannot hope any longer to break up the ItaUan kingdom. In 1860 they would not hear of the new-fangled theory, for they were accustomed to a free Church in an obedient State. But they must object still more to a fettered Chiu-ch in an omnipotent State ; and they must have seen by this time that the loss of the temporal dominion, so far from enfeebling, has strength- ened the Church, has made her invulnerable against all 462 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, attacks from the secular powers ; and has neutraUsed XXVI, their former influence upon the Court of Eome. On the other side, nearly all the Cardinals have been appointed by the present pope, and nearly all of them share his opinions, while all have sworn the same oath to maintain the temporal power as they had received it from their predecessors — an oath which Pius V. prescribed to all future popes and cardinals, although that pontiff never contemplated a dogmatic assertion of the necessity of the temporal power for the Church, but wished to erect a barrier against parcelling it out in the interests of papal nepotism and favouritism. It is true that the treaty of Tolentino shows that accommodations are not impossible with this oath ; and the attempt to introduce the in- violabihty of the temporal power as a dogma into chapter II. of the first draft of the ' Constitutio de Ecclesiä,' of January 21, 1870, proved a failure. However, it is pro- bable, to say the least, that a considerable time will have to lapse before a new generation of Church dignitaries reahses the necessity of coming to an understanding with the secular power ; and that, in the meantime, the present modus vivendi will continue. (c) Austria. Austrin. Very different has been the path piursued by Austria legislation for regulating the relations of the State towards the Catholic Church. If in Italy the principle of separation has prevailed, we find here a compromise, which adheres as closely as possible to a union of the two powers, and preserves only on essential points the supremacy of the State. And yet this solution was for the Imperial State, no doubt, just as judicious and correct as the opposite one seemed demanded for the Subalpine kingdom. For the position of each country was totally different. In Austria the hostility of the Church was by no means inevitable, of 1864. CHURCH LEGISLATION IN AUSTRIA. 463 liowever much reason there was to apprehend it. If the chap. hierarchy sided with the discontented nationahties, it had • — '-^-^ tlie power to imperil to a serious extent the existence of the empire, already deeply shaken and distracted. The latter, therefore, was obliged to proceed in such a manner that the Church, however displeased she might be at the limitation of her power, should find, nevertheless, that her interests were better served by practically yielding to the State than by provoking a rupture. And this problem has been solved in its essential points by the legislation of 1874. The constitutional laws of 1867, as w^ell as the three laws of May 25, 1868, relating to marriage, education, and inter-confessional relations, had liberated the province of the State from all influence of the Church, and limited the validity of the Concordat to purely ecclesiastical matters. After the Concordat had now been definitively annulled, the legislation built upon it had also to give place to a new system ; and for this purpose it was important above all to regulate the external legal rela- tions of the Church. The expose des motifs for the laws which aimed at accomphshing this, rejected not only the principles of Josephinism, but also the parity of Church and State, and the absolute separation of both. The question Kegu,,,tion for Austria, it is said, was simply how to caixy out Article °[,i"*^„'jJJ''^ XV. of the constitution, which gave to the Churches the f!f,t''e independent management of their mternal anairs, without defining what those affairs were to be, and how far ecclesi- astical self-government was allowed to go, so as not to clash with the laws of the State, to which every rehgious society remains subject. The position of the Catholic Church in Austria was that of a privileged public corpora- tion, to which the State conceded large prerogatives on account of the important character of her mission for the welfare of the nation ; but for that very reason was 464 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, entitled to attach to those prerogatives certain conditions. ^-^A — ^ In the interests of each power ahke, it was necessary to adhere as closely as possible to existing relations. Accordingly the cardinal principle must remain, that the hfe of the Church is not to be controlled directly by the law, but merely to be regulated and restrained whenever reasons of public welfare so demand. The Catholic Church is to enjoy, therefore, as fundamental conditions of her existence, freedom of doctrine and worship ; the free exercise of her constitution ; her purely ecclesiastical jurisdiction and discipline ; the free develop- ment and management of her institutions ; the regulation of clerical education ; the direction of her schools and seminaries, as well as ofrehgious instruction in the public schools ; the administration of property and of all ex- ternal institutions serving ecclesiastical purposes. Powers These principles of autonomy, however, are to be theTtate. ^ limited in practice by the power retained by the govern- ment of watching, 1. That the authority enjoyed by the Church in respect of doctrine and worship are not made to serve as a pretext for designs inimical to the State. The govern- ment recognises, therefore, with perfect justice, that the dogma of Infallibility ' has become an integral portion of the Catholic faith,' but reserves to itself fiül liberty of action, which it will use according as the pope shall exercise the unlimited powers vested in him by the Council. 2. That the exercise by the Church of her constitu- tion, jurisdiction, and disciphne remains limited to her legitimate sphere and instruments of authority. That no outward compulsion, therefore, is applied ; and that official power is not emploj^ed to hinder the exercise of the rights of citizenship, or to obstruct obedience to tlie law ; and that, on the other hand, due provision is made for the REGULATION OF CHURCH AUTONOMY. 4G5 special interest which the State has in the prosperous chap. administration of ecclesiastical offices. ~^JL^ To secure this last object, the qualifications of citizen- ship and moral conduct are to be required in every case. For the appointment to bishoprics the nomination remains with the sovereign. For all spiritual offices, involving the cure of souls, but subject to independent rights of lay- patronage, and for all benefices, which are endowed from public funds or reserved for presentation by the sovereign, the State has the right to concur in the endowment of the revenues connected therewith ; in all other cases, pre- liminary notice of his appointment to benefices is to be given to the civil authorities. In the event of objec- tions being raised, the local magistracy are empowered Avithin thirty days from the appointment to the benefice to submit them, if well-founded, to the Minister of Worship ; if these objections are over-ruled, institution follows. Vacant benefices must be filled before the expiration of a year. For erecting new, or altering existing dioceses and parochial districts, the consent of the State is requisite. Criminal conduct of incumbents, or ofiences arising from simony, or injurious to morality and public order, are followed by deprivation on the part of the State, if the bishops refuse to act within a reason- able period. No placet is required for episcopal mani- festoes or pastorals, but they are to be communicated, at the time of their publication, for the information of the civil authorities. The State undertakes to ensure the payment of the Church rates imposed with its consent ; and to enforce the suspension of incumbents, or official investigations by the Church, in case the legality of the measures is proved to the satisfaction of the civil authorities. 3. The share enjoyed by the Church in the direction of instruction is to be regulated l)y a special law, in so VOL. II. II II 466 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, far as it is not already determined by the school laws of ' — r— ^ 1868. The system of education for the clergy is to be arranged in like manner; since the State desires to prescribe to certain candidates for the clerical profession a special kind of training. The question of patronage, likewise, is reserved for particular enactment. 4. The free administration of Church property and institutions must be subject also, on account of the material support afforded by the State, to the regulated co-opera- tion of the government. The latter looks after the preservation of the original property, which is to be separated from the income attached to the benefice. The property of the parish churches is to be administered in common by the parochial manager (Pfarrvorsteher) ^ the community, and the patron ; that of the benefices by the usufructuaries under the joint control of the patrons and the supreme direction of the bishops and the State. A special bill regulates the amount payable from the pro- perty of the benefice to the fund for religion, which enables the slender salaries of the inferior clergy to be augmented, without burdening the State. 5. With regard to the whole system of monastic and other ecclesiastical societies, the State reserves to itself extensive rights of control. No new order or congregation is to be established in Austria without the consent of the government, which the bishop must apply for through the local authorities to the Minister of Worship, and which can be revoked, not only if the order violates the terms of its admission, but if its members are guilty repeatedly of conduct dangerous to public order, or of such misdemeanours as entitle the government to demand their removal fr'om office. Entrance into orders and congregations is made dependent on the legal consent of the family ; and vows have no civil obligation, since everyone is free to leave the society again, in which case the FIRM ATTITUDE OF THE GOVERNMENT. 467 property which lie brought into it must be restored to chap. him. Foundations, donations, and testamentary bequests vJE^IL^ to such communities require the sanction of the State ; if tliey exceed 3,000 florins, the administration of the property is subject to constant supervision from the government. Finally, a special bill empowers the government to grant, under certain conditions, the necessary recognition to such societies as are not yet authorised. It was to be expected that a lecrislation which so Firm atti- . Til • • 1 i> ^ /~i 1 tudeofthe decidedly contradicted the principles of the Concordat govern- ment. should encounter the most lively resistance from the Curia and the episcopate. The only question was, whether the resistance should go the length of an open rupture with the government, in which case the laws which rested upon the co-operation of Church and State would have become incapable of execution. The minis- ters were convinced of the contrary, and the result has shown that they were not mistaken. They have defended their policy, both in the Eeichsrath and out of doors, in a manner at once moderate and firm. They repudiated the accusations of the Ultramontanes about breach of treaties and revolution, as emphatically as those of the Eadicals, who sought for fi'eedom of conscience by inflicting the utmost possible injury on the Church. In answer to the phraseology of vulgar Liberahsm, which announced the intention of accepting the laws at most as an instalment, and by perverse amendments succeeded in shipwrecking the Convent Bill, the Minister of Public Worship, Von Stremayer, declared that the government would never lend a hand for war against the Church ; that the object Dei)atein of the laws w^as ' to bring about order in her relations House, . , , ,*^ , „ . , . , March 5-9, With the government, that she may lairly exercise her i874. holy mission without encroaching on the inviolable rights of the State.' In reply to the ultramontanes, on the other hand, the Prince von Auersperg, President of the H H 2 468 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. Ministry, showed how groundless were their complaints • — , — ^ of clerical oppression ; and warned them plainly with reference to their threats that the bills, if passed, would never be allowed to become a reality, not to play too much with the Non possumus, since so long as he was at the helm, he would know how to enforce respect for the laws. To the pope, who in an Encyclical of March 7, had pronounced an unqualified condemnation of this violation of the Church, the emperor replied that, not- withstanding his personal devotion towards him, he had not been able as a constitutional sovereign to withhold his assent to the laws which had been introduced by a ministry in the possession of his confidence, and had been accepted by a large majority in the Eeichsrath.^ Count Andrassy, in his reply, simply expressed his regret that the pope had taken upon himself to pass sentence on matters which concerned neither the dogma nor the discipline of the Church, and lay exclusively within the competence of the State. But the bishops, however categorically they had pro- tested against the breach of the Concordat, in their pas- toral letters as in the Herrenhaus, have practically yielded since the laws have received the sanction of the emperor, who proved his loyalty to constitutional principles by referring their memorial, praying him to refuse his assent, to his responsible ministers. This they could do, as not only did the Curia not enjoin resistance, but after having saved appearances by protesting, the Papal Nuncio confi- dentially advised the bishops to avoid any necessary con- flict, lest the government might be driven to more extreme measures. The Austrian clergy, indeed, fully realise the fact that, notwithstanding the new laws, they are better situated than most of their brethren in other countries, ' The bill passed the Lower House by a majority of no less than 224 votes against 71. POSITION OF THE OLD CATHOLICS. 469 aiid that they liave a strong personal protector in the chap. emperor. To offer open resistance would only be to -^ \ '-' play into the hands of the Liberals, who have never made any secret of their bitter hatred against the Church. It was the experience of this fact and the rejection of the Convent Bill, that has hitherto prevented the govern- ment from inti'oducing the supplementary bills, intended to regulate those relations of civil and ecclesiastical power which had not been provided for by the existing laws. Towards the Old Catholics, who in Austria are very The few in number, the government adopted a perfectly mwiTand logical position. It told them that they were at fidl claiioiics. liberty to estabUsh a community of their own, under the law of May 20, 1874; but that their claim to be con- sidered the true Catholic Church could not be entertained, as dogmatic decisions were not within the com^Dctence of the government. It cannot be denied, that many of the regulations in this arrangement of the relations of Church and State are open to objection. But, so far as its main principles are concerned, it will achieve its object. It refi-ains from in- terfering with the internal administration of the Church, while protecting the rights of the State in a manner which harmonises with the established relations of the empire, (d) Switzerland. If Italy and Austria have striven successfidty, though Church and Stute coil- by different roads, to regulate the relations of Church flictsia and State, in Switzerland, on the other hand, we find the laud. unpleasant spectacle of the State combating Ultramon- tanism by means of numerous encroachments on purely ecclesiastical territory. Switzerland, in its two leading cantons of Geneva and 470 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. Berne, shows the features of Eadicalism as it is found XXVI. ^ ^-— ' elsewhere. The existing order of things is overthrown in Sctator- the name of the sovereign people ; but this overthrow Geneva. ^^^^ effected, popular sovereignty ceases, in order to be- come an instrument of government by the individual. The party impersonates itself in the figure of certain leaders, who are generally neither the tiaost worthy nor the most talented ; and the movement, begun with demagogy, ends with a dictatorship. Badicalism always understands to exaggerate the personal influence of those whom it patro- nises, and who accordingly patronise it in return, com- manding in its name. It is more indulgent and docile to its leaders than the courtiers of absolute monarchs. Eound these tribunes, promoted to the rank of popular princes, a body-guard is formed, whose members share in the crumbs of power and pecuniary largesses. Their interest guaran- tees their devotion ; and by the applause of the misunited clique, stifling the voice of public opinion, they delude the people into the belief that everything is done by them and for them. It was in this way that the population of Geneva, after the year 1846, came to abdicate completely its rights in M. Fazy. favour of ouc man, James Fazy, who in fact, by manipu- lating, with wonderful dexterity and unscrupulousness, the engine of universal suffrage, did exactly what he hked. From that year until 1861, with the exception of two years' interval after 1853, he ruled with absolute power; his person was the incarnation of the cantonal govern- ment of Geneva. M.Carteret. M. Carteret, who has held the government since 1870,^ has faithfully copied his example ; only while Fazy ruled ' The intervening governments of MM. Challet-Venel, Cheneviere and Camperio, pursued the policy of M. Fazy with regard to religious matters. The last-named Ministry fell in conseqvience of its alleged disregard of Roman Catholic encroachments. THE GENEVAN GOVERNMENT AND THE CATHOLICS- 47 by frightening the people with the bugbear of aristocracy, chap. the new dictator holds up that of Ultramontanism. To ~S^ understand this aright we must cast a rapid glance at the past. The King of Sardinia, as already mentioned,^ had ceded in 1816 a certain number of communes or parishes to the canton of Geneva. In so doing he had stipulated not only that their Catholic worship should be protected, but that two thirds of the members of the communal councils should consist of Catholics, and that no Protes- tant chm'ch should be allowed to be built in these communes except at Carouge. These Catholic communes were annexed by a papal brief (Sept. 20, 1819) to the then diocese of Lausanne, whose bishop two years after- wards received tlie honorary title of bishop of Geneva, wdiicli had hitherto been borne by the archbishop of Chambery.^ Meanwhile, the nomination of cures was regulated by a convention (Feb. 1, 1820) between the Genevan government and the bishop of Lausanne (Fri- bourg), who agreed to give due notice in all cases to the Council of State, and to proceed to a fresh choice, if the Executive considered weighty reasons to exist against the first. An oath of civil allegiance was required at the same time from the ecclesiastic so appointed. The new Genevan constitution of 1842 confirmed this arrangement by an express article,^ and when the bishop of Lausanne (Fribourg) proceeded to nominate M. Marilley — the present occupant of that see — as cure of a parish in Geneva, without consulting the proper cantonal autho- * See ante, p. 87 note. 2 Brief of Jan. 30, 1821, confirmed by a decree of the Conseil Repre- sentatif at Geneva, March 9, 1821. 'Diocese, eveque' de Lausanne, sont les titres ofEciels du diocese et de I'eveque de Fribourg.' ^ Art. 102. ' La nomination des cures est soumise a Fapprobation du Conseil d'Etat.' 472 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, rity, the Conservative and ultra-Protestant government of - - ■ - ' the day promptly removed the priest across the frontier. M. Fazy, on his advent to power in 1846, was disposed to cultivate friendly relations with the CathoHcs, and gave a sign of this disposition by inserting in the new constitution of 1847 an article which provided for the adjustment of the vexed question of nomination by means of a separate convention.^ The article also was struck out, which de- signated the Protestant as the dominant religion of the old canton. The extensive growth of the city led to a large immigration of CathoHcs to Geneva ; a fact not without importance in connection with the right of uni- versal suffrage.^ But on the whole, they behaved, as it proved, with moderation, and for a while no conflict arose ; on the contrary, civil marriage and purely secular instruction were introduced even into the former Sardinian communes, without any opposition being encountered.^ But this truce was soon to be disturbed by the hier- archy. At Geneva was the Abbe Mermilliod,* a Catholic * Art. 130. ' Le Conseil d'Etat est chargö, sous reserve de la rati- fication du Grand Conseil, de regier avec I'autorit^ ecclesiastique supe- rieure ce qui concerne Fapprobation du gouvernement eur la nomination des cures et autres beneficiers. Jusqu'a ce que le Grand Conseil ait ratifie les conventions ä intervenir entre le Conseil d'Etat et I'autorite ecclesiastique superieure, la nomination des cures et autres beneficiers, ne pourra avoir lieu que sur des candidats presentes par I'Eveque et agrees par le Conseil d'Etat.' The contemplated convention, however, has never been concluded ; and accordingly, the legal relations pre- viously subsisting remained in force. ^ The number of Catholics in the canton equals that of the Protes- tants ; but the former includes at least 25,000 strangers, so that two- thirds of the native population are Protestants. 3 Compare Eoget, * La Question Catholique ä Geneve.' 1874. ■* He succeeded M. Dunoyer, who had been appointed imder the Fazy Ministry. The proceedings connected with his appointment have never seen the light. It is significant, indeed, of the reticence practised by the Government in its dealings with the Church of Home, DISPUTE WITH M. MERMILLIOD. 473 cure of tlie town, and an Ultramontane of the purest chap. . XXVI. water, whose ambition was to raise the old city of Calvin ^ — ^-^ to the dignity of a Catholic bishopric. He had been ap- pointed also vicar-general of the diocese, and latterly auxi- liary bishop, each of these offices involving the perform- Mermii- ance of functions perfectly recognised by the Genevan quarrel authorities. Up to this point, indeed, the latter had no Gl)vem° cause of complaint, so long as M. Mermilliod did not "^^^*" pretend to replace the bishop whom he was intended to assist. But on the occasion of some vacancies occurring in certain parishes, which necessitated the presentation of new cures, the bishop of Lausanne (Fribourg) declared, with reluctance it is true, that the presentation rested not with himself, but with M. Mermilliod, ' in his own name, as charged by the pope to administer separately that por- tion of the diocese which comprised the canton of Geneva.' The government of the day (Camperio-Cheneviere) replied that they would recognise no other administrator of the diocese than M. Marilley himself, the bishop of Lausanne (Fribourg), and that they would regard as null and void all diocesan acts performed by M. Mermilliod on his own responsibility. Some popular excitement was afterwards created by the provoking conduct of M. Mermilliod, who at Annecy prayed publicly for the conversion of Geneva, founded a female Carmehte convent, and came forward as one of the most zealous champions of infallibihty. The matter, as regards the cantonal government, stood at this stage, when the latter, being left in a minority at the elections in 1870-71 to the Grand Council, resigned, and Avas succeeded by that of M. Carteret. Henceforward the question entered on Federal territory. While M. Car- teret revoked the recognition of M. Mermilliod as cure at Geneva, and thus paved his way to martyrdom, the Federal that not one of its decisions taken in this matter between 1846 and 186-4 is to be found in the ' Kecueil Officiel des Lois et Arretea.' 474 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. xxv^' Council informed Mgr. Agnozzi, the papal nuncio, that ■~- — ■ — ' they would not tolerate the dismemberment of the bishop- ric of Lausanne. The pope, yielding to this remonstrance, transformed the so-called bishop of Geneva into a Vicar- Apostolic in partibus infidelium} But the Federal Coun- cil, so far from viewing this step as a retreat, chose to interpret it as a proof of impenitence. The Brief was certainly illegal, and an open violation of the Concordat of 1819, which settled the demarcation of diocesan boun- daries. The Federal Council was justified also in meeting further ecclesiastical mterference by breaking off, as they did later on, diplomatic intercourse with Eome. But they overstepped the bounds of constitutional action in ordering the Genevan Government to conduct the Vicar -Apostolic in partibus infidelium into ' Christian ' territory, by re- moving him, a Genevan citizen, beyond the frontier to Fernex (Feb. 17, 1873), unless he resigned his ofiice of Vicar-Apostolic. M. Mermilliod refused, of course, to obey, and has succeeded in gaining the reputation, if not the glory, of a comfortable martyrdom ; but the victory of the civil authorities was dearly piu^chased at the cost of an infraction of the constitutional liberty of the subject. Meanwhile, the anti-clerical feeling engendered by this dispute was reflected, after the accession of M. Car- teret, in the course of cantonal legislation ; and the Eadi- cals in particular thirsted to do battle with Ultramontanism. Corpora- ^ \y\[\ -^^s brouffht forward, which, in reference to Article tions Law. »^ ' ' 1872, XTV. of the Genevan Constitution, determined that no corporation should be allowed to exist in the canton without the consent of the government. This, of course, could refer only to those societies which demanded the rights of a legal persona. But the extreme supporters of M. Carteret not only extended the requirement of previous authorisation to all associations, destitute, at I Brief, Jan. 16, 1873. con- CrVIL CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH. '^'^^ the time, of corporate rights, but gave a retrospective ^xyl effect to this provision ; thus conipelHng all corporations, " ■ ' already existing, to obtain the supplementary sanction of the State. In vain did the Liberal party, under the leadership of M. Pictet, combat this arbitrary proposal, which destroyed the liberty granted by the right of union. The bill passed in this form ; ^ and was applied without principle, by giving to one society the consent which was refused to another and similar one ; while the * International ' was allowed to have its own way. And yet all this did not satisfy the Council of State at JJ![J^'^ Geneva. They submitted to the Great Council, early in ^^^^^ 1873, a bill which provided that no episcopal or parochial i'^i>j jurisdiction should be allowed in the canton without the approval of the State, and that for the future all parish priests should be elected by the Catholic inhabitants, and be removable by the State for sufficient cause. This principle having been adopted, was carried into effect by anorganic law of August 27, 1873, which regulated the parochial districts, the mode of election, the composition and privileges of Church councils, and other matters of that kind. In 1875, the Great Council even voted a law, verging on the ridiculous, which forbade clergymen to appear in public in their ecclesiastical dress ; upon which the liberal Journal de Geneve pertinently remarked, that the government had better annex a tailor's pattern in a schedule to the law, in order to define what constitutes an ecclesiastical costume. By these measures, the Genevan Government, un- warned by the example of the French Ee volution, ^ A Radical oratxir, M. Chomel, declared, ' De meme qu'une loi preservatrice vient d'etre elaboree en vue du redoutable phylloxera qui desole les vignes, une loi doit etre faite pour defendre la soci^t^ contre la maladie morale qu'engendrent les corporations religieuses,* — upon which Roget rightly observes, that by the same argument Spain has forbidden Protestantism. 476 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. XXVI. Pfere Hya- cinthe and the Catho- lic State- Church. chartered a civil constitution for the Cathohc Church, by which she ceased to be Cathohc, for her constitution is part of her faith. They did not leave it to the choice of the Catholics, whether they wished to remain in the old hierarchical Church, or to constitute themselves as a new elective community ; but two political assemblies, of whom the majority were Protestants, constructed on their own authority a new Cathohc constitution. All electors, registered on the cantonal hsts as Catholics, choose the parish priest, in the form prescribed by law for the muni- cipal elections. The priest, thus elected, has to swear to observe faithfully not only the laws of the State, but also the organisation of the Cathohc worship in the republic. On the demand of a third part — at Geneva, even a fourth part — of the electors, every ecclesiastic must submit to a fresh election ; and, in case of his not being re-elected, becomes ineligible again for the next four years. The law of April 27, 1874, applies the same principles to the Protestant Church. The clergy are elected by universal suffrage, everyone being entitled to vote who is born a Protestant, even though he should be avowedly an atheist. On the demand of one third of the electors, every clergyman must submit to a fresh election. The consequences of legislation so contrary to common sense were easily to be foreseen. For this Catholic State- Church no ecclesiastics could consent to be elected but those who had broken with Cathohcism itself. Of the three who submitted to election, one only, Loyson (for- merly Pere Hyacinthe) was a person of importance. It cannot but produce a lamentable impression to follow the course pursued by this noble and pure mind, clouded by the illusions of the possibility of a reform of the Catholic Church, such as he explained it in an eloquent address before the Cercle artistique at Brussels.^ He came to Geneva ^ The haziness of his ideas comes out in the collection of his PERE IIYACINTIIE AT GENEVA. 477 upon the positive assurance of the persons in power tliat chap. the reform should be Christian, Catholic, and Liberal. ' Nous ne vous appellons pas,' they wrote to him, ' pour vous imposer la plus petite chose, nous vous demandons au contraire de nous eclairer et de nous guider. La nouvelle Eglise sera done ce que vous en ferez.' When tlie above-mentioned laws were enacted, he had strong misgivings ; but he was persuaded to accept a place as cure in the State-Church. Misunderstandings, however, soon arose. The official Catholics resolved to turn out their opponents, as the State-Church was the only re- cognised one, and to put their own party in immediate possession of Notre Dame, the so-called cathedral of the Ultramontanes at Geneva. Father Hyacinthe contended that the latter procedure would be morally wrong, inas- much as the Church in question had been built by subscriptions raised by those who remained faithful to the Church of Eome ; and he contended also that the law should not be enforced in the country parishes, until at least some security was given that duly qualified clergymen should be procured to take the places of the present incumbents. Finding, however, that he was not only outvoted in the ecclesiastical council, but openly insulted by the majority of their supporters outside it, and as it was certain that the Grand Council of the Canton, when appealed to, would give effect to its own legislation and comply with the demands he had opposed, he felt his letters, addresses, etc., whicli ho has published under the title 'La Retbrme Catholiqiie.' Paris, 1872. It is curious, however, to observe that his first rupture with the authorities of the Church was the refusal to accept a penitential sentence he had incurred by violently attacking the Gallican tendencies in the clergy of Paris. He then went to the United States and subsequently married, tlius making his rupture with the Church unavoidable. Somebody has remarked, that Luther first re- formed the Church and then married. Father Hyacinthe first married, and then undertook to reform the Church. XXVI. 478 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. XXVI* position becoming intolerable, and he therefore threw up ' — ' — ' the contest, leaving his adversaries in possession of the field ; because, as he said when tendering his resignation, he was sufficiently convinced by experience that the ' CEuvre Cathohque Liberale ' ^ was neither Cathohc in reh- gion, nor liberal in pohtics. With the departure of Hyacinthe in July 1874,'-^ the only man of note disappeared from the new Church. The buildings where the other State cures officiated were empty, while those of the dissenting, that is to say, the real Catho- lics, were crowded. The Eoman Catholics have founded lay schools, to replace those formerly held by the Congre- gations ; while the official Catholics have no other schools than those of the State. The rural communities go in pro- cession across the frontier to pay their homage to Mermilhod, the ' exile of Fernex,' who practically governs his diocese from that town. As for the Protestant Church, it is obvious that her essential character as a community of confession is simply destroyed by such a government of the masses. Conflict in Still more violent was the crisis in German Switzer- jura.^™^^ land. The district known as the bishopric of Basle has been subject to several territorial changes. The original diocese, including the temporal principahty, was situated . in the province of Besan^on, and comprehended part of Elsass and of what is now Swiss territory. The bishops afterwards became alhes of the Swiss Confederation, and in 1815 their principality was incorporated in the Federal territory, and by a somewhat anomalous arrangement, formed part of the canton of Berne. But the new bishop- ric of Basle was not established until the redistribution of * The term Catholique Liberale was adopted at the Berne Congress of Old Catholics (June 1874) as a French equivalent for their German title of 'Christian Catholic' (^Christkatholisch). — [Tr.] 2 He has now a private congregation attended mostly by Protes- tants, although he preaches Catholicism in opposition to the doctrines of the Reformation. CONFLICT m THE BERNESE JURA. 479 dioceses in 1828.^ The diocese, then newly constructed, chap. was entirely Swiss, and embraced the cantons of Basle, - \ ' - Soleure, Aargau,^ Thurgau, Zug, and Lucerne, together with the former prince-episcopal portion of the Basle dio- cese, attached to Berne by tlie Treaty of Vienna. The see of the new bishopric was removed to Soleure ;^ and the governments of the cantons concerned declared their in- tention of reserving the Placet and the right of confirming the papal nomination of the bishop. After the Vatican Council the Old Catholic movement The bishop had taken root in this diocese, and two ecclesiastics had ^sed!* joined it. Bishop Lachat, who was an InfaUibilist, ex- communicated them. The Diocesan Conference of the seven cantons, with the exception of Zug and Lucerne, demanded him to revoke his sentence, and on his refusal to comply, proceeded to depose him (Jan. 29, 1873). Mgr. Lachat was taken by the police beyond the frontier of the canton of Soleure. He appealed thereupon to the Federal Council, denying the competence of the Confer- ence to depose him, and maintaining that the act was null, not only as contravening the Federal Constitution, which forbids the withdrawal of any man from the jurisdiction of his lawful judge, but as having been resolved on with- out the concurrence of two of the cantons of the diocese. His appeal was supported by his colleagues and a number ^ See ante, p. 86. ^ In November 1871, the Legislature of Aargau dissociated itself from the bishopric of Basle, and decreed the separation of Church and State, with undenominational religious instruction. A memorial of the Swiss bishops against this step was rejected by the Federal Council, on the groimd that the canton had not overstepped its sovereign rights, and that the conventions touching the institution of the bii^hopric were 1-es inter alios actw, with which the Confederation had no concern. See report of appeal in Bundesblatt, March, 1874. — [Tr.] ' Episcopal Convention, March 26 ; and Papal Bull, May 7, 1828. See ' Correspondence respecting the Relations between Foreign Govern- ments and the Court of Rome,' 1851, No. IV. p. 33.— [Tk.] 480 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. XXVI. Decree of expulsion against Ca- tholic priests. Jan. 30, 1874. of Catholic deputies, but it was rejected by tlie Federal Council. They argued that the act of the Diocesan Con- ference was not a judicial one, and therefore was not contrary to the article of the Constitution referred to ; and that as his deposition was not, as alleged, an act of the cantons of Thurgau and Soleiure, it could not be made the subject of a popular vote in those cantons.^ The consequences of this measure now became very serious throughout the Bernese Jura. The Cantonal Government of Berne commanded the clergy to break off all intercourse with Mgr. Lach at. Sixty-nine cures, out of a total of about 100, refused to obey, and protested against the interference of the Government in Church matters, and the imposition of a Church constitution which had not received the sanction of the pope. The Federal Council declined to interfere on their behalf, and decided a month afterwards (December 12, 1873) to hand the pnpal nuncio his passports, in consequence of the pope's last encyclical. On January 30, 1874, the Bernese Government published a decree of expulsion against the refractory priests. They reduced the 69 benefices to 28, and issued a fulminating proclamation against Ultramontanism, which was ordered to be read aloud from all the pulpits. This proceeding was much worse than even that at Geneva. There the hierarchy had begun by putting themselves in the wrong, and a number even of Catholics sided with the Government. But Mgr. Lachat had only done what, as a Catholic bishop, he was bound to do : he had submitted to the decision of the Vatican Council. He could not tolerate any priests in his diocese who preached against Infallibihty ; and just as little could the clergy in the Bernese Jura break off, at the orders of the civil power, all intercourse with their ' The details of the controversy since 1871 are given in the Bundeshlatt, or official paper of the Confederation. EXPULSION OF BERNESE PRIESTS. 481 legitimate head. Tlie impolicy, moreover, of these pro- <\hap. ccedings was shown by the fact, that the whole popula- ^-,— - tioii stood to a man on the side of the clergy, as was proved by the elections to the National Council,^ which, with one solitary exception, resulted all in favour of the Opposition. Technically speaking, no doubt, the decree of Jan. 30, iiio-ai mn- 1874, however manifestly higli-handed and unjust, was thTdrorw'. within the limits of legality ; since the Federal Constitu- tion of 1848 only provided (Art. 43) that 'no Canton shall be allowed to declare a citizen to have forfeited his rights of citizenship.' But after May 29, 1874, when the revised Federal Constitution^ came into operation, this plea was no longer available ; for the new Article 44 — the Federal ' Habeas Corpus Act,' as it has been rightly termed — explicitly declared that 'no canton shall expel any cantonal burgher from its territory, or declare him incapable of civil rights.' After this, the decree of expul- sion was plainly illegal, and it was the clear duty of the Bernese Government to revoke it. This, however, they refused to do ; nor could the Federal authorities be per- suaded at first to stir, although an appeal, with 9,1 GO sig- natures, from the Catholic population of the Jura, demanded the withdrawal of the decree as unconstitu- tional. Matters continued in this state until early in 1875, ' It may be useful to add, for the reader unfamiliar with the Swiss constitution, that the National Council (Nationalratlt), from which the clergy are excluded, is the Lower House of the Federal Assen)bly {Bunde^versammhing), which holds the supreme legislative authority in the country, the other branch of the Legislature being the States- Council or Senate (Ständerath). The supreme executive and admini- strative authority is vested in the Federal Council (Biaidesrath), con- sisting of seven members elected by the Federal Assembly, the two Houses voting as one body for that purpose. — [Tr.] 2 The Federal Constitution of 1872 had been rejected by a popular vote. The new scheme of 1874, which was accepted, was different in many points from its predecessor. VOL. IL II 482 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, when a case occurred to strengthen the opposition to the ~— r— ^ obnoxious decree. M. Guttmann, a Bernese citizen, had been expelled from the canton of Berne by the cantonal authorities. He had retired to the canton of Neuchatel, and the government of that canton complained to that of Berne of the consequences which the decree of expul- sion had entailed. These remonstrances having proved unavaiHng, the government of Neuchatel appealed to the Federal Court, sitting at Lausanne. The latter declared (Feb. 26) the decree of expulsion to be contrary to Articles 44 and 45 of the Federal Constitution, and quashed it TheFede- accordingly. Eenewed complaints being made to the demandsTts Federal Assembly against the decree of the Bernese driwai. Government banishing the refractory priests, they were referred to the Federal Council, who at length took courage so far (March 27) as to invite the Cantonal Council to reconsider its decree, and to report whether it intended to maintain the operation of the sentence, and if so, to explain the reasons why it deemed this ' exceptional measure' necessary.^ The Bernese Government, whose conduct meanwhile the cantonal Grand Council had ap- proved by 158 votes against 20, replied at length (May 25) that as soon as the proposed law, relating to disturbances of rehgious peace, which had been submitted to the Grand Council, had been received back from that body, and afterwards from the people at large, the Government would withdraw the decree of banishment, first against those who had least compromised themselves, and after- wards against the other and worse offenders. Of the Dra- conic severity of this law it will be necessary to speak * In consequence of a rumour that tlie Federal Council were about to decide in favour of the appeal of the priests, about 60 members — or nearly half — of the Nationahath held a meeting at Pfistern, and discussed the question of demanding, in that case, an extraordinary session of the Federal Assembly. ARBITRARY CONDUCT OF THE GRAND COUNCIL. 483 hereafter: it is material however, at this stage of the chap. dispute, to observe that it was regarded by its authors, as v ^V^' . the preamble indicated, as one of the ' mesures necessaires ' authorised by Article 50 of the new Constitution.^ But this monstrous pretension, which would legalise almost any infringement of liberty, and neutralise altogether the rights solemnly guaranteed to individual citizens, under the specious plea of providing for public order against clerical aggression, was too much for the patience of the Federal Council, who were anxious, in com.mon with a growing section of the moderate Liberals, for a termina- tion of the dispute. Accordingly, on May 30, they . resolved to inform the Bernese Government that the decree of expulsion must be withdrawn within two months.^ This resolution, after recapitulating all the circumstances of the affair, and adverting to the decision in the case of Guttmann, showed conclusively that Article 50 could not be construed into providing for the maintenance of religious peace in such a manner as to allow of 'neces- sary measures' to be taken for that purpose, which restricted the enjoyment of constitutional rights; and secondly, that although the revised Constitution did not annul at once the decree of Jan. 30, 1874, issued before its operation commenced, but gave the Government time to withdraw it, still that time was not indefinite. Argu- ments so conclusive failed, however, to convince the Bernese champions of Kultur ; and the latter appealed to ' The clause, as originally inserted l)y the Nationalrath, authorised the Cantons and the Confederation, in addition to their old power of preserving peace between various denominations, to ' prendre les me- sures necessaires contre les empietements reciproques du dornaine civil et du dornaine religieux.' The Ständcrath struck out these words ; and finally both Houses agreed to the clause as follows : — ' Contre les empietements des autorites ecclesiastiqucs sur les droits des citoyens et de I'etat.'— [Tr.] 2 The Nationalrath on June 29, after two days' debate, agreed, by 96 votes against 29, to extend this time to November 18. — rTn."! 1x2 484 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, the Federal Assembly. This appeal itself was irregular, -^lA '•■* for the law which determines the competence of the Fe- deral Court,^ excludes expressly the decision of all dis- putes relative to the application of Articles 49 and 50 of the Federal Constitution — in other words, to questions of religion. What was of more serious importance, however, apart from the injustice suffered by peaceful citizens, whose only crime consisted in refusing to be coerced into joining the Catholic State-Church, is the fact that the Constitution itself was invoked to justify this persecution, and a Pasha government was carried on under pretext of the law. The appeals of the ejected bishop and his fellow-sufferers ultimately came before the two Houses of the Legislature. With regard to Mgr. Lachat, the lower House decided against him by 80 votes to 14, and their decision was supported in the Council of Cantons by 20 to 15. With regard to the Bernese priests, the Ständerath accepted the vote against them, passed in the Nationalrath by 74 against 25. as decisive, state orga- The dccrcc of the Bernese Government, whicli led to ti'rchurch all this controversy, was in fact only part of their general j°n.\X system of high-handed policy towards the Church. They ^^^^' might have decreed, as Aargau had done, the separation of Church and State, with a view to terminate the religious difficulty, such an act being well within the sovereign rights of the canton. But such a step would not have suited the Liberals, who wished for a Church dependent on the State, and which they could manipulate at will. And at Berne, accordingly, as at Geneva, a Catholic State-Church was estabhshed. The new law, passed in January 1874, immediately before the decree of expulsion, enacted that all Catholic as well as Protestant parish priests should be ' The judges of the Federal Court are chosen hy the Federal As- sembly ; tlieir term of office being extended b)^ two Acts of June 26 and 27, 1874. from three years to .six.-^[Tn.] ANTI-CLERICAL LEGISLATION IN BERNE. 485 elected by a majority of the adult parishioners, whose ^]^y\- names were entered in the electoral roll of the commune ' — • — ' under their respective denommations. No episcopal col- lation was, in flict, required ; the person elected became capable of holding office at once, if approved by the civil authority. A Cathohc Church Commission was formed on the pattern of the Evangelical Synods ; charged with a nominal right of superintendence, but practically deprived of any voice in the government of the Cimrch, since every parish has the power of opposing a veto to their decisions by a vote of the majority of the electors. A subsequent law of the Grand Council, already alluded i.aw leiat- to, relating to the disturbance of relioious peace, laid down pious peace a series or penal regulations against transgressing tne limits 1874. of freedom of worship, which virtually reduced that free- dom to a nullity. No public religious processions or ceremonies were allowed, except in places set apart for that purpose. Priests or other ministers of religion were forbidden to perform spiritual functions, if they belonged to a religious order forbidden by the State, or were de- monstrably subject to the jurisdiction of a foreign bishop. For the exercise of episcopal functions in cantonal teiTitory, by foreign ecclesiastical superiors, the assent of the local government was required ; such assent was to be given only for a time and for the performance of definite acts, and was not to be transferred to any territorial delegate. Meetings of rehgious societies, calculated to disturb public order and morality, were to be stopped by the police, and the culprits handed over to civil judges for punishment. Fines were attached to a breach of these regulations, varying from 200 to 2000 francs in amount, or imprison- ment up to two years. The ordinary criminal code and the machinery of police procedure were to govern the trial and sentence of ecclesiastical misdemeanants. This Ku/.tnr- 486 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. Kämpft has been prosecuted by the Eaclicals by means • . — ^ of recldess jobbery and extravagance ; and piibhc moneys were squandered to bolster up the State-Church of their creation, in a manner fitted to estrange even the most enthusiastic admirers of repubhcan institutions.^ The sur- phis out of the grant set apart for the maintenance of Oathohc worship, which remained in consequence of the reduction of the number of priests from 96 to 28, was not returned to the treasury, but misappUed for the payment of various irregular expenses and largesses. Upwards of 25,000 francs were wasted in ransacking the continent for new State-Catholic priests, and in pecuniary advances to those who were installed, men in several cases of very questionable character. Notwithstanding the attraction of high salaries, the Government found it no easy matter to supply the places of the expelled priests. In Belgium and France, whither emissaries were sent for that pur- pose, the Old Catholic movement had scarcely taken any root ; and the German Old Catholics for the most part kept aloof from these proceedings of the Bernese authorities. Revision of This mclaucholy state of things in Switzerland constitu-^ experienced no improvement from the revision of the Federal Constitution ; on the contrary, it is impossible not to see, in the spirit of many of the new provisions, a spirit which, as an English critic observes, clearly aims at the ^ I have retained the original expression, not being aware of any precise equivalent in English. The phrase, as the author informs me, was first used by a Prussian Deputy. — [Tr.] ^ Full evidence of this is furnished by the cantonal budget for December 1874, the items of which form an instructive commentary on the policy of the Government. With regard to the new State- Catholic Theological Faculty, instituted by the recent law, it is curious to find an entry, under date July 3, 1874, of moneys paid for consulta- tions with Protestant professors of theology. tion, 1874 REVISION OF FEDERAL CONSTITUTION. 487 liumiliation of a particular religious body. ^ The new chap. Constitution secures, it is true, liberty of conscience ; it gua- > \ '-' rantees freedom of worship ' dans Ics limites compatibles avecl'ordre public et les bonnes moeurs,'''^ — in other words, so far as may be deemed expedient by the cantonal Governments — and it forbids that any man shall be subject to any civil or political disqualification on the ground of his religion. But it gives no real liberty of union, for it fvjrbids that any citizen should be subject to any punishment whatever — consequently also ecclesiastical punishments — on account of his religious opinions. ' The question is,' said the Kadical deputy Herr Anderwert, ' how to prevent the bishops from depriving priests of office, from excom- municating the clergy and the faithful, who refuse to accept certain dogmas.' In other words, the main object was to compel rehgious communities to recognise in future those of their members who have practically renounced their communion. By so doing, the basis of every fixed confession, and the possibility of any discipline, are nullified as effectually as by the chartering of a Church constitution by the State, ^ Article LI. gives the Federal power the right to extend the same prohibition as that existing against the Jesuits to other religious orders. The right of visitation over convents and other religious houses, which lies fairly within the competence of the State, is not indeed affirmed; but Article LII. prohibits the ^ Saturday Review, April 4, 1874. 2 Art. 49. The old Article 44, which it supei'seded, ran thus : — * Le libre exercise du culte des confessions Chre'tiennes reconnues est garanti dans toute la Confederation.' The words in italics have been expunged. — [Tr.] ^ Article L. gave rise to strong protests from the Roman Catholics at Lucerne, as being devised in favour of the Old Catholics. It runs thus : — ' Les contestations de droit public ou de droit prive, auxquelles donne lieu la creation de communautes religieuses, ou la scission de connnunautes religieuses existantes, peuvent etre portees par voie de rccours devant les autorites föderales competentes.' — [Tk.] 488 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, foundation of new, or the restoration of suppressed, -^A — '- monasteries, witliout the sanction of the Confederation. Again, it was originally proposed that no one should be compelled to contribute towards the objects of a religious society to which he did not belong. But since this pro- vision was deemed incompatible with the principle of an Estabhshed Church and a clergy salaried by the State, the freedom of exemption was restricted in the Ständeratk to taxes employed ' specially for worship,' ^ which was still an evident injustice to Dissenters. If the central Legislature itself thus set the example of illiberalism in its deahngs with the Church, it is the less surprising perhaps that Eadical governments in the Cantons should have opposed intolerance with intolerance. That a system of legislation, indeed, which, like that at Geneva and Berne, reproduced the old fundamental errors of the civil constitution of the clergy during the French Eevolution, can never lead to any prosperous or satisfac- tory adjustment of the relations of Church and State, is sufficiently obvious. But that such legislation could be carried into elTect in such a boasted soil of liberty as Switzerland, is only a fresh proof that democracy in itself has nothing in common with real liberty ; and that the Eadicals, there as elsewhere, make no scruple to turn to their utmost profit the tyranny of the majority, in order to satisfy their hatred against the Church. Germany after the war of 1870 -71. (e) Germany. After the peace of Frankfort, Germany occupied a ' The clause proposed in the Nationalrath was as follows : — ' Niil n'cst tenu de payer des impots dont le produit est affecte aux frais du culte d'une confession ou d'une communaute religieuse a laquelle il n'appartient pas.' The form finally adopted was : — * Nul n'est tcnu de payer des impots dont le produit est specialement affecte aux frais proprement dits du culte d'une communaute religieuse ä lacjuelle il n'appartient pas.' — [Tk.] XXVI. BISMARCK'S EARLY FRIENDLINESS WITH ROME. 489 ])osition hitlierto unequalled. Not only had she come chap. forth from a gigantic but just war with victory and honour, but she had gained a firm bulwark of security in a long- estranged province, and she had laid the foundations of her unity, so long desired, in the common struggle against the foreign aggressor. Doubts might fairly be entertained, wliether this was the right moment for undertaking the readjustment of the relations of Church and State — an enterprise winch, from its nature, ofiered the inevitable prospect of a serious conflict with the Eoman Catholic hierarchy — for the war itself, however brilliant its success, had greatly taxed the energies of Germany, and the nation longed for the repose of peaceful industry. On the other hand, the situation ofiered many favourable reasons for attempting the solu- tion of a problem which sooner or later would have to be grappled with. The German Episcopate had played at the Council a miserable part, of which the best and most keen-sighted Catholics were heartily ashamed ; and the Dogmatic Constitution of July 18, 1870, gave to the State, even in formal terms, the right, which Prince Bis- marck, in his despatch of January 5, 1870, to Bai'on Ai'nim, had expressly insisted on, to subject to a revision its relations with the Catholic Church. Moreover, the Chancellor of the Empire could scarcely deceive himself as to the foct, that, after having decHned to entertain the demand of launching Germany on a voyage of military and diplomatic adventure for the restoration of the tem- poral rule, the new Protestant Empire would find in the Curia an adversary, which might not scruple, in revenge, to employ its dominion over the German bishops for the furtherance of very dangerous ends. But weightily as these reasons advocated the prudence of taking this long-neglected task in hand, it was never- theless clear that the question would have to be approached 490 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, with great circumspection. Caution, indeed, was doubly - — ^-. — ^ necessary, since the task conditioned a change of system Bismarck's for the Govcmment, and for its leading statesman. For lationswith up to this tiuic PHncc Bismarck had not only allowed foreWe^ the hierarchy full liberty of action, but had taken every ^^^'"* pains to smooth its road. The two archiepiscopal sees had been filled in 1865 with Ultramontanes of the purest water. Count Ledochowski, who, when papal nuncio at Brussels, had promised the Prussian ambassador there, von Savigny, to forbid the clergy to take part in the Polish agitation, was forced upon the Chapter at Posen by joint pressure from Eome and Berlin, although it must have been perfectly well known that as papal nuncio in Columbia he was the soul of the Ultramontane movement, and was obliged to leave Bogota when the Liberals proved victorious.^ If the Curia was frustrated in its wish to promote Ketteler to the archbishopric of Cologne, the result was due simply to the energetic opposition of th^ provincial authorities. Melchers, who ultimately obtained the primacy, not indeed by capitular election, but by the nomination of the pope, with the consent of the Government, was a man distinguished not so much for his ability as for his pliant subservience to the Jesuits. The failure of the scheme to make Ledochowski a nuncio at Berlin, which would have converted the Court into a dangerous hotbed of Ultramontane intrigues, was due solely to the sound sense of the king ; but it is remarkable that the Chancellor, who had advocated tlie project, was found afterwards to declare, in his speech of January 30, 1870, that this expedient might still have to be reverted to. During the debate on the Constitution in the North Ger- man Parliament he had used the following language in ^ 'Norddeutsche AUgem. Zeitung,' Nov. 18, 1873. Compare also the article in the ' Quarterly Review,' April 1874, written by a councillor of the German Foreign Office. REVERSAL OF PRUSSIAN POLICY. 491 his speech against tlie Poles (March 18, 1867): — 'Should chap. any such attacks be made ' (against the Catholic Church), -^ ', '— ' you may rest assured that the Catholics will find in the Prus- sian Government and in myself personally allies quite as resolute and trusty as perhaps in my Catholic colleague, the Privy Councillor von Savigny.'^ The clergy of the newly incorporated provinces had entered at once, and without any hindrance, into the full possession of the liberties which they enjoyed in Prussia; and the official press dwelt repeatedly on the eminently satisfactory character of the relations with the Holy See, which in return ac- knowledged with gratitude the justice done by the Government to the wishes of the Catholic Church.^ The 'North German Gazette' acknowledged (April 25, 1875) that Prince Bismarck had requested the mediation of the pope for inducing the provisional government of France to conclude peace. Even in January 1871, Cardinal Ledochowski felt so much confidence in the benevolent Ledochow- atti'tude of the Government towards Eome, that he w^eut to ver- to Versailles to plead in person for the restoration of the temporal power of the pope. What answer he received from the emperor or the chancellor is not recorded, but this much is known, that he was treated with marked courtesy and returned home in high spirits, convinced that, after peace was signed, Prussia would take the initia- tive of a Congress, in order to interfere, with the common consent of the European powers, on behalf of the pope ; and that the Itahan Government w^as so alarmed, that it felt obliged to ask for explanations at Berhn. ' Stenogr. Bericht., p. 211. 2 At the coronation at Königsberg in 1861 the present emperor replied to an address presented by Cardinal Geissel, archbishop of Cologne, ' It is satisfactory to me to find that the rc4ations of the Catho- lic Church are well regulated for the whole country by history, by law, and by the constitution.' 492 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. While now the political motives, wliicli no doubt die- XXVI ' — r— ' tated this friendly policy of the chancellor, no longer existed ; and it was felt desirable to break with the false system which had hitherto prevailed ; on the other hand, it was just as futile to think of effecting any formal agree- ment with Eome, as to accept the principle, so little Reversal of rccommcnded by the manifold relations of Church poHcy"° and State in Germany, of an abstract separation of the two powers. But in this change of front, which chal- lenged the resistance of the clergy, it was imperative to avoid everything that was calculated to alienate or pro- voke the more intelligent as well as the indifferent portion of the Catholic population, more especially as the number of Catholics — a circumstance of double importance since the introduction of universal suffrage — had been largely increased by the accession of South Germany and the im- mediate territories of the Empire. The more strenuously the clergy, as a matter of policy, would endeavour to make capital out of the curtailment of their political rights, in order to excite religious passion, the more important it became for the Government not to allow the conflict to be wnged on religious territory. That such a contin- gency is possible, has been shown by the Austrian legisla- tion of 1874. The majority of Catholic laymen are, after all, men of modern ideas, who naturally, therefore, appre- ciate perfectly well the legitimate claims of the State hi respect of the hierarchy. If these claims were insisted on with equal firmness in point of substance, as tact and consideration in point of form — namely, by repelhng, on the one hand, all encroachments of the Church on the dominion of the State, and exercising with proper energy the right of supreme civil control over all the schools, the ' unions,' and the institutions of the clergy ; and by mini- mising, on the other hand, as far as possible the legal i)oints of contact between Church and State, through the CATHOLIC PARTY OF THE 'CENTRE.' 493 introduction, for instance, of facultative civil marriaire, chap. *" XXVI civil registration, and other measures of that kind — it was ■ — r-^ probable indeed, that even within the pale of the Catholic Church, numerous allies would join the Government ; but at all events the conflict with the Episcopate would not spread to the people. A policy of this kind, su(;h as every consideration of Proper prudence dictated, naturally connected itself with tho.'^c ofstät'/^ articles of the Constitution which concerned the relations of Church and State ; and those very articles, from the loose and vague language in which they were ft-amed, had become the origin of the evil. It was necessary, therefore, that they should be more closely defined, so as to secure, by means of organic laws, the recognition of freedom to the Church in the administration of her inter- nal affairs, and the enjoyment of its rightful supremacy to tlie State. Legislation of such a nature grouped itself / naturally into three divisions. First of all, in an inter- confessional religious law those principles were to be established which the State has to insist upon in regard to all religious societies. Furthermore, two special laws were needed to adjust the legal relations between the State and the two great Churches which embrace the large majority of the population ; for it is impossible to treat after one and the same pattern the Catholic and the Evangelical Churches, which rest on totally different foundations. Instead, however, of following such a policy, which TheGo- from its purely defensive character would have presented assumes the no point for attack to the Catholic Church, the Prussian Government chose rather to assume the offensive, and that on an extensive scale. The first skirmishing began in the debate on the Address in answer to the speech with which the emperor opened the new Ecichstag (Marcli 21, 1871). A Catholic party now appeared in tliat Assembly, under 494 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, the name of the Centre,'^ which Prince Bismarck denounced ■ — . — ^ later on (Jan. 30, 1872) as a 'mobiHsation against the The new State.' "'^ Now it is certainly not a normal state of things, p^rty^ifthe if a parhamcntarj party is formed, which judges all ques- Centre. ^-^^^g froui the ouc particular point of view, whether its denominational interests are favoured or otherwise ; but it is one of the unfavourable consequences of parliamentary government that special questions of great interest become permanent party questions. When Cobden and his followers demanded the repeal of the Corn Laws the landed proprietors became at once their natural opponents. It is most deskable that reHgious questions should not become the standard and rallying- cry of parties, though Irish experiences show that it is very difficult to prevent their taking such a character. At any rate it is certainly a condition of primary importance that the State itself should abstain from encroaching on the internal domain of the Church, otherwise it is only natural that the mem- bers belonging to a particular denomination should make it their first care to defend their own religious interests. Debate on The ucw party of the Centre were reproached for ventVon^'^in havlug attempted to introduce a passage in the Address requesting the intervention of the Government in favour of the pope. But it should not be lost sight of that they did so only by way of an amendment after the Liberals had inserted in the draft of the Address a paragraph to the contrary efiect, in which non-intervention was expressly demanded. The Centre offered to pass over the question in silence, if the Liberals would withdraw theii* demand ; but the latter insisted on their clause, which was ultimately ^ So called from the position they occupied in the Chamber. They numbered at that time about sixty members. — [Tr.] 2 An inaccurate expression at the best ; for mobilisation precsaes the struggle, and the latter had lasted already for some time. There had been a Catholic party in the Frankfort Parliament as well as in the the Ad- rlreaa Prussian Diet. THE GOVERNMENT ASSUMES TIIE OFFENSIVE. 495 retained, and rejected all offer of a compromise. Another chap. proposal of the Catholics to insert the paragraphs of the Frankfort Constitution of 1848 respecting the liberty of tlie Church, with the omission, however, of the clause that it should remain subject to the laws of the State, was rejected by an overwhelming majority. And tliis was imquestionably right. The motion was, even from the point of view adopted by that party, a false move : it was resisted by their leader himself, Herr Windhorst, though his objections were overruled by the passionate bishop of Mayence, who only courted defeat. Shortly afterwards a member of the Free Conservative party, Count Franken- berg, asserted publicly that Cardinal Antonelli, in a con- The Popo versation with Count Tauffkirchen, who, after the ""ceVr^ departure of Count Arnim, acted as representative of Germany, had disapproved of the position taken by the Catholics in the Eeichstag. The Ultramontane papers denied this. A letter of Prince Bismarck to Count Frankenberg confirmed the fact. It was answered by a formal denial of the official Eoman journal. Soon after the sitting of the Eeichstag was ended, the official press began to preach war against Eome, who was represented as having always been the enemy of the German Empire, and as her irreconcilable adversary at present. This allusion to the ancient struggle of Empire and Papacy was a misconception altogether from the first; for the only analogy between the Middle Ages and the present time is this, that there is in both instances an emperor on the one side and a pope on the other. But there the parallel ends. The present Empire is no continuation of the okl cosmopolitan and eccle- siastical Empire ; ^ but a new and purely national insti- tution, comparable only in past history perhaps with the ^ It was a piece of truly naive ignorance, therefore, for the official papers to pretend that Germany possesses a right of control at the next ment again Rome. 496 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. German Kingdom of Henry I., inasmuch as it embodies -- ■ ' ' the unity of the German State in the person of the emperor. With regard to the declaration of war on tlie part of Eome, unquestionably both Syllabus and Vatican decrees were the result of an aggressive policy against the modern State in general. But the Syllabus had been published years ago without any objection being raised by the Prussian Government ; and as to the Vatican dogma, Prince Bismarck declared as recently as January 30, 1872, that 'dogmatic controversies about changes and declarations which may have occurred within the dogma of the Catholic Chirrch are foreign to the Government, which must hold itself aloof from them accordingly.' Confused If uow it was au error from the first to suppose tliat Govirn- '^ a powcr like the Catholic Church could be intimidated by against sucli harsh proceedings as marked the new pohcy of the Government, it might fairly have been expected that some settled plan of action had been prepared. But not a trace of such foresight was visil)le in the first stage of the struggle ; wise and foolish measures crossed and contra- dicted each other indiscriminately It was a wise act, undoubtedly, to abohsh (July 8, 1871) the Catholic department of the Ministry of Public Worship ; for in so doing the State removed an enemy from its own house. Of far more doubtful ^visdom was the addition to Aiticle 130 of the Penal Code, concerning protection against the abuse of the pulpit. Undoubtedly the abuse of ecclesias- tical liberty should be resolutely punished ; but if the regulations previously in use appeared insufficient for that purpose, they should have been subjected to a far more comprehensive revision, as has been the case in Italy. On the contrary, the clause, as proposed by Bavaria to meet a momentary requirement in that king- papal election, on the ground that such right \va.s exercised by Charle- magne and the Saxon and Swahian emperors. CASE OF DR. WOLT.MANN. 497 dorn, gave the impression of an exceptional enactment of chap. convenience, which produced of necessity an exasperating -J^,Xi_ effect, and has after all proved of Httle practical use. Again, witli regard to the question of the Old Catholic teachers, the Minister of Public Worship took up an utterly false position. A teacher of religion at the Gvmnasium at Braunsber^, Dr. WoUmann, had refused to case of Dr. Ö' 5 Wollmann. submit to the dogma of Infallibility, and had consequently been suspended in his functions by the bishop of Erme- land. He appealed to the Government, which not only maintained him in his position, but even required that parents shoidd continue to send their children to his lessons on religion.^ Tliis was indefensible ; and it was simply a perversion of fact when the Provinzial-Corre- sjjondenz declared that the Government prohibited no one from publishing the decrees of the Council, but merely declined to compel Cathohc teachers, whose consciences forbade them to accept those decrees, to submit under the joint pressure of the secular arm. There was no question at all about any such compulsion. The Constitution granted to the Cathohc Church the right of conducting the rehgious education of her members ; she had issued the Vatican decrees through her constitutional organs ; who- ever disobeyed those decrees must have been fully aware that he no longer belonged to her, and consequently could no lonojer m^e rehgious instruction in her name. But if the Government, in the face of these plain facts, were unwilling to take their stand on strict law, and preferred that of equity, they would have been perfectly entitled to say that although Dr. Wollmann might not be orthodox, he had done nothing, so far as the Government were concerned, to justify the withdrawal of his salary: if tlie bishop wanted a teacher of orthodox doctrine, he ' See the letter of von Mühler to the bishop of Ermeland, June 29, 1871. The last demand was subsequently withdrawn. VOL. II. K K 498 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, miglit appoint one at his own expense ; for the same case ■^ — - — ^ might be repeated, and the Government were not in a position to pay two schoohnasters. But instead of this, the Minister von Miihler declared that as the Old Cathohcs claimed to be still members of the Catholic Church, and only protested against an innovation, the State, who was not called upon to decide in matters of dogma, must also consider them as such. This argument contradicted itself. Apart from the fact that the opinions of individuals can never upset the decisions of the organs of the Church, it seems to have wholly escaped the minister, that in one and the same breath he was protesting his desire not to interfere in dogmatic disputes, and yet asserting that Dr. Wollman, although rejecting Infallibility, still remained, as before, a member of the Catholic Church. What else was this but an opinion on the point of dogma ? ^ By so acting he directly contra- vened the principle which the Government shortly after- wards, at the abolition of the Catholic Department, laid down quite correctly as a guide of conduct, namely, that henceforth, in all matters affecting the Catholic Church, the ' principles of civil law should be the sole and absolute measure of State policy,' The case stands simply thus. The State occupies a certain fixed legal position towards the Cathohc Church, as constituted in a definite manner. The latter now proceeds to change her dogma and her constitution. Either the State recognises this change, and therewith the identity of the Church, as heretofore existing before the law, in which case it must recognise also the verdict of the Church as to whether Dr. Woll- mann is a Cathohc or not ; or, on the other hand, it declares that the change effected in and by the Church has altered her legal position towards the State. Now the Government were fully entitled to declare that the procla- 1 Letter of July 21. EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS. 499 mation of Infallibility had brought about ' not only an chap. essential change in the doctrinal status of the Church, but ^ — r— ^ also a deeply-penetrating revolution in her collective position towards the State.^ But this in no way entitled them to set up that dogma as facultative. They were bound either to have said that the opponents of Infalli- bility constituted the Catholic Church, with which the State had contracted, and were entitled, therefore, to all the rights she had hitherto enjoyed ; or else — as was the only logical alternative — that they recognised the new dog- ma as emanating from resolutions of the legitimate organ of the Catholic Church, but perceived in it such a change in the relations ofthat Church with the State that the latter was compelled to submit those relations to a revision. It is perfectly logical to consider either the infalUbihsts or their opponents as the only orthodox Catholics, but not both parties together, who are mutually disputing this claim.*'' When now in May 1872, all direct attempts to effect an understanding with Eome had failed through the refusal of the pope to receive the Cardinal Prince Hohenlohe as German ambassador at his court, the way was prepared for commencing in earnest the campaign against Eome. The first step was the expulsion of Expulsion the Jesuits. The Liberals, who supported the measure, siite,Vid"y which had been already demanded by the Protestant *'^®^^' ' Prov.-Corresp.^ August 2, 1872. 2 Bavaria likewise has adopted an illogical position, On the one hand, the Minister of Public Worship von Lutz declared that the Govern- ment recognised the Old Catholics as true members of the Chiu-ch (Oct. 1871), and on the other hand, the Government refused to admit Bishop Reinkens, on the ground that the Bavarian Concordat stated (Art. I.) ' ReHgio Catholica Apostolica Romana in toto Bavaria3 regno . . . con- servabitur.' They might have evaded the difficulty by the technical objection that the new dogma had not received the royal Placet, and had consequently no existence, so far as they were concerned ; but they never instituted any proceedings against tlie bishops who promulgated it in spite of this defect. K K 2 500 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY, CHAP. Union (October 5, 1871), appealed in so doing to the .— ^ precedent net by Martignac and Guizot with respect to the Jesuits ; but they overlooked the fact that in both those cases the question was as to the maintenance of an existing prohibition, in defiance of which the order had settled in France. Such a prohibition existed likewise in several German countries, as, for instance, in Saxony, but not in most of them, and particularly not in Prussia, where the Jesuits resided by virtue of the freedom of association granted by the law. It would certainly have been desirable that they had never been introduced, and it is equally certain that their activity was pernicious ; but did not the same objection apply to other orders? It was said that the Jesuits had conspired against the new Empire ; but if proofs of this offence existed, why were they not produced and the guilty members arraigned before the Courts, which would have inflicted far more severe sentences upon them than expulsion ? The proper means for breaking the influence of the Jesuits, so far as it was possible for the State to do so, lay, firstly, in the Law of Union, promised by the Constitution of the Emphe, which was bound to enforce the recognition of the right of control enjoyed by the State over all religious societies ; and secondly, in the Law of Instruction, which admitted only teachers approved by the State. But to expel a particular order by an exceptional enactment without legal proceedings and a legal verdict, not only to banish its foreign members, but to place the localities assigned for the residence of the German members of the order at the pleasure of the administrative authorities, was a measure all the more questionable since it promised very little success. The establishments of the Jesuits have been dissolved, and several hundreds of the foreign members have been banished, but the Government have been obliged to tolerate those of native origin, who, SCHOOL INSPECTION BILL. 601 moreover, in their .dispersed condition, withdraw them- chap, selves all the more easily from supervision, as the real ^»-^ — r— ^ strengtli of the order lies precisely in its affihated branches,^ which are unknown. In aiming a blow at the Jesuits, it was sought to strike the real bearers of Ultra- montanism ; but the Jesuits, who conduct at Eome the ^ pohcy of the order, are beyond the reach of chastisement ; and the Catholic clergy, whom the Government wished to free from their influence, have replied to the enactment by declaring their sympathy and fellowship of interests with the order, which formerly the priests and many of the bishops had regarded with suspicion and dishke, on account of its interference in Church government. Well might one recall the words of Goethe, ' They have got rid of the Evil One, the Evil Ones have remained.' ^ Meanwhile, early in the year. Dr. Falk, a former Appoint- councillor in the Ministry of Justice, had taken the place Faik.° occupied since 1862 by Herr von Mühler, as Minister of Pubhc Worship. The appointment itself caused great surprise, this gentleman being known as a distinguished jurist, but never having troubled himself with ecclesias- tical questions. He began by withdrawing some bills introduced by his predecessor, but maintained that on the inspection of schools.^ The motive of this law was purely local. Archbishop Ledochowski, who kept his Schooi promise not to support the Polish aspirations so long as LaT*^ *''" he stood well with the Government, had gone over, after the change of system, like his predecessor Prczylusld, to ' The clause in the bill included all societies ' related to the Jesuits,' but did not specify theui. The Eeport of the Committee, appointed by the Diet to ascertain the exact sense of this clause, extended the scope of the measure far beyond what appeared to be its original limits. 2 ' Den Bösen sind sie los, die Bösen sind geblieben.' 3 It passed the Chamber of Deputies by 1 97 against 171 ; the Centre the Polish members, and the Old Conservatives voting in the minority. [Tr.] March 12, 1872. 502 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, the side of the Poles. The Cathohc teachers became ^~\ ■■' refractory, and refused any longer to give German lessons in districts where a mixed population existed. It was decided, however, to remedy this local mischief by a general law. Article XXIII. of the Constitution declares / priest, when pubhshing the sentence of excommunication, insults the person concerned in such a manner that his civil character is attacked, there is a remedy for this already in the Penal Code.^ But the law on Church discipline cuts still more deeply Law on into purely ecclesiastical territory by the establishment of JSpUne. a Supreme Court for ecclesiastical causes. This court of appeal, consisting of eleven lay members, six of whom must be judges, decides finally on all Church questions submitted to it, without being bound by any positive rules of evidence ; and its jurisdiction can be invoked by any ecclesiastic who has been removed fi^om oflSce against his will, or visited with illegal penalties by his superior, directly he can show that he has previously had recourse without success to the appointed ecclesiastical authorities Royal for the proper remedies provided by the law. In like ewiesiasti- manner the President of the Province has a right of appeal, *^^ ^^'^"^' against any disciplinary decision, if any public interest in his opinion is at stake. If the Supreme Court entertains and supports the appeal, it gives judgment annulhng the disci phnary sentence in dispute, and may compel the ecclesiastical authorities under heavy penalties to with- draw it ; but it has also the power to suspend tliem from office, in case their disobedience of the injunction is deemed incompatible with public order. This tribunal is obviously formed in imitation of the old appel comme cVabus in France; which was originally intended to check the immoderate extension of ecclesiastical juris- diction, but which finally led to the grossest abuses. It was re-estabhshed by Napoleon from political motives, ^ Compare 'Der Katholicismus und der moderne Staat,' p. 79, Berlin, 1873. It might be enacted, therefore, that excommunication should not be published except in the churches. y 508 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY, CHAP, but has since then been more and more rarely applied. jcxvi. ^ rpj^g reason simply is that the Api^el was the most essential bulwark of the Gallican Hberties, which now no longer exist. This fact alone should have sufficed to warn Prus- sian statesmen of the hopelessness of reforming the Catholic Church in their country, by imitating a proceed- ing which, even on its original soil, has lost all practical value and importance. No doubt the despotic power exercised in the Catholic Church by the superiors over their subordinates is a serious evil. It might, therefore, very fairly have been enacted that a parish priest, in the receipt of State endowments, should not forfeit his salary through the arbitrary sentence of his bishop. But to refer to a purely temporal Court the decision whether a minister of the Church is further authorised to perform spiritual functions goes plainly beyond the competence of the State ; for it practically gives that Court the power of deciding on questions of pure dogma.^ If a priest is suspended from his office for refusing to accept Infalhbility, and if the Court in question, acting on the theory that Infalli- bilists and Old Catholics are equally entitled to be regarded as members of the Catholic Church, pronounces that he is wrongfully suspended, what is this but for an authority of the State to determine what is an article of Catholic ' The Report of the Committee of the House of Deputies declared expressly that the new Supreme Court was entitled to give judgment on questions of dogma, if the latter were contrary to law. Clause XT. of the law recites that the Court is competent to decide, when deprivation of ecclesiastical office ' is pronovmced as a measure of disciplinary punishment or otherwise against the will of the delinquent, and contra- dicts the plain facts of the case {der hlaren thatsächlichen Lage wider- spricht), or violates the laws of the State or other principles of right.' Where is there any check or guarantee that the Court will not drag questions of dognQa before its forum, or find, for example, that on the ' plain facts of the case * the alleged offender has preached nothing con- trary to the confession of his Church ? THE MAY I A WS CRITICISED. < 509 faith and what is not?^ The case is the same with the chap. Evaiigehcal Cliurch if her authorities suspend a clergyman --\ '—' for denying the fundamental truths of her confession. If the Court decides that wrong is done to him, it decides at the same time that the doctrinal tenets in question are not essential to the creed of that particular communion. Such an invasion of purely ecclesiastical territory on tlie part of a secular authority, of which no other qualification is demanded than that the president and five members shall be judges, appointed in constitutional manner by the State, destroys at once all internal independence of the Church. The law provides further, that the disciphnary authority of ecclesiastics shall be exercised only by German authorities of the Church. This provision is clearly aimed not only against the foreign superiors of orders, but also against the supreme disciplinary authority of the pope. But if anyone imagines to separate in this manner the Cathohc Church of Germany from the pope, he is very much mistaken. The connection with the supreme pontiff is the basis and keystone of the whole edifice of the hierarchy. The practical significance of Ms disciphnary authority is this, that whoever is affected by it, submits thereto in accordance witli the precepts of the Catholic Church. No power can prevent this submission, and the only consequence of this law will be that the Go- vernment will hear nothing of the exercise of this power of discipline by spiritual superiors. The co-operation of the civil authority is to follow in the execution of ecclesiastical decisions in matters of Church discipline, and, indeed, by way of administration, whenever the ■ ' That is an interference ' says Mr. J. F. Smith very justly, * with the doctrinal teaching of the Catholic Church, as great as the interfer- ence of Constantino would have been had he ventured, after the Council of Niccea, to pronoimce the Arians orthodox.' — ' The Falk legislation from the political point of view.' — ' Theological Review,' October 1875. 510 THE STEUGOLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. Provincial President, after examining the cause, declares ^ — •— ^ these decisions to be proper for execution. Thus the sentence in a purely ecclesiastical question is referred back to the civil authorities. The simple and correct solution would undoubtedly be that the Government should refuse all co-operation in the execution of such de- cisions, so that the Church should remain restricted to purely spiritual punishments. Law con- The samc confusion of Church and State competence Si^ is shown in the law relating to the training and appoint- J^intment mcut of ecclcsiastics. Those who legislate on these tiS,^im!' matters will be perpetually straying into crooked paths, unless they steadily observe the principle that the clergy are not mere ' officiers de la morale publique,' as Mirabeau called them. Even in the Evangelical territorial churches it is not the Government that nominates them, but the territorial sovereign in his capacity as summus Episcopus. The fact that certain functions of public office are dele- gated to the clergy of the privileged Christian churches, can only entitle the State to withdraw the advantages conceded to them, in case they fail to fulfil the corre- sponding duties, which have been attached as a necessary condition of office and privileges, not to govern the Church in her internal affairs. And to these affairs un- questionably belong the training and appointment of her servants. The required educational tests are an attempt to enforce the security that all Catholic priests and Evan- gelical pastors shall receive a liberal education of the same quahty as that received by liberally educated lay- men, so that in time no person will be able to aspire to ecclesiastical duties who has not been educated in a public school. The intention of thus bringing the clergy from their narrowly professional course of training into the pale of general culture is excellent ; but it is greatly to be doubted whether the means resorted to will accomplish TRAITsTNG AND APPOlNTxMENT OF THE CLETIGY. 511 this end. The State is perfectly entitled to demand from ciiAr. ecclesiastics, who desire to enjoy the privileges of their — ^-^ position, particularly a salary out of the public treasury, a certain general training, consequently therefore the proof of proficiency in certain specified branches of learning, in addition to the required gpnnasial examination. Intrin- sically therefore no objection can be taken to the law demanding such a standard of education. But it would be an error to imagine that by so doing the Catholic clergy will be made national. The contact with lay- students, from which so much has sometimes been ex- pected, is virtually reduced to a nullity ; the Catholic students five quite isolated, and never attend any lectures but those prescribed by their superiors. Moreover, it is a fundamental error of Liberalism to suppose that mere knowledge has the magic power of changing the moral and rehgious convictions of mankind. A Cathohc eccle- siastic may amass a vast quantity of positive knowledge in history, literature, and philosophy, and yet retain a strictly Ultramontane, nay, a strongly anti-national disposition, as is proved by the Jesuits, who frequently pass the best of any in the examinations for the degree of doctor.^ Moreover, the State already possesses that influence over clerical education which it exercises over all educational institutions in virtue of its rights of supreme inspection. It is entitled, undoubtedly, to interfere, should principles, under the name of dogmas, be propounded to ecclesiastics which attack its institutions. It is entitled to take care that minors, who cannot yet judge for themselves, shall not be subjected from their earliest boyhood to a distinctive spiritual training in institutions with monastic regulations, • It is admitted by naturalists that, after the death of Humboldt, the man who has the most comprehensive grasp of natural science is Father Secchi, the former astronomer of the Pope ; yet this never seems to have shaken him in his Catholic belief. 512 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, such as is done in the seminaries and separate establish- ■" — r-^ ments for boys intended for the priesthood. It would certainly have been better to abolish these seminaries altogether, than to place them in a moribund position by continuing them until they are vacated by their present occupants. But the State oversteps its competence in undertaking to regiüate the proper theological course of studies. It is quite true that in former times the professorships of the Catholic faculties were fiUed by tolerant men. But those days are gone ; the Catholic professors in Germany are now either ardent Ultramontanes or have passed into the camp of the Old Catholics : the latter are teaching to empty benches, and the students, forbidden by the bishops to attend their lectures,^ are left to the teaching of the Ultramontanes. As regards the professional qualifi- cations of ecclesiastics the Chm'ch alone can decide ; and the State, when once it interferes in those matters, can hardly avoid appearing as a partisan for particular ten- dencies within the Church. The theological faculties in the Universities presupposed the ' confessional,' or at least the Christian State ; as the latter no longer exists, those faculties have outhved thek objects, and ought pro- perly to be dissolved, as has been done in Italy, leaving the churches themselves to train their servants. Appoint- The same remarks apply to the appointment of eccle- deSLficir siastics. The State has a perfect right to declare that it makes the institution of a clergyman to the public advantages and emoluments conceded to his office depen- dent on the fulfilment of certain conditions, such as a hberal education, blameless reputation, previous notice of ^ The University of Bonn has suffered heavily from the appoint- ment of Old Catholic professors, who at present have exactly four pupils. The students of theology desert the University and go princi- pally to Würzburg. RESISTANCE OF THE CATHOLIC LAITY. 513 nomination, &c. Tlie State has likewise the right to chap. require the authorities of the Church to suspend an - ^^y.-.- ecclesiastic already in office who is found guilty of certain offences, since his continuance in office cannot fail to occasion pubhc scandal. But the State can attach to contravention in either case the Avithdrawal only of what itself has granted: it cannot dictate to the Churches on what terms they are to be allowed to confer one of their offices ; still less can it inflict criminal penalties upon piu-ely ecclesiastical acts, in an office conferred upon an ecclesiastic against its injunctions. The consequence would be the civil constitution of the clergy. A system of legislation which thus invades the peculiar Mistaken dominion of the Church can only be explained by a mis- the'Siay conception of the conditions and bearings of the conflict ^''"'®* in question. That kind of hberalism which, filled with enmity to the Church, celebrates this legislation as a grand \4ctory, sees in the Church of Eome only a political adversary, whose dangerous organisation must be broken up at any cost. It overlooks the fact that the real strength of the hierarchy is rooted in that tremendous power which it wields over the minds of its members and adherents, and which can never be crushed by laws. Dr. Falk himself said (Dec. 17, 1873), 'The power of the Catholic clergy is so great that not a word of what the Government says against them is believed by the masses.' The May laws are, in fact, a relapse into that false Josephinism whicli aimed at subduing by State instru- ments a dominion whose essential characteristic it is to withdraw itself from the compass of State power. If an enlightened absolutism shipwrecked in this attempt as utterly as did the Convention in its brutal pohcy of sup- pression, how can it be hoped that a similar experiment shall succeed in these days of universal suffrage, of liberty of the press, and fi'cedom of association ? Liberalism VOL. II. L L 514 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, overrates further the power of the State, in thinking — ^-r-^- to be able to determine every question by a law dealing with it after its own fashion. That law alone contains the guarantee of real stabihty and duration which really fulfils its purpose : where this is not the case, the force of circumstances must sooner or later prevail, to abolish the law in the same way in which it originated. Now the May laws will never fulfil their purpose — that of regulating the position of the State towards the Chm'ch. The proof of this is found, not certainly in the resistance of the bishops, but in the resistance of the Catholic laity. That the Episcopate combats, so long as it can, every restriction of its power, is shown by all history as plainly as the ignoble sense to which it has perverted the words, ' One must obey God rather than man.' But it is wary enough not to go beyond the limits of its actual power. The Austrian bishops also have agitated and protested against the laws of 1874 ; but they have practically yielded, not- withstanding the papal condemnation, because they knew that they would not have the CathoHc people at their back if they pushed their opposition to extremities. In like manner the hierarchy has not declared war against the small kingdom of Wurtemberg, but has submitted to the law of 1862. In Prussia, on the contrary, the bishops refused obedience to the May laws because they were convinced that not only the clergy, but also the Cathohc laity, would support them. The result has shown that they were not mistaken. Flat coercion having failed, it has now been sought to crush this resistance by resorting to very difierent means. The Catholics are told that the ill-will of the hierarchy was the sole cause of the conflict, since in other countries the Catholic Church has submitted to the same regula- tions. But this plea has been ineöectual, because the state- ment itself is incorrect. It proves nothing to say that SUPPLEMENTARY LEGISLATION OF 1874. 515 this or that rej:^ulation has loncj since been in force else- chap. XXVI. i8(;2. where ; the question is, whetlier there is a single country where the wliole system at issue exists with the tacit recognition of the Church ; and this is certainly not the case. Yet the statement has been made of Würtemberg, and the former Minister of Public Worship, Herr Golther, is of opinion that ' the Prussian legislation occupies in principle the same ground and moves entirely in tlie same direction, as that of Würtemberg, enacted as long ago as 1862,' A scrutiny, however, of the latter will reveal at once considerable differences. The Würtemberg law can certainly not be regarded Tim wui as a model of legislation, and has first to be tried when, lawuf"^^' some day, less moderate men than Lipp and Hefele occupy the episcopal see. On the other hand, it not only bears a thoroughly kindly character towards the Catholic Church, but keeps much more carefully within the limits of State competence, in regulating her relations with the civil power, than is the case with the May laws in Prussia. It demands, indeed, for admittance to an ecclesiastical office, the qualification of civic rights, and the proof of proficiency in education ; and it authorises the Govern- ment to protest, with formal assignment of reasons, against the bestowal of such office on persons who are civilly or politically ineligible. But it ordains no criminal punishments for purely ecclesiastical acts in an office con- ferred against its injunctions. The only consequence, therefore, of the illegal nomination of an ecclesiastic can be the refusal of the Government to admit him to the office in question. With regard to the exercise of the disciplinary authority of the Church, the Würtem- berg law insists on regular judicial proceedings, but it does not forbid excommunication. Above all there is no State tribunal in Würtemberg which can interfere, as in Prussia, in the purely internal affairs of the Church. 5 IG THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. These differences are so important that the point where -^^~i^ the Wlirtemberg law goes farther than the Prussian, namely, by retaining in certain cases the Placet, is com- paratively too trifling to be taken into account. The statement, therefore, that the regulations which "" characterise the system represented in the May laws have been accepted in other countries by the Catholic Church, is unsupported by proof. But the Government in Prussia has gone farther. Since these laws have proved inade- quate to put down the resistance they provoked, they have been supplemented by new regulations — namely, by a second law on the training and appointment of eccle- / siastics (May 21) ; by the law on the administration of vacant Catholic bishoprics (May 20) ; and by the Imperial law of May 4, 1874, preventing the illegal exercise of ecclesiastical office. The first two laws affect merely the property relations of those church offices which are con- sidered as vacated by the illegal proceedings of their Adminis- lioldcrs. Their provisions with regard to appointment to vacant dfo- those officcs liavc remained entirely barren of effect. The uving^^ Catholic congregations have made no use of their privi- lege to elect a new priest, and the only attempt made to bring about such an election has led to a sore discom- fiture.-^ The chapters refuse to declare the sees of the ejected bishops vacant ; and Archbishop Ledochowski issues directions to his clergy from Eome. It would cer- tainly be desirable that the Catholic laity should exercise 1 When on November 5, 1874, the electors of Landsberg were sum- moned to choose a curate in place of the one nominated by the bishop against the May laAvs, 64 of them refused to proceed to the election, and the other 1 1 declared that they would vote for the candidate named by the bishop. After this first ill-success no more has been heard of that law, which is now a dead letter. Prince Bismarck himself said in a speech of April 14, 1875, that the Government knew the Catholic dogma well enough to discern that the rights attributed to the Catholic con- gregation did not exist. But why then this law ? BANISIBIENT OF RECUSANT CLERGY. 517 some influence in these matters ; but self-government in chap. this sense contradicts the constitution of the Catholic • ^ \ -- Church as it exists ; and you cannot force people to be free against their will. The Act of the German Eeichstasf just mentioned Law f„r ° ■' coercion of gives mdeed a large discretionary power to the Govern- recusant ment, by authorising it to restrict to a particular place of May 4, residence, or even to strip of iheir rights of citizenship and expel, ecclesiastics illegally exercising their functions after sentence of dismissal in the proper Court. But it seriously contravenes those elementary principles of modern international and State law, which one has hitherto been accustomed to regard as well-established. Such, for example, is the maxim that every Government is bound to manage its own subjects, and to inflict only those punishments, in case of any transgression on their part, which are known in the Penal Code. The German Penal Code knows no other punishments but death, con- finement with hard labour, imprisonment and detention in a fortress, fines, loss of civil status and the capacity for holding civil office, and finally, as a consequence of certain restrictions on personal liberty, the being placed under the surveillance of the police, which authorises the superior police authorities of the State to proliibit the person so condemned from residing in certain specified localities. On the other hand, deportation — in other words, internment in a remote part of the dominions of the State, coupled mostly with forced labour — ^is quite as alien to the penal code of Germany as the exile of native subjects. By § 39, 2, the right of exile is expressly limited to the case of foreigners.^ ' The punishment of loss of State-citizenship and exile exists in no country of Europe, except Russia and France. In Russia the judicial sentence in question is subject in every single case to confirmation l)y the emperor, and is limited moreover to one special ofTencc, namely, 518 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP. The May laws had kept within these limits. They XXVI. . - — r— ^ had considerably increased the number of actions threatened with fines and imprisonment ; but they had abstained from setting up any other modes of punishment than those already provided by the Penal Code. The law of July 4, 1872, had already gone beyond this, by enacting that native members of the Society of the Jesuits, even though they had not been sentenced to the punish- ments afiecting personal liberty which were provided by the law, should be liable not only to be prohibited from residing in certain places, but to have a specified locality assigned to them for their abode. Exile, however, from Federal territory still remained limited to foreign mem- bers of the order. If now it was wished to apply the sentence of exile in Germany, that punishment should have been formally inserted in the Penal Code. But this has never been done. An attempt has been made, it is true, to remove the formal contradiction between the original draft of the Government and § 3 of the Imperial Constitution, which relates to the indigenous subjects of the Empire, by making the bill, when enacted, contain a provision that, in the case of a native ecclesiastic con- demned to exile, the State of his birth shall declare him to have forfeited his citizenship.^ But it is clear that this amendment is of a purely formal description. It is possible to withhold from a subject for any length of time that of disobeying tlie summons of the authorities to return to his na- tive country — the extreme remedy, as it were, against such re£i-actory absentees, on whom the State can inflict no other kind of punishment, since they have placed themselves beyond the reach of its jurisdiction. The French Code, indeed, establishes the punishment of exile in several cases, but this is generally considered as one of its worst features, and as a remnant of the arbitrary Napoleonic rule. ^ Clause iv. enacts that ' persons thus losing their rights of citizen- ship in one of the German States are to lose it likewise in all other German States, and only reacquire it by consent of the State-Council.' COMPULSORY CIVIL MARRIAGE LAW. 519 XXVI. the exercise of liis riglits of State-citizenship ; but lie still chap. remains the subject of his native State. Everyone must be a member of some State or other. A German remains a German, although he may be declared to have forfeited his rights of citizenship, so long as he has not become the subject of another State ; and for this very reason any other State may decline to have an ecclesiastic in this position intruded upon its territory — a contingency neces- sarily imphed in exile — just as England protested against France disembarking the exiled Communists on the Bri- tish coast. And yet a law of such a kind, which threatens a priest who, in obedience to his bishop, per- forms the acts of priestly office forbidden by the State, with a punishment, deemed by all civilised nations the heaviest next to that of death, was actually approved by the parhamentaiy assembly of the German Empire whose majority call themselves Liberal. The Government, fiu-thermore, when the extent of the resistance to their measures became manifest, have re- frained from executing one of the most important provi- sions of the law relating to the appointment of ecclesias- tics. Clause 19 decreed that clause 18, which requires the permanent filling up of every office of parish priest within one year after the vacancy, shoidd be applied also to the succursal parishes of the Ehenish law. The bishops concerned ought, according to the law, to have notified, up to the 15th of May, 1874, that the holders of these 1,241 provisionally-appointed benefices were permanently nominated. This was never done ; and yet the Govern- ment did not ventm-e to declare all these benefices vacant, and thus deprive three-fourths of all the Catholic parishes of the ministrations of a priest. They extricated them- selves from the difficulty by announcing that the benefices in question were now ipso facto filled up. Finallv, the Government tried to meet tlie increasing 520 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, embarrassments of the situation by several laws, which —A — '- rested on a basis different from that of the May legislation. Compulsory Civil marriage had long since become a necessity, for it riage Biu. offered the only possible prospect of a solution, between the communities of Church and State, of a question approached by both parties from different points of view ; and the Conservative party only showed their short- sightedness when they rejected in 1859 the bill of the Minister von Bethmann-Hollweg, which proposed facul- tative civil marriage. The Government now, by intro- ducing not only this, but making civil marriage com- pulsory, gained no support for their contest with the hierarchy, but rather facilitated resistance. Until October 1, 1874, in all parishes where the office of priest was vacant in consequence of the May laws, no vahd marriage could be concluded by Catholics, wliich was naturally felt to be a serious evil. Persons now conclude marriage in the presence of the civil officer [Standesbeamte), and have it afterwards solemnised in private by a priest whom they consider legally qualified, thus withdrawing the sub- sequent ceremony from all Government control. The latter, therefore, has gained not a single one of its objects by a law which, by its precipitate introduction, has only injured the Evangelical Church. It is just as impossible to reconcile two systems so diametrically opposed to each other as to turn to the right and to the left at the same time.-^ The pope's In 1875 the struggle entered upon a new phase. The dence with popc had formerly cherished the hope that the emperor might be induced to refrain from pursuing farther the policy of the May laws ; and had addressed to him (August 7, 1873) a singularly ill-advised letter, in which he feigned to believe that the emperor did not approve ' The law was extended, with some modifications, to the whole Empire, on February 6, 1875. the empe ror. ADMINISTRATION OF CHURCH TROPERTY. 521 CHAP. of the measiu'es of his government. This provoked a dignified answer (Sept. 3) from the emperor, who pointed ^ — ^-,— ^ out the error of supposing that a constitutional sovereign could possibly dissent from the measiures he himself had sanctioned. A further reply from the pope was suffered to pass unnoticed ; but the Curia still remained inactive, probably hoping that a personal interview might be arranged between Pius IX. and the emperor, as the latter projected a visit to Italy. But the contemplated journey was postponed, and the Government in Prussia steadily pursued its way. Archbishop Ledochowski and the Bishop of Paderborn were deposed. Early in 1875 (Feb. 5) the pope addressed an Encychcal to the Prussian Encyclical b shops {Quod Nunquam) in which he declared the b°ish^*'*° ecclesiastical laws null and void, as contradicting the ^eb.5,i875. divine mission of the Church. This was clearly as inde- fensible as the papal edict against the Austrian constitu- tion ; and the Prussian Government was obviously entitled to prosecute those who promulgated this Encyclical, as inciting to disobedience against the law; for whatever may be thought of the May laws, they were formally and legally binding. But the Government, determined to crush resistance, BiUwith- met this attack by issuing a fresh budget of laws. The statSa- first law of April 22, 1875, enacted that all salaries and refraaTy subventions paid by the State to Catholic priests or insti- A-'Hr22 tutions should be suspended until the respective bishops ^*'^- or priests had signed a written declaration of their inten- tion to submit to the laws of the State. Since the May laws belonged to this class of ordinances, the clergy were thus left simply to choose between hunger and excommunica- tion. But the danger of the latter proved the more effec- tive of the two. The subvention of the State was about a million of thalers a year : this gap was filled by voluntary contributions, and the law missed its object. The second 522 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. law of May 31 expelled all orders and similar communities from Prussian territory : those only were excepted which devoted themselves exclusively to the care of the sick, and even those might be expelled by Eoyal ordinance. Their property was not to be confiscated, but to be tem- porarily sequestrated by the State. Now it was perfectly true that the various orders and congregations in Prussia had developed to alarming proportions, and the State was certainly entitled to take this fact into serious considera- tion, as their members formed in fact an army subject to the commands of foreign superiors. It would therefore have been perfectly legitimate to withdraw all privileges from sucli communities, to annul their corporate rights, and to declare that vows taken by their members were null before the civil law. But to forbid members of a particular religious denomination to associate in bodies for the pursuit of objects perfectly legitimate in themselves was clearly incompatible with civil hberty, and deprived society of forces for which no equivalent could be found. Catholic A third law abohshed Articles XV., XVI., and XVII. Property of thc Coustitution, as these were not in accordance with Äaüoa'^' the new laws ; and a fourth measure transferred the ad- mmistration of the revenues of Catholic parishes to an elective board. This last enactment was based on a different principle from that of its predecessor. It touched one of the most objectionable points in the Catholic Church government, where abuses were frequent enough, and it did not touch Catholic dogma. At first it exoited some surprise that the bishops, who had protested against tliis bill as against the others, submitted when it became law ; and the Liberals hailed this acquiescence as the beginning of a surrender. But this notion proved a grave error : the bishops had indeed protested, but had not, as formerly, declared that they would never submit. They could do so, because no dogma was concerned, and BiU. LimTS OF CATHOLIC OBEDIENCE. 523 tliey did so because they knew tliat, in the contrary cji.vp. event, tliey would not be supported by the Catholic laity; -- '■ -' for even the Ultramontane peasant is not averse to exer- cising his influence in money matters. They did so also because they knew that if the Catliolics abstained from exercising theii' electoral rights, the whole fortune would pass into the administration of the State. They therefore authorised the people to take part in the elections, and the consequence was that all the boards were composed of their adherents. The fact remains that all these laws, like their predeces- sors, are impotent to break the resistance of the Catholics. Nor was Prince Bismarck more successful in his efforts to give an international character to the contest. On May 14, 1872, he addressed a circular to several Govern- Bismarck's / ments on the future Conclave, pointing out that the papal the next°° power, so largely increased by the dogma of Infallibihty, M^v^ilf' made it advisable for the State to examine whether the ^^^^' election and the person of the elected pontiff offered the necessary guarantees against the abuse of such power. He claimed, therefore, not only the preliminary exclusion of some disagreeable candidate, not only the control over the legitimacy of the election, but the power of deciding whether the elected pope should be admitted to exercise his rights. All the governments met his circular with a / negative reply, and it is perfectly clear that any attempt of the German Government to exercise an influence on a future Conclave is hopeless of success. Any candidate who might be favoured by Germany would ipso facto lose all chances of being elected. Still more adventurous is the hope of a future so-called liberal pope, inclined to make peace. In the first instance the probability of a pope of dif- ferent principles being elected is extremely small, because, with the exception of a few, all the cardinals have been named by Pio Nono himself. But even the mildest pon- 524 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, tiff WO 'd never consent to treat on the basis of the May XXVI. , "^ • — . — ' laws. No government, it is further to be observed, has shown any disposition to follow Germany in her ecclesiastical policy. Of England and France there could be no ques- tion. Eussia, when the danger of the Polonising influence of the clergy in the provinces of the former kingdom was alluded to, as being manifested in the nomination of Archbishop Ledochowski to the Primacy of All Poland, answered that Cardinal Antonelh had furnished satisfac- tory proof that no such nomination had taken place. Italy dechned to change her ecclesiastical legislation, and parti- cularly the Law of Guarantees.^ Austria by her legis- lation kept out of the conflict ; and so did Wiirtemberg and Saxony with the Empire. The Swiss cantons, Baden, and Hesse remained the sole confederates in the struggle. Bavaria observed in these questions a wavering policy, which only led to a hostile majority in the Legislature, neutralising all action of the Government. It is certain that Prussia can still proceed with more repressive measiures, that the Government can reduce the Catholic Church to that state of sufierance to which she was brought in the French Revolution ; and an ingenious writer has even proposed simply to forbid the exercise of the Catholic worship. But with all this it will never bring the Church to submit to the May laws. 1. The Catholic Chiurch will never promise absolute obedience to all laws of the State, present and future. As a general principle such obedience is self-evident ; there ■ fore no special promise is asked from a citizen to that effect, and therefore it ought not to be asked exception- ally from clergymen. But to promise absolute obedience to any law, however much it may violate the conscience, is impossible. The right of passive resistance — that is to ' See ante, p. 449. PRINCIPLES OF THE CATHOLIC CHUHCII. 525 say, of submitting freely to the consequences of disobe- chap. dience — must remain, if the State wishes to have citizens • — > — " and not slaves as subjects. 2. The Catholic Church will never admit, as n fact no Church deserving that name can admit, that the State is entitled to decide whether anybody is a member of her communion or not. Every private association, club, or union declares by its legitimate organs what are the conditions of membership. If any member refuses to submit to its existing rules or statutes, he must try to have them altered ; and if he does not succeed, he must cease to be a member of that society.. The State is only entitled to watch that the existing statutes axe observed, and the regulations made by the duly-constituted organs. 3. The Catholic Church will never acknowledge that through an election simply decreed by the State and con- ducted by the congregation, or on the ground of the right of patronage as enlarged by the State without the co- ope- ration of the authorities of the Church, a priest can ever become the spiritual pastor of a Catholic flock, or that the latter can even lay claim, in lawful and comparatively essential acts of spiritual ministration, to the active ser- vices of such a priest. The State is fully entitled to fix conditions under which alone it allows Catholic priests to participate in the advantages it grants to their Church, as to a privileged religious community ; but the Church alone can supply the priests and curates. 4. The Catholic Church will never acknowledge as a principle, that a bishop or ecclesiastic can lose the capacity for ecclesiastical office through the sentence of the civil power; or that in consequence of such sentence, and without the consent of their ecclesiastical superiors, the Catholic laity are released from their duty of spiritual allegiance. The State punishes ecclesiastics who occasion public disquietude, or disturb public order, and the State 526 THE STiRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, can unquestionably demand that such ecclesiastics shall ' — r— ^ be removed by their superiors from office ; and in case such demand is not carried out, it can treat the office as vacant, withdraw from it the emoluments secured to it, and refuse all public recognition to acts performed by its occupant. But with regard to priests in their ecclesiastical capacity, the State can as little depose as it can elect them. 5. The Cathohc Church will never acknowledge that the State in mere spiritualibus can exercise supreme disci- plinary authority, such as the May laws have empowered it to do, by transferring the final decision in all important disputes of that nature from the ecclesiastical superiors to the Eoyal Court of Appeal. In the report of the Com- mittee of the House of Deputies it was expressly stated that questions of dogma were not excluded from the jurisdiction of the Court. 6. The Catholic Church will never acknowledge that the pope has not supreme disciplinary power in the Cathohc Church, or can be compelled to delegate this power to certain officials. With the assertion of these fundamental principles the Catholic Church stands or falls, as does in fact every Church which is not a State-Church. For the Catholic Church to abandon these would be ' propter vitam vivendi perdere causas ; ' she might exist, but she would not live. It is said that the policy of the Catholic hierarchy is dangerous to the State. We do not deny it ; but before acting, the statesman is bound carefully to investigate what dangers are real and what are false cries of alarm. And as regards the real dangers, the success in averting them depends on the choice of proper means. We main- tain that the means chosen were ill-advised. The German Chancellor has shown gifts of the very first order in ques- tions of foreign and national policy : no one equals him at the present day in the capacity to take an accurate MISCHIEVOUS NATURE OF THE ' KULTUKIsL\MPF.' 527 estimate of the material resources of a country, of the chap. motive power of governments and of pohtical parties. >-"^V-' He matures his plans, and carries them out witli as much energy as patience ; but lie shows, as did Napoleon I., how difficult it is for autocratic natures to realise the strength of purely spiritual forces. Amidst all the vehe- mence and turmoil of these proceedings, the real nature of those forces was entirely overlooked which were about to be let loose. Political passion is strong, but rclifrious passion is far stronger still ; and no power has such good and evil passions at its command as the Cathohc hierarchy. Tliis is certainly no reason for preventing the State from repelhng their encroachments on the civil domain ; but Governments should carefully abstain from answering til em by carrying the war into the internal territory of the Church, and thus challenging the opposition of ideas, which, however erroneous they may be in themselves, can never be vanquished by legislation. From time to time Liberal papers announce that the highest point of resist- ance is overpassed, and the clergy are about to yield ; and every time this assertion proves an illusion.^ Not only has nothing been gained, but the result has proved the exact contrary of their expectations. The bishops, whose authority was so heavily damaged by their ^ ' sacrificio dell' intelletto,' have been given the opportu- nity of rehabilitating their moral character, by showino- tliat it was not the fear of temporal disadvantage tliat ^ On tLe occasion of Dr. Falk's tour through the Khenish provinces in June and July, which called to mind the famous journey of Catherine II. with Potemkin through the Crimea, the 'Times' observed, 'The triumphant progress of Dr. Falk cannot indeed shake our conviction that he is the representative of a policy that must fail.' The truth of this observation was proved immediately afterwards; for, notwith- standing the demonstrations with wliich the Liberals had received the Älinister, they were defeated directly after by immense majorities in the ensuincr Khenish elections. 528 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, induced them to submit to the decrees of the Vatican -^— . — '^ Council. It was thought to separate the inferior clergy from the Episcopate ; but the former stand firmly by their superiors. It was wished to emancipate the laity from the hierarchy ; but the mass of the Catholic people have been brought into a serried phalanx of opposition, under those very leaders from whom it was intended to deliver them. The result is, therefore, that the laws, so far from exercising a disintegrating influence, have tended only to unite in firmer cohesion the elements of which the Catholic Church is composed. She suffers, of course, intensely from the pressure to which she is exposed ; but the losses she has experienced are more than outweighed by the fact of her internal consohdation. It is plainly im- possible that the State should carry on war for any per- manence with the third part of its subjects. It has no means for crushing such an organised passive resistance, backed by religious fanaticism. For a statesman, con- vinced though he may be of the justice of a measure, it ultimately remains to consider whether he has the power to carry that measure into effect. Add to this now a number of serious positive disad- vantages. The Government, whose guidance not even the most moderate Conservatives can any longer follow, sinks into growing dependence on the irrehgious and purely bureaucratic elements of political life, which are utterly undeserving of confidence, because utterly destitute of all independent ideas. The Liberals, harnessed to the car of the Kulturkampfs whose name is verily as ' lucus k non lucendo,' abjure all their former principles in order to demolish the Church. All firm principles of justice and liberty disappear in the overpowering noise of national-liberal phraseology. The Evangehcal Church, the strongest champion against Ultramontanism, suffers heavily, and has been endowed, to please the Liberals, mscniEVOus nature of the Kulturkampf. 529 CHAP. XXVI. with a constitution which makes it a creature of the State. All the elements hostile to any Church have been fortified, most of what the Liberal press says against the Catholic Church might as well be said against the Chris- tian faith in general. The sociahst leaders, therefore, look complacently upon the struggle, which brings them fresh recruits, and undermines the principle of moral authority in general : the masses become more and more either irreli- gious or ultramontane. It is impossible that such a condition of things should really strengthen the State ; the omnipo- tence which it assumes is not strength but weakness. The principle itself of the omnipotence of the State is mischie- vous, because it rests on the erroneous assumption that the State is entitled to cover the whole of life with a net- work of regulations, through whose narrow meshes nothing may escape ; while, properly, so much room should be left free for the exercise of individual hberty as the people can bear, and exercise without damaging the welfare of the commonwealth. Hence the reason why citizens of a free State are always the most faithful subjects. Then, as to the laws themselves, the maxim, that there is no protection of the law beyond the State, and that the State can only protect that law which it has acknowledged, is perverted by maintaining that there Misciuc- is no law except that which the State has made by ractcrofthe special legislative enactment. From this point of view kanlpf." the law is nothing but the will of the present Government and the majority of the legislature. As soon as the Sovereign, the Ministry, or the majority change, the law is to be changed correspondingly. To-day an ai'ticle of the Constitution is the rule of all special laws ; to-morrow it is abohshed ; the only question is whether the factors of legislation are strong enough to enact the change or not ; thus the law itself loses its firm ground and becomes VOL. II. M M 530 THE STRUGGLES OF THE PRESENT DAY. CHAP, co-extensive with the shifting power. A further disad- ' - ' . '-' vantage of the Kulturkampf for the State is that all ques- tions of internal administration are decided from the point of view whether the Cathohc party will be strengthened or not. A remodelhng of the administration of districts and provinces was acknowledged as necessary, yet the laws enacted for the Eastern provinces were withheld from the Western, because there the elections would be earned by the Ultramontanes. The decentralisation of the general administration is highly desirable, but is de- layed, because the central government cannot part with the power of vigorously subduing Ultramontane tenden- cies. The long-asked-for law of public instruction does not make its appearance because the school-boards to be elected would be opposed to the Government in Catholic districts. Can it be said that such a condition of internal affairs makes the State strong ? Can the same be said if complications in the foreign policy should force the Government to act ? However, in spite of all this, Ultramontanism never can, and never will be victorious in this struggle. There can never be any question of a return to the status quo ante, because that status itself was wrong. Nor can any hopes be entertained of a formal understanding with a power whose head ventures openly to declare State laws to be null and void. The day of Concordats is past ; the State that undertakes to remodel its relations with the Church can make the limits of its interference coexten- sive only with the boundaries of its sovereign power. Everything depends on this, that the State, in so doing, should understand to fix the right measure of its action. Should the Government in Prussia abandon the wrong principles contained in the May laws, and restrict itself to steadfastly guarding the sovereign rights of the State, then the clergy must practically succumb, since by persevering ITS DISADVANTAGES TO THE GOVERNMENT. 531 XXVI. iu resistance they would no longer have the Catholic chai; people at their back. But for the State this would be no more a retreat, than it would be for a general to abandon an untenable position in order to exchange it for one of impregnable defence. The defeat which represents a change of system does not threaten the State, but only the special policy that has been adopted. Yet even when statesmen have succeeded in regulating the relations with the Church upon firm defensive principles, they ought not to overestimate the value of what they have attained. All that the modern State can do is to mark off the battle- field for that great struggle between behef and unbelief, which, according to Goethe, is the pecuhar, sole, and profoundest theme in the history of the world and of mankind ; besides this, it can certainly advance the victory of truth in so far as it assists in disseminating true culture and patriotism. But the kernel of the struggle hes be- yond the power of the State, just because Church and State occupy different territories of dominion. 'You cannot,' says Luther, ' smite a spirit with the sword ' : false ideas are only to be vanquished by true ones ; and Eome will only be conquered by the liberty of the Gospel. THE END. LONDON : PniNTED UT SPOTTISWOODE ASD CO., SEW-STKEET b(JCABE AMI PAKLIAMEST SIHEET ir ,c \ DATE DUE iiiiiliJIIL. ,!.1'||!i if 1! iff' n'^i^i ! ! H 111