Religious thought in Germany, reprinted by permission from "The Times."

KELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN
GEEMANY.

V

Ill

RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN
GERMANY.

EEPEINTED BY PEEMISSION FEOM "THE TIMES."

(qci

LONDON :

TINSLEY BROTHERS, 18, CATHERINE ST., STRAND.

1870.

LONDON :
BRADBURY, EVANS, AND CO.. PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

s

J

PREFATOBY NOTE.

The following sketches were originally published
in " The Times/' They have been carefully revised,
and augmented by material additions. Eeference in
some of them being made to the Letters to the
Editor elicited by this Correspondence, the authors
of these communications will kindly excuse the
appended reprint of their valuable comments.

Berlin, May 26, 1870.

V

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE SCHLE1ERMACHER CENTENARY ... 1

II. — Church and School in Prussia .

III. — Anti-Syllabus Meeting ....

IV. — An Assassin in the Berlin Cathedral

V. — The Prussian Clergy ....

VI. — A Berlin Convent .....

VII. — The German Protestant Association

VIII. — The Berlin Convent .....

IX. — Protestant Association Meeting. — I.

X. — Protestant Association Meeting. — II.

XI. — The Humboldt Centenary

XII. — A Day of Prayer and Humiliation

XIII. — The Prussian Government and the Estab
lished Church .....

XIV. — The Schools and the Established Church .

XV.— The Synods

XVI. — The Trial of Carl Biland ....

XVII. — The Luther Monument at Worms .

XVIII. — The CEcumenical Council ....

9

18

21

33

44

58

81

92

101

109

123

125.
135
146
152

158
169

Vlll

CHAPTER
XIX.

Contents.

PAGE

•Episcopal Heretics 175

XX.— The German Bishops and the (Ecumenical

Councii 178

XXT. — German Objections to Infallibility as Ad-
vocated by the Spanish, Italian, and
Oriental Bishops . . . . . .189

XXII. — More German Objections to Infallibility . 205

XXIII. — The Freemasons and the OEcumenical Council 214

XXIV. — An Anti-Papal Movement .... 222

XXV. — German Bishops commenting upon the Reli-
gious Movement . . . . . . 229

XXVI. — Rationalism, Catholicism, and the Pope . 236

XXVIL— Prussia and. the Pope . . . . . 242

XXVIII. — Probable Results of the Council . . 246

XXIX.— Coming to Terms 253

XXX. — The Bavarian Ultramontanes. — I. . .260

XXXI. — The Bavarian Ultramontanes. —II. . . . 266

XXXII. — Increasing Opposition 273

XXXIII.— Latest Aspects 280

Appendix : —

A. — Letters to the Editor, touching the State op the Pro-
testant Church in Germany ..... 287

B. — Documents relating to the (Ecumenical Council . . 305

LETTERS ON THE STATE OF
RELIGION IN GERMANY.

CHAPTER I.

THE SCHLEIERMACHER CENTENARY.

In all the capitals and universities of Germany the
centenary of Schleierraacher's birthday has been cele-
brated by speeches, liturgies, and the performance of
sacred music. The solemnities, originating with what
may be called the moderate Liberal party in the
cause of religious reform, were equally disapproved
by the orthodox and the Anti-Christians ; the former
of whom protested against, while the latter contented
themselves with ignoring, the proceedings. This con-
troversy between the believers and latitudinarians, as
well as the significant silence observed by the avowed
inf '.els, alike illustrate the religious condition of the
coir 'try. Schleiermacher, whose theological teachings
were dominant at Berlin in the first quarter of this

The State of Religion in Germany.

century, was a man of superior and varied talents,
who, if lie had not become an eminent preacher, would
have equally excelled as a poet, a scholar, and, perhaps,
as a minister of state. In fact, in two of these capa-
cities he distinguished himself even while devoted to
the service of the church, being one of the most
elegant philologists and accomplished philosophical
and miscellaneous writers of his day. As a clergyman,
his searching mind, combined with a deep and devout
religious sentiment, made him the founder of a new
school of divines. Yearning for some indissoluble tie
to bind him to the invisible world, still too deeply
imbued with the sceptical lore of his country to accept
the literal inspiration of Holy Writ, he endeavoured to
effect a compromise between the two as yet irrecon-
cileable extremes of rationalism and belief. In this,
it is true, he only did what so many attempted before,
and indeed simultaneously with, him. If he, never-
theless, acquired a loftier position than any of his
like-minded cotemporaries, he was indebted for it not
only to his immense talent, which would have com-
manded attention under any circumstances, but also
to his differing from other leading ecclesiastics in one
particular and most important trait of his intellectual
character. The great feature in the man was the

The Schleiermaeher Centenary. 3

reluctance he felt, at least, in some periods of his life,
to pronounce peremptorily on the things of the other
world. Had he had to deal with matters of mere
mundane interest, his want of decision might have
been thought a fault ; — in a question of such tran-
scendental magnitude, and which was then even more
unsettled than now, his halting appeared to his coun-
trymen as incontrovertible proof of modesty, honesty,
and singleness of heart. In all that concerned the
dogma he never concealed that he wished to be
looked upon as an humble seeker after truth. Neither
praising nor condemning other more assured minds,
he avowed his inability to understand, yet ever ac-
knowledged his duty to adore, the Divine. His very
first pamphlet indicated the mediatory office he had
taken upon himself. Though written in a spirit or-
thodox people now-a-days regard as heretical, it was
expressly composed to convince the heretics of the last
century of the necessity of religious faith. In after
life he became more orthodox, though not without
relapsing, every now and then, into trains of thought
to be understood only if interpreted as in keeping
with the predominant liberal convictions of his earlier
days. He died a sincere believer, praying to have the
Lord's Supper administered, and admitting that it was

B 2

The State of Religion in Germany.

only through the blood of Christ that he could hope to
enter heaven. This occurred some thirty years ago ;
and in the political turmoil which has since super-
vened, his memory has been all but effaced from the
mind of the masses. Only a small circle, and they
highly cultivated men, have never ceased cherishing his
name. Holding the opinions propounded by him in
the more liberal stage of his life, and wishing to preserve
to their countrymen the theistic principles inherent in
Christianity, these champions of Schleiermacher have
always regarded him as the forerunner of a coining
ideal renovation of the Church. The very fact of his
adhering to different views in different stages of his
religious life, made him the more fit to be set up as
an intellectual leader and prototype by the moderate
rationalists of the present day. Men, who are opposed
to the ancient teaching of the Church, yet have
omitted to develop a new and consistent rule of
belief, naturally look up to one whose name is iden-
tified with a tendency rather than a system. Of the
opportunity afforded by the centenary of his birthday
they, accordingly, availed themselves to place his
career again before the public, and make converts
t«» liis general principles. Besides publishing upwards
of thirty books, some of them pamphlets, others volu-

The Schleiermacher Centenary.

urinous biographies of their revered teacher, they
arranged festal meetings in the more important
towns, representing him everywhere as the apostle of
a liberal, yet religious, creed, and one of the greatest
thinkers of the asre.

To these proceedings the orthodox demurred for a
variety of reasons. In the first place, they denied the
latitudinarians had any right to regard Schleiermacher
as their own, asserting him to have been orthodox
rather than otherwise. They also denounced the
commemoration as an attempt of the few avowed
rationalists among the clergy to extol infidelity under
the pretext of doing homage to a defunct genius.
And they, therefore, cautioned the ecclesiastical autho-
rities against taking part in, or lending their counte-
nance to, an ovation neither worthy of the man it was
destined to celebrate, nor calculated to exercise a bene-
ficial influence on the public mind.

But the Liberals retorted that the orthodox only
objected to the commemoration, because, while unable
to deny the intellectual eminence and sincere religious
devotion of Schleiermacher, they were yet convinced
in their heart of hearts, that the man was a
latitudinarian rather than one of themselves. In
any case, the Liberals were not to be diverted from

The State of Religion in German//.

their object by orthodox criticisms. Zealously con-
tinuing their preparations, they asked in Berlin, and,
I believe, in some other cities, too, for the churches to
be thrown open on a week-day, for the contemplated
solemnities. Stout refusals being repeatedly given
them by the church authorities, they threatened to
petition the king, when the Supreme Ecclesiastical
Board, dreading to appear to be opposing not only
Schleiermacher's friends, but the memory of the great
divine himself, at length gave in, and placed the
sacred edifices at their disposal. We have, consequently,
had solemn celebrations in the churches, consisting of
sermons and hymns, and less ceremonial ones out of
the churches, in halls, and private localities, where
speeches were delivered, and opinions exchanged, on
subjects, religious and political, connected with the
life of the eminent clergyman. At the Berlin meeting
many of the most renowned followers of Schleiermacher
assembled from all parts of Germany to address a
numerous and select audience on the merits of their
spiritual predecessor. It was really an imposing
spectacle to witness, and was sensibly felt to be so
by most present, Yet, if it be asked whether it will
produce any lasting effects, it would be impossible to
answer this question in the affirmative. The truth is,

The Schleiermacher Centenary.

that the majority of the audience, as, indeed, the
majority of the educated in Germany, hold more
extreme opinions than even the most advanced among
the ministers of the Church, who conducted the
solemnity, and their small retinue of moderate ra-
tionalists. Before they can acquire an interest in
such a man as Schleiermacher, the cultivated classes
of this country must be won back to the consciousness
that religion is a blessing in itself, and that though
its ancient forms may not be entirely in unison with
the scientific and intellectual development of the era,
yet enough of the truth remains to make the kernel
worth having when stripped of its shell. Had not
the men who arranged the jubilee been eminent in
themselves, and were it not considered a gracious
and becoming thing to do homage to departed intel-
lectual heroes, it is probable that the public would
have taken very little interest in the occasion. In-
deed, even as it was, a large portion held back, on the
ground that Schleiermacher, after all, was but a clergy-
man, though, perhaps, a shade less bigoted than his
brethren.

The Crown Prince and Crown Princess, who are
now staying on your side the Channel, evinced their
sympathy in the event by addressing the following

The State of Religion in Germany.

telegram to the Burgomaster and Town Council of
Berlin : —

"Away from home, we desire to give the Burgo-
master and Town Council a proof of our sympathy in
the celebrations of this day. The name of Schleier-
macher, a man who resuscitated the dormant energies
of the Church, and gloriously shared in the revival of
patriotic enthusiasm at a time of sore trial [1806-1813],
deserves to be had in everlasting remembrance by our

people.

"Friedrich Wilhelm.

" Victoria.

" Windsor, November 21, 1868."

This telegram was joyfully received, and is regarded
as a most gratifying proof that the interests of the
Church and intellectual enlightenment, which, in a
healthy state of society, should be identical, are equally
cherished by the heir and heiress to the throne.

Berlin, November 28, 18G8.

CHAPTER II.

CHURCH AND SCHOOL IN PRUSSIA.

" Once upon a time there was a boy named Vitus.
He was a good boy, and used to say his prayers
every morning as soon as he got up. One morning
he forgot to do so, and ran off to school without
thinking about it. On the stairs he slipped, fell, and
hurt himself. He picked himself up again, and while
passing a butcher's shop was again precipitated to
the ground by the butcher's dog. An old woman
who saw the mishap helped him up, and told him to
leave off crying. ' I am sure,' she added, ' you have
not said your prayers this morning. Take my advice,
go home, undress, go to bed again, say your prayers,
and then go to school.' The boy did as he was bid,
and when making his way to school for the second
time met with no accident. Never after did he
forget to say his prayers before leaving his bed."

Thus runs a story in a Primer which the Prussian
Minister of Ecclesiastical and Educational Affairs

lo The State of Religion in Germany.

has recently forced upon the elementary schools in
Hanover. The outcry raised by the inhabitants of
the new province at having the doctrine of miraculous
interference thus inculcated in the youthful mind
eventually induced his Excellency to modify the
order introducing the objectionable book into the
schools. Still, numerous books conceived in a similar
spirit remain.

" Almighty God, I am content to remain the dog I
am. I am a dog, a despicable dog. I am conscious
of revelling in sin, and there is no infamy in which I
do not indulge. My anger and quarrelling are like a
dog's. My envy and hatred are like a dog's. My
abuse and snappishness are like a dog's. My robbing
and devouring are like a dog's. Nay, when I come
to reflect upon it, I cannot but own that in very many
things I behave worse than the dogs themselves."

So commences a hymn in a church hymn-book
recently forced by the same Minister upon certain
Protestant congregations in the old provinces of
Prussia. And this specimen of its contents is by no
means the worst that might be cited. There are some,
in fact, too gross to be reprinted. It was only when
some of the congregations so treated by the Minister
threatened to give up church-going altogether, that

Church and School in Prussia. 11

the book was withdrawn in their case. Others, more
indifferent to what they are made to sing, continue
to assert their canine propensities in the sacred edifice.

The number of those attending Divine service is,
now-a-days, too small in Prussia to admit of any
injunction of the ecclesiastical authorities, however
opposed to the feelings of the laity, easily giving rise
to a popular movement. The teachings, also, which
Protestant parents in this country impress upon their
children, as to the manner in which the world is
governed, are too universally accepted by public
opinion to make them care for anything to the con-
trary that may be told their offspring in the schools.
There are, indeed, plenty of orthodox individuals —
nay, even some orthodox districts — to be found in
Prussia ; but the vast majority of the Protestant
middle classes, and even a large portion of the lower
strata of society, are estranged from the religion of
their ancestors, and take no interest in the Church or
the religious lessons thrust upon the schools by Church
and G-overnment combined.

If, .notwithstanding this prevailing indifference, an
attempt at earnest opposition has been recently made
in Parliament, in meetings, and the Press, to the
ecclesiastical authorities, this is mainly owing to the

12 The State of Religion in Germany.

resolute disregard of public opinion with which
orthodox tendencies are being pursued by the Minister
and his associates. It is a remarkable fact, that the
more rampant unbelief has become among the people,
the more strictly is belief professed by the leaders of
the Church. Within the last twenty years this con-
trast has annually increased ; and, little as the people
suffer from it individually, they regard the latest
attitude of the Church as an implied affront. It is
true the doctrines with which the children, by order
of the Government, are imbued in church and school
do not, in this second half of the 19th century, sink
very deep into the intellectual system ; yet the parents
are shocked at seeing their progeny made to learn by
heart that for which they themselves have long lost
all taste and appreciation. There is another and even
worse circumstance connected with the present regime.
Many of the parents cannot bring themselves to be-
lieve that the clergy and teachers believe what they
teach. People are ready to admit that there may be
some religious enthusiasts adhering to what are now-
a-days regarded as antiquated notions ; but they refuse
to believe that, as a whole, the clergy and teachers of
the present day, whose actions apparently proceed
Prom the .same motives as those of the common herd,

Church and School in Prussia. 13

can hold different opinions from themselves concerning
the relation between God and man. They are the
more prone to doubt the sincerity of the professions
made by the clergy, remembering as they do that?
from 1815 to 1840, when the Government was virtually
latitudinarian, a very large proportion of the pastors
were likewise lax in their views. They, therefore, may
be frequently heard ascribing the change of opinion
which has lately occurred in the Church to the cir-
cumstance that those who serve at the altar are depen-
dent upon those who represent the occupant of the
throne. Were there anything wanting to confirm
them in this malicious imputation, it would be sup-
ported by the coincidence, often animadverted upon,
that the orthodox majority of the clergy in politics
invariably count among the unquestioning supporters
of the Government. In the eyes of the public there
is a direct connexion observable between Conservatism
and orthodoxy. Government have become orthodox
since the beginning of the struggle for constitutional
rights ; the preachers turned Conservative at about
the same period. Hence, it is irreverently inferred
that the political and religious movement going on
among the laity has cemented an alliance between
those whose interests seem to require that the ancient

14

The State of Religion in Germany.

forms of subordination to God and the powers that be
should be maintained. I need not add that the con-
clusions drawn from this are equally prejudicial to
both Government and clergy.

But, notwithstanding their prevalence, these asper-
sions on the character of a considerable portion of the
clergy are false. To those who have had opportunities
of becoming acquainted with the reasonings and feel-
ings of the parties accused, their conduct appears in a
more favourable light than popular disparagement will
have it. Latitudinarian prejudice may be unable to
understand the existence of faith in others, but this is
no reason why the faith should not exist. There may,
indeed, be hypocrites among the clergy, desecrating
religion from a divine into a political instrument. There
may be some fighting on the ecclesiastical side who
meet latitudinarian antagonism with intrigue, asperity,
or haughty contempt of the intellectual attainments of
a civilized age. Others, again, attached to canine poetry,
may be unable to distinguish between the coarse taste
of the seventeenth century — when those hymns were
composed — and the more delicate refinement which has
since penetrated even to the lower sections of society.
But the majority of the pastors are actuated by nobler
motives. Loose as their notions may have been thirty

Church and School in Prussia. 15

years ago, their conversion is not the less sincere be-
cause it sprung from the terror they eventually ex-
perienced at the lengths to which latitudinarianism
went. The revival of the ancient convictions in the
Church is simply the consequence of the luxuriant
growth of opposite notions in the laity. The preachers
who in Protestant Germany were dragged along by the
current of popular opinion from 1740 to 1840 were
frightened at last to see how far they had been led,
and saved themselves by swimming to the shore. The
stream had carried them to a cataract, and they effected
their escape just in time. Slowly, but surely, advanc-
ing in its self-assigned course, public opinion, from
impugning the truth of Biblical History, had come to
deny by degrees the necessity, the probability, and the
possibility of miracles. It now has reached the extent
of negativing the efficacy of prayer, and with it the
interference of the Almighty in the course of events.
It would be useless to waste words on the deep and
terrible chasm which this daring assumption creates
between the convictions of the present and past. It
would lead us also too far to enumerate the reasons
alleged to prove that a rational contemplation of the
universe as well as a sublime notion of God's nature
equally forbid us to believe in His intervention in the

1G The State of Religion in Germany.

daily occurrences of life. But one thing is certain.
Were Germany destined to see the notions current
a mono- her educated classes accepted by Church and
School, this would involve an intellectual revolution of
an audacity and comprehensiveness never before wit-
nessed in the world. It would imply the assertion,
that whatever may be in store for us in another world,
man is supreme in this. It would be the resolve to
order this world by the light of reason alone. Suppose
these tenets to be recognized by the established powers,
to -whom is confided the care of political, religious, and
intellectual interests, will there be many left to acknow-
ledge the existence of a Divinity and a world to come?
True, the existence of a Divinity and a world to come
are not necessarily denied even by those assuming that
the One has laid down once for all the laws by which
the world is governed, and that the other is a sealed
book; but the line separating the modern convictions
of the Germans from even more extreme views is such
a delicate thread that many among the more moderate
latitudinarians can realize the emotions with which
the orthodox party look upon the whole thing. And
in a tightly-governed country like this, who can wonder
that the Government should attempt to stem the tide
the course of which it disapproves, and the ultimate

CI lurch and School in Prussia. 17

issue of which it fears ? For the present, however, its
exertions are as vain as they are easily accounted for.
Amid the deafening din of politics, the latitudinarian
stream flows silently on, threatening some day to
inundate its banks, and change the face of the land
more effectually than could be done by any merely
political revolution.

Berlin, March 5, 1869.

CHAPTER III.

ANTI-SYLLABUS MEETING.*

At Worms, the city where Luther, centuries ago,
made a solemn declaration of faith, three hundred
delegates from the Protestant Societies of Germany
have met to vote an uncompromising protest against
the Pope, his syllabus, and his endeavours to enforce
his antiquated pretensions at the coming (Ecumenic
Council. The resolutions passed by the assembled
three hundred are as strong as they well can be, de-
nouncing in beautifully direct language all hierarchical
aspirations, and exposing the demonstrative and not
very charitable spirit that has lately manifested itself
at Rome. They call the Jesuits the eternal enemies of
intellectual culture and progress, represent them as the
now dominant party in the Catholic Church, and solicit
the assistance of all Germans, both Catholics and Pro-
testants, to wage war against an institution so opposed
to the best feelings of the nation and the enlightened

* A translation of tho Syllabus is given in the Appendix.

Anti-Syllabus Meeting. 19

spirit of the age. No less than twenty thousand people
were present at the solemn announcement of these
modern theses in the market-place of Worms. Loud
was their applause, and full and joyous the chorus that
sang Luther's " Feste Bum " at the close of the cere-
mony. There is, indeed, no doubt that the immense
majority of educated men in this part of the Continent
heartily concur in the principles enunciated by the
meeting. Yet properly to estimate the degree of im-
portance attaching to this public display, it may be as
well to observe that of the twenty thousand spectators
present but a minimum thought it worth their while
to join the Protestant societies there represented. In
the eyes of the people these societies have one great
shortcoming. They are distinct enough in what they
repudiate, being implacable in their antagonism to the
dogmatic views advocated by the Protestant and other
Christian Churches ; but they are less definite in what
they affirm. Indeed, beyond recommending the lofty
moral principles inherent in Christianity, they leave
their members very much to find out for themselves
what to believe and what to reject on the great ques-
tions of Providence, prayer, immortality, &c. The
reason of this singular reticence is probably a wish

not to deter any latitudinarians from joining however

c 2

20

The State of Religion in Germany.

\J

different their opinions may be on the all-important
topics just alluded to ; but, instead of effecting this
comprehensive object, they have missed their aim
entirely. It seems that a creed which does not shock
some, lacks the power to attract others. What the
people really want is not an outcry against the Pope,
but to have their own religious doubts set at rest by
some powerful mind, pious and at the same time en-
lightened. Educated men may not even require this,
at least not consciously, being either too indifferent on
the subject, or else devising some novel system for
themselves ; but the masses are yearning for some one
to restore the faith they have lost, or to teach a new,
and to them more acceptable, form of belief.

Berlin, June 2, 18G9.

CHAPTER IV.

AN ASSASSIN IN THE BERLIN CATHEDRAL.

"I believe in God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Ghost,"

" You lie ! "

A shot, a cry, general commotion.

On Sunday, August 8, in the presence of a numerous
congregation, this sacrilegious scene was enacted in the
Cathedral Church of Berlin. The Rev. H. Heinrici
was standing before the altar, reciting the Belief, when
a young man, rising from a front seat and interrupting
the clergyman, gave him the lie, and at once dis-
charged a pistol at his breast. The next moment he
was in the hands of the sexton, and quietly suffered
himself to be led away to the vestry. A portion of
the congregation, seated at a distance, having heard
the report and seen the curling smoke, without any
definite notion of what was going on, immediately
began to move towards the door, and created consider-
able tumult ; but those near the altar, who had been

22 The State of Religion in Germany.

witnesses of the daring attempt, retained their seats.
In preserving their composure they but imitated the
noble example of the clergyman whose life had just
been placed in such jeopardy. The Eev. H. Heinrici
■was unhurt ; nor had the moral firmness of the man
whose body the ball had missed been shaken. No
sooner had the trying interlude, the details of which
seem to have been observed with terrible distinct-
ness by those near, come to an end than the in-
tended victim calmly resumed reading the Creed,
and with redoubled fervour proclaimed that Belief
the utterance of which had imperilled his life. After
this the service was continued in accordance with
the prescribed ritual. The Eev. H. Heinrici left the
altar, when the Eev. Dr. Kogel ascended the pulpit
and preached a sermon, in which he introduced a
passage expressive of his thanks to God for the
miraculous escape of his clerical brother. Quiet had
been speedily restored, and the greater portion of
the congregation, agitated as they were by the most
powerful emotions, left the church only after the final
benediction.

In the meantime the criminal had been conducted
by a policeman to the nearest station, and examined
by a superior officer. To all the questions put to him

An Assassin in the Berlin Cathedral. 23

lie replied with the utmost frankness and composure.
He said : —

" My name is Biland. I am nineteen years of age,
a Protestant, and the son of a blacksmith, in the
village of Lank, county of Lower Barnim, a few miles
from Berlin. My parents sent me to a grammar-
school, wishing me to become a candidate for the
ministry in the Established Church. But my eyes
were soon opened to the falsehood of the creed I was
expected some day to teach, and my dislike was
increased to disgust when I perceived that many of
those professing to believe it were liars at heart. I
refused to pursue a career which had become so
hateful to me, and resisted all attempts of my parents
to force me to persevere. Eventually I saw myself left
by them to my own devices, and began to study art —
the dramatic art, I mean. I wished to become an
actor and to preach to the public in my own way ; but
the religious mendacity rampant around me gave me
no rest. Some I saw uttering deliberate untruths,
while others, knowing them to be such, listened with
contemptuous indifference. Gradually I taught myself
that some striking deed was indispensable to rouse the
public mind from its apathy and chase away the mists
of superstition. I, therefore, determined to .seize the

24 The State of Religion in Germany.

first favourable opportunity that offered for shooting a
clergyman while in the act of uttering his accursed
perjuries. I have done it. I cast the ball myself and
have done my best to render the shot fatal. I am
sound in body and mind, and scorn the suggestion
that I have acted under the disturbing influence of
temporary insanity. I perfectly knew what I was
about, and am convinced there are many able to
comprehend the disinterestedness of my purpose,
though they may, perhaps, not approve the method
chosen to compass it. My design was to shoot Mr.
Heinrici, and I was prepared to pay the penalty of
the deed."

Such in substance was the statement of the reckless,
misguided young man. Inquiries seem fully to con-
firm his words. His having missed at a distance of
three paces at first gave rise to the surmise that he
had fired with blank cartridge ; but it is only too true
that there was a ball in the barrel. The course of the
ball has been exactly traced. Passing within an inch
of the clergyman's head, it penetrated the open
balustrade of the gallery, in which the Dom Chor —
celebrated for its vocal performances — was stationed,
;ii id grazed the cheek of one of the choristers, a boy of
twelve. The little fellow, although his cheek instantly

An Assassin in the Berlin Cathedral. 25

began to swell, did not leave the church, but sang his
allotted part to the end. The Prince Admiral Adal-
bert, the only member of the Koyal family present,
when the service was over, hastened to express his
sympathy to the two clergymen and the little chorister
boy.

The event throws a light upon the sad state of
religion in this country. I am afraid the prisoner was
right in supposing that many will appreciate his motive,
though they will abhor the deed. I have previously
stated in these columns that the majority of educated
men in Germany are estranged from the dogmatic
teaching of the Christian creed — estranged from it to
the extent of disbelieving the sincerity of many of the
clergy. Only a small fraction of the nation attends
Divine service ; of the educated, more especially, those
met with in church on a Sunday are few and far be-
tween. To give you a characteristic instance : A few
days ago, in a famous watering-place, I was in a church
listening to a clergyman lamenting the frivolity of
those who hoped to be benefited by the medicinal
waters, and yet neglected to attend Divine service and
pray for a blessing. The intention of the censorious
preacher was certainly a praiseworthy one ; the more
the pity that so few were there to profit by it. Out

26 The State of Religion in Germany.

of the 1,800 visitors recorded in the Kurliste, but five
men and twenty of the gentler sex had cared to come,
the rest of the congregation consisting of natives.

It is true there is a sprinkling of believers left in
every part of the country, and there are whole districts
in which Protestant or Catholic orthodoxy may be
said to prevail to this day. But these are exceptions
— rari nantes in gurgite vasto. The Wupperthal, on
the borders of Westphalia, is a tower of Lutheranism ;
the adjoining Miinsterland is more Catholic than
Rome itself ; but who expects belief on the gay Rhine
or in latitudinarian Brunswick, although situate in
such close propinquity to these stricter localities 1
To take a broader view, who that knows modern
Germany will call it a Christian land, either in the
sense Rome gives to the term, or in the meaniug
Luther attached to it ? Roman Catholicism mainly
exists among women and in the lower classes ; and
the Augsburg Confession, to maintain which Germany
in the Thirty Years' War suffered herself to be cut to
pieces by Austria and Austria's allies, has long ceased
to be the authority it was, and, instead of the ada-
mantine foundation of public belief, is now-a-days a
mere ornamental decoration appended to the intel-
lectual status of the land. In whatever section of

Aii Assassin in the Berlin Cathedral. 27

society you may happen to move, there is the un-
deniable fact that the dogmatism of St. Athanasius
and the statutes of the Council of Nice have entirely
ceased to be a living power. Scholars have begun
to denominate Christianity an Asiatic religion, and the
public, proud of their vaunted European enlighten-
ment, accept the degrading name.

And yet there is nothing like a religious movement
going on in the country. Though Christianity is
denied, no pains are taken to prove the why or
wherefore. Latitudinarian sects are sometimes at-
tempted to be formed, but soon abandoned and con-
signed to oblivion as idle and superfluous. The truth
is that the majority of the educated, in their insidious
march towards nationalism, have advanced beyond
acknowledging the necessity of any creed. Not
content with rejecting the Bible, whose dogmas they
regard as entirely exploded by the moral, historical,
and scientific criticisms of the day, they have begun
to doubt whether any teaching on transcendental
subjects can be required to promote virtue. Most,
indeed, profess to believe in God and immortality ;
but if you examine their opinions more closely, you
will easily discover they have but confused notions on
the relations between the Creator and mankind, and

28 The State of Religion in Germany.

even deny or ignore the duty of aspiring to a more
definite knowledge on the subject. Others, more
daring in their conclusions, or coarser in their feelings,
go the length of questioning the possibility of God's
interfering with the self-supporting machinery of the
world, look upon prayer as a Pagan rite, and some-
times become so irrational as to consider the very
existence of a God as problematical. By the side of
these cultivated infidels the masses vegetate in tra-
ditional attachment to the forms of Christianity with-
out any warm interest for or against the dogma. To
crown all, the Government force the children of all
parties alike to learn the Catechism by heart, and in
proportion to the spread of infidelity are intent upon
cramming the youthful mind with texts and hymns.
Yet the scriptural antidote is so unavailing to stem
the progress of the tide that people do not even think
it worth their while to remonstrate against it. In the
present intellectual atmosphere of the country they are
pretty certain that a boy of fifteen disbelieves the
texts he has been compelled to learn at ten. There is
a strong and growing impression, that the Christian
creed has become too obsolete for anyone to take the
trouble of warring against it. Men smile at the vain
endeavours of the Protestant Governments of the

An Assassin in the Berlin Cathedral. 29

country to inculcate orthodoxy, and are rather amused
than otherwise by the zeal of the Catholic priesthood
to establish convents in Lutheran localities — nay, in
Berlin itself. They will not condescend so much as to
form an estimate of the mental condition of a Popish
priest ; while as to the Reformed clergy, they regard
some as enthusiasts, others as hypocrites, and the rest
as unreflecting dunces ; all equally destined to die out
in a couple of generations. In this latter expectation
they are confirmed by the fact that, although the
majority of those embracing the ministry have recently,
from sheer terror of the growth of Atheism, begun to
be severe dogmatists, there is not always the requisite
number coming forward to fill up vacancies. Even
the sons of the lower classes, who in these days of
decay in the Church supply a very large portion of its
beneficed members, are not always numerously enough
attracted by college stipends and lenient examinations
to satisfy the demand. To many of the laity, there-
fore, Biland's deed will appear an insane attempt to
effect what, in the natural course of things, will come
of itself.

It cannot, however, with fairness be asserted that
this lamentable state of things has rendered the Ger-
mans less moral than other more orthodox nations.

30 The State of Religion in Germany.

The excellence of the Christian moral doctrine remains
imimpugned. Though the fear of condign punishment
in the world to come has sensibly diminished, a sort of
aesthetic recognition of the beauty of the Good among
the educated aids in inculcating the appreciation of
Duty. In the lower strata of society the simplicity
and openness of the national character, together with
the universality of elementary instruction, contribute
to make the lack of more exalted, motives of action
less sensibly felt. Honour and honesty are as much
respected as ever, and the criminal statistics continue
to give favourable evidence of the condition of public
morals. The rabble of the large cities, however, a
class which from its nature is not very apt to succumb
to aesthetic qualms, or to obey the behests of decency
under the present dispensation, has become uncommonly
coarse, unscrupulous, and blackguardly. Prussia has
fewer crimes to chronicle than England, but the Berlin
rate of illegal sin is comparatively higher than that
of London.

It remains for me to add a line concerning a class,
numerically small, but to which an important part will
be, perhaps, allotted in the needful work of paving the
way for the removal of the existing spiritual anarchy.
A small fraction of cultivated minds view with sorrow

An Assassin in the Berlin Cathedral. 31

the absence of definite religious convictions in the
people. This minority — a scattered flock, who feel in
unison, but have not as yet sufficiently developed their
principles to proceed to action — endorse the notions
of the majority respecting the alleged inadequacy
of the ancient creeds ; but they are persuaded that
human reason suffices to establish those religious
axioms they suppose to be required for the safe
guidance of our career on earth. They consider it a
grave duty to make this loftiest use of our reasoning
faculties, and see no happiness for mankind unless this
primary obligation be satisfied. They believe in God,
hope for immortality, and, though contending that no
revelation is or ever was required, to render man pious
and good this side of the grave, yet readily acknow-
ledge their inability to form an adequate estimate of
our condition in a future state. It appears, however,
that the men, who may be numbered among this
class, are not agreed on the vital questions of per-
sonal responsibility and the power of prayer. They
seem to anticipate that the solution of these alleged
problems will give the signal for a new religious era
and the foundation of the Germanic Church of the
future. Pending this desired consummation, the
earnestness of their reverential feelings, manifested

32 The State of Religion in Germany.

in many scholarly and popular books, lias had this
beneficial influence on the general tone of the public
mind, that Christ, though no longer regarded as a
person in the Trinity, is recognized universally as the
most sublime moral phenomenon in the history of
mankind. As a rule, I believe, those advocating these
opinions may be set down as members or, to a certain
extent, friends of the Protestant Association, of which
more anon.

Berlin, August 11, 18G9.

CHAPTER V.

THE PRUSSIAN CLERGY.

No more characteristic symptom of the prevailing
indifference to anything connected with religion could
be adduced than the absence of any excitement in
consequence of young Biland's attempt to shoot a
clergyman for repeating the Creed. In most papers
the event is treated as any other common-place crime
would be. A brief report, a few additional facts the
day after, and the matter is dismissed. What besides
has been printed on that terrible incident limits itself
to a few lines in a couple of papers. One Conservative
journal improves the occasion to charge the latitu-
dinarian majority of the people with the preposterous
design of outlawing their pastors ; another denounces
the constitutional propensities of the times as the real
cause of murder, disbelief, and every other description
of wickedness. The Liberal organs preserve an all but
absolute silence. The more moderate, while they have
no wish to uphold the Creed, yet feel a certain delicacy
in attacking it at the moment of one of its professors

34 The State of Religion in Germany.

beino- shot at : the coarser and more extreme ones are
partly gagged by the fear of the public prosecutor, and
partly look upon the occurrence as too miserably in-
significant to deserve a leader. Being religious, or
rather irreligious, in its origin, it in their eyes belongs
to the category of obsolete antiquities, concerning which
it does not become a rational being to waste a word.
All that has been elicited from this portion of the Press
is a significant anecdote indicative of their contempt
of the clergy as well as of those who think it worth
their while to annihilate them. A butcher, they tell
you, a genuine Berliner, who had not for many years
seen the inside of a church, happened to be in the
Cathedral on the Sunday of the attempt. The reason
for his appearance was to show the building to a friend
from the country. As he was at some distance from
the altar he heard the report of the pistol, but did not
see who fired it. Amazed at this strange accompani-
ment to the Liturgy, he exclaimed, " That's a new
dodge, I declare. When I was a boy they never fired
guns when the Creed was said." The point of the anec-
dote is the representing the man as having had time
to forget the arrangements of the service so utterly as
to be capable of conceiving the monstrosity of pistol
accompaniment as possible. A pretty joke, is it not ?

The Prussian Clergy. 35

To a certain extent the antipathy to the Church,
which comes out in this story, is induced by the atti-
tude of the clergy itself. After vainly endeavouring
for some eighty years to come to an understanding
with the progressive latitudinarianism of the age, the
Protestant clergymen of Germany have at last become
very orthodox. Upon the political movement of 1848
extending to religion, and imparting a daring deter-
mination to those rationalistic tendencies which had
long been entertained in a feebler degree, the clergy
perceived that, unless they were prepared to surrender
unconditionally, nothing remained for them but stead-
fast resistance. Then the majority turned with new
fervour to the ancient faith, and, by this unanimous
move, have since exercised a powerful influence upon
the opinions of young candidates for office ; the ra-
tionalistic pastors who remain are few, and are nearly
all men well stricken in years. This general change
in the clergy did not, however, at first become very
perceptible to the public. As formerly, most of the
working rectors and curates were satisfied with ascend-
ing the pulpit once a week, and rating their con-
gregations soundly, taking good care on week-days to
comport themselves like ordinary mortals, and give no
offence to individual members. Their reserve was

D 2

36 The State of Religion in Germany.

facilitated by a German Protestant pastor not being
expected to visit his parishioners, and advise them
in their social and spiritual needs. In this country
an Evangelical minister preaches, christens, marries,
and buries, remaining all the while as utter a stranger
to his flock as any other government functionary
whose intercourse with the public is limited to busi-
ness transactions in his office. But recently a portion
of the orthodox clergy— a portion numerically small,
though for its activity and achievements important
— has distinguished itself by a more decided deport-
ment. It consists of the zealous, who deem it a sacred
duty to avow themselves at such a wicked time as the
present, and manfully fight against the cancer of
disbelief ; of the vehement, who have a constitutional
aptitude for scolding and threatening ; and of sundry
others, who may be described as disciplinarians, intent
upon asserting their position, even should they be
compelled to call in the aid of the secular power. In
their sermons all three categories oppose the spirit of
the age with an unrelenting harshness that confirms
outsiders in their favourite axiom of the incorrigibility
of the Church. They have gone the length of con-
demning the whole science of the century. They have
denounced as so many heretics Goethe, Schiller, and

The Prussian Clergy. 37

all the other leading classics, at once the pride and the
flower of the nation. One of them has recently scan-
dalised Berlin by asserting that the earth does not
turn round the sun, and calling the opposite notions
of a colleague a sign of disbelief: another considers
philosophy a dangerous kind of nonsense ; a third
accuses the Press generally of leading people on to per-
dition. What they all recommend as the only means
to save the erring souls of the community is that very
belief in miracles which public opinion rejects as fable.
In a people so mentally obstinate as the Germans the
antagonism of the opposing parties is thus whetted
until reconciliation seems impossible. Already things
have gone so far that men who have had a University
education scarcely dare go to church lest they be
taken for hypocrites or sentimental enthusiasts.

An even more marked impression than by their
sermons has been produced by the acts of some of
these members of the ecclesia militans. In Mecklen-
burg, where the ancient forms of orthodoxy prevail,
the clergy insist upon supplementing baptism by a
ceremony intended to exorcise the devil. The other
day a landed proprietor, having been blessed with an
addition to his family, petitioned the Grand Duke, in
his capacity of Summits Episcopus, to be released

38 The State of Religion in Germany.

from this antiquated rite. But no answer being
vouchsafed, the exorcisms were duly administered.
In the Prussian Established Church no regard is had
in christening to the alleged ability of the Evil One
to convey himself into the bodies of infants; yet
conflicts will sometimes occur even there — conflicts
which, though they are in reality called forth by the
conscientious scruples of the clergy, still strike the
public as studied impertinences. In Novaves, a village
near Potsdam, a weaver a fortnight ago presented his
child for baptism. The clergyman refused to perform
the ceremony unless the father at once repeated the
Creed. He had, he added, special reasons for doubting
the soundness of the father's belief, and would not admit
the infant within the pale of Christianity to be after-
wards brought up by a heretic. To this the weaver
replied that, as he was a rational being, he could not
be expected to recite the Creed ; in return the clergy-
man threatened that if the weaver did not submit he
would sue the proper Court for an order that the child,
as it had been born in the bosom of the Protestant
Church, should be also brought up by real Protestants.
In other words, he threatened to move for a decree
that the child should be taken from its father and
handed over for education to an orthodox guardian.

The Prussian Clergy. 39

What was the weaver to do ? Were he to accept the
challenge and go to law the case might be decided
against him, as the statutes do not seem to be very
lucid on this head. On the one hand, there is the
plain legal obligation of every Prussian to have his
infants received into some religious community. On
the other hand, it does not seem to be quite certain
whether a father belong-ino- to the Established Church
is entitled to have his child recorded in the registers
of another denomination as long as he himself is really
or nominally a Protestant. To extricate himself from
this dilemma in a way consistent with his views, the
objectionable parent had no other means than to join
a Free Congregation — a sort of religious, or rather
irreligious, sect, whose peculiarity it is to acknowledge
no Creed whatsoever. Accordingly he left the Church,
embraced the new disbelief, and thus secured for him-
self the rioht to have his child likewise enrolled in that
body. The story got into the papers, and even the
most moderate organs of the public press spoke with
indignation of the " intolerant priest." That, from the
ecclesiastical point of view, the clergyman might, per-
haps, have conscientiously doubted whether he was
entitled to leave a Christian child in a heretic's hands,
nobody will for a moment admit. In the present

40 The State of Religion in Germany.

aspect of religion the public simply deny the right of
any clergyman, in his actual official intercourse with
his parishioners, to carry out the commands and pro-
hibitions of that Creed which they permit him to em-
phasize as much as he likes while theorizing in the
pulpit. Nor can it be denied that their reasonings
are supported, and their claims encouraged by the ac-
commodating spirit evinced by the clergy as a whole.
A few hotspurs excepted, the whole host of the clergy
have not the remotest idea of imitating their brother
of Novaves, and preferring a demand which could not
become general without leading to serious consequences.
A more sensational story still occurred in Berlin not
so long ago. A bridal couple were standing before the
altar to be married. Unfortunately for them, the offi-
ciating clergyman had heard that the young people
would in a few weeks have again to request his
services at the baptismal font. In the speech with
which, according to custom, he opened the ceremony
he allowed himself to allude to the prospective event.
Then, becoming heated with his theme, he took upon
himself to enact the representative of an avenging
Deity, reprimanded the weeping bride, and wound up
by boxing her ears. Against this terrible affront the
bridegroom remonstrated with wonderful meekness.

The Prussian Clergy. 41

His one object being to be married, and by marriage
to repair the past, he said only a few exculpatory
words to the vituperative priest, and requested him to
proceed. Amid the tears of the ladies and the rage of
the gentlemen present the rite was accomplished. On
arriving at home the bride became ill and the follow-
ing day was delivered of a dead child. The thing got
wind and was discussed in the public press, though, of
course, those immediately concerned would have pre-
ferred to keep it a secret. Upon this, the pugilistic
clergyman at once wrote to a Conservative paper,
declaring the whole story a lie, and not even con-
descending to explain how it was that such an extra-
ordinary invention could have been fabricated at his
expense. At this juncture the young husband, a music
master, finding concealment out of the question, re-
solved upon having the only satisfaction possible, and
brought an action against the self-alleged innocent. At
the hearing of the case eleven persons took their oath
that the blow had been given. Unheeding their deposi-
tions, the clergyman persisted in his denial, and, as his
sole defence, referred the judges to the evidence of his
own conscience and God's knowledge of his inward
thoughts. The Court, in pursuance of the ordinary
rules affecting the testimony of witnesses, left his

42 The State of Religion in Germany.

conscience alone, and sentenced his body to three
months' imprisonment. At the same time, the favour
of " extenuating circumstances " being accorded him,
he was allowed the option of either going to gaol
or paying a fine of three hundred thalers. But no
sentence of a mere earthly judge could shake him.
He knew too well his own worth, appealed for a
reversion of the sentence to a higher court, and in
the meantime appeared again in the pulpit to justify
himself before his congregation. The ecclesiastical
authorities did not interfere. It had been generally
expected they would have suspended him from office
pending the final decision of the case ; but no such
decree was issued, and in this unsettled state the
matter remains to this day. The Conservatives pre-
tend to regard the accused as innocent ; the Liberals
assert that his being a strict believer is the cause of
his statements being credited by the ecclesiastical
authorities, who otherwise must have prohibited him
from performing Divine service. All tongues are busy
with the event, and many a heart is sore.

Were the majority of the public as unanimous in
their views concerning some new and more eligible
form of religion as they are in their objections to the
doctrine and working of the present Church, we should

The Prussian Clergy. 43

not have to wait long for a radical reform. But there
is the defect. Even those yearning for the establish-
ment of some new mode of worship cannot agree upon
a sufficient number of tenets to form a Church ;
whereas the masses are satisfied with a vague belief
in God, and, though secretly longing for something
more definite, are, while it seems unattainable, consol-
ing themselves with the notion that any distinct form
of religion is superfluous. It is on account of their
objecting on princirjle to the existence of every Church
that they do not care to leave the Establishment and
create some new sect. There are, indeed, a number
of rationalistic congregations in existence, but to join
them is considered as equally affected as to attend the
sermons of the orthodox clergy.

Thus the two hostile streams are flowing side by
side in separate beds, — the stream of Eationalism, a
still, but wide and deep expanse, threatening to swallow
up the whole country ; and the stream of Orthodox
belief, a noisy, rushing torrent, intent upon fertilizing
the fields, but by the vast lake of heresy confined to
the irrigation of some remote nooks and ingles. What
will the end be ?

Berlix, August 14, 1869.

CHAPTER VI.

A BERLIN CONVENT.

Moabit is the north-western suburb of Berlin,
famous for its Biblical name, its ironworks, and its
beer. Its name, according to metropolitan tradition,
was given it by French gardeners. Settling here after
the repeal of the Edict of Nantes, and finding the
sterility of the sandy soil a little too bad, the irascible
Frenchmen are said to have bestowed upon their place
of refuge the ungracious appellation " terre maudite."
This occurring at a period when, as it would aj^pear,
the Berliners were better versed in the Bible than in
the French grammar, the foreign term was misinter-
preted, and supposed to refer to the wicked enemies
of the Jews, the Moabites, whose patronymic became
thus perpetuated in this northern capital. More noted
than the misnomer are the ironworks of the locality.
On that barren plain, in the course of time, were
erected many enormous structures, devoted to in-
dustry, in which the manufacture of engines, porcelain,

A Berlin Convent. 45

beer, &c., having been set on foot by intelligent capi-
talists, now employs some fifteen thousand workmen
of superior skill and consequent success ; and as
wherever in this country artisans and beer abound
music gardens are sure to spring up, Moabit has ended
by becoming the El Dorado of landlords, and the
paradise of the pleasure-seeking votaries of Terpsichore
from the whole town.

This home of the genuine Berlin mechanic, with
his roughness, his quickness, and irreverent wit, has
now been chosen by the Catholic Church for the
establishment of a monastery. A more uncongenial
soil, one would imagine, it would be difficult to dis-
cover anywhere. But the ecclesia militans, we are
triumphantly informed in its Berlin weekly/" having
passed over from the defensive to the offensive,
no longer hesitates to provoke public opinion in any
part of the world. Just because Moabit is purely
Protestant, and in no way ascetically inclined, the
promoters of the Catholic interest selected it as the
site of the first monastery that has existed in Bran-
denburg since the great clearing out at the Eeforma-
tion. And not of one monastery alone, but of two.
Having once resolved upon so striking a proceeding

* " Markisches Kirchenblatt," the Catholic organ of this capital.

46 The State of Religion in Germany.

as the importation of the cowl to the biting latitude
of Berlin, they thought to improve the occasion as
much as possible, and made the sacred establishment
a sort of " mother-house " for others yet to be formed.
For the present the new convent has been occupied
by Dominicans and Franciscans, one of which fra-
ternities will remove whenever the means can be
obtained for setting them up independently. Pending
this both are to endeavour to draw other Orders after
them to come to this province and exert themselves
for its reconversion to the tenets of the Papacy. It is
not to be wondered at that in the eyes of those who
have bestowed time and money to bring about this
notable result and pave the way, as they imagine, for
something better, the return to Central Prussia of the
religious anchorites should have been regarded as a
great, nay, a truly historical event. So they deter-
mined upon marking it with due eclat. The four
female orders (Ursulines, Elisabethans, Daughters of
St. Borromeus, and Ladies of the Good Shepherd)
which in the last twenty-five years have crept back
to Berlin, entered this capital with such a studious
absence of all outward demonstration that their very
existence in our midst remains unknown to the ma-
jority of the natives to this day ; but the monks took

A Berlin Convent. 47

care to advertise their arrival to the whole town. In
their opinion, the day has evidently come when monks
may avow themselves in the very heart of Protest-
antism, heedless of the criticisms of the impious or the
taunts of a scurrilous press.

Accordingly, the new monastery was opened with
a celebration accessible to the general public. This
ceremony was performed on the 4th of August, and
consisted in the consecration of the church apper-
taining to the bipartite convent. Of Dominicans and
Franciscans only a small number were present; the
more noticeable, therefore, was the crowd of spectators,
devout and curious. A good many of the 30,000
Catholics scattered among the 800,000 inhabitants of
Berlin turned out to attend; with them came not a
few Protestants, bent upon seeing so unprecedented
a sight. Mass having been performed, one Herr
Mtiller delivered the speech of the day. Herr Midler
is a gentleman of, it is said, priestly rank, who has
been selected by the Bishop of Breslau to direct the
business of the various Catholic societies at this capital.
The better to qualify him for his task, he had the title
of Geistlicher Bath conferred upon him by the Pope.
Latterly he achieved notoriety by writing in the half
mystic, half comical style peculiar to some gentlemen

48 The State of Religion in Germany.

of his cloth, and of which honest Father de Santa
Clara, of Vienna memory, will ever remain the un-
equalled prototype. Of his blunt eloquence the fol-
lowing extract from his inaugural address is a good
specimen. Having first offered up a prayer, he said,
among other things : —

"The Dominicans and Franciscans here meet in
friendly co-operation. They do so here and now. It
is necessary to emphasize the here and the now. They
make their appearance in this capital of the Prussian
State — nay, in this suburb of Moabit, famed for its
sensuous indulgence of self. They open this place for
religious exercise, at a moment when in another State,
and that an essentially Catholic State, a fanatic storm
has arisen against convents, when the very principle
of monastic institutions is attacked in Austria, and a
flood of hatred, rage, and calumny poured upon our
defenceless heads. That at such a juncture as this we
should be enabled to consecrate one, nay two, monas-
teries at Berlin, is an event the importance of which
can only be surpassed by the fact that the religious
orders to whom this new abode will be dedicated are
not charitable, but purely contemplative orders, spend-
ing their whole time in prayer. In sensuous Moabit
the Dominicans will henceforth be engaged in reflecting

A Berlin Convent. 49

on the healing powers of the rosary, the Franciscans
in meditating on the five wounds of Christ. As far
back as Frederick the Great's reign Dominicans
preached in a Berlin church. In permitting their
second return, then, the Prussian Government have
only imitated their former tolerance."

In reporting this speech, the Berlin papers thought
it necessary to accompany it with commentaries, hereby
deviating from their usual course of studied indifference
to religious topics. A monastery at Moabit ! To the
Berlin ear it sounded pretty much the same as to the
Londoner would the report that the Chinese Emperor
had located a college in Cornhill for the spread of
the official Mandarin philosophy in the British Isles.
To adore the rosary and the " five wounds " in close
vicinity to the sooty smithies, where the hammer and
file are never at rest in the hands of industrious but,
alas ! too rationalistically inclined men, — it seemed
to be a contrast almost too great to be believed.
Town-talk turned upon it for a day or two, and the
journals could not but advert to so startling a phe-
nomenon. The occasion not being likely to inspire
them with a deeper respect for religion than is ordi-
narily evinced by popular editors in this country, their
remarks were conceived in a sarcastic, not to say a

50 The State of Religion in Germany.

scoffing spirit, to illustrate which I will quote a few
lines as a specimen. The Volks Zeitung, one of the
most popular journals of Berlin, thus begins a leader
on what it calls the miracle of Moabit : — •

" Among the Moabites, close to sinful Berlin, a
great miracle has been wrought. Thereat the Am-
monites and the Jebusites, the Amorites and Canaan-
ites will be amazed. The heathen will be in fear like
a woman in travail. They will clap their hands and
cry out, ' Come, let us go unto the new Jerusalem,
whence issues the word of truth, for there the face of
the earth has been revived.' There have united the
sole dispensers of salvation, the sons of St. Dominicus
and the sons of St. Franciscus. There they are,
sitting snugly in their new and comfortable abode.
The one set have nothing else to do than to tell their
beads, while the others engage in profound meditation
on the five wounds of Christ. And yet they are
destined to wrestle with the giant of disbelief, who
will not cease to ridicule Zebaoth and to abuse the
children of the faith, that are to bring salvation to the
world, and by their prayers to defend heaven itself
against the fury of the raging Titans."

The close of this characteristic article is as fol-
lows : —

A Berlin Convent. 51

" The world is expected (by Mr. Miiller) to look
upon the foundation of this new monastery as an
event of the highest importance. We, for our part,
are convinced that the only emotion awakened among
our compatriots will be that of satisfaction at the
degree of culture which allows such scenes to be wit-
nessed without public fanaticism being aroused against
them."

This latter expectation has not been realised. After
reading in their papers violent articles against the
monastery for a couple of days, the Berliners, or,
rather, the Moabites, assembled en masse in front of
the monastery and began to throw stones. But for
the timely interference of the police worse might have
occurred than the smashing of the windows and the
terror of the monks. The same scene was repeated on
a subsequent evening. On one of these occasions a
man is said to have harangued the masses, and told
them that the notorious Tetzel, whose traffic in indul-
gences gave such an impetus to the Eeformation, was
a Dominican, which did not tend to allay the wrath of
the multitude. However, the good Fathers were pro-
tected by the police, and, but for a shocking fright
they had soon afterwards, would not have dreamt of
evacuating their retreat. Sunday last, a trivial inci-

E 2

52 The State of Religion in Germany.

dent at Moabit led to one of those affrays between
the police and the populace which may be considered
as inseparable from metropolitan institutions, and cer-
tainly are among the most popular enjoyments of this
city. Some juggler had advertised that he would ride
a velocipede placed high on a rope. The blacksmiths
and engineers of the industrious suburb, who from
the nature of their profession take a keen interest in
mechanical feats, crowded round the arena to gaze at
this latest acrobatic wonder ; but what was their dis-
appointment when they perceived the velocipede to be
tied to the rope in such a way as to render an accident
impossible. Not humane enough to derive satisfaction
from this cautious display of selfishness, they, on the
contrary, considered themselves cheated of the awful
emotion they thought they had a right to expect.
Then resentment was increased by the juggler, as an
additional attraction, calling himself a Swede, when,
as appeared on his being examined by a travelled
stoker, he was entirely innocent of the Scandinavian
tongue. For this twofold fraud he, poor fellow, found
himself presently handed over to Judge Lynch, and
had to undergo a most instructive reprimand at the
hands of that demonstrative personage. Eventually
the police tore him from the grasp of his castigators,

>*

A Berlin Convent. 53

which, however, could not be effected without their
charging the crowd. Then began the ordinary heroic
combat between Greeks and Trojans. The constables
first had recourse to their clubs, then drew their
swords, yet could not vanquish their adversaries. A
shower of bricks eventually drove the guardians of
the public peace from the field, when a detachment of
cavalry was despatched, and soon routed the victors.
A number of wounded, among them one with his right
hand cut off, will have occasion to remember this
Sunday's campaign with very mixed sensations. This
row, which happened close to the monastery, gave the
Fathers such a dose of Berlin pugnacity that they
resolved to evacuate their newly-acquired asylum, and
not return until a high wall has been built round the
sacred precincts.

The opening of a convent at Moabit is but the
crowning incident in a series of similar events wit-
nessed here in the last twenty years. It is an in-
teresting fact, that the revival of Protestant orthodoxy
has been accompanied by a corresponding move on
the part of the Catholic clergy. Catholicism, twenty
years ago in a state of even greater decline than the
Eeformed faith, has profited by the ecclesiastical resus-
citation of the latter, to undertake a similar campaign

54 The State of Religion in Germany.

against the prevailing spirit of the age. What it
lacks in vital power, it makes up for by the courage
and energy of its fiery advocates. "Within the period
mentioned some hundreds of new monasteries are
asserted to have been added to those previously exist-
ing in the various provinces forming modern Prussia.
The number of nuns and monks in each does not
seem to be great, nor can the expense incurred by
their humble inmates — the greater part belonging to
the lower classes — be very considerable. The Jesuits,
too, have rapidly increased, and now muster in Ger-
many over two thousand — a higher figure than any
country, except France, can boast. Besides this aug-
mentation of what may be called the official staff,
religious societies have been formed of artisans and
children, whose members being divided into different
classes, each lording it over the other, have both piety
and vanity gratified by joining these auxiliary clubs.
Yet, from all the seed sown, little fruit is to be re-
marked, even among Catholics. Upon the whole, the
religious feeling of Eomanists in this country differs
but little from that of Protestants. Shrines, indeed,
may be multiplied and find devotees, who worship
with real ardour, or sometimes with self-complacent
sentimentality ; but for all this the intellectual move-

A Berlin Convent. 55

ment of the day progresses unimpeded, the colour of
men's thoughts remains unmodified, and even those
attending church and acknowledging the sanctity of
the priesthood are in their views on worldly things
not as visibly influenced as they ought to be, had they
sufficiently realised the difference between their creed
and nineteenth-century opinions. A most noticeable
result this, when it is considered that every third man
in Prussia is a Catholic. As to Protestants being
attracted to Catholicism by the exertions of the priest-
hood, such a thing is almost unknown.

Herr Ernest de Bunsen does me the honour of
animadverting upon two several items occurring in one
of my recent letters on the state of religion in this
country."'" One objection is openly expressed, the other
implied. As regards the first, he thinks the Germans
may deserve the name of Christians, though they have
ceased to be so in the sense Luther attached to it.
But Herr de ~Rm-.cn-. v.^ ^«f<wceived my meaning

when he believes my remarks to have been occasioned
by the German Protestants —the small sect of Old
Lutherans excepted — now-a-days rejecting the par-
ticular tenets on which Luther differed from other
Reformers. I trust it will appear from the whole

• Herr de Bunsen's letter is reprinted in the Appendix.

56 The State of Religion in Germany.

contents of my letter that in the passage referred to,
as in the rest, I look upon Luther as the represen-
tative of Protestantism generally, and that in assert-
ing the majority of the Germans to have ceased to be
Protestants in Luther's sense, I meant to say they
had ceased to be so in the sense attached to the term
in the sixteenth century by any Protestant creed
whatsoever. Whether I am right or wrong in this
statement is another question. Herr de Bunsen, in
his second objection, seems to decide against me. As
it would require an essay to adduce the arguments
which might be alleged to prove my case, I think I
may content myself with saying that nearly all Ger-
man writers who have latterly written upon the
subject have more or less distinctly expressed the
same opinion as myself. On this one point orthodox
professors are agreed with moderate Latitudinarians
and radical Rationalists ; on this one point there
fcs concurrence hfttYTjv??1 Prr&S:"i£, ^Perstenberff,
m. Professor Schenkel, of Heidelberg, and Dr.
Uhlich, of Magdeburg ; on this one point we read the
same verdict in the orthodox Evangelisclie Zeitung,
the mediating Breslauer, National and Protestant -
ische Zeitung, and the avowedly anti-dogmatical
Volks Zeitung. They all either complain or rejoice,

m

A Berlin Convent. 57

according to their respective views, that the Protestant
dogmas are no longer recognised by the majority, espe-
cially not by the educated classes. It is satisfactory
to perceive that most of them are also forced to admit
that the spirit of Christianity at least survives. As
regards Herr de Bunsen's not expecting enlightenment
from me, on the important question as to what the
dogmas of the Bible are, I can only observe that in
writing my letter my intention obviously was not to
solve religious problems, but to report on the state of
public opinion respecting them.

Beelin, August 18, 1869.

CHAPTER VIL

oppose the action of the orthodox clergy iid at
the same time rt the interest of the latitndinanan
laity in the affairs of Chnrch and School, a special
sock: stahhshed a few years ago. Being the

only attempt of the kind in the present phase of

- rman scepticism, and deriving considerable author.
:_-:- :"-■: zi.uiv .-„■_:_-:■.: :. - "—--.;' : «y " -- '--■— ^
among its members, tl odation may be regarded

as a feature in the history of the times. The menit •
of this remarkable body have been recruited from
those who, while they reject the inspiration of the

t differ from die vulgar rationalism of the c
in this, that they acknowledge the duty of rmrfessing
some modern form of religion, based upon the moral
- achings of what they regard as a venerable, but, in
Tna.- : -:>eets. obsolete book. The societv has n
visy accurately denned the doctrine it intends to place
in the stead of the ancient creed, but seems to prefer

Hie German Protestant Association. 59

indefinite language when speaking on this point, and
sometimes even alludes to the desired reform as an
event not to be consummated just now, but which
must be looked for in the future. All it has ex] -
a positive opinion upon, and enjoins on its nienib
is the duty of promoting the universal acknowledg-
ment of Christian morality (Ckristlich sittUche Le-
haft).
This bodv, which calls itself the German Protestant
Association, was set on foot by a knot of well-meaninor
and temperate men belonging to the higher strata of
the middle class - At its head are distingTiished
professors of theology, and many other men of wealth,
rank, and erudition, who justly enjoy the respect of
their compatriots. Their principal way of appealing
to the public is by holding annual meetings — each
year in a different place — in which the proceedings
of the ecclesiastical authorities are measured by a
more or less rationalistic standard, and condemned
accordingly. Speeches are also delivered on such
occasions on the history of religion and similar
subjects, intended to propagate the views of the
society. For these annual meetings the members
assemble from all parts of Germany, local meetings
being sometimes, though rarely, held by those residing

60 The State of Religion in Germany.

in the same town. Though all these assemblies are, as
a rule, well attended by the members, they yet derive
the greater part of their eclat from outsiders. A few
of the larger towns excepted, there is not a place in
which the members are sufficiently numerous to make
an imposing show, or to satisfy their natural wish for
notoriety and influence without calling in the general
public. Invitations accordingly are always sedulously
circulated in advance, and cordially responded to.
There are plenty of people in nearly every part of this
populous and intellectually inclined country who
though they do not care to join a society whose
professed object is opposition to orthodoxy, yet take
intense delight in hearing orthodox views and pro-
ceedings strongly criticized once or twice a year. As
to enrolling themselves in the lists of the society,
the majority of latitudinarians do not see the use
of it, notwithstanding the many and urgent appeals
addressed them. The cause of their reserve is two-
fold. In the first place, as I have had occasion
to remark in a previous letter, people believe the
ancient faith to be utterly exploded, and only smile
at what they regard as the vain endeavour of the
Government to inculcate it afresh by preachers and
teachers. Why, then, need they subscribe to a

The German Protestant Association. Gl

society making superfluous protests against what
is no longer a living reality ? On the other hand,
they cannot understand what advantage there is
in proclaiming the excellence of the code of Christian
morals, never impugned even by advanced rationalists.
To the million, therefore, the society, both in what
it affirms as in what it denies, seems to have under-
taken a work of supererogation.

The question whether the society is useful or the
reverse has recently occasioned a controversy well
calculated to illustrate its position and the general
state of religion in Germany. I purpose extracting
some articles and letters published in the course of
this literary feud, accompanying them with such re-
marks as may be required for the better appreciation
of their local features. For some time past the
Magdeburger Zeitung, a paper of moderate views in
politics and religion, has been pleading the cause of
the society. To induce the educated classes to shake
off their apathy, and energetically support a body
which has so often petitioned for their help, that
paper addressed them as follows : —

" The defects in the state of our ecclesiastical affairs
can be only accounted for by the indifference of the
cultivated classes. It is they who must be charged

62 TJie State of Religion in Germany.

with the guilt of the present state of things. They
have long turned the cold shoulder to all that concerns
the Church. The scholar, the doctor, the artist, the
merchant, the manufacturer, are content to devote
themselves to their respective pursuits, and if in
addition to their private interests they manifest any
zeal beyond their immediate call in life, it is confined
to politics. As to what occurs in the Church, they
will not condescend so much as to notice it, and it
is only when some narrow-minded parson denies the
rotation of the earth that they are frightened or
amused by the amazing stupidity of those theologians
clinging to the letter of the law. Still it is this very
set of theologians that directs the education of the
humbler classes, and even exercises some influence
upon the schools in which the children of well-to-do
people are brought up. These religious fanatics have
been long and assiduously engaged in opening a gap
between Christianity and common sense, and convert-
ing our religion into a superstition and our thinking
men into infidels. Is not this important enough to
be looked after 1 Is it possible that our public and
private life can be healthy if obliged to put up with
such a Church ? It cannot be so. The disease of the
Church has begun to exercise a baneful effect on

The German Protestant Association. 63

the people, driving them either into the arms of a
coarse materialism, or else causing them to be en-
veloped in a mental obscuration very much resembling
the normal condition of the pious Catholic. All this
being undeniable, it is time we should remember our
duty, and, were it only for the sake of the people and
elementary instruction, take an earnest and abiding
interest in the reform of our Protestant Church."

I have not heard of any marked impression being
produced by these entreaties. The influence of
orthodox preachers and teachers is simply ridiculed,
and few can be brought to believe that the notions
these antiquated ignoramuses — for such they hold
them — try to instil need any antidote, except the spirit
of this modern age, as administered in every news-
paper paragraph, nay, in the conversation of all ranks.
Such being the case, we need not be astonished that
the moderate Magdeburger Zeitung should have re-
ceived a sarcastic reply from a more radically-inclined
journal. It was the Berlin Volks Zeitung which took
upon itself to answer its gentler contemporary, and
as I think that in this particular question the more
advanced view is the one patronized by the cultivated
classes as a whole, I will adduce the following from
this Eadical and popular organ of the capital : —

64 Tlie State of Religion in Germany.

" We doubt that the complaints of the Magdeburger
Zeitung will swell the numbers of the Protestanten-
Verein. For that society to become popular it ought
to go much farther. The enlightened theologians
presiding over its councils evidently wish to effect
a compromise between common sense and certain
cardinal notions inherent in the old creeds. But
common sense — lay common sense we mean — laughs
at their artificial tonings down and smoothings over,
and does not at all approve the attempt to reconcile
the irreconcilable, made in the books of a Schenkel
and his associates. The whole intellectual horizon of
the period in which the myths and fables of religion
were formed, is not only a matter of perfect indiffer-
ence, but also something absolutely unintelligible to
the men of this day. By the nineteenth century laity
no interest is felt in watching the twistings and
turnings of texts, practised by the more liberal-minded
theologians in their desperate endeavour to find an
atom of truth in these exploded legends. If it has
been proved that the sky is not exactly the cupola,
arching over the earth, which our ancestors supposed
it, but only thin air, it cannot possibly concern us in
what way theologians manage to account for the
Ascension. Again, the interpretations devised as a

The German Protestant Association. 60

means of explaining away what is objectionable in the
notion of a Trinity, without absolutely relinquishing
it, are far too cunning to gain the applause of those
who do not see the good of dressing up fables to save
appearances, when the substance has slipped away.
That kind of theology which the leaders of the Protes-
tant Association still cling to may be a respectable
attempt of theologians to free themselves from the
fetters of antiquated notions without directly adopting
the views of this modern age ; but the layman, Avho
has no need to stick to tradition, regards this theolo-
gical manoeuvre as likely to produce clever excuses,
but not wholesome truth. The lavman sees the
world as it is, and will not allow himself to be carried
away by the artificial devices of the Protestanten-
Verein."

Surely, if such be the suggestions of German
common sense, there is no fear of its being worked
upon by clerical means. For any danger, threatening
them from this quarter, people have, then, no reason
to combine. To protect himself against this feeble
enemy every one gifted with common sense a la mode
may, it is evident, be trusted to himself. As to the
other ground of popular indifference to the Protestan-
ten-Verein alleged by the Volks Zcitmvj, — viz., that

66 The State of Religion in Germany.

it does not go far enough in its rejection of the Biblical
doctrine — this is a mistake. Though the distinguished
professors in the society are, it is true, inclined to
explain the miracles in a half-and-half way, neither
altogether orthodox nor absolutely rationalistic, they,
in their capacity of members, do not object to more
extreme rationalistic views. On the contrary, they are
ready to admit to the society any one impressed with
the beauty of Christian morals, even though he con-
siders the Bible as an old book and no more. Pro-
fessor Schenkel of Heidelberg, one of the most learned
German theologians, who may be called the father of
the society, has hastened to correct this mistake of
the Volks Zeitung, and to proclaim that the Protes-
tanten-Verein, as such, has no wish to uphold the
Bible or any of the ancient creeds based upon it. In
a very candid letter to the editor of the Volks Zeitung,
dated Heidelberg, July 31, 1869, he expresses himself
as follows : —

" The Protestant Association as such has but little
in common with theology. It approves no theological
system whatever, and has expressly and unmistakably
pronounced against the preponderance of theological
dogmatism of every shade. The association does not
at all regard it as its legitimate object to reconcile our

The German Protestant Association. 67

traditional theology or any single dogma maintained
by it with common sense. It cares as little for the
crafty interpretation of myths and miracles. What
it wants is not to revive theology, but to revive
Christianity, and renovate the Protestant Church in
the spirit of evangelical freedom, in harmony with the
intellectual development of the age. This is not a
theological but a moral and a social task, and one that
cannot be completed in a couple of years or by a few
individuals, but requires the co-operation of the whole
nation. If it has not yet been completed by the Pro-
testanten-Verein, no reproach attaches to any one. The
theological views of the individual members of our
society — for instance, my views — are not those of the
society. The society is tolerant towards all tolerant
towards others, and admits all not denying the spirit
of evangelical freedom, and willing to co-operate in
the practical renovation of the Church. No layman,
therefore, who joins the society is made to adhere to
traditional formulae."

Passing from what the society does not to what
it does, the Professor continues : —

" The Protestant Association looks upon Ultra-
montanism, hierarchy, orthodoxy, and the intolerance
manifested by some of our Protestant churches, as

F 2

68 The State of Religion in Germany.

dangerous evils. While five-sixths of the inhabitants
remain under the influence of priest or parson, and are
but very scantily supplied with instruction, as statistics
prove, we ought to exert ourselves to promote the reli-
gious and moral amendment of the people. From a
semi-official statement it appears that within the last
thirty years hundreds of new convents have been
established in Prussia ; nearly all theological pro-
fessorships in our Universities are occupied by men of
the strictest orthodoxy ; the ecclesiastical authorities
direct the Church of the most powerful of the German
States in a like spirit, and thousands of clergymen are
sowing a seed which will bear fruit, though certainly
not the fruit of liberty and enlightenment. Religion is
not only a strong force in history, but also a personal
want of every individual. To neglect it has always
impaired the progress of culture. It is a pity that the
men of progress should so much less know how to
estimate its influence than the men advocating retro-
grade movements. What a blessing for our people
would be a free and enlightened Protestant Church !
For the furtherance of Protestant spiritual liberty it is
that the Protestant Association exerts itself."

The above confirms what I have said as to the
indistinct language employed by the society in speak-

The German Protestant Association. 69

ing of its aims. The society, we are told, aspires to
have a free and enlightened Protestant Church and
Protestant spiritual liberty. Unfortunately, these are
such wide and indefinite terms, that when we have
them we are at a loss what to do with them. Is the
free and enlightened Church to have a creed, or is the
rejection of dogma announced by the Professor de-
structive of all creeds whatsoever ? If the adoption
of a new creed be compatible with the annihilation of
the ancient dogma, what creed will be substituted ?
Or, if it be premature to ask so pregnant a question,
would it not be practicable to give us a general idea of
what we have to expect ? What, for instance, are the
notions likely to be entertained by the new Church on
the all-important topics of Providence, sin, and prayer ?
Upon all these points silence is maintained by the Pro-
fessor, though speaking in his letter in behalf of his
religious reforming society. Nor are the utterances
that have emanated on other occasions from the body
in question much more elucidatory. The most tan-
gible avowal of doctrine I remember to have met with
occurs in the resolutions passed by the second general
meeting at Neustadt in September, 1867, where it was
said that the essence (Schiverpmikt) of Christianity
was not in the ecclesiastical dogma, but in the acknow-

70 The State of Religion in Germany.

ledgment of Christian morality.* But even this leaves
ns with the vital questions still unanswered. Could
we think that the free and enlightened Church of the
future is to look upon these questions with as much
indifference as the more advanced Radicalism of the
day does, there would of course be no cause for sur-
prise at this reticence ; but then why found any new
Church at all ? To teach mere morality no Church
is required, nor will such teaching stop the spread of
Atheism, respect for the virtue of this world being
quite compatible with the most perfect indifference
to the Deity. This obvious truth has, in the out-
spoken Volhs Zeitung, been made the theme of an
article in reply to the learned Professor, which
deserves to be quoted : —

"Assuming the Protestanten-Verein to share the
convictions of its founder, it professes to believe reli-
gion has been a source of culture. Time-honoured as
it is, we deny the truth of this antiquated axiom, and
for our part assert that, consciously or unconsciously,
it is no longer admitted by the educated classes. The
essence of the religion of all nations consists in a
moral code, which lays down the fundamental rules of

Those resolutions were proposed by Professor Schenkel, and
carried almost unanimously.

The German Protestant Association. 71

social life. These fundamental laws are nearly iden-
tical everywhere, the slight variations which occur
being mainly chargeable to the difference in the degree
of culture marking the several races and stages of
social development. This oneness of the moral codes
is the necessary consequence of those laws having been
derived from observation of human nature. Human
nature being the same everywhere, the laws based upon
it must be equally so. But in those early days, when
people were too ignorant to perceive the natural pro-
cess by which the laws in question were evolved,
myths, fictions, and miraculous stories arose respec-
ting the manner in which the human race had those
axioms disclosed to them. These tales and fictions re-
specting the origin of moral law, when they gradually
expanded and became consolidated into definite mytho-
logical systems, formed the second portion of the reli-
gious creeds, the religion or faith, properly speaking.
They differ very much from each other, according
to the different intellectual attainments of those
who invented them, and the historical events, nay,
even the character of the landscape, which influenced
their minds. All these tales are mere fictions. Their
most favourite incidents are miracles, and though none
of them ever happened, the slightest variation in their

72 The State of Religion in Germany.

tenour has frequently sufficed to set nation against
nation, and inspire both with a ruthless desire to
exterminate each other. In the fearful wars thus
kindled, the real essence of religion, the moral law,
has been but too often disowned and trodden under
foot. The contention about these religious fables is
one of the most shocking features in the history of
the world, and has prevented whole generations from
enjoying the benefit they might otherwise have de-
rived from the moral law. In those dreadful days
the religious stories which every one believed, though
unable to ascertain their accuracy, were considered
as infallible truth, to maintain which reason and
logic had to be ignored. It was only after the
discovery of some of the great laws of nature that
man began to realize the difference between reality
and fiction. Since then the conviction has gained
ground by degrees that to quarrel about the origin
of religion is to fight about fables, and that re-
ligion in reality consists only of that moral code the
practice of which has never given rise to discord,
nor ever will. Such being the case, and the world
having at length realized the fact that, though know-
ledge and culture have influenced religion, they, in
their turn, have never been advanced by her, it is

The German Protestant Association, 73

only natural that our eyes should be opened to some
other wholesome truths. At present, all civilized
nations are aware that, wherever that class of society
which makes a profession of contending about fables
Avas armed with power over secular affairs, the decline
of culture and the growth of evil were the inevitable
consequences ; at present, we are all endeavouring to
prevent the said class of quarrelers about nothing
from regaining their former sway over the destinies of
mankind. To assert and act up to these principles is
true liberty of conscience. Liberty of conscience, in
the modern acceptation of the term, makes us per-
fectly indifferent as to what particular religion a man
chooses to profess, provided he submit to the common
code of human morality. If, in addition to acquitting
himself of this supreme obligation, he takes delight in
believing some fable or other, let him. If he feel
tempted to assert that the moral code was originally
proclaimed by Odin or Jupiter, Jehovah, Moses, or
Jesus, it is all one to us, and we have not the slightest
intention to dispute with him about it. We have
outgrown that sort of controversy, and all we care for
is that the State may remain as indifferent to it as
ourselves, and not support any one of these legends
by lending it the sanction of its authority."

74 The State of Religion in Germany.

Further on in the same article we read :—
" The Protestant Association is desirous to create a
free and enlightened Protestant Church, from the
establishment of which it expects great advantage to
the nation. Praiseworthy as this object is, when
compared to the attitude of our old orthodox estab-
lished Churches, which are not at all free and en-
lightened, but, on the contrary, seek to coerce science
and the convictions thereon based, still we doubt
whether the Protestanten-Verein is in harmony with
the spirit of our age, and the notions of the cultivated
classes. Take them as a whole, those classes have no
wish to form any new Church ; nor would a new
Church, were it Protestant, satisfy the requirements of
the age. As to anticipating the progress of culture
from the setting up of such a Church, it is quite out
of the question. Culture is derived from knowledge,
not from belief, however free and enlightened. The
records of history teach that intellectual advancement
made its greatest strides whenever and wherever the
fetters of faith were taken off the human mind."

However audacious we may think these remarks,
there is a logical sequence in them. Granting morality
to be the one thing required, there is no further need
of a Church. With the refinement moral teaching has

The German Protestant Association. 75

gradually attained since the introduction of Christianity,
no transcendental motives are required to make man
ordinarily honest and kind. Whether this was always
the case, whether the coarser morality of the past would
have been sufficient without the aid of religion to work
the same effect, is another question, which no one con-
versant with history will answer in the affirmative.
Against this latter portion of the Volks Zeitung argu-
ment is directed a fresh letter with which Professor
Schenkel has just closed the correspondence, and which
I subjoin in full : —

" You ascribe to me the conviction that religion is
the main source of culture. Assuming this to be my
opinion, I cannot but qualify it by the remark that
religion to me does not consist of myths, fables,
dogmas, &c, but of those aspiring thoughts and feel-
ings (innere Ideenivelt) by means of which the human
soul becomes conscious of its relation to the Divine.
From history I know that a new system of such aspir-
ing thoughts and feelings has been disclosed to man-
kind by the Christian religion, although I am prepared
to admit that the gift was presented in an inadequate
and, in regard to this age, antiquated form. I concur
with you in holding that to quarrel about this outward
form is foolish, and may, in some cases, be a crime.

76 The State of Religion in Germany.

That the Protestant association approves my opinions on
this head I have no doubt. Herein the Volks Zeitung
and I are also of one mind. "What we differ about
seems to be this :- — You maintain that no religion has
ever been conducive to the advancement of culture ;
that all religions, as religions, are identical ; and that
all nations, irrespective of their religions, acknowledge
the same moral fundamental laws for the regulation of
social life. This history compels me to deny. It is a
fact that two institutions of vital consequence in the
annals of moral culture, slavery and polygamy, are at
variance with the religious idea of Christianity, where-
as they were considered as perfectly moral by civilized
peoples before the advent of Christianity, and are to
this day thus regarded by the Mahomedans. Chris-
tianity has a specific character, and the historical basis
supplied by that character the Protestant Association
acknowledges as its own. The Christian idea of the
equality of all men in the sight of their Heavenly
Father destroyed the assumption, so prejudicial to
culture, that the right to keep slaves may be justly
claimed by the privileged. Again, the Christian idea
of the liberty of all men, and of the dignity of each
individual as ennobled by Christ, did away with the
prejudice that woman is a thing without rights, given

The German Protestant Association. 77

man for his pleasure, and that children are no more
than tools in the hands of their fathers. But even
on the common ground of Christianity very different
results have been worked out by different Churches,
and very opposite influences have been exercised upon
culture by the various religious communities. A
Church, for instance, which enjoins the celibacy of
the priest, recommends the indolence of monastic life,
declares the mechanic repetition of certain forms of
prayer as pleasing to God, and places between the
Divine Being and the human conscience a mediator
who pretends to have supernatural authority for his
functions — such a Church must affect the moral culture
of society in a way the reverse of what is wrought by
a religious community which educates their clergy for
family life, exalts industry and labour, strives to imbue
daily life with a spirit of moral vigour, and allows the
congregation the conduct of its own religious affairs.
In this sense, and in this sense alone, I regard Chris-
tianity and Protestantism as sources of culture, and
consider them none the less so because of religion
having become before this, and being, perhaps, destined
to become hereafter, a source of barbarism/'

As the reader will observe, Professor Schenkel's
objections are confined to the historical mistake the

78 The State of Religion in Germany.

Volks Zeitung commits in denying Christianity to
have promoted the interests of culture. The fact that
his adversary declares not alone against the Christian
dogma, but against every description of faith, is passed
over in silence by him. Nevertheless, it would no
doubt be wronging the Professor and the Association
in whose committee he plays such an important part
were we to assume him to be on these vital questions
at one with the Radical organ. His notions and those
of the society do not exclude the necessity of a Church,
and therefore must be assumed to include the necessity
of having regard to the existence of a God — an infe-
rence corroborated by his speaking in the above letter
(as, indeed, in many of his erudite works) of the
Heavenly Father of mankind and the relation of the
human soul to the Divine Being. Were the Protestant
Association to advert to these topics oftener than they
have hitherto done, and avow more definite notions on
what they think the said relation between the soul and
the Deity to be, they would probably acquire more
decided weight with the people. According to the
notions they might avow they would deter some and
attract others, but, in any case, pave the way for a
superior sort of authority to the one they now possess.
With their present programme — the characteristic

The German Protestant Association. 79

feature of which is reticence on so many important
items — the Association offend the orthodox, appear
superfluous to advanced latitudinarians, and do not
even satisfy those who, looking upon the Bible as a
human and fallible book, yet yearn for some guidance
that shall enable them to obtain a certain belief re-
specting their position towards the Creator. If, not-
withstanding that this is manifestly the case, a society
established for the revival of religious life have so long
kept from employing the most effective means for their
purpose, and allowed the people they wish to rescue
to sink more and more into dismal and dreary apathy,
this must be regarded as another proof of the truth of
the old experience, how difficult it is to effect a com-
promise between rationalism and religion.

The next meeting of the society will be held at
Berlin on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of October. By a
decree just published, the ecclesiastical authorities of
the province of Brandenburg have denied the society
the use of any church for this purpose, on the ground
that " the society regards as justifiable even those
interpretations of Biblical truth at variance with the
cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith." This is the
first instance of such rigour being observed towards
them. The ecclesiastical edifices of the various minor

80 The State of Religion in Germany.

States, in which their annual meetings have been
hitherto held, were always readily placed at the dis-
posal of the society.

In reply to the letter of the Rev. C. H. H. Wright,*
which appears in your impression of the 19 th instant,
nothing can have been further from my thoughts than
to charge the German Protestant clergy with embrac-
ing orthodox views from a craven fear of the multitude.
But it is probably not disrespectful to them to say that
the length rationalism went has made many reject all
idea of effecting an understanding with those modern
philosophers they once regarded much more leniently.
At any rate, this opinion seems to be permissible till
such time as the Rev. C. H. H. Wright shall account
in some other way for the marked conversion to
orthodox tenets which began to occur among the
German clergy in the reign of Frederick William IV.

Berlin, August 24, 1869.

* Reprinted in the Appendix.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE BERLIN CONVENT.

Since adverting last to the subject, the monastery
in the suburb of Moabit has been repeatedly assaulted
by the mob. On one occasion the riotous multitude
penetrated into the building, and the secular portion
of the inmates had to defend themselves with hatchets
and other weapons of civil warfare until rescued by
the police. The shouts with which these attacks were
accompanied left no doubt as to the cause of the
irritation prevailing in Moabit. " How many have
you already immured ? " the besieging parties would
cry out, tauntingly, with an unmistakable allusion to
the terrible discovery lately made at Cracow. Others
would ask the Father Superior, "how he dared charge
the Moabit es with the sin of sensuous enjoyment, when
the worst they could be accused of was that they
preferred beer to water, while his monks preferred
alms to wages." As you may remember, reference to
the beery propensities of the hard-working smiths of

82 The State of Religion in Germany.

the locality head been made in Herr Midler's inaugural
speech, and it is probable that this wanton provocation
has done more to rouse bad feeling than anything else.
However, the tumults, which at one time began to
assume an ugly aspect, have at length been quelled by
the energetic action of the constabulary, and there are
no immediate apprehensions entertained as to the fate
of the meditative Fathers. It appears that, frightened
by the incessant hostilities, they left their ill-starred
retreat for a few days, and returned only after a
permanent garrison of thirty armed constables had
been accorded them. This detachment of the public
force still remains in the sacred edifice, and may be
seen loun^ino; about the cloisters and smoking irre-
verent cigars in precincts properly devoted to very
different purposes. Apart from the merit or demerit
attaching to monasteries, one cannot help thinking
that if thirty officers are required for the protection
of eight monks, the Protestant ratepayers of Berlin
pay rather dearly for the whim of those of their
Catholic townsmen who have thought fit to open such
an exotic establishment at Moabit. At present church
and monastery are under lock and key, and no visitors
admitted. To remove all fear of further disturbance,
a shooting match annually coming off at Moabit at

The Berlin Convent. 83

this season, and attracting crowds of artisans, has been
prohibited for this year. In addition to this pre-
caution, the chief of the police — who in Berlin, as in
most of the larger cities, is a nominee of the crown — ■
has asked the Town Council to warn the inhabitants
against damaging the convent, as all harm done must,
according to law, be repaired by the municipality.
Averse to admitting their liability before trial, the
Town Council did not comply with this request, but
there is no doubt that they will ultimately be obliged
to pay. It is said that the damage done is estimated
by the Fathers at three thousand thalers, and that
above seventy persons have been arrested at the
various outbreaks.

A noisy echo these rows had in a meeting held on
Sunday last in a locality on the borders of Moabit.
Educated men not thinking it worth their while to
oppose anything so out of date as a monastery, the
meeting was almost exclusively attended by operatives,
and from the outset resembled the beginning of an
emeiite rather than a debate. Some of the speakers
thought fit to represent monastic establishments as the
chosen abodes of stupidity and vice. Others blamed
the Government for tolerating convents, and yet raising
difficulties about the free — i.e., atheistic — congrega-

G 2

84 Tin- Shite of Religion in Germany.

tions. Asrain, others asserted the Berliners deserved
the disgrace of a convent in their city, having per-
mitted their Protestant clergymen to teach doctrines
scarcely distinguishable from Catholicism. If, these
advocates of extreme measures contended, the Ber-
liners were men, they would leave the Established
Church in a body, thus exploding Protestantism and
Catholicism, both, in point of fact, about equally bad.
Thus the debate like a ball was tossed hither and
thither, becoming more violent as more beer was
drunk. Though the speakers and the audience were
pretty well agreed, their fiery zeal gradually rose to
such a height that the smallest sign of moderation was
sufficient to cause an orator to be summarily ejected
from the rostrum. The worst fate befel a Catholic,
who ventured a few sentences in defence of the monks.
For all reply he was dragged down, bonneted and
kicked out of the assembly. In cou elusion, two
resolutions were passed. The one declares that " this
meeting does not object to religion, but hates the
abodes of vice and mental darkness yclept monas-
teries ; " the other censures the Crown for entering in
1821 into an agreement with the Pope, in accordance
with which the Catholic Church in this country is
left free to administer its own affairs without the inter-

The Berlin Convent. 85

ference of the State. It was in consequence of this
treaty — the resolution went on — that the monasteries
abolished in 1810 were re-introduced into Prussia in
1821, and, if the Parliament knew what they were
about, they would endeavour to repair this pernicious
mistake, and turn out all monks and Jesuits. Thus
with wordy explosions ended a meeting which the
timid anticipated would lead to a renewal #of the
Moabit rows.

A peculiar attitude has during this mimicry of reli-
gious war been observed by the administrative and
ecclesiastical authorities. In papers on excellent terms
with the Government the inauguration of the monastery
was at first spoken of with such marked benevolence
that the public could not but conclude their rulers
favoured the thing. According to the popular idea,
this but too fully agreed with the orthodox principles
pursued by the Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs in the
direction of the Protestant Church. In many parts of
Northern Germany public opinion no longer very
accurately distinguishes between Protestant and Catholic
orthodoxy, and if a man be such a strict Lutheran as
Herr von Mlihler,* people think it a matter of course
that he should patronise Catholicism also. But in this

* Herr von Mlihler, the Secretary for Church, and Education in the
present cabinet.

86 The State of Religion in Germany.

particular instance their inferences were destined to
meet with refutation. Scarcely had the indignation of
the educated been aroused by that provoking speech at
Moabit, scarcely had the artizans and mill-hands of the
manufacturing suburb resorted to a telling method of
resenting the taunt flung at them, than a paragraph
appeared in some papers, stating on good authority that
the chief of the metropolitan police had been entirely
ignorant of the proposed establishment of a monastery.
The Police President on such a question as this must
be regarded as identical with the Minister of Internal
Affairs, so that a disavowal referring to the one may
be said to apply with equal force to the other. A like
statement, but in an official form, was vouchsafed us
by the Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs, who says the
first he heard of the monastery was that it had been
opened. To render these revelations less startling to
the public, who had always believed that no convent
could be set up without a Government concession, a
semi-official paper was instructed to announce that
convents, being regarded as private societies, were not
obliged to obtain a direct permit from the authorities.
This, indeed, was an interesting disclosure. It implied
that, in a country where it is difficult for any society
to free itself from Government supervision, convents,

The Berlin Convent. 87

though notoriously exercising considerable influence on
those outside their walls, were looked upon as strictly
private, and, consequently, exempt from every control.
It implied, furthermore, that the Government had so
long left the people under an erroneous impression on
this important head, and that while every species of
dissent was discountenanced, Catholicism had been
practically favoured. Hence the feelings awakened by
the Ministerial announcement were of a very mixed
nature. People did not know whether they ought to
rejoice that a liberal interpretation of the law had
prevailed, at least, as regarded one description of
societies, or whether they ought to be angry because
of this exceptional liberalism having been confined to
convents. They, moreover, thought they perceived a
direct fostering of convents in the fact that as many
of them as had asked for the right of acquiring
property in their own name had been accorded this
valuable privilege by the authorities. There is no
doubt that the matter, which has long attracted the
attention of the Liberal party, will, in consequence of
these latest events, be discussed in the next Session of
the Prussian Parliament. To a certain extent the
Government will be able to defend themselves by
pointing to the law of the land, which, protecting

88 The State of Religion in Germany.

monks and nuns against all arbitrary dictates of their
superiors, tends to loosen the cords of discipline, thus
rendering convents less dangerous to inmates as well as
to outsiders. Under several statutes enacted at different
times, no monk or nun can be coerced into staying a
moment longer in a convent than he or she chooses.
To strengthen the protection afforded by these provi-
sions, another law makes the Father Superior respon-
sible for any punishment inflicted, even though it may
have been borne with the hearty consent of the victim.
Hence the imprisonment of a monk for a single hour
within the walls of his convent, however willingly
endured by the culprit, exposes the Superior to the
same punishment that would be incurred by a private
individual kidnapping and incarcerating another pri-
vate individual for a like period. Equal strictness is
observed with regard to blows and other personal in-
juries. If we add that no man is permitted to enter
this state of bodily and intellectual bondage before his
twenty-fifth, and no woman before her twenty-first
year, it cannot be denied that the perils and hardships
of monastic life are provided against as much as possible
by the law. However, public opinion hates not only the
more glaring deficiencies of convents, but the convents
themselves, and, though certainly not much disquieted

The Berlin Convent. 89

by their increase, yet views them as institutions which,
if they could, would crush out intellectual life.

The leniency of the Prussian Government has
certainly been turned to account by the priests. The
first convent was re-established in 1821. In 1855
there were 69; in 1864 they had, by the revival of
religious fervour in the priesthood, been increased to
243; by 1866 this figure had risen to 481, among
them eio-ht Jesuit Colleges. The number of monks
and nuns, 960 in 1855, amounted to 5,259 in 1864,
most of them beino- recruited from the humbler ranks

O

of society. Not a few of the convents are situate in
localities where the Catholics form only a minimum of
the population. Even Eisleben, Luther's native town,
has had one of these institutions bestowed upon it,
because of a few Catholic mill hands and miners
having been attracted there by the factories in the
neighbourhood.

Now that the typhus epidemic has fortunately dis-
appeared from the province of East Prussia, the Berlin
Society for the relief of the sufferers has published a
report, which may be recommended to the perusal of
all interested in eleemosynary topics. The report
draws a picture of ample and well-directed charity
never equalled in Germany. When in the winter

90 The Stat,' of Religion in Germany.

of 1868 famine and disease, the consequence of a
failure of the crops and commercial stagnation,
attacked the devoted province, the Berlin Society
was formed by a number of influential residents,
under the patronage of his Koyal Highness the Crown
Prince. In accordance with the principle laid down
by their Eoyal Protector, the society gave alms only
to the sick, providing work for the healthy, and,
instead of money, paying them in provisions at a
cheaper rate than they could have procured them
themselves. The women were taught to spin flax ;
the men set to make roads and do other manual
labour. By strictly adhering to this system, the
society preserved the self-respect of the poor, dimin-
ished the cost of relief, and guarded against indis-
criminate charity, so difficult to avoid at a period of a
great national disaster. So prudent an application of
their funds could not have been made without the
active assistance of a number of local committees,
endeavouring to ascertain the needs of every indi-
vidual family, and relieve them accordingly, and the
trouble these good men took in their benevolent work
has certainly done as much to counteract the evils of
destitution as the money itself. For the central direc-
tion of the various local committees, and the conduct

The Berlin Convent. 1)1

of the society's business generally, the country is
chiefly indebted to Herr George von Bunsen, who,
as honorary secretary, had a praiseworthy share in
the effective exertions of the Hilfs-Verein. The so-
ciety, within a few months, collected and spent the
greater part of 700,000 thalers. With it co-operated
several minor societies, of which the Berlin Ladies'
Society, under the patronage of the Queen, also raised
and distributed 375,000 thalers. The total amount
of money, provisions, and wearing apparel sent to East
Prussia in those calamitous days is reckoned at no less
than 2,000,000 thalers ; and it is probably owing to
this generous aid that no more than 8,000 were in-
fected with typhus in the districts of Konigsberg and
Gumbinnen, and that only 1,000 died.

As your readers may be somewhat interested to
know how my letters on the religious condition of
Germany have been received in the country they en-
deavour to pourtray, it may not be amiss to say that,
while contradicted in no paper I have seen, they have
been honoured with the unqualified approval of the
Cologne Gazette, the Jodie princeps of the German
Press.

Berlin, September 2, 1869.

CHAPTER IX.

PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION MEETING. — I.

Simultaneous with Parliament, the annual meeting
of the German Protestant Association was opened in
the not very suitable locality of a Berlin gymnastic
hall. The use of ecclesiastical buildings having, by
the King's officials at the head of the Church, been
denied the society on account of their free-thinking
propensities, they were obliged to fall back upon a
profane structure, placed at their disposal by the Town
Council. Unfortunately, the hall chosen is too large
for the friends of the society at Berlin. It would
seem that my former remarks on the indifference of
the general public to the society's ends and aims will
be borne out by the result of this year's meeting. At
any rate, the reasons which left men apathetic for-
merly remain in full force. In yesterday's debates, as
on previous similar occasions, the spokesmen of the
society omitted to prove the alleged necessity, or to
state the possible contents, of a religion deprived of

Protestant Association Meeting. 93

the doctrine of redemption, and the theistic notions on
which that doctrine rests. Yet it is evident that as it
is the society's object to recover for some such religion
the rationalistic majority of the educated classes, they
must plainly define the nature of their teaching before
they can make it go down. When God's interference
in the affairs of this sublunary world, in the ordinary
acceptation of the term, is denied, and the recovery of
lost sheep for a new religion, nevertheless, advocated
in the same breath, the public have a right to ex-
pect a plain and unmistakable account of the novel
faith. How is an atheist to be converted by telling
him that the Deity does not indeed influence the self-
supporting machinery of the Universe, but that there
is, nevertheless, something in that Deity, undefined
and undefinable, which, after all, it would be as well
to adore ? The society, stripping God Almighty of
the powers usually attributed to Him, makes His rela-
tions to the world so utterly different from what they
were hitherto believed to be, that they ought to con-
sider themselves obliged to state in so many words
what they propose to leave Him. Eeligious subjects,
it is true, are so delicate in their nature that no one
can be blamed for never mentioning them to his
neighbour ; but those who deem themselves called

94 The State of Religion in Germany.

upon to advert to them publicly, nay, to urge a
sweeping reform of the Church, might as well vouch-
safe us a clear and intelligible epitome of their
opinions. But whether the society do not think the
world sufficiently advanced to accept positive teach-
ing at their hands, or whether they despair of incul-
cating religious tenets at the present period of pre-
vailing indifference, they leave the most important
items of the controversy to be settled in the future.
Whatever their reasons, for this strange reserve, if they
do not demonstrate why religion, and which religion,
is necessary after the undeniable decline of the old
faith, they must not be surprised at this sceptic gene-
ration turning a deaf ear to their entreaties to come
and join them, or at the few remaining orthodox
charging the society with beginning a contest with-
out finishing it. I have dwelt the more upon this
singular hesitation of a body, so active and enter-
prising in other respects, as it seems to me the
characteristic feature of the movement.

Nor will the papers advocating the society's cause
greatly benefit it by recommending it not on its own
merits but as a means of combating orthodox in-
fluences on the people. In the Berlin National Zci-
tung, the lending organ of the cultivated and liberal

Protestant Association Meeting. 95

middle classes in the Eastern provinces, we read the
following significant lines : —

" Has religion really lost its hold upon educated
man, and is its action — as we are told so often — really
confined to exciting: the illiterate for a few transient
moments, and that by the most objectionable means ?
Public indifference is begotten of two causes : the con-
viction that the dogmas of the Church have been an-
nihilated by science, and a feeling of false security
with respect to the attacks and anathemas of the
ecclesiastical reactionaries. This feeling of security is
a complete delusion, as long as Church and State are
linked together, and the one helps the other to hector
it over the people. Philosophers and freethinkers,
moreover, are, as a rule, mistaken as to the effect of
their teachings on the masses. As yet no philosophy
has become truly popular, nor will ever become so . . .
At any rate, though the masses may be capable of en-
lightenment, they are not yet enlightened. The Pro-
testant Association is desirous of becoming a bridge
which shall lead from intellectual servitude to intel-
lectual freedom/'

The writer of the above does not think it worth his
while to contradict the alleged conviction of the in-
structed laity that religion has been annihilated by

9G The State of Religion in Germany.

science. On the contrary, he grounds his prayer to
the intelligent reader to interest himself in the Church
on the sole argument that that institution will other-
wise become the exclusive domain of orthodoxy, and
succeed in infusing old-fashioned prejudices into the
people. Were the public to act on his advice, they
would have to endeavour to wrench the direction of
the Church from His Majesty's orthodox -officials to
whom it is intrusted, and then use their newly-
acquired power in harmony with the above " convic-
tion." In other words, they would have to palm upon
the people a diluted form of the old faith, to be main-
tained as long as the poor benighted creatures cannot
be brought to see the futility of any faith whatso-
ever. But the public will do no such thing. Con-
sidering not only themselves, but also the lower classes
as above being imbued with the religious notions of
the past, they do not at all deem it needful to embark
in an ecclesiastical feud with the Crown. They might
some of them be recovered for a unitarian form of
religion, were the society, strengthened as it is with
the authority of the many eminent and highly respect-
able men in it, to advocate the adoption of such a
creed ; but from all such decisive steps the society
as yet resolutely abstains. Very likely the Vossische

Protestant Association Meeting. 97

Zeitung, which of all Berlin papers has the largest
circulation in Berlin, will be found right in its predic-
tion that the society, now that it has met for the first
time in this criticising capital, will either attract a
large number of friends or go away with previous
popularity impaired.

To return to the proceedings. The meeting was
opened by Dr. Schwartz, chaplain to the Duke of
Coburg-G otha, preaching the inaugural sermon in an
improvised pulpit, in the Gymnastic Hall. From his
eloquent and well-rounded periods I will quote only
the few following words : —

"We believe in Christ as an historical Personage
whose image has been obscured by fantastic traditions,
but whom we reverence as the pure and noble founder
of the Church. We believe in the Gospel and its
doctrine of all-embracing love as taught by Christ.
We deny miracles, knowing the universe to be governed
by fixed laws ; but we recognise the wonders worked
by the Spirit, we recognise the force of love and the
hope beyond the grave. We protest against the
assumption of our adversaries that in denying the
arbitrary interference of God in the progress of mun-
dane affairs we have abandoned our belief in a living

God."

ii

98 The State of Religion in Germany.

How the denial and the affirmation contained in
the last sentence are to be reconciled together the
Eev. Dr. Schwartz does not say. And yet this ought
to have been the principal thing to explain, inasmuch
as it is an evident and generally acknowledged fact
that the majority of those steeped in atheism have
been led into their lamentable perversion by first
denying the " arbitrary interference of God." Before
and after the sermon the congregation sang hymns
avowing; their faith in Christ and His Blood.

Dr. Bluntschli, Professor of Jurisprudence at Heidel-
berg, a distinguished and generally renowned poli-
tician, was then elected chairman of the meeting. In
returning thanks, among other things, he said : —

" The ancient Church was based upon the notion
of a subterranean hell, with demons, flames, &c.
Science has done away with this grotesque fancy,
as well as with all other fables, and the attempt
now making to subject 19th century reason to 4th
century superstitions will ever be futile. In these
modern days there is not a peasant boy but knows
better than to believe in those antiquated ideas. The
time will come when religion and knowledge will
be reconciled. It will come soon, and my sons, I
trust, will live to see it. Were the orthodox party

Protestant Association Meeting. 99

to come off victorious in the struggle, the Church
would ultimately consist of professional clergymen
preaching for bread, a good many hypocrites, and a
handful of believers."

After this the assembly entered upon the discussion
of the school question. The majority of the members
reject the supervision practically exercised by the clergy
over the elementary schools, and seem to be of opinion
that the public educational institutions should be open
to all denominations alike, though religious instruction
might be imparted to the pupils of each denomina-
tion separately. This is in opposition to the Prussian
Government, who, in the last thirty years, have
favoured separate schools for each sect.

The occasion of the meeting has been improved by
three famous preachers, members of the Verein, each
giving a lecture on a theological subject. The elegant
rooms selected for this purpose in a fashionable part
of the town were crowded with large audiences, ad-
mitted gratis. Dr. Baumgarten, late Professor of Theo-
logy at Eostock, spoke of the duties of the Protestant
Association with regard to its enemies. An earnest
and devoted man, the Professor insisted that the letter
killeth, but the spirit giveth life. The Eev. Dr.
Schellenberg, from Mannheim, in a lecture on Isaiah,

H 2

100 The State of Religion in Germany.

asserted the continuance of the gift of prophecy.
According to him, Luther, Lessing, Schiller, Fichte,
Schleiermacher, and Humboldt, by enlightening the
world, have become the successors of the Jewish
prophets of old. The Bev. E. Bulle, from Bremen,
in a lecture entitled " Our rigdrt to remain in the
Church," urged that "all Christ demands of us is
Bepentance and Faith. To act piously, therefore,
not to think dogmatically, is the one thing needful.
To enable the German Brotestant people to make
their Church what it ought to be, they must sever it
from the State and invest the conoTegations with the
right to arrange their own services." On to-day's
debates I shall report in my next.

Berlin, October 7, 1869.

CHAPTER X.

PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION MEETING. — II.

As on the first day of the meeting, so on the second,
the proceedings of the Protestant Association opened
by the performance of Divine Service. After the
singing of Lnther's " Ein feste Burg," the Rev. Dr.
Schiffniann, from Stettin, preached a most impressive
sermon. He said : —

" Those convinced of the omnipresence of God
Almighty might adore Him in a gymnastic hall as
well as in a church. The Protestant Association
aimed at reviving religion, respect for which had
declined among the people. When Christ was on the
earth the Jews did not lack priests and rabbis. They
had Sadducees, Pharisees, and other self-constituted
guardians of the faith, who prayed much, and offered
sacrifice, in the temple of Jehovah. Yet they ap-
peared to Christ as sheep having no shepherd. A
similar want of real, heartfelt piety, notwithstanding
all external devotion, had been noticeable in the Pro-

102 The State of Religion in Germany.

testant Church of Germany during the last thirty years.
By a certain party no sermon was now-a-days con-
sidered a Christian sermon unless the name of Christ
occurred in it over and over again ; no man accounted
religious unless a member of several religious societies.
With the persons he was alluding to it had become
the fashion to promote the interests of the Church,
and forget those of the kingdom of God. In opposi-
tion to these the Protestant Association endeavoured
to preach the pure, simple, and unalloyed Gospel
doctrine. He whose soul was accessible to the teach-
ings of Christ needed no theology, no rules and regu-
lations as laid down by the doctors of the Church to
become good and pious. To acknowledge the great-
ness and love of God, to do His will, to repent and
pray, was all that was inculcated by Jesus Christ.
This great and important fact should be preached to
those thousands who, ceasing to believe in ancient
dogmas, fancied there was nothing left for them but
to look upon all religion with indifference, and prac-
tically separate themselves from the Church. To win
these back to the essential truths of Christianity the
society had been set on foot. What other object,
indeed, than to obey the dictates of their conscience
could the members have ? They had no reward to

Protestant Association Meeting. 103

expect from the authorities of the Church, who dis-
approved their doings, nor from the public generally,
who looked upon them with apathy and coldness.
But they were labourers performing their allotted task,
and caring nothing for praise or immediate success.
They would continue their endeavours to bring to the
people that blessedness which comes from the know-
ledge of Christ."

Delivered with great fervour and earnestness, this
address was not without an edifying effect upon the
audience. By only inculcating the broad doctrine of
heartfelt piety, the preacher avoided the self-contra-
diction in which so many other members of the
society entangle themselves, of first seemingly re-
ducing God to a nonentity, and then enjoining faith
in Him.

After this Professor Schenkel, from Heidelberg, held
forth on the state of religion generally in Protestant
Germany. It was the speech of the day, and worthy
of the Professor's renown as a scholar, an orator, and
a thoroughgoing rationalist. A few extracts will

DO o

suffice : —

" Implicit belief in the letter of Holy Writ was
dying out everywhere. Liberty of conscience was
becoming equivalent to liberty of culture, in this, as

104 TJie State of Religion in Germany.

in all other civilized States of the world. Even
England, with her stolid adherence to ancient tenets,
was beginning to realise the fact that the kingdom
of God was not based on the Thirty-nine Articles and
fat sinecures. The Spaniards gave signs of shaking
off their rusty chains, and on the other side of the
ocean, in the United States of America, a new culture
was growing up on a soil richly prepared by the
servants of free and unfettered religion. To sever the
State from the Church, and subject it to the govern-
ment of its members, was more necessary in Germany
than anywhere else. Germany was the country of
the Eeformation, and would not hesitate to effect
another Eeformation, or even a revolution, to complete
the good work. The time would come when those
modern religious ideas which were already recognised
by the upper classes, and had even penetrated to the
lower strata of society, would become omnipotent.
Until that came about, the parsons would continue
to wrangle about dogmas, to the intense delight of
Pope and Jesuit. They would continue to denounce
the Protestant Association as a body of heretics, and
make religion so unreasonable and unintelligible a
thing that it was but too natural for weak and mis-
guided understandings to leave Protestantism alto-

Protestant Association Meeting. 105

gether and go over to Eome. The Hanover Church
had actually had the hardihood to depose two clergy-
men for placing their names on the list of the Pro-
testant Association. Who, on hearing of this deplorable
act, could help remembering that once there existed
a synod yclept ' the Synod of Bobbers 1 ' Unshaken
by this and other attacks, the Association would abide
by their conviction that the period of dogmatism had
passed away, but that the root of religion was still
alive, and would flourish for ever. He took the liberty
of proposing the following theses for adoption by the
meeting : —

" ' I. The main cause of the dissension prevailing
in the Evangelical Church of Germany, as well as
its consequent weakness and openness to attack from
Eome, is the policy of some German Governments
to hinder the free development of its principles and
vital force.

" ' II. Instead of a Church directed by parsons and
consistories, the nominees of the respective Govern-
ments, we demand a true German Church, under the
control of the congregations. The so-called synods re-
cently introduced into the six Eastern provinces of
Prussia are mere sham concessions to the principle of
self-government in the Church.

106 The State of Religion in Germany.

" ' III. To restrict scientific inquiry, and confine the
liberty of religious teaching within dogmatic limits, is
to sap the foundation of that evangelical life whose
only master is Jesus Christ, the Redeemer and per-
fecter of humanity.

" f IV. Firmly maintaining this the essential truth
of the Protestant faith, we protest against the absolute
rule of dogma, and the forcible imposition of religious
teachings. Whoever should see in this our declaration
a denial of the saving truths of Christianity, and,
imitating the Pharisees, desire our exclusion from the
Christian community, is guilty of sinning against the
cardinal virtue of Christian morality — Love.

" ' V. We repel and most determinately protest
against the unproved accusations laid to the charge of
our society by the authorities of the Prussian Church.
We do not object to any dogmatic teaching, provided
it co-operates with us in renewing and reviving the
Church on its old imperishable basis, in a spirit of
Gospel freedom, and in harmony with the civilization
of the age.

"'VI. All German men who are of like opinion
with ourselves are hereby again publicly and solemnly
invited to join us in struggling against all un-Pro-
tcstantistic and hierarchic aggression, and in pro-

Protestant Association Meeting. 107

tecting the right, the honour, and the liberty of
German Protestantism.' "

Like most other utterances of the society, this
speech was strangely reticent just where it ought to be
most explicit. It denied the attributes of the Divinity
as anciently understood, yet left it unexplained what
its relations to the individual and the world at large
are henceforth to be. This omission will be scarcely
compensated for by the introduction of such terms as
"Bedeemer" and "saving truths of Christianity" into
a rationalistic thesis, where they must necessarily mean
something very different from the accepted sense. All
the theses proposed were adopted.

Professor Schenkel was succeeded by several other
speakers of name and fame. Professor Baumgarten,
from Eostock, an orthodox Christian, said that he had
joined the society because it vindicated the principle
of disestablishment. The Kev. Dr. Schmidt called
Christ to witness that there were plenty of hypocrites
among the orthodox adversaries of the society. Pro-
fessor Dr. Von Holtzendorf, the famous jurist and
teacher of international law, moved for a resolution
to the effect, that the repeal of capital punishment
would not be contrary to Divine injunctions. The
anti-decapitation movement having lately made

108 The State of Religion in Germany.

considerable progress in the country, this resolution
was carried pretty unanimously* The singing of a
hymn closed the proceedings of the day and of the
meeting. The sittings had been attended by about
three hundred members and from four hundred to
five hundred visitors, — an inadequate number for
such a large and stirring place as Berlin.

* On a recent occasion the Judges of the Berlin Criminal Court,
being called upon to give an opinion on this much discussed question,
nearly one half of them declared for the repeal of capital punishment.
And still more recently — in March, 1870 — the Federal Parliament
passed a vote to the same effect, though they knew it would not be
sanctioned by Government. At about the same time, the Second
Baden Chamber declared in favour of the repeal ; the First Chamber
opposed the innovation, but only, because they did not think it oppor-
tune to introduce it before being ratified by the Northern Confederacy.
One of the arguments used by the opposers to capital punishment is
that intending criminals are not deterred by the fear of retribution,
but always hope to remain undiscovered. Decapitation, therefore,
not serving to diminish the number of murders, and being, moreover,
unsuited to a civilised age, it ought to be done away with. To this
reasoning the conservatives, and with them the Prussian Government,
retort, that capital punishment is enjoined in the Bible, and that, as
all punishments are a check, it follows that the severer the penalty
the surer its effect.

Berlin, October 9, 18G9.

CHAPTER XL

THE HUMBOLDT CENTENARY.

Yesterday the hundredth anniversary of the birth
of Alexander von Humboldt, was celebrated at Berlin,
his native city. Suitably to commemorate the day a
public ceremony was arranged by the municipal autho-
rities, which, occupying the morning, left the afternoon
and evening free for other more private and exclusive
festivities.

The public ceremony was held in the fields ad-
joining a poor and rather neglected suburb of this
wide metropolis. It consisted in the planting the
first tree of a park to be laid out for the benefit of
the inhabitants of that humble neighbourhood, and
to be named after the hero of the day. In addition
to this the first symbolical commencement of the new
Humboldt Park, a foundation-stone was laid for an
unpretending monument to be erected in the same
locality. A granite block, inscribed with Humboldt's
name, is the simple memorial to be placed in the
centre of the future pleasure grounds.

110 The State of Religion in Germany.

At ten o'clock a.m. the municipal officers and
members of the Town Council betook themselves
in solemn procession to the site of the commemora-
tive park. They were followed by many artisans,
divided according to their various trades, and march-
ing with flags and banners, in the usual German
style. Some other popular societies brought up the
rear. The few professors and students — there are
not many in Berlin during the long vacation — who
might be seen hastening to the spot, were mostly
in cabs, as the distance from the better quarters of
the town was considerable, and the weather abomin-
able. Of those sections of the higher and middle
classes not professionally interested in science and
literature, few representatives were perceived. The
ladies, for whom an especial platform had been
erected in the best place, could be easily counted.

The outskirts of the intended park were marked
by poles bearing flags of varied hues and devices.
In the centre stood a o-io-antic bust of Humboldt,
surrounded by a perfect forest of palm trees. Im-
mediately in front was dug the hole which was to
receive the foundation-stone of the monument. Here
were stationed in symmetrical lines the municipal
authorities, the trades' societies, and the choral unions.

Tlie Humboldt Centenary. Ill

All round this nucleus of respectability surged the
sea of the mixed population of the suburbs.

The singers having performed Beethoven's music
to the psalm, " The Heavens declare the glory of
God," the Burgomaster Seydel addressed the as-
sembly in a brief and characteristic speech. He
said : —

" They were celebrating the memory of one of the
greatest men that had ever graced or benefited hu-
manity. A genius in the walks of science, he was
equally remarkable for his patriotism and the interest
he took in the political and intellectual progress of his
comitrymen. His discoveries had eminently contri-
buted to do away with the belief in miracles, and
establish the truth that Nature was governed by im-
mutable laws. Eeligious mythology had disappeared
before the searching; light of Beason, and what he had
done, would continue to bear fruit and educate this
people and the world generally."

After this speech, received in absolute silence, Hen*
Duncker, the syndic of the town, read the document
to be enclosed in the foundation stone, which, in words
of Tacitean compactness, recounts the merits of the
distinguished scholar, and the resolution of the Town
Council to honour his memory by the creation of a

112 The State of Religion in Germany.

Humboldt Park. The usual strokes of the hammer
were then administered by Burgomaster Seydel, Field-
Marshal Wrangel, Count Bismark Bohlen (the com-
mandant of Berlin), Herr Peichenau (the chief super-
intendent of the Brandenburg schools), some liberally
inclined clergymen, and three professors, respectively
from Vienna, Leipsic, and Berlin. Before the stone
was lowered, Burgomaster Seydel begged leave to
communicate a congratulatory telegram he had just
received from the Crown Prince and Crown Princess.
In graceful sympathy with the event of the day, it ran : —
" Our cordial salutations to those that have met to
keep the Humboldt centenary. By doing honour to
her great fellow-townsman Berlin honours herself.
A hero in the field of science, Humboldt was the
friend and faithful servant of his King, and ever
warmly sympathized with the welfare of the people.
Few merit as he did the gratitude of his age, and of
coming generations.

" Friedrich Wilhelm ; Victoria."

Another sods:, semi-religious in character, accom-
panied the placing of the stone, upon which Herr
Kochan, the chairman of the Town Council, uttered
the closing oration. It was conceived in the same

The Humboldt Centenary. 113

demonstratively rationalistic spirit as the inaugural
harangue. Herr Kochan exclaimed : —

" Humboldt was the fittest representative of this
enlightened and progressive age. By his brilliant
discoveries in every department of natural science,
he had paved the way for a more correct apprehension
of this world and its glories. He had taught man-
kind to adore God in his works. The park they were
about to form would give the inhabitants of this town
another opportunity of admiring the Creator in the
beauty of tree and shrub, independent of all dogmas
and obliterated creeds. This was perfectly in unison
with the pure and uncontaminated doctrine of Christ,
though it might not agree with the absurd tenets
propagated by haughty parsons, to the jDrejudice of re-
ligion and truthfulness. Those that considered them-
selves followers of Alexander von Humboldt should
ever strive to eradicate superstition and ignorance."

During this speech the morning's drizzle had turned
into a pouring rain. It was a dismal sight to see the
passive multitude in the pelting shower. After three
cheers for the King, the assembly, which, excepting
the few customary attendant hurrahs, had from be-
ginning to end evinced no visible or audible sign of
interest, was but too glad to disperse.

114 The State of Religion in Germany.

Such was the public ceremony, which certainly did
not come up to the importance of the event. The
weather, it is true, was unpropitious, but other circum-
stances combined to mar the whole affair. Humboldt
was a determined Liberal. The political opinions he
uniformly expressed during his long and active life,
and still more a curious revelation concerning them
after his death, made the Court, Government, and
aristocracy look coldly upon the ovation. Many of
your readers may probably have heard of the inti-
mate friendship which bound the illustrious naturalist
to King Frederick William IV. Both were equally
sensible of the pleasure derived from intellectual
pursuits. Both were noble in character and poetical
in taste. An early intimacy between them was
continued beyond the period when the King, in the
vicissitudes of the political struggle of his time, had
turned Conservative. Humboldt continued to go to
Court, even when he no longer agreed with his Eoyal
friend on those numerous questions of political or
philosophical learning, to discuss which together had
in former days been their common delight. This
intellectual rupture between the sovereign and the
philosopher made the latter's position at Court an
awkward one, and eventually left him no friend in the

The Humboldt Centenary. 115

palace save the King. Since those days Frederick
William IV. has been gathered to his ancestors, a new
era has supervened, and Court and Government have
become more tolerant than they were in that gloomy
interval of Prussian history. If remembering at all
the sarcasms the Liberal scholar would sometimes
bandy about in the Eoyal chambers and antechambers,
they would have scarcely thought fit to show their
feelings on the centenary of a man of world-wide
fame ; but an unfortunate revelation, made after his
death, rendered it — it must be owned — rather difficult
for them to let bygones be bygones, to exalt the
naturalist and forget the politician. Humboldt's
special friend was the famous Varnhagen, an eminent
Prussian diplomatist, whom Liberal sentiments had
deprived of his position in the public service, in which
otherwise he would probably have reached the highest
steps of the ladder. Varnhagen, who achieved a first-
class literary reputation as the biographer of some
Prussian statesmen and generals, had a natural talent
for writing a diary, and collecting the small facts of
everyday life which in their aggregate go far to make
up history. During the long years he passed at
Berlin without public employment, this irrepressible
bent, together with the indignation he felt at the

i 2

116 The State of Religion in Germany.

proceedings of the Government, led him to put down
in black and white every word on politics he could
glean from leading men in State and Church. His
chief object being to delineate what he considered a
pernicious system, you may easily imagine what his
diaries are like. He had no sooner departed this life,
when his niece, to whom his literary papers were
bequeathed, thought it a duty she owed to her demo-
cratic friends to print sundry volumes of the
dangerous stuff. In them, among nianv other things
of the same nature, were found recorded numerous
utterances of Humboldt which cannot but be very
disagreeable to men still living and exercising no small
influence. The first result of the publication was that
the very name of Humboldt was tabooed by the Con-
servative party. Even many Liberals were at a 1
how to reconcile Humboldt's continued attendance
at Court with the things he, it now appeared, had
whispered in his friend's closet against that Court.
Indeed, from Varnhagen's jottings there can be no
doubt that he did not think it necessary to avoid
meeting and treating with the ordinary forms of polite
intercourse persons whom he hated and despised in his
heart. If he, nevertheless, went where he knew he
would have to converse with them in a courteous

The Humboldt Centenary. 117

manner, his motive probably was that he could not
reach the King without stumbling upon hi- M udants.
As to his feelings towards his Royal friend, there are
numerous facts to prove they were not affected by the
political estrangement between the two. Nay, that
political estrangement itself was never very serious.
lerick William IV., a man of uncommon talent, was
far too clever not to cherish many modern and en-
lightened opinions, even after his notions concerning
the value of Constitutional I rnment had I
modified to the extent of making him act mostly with
the I ..- -rvatives. He never was an absolutist. He
willingly submitted to that restriction of his Roy I
prerogative, which under the ancient arrangements of
the country pre 1 from the legitimate influence of

an intelligent, honourable and independent bureau-
cracv ; and if he thought that this mode of limiting
the Royal power was more conducive to the peoples
welfare than Parliamentary Government, this, in the
nineteenth century, was an error of judgment, but had
nothing in common with a vulgar lust of power.
Hence the King remained Liberal, generous, and
refined in thought and feeling, though but too many
of the men he had to employ for the furtherance of
his conservative politics were the reverse. It is no

118 The State of Religion in Germany.

wonder, then, that the relations between the Sovereign
and the scholar were not altered by their opposite
politics. But if Humboldt loved the King, whose
motives he respected, though he did not approve his
actions, he, in Varnhagen's closet, indemnified himself
by free speech for the unpleasantness of compulsory
intercourse with those political friends of his Sovereign
whom he thought selfish, stupid, and coarse. The
censure he then vented under the seal of friendship
told against yesterday's anniversary. Court and
Government scarcely noticed the day. Of the Koyal
family only the King and Crown Prince paid their
tribute of respect to the deceased ; the King by
sanctioning the erection of a Humboldt statue in
Berlin, and the Crown Prince and Crown Princess by
sending; the before-mentioned telegram. No Minister
and, with one exception, no chief of a Government
Board took part in the public ceremony ; no Govern-
ment office displayed a flag ; the schools were not
permitted to commemorate the day, and altogether the
thing was evidently not countenanced by the powers
that be.

But not Government alone, the higher and middle
classes likewise ignored the day. The artisans turned
out because they fancied, though wrongly, Humboldt

The Humboldt Centenary. 119

was a democrat ; the second and third rate streets
near the new park were decorated with banners and
garlands, as the festivities seemed to be got np for
their especial benefit ; but of well-to-do people few, if
any, were there, except the scanty list given above, and
scarcely a flag was to be discovered in the wealthier and
more fashionable quarters. The truth is that the scien-
tific merits of Humboldt are of a kind not to be easily
appreciated even by the cultivated classes. Excepting
a few volumes of secondary importance, a man to un-
derstand his works must himself be a scholar. But if
it is difficult for ordinary minds to form an adequate
idea of Humboldt's scientific deserts, it was all the
more easy to foresee that his centenary would be
turned into a mere rationalistic display by those,
honouring him rather as a champion of general en-
lightenment, thau as an able and minute inquirer into
the mysteries of nature. For though his discoveries
were all made in the field of abstract science, and have
no immediate bearing upon the debatable questions in
religion and politics, yet, as they extend to all branches
of physical inquiry alike, and have so powerfully con-
tributed to raise it to its present height, freethinkers
of all hues and shades have long been in the habit
of representing Humboldt as the most eminent ex-

120 The State of Religion in Germany.

portent of this modern era, with its skill in analyzing
the visible and its comparative indifference to the laws
and hopes that govern the more mysterious action of
the soul. Things fell out, as anticipated. The speakers
at the ceremony harped upon the one note of ration-
alism, and no doubt to the delight of the working men
around them. But the educated classes, it would seem,
have heard the like sentiments too often to care for a
repetition of them, however rhetorical. They knew
what they had to expect, and in consequence shone by
their absence. They certainly avow the truth of scien-
tific inquiry, rationalism, and so on ; but they are
scarcely sufficiently satisfied by the influence those
principles have thus far exercised upon their views of
life, religion, and morality to be desirous of hearing
them extolled again and again. In a word, they at
this moment lack the connecting link between science
and religion, and, while doing so, take no very earnest
interest in either.

In the evening a number of private festivities had
been arranged. The most attractive was that of the
Geographical Society, which brought together about
five hundred gentlemen, and was honoured with the
presence of Dr. Bancroft, the American Envoy, alike
distinguished as scholar and diplomatist, and some

TJie Humboldt Centenary. 121

Ministers of State. His Majesty had condescended
to express his regret at being, by the military
manoeuvres, prevented from attending. Dr. Bastian,
the ethnographical traveller, delivered an ardent and
elaborate speech, somewhat contrasting with the sober
tone of the meeting. The supper which succeeded was
graced by numerous toasts in honour of the occasion.
Professor Virchow communicated to the assembly the
greetings of Baroness Gleichen, a daughter of Schiller,
who to commemorate the friendship that bound her
father to the deceased, sent a laurel wreath for Hum-
boldt's bust. Herr von Ruthenow, an Austrian noble-
man, deputed by the Vienna Geographical Society,
amid universal applause, spoke in favour of that intel-
lectual unity of all Germany which must be preserved,
even were political reunion unattainable. Herr Lowen-
berg, a personal friend of Humboldt, thanked the town
of Berlin for the honours it conferred upon the departed
genius. These and many other speeches were appro-
priate enough, but being delivered, more Germanico,
between the various dishes, kept people two hours
hungry and five hours at table.

Another more popular meeting was held at Krolls,
where artisans an'd tradesmen met to hear Humboldt
praised by a Radical philosopher. The middle classes,

122 The State of Religion in Germany.

absent in the morning, were equally undemonstrative
in the evening. Whether the similar social gatherings
which came off at Leipsic, Dresden, Munich, Vienna,
Prague, Teplitz, arid many other German and Austrian
towns were a success has not yet been reported. The
papers abounded with glowing leaders beforehand.

The centenary has suggested two interesting books.
The one j ust out is a collection of Humboldt's letters
to Chevalier Bunsen, the late Prussian Ambassador in
London. The contents are mostly political, displaying
the well-known liberalism, of the writer, who knew his
sentiments were cordially reciprocated by his corres-
pondent. The other book is a biography, to be
published shortly under the direction of Professor
Bruhn, at Leipsic. The plan upon which it is to be
written is as unique as the man whose portrait it
undertakes to give. It will be composed by twelve
Professors, each describing Humboldt's achievements
in that particular branch of natural science to which
he litis specially devoted himself. One man suffices
not to describe this one.

Berlin, September 15, 1869.

CHAPTEE XII.

A DAY OF PRAYER AND HUMILIATION.

Regarding with anxious solicitude the religious
controversy going on in the country, the King three
weeks ago issued the following decree, appointing a
day of Prayer and Humiliation : —

" The great movements which in our age are making
themselves felt in the religious life both of nations and
individuals and are pressing forward to a decision, and
the tasks they impose on the Protestant Church of our
country, are apparent to all, and admonish us to entreat
the support of Almighty God. It is therefore my will
that a day be set apart in the Protestant Churches of
my country for special prayer that God may pour out
his blessing on the present important deliberations as
to the constitution of our Church, and to implore Him
to protect the Protestant Church from all clangers that
threaten it, and to strengthen the ties which unite its
members to each other and to the Church universal. I
have appointed the 10th of November, the birthday of

124 The State of Religion in Germany.

Dr. Martin Luther, for this purpose, and hereby com-
mission the Minister, and the highest ecclesiastical
authorities of Prussia, to make the necessary arrange-
ments.

" William."
" Baden-Baden, Oct. 21, 18G9."

I am afraid I cannot say the metropolitan churches
were fuller on November 10 th than on ordinary occa-
sions.

Beklin, November 12, 18G9.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE PRUSSIAN GOVERNMENT AND THE ESTABLISHED

CHURCH.

Yesterday and to-day Herr von Miihler, the
Minister of Ecclesiastical and Educational Affairs, Las
been again set upon by the Liberals in the Lower
House. The Budget of his particular Department
being brought up for discussion, not a few members
profited by this rare opportunity for telling the Minister
what the immense majority of educated men in the
country think of him. His Excellency,, as I have had
occasion previously to observe, is the avowed antago-
nist of the latitudinarian views lately prevalent in this
part of the world. In this respect many good, pious,
and enlightened men agree with him, or, if uot, are, at
any rate, imbued with sufficient reverence for religion
in the abstract to be able to appreciate the motives
which urge him to contend for the old form of faith.
But the arms he employs in the great spiritual battle
of the day are generally thought not to be the most

126 The State of Religion in Germany.

suitable for this latter half of the nineteenth century.
Herr von Miihler, who practically, though not nominally,
is the chief of the Established Church, designs to cure
the intellectual disease of the age by unreasoning belief
in the letter of the Bible, and is all in favour of the
strong secular arm for carrying out his purpose. A
strict creed which shall pronounce dogmatically even
on the minute details of sacred mysteries, and shut
out entirely the light of modern science, is the medi-
cine he prescribes for his benighted countrymen : and
if they will not swallow it willingly, as many as cir-
cumstances permit him to coerce are made to feel that
it must be gulped down somehow. The classes under-
going this forcible process are the clergy, the teachers
in public and private schools, and the scholars them-
selves. By the clergy not much resistance has been
as yet offered him. On the contrary, many Protestant
ministers, frightened by the ever-increasing strength of
disbelief around them, have cordially adopted the views
of their secular chief, and are zealously co-operating
with him in the Sisyphean task he has dauntlessly
imposed upon himself. All the more dissatisfied with
his measures are the teachers, the University professors,
and the educated Laity at large. Leaving alone for
the present the scholastic profession, whose grievances

The Prussian Government and the Church. 127

will be explained in a special letter, we find the upper
classes adhering to notions diametrically opposed to
those of the minister and his ecclesiastical friends.
In proportion as belief in the letter of Holy Writ
has been insisted upon as the primary duty of man,
the churches have become emptier, until, broadly
speaking, they are attended only by the few sharing
these strict opinions, and the uneducated, whose reli-
gion is one of feeling and habit rather than reflection.
In Berlin, for instance, most of the Churches are in-
variably empty, although the accommodation provides
only for 25,000 out of a population of 800,000. How-
ever little they may have intended it, it is a fact that
the spread of Eationalism, instead of being stopped
by the clergy reverting to orthodox views, has been
indirectly promoted by the many uncompromising
reverend gentlemen ranging themselves on this side
the question. Determined latitudinarians are, of
course, too far gone to be easily recovered by clergy-
men who look upon them as lost and undone ;
but even people of more moderate views, with a
residue of religious sentiment left, wTho by more con-
genial instructors might be gained back to a posi-
tive form of religion, are alienated by the excessive
discrepancy between the ordinary compass of their

128 The State of Religion in Germany.

thoughts and the demands made upon them. People
of this wavering class I have often heard say, that
though to deserve its name religion must certainly
define the relation between God and man, yet if it
put forth positive statements on our connection
with the Almighty, clashing with science and com-
mon sense, it cannot be the form of faith required
for a reasoning age. Hence, the unpalatable les-
sons inculcated by the clergy find as little favour
in the eyes of the public, as the more modern but
vasaie and indefinite Generalities of the Protestanten-
Verein : the truth, it is thought, must be somewhere
between the two opposite doctrines, of which the one
pretends to know too much and the other is content
with having to say too little on a subject which ought
to be the chief concern of every rational being.

The ecclesiastical regime which has been unable to
obviate such painful consequences is, moreover, in the
eyes of the Liberals, based upon a forced and altogether
unjustifiable interpretation of the law. By the Prussian
Charter enacted in 1850 the Established Church was
made independent of the State, and became free to ad-
minister its own affairs. Instead of, as was expected
from this enactment, leaving the congregations to look
after themselves, the King, in his ancient capacity as

The Prussian Government and the Church. 129

membrum prcecipuum of the Church, re-appropriated
the ecclesiastical power of which the charter had
deprived him as the Sovereign of the land. The
spiritual attribute thus claimed by the KiDg is cer-
tainly in accordance with a principle acknowledged by
Luther himself in his latter clays, when the necessity
of providing a fit government for the unruly believers
of his age made him confer the privilege of Church
supervision upon the various Protestant Sovereigns of
Germany; but if it held good then, it is none the
less at variance with modern views, and, far from
being confirmed in the charter, has — at any rate, as
the Liberals read that document — been expressly con-
tradicted in it. But, say what they might, the Crown
put its own construction on the clause in question,
and from sheer indifference Parliament omitted to
couch a formal protest. The upshot of the whole affair
was that the Crown continued to reign supreme over
the clergy, and that Parliament, which but for the
nominal disestablishment pronounced in the charter,
would have shared the legislative prerogative in the
ecclesiastical as in every other department of the public
administration, was denied the right of intermeddling
with the " independent Church." This very peculiar
arrangement the Crown, it is true, itself considered

130 The State of Religion in Germany.

provisional ; yet it lias never been altered. Since
first imposing it the King has controlled the Church,
not as King, but as membrum prcecipuum; not in
conjunction with Parliament, but alone as supreme
ecclesiastical dignitary ; not through his Minister of
Ecclesiastical Affairs, who, being an officer of the
State, cannot serve a spiritual chief, but through a
clerical Consistory, absolute and omnipotent, called the
Ober-Kirchen-Kath. From what I have said above
I need not tell you that the Consistory is virtually
appointed by the Minister, whose influence in the
Establishment accordingly remains as great as it was
in ante-constitutional times. Yet I do not know
whether, but for Herr von Mtihler, the Liberals would
have been ever very loud in uttering any indignation
at this extraordinary mode of reform. In all that
regards religion public opinion has long been so very
apathetic in this country that for years people scarcely
cared to inquire who appointed the clergy and with
whom rested the power to depose them. It was only
the energetic use Herr von Mtihler made of his
authority in fomenting orthodox tenets which induced
people to take again an interest in the Church, and
after a time caused them to hiss and groan where
formerly they had been mute and indifferent spectators.

The Prussian Government and the Church. 131

Within the last few weeks their dissatisfaction has
been raised to an uncommon height by certain novel
proceedings of their Ministerial adversary. It must be
owned, he is as fearless as he is incautious. Not satis-
fied with resting the supreme government of the Pro-
testant faith upon what, in the most charitable view
of the case, is a venturesome construction of an am-
biguous phrase, his Excellency has now been pleased to
employ an analogous method to endow the Church
with Synods. With a view to establish a sort of
connection between the absolutistic government of the
Church and the congregations representative assem-
blies were some time ago instituted in the various
parishes and dioceses of the old provinces. They had
no right to decide, but only to advise ; the lay
members among them were elected by the congrega-
tions, but only out of a list of candidates presented
by the clergy ; and their sphere of action practically
extended to only the most trifling, and, so to say, local
items of Divine service. By these local Synods the
Minister has now caused Provincial Synods to be
elected, which at this moment are discussing matters
of wider importance, and, entering as they do upon
the delicate topics of creed, Prayer Book, and the like,

necessarily attract some attention. What nobody had

K 2

132 The State of Religion in Germany.

troubled himself to do before, the peculiar mode of
forming these assemblies is being looked into by the
public. The theories propounded by their members
are examined, and the idea of creating institutions so
novel in their composition, so antiquated in their
aim, is criticised. What colour these remarks assume
it would be superfluous to dilate upon. If Herr von
Mtihler did not consider it natural and even imperative
upon him to regard those who are of his own way of
thinking as the only true members of the Church,
he would certainly have taken care not to show the
people so openly that their Church at present belongs
to the clergy— an absolutely governed clergy, too —
but not to them. If I am rightly informed, the in-
expediency of his proceedings in this particular case
has been sufficiently noticed in the Cabinet and the
spheres immediately above it to render the speedy
dissolution of the Provincial Synods extremely pro-
bable. Meanwhile there are about a dozen of them
stirring up the country to religious agitation, and
provoking Parliament to treat the Minister who has
convened them as no Minister of the Prussian Crown
ought to be treated. The excess of his zeal is also
shown in another significant instance. Some of your
readers may be aware that the Established Church of

The Prussian Government and the Church. 133

Prussia is a compromise between the Lutheran and
Calvinistic creeds, and, as such, attaches comparatively
inferior importance to those disputed points about the
Real Presence which so long kept the two Protestant
denominations of the Continent asunder. Now Herr
von Muhler, though practically at the head of the
Established Church, happens to be more orthodox
than the institution intrusted to his care, and has
long favoured the tendency of those of the clergy who,
more or less openly oppose the compromise between
the two kindred creeds, and endeavour to supersede
the Established religion by returning to the Old
Lutheran and Old Reformed faiths. The Old Luther-
ans especially, as they believe in the letter of Holy
Scripture, and assert Christ to be bodily present in
the bread and wine, have ever been the Minister's
favourites. Having shown this predilection in Prussia
Proper before the late annexations, he has since been
only too happy to evince it in the new provinces,
where the Lutheran creed is the established one.
That those men in the new provinces most eager in
keeping up the Lutheran creed are not only ultra-
orthodox in religion, but also ultra -Conservative in
politics, and consequently adherents of their dethroned
dynasties, has been too worldly a consideration to be

134 The State of Religion in Germany.

taken into account by Herr von Miihler. In Hanover,
for instance, where a considerable portion of the
clergy are Old Lutherans and Old Guelphians into
the bargain, the Prussian Minister of Church and
Educational Affairs was so enchanted with their re-
ligious tendencies as to entirely overlook their politics,
and place the elementary schools under their exclusive
control — a thing nowhere else done, either in the new
or old parts of the country. Instead of being grateful
for this, the Hanover clergy, in their present Synod,
have raised the question whether a Prussian King,
being of the Established religion of the old Monarchy,
has the right to take cognizance of anything that
concerns the Lutheran Church of Hanover, except, of
course, the rendering all needful assistance by the
b ) xwchium secu lare.

Berlin, December 1, 1869.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SCHOOLS AND THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH.

However much the public mind was engrossed by
the Church debate, it is even more intensely excited
by the School question, now under discussion in the
Lower House. No wonder it is so. The influence
Herr von Miihler, the Minister of Church and Educa-
tional Affairs, exercises on things ecclesiastical is
certainly wielded in a more orthodox spirit than
educated men desire ; nay, it is of a more rigorous
and uncompromising cast than the teaching of Luther
himself, who, it is well known, did not believe in the
literal inspiration of all the books of the Bible, and
even declared some of them to be the product of
ordinary human writers. Still, as few people go to
church now-a-days, the public suffer no direct in-
convenience from the pulpit being, in accordance with
Ministerial mandate, made the vehicle for the pro-
pagation of doctrine considered antiquated as far
back as the time of the great Reformer ; and if

136 The State of Religion in Germany.

the injury people indirectly sustain from being kept
out of the churches by uncongenial teaching is for-
midable and cannot be regarded in too serious a light,
this is a circumstance not so generally felt at a period
but too much inclined to neglect spiritual for temporal
concerns. But the defects in the educational system
are brought home to every household. In Prussia
public and private schools alike are controlled by the
Minister presiding over that department. In all of
them must be taught whatever he is pleased to
prescribe, without either parents or teachers having
any voice in the matter, or being allowed to appeal
to a higher and less arbitrary authority. Hence, who-
ever cannot afford to have his children privately in-
structed in his own house is obliged to submit to
their being brought up according to the plan laid
down by Government. Under these circumstances it
cannot be a matter of indifference to parents that the
Government — represented in the present instance
by Herr von Miihler — should have latterly forced
upon the schools a severe form of orthodoxy, which is
rejected even by numbers uninfected by the fashion-
able taint of rationalism. Enlightened fathers of
families have to shake their heads in dismay at see-
ing religious instruction chiefly confined to mystical

The Schools and the Established Church. 137

details altogether beyond the grasp of the youthful
intellect. Mothers may be heard to complain that
certain subjects, which modern orthodoxy makes it a
point not to shrink from, are brought too promi-
nently forward before their little ones. And both
fathers and mothers have for some years had but too
much occasion to regret that the method employed
in acquainting their sons with sacred things should
mainly consist in making them learn by heart a
greater quantity of texts, hymns, and biblical stories
than could be digested by the children, even did
they understand them. If the protests of parents
have not been louder, it is not for want of dislike
to the system. The fact is that religious training, as
imparted by the Minister's fiat, is in too glaring dis-
crepancy with the prevailing views of the age to make
any impression on the children. Being aware that
Herr von Miihler is vainly employed in filling the
Danaides' bucket, the parents are content not to dis-
turb him in his futile task. They, indeed, lament that
so much precious time should be consumed in commu-
nicating to their children that which they themselves
regard as useless and do not hesitate to tell them is
untrue ; but they have slight apprehension that the
"Old World tales" the boys hear at school will take

138 The State of Religion in Germany.

root. As, moreover, the scientific instruction given in
the higher educational institutions remains as excellent
as ever, parents upon the whole think they can afford
to smile at the Ministerial attempt to imbue the
youthful mind with religious notions opposed to their
own. It is only on occasion of Parliamentary debates,
such as have been held the last few days, that the
contrast between official and popular views is dis-
tinctly felt and resented.

The preceding remarks refer to the Grammar-
schools and other superior establishments in which
the youth of the country are prepared for the higher
walks of life. Much worse is the effect of the Muhler
system on the elementary schools, where the children
of the lower classes imbibe their little item of know-
ledge to guide them through life's wearisome journey.
In the case of these humbler nurseries of learning; the
new system is not confined to the religious lessons, but
extends to all lessons alike. As early as 1854 Herr
von Raumer, a member of the Manteuffel Cabinet,
upon which devolved the task of putting down the
radical hankerings which had manifested themselves
so rudely in the movement of 1848, caused a new
plan of instruction to be drawn up for the primary
schools. His main object was to quench the en-

The Schools and the, Established Church. 139

lightened, independent, and inquisitive spirit fos-
tered under the scholastic system till then pursued.
Somehow this Minister had conceived the idea that
the lower classes had a better education than was
wholesome for them, and that but for this egregious
mistake of their rulers the troubles of 1848 would not
have occurred. So he resolved upon a radical reform,
and recklessly set to to change an order of things
which it had cost a century to rear, which had grown a
distinctive feature of the land, and which, by the com-
mon consent of the civilised world, had been a prin-
cipal means of bracing up this people to pass unhurt
through many a serious political crisis. Since then
the Eaumer regime has prevailed in the elementary
schools. Bad enough as it was, it remained for Herr
von Miihler to develop its injurious qualities still more
fully, and render it the bane it is. At present in-
struction in natural science, history, and geography is
reduced to a minimum in elementary schools. Prac-
tically, the children learn little beyond reading, writing,
ciphering, and very many hymns and texts. Of these
four subjects, hymns and texts have in the lower
classes the greatest number of lessons devoted to them,
while in both lower and higher forms nearly two-thirds
of all that is committed to memory is religious matter.

140 The State of Religion in Germany.

According to a statement which has recently appeared
in the papers, and remains uncontradicted, the children
in the rural schools of the Gumbinnen district, where
this injudicious system has reached its acme, are made
to devote nearly four times as many hours to religious
matter as to reading and writing. That orthodoxy
has been promoted among villagers and artisans, by
thus taking from them the modicum of science com-
municated under the former plan of instruction, no
one acquainted with Prussia will assert ; that religion
has been effectively inculcated by a method addressing
itself to the memory rather than the understanding
and the heart, I have never seen stated ; but it is
admitted on all sides that mental culture has suffered.
If the leaven of knowledge had not by a century of
good instruction permeated the public mind too
thoroughly to be neutralized by twenty years' bad
schools, the consequences of the Raumer-Mtihler
method would be even more visible than they are.

Simultaneously with this transformation of the ele-
mentary schools was effected a corresponding reform
of the seminaries in which the teachers are trained.
Formerly the pupils of these seminaries received a
tolerably liberal education. They learnt sufficient to
enable them to realise the moral dignity of knowledge

The Schools and the Established Church. 141

and infuse the like sentiment into the youthful mind.
At present they are denied this lofty privilege of their
calling. Rightly judging that no particular culture is
wanted to render a man a mere teacher of the alphabet
and a reciter of texts, Herr von Eaumer had the train-
ing of the elementary schoolmaster ground down to a
pattern quite on a par with the low requirements of
his future calling. Now-a-days seminarists are per-
mitted to know but little of natural science, geography,
history, poetry, and logic, their time being chiefly
taken up in repeating by rote an overpowering num-
ber of those hymns, texts, and Biblical extracts, to
hammer which into the children's heads is to be the
chief occupation of their lives. All mental food not
in absolute accordance with the verbal interpretation
of the Bible is prohibited within the walls of the
seminary ; every method tabooed, which could initiate
pupils in the historical development of early Chris-
tianity. These principles are carried so far that the
young candidates are strictly forbidden to read Gothe,
Schiller, or any of those modern classics, the boast of
the nation ; while on the other hand there is so little
done to accustom them to make use of their brains
that mathematics are frequently taught in the semi-
naries on a novel system, specially invented to make

142 TJie State of Religion in Germany.

them as mechanical as this the most logical of sciences
will admit of. Have the teachers been rendered more
orthodox by this meagre diet ? At their last general
meeting at Berlin a unanimous voice declared against
what they denounced as an absolutely pernicious
course.

That this opinion is shared by all classes of society,
down to the very lowest, we have the melancholy
satisfaction of being able to prove by undeniable
statistics. It is an old story that elementary teachers
in Prussia are underpaid. Only that love for their
office which has so long distinguished them as a class
could reconcile these useful members of society to the
sacrifices it entails, and supply candidates for vacan-
cies. Formerly many a teacher's son, while enduring
the inconveniences of want under the paternal roof,
yet became so deeply impressed with the beauty of
the scholastic vocation as to make it a life's ambition
to become his father's successor. Now, neither teachers'
sons nor any others are particularly anxious for the
honour. Who can blame them ? What, not to speak
of present poverty and the absence of future pros-
pects, is there so attractive in this unprofitable pro-
fession, that should incline a man to forfeit his dignity
by having to inculcate what he docs not approve ?

The Schools and the Established Church. 143

It is but natural that in the last six years there should
have been noticeable a constantly increasing dearth of
elementary teachers. Eventually it became so sen-
sibly felt that, to keep the schools open, Government
was obliged to have recourse to a sort of recruiting
system, unheard of in the scholastic department of
any country, and doubly odious in a land where, till
within a short time ago, the position even of the ele-
mentary teacher had been considered a highly-respect-
able one. The teachers officiating in primary schools
were actually offered a premium for each young man
they could entice into the profession. The mere
proposal of this expedient raised an outcry in the
profession ; and though a few recruits were caught
under the new system, it did not answer to anything
like the extent required. Other means, therefore, had
to be employed. Abandoning all hope of enlisting
men of any degree of cultivation, however slight,
Government at last thought themselves compelled to
seek for candidates among the humblest classes of
society. In a word, Government, a couple of years
ago, began converting field- hands and artisans into
village schoolmasters. Not to alarm these children of
nature by too much preliminary study, the course of
instruction in the seminaries, ordinarily fixed at five

144 The State of Religion in Germany.

and six years, in their case was cut clown to little
more than ten months. Already some hundreds of
villages are provided with professors hatched under
this novel process. But the worst of it all — or rather
the best of it — is, that, notwithstanding the sorry
tactics stooped to, the need of elementary teachers is
as great as ever. There are at this moment nearly
three thousand vacancies waiting to be filled up.

These are serious facts. In order to teach a form of
religion which in the present intellectual state of the
country does not impress the youthful mind, but, on
the contrary, absolutely blunts it to a sense of all reli-
gion, Government have suffered national education to
retrograde from that high excellence, the result of a
century's continued efforts, the glory of three great
Sovereigns. Government ought to consider that by
prolonging this state of things they are rousing a
spirit of opposition in the people which may even-
tually render it difficult for them to retain their
prized right of control over the schools. I say Govern-
ment ought to consider this, not Herr von Mtihler, as,
of all men, he is sure not to give in. Although all
Liberal members in the House are unanimously
against him, although but few Conservatives can be
found venturesome enough to undertake his defence,

The Schools and the Established Church. 145

although, worst of all, the Ultramontanes are his only
real adherents, he has just submitted a Bill expressly
designed to perpetuate the system. It is anticipated
that the House of Deputies will reject it in toto.

I must not close this letter without alluding to the
painful discrepancy between the teaching of the Univer-
sities and that of the grammar-schools. The moment a
young man is promoted from the Gymnasium to the
College, his religious atmosphere is entirely changed.
In the Gymnasium the strictest orthodoxy prevailed ;
in the College — unless, indeed, his study is theology —
he will not fall in with many professors whose lessons
do not evince rationalistic tendencies. Now it may be
more easy to regulate the grammar-schools than the
Universities, which are the pride and glory of the land,
and give it its intellectual tone ; but how can a youth
be expected to reverence religion when, directly he
emerges from the severe training of boyhood, his new
masters teach him to look upon all his former les-
sons as mere food for babes and infants ? Is not this
precipitous change of itself enough to upset religious
belief for life 1

Berlin, December 4, 1869.

CHAPTER XV.

THE SYNODS.

A few days ago the King received a deputation from

the Brandenburg Synod, now sitting at Berlin, and, in
reply to a loyal address, expressed himself as follows :

" I am much obliged to you for your kind and
cordial wishes, and shall be happy to see you finish
your work in peace. It is very necessary, indeed, that
something should be done to quiet the excitement
lately prevailing in matters ecclesiastical. The enemies
of the Church are numerous in these days. In this I
am not alluding to the Roman Catholics, but to those
who have ceased to believe. What is to become of us
if we have no faith in the Saviour, the Son of God ?
If He is not the Son of God, His commands, as coming
from a man only, must be subject to criticism. What
is to become of us in such a case ? I can only repeat
that I wish to see you finish in peace the work in which
you are engaged."

This closed the audience. The work imposed on the
Provincial Synod and referred to by the King is chiefly

The Synods. 147

that of sanctioning the way in which its members are
elected by the district Synods, those of the district
Synods by the parish Synods, and those of the parish
Synods by — the clergy. It may be strange, that the
whole complicated ecclesiastical representative system,
as newly established, should be based upon the nomi-
nees of the parish ministers. But so it is ; for, although
the parish Synods, from which the others issue, are
chiefly composed of lay members elected by the con-
gregations, none can be returned unless nominated by
the local preachers. To sanction this peculiar sort of
ecclesiastical franchise, recently imposed by the Crown,
and also to declare that the right to advise the King is
all that should be vested in those different assemblies,
the provincial Synods have now been convoked, and,
being practically appointed by the clergy, naturally
expressed themselves highly gratified that this same
arrangement is to continue. But these ecclesiastical
votes are making some noise in the country, causing
the King to apprehend that the work will not be
finished in peace. Though to the great majority of
the people everything occurring within the pale of the
Church is such a matter of indifference that even these
novel Convocations would of themselves have failed to
impress them, there are those who have directed public

L 2

148 The State of Religion in Germany.

attention to the subject. The Protestanten Verein has
taken the field against the Synods. Made up of men
rejecting the ancient creeds, yet sufficiently religious to
long for some new Church, this society is strenuously
opposed to the forcible means employed by the clergy
of the Establishment in maintaining their views and
position in the State. Accordingly their protests
against the composition and votes of the Synods are
loud and numerous. To give you an idea of the
energy with which this small but wealthy, educated,
and respected portion of society pronounces against
those Synods which the King, in the confiding honesty
of his heart, hopes are destined to remove existing
difficulties, I will quote a few lines from a speech de-
livered at the last meeting of the Berlin branch of the
Verein. The meeting was convened to protest against
the " arbitrary composition " of the Synods. Before
passing some telling resolutions to this effect, it atten-
tively listened to an address from Professor von Holt-
zendorff, in which were the following passages : —

" In the provincial Synods were assembled all the
most eminent clergymen of the Established Church.
All very orthodox, and many of them highly intel-
lectual, their debates had nevertheless only served to
display the emptiness and hollowness of the present

The Synods. 149

Church. If the members of the Synod had been
sitting in a Byzantine Council of the sixth century
they could not have more thoroughly ignored the
results of modern science and thought than they had
done. All their wisdom had not sufficed to enlighten
them as to what the religious convictions of the
Prussian people are, and in what manner their religious
wants ought to be satisfied. Not the ancient creeds,
but love to God and our neighbour, is, in this age,
considered the one thing needful. To try to uphold
the creeds by force, and thereby practically shut out
the congregations from the churches, as is done by the
Government, is a terrible mistake, and cannot but
inflict the severest injury up011 the State. Had
Prussia been defeated in 1866, and lost a portion
of her territory, it would have been easier to bear
than if the victor, instead of taking land, had imposed
it as a condition of peace that the Prussian Church
should be governed in the style it now is."

These sentiments were all warmly applauded by the
meeting. I believe there are those among the clergy,
even among the most orthodox portion of it, who do
not deny that Synods elected in so peculiar a way,
cannot be regarded as fairly representing the laity,
for whose benefit they were formed. But, the clergy

150 The State of Religion in Germany.

will ask, how is it possible to accord a less restricted
franchise to the laity when the majority never attend
Divine service, and, if allowed a vote, would only use
it to the detriment of one and all of our sacred institu-
tions ? No one can deny the force of this objection.
Were the people who have ceased going to church
sufficiently religious to ask for some other settled form
of faith than the one handed down to them, the clergy
might be led to consider the possibility of a compro-
mise ; as it is, and while a pious wish for ecclesiastical
reform is entertained by only a small minority, the
clergy would not only ruin themselves, but also the
Church, were they to allow it to be governed by the
congregations. Perhaps if the more earnest members
of the Protestanten Verein were to tell us not only
which portions of the ancient creeds they reject, but
also which they retain, a standard might be set up
around which others would gather, and which the
clergy, or at least a portion of it, would still regard
as Christian, so as to be able to concede to its ad-
herents the right to have a voice in Church affairs.
In the meantime it is very true that none in Prussia
have less to do with the Church than the congrega-
tions. What the Synods are we have seen above : in
what way the clergy who appoint the Synods are

The Synods. 151

themselves chosen will be seen from the following
figures, which refer to the ecclesiastical statistics of
the province of Brandenburg. In this province, a
good specimen of the others, there is a Protestant
population of 2,598,000 souls, belonging to 2,387
parish churches. In these churches officiate 1,317
clergymen, appointed for life, assisted by, I believe,
a small number of curates. Of the 1,317 with a life
interest in their preferments only four are elected by
the congregations, while 555 are appointed by the
ecclesiastical authorities, 56 by the King, 213 by Town
Councils, and 489 by the proprietors of large estates
acting in behalf of village communities. Of the clergy
thus appointed, 56 members sit in the Brandenburg
provincial Synod by the side of 51 laymen nominally
elected by the district laity, and 23 other laymen de-
puted by the King.

It must not be passed over in silence that, true to
their ancient politics, the orthodox clergy at the
Synods betrayed a marked predilection for the re-
introduction of absolute government. By the Liberals
this is regarded as another proof that the clergy ap-
preciate only that which is obsolete.

Berlin, December 8, I860.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE TRIAL OF CARL BILAND.

On the 12th instant young Biland was tried by
Judge Luty, at the Berlin Criminal Court, on the
charge of attempting to shoot the Rev. Dr. Heinrici
while performing Divine service in the Cathedral. As
the reader may remember, Biland is an atheistic
fanatic, who looks upon Christianity as an egregious
mistake, and the clergy as paid cheats. To avenge
himself upon them for keeping him in the dark, and
awaken his countrymen to a sense of their intellectual
bondage, he had recourse to the pistol. Strangely
anomalous as regards the criminal length to which
he carried them, his views are too widely dissemi-
nated to be looked upon as the fallacies of a single
wrong-headed individual, and dismissed accordingly.
In young Biland we have a strong case of a very
general malady. A little reflection made this clear
even to our apathetic rationalists. People, indeed,
are not yet prepared to resort to the unpalatable

The Trial of Carl Bilancl 153

medicine of serious and humble-minded reflection,
which alone can effect a cure ; yet the sight of the
disease in an extreme form naturally set many a one
a-thinking, and secured a larger share of public atten-
tion to the trial, than was elicited by the committal of
the crime. I believe, therefore, I shall be doing no
work of supererogation in giving you the following
brief account of what came out at the trial.

Born in 1851 at the village of Lank, county of
Barnim, near Berlin, Carl Ludwig Otto Biland is the
son of a blacksmith, and from his fifth to his tenth
year attended the village school. Remarkable for
quickness and industry, he attracted the attention of
a neighbouring millowner, who, from his tenth to his
thirteenth year, permitted the intelligent boy to share
the private instruction imparted to his own sons.
Three more years were spent in a Berlin grammar
school, the father scraping together the little he had
to complete his son's education, and make him, as he
ambitiously hoped he might be, a teacher, or even a
clergyman. While at school in Berlin the boy astonished
his masters by his rapid progress, and, besides the tasks
allotted him, greedily read whatever fell into his hands.
Goethe, Schiller, Kant, and quantities of English and
French novels he seems to have devoured at an age

154 The State of Religion in Germany.

when such food was sure to be too much for his
mental digestion. It was, however, long before his
religious convictions, which from his infancy had been
strictly orthodox, received any rude shock. For years,
while studying Kant and other more rationalistic
authors, he would regularly attend Divine service on
Sundays, and write out afterwards the sermons he
heard. Eventually, however, his religious belief was
impaired, and, being an earnest and conscientious boy,
he declared to his father that he felt unable to enter
upon any vocation in which it would be his duty to
teach the dogmas of Christianity. By much persua-
sion his father induced him to reconsider his resolve,
and prepare himself for the career of an elementary
schoolmaster. After another half-year's study, failing
to pass his examination, he found himself shut out
from the seminary, and returned home not dispirited,
but rather elated at what he thought a lucky escape.
He now determined to become an actor, that he might,
as he said, preach poetical truth from the stage. His
father objected, but, the son threatening to commit
suicide, he at last gave in, and suffered him once more
to betake himself to Berlin. Here he associated with
actors and practised elocution ; but, to his bitter dis-
appointment, found no encouragement from adepts in

The Trial of Carl B'tland. 155

the art. Whatever were the qualifications wanting,
his histrionic friends were convinced he would never
make his fortune on the stasre. While cast down
under these rebuffs he received a visit from his father,
who conjured him to return to his studies, and fit
himself for the more respectable and useful calling
originally intended for him. His despair, coupled
with filial affection, made him listen to the paternal
representations, so that he promised again to take to
his books. To carry out this intention he accompanied
his father to Lank, where he stayed a few weeks,
bitterly repenting his promise and irresolute how to
act. In this unsettled condition of mind it was that
he conceived the idea of shooting a clergyman. He
went to Berlin, cast a ball from a tin medal in honour
of the Schiller centenary, and with this missile, sacred
to the memory of his great favourite, committed the
deed.

On the Judge addressing to him the ordinary ques-
tion whether he pleaded guilty or not guilty, the poor
misguided youth had the hardihood to reply : — " Not
guilty. Being convinced that man is not a free agent,
I cannot be guilty." To the question whether his
religious views had anything to do with the attempt,
he answered, — " I determined to shoot a clergyman

156 The State of Religion in Germany.

because it is the clergy who have kept me so long in
the dark. When studying mathematics I learnt to
reason and emancipate myself from the untruths they
taught me. There is no God. Nature is a self-sup-
porting machine." When the Judge told him that he
had misunderstood Kant and the classical poets he
loved so dearly, he retorted : — " I have endeavoured
to understand them to the best of my ability. I am
convinced my opinions are based upon theirs. It was
while witnessing the performance of Goethe's Faust
and Schiller's Eduber that the idea of shooting a
clergyman first occurred to me. When I levelled my
pistol at the Eev. Dr. Heinrici, as he stood before the
altar reciting the Creed, I bore no personal illwill to
him. He was a clergyman, consequently a deceiver,
and that was enough for me. I wished to make an
example of one of the cloth, and was ready to abide
the consequences. I will not, however, deny that my
opinions have been somewhat modified since. If I
were at liberty now, I should not repeat the act. I
have learnt to understand that the shooting one of
them is of no use at all." All which this daring boy
of eighteen preferred with the utmost composure,
smiling with philosophical equanimity, and meeting
the searchino; interrogatories of the Judge with a

The Trial of Carl Biland. 157

calmness worthy of a better cause. Even when the
jury found him guilty and the Judge sentenced him
to twelve years of imprisonment, with hard labour,
his courage, evidently the result of deep-rooted con-
viction, did not forsake him for a moment.*

The Eev. Dr. Kayser, a Catholic military chaplain
at Dusseldorf, has been suspended from office by the
Bishop of Cologne, for uniting in marriage the Prince
of Eoumania and the Princess of Wied, a Protestant
lady, when neither he nor she were in a position to
promise that their issue should be brought up in the
Catholic faith. Eeigning over a Greek orthodox people,
the Prince, though a Eoman Catholic, intends to have
his children baptized in the religion of his subjects.
The first priest he applied to refused point-blank, and
it was only after some delay that his father, who
resides at Dusseldorf, induced a clergyman of his
acquaintance to perform the ceremony.

Berlin, December 18, 1869.

# Five months after his sentence he was released from prison,
and permitted to return to his parents, being in the last stage of
consumption.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE LUTHER MONUMENT AT WORMS.

The city in which Luther, pleading before the Sove-
reign and the assembled Estates of the Holy Roman
Empire, vindicated the Gospel against sacerdotal en-
croachment 347 years ago, has just witnessed the
inauguration of a monument to his honour. From
other statues previously erected to him the new one
is distinguished in more than one respect. It is a
tribute paid by all Protestant Germany, subscriptions
having come in from every county in which the re-
formed faith has gained a footing. It is a memorial
dedicated, not to a man, but to a period, perpetuating
alike the effigy of Luther and his associates in the
sacred exploit. And it has been unveiled at a time
when there are noticeable symptoms of another reli-
gious movement, which, whatever its immediate result,
will ultimately exercise considerable influence on the
destinies of Luther's country and countrymen. In
size and rich variety of design the monument has no

The Luther Monument at Worms. 159

equal. An improvement even upon Kauch's Frede-
rick the Great, with its host of generals ranged
round the base, it is not a statue, but a combination
of eleven statues grouped around and surmounted by
the gigantic likeness of the Thuringian miner's son.
Ascending a few steps, you tread on a granite base,
forty feet square, enclosed on the three other sides
by a battlemented balustrade. In its centre Luther
stands pre-eminent. He is surrounded by congenial
minds. Seated on the four pillars projecting from
the corners of Luther's pedestal you see, clustering
about the master-mind, his four precursors, who at-
tempted what he accomplished. To this noble array
the English, French, Italian, and Slave nations have
each furnished a member — John Wickliffe, Petrus
Waldus, Jeronimo Savonarola, and Jan Huss. Then,
turning to the circumference, you notice seven more
statues distributed around. Occupying the four cor-
ners of the balustrade, and separated from the centre
group by the inner space, are the venerable figures of
two regal and two clerical allies of the reformatory
hero. Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony, and
Philip the Generous, Landgrave of Hesse, imperson-
ating power and prudence, watch the front ; Philip
Melanchthon and John Keuchlin, with their solid

160 The State of Religion in Germany.

erudition, are in their rear. To these four, or, including
those in the centre group, nine great men — images
of real beings — are, with questionable taste, united
the symbolical statues of three cities, celebrated in the
history of the time, Augsburg, Magdeburg, and Spires.
The three majestic women representing them take up
the centre of each side of the balustrade. Seated, and
looking up to Luther, they, as far as the mere artistic
effect is concerned, pleasingly relieve the four corner
statues, which are standing and have their faces turned
in the same direction as the central figure. To do
justice to the many other places which have likewise
deserved well of the cause of religious liberty, the bat-
tlements of the enclosure are on the inner side deco-
rated with the escutcheons of twenty-four German
cities — Brunswick, Bremen, Constance, Eisenach,
Eisleben, Emden, Erfurt, Frankfort, Halle, Hamburg,
Heilbronn, Jena, Konigsberg, Leipsic, Lindau, Lu-
beck, Harburg, Memlingen, Nordlingen, Eiga, Schmal-
kalden, Strasburg, Wittenberg, and "Worms. Thus
stands the wonderful structure before us, a petrified
piece of history, silent, yet eloquent to anyone who
knows what has once agitated mankind, and has a
presentiment of what will agitate them again.

After this general survey, let us examine the details.

The Luther Monument at Worms. 1G1

On a syenite pedestal of subdued colour, surmounted
with two bronze squares, stands Luther. It is the
stout, sturdy shape familiar to every eye. It is the
dear, old well-known form, with its honest features,
and calm, imperturbable eye, as painted by Cranach.
With face turned upwards, he rests his clenched fist
on the closed Bible, as if uttering the famous verse
of his beautiful chorale,—" Das Wort sie sollen lassen
stahn." From an artistic point of view it might, per-
haps, have been better to give his head a more in-
clined position, as in a statue of ten and a half feet
in height, on a pedestal of sixteen feet, a face lifted up
to heaven cannot be well seen from below. A better
view, however, is obtained from the side than from
the front. Before passing on to the other worthies,
we will cast a glance at the pedestal itself. In sug-
gestive detail it is in keeping with the general design.
A square of cast bronze, placed on a block of solid
stone, supports a similar slab of less dimensions, deco-
rated with inscriptions and reliefs. On its front, a
fitting motto of the monument, appear the closing-
words of Luther's celebrated speech in the Worms
Diet : — " Here I stand, I canuot speak nor act other-
wise. So help me God. Amen." Under the legend
are the medallions of John the Constant and his son

M

162 The State of Religion in Germany.

John Frederick of Saxony, who so steadfastly stood
by Luther in his troubles. On the opposite side is
engraved a passage from another speech of the fiery
Keformer : — " The Gospel which the Lord put into
the mouth of the Apostles is His sword. With it He
strikes the world as with a thunder-bolt." Under-
neath are the portraits of Ulrich von Hutten and
Franz von Sickingen, the two noble knights who
brought the chivalrous spirit of their class to the
defence of Truth, and its less warlike champions in
gown and cowl. To the right of Luther we read the
following sentence from his correspondence : — " Faith
is life in God, but it is only through the Spirit of
Christ that we can hope to understand Holy Writ."
Portraits of John Buggenhagen, the Pomeranian Ee-
former, and Justus Jonas, the intimate friend of
Luther, into whose ear, a moment before his death,
he poured the confession of his unshaken faith, are
inserted on the same side. Finally, on the left we
read : — " Those that rightly understand Christ will not
be moved by what man may enjoin. They are free,
not in the flesh, but in the spirit." John Calvin and
Ulrich Zwingli, the founders of the Eeformed Church
in Switzerland, are aptly placed under this motto,
their deviations from Luther proceeding from their

The Luther Monument at Worms. 163

partiality to the spirit rather than to the letter of the
Bible. The lower slab contains scenes from Luther's
life, in alto relievo. Here we have him making his
speech in the Worms Parliament, nailing his theses
to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral, marrying his
Catharine, and translating the Bible in the seques-
tered castle of Wartburg. For character and finish
these smaller castings are greatly praised.

The four fio-ures sitting at the feet of their more
successful brother-in-arms next claim our attention.
Petrus Waldus, of whom no portrait has been pre-
served, is represented as a poor wanderer, with torn
cloak and staff, and preaching, with the Bible before
him, as his guileless heart dictates. Wickliffe, whose
features are likewise unknown to posterity, is arrayed
in a doctor's garb, a venerable sage, gently stroking his
beard, as a man wrapt in contemplation. Huss is the
martyr preparing for death. Weighed down with
bodily weakness and prolonged imprisonment, he sits,
a harrowing picture of misery. But his sharp and
emaciated features are lit up by an inspired look,
directed towards the crucifix clasped in his hands.
The vehement apostle is displayed in the person of
Savonarola. He lifts his right hand to Heaven, and
beats his heart with his left, looking down on the

M 2

164 Tlie State of Religion in Germany.

spectator from under his cowl with eyes flashing fire.
To the victorious tranquillity of Luther, these sorrow-
laden harbingers of a better day form a contrast, alike
beautiful from an artistic, as it is satisfactory from an
intellectual point of view.

Of those on the balustrade, Frederick the Wise first
meets our eye. Wearing the ermine robe of his
Electoral rank, he spurns the imperial crown at his
feet. He looks neither to the right nor to the left, but,
as was his wont in life, straight forward. His firm,
yet unpretending countenance, is characteristic of him
who would rather remain ruler of his own hereditary
Saxony than sway a vast empire with its opposing fac-
tions and interminable discords. Next to Providence,
it is to this great and good man that Germany is in-
debted for the triumph of religious liberty. It was he
who protected Luther from the sword and poniard of
his enemies, gave him a livelihood, and afforded him
leisure for his spiritual work. It was he who con-
cealed him at Wartburg, made him a j>rofessor in the
theological faculty of Wittenberg, and furnished the
wherewithal to maintain that delightful home pre-
sided over by Kate. An Englishman must be gra-
tified to reflect, that Frederick the Wise, the most
celebrated ancestor of the Prince Consort, stands in

The Luther Monument at Worms. 165

a similar relation to the future kings of Great Britain.
Unfortunately, the principal branch of his issue have
relapsed into Catholicism. In the course of the last
century, the Dresden dynasty, to be able to ascend
the Polish throne, changed their religion. They have
long lost the acquisition for which they sacrificed so
much, and, residing again on the Elbe, are now the
only Catholics in the country they rule. To revert
to the monument, Philip of Hesse, who very nearly
forfeited his patrimony by taking up the evangelical
cause, is one of the best statues. Leaning on his huge
sword, he gazes up to heaven, as though awaiting
the dawn of a better day. John Keuchlin, in the
cloak of a Doctor of Divinity, is a prototype of the
German professor of his time. You almost believe you
hear him lecturing, so grave and scholastic is his mien.
What he achieved for the Hebrew grammar, Melanch-
thon, who stands opposite, did for the Greek. "With-
out the aid of these two, Luther's translation of the
Bible would have been impossible. The mild expres-
sion of countenance and temperate dignity of de-
meanour which distinguished Melanchthon are well
rendered in the statue.

The three symbolic figures representing Magdeburg,
Spires, and Augsburg are not all equally perfect,

166 TJie State of Religion in Germany.

Magdeburg is praised as a most exquisite performance,
Spires censured as a sculptural mistake. The former,
the victim of Tilly's hordes, sits before us, discomfited,
dishevelled, her arms hanging down, her eyes fixed in
despair. She has long recovered from her fall, and
again become one of the richest, most industrious,
and most cultivated cities of Germany, while her
Spanish, Croatian, and Hungarian devastators remain
much in the same condition they were in when they
burnt her. Spires is intended to be uttering a protest
against the reactionary edict of Charles V., but the
effect is rather marred by the consideration that a
mere mortal woman, subject to the ordinary laws of
gravity, were she to raise her hands in so violent a
manner with crossed legs, would be in instantaneous
peril of falling forward. Augsburg, indicative of the
peace concluded within its precincts, is a stately
personage with a palm branch in her hand.

I refrain from supplying further details, the pen in
this pictorial age standing no chance with photo-
graph and stereoscope in objects of so graphic a
nature ; but a few words on the impression produced
by the whole will not be out of place. Grand as the
total effect is, the best critics agree in regretting that
the artist who devised the work did not live to see it

The Luther Monument at Worms. 167

convicted. Kietschel, who in 1856 was commissioned
to make the model, died a few years ago, when the
statues of Luther and Wickliffe alone had been carried
out. The rest were modelled from his sketches by
Herren Schilling, Dondorf, and Kietz, his three
talented assistants. Their achievements are worthy of
the studio whence they proceed ; but, while acquitting
themselves of their task in excellent style, each of the
three sculptors seems to have followed the particular
bent of his genius rather than co-operate with the
others in the production of an artistic whole. The five
statues in the centre, indeed, are generally thought to
constitute a splendid ensemble ; but the seven others,
placed much beneath Luther, and divided from him
by nearly thirty feet, are described as having the
appearance of separate monuments. To connect them
with the centre and each other, it is necessary to
bind them with the strong thread of historical asso-
ciation ; architecturally they are centrifugal rather
than centripetal. The circumstance also that the
twelve statues are of four different sizes scarcely con-
tributes to impart to the monument that air of com-
posed symmetry indispensable in every composite
work of art. Luther is ten and a half feet high ;
the figures at his feet, seven feet ; the corner statues

168 The State of Religion in Germany.

of the balustrade, eight and a half feet, and those of
the towns, six feet.

The inauguration was graced by the presence of the
King and the Crown Prince of Prussia, the King of
Wiirtemberg, the Grand Dukes of Weimar and Hesse,
Prince William of Baden, and other members of the
Royal families of Germany. Of ladies, I see only
Princess Charles of Hesse, the mother of Prince Louis,
mentioned in the reports. The programme included
many sermons, and the prolix verbosity of the reverend
gentlemen not mending the matter, the ceremony does
not in every particular seem to have produced the
solemn effect expected. Times have changed since
Luther's days. It is the man, not his creed, that is
worshipped now-a-clays.

The concourse of strangers was immense, some
reports speaking of one hundred thousand, and among
them many clergymen. That Her Majesty Queen
Victoria considerately sent King William a telegram
expressing the sympathies of Protestant England will,
no doubt, have been re- telegraphed to your shores.

Berlin, June 27, 1868.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

Authentic intelligence having been received re-
specting the intention of the Pope to cause the
(Ecumenical Council to make him infallible and the
Syllabus a law of the Church/''* the Bavarian Govern-
ment, in the summer of 1869, addressed a circular
note to the various continental powers, desiring them
to caution the Holy See against extreme steps. This
request was not, however, acceded to, the cabinets

* The Syllabus, originally issued some years ago, is a catalogue of
those errors into which the modern world, the Pope says, is particu-
larly apt to fall. In this catalogue are included all the liberal notions
of the times — liberty of religion, liberty of the press, liberty of in-
struction, liberty of historical, philosophical, and scientific research,
independence of the secular governments, &c, &c. Together with the
Act proclaiming Infallibility the Syllabus aims at making the Pope
Lord Paramount of the Universe, and driving back this nineteenth
century of ours to the political and intellectual standard of the
middle ages. When first published in the form of a pastoral letter, it
appeared the gigantic whim of a twelfth century priest, risen from the
dead ; now that it has been reduced to canons, and is to be enacted
as an ecclesiastical statute, it is a challenge addressed to the entire
civilisation of the age. A translation of the Syllabus, Canons, and
Infallibility Bill is given in the Appendix.

170 The State of Religion in Germany.

preferring to ^ postpone secular interference until the
Council should be assembled, and the truth of the
incredible designs attributed to the Pope established
beyond the possibility of a doubt. In the meantime,
communications were exchanged between the various
German governments, which, as a Berlin semi-official
paper was instructed to announce at the time, resulted
in the agreement, that, in the event of the Pope
persisting in his plans, common measures of defence
should be adopted by the German States. Towards
the end of the summer, when the day fixed for the
opening of the Council was drawing near, and all
letters from Eome continued to represent the Pope as
inflexible, the German bishops assembled at Fulda, to
discuss the means of averting the dangers likely to be
brought on by the excessive aspirations of their
spiritual superior. With the exception of a few, the
German bishops were convinced, that to ask their
countrymen to believe in the infallibility of a mere
mortal like themselves, and abolish all the most
important liberal laws which distinguished modern
society from the middle ages, would be running the
risk of inflicting a severe blow upon the Catholic
interest in Germany. To pit Catholicism against
culture would, they were afraid, only damage the

The (Ecumenical Council. 171

former. As the result of their deliberations they issued
a common address to their diocesans, exhorting them
to look forward with the most perfect confidence to
the Council, and to be assured that nothing but what
was in accordance with the ancient and unchanging
doctrine of the Church could be proclaimed by an
assembly which had the promise that the Holy Ghost
would be always present in their midst. Both at
Eome and in Germany the address was understood
as implying a warning to the Pope, not to insist upon
the ambitious innovations contemplated.

That of all European cabinets, that of Bavaria should
have been most disquieted by the extraordinary pro-
ceedings of Pio IX., is easily accounted for by the
peculiar political situation of the kingdom. If Bavaria
has any chance of preserving her present degree of
independence and keeping out of a united Germany,
as her governmental circles desire, it is by relying upon
the Catholic portion of her inhabitants and setting
them against the Protestant north. But such a policy
will be rendered very difficult if the Pope insist upon
hurrying on a rupture between the religion he presides
over and the educated and enlightened men of all
denominations and countries. In Germany, especially,
where freethinkers abound, the Pope is incurring the

1 72 The State of Religion in Germany.

imminent peril of estranging all the more cultivated
strata of society. Should an anti-Papal movement
form itself in this country, it will, therefore, shake
not only Catholicism in its present form, but also
the political parties counting upon it as their prin-
cipal raison d'etre. The fear of some such catastrophe
occurring in no remote future has had visible effect
upon the latest politics of the Bavarian government,
as well as upon that portion of its Catholic subjects
under the control of the priests. The Bavarian
government, while doing all in their power to induce
the Pope to desist from his dangerous designs, have,
at the same time, thought it necessary to provide
against the contingency of their endeavours proving
abortive. They have warned and entreated the Pope,
yet with an eye to future embarrassments possibly
arising from his refusal, been careful to secure a friend
in another and this a Protestant quarter. It is well
known, that though keeping out of the Northern Con-
federacy, they have uniformly acknowledged the obli-
gation imposed upon them by the military treaties
with Prussia — the obligation, namely, to stand by
Prussia in all wars offensive and defensive. By cau-
tioning the Pontiff, they intended to avert the reli-
gious troubles, which to them might become a source

The (Ecumenical Council. 173

of political difficulties ; by remaining true to the
treaties binding them to Prussia in war, but leaving
them independent in peace, they wished so to regu-
late their behaviour as to give then powerful ally no
formal ground for absorbing them in the confederacy,
in case their domestic religious troubles should seem
to facilitate the process. Very different from this
discreet conduct was the bearing of the Bavarian
Ultramontanes. A relic of the obsolete past in a
progressive age and country, they have long had an
instinctive propensity for compensating the weakness
of their position by strong words and savage action.
In the present instance, the fanaticism prevalent at
Eome seems to have absolutely deprived them of their
senses. Instead of prudently steering their course to
avoid the rocks ahead, they are clamouring for a
virtual abandonment of those military treaties with
Prussia, the preservation ot which their more sensible
government regards as the principal guarantee of con-
tinued political independence. Instead of using their
influence with the Pope to induce him to pause in a
course likely to ruin him and them, the only effect
their fear of coming dangers has upon them is to
make them wish for an immediate and complete
separation from that Prussia, which, they apprehend,

1 74 The State of Religion in Germany.

will derive additional strength from the mistakes of
their ecclesiastical head. How very small their chance
of success, will be seen from what follows. Here
suffice it to say, that with nearly all educated Bava-
rian Catholics opposing the Ultramontanes, the latter
mainly depend on the good- will of the peasantry.
Nearly one-third of the population of Bavaria are,
moreover, Protestants, and as such anything but
favourable to Bomanists and anti-national tendencies.

CHAPTER XIX.

EPISCOPAL HERETICS.

The Roman priests employed in preparing the reso-
lutions of the Council have not only rightly interpreted
the meaning of the address the German bishops have
conjointly issued on this important topic, but are so
irritated by the warnings therein administered, that
they have actually committed the imprudence of giving
vent to their feelings. In the " Civilta Cattolica," the
ecclesiastical organ of the Papacy, the German bishops
are designated " German heretics." The bishops here-
tics ! No wonder, then, that those of the German
Catholic laity, who, in the interest of Catholicism,
recently petitioned the bishops to prevent the most
extreme of the announced votes of the Council, should,
by the same official paper, be called " rebels." The
priests at Rome must look upon this 19th century of
ours in a way very different from the usual one, if
they think they can afford to treat to such phraseology
the only section of the educated classes who, in Ger-

176 The State of Religion in Germany.

many, still adhere to the Papal doctrine. For it is
from this section alone, that the petitions proceed.
That the bishops who have this provoking epithet
flung in their faces are good Catholics, need not be
stated ; as to the laity, who also come in for their
share of contumely, they have notoriously drawn up
those objectionable petitions only because they wish
to protect the Church against the follies of some of
her leaders, and prevent her becoming a moral impos-
sibility in a civilised and progressive age. To prove
the genuineness of their orthodoxy, the petitioners
have, moreover, expressly admitted the obligation
they are under as Roman Catholics to acknowledge
any decrees whatsoever that might be passed at the
Council. Was it possible to preface more humbly
the prayer which doubted the propriety of making
the Pope infallible, and the Syllabus, that repudiation
of all modern civilisation, a dogma of the Church ?
To the Bonn, Coblentz, and Treves petitions to that
effect, another has just been added, addressed to the
Bishop of Paderborn. Another sign of the times,
which might caution the leading powers at Rome
not to overstrain the bow, is the second reply of the
Munich theological faculty to the questions put by
the Bavarian Government. The first reply was given

Episcopal Heretics. 177

by the majority of the professors ; the second bears
the signature of the minority — consisting of two pro-
fessors only, — who found it impossible to agree with
their theological brethren. The first, while gently dis-
suading the Pope from proclaiming the Syllabus and
his own infallibility as a dogma, yet asserted it to
be the duty of Catholic Christians to believe those
dogmas should they happen to be proclaimed ; the
second, not content with this feeble manifestation,
boldly declares that the enactment of Syllabus and
infallibility would neither change the existing rela-
tions between Church and State, nor oblige Koman
Catholics to believe that God has appointed the Pope
to be the Sovereign of all Sovereigns, or exempted the
clergy from all supervision of the secular authorities.
Unless the Koman dignitaries are convinced that no
crisis can ever injure them, they will do well to notice
these pregnant symptoms.

Beelix, September 22, 18G9.

CHAPTER XX.

THE GERMAN BISHOPS AND THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

The opposition of the German and Austrian bishops
at the Council to the Infallibility party is viewed with
rather mixed feelings in the country they come from :
from their antecedents these dignitaries are many of
them known as enemies of modern enlightenment,
advocates of the Syllabus and determined supporters
of such a re-arrangement of Germany, as shall destroy
the nation as a whole, enfeeble Protestant Prussia, and
restore the ascendancy of the Catholic House of
Hapsburg. If they are now playing a liberal part at
the Council, one, and this a rather popular explanation
for this strange metamorphosis, is, to assume them to
believe, that by sanctioning the new enormities
claimed by the Pope, they will, in so rationalistic a
country as Germany, dig away the soil, on which to
exercise their reactionary practices in the future.
Infallibility is supposed to be regarded by them as too
strong a dose for this susceptible age and nation : it

The Bishops and the (Ecumenical Council. 179

will be believed in by but few, and may cause many to
consider the Church as incompatible with civilization.
People, of course, do not deny, that some of the bishops,
in their resistance to the contemplated dogma, are
actuated by more conscientious motives, while others
may be naturally anxious to retain their ancient share
of influence in the Church, which would be annihilated
by rendering the Pope omnipotent. But from a
broader point of view, the majority of these recusant
ecclesiastics, in their opposition to the Pope, are
thought to be partisans of reaction, not of progress.
Their declaring against Infallibility, public opinion
accounts for by crediting them with no more elevated
motives than can be derived from a conviction, that
the thing is too extravagant to be made palatable to
their diocesans. These suspicions have been lately
strengthened by the wording of the Anti-Infallibility
address presented to the Council by a number of
bishops, and drawn up by Cardinal Rauscher of
Vienna. This address, the work of a notorious
Ultramontane, and signed by many equally famous
with himself for their ardent devotion to the Holy
See, frankly declares it inopportune in so latitudinarian
an age to exact of the people " heavier obligations " in
the matter of faith than were imposed by the Council

180 The State of Religion in Germany.

of Trent. The text of this remarkable document runs
as follows : —

" Most Holy Father, — We have received the draught
of a petition circulating among the Fathers of the
(Ecumenical Council, and calling upon them to declare
supreme and infallible authority to be vested in the
Roman Pontifex when imparting apostolical teaching
to all the faithful upon subjects connected with re-
ligion and morals. It is certainly strange that the
judges of matters religious should be asked to decide
a question before it has been discussed, but as thou,
most Holy Father, divinely appointed to tend the
flock of Christ, so piously takest care of the souls
redeemed by His blood, and with paternal compassion
lookest upon the dangers threatening them, we have
thought it right to address ourselves to thee in this
matter. The times are past when the Catholics used
to contest the rights of the Holy See. We all are
aware that as the human body, without the head, is
but a mutilated trunk, so can no Council of the entire
Church be held without the successor of St. Peter ;
and we all obey the mandates of the Holy See with
ready willingness. As regards the authority which
the faithful are obliged to concede to the Roman
Pontiff, this has been settled by the Council of Trent,

The Bishops and the (Ecumenical Council. 181

and also by the Council of Florence. The decrees of
the latter, particularly, ought to be the more faithfully
observed, inasmuch as, having been enacted with the
common consent of Latins and Greeks, they are
destined some day, when the Lord will take pity on
the Orient, now oppressed by so many evils, to become
the basis of the re-union of the Church. Nor must we
leave it unmentioned that at a time when the Church
is compelled more earnestly than ever to wage war
against those who denounce religion as a mere fiction,
vain and idle indeed, yet pernicious to the human
race, it cannot be opportune to exact of the Catholic
nations, already exposed to so much seduction and
temptation, heavier duties (majora) than were enjoined
on them by the Council of Trent. It is true that,
although Bellarminus, and with him the whole
Catholic Church, affirms that matters of faith are to
be chiefly decided by Apostolical tradition and the
common consent of the Church, and although the best
way to ascertain the decision of the Church is to
convene a Universal Synod, yet from the Council
of the Apostles and Elders of Jerusalem down to the
Council of Nice have the innumerable errors of the
local Churches been checked and extinguished by the
decisions of the successors of St. Peter, approved by

182 The State of Religion in Germany.

the entire Church. Nor do we deny that while all
faithful believers are bound to obey the behests of the
Holy See, there are pious and erudite men teaching
over and above this that any utterances of the
Supreme Pontiff on matters of religion and morality,
when formally (ex cathedra) made and announced,
must be held irrefragable, albeit lacking the express
consent of the Church. Yet we must not omit stating
that grave objections to this teaching may be based on
the acts and utterances of the Fathers of the Church,
— objections supported by the evidence of genuine
historical documents and the Catholic doctrine itself.
Unless the difficulties arising from this circumstance
are entirely solved and done away with, it is possible
that the doctrine advocated in the above-mentioned
petition will some day be inculcated on the Christian
people as one revealed by the Almighty. We have no
wish to dwell upon this prospect (verum ah hisce dis-
cutiendis refugit animus), and confidently entreat
thee to obviate the necessity of such a discussion.
We think we may say that performing episcopal
functions among the more eminent nations of the
Catholic world, and being by daily experience well
conversant with the state of things in our respective
countries, the enactment of the doctrine proposed will

The Bishops and the Oecumenical Council. 183

only supply fresh arms of attack to the enemies of
religion, and enable them to rouse invidious feelings
even in better and more virtuous men (melioris notce
viros) than themselves. We are certain, moreover,
that such an event in one part of Europe, at any rate,
would be taken advantage of by the Governments to
infringe the remnant of rights still possessed by the
Church. Having laid this before thy Holiness with
the sincerity due to the common father of all true
believers, we beseech thee to prohibit the discussion
in the (Ecumenical Council of the doctrine recom-
mended in the above-mentioned petition. Prostrating
ourselves at thy feet, both in our own name and on
behalf of the nations which we have undertaken to
guide to the knowledge of God {ad Deum perdu-
cendos), we ask for thy apostolical blessing. We
remain the most humble, most obedient, and devoted
servants of thy Holiness."

The signatures affixed to this address are still
unknown.

1 append the protest of the German and Austrian
Bishops against the rules and regulations of the
(Ecumenical Council, devised, it is well known, with
a view to muzzle opponents.

" Most Holy Father, — All the Bishops of the entire

184 The State of Religion in Germany.

world, and among them we the undersigned, most
ardently desire that the (Ecumenical Council, so
happily inaugurated under the auspices of your
Holiness, may be successfully continued, so that it
may supply the various nations with remedies against
the many new evils oppressing them, and impart to
the Holy Church of God fresh means and strength to
fulfil the mission divinely imposed upon it. In order
that this object may be the more surely attained, we
take the liberty of acquainting your Holiness with the
anxiety we feel concerning a matter connected with
the debates of this ecclesiastical assembly. In taking
this step we are animated by that devotion to the
Holy Apostolical See always felt by the Bishops of the
entire world, and never more so than at this present
time.

"In the rules and regulations of the Council {de-
scribed by your Holiness the most important clause,
perhaps, is the second, referring to the privilege of the
members to direct the attention of the assembly to
such matters as they may think fit to introduce.
There are those who think that by the clause in
question the right of the assembled Fathers to start
any discussion they may deem conducive to the public
weal has been taken away, its exercise having been

TIig Bishops and the (Ecumenical Council. 185

made dependent on a favour to be only exceptionally
accorded. Most Holy Father, we are all firmly con-
vinced, that the body of the Church cannot be strong
and healthy unless possessed of a lofty and powerful
head, and that the proceedings of the Synod cannot be
correct and orderly unless the divine rights of the
Primacy are properly protected and observed. But
if this is undoubtedly true, it is not less' so that the
other members of the mystical body of Christ likewise
require to be protected in their special functions, and
that the College of Bishops, more particularly, must be
in a position to exercise the rights inherent to them
by virtue of their office and character, if the head is to
retain its proper strength and to act safely and undis-
turbedly. By God's ordinance the head and the body
are intimately connected and inseparably united with
each other. Equally as, therefore, in the exercise of
your Holiness's undoubted privilege, your Holiness has
condescended to lay down the manner of procedure in
the Holy Synod, and prescribe the wisest and most
effective rules concerning the manner and order of
treatment of the subjects introduced, so the Fathers
of the Council, if feeling prompted to prefer aught
connected with the welfare of the Church, or to make
a proposition aiming at the furtherance of the same,

186 The State of Religion in Germany.

have always justly enjoyed the right to do so by
virtue of their position and office, the only condition
exacted being that they should speak with the de-
votion and veneration due to the Head of the Church.
We state this the more confidently, inasmuch as your
Holiness has yourself condescended to exhort us to
express freely whatever we may consider to be calcu-
lated to promote the public weal ; and inasmuch as, in
taking this step, we are only following in the footsteps
of the most celebrated and most sacred Council of
Trent (Sess. XXIV., cap. 21).

" In our opinion, therefore, there can have been no
intention to infringe our rights by the above-men-
tioned clause ; and we should be greatly strengthened
in this our conviction if your Holiness would kindly
permit that the committee appointed for the prelimi-
nary examination of propositions introduced by mem-
bers be reinforced by some Fathers elected by the
Council out of their own midst, and also that members
introducing propositions be allowed access to the said
committee, to enable them to take part in the exami-
nation thereof.

" In submitting this, with filial devotion, to your
wise consideration and judgment, we hope, Most
Holy Father, that what, animated by the purest

The Bishops and the (Ecumenical Council. 18

intentions, we have been prompted to prefer will
be well received.

" Prostrating ourselves at the feet of your Holiness,
we are, the most obedient servants of your Holiness,

" Cardinal Schwarzenberg.

" Furstenberg, Archbishop of Olmutz.

" Gregor Scherr, Archbishop of Munich.

" Michael vox Deinlein, Archbishop of Bamberg.

" Ludwig Hayxald, Archbishop of Kolosa.

" Heinrich Forster, Archbishop of Breslau.

" Paxcratius Dixkel, Bishop of Augsburg.

" Valentin Viery, Bishop of Gorz.

" Gregor Simoxoyicz, Archbishop of Lemberg (of the

Armenian Bite).
" Bartholomaeus, Bishop of Trieste.
" Joannes Zirzik, Bishop of Budweis.
" Georg Dobrila, Episcop. Parent.
" Jacobus Stepxisxigg, Episcop. Lavantin.
" Alexaxder Boxxaz, Bishop of Csanad.
" Matthaeus Eberhard, Bishop of Trier.
" Eduard Jacob, Bishop of Hildesheim.
" Michael Fogarassy, Bishop of Transylvania.
" Joseph Strossmayer, Bishop of Bosnia and Syrmia

(Austrian Croatia).
" Stephax Lipovxiczky, Bishop of Grosswardein.
" Sigismuxd Kovacs, Bishop of Fiinfkirchen.
" Ludwig Ferwerk, Bishop of Leontopolis.
" Joannes Beckmanx, Bishop of Osnabriick.
" Georg Smiciklas, Episcop. Crisiens.
" Hieroxymus Zeidler, Abbas Strahoviensis (Prague)
" Wilhelm Ketteler, Bishop of Mayence.
" Petrus Kexrick, Archbishop of St. Louis, United

States."

188 The State of Religion in Germany.

It may not be superfluous to add, that the above
nals.

translations have been made from the Latin origi

Berlin, January 23, 1870.

CHAPTER XXL

GERMAN OBJECTIONS TO INFALLIBILITY AS ADVOCATED
BY THE SPANISH, ITALIAN, AND ORIENTAL BISHOPS.

Dr. Bollinger, the learned Roman Catholic pro-
fessor and prelate at Munich, to whom we are in-
debted for the famous treatise entitled " Janus," once
more takes up the cudgels against the Jesuits, and in
the Allgemeine Zeitung publishes the following article
on the address of the Spanish and Italian bishops in
favour of Infallibility : —

" We have just read the remarkable address pre-
sented by certain members of the (Ecumenical Council
to the Pope requesting His Holiness to cause his own
infallibility to be declared a dogma by the ecclesi-
astical assembly now sitting. The bishops whose
names appear in the address actually demand that
180,000,000 of people shall, under threats of excom-
munication and eternal perdition, be forced in future
to believe and profess what the Church has hitherto
neither believed nor taught. Even those who have till

190 The State of Religion in Germany.

now supposed Papal infallibility a reality could not
believe in it — that is to say, not in the sense properly
belonging to this word in the Christian acceptation
of the term. There is an immense difference between
belief (Jldes divina) and the mere adoption by the rea-
soning faculties of a probable hypothesis. The Catholic
is only permitted to believe that which has been im-
parted and prescribed to him by the Church itself, as
Divinely revealed, indispensable, and incontrovertible
truth. He may believe only that, the denial of which
would exclude him from the Church, and the reverse
of which is absolutely prohibited and rejected as heresy
by the Church. Accordingly, no man from the first
ages of the Church to this day has believed in the
infallibility of the Pope — i.e., has so believed in it as
lie believes in God, Christ, the Trinity, &c. ; the
utmost that can be conceded being that many have
assumed it to be probable and in keeping with the
laws of the human understanding {fides humana), that
the Pope has this particular prerogative. The altera-
tion, then, in the belief and doctrine of the Church
which the bishops joining in the address wish to see
carried through, would be an event without precedent
in the history of the Church — an event the like of
which has not occurred in eighteen centuries. They

German Objections to Infallibility. 191

are asking for an ecclesiastical revolution, which is to
change the entire basis of our religious belief, clothing
a single individual, the Pope, with the powers hitherto
wielded by the entire Church, which is eternal and
ubiquitous. Up to the present day the Catholic has
been wont to say, ' I believe, in this or that doctrine
on the testimony of the entire Church of all ages
because that Church has the promise of existing for
ever, and for ever remaining in the possession of the
truth.' But in future a Eoman Catholic would have
to reason thus : ' I believe, because the Pope, having
been declared infallible, has commanded this doctrine
to be taught and believed. As to his infallibility, I
believe it because he asserts it of himself.' For
although four hundred or six hundred bishops, assem-
bled at Eome in 1870, may pronounce the Pope to be
infallible, any resolution taken by them derives force
only from its having been sanctioned by the Pope.
The Council without the Pope being fallible, it is the
Pope whose consent renders the resolutions of the
Council valid. And thus everything resolves itself
into the Pope testifying to his own qualities, which, it
must be confessed, is a remarkably simple mode of
reasoning. Who, when witnessing this, can help re-
membering what a far higher being said 1840 years

1.92 Tlie State of Religion in Germany.

ago 1 — ' If I bear witness of Myself, my witness is not
true/ John 5, 31."

Other objections to the address may be briefly stated
thus : —

"1. It confines the infallibility of the Pope to those
utterances and decrees issued by him to all believers,
for the instruction of the whole Catholic Church.
Hence it must be inferred that whenever Popes have
formerly addressed single persons, corporate bodies, or
particular churches, they were liable to fall into error.
Now, it is a striking fact that during the first twelve
or thirteen centuries of the Church all utterances of
the Pope on questions of doctrine, were addressed
either to single individuals, the bishop of a single
country, &c. In the thousand years that the Oriental
Church has been united to that of Eome it has never
received a Papal decree addressed to all its bishops at
once ; only individual patriarchs or Emperors have
been distinguished by receiving letters from the Pope
connected with matters of belief. Hence it follows
that for a thousand years the Popes have themselves
been unaware of the condition indispensably required
to stamp their utterances with infallibility — viz., that
those utterances must be directed to the Church as a
whole. In point of fact, the assumption of this requi-

German Objections to Infallibility. 193

site is only three hundred years prior to the present
date. In 1562 Johann Hessels, professor of theology
at Lowen (Louvain), in Flanders, was the first to start
this doctrine. From him it was borrowed by Bellar-
min, who supported it by citations from the false
decretals of Isidorus, and the forged testimony of St.
Cyril. It is these men who first asked the world to
believe that the Popes, although by merely changing
the superscription of their epistles they might have
secured for themselves that highest prerogative of
infallibility, yet unaccountably abstained from doing
so, thus exposing the addressees to the risk of being
led into error by observing injunctions given without
the guarantee of Divine Truth.

"2. The assertion of the address that, in accord-
ance with the constant and universal tradition of
the Church, Papal decisions on matters of faith are
unalterable, is untrue. The reverse is the case. The
Church has always tested the letters of the Popes on
matters of faith, and, according to the result of this
examination, either approved them, as the Council of
Chalcedon did the letter of Leo, or rejected them as
erroneous, as the fifth Council (553) did the constitu-
tion of Vigilius, and the sixth Council (681) the epistle
of Honorius.

194 The State of Religion in Germany.

"3. It is not true that at the second Council of
Lyons (1274) a decree was adopted with the consent
of the Greeks and the Latins, enacting that disputes
on matters of faith must be decided by the Popes.
Neither the Greeks nor the Latins — i.e., the occidental
bishops assembled at Lyons — voted that decree, but
the Emperor Michael Palseologus having had its
adoption made a condition of his readmission to the
Church by Pope Clement IV., and finding his power
severely menaced by the Emperor Baldwin and King
Charles of Sicily, submitted to the terms ecclesiasti-
cally imposed on him, and, notwithstanding the pro-
longed resistance of the Greek bishops and nation,
bowed to the Papal demand. The letter in which he
inserted a passage to this effect was read at the Council,
and confirmed by his representative, the Logothetes.
But shortly afterwards he, in his own capital of Con-
stantinople, declared the three concessions made to the
Pope illusory. (Pachymeres de Michaele Palaeologo,
5, 22.) With regard to the bishops assembled at the
Council, they never were in a position to discuss, or,
indeed, give any opinion on the dogmatic passage
imposed upon the Emperor.

" 4. A garbled version of the decree of the Flo-
rentine Synod is given in the Address, the principal

German Objections to Infallibility. 195

passage, the wording of which could be accomplished
only after long negotiations between the Greeks and
Italians, being simply omitted. This passage, so very
important, because qualifying all that preceded, is as
follows : — " Juxta eum modum qui et in gestis et in
sacris canonibus oecumenicorum conciliorum conti-
netur.' (Anglice — 'The power of the Pope is to be
wielded according to the deliberations and canons of
the (Ecumenical Council.') The Pope and the Car-
dinals, it is well known, insisted that the primacy of
the Pope should be declared as exercised 'juxta dicta
Sanctorum' (according to the testimony of the Saints).
But the Greeks opposed this enactment, being well
aware that in ' the testimony of the Saints ' was a
large amount of spurious or falsified utterances. Had
not, in the seventh sitting of the Council, the Latin
Archbishop Andrea gone the length of appealing to
the evidence of the spurious writings of Saint Cyril,
which, ever since Thomas de Aquino and Pope Urban
IV. allowed themselves to be deceived by them, were
regarded as authoritative in the Occident, but rejected
by the Greeks ? The Emperor on this occasion ex-
pressly observed, that if one of the good fathers in a
letter to the Pope had perhaps expressed himself in
language of complimentary devotion, it would be

o 2

196 The State of Religion in Germany.

unfair for the addressee to claim any rights and pri-
vileges on such ground. After much discussion the
Latins yielded, the ' dicta Sanctorum ' disappeared
from the draught, and the deliberations of the (Ecu-
menical Councils and sacred Canons were adopted as
the measure of the power to be wielded by the Papacy.
By this resolution Papal Infallibility was absolutely
excluded, as there is nothing in the ancient Councils
and the pre-Isidoric Canons, common to both churches,
which establishes such a prerogative. On the contrary,
the whole ancient legislation of the Church, as well as
the proceedings of the seven (Ecumenical Councils,
are evidently based on the supposition that the
highest doctrinal authority is vested in the entire
Church, but not in one alone of the five Patriarchs
(for this, and no more, was the Pope in the eyes of
the Greeks). Archbishop Bessarion, moreover, in the
name of all Greeks declared at the Council that the
Pope was inferior to the Council, or, what is the same,
that he was not infallible. (Sess. IX. Concil. Labbei
XIII. , 150.) It is consequently a mutilation, tanta-
mount to a falsification, if the Bishops in quoting the
decree of the Florentine Synod in their address, omit
the principal sentence, on which was laid the greatest
stress by those for whom the decree was drawn up.

German Objections to Infallibility. 197

In the eyes of the Greeks this sentence was so indis-
pensable that they declared they would leave the
Council and return home unless it were inserted.
They also insisted, and with the like success, that all
the rights and privileges of the other Patriarchs were
expressly guaranteed to them in the decree. As to
the Patriarchs having the right of assisting in the
definition and enactment of the doctrine, this the
Popes had themselves formerly accorded.

" There is another reason for the mutilation of the
Florentine decree, perpetrated by the author of the
Address. He may have asked himself whether he
was to give the Latin text in its original form, cor-
responding to the Greek, and quoted by Flavius
Blondus, secretary of Pope Eugen IV. and the older
theologians — ' Quemadmodum et in actis Conciliorum
et in sacris canonibus continetur.' (Anglice — ' As the
power of the Pope is defined in the deliberations and
sacred canons of the Council.') Or was he to endorse
the falsification first committed by Abraham Bartholo-
maeus, replacing the cet' by 'etiam ? ' By this 'etiam'
(meaning 'also/ and therefore implying that the Papal
power had been confirmed even by the Councils),
the sense of the decree is perfectly changed, and the
object of the passage in question entirely subverted.

198 The State of Religion in Germany.

But, notwithstanding this, and the manifest forgery
committed, this 'etiam' has been copied by the editors
of the proceedings of the Councils, as also by the
authors of dogmatic text-books. It is high time to
remove this stone of stumbling to the Orientals, and
restore the genuine text in accordance with the Greek
original. It is true that after this amendment the
decree will be no longer capable of being turned to
account by the Infallibilists, as was incontrovertibly
proved, as much as two hundred years ago, by D.
Marca, Archbishop of Paris (Concord. Sacerd. et
Imperii, 3, 8), who observes very pertinently: — ■
' Verba Graeca in sincero sensu accepta modum exer-
citio potestatis pontificae impouunt ei similem quern
ecclesia Gallicana tuetur. At e contextus Latini de-
pravata lectione eruitur plenam esse Papae potestatem,
idque probari actis Conciliorum et Canonibus/ (An-
glice — 'Taken in their true sense the Greek words
restrain the exercise of the Pontifical power in the
same manner as is done by the Gallican Church. But
the corrupt Latin version attributes unlimited power
to the Pope, and refers to the proceedings and canons
of the Councils in proof of this.')

" The Address indignantly declares against those
who doubt the (Ecumenical character of the Florentine

German Objections to Infallibility. 199

Synod ( ' Acerbissimi Catholicae doctrinse impugnatores
. . blaterare non erubescunt ; ' Anglice — ' Those worst
enemies of the Catholic faith that do not blush to
repeat the absurd story,' &c.) But let facts speak for
themselves. On the Council of Basle resolving upon
sundry reforms unpalatable to Borne the Florentine
Synod was convened to do away with those objection-
able decrees. Opened at Ferrara April 9, 1438, its
proceedings had to be put off for six months, so small
was the number of Bishops present. From all
Northern Europe, then entirely Catholic, from Ger-
many, the Scandinavian countries, Poland, Bohemia,
France, Castile, Portugal, not a single Bishop had
appeared. Nine-tenths of the then Catholic world
took no part in the meeting on principle, because they
thought it an assembly illegally acting as a rival to
the Basle Council, and because all men foresaw that
nothing in the way of a reform of the Church, urgent
as it was, would be attempted at Florence. With
much ado Pope Eugen at last managed to collect
about fifty Italian Bishops, subsequently swelled by a
few ecclesiastics sent by the Duke of Burgundy, and a
sprinkling of Provencals and Spaniards. Altogether
only sixty-two Bishops signed the decree. The Greek
prelates with their Emperor had in the hour of sorest

200 The State of Religion in Germany.

need been attracted by promises of money, ships, and
soldiers, the Pope, moreover, engaging to defray their
expenses in Ferrara and Florence, and also pay for
their journey home. On showing themselves refractory
the Pope withdrew provisions, so that, compelled by
the Emperor and hunger, they eventually affixed their
signatures to papers which, subsequently, nearly all
revoked. The judgment passed on this episode by a
Greek contemporary writer, Amyrutius, which is
quoted by the Roman scholar, Leo Allatius (de perp.
consens., 3, 1, 4), is a fair reflex of Greek public
opinion in those days. 'Is there any one,' asks
Amyrutius, ' that can seriously denominate this Synod
an (Ecumenical one, which paid cash down for article s
of faith, and which openly indulging in Simonistic
practices carried its resolutions by promising pecuniary
and military help to those that enacted them 1 ' In
France previous to the Revolution the Florentine
Synod was regarded as spurious, and Cardinal Guise
declared as much at the Council of Trent without beino'

o

contradicted. The Portuguese theologian, Payva de
Andrada, says on this head, 'Florentinam Synodum
sola Gallia. . . . pro (Ecumenica nunquam habuit,
quippc quam neque adire dum agitaretur, neque
admittere jam perfectam atque absolutam voluerit/

German Objections to Infallibility. 201

Anglice — 'France alone never acknowledged the
Florentine Synod as (Ecumenical, declining to take
part in it, while sitting, and to ratify its proceedings
when over.' — (Defens. fid. Trident, p. 431, ed. Colon.
1580). The rest of the Address endeavours to show
that the enactment of the new article of faith is most
opportune just now, and even urgently required,
because some persons calling themselves Catholics
have recently disputed the alleged infallibility of the
Pope. Of itself, the Address gives us to understand, it
would not have been absolutely necessary to augment
the doctrinal canon by a new article of faith, but
things had assumed an aspect rendering such a step
unavoidable. It is well known that for several years
past the Order of Jesuits, supported by others of a
like way of thinking, has kept up an agitation in
Italy, France, Germany, and England, canvassing for
the dogma that is to be. A special religious society
has been established and publicly announced by the
Jesuits, having for its object to pray and act in behalf
of the new dogma. The " Civilta," the principal
organ of the Jesuits published at Rome, has announced
it as the main task of the Council to present the
expectant world with the one article of faith still
wanting ; and their " Laachcr Stimmen " and Vienna

202 The State of Religion in Germany.

publications have discussed the same theme diffusely,
and with unwearied repetition. The Jesuits contend
that it is the duty of all of opposite notions to remain
passive spectators of their doings, and abstain from
examining into the consistency of the arguments
preferred in their numerous printed utterances.
Unfortunately, however, their expectations have not
been fulfilled ; some men have had the unprecedented
hardihood to break through the holy silence exacted,
and announce a different opinion. Of course, such an
offence can only be made up for by augmenting the
articles of faith and chanoino; the catechisms and all
books on the Catholic religion."

Dr. Dollinger, the author of this article, whose
sincere belief in the doctrines of his Church has never
been impugned, is a prelate and one of the most
learned Catholic professors of theology in Germany.
In his opposition to the majority in the Council he is
supported by nearly every educated co-religionist in
the land, even the strictest among them foreseeing that
to render their creed less intelligible will only serve to
make it less acceptable. But a few weeks ago the King
of Bavaria, the only Catholic Sovereign of Germany
(as the King of Saxony, although likewise a Catholic,
cannot politically be so regarded, his subjects being

German Objections to Infallibility. 203

Protestant), addressed a letter to Dr. Dollinger in
which he strongly approved his theological labours.*

A very different letter on the Council has just been
addressed to the Cracow Czas by the Rev. X.
Sosnovski, provisionally intrusted with the adminis-
tration of the diocese of Lublin. M. Sosnovski, the
only priest present at the Council from Russian
Poland, a short time ago secretly absented himself
from his diocese, and in disguise crossed the frontier
on his way to Rome. Whether he did so from an
ardent desire to attend the Church assembly, or
whether he had reason to fear that the Russians were
going to send him to Siberia, as has been done with
nearly all his colleagues in their dominion, does not
appear. Rejoicing in his escape, and much pleased to
have near him one at least of high ecclesiastical rank
from so religious a country, the Pope, though M.
Sosnovski is not yet ordained as Bishop, as an ex-
ceptional favour admitted him to the Council. But

* The publication in the Allgemeine Zeitung of the above article has
since been rewarded by the Burgomasters and Town Council of Munich
conferring upon Dr. Dollinger the freedom of their city. Munich is
the only Catholic capital of Germany. The King of Bavaria has availed
himself of the recurrence of Dollinger's birthday, to congratulate him
on his manly vindication of the truth. Nearly all the most eminent
professors of Catholic theology in Germany have signified their assent
to his opinions.

204 The State of Religion in Germany.

this distinction seems to have been too great to be
credited by the right rev. officials standing sentinel
at the doors of St. Peter. In his letter to the Czas
M. Sosnovski describes at length how he had to fight
for admittance into the Chapel, and how even when he
got in, at the last moment of walking up to His
Holiness to take the oath, somebody caught hold of his
sleeve and pulled him back. However, the gallant
Pole shook himself free, and, striding manfully forward,
ultimately reached the Papal Throne. On recognizing
him, Pio Nono, as the object of his favour relates with
grateful emotion, condescended to interrupt the
solemnity of the sacred act by uttering the following
words in Italian : — " Ecco il mio Polacco. Sta bene."
All Polish papers reproduce the story which brings to
them the greeting of their sole protector.

Berlin, January 22, 1870.

CHAPTEK XXII.

MORE GERMAN OBJECTIONS TO INFALLIBILITY.

On the subject of infallibility it is becoming more
and more evident that all German Sovereigns and
many German Bishops are arrayed against the Pope.
Not to speak of conscientious scruples, the Bishops are
obviously afraid that to declare the Pope a god will
outrage the feelings of every civilized being among
their flocks, and cause many hitherto accommodating,
though, perhaps, somewhat indifferent, members of the
Church to desert, renounce, and attack it. As to the
Sovereigns, they have no wish to assist the Pope in
arousing a religious movement which might go any
length, and which, should it attain serious proportions,
would be sure to extend to Protestantism also. In
Germany religious apathy — the prevailing feature of
the age — is accompanied with so much downright
opposition to all that has been hitherto considered
orthodox that for the Pope to treat this country on
a footing of intellectual equality with Italy, Spain,

206 TJie State of Religion in Germany.

and France, and desire the Germans to adore and
idolize him in the same way he asks others, is to let
off squibs over a barrel of gunpowder. They need not
necessarily ignite the inflammable material over which
they fly and crack, but they may do so. Already Pro-
testant liberalism is preparing for such an event. You
remember the assault on the monastery at Moabit, aud
the discussion to which the opening ceremony of this
new establishment, marked by its provoking character,
gave rise in the summer. In consequence numerous
petitions have since been addressed to the Prussian
Parliament, some requesting that the law be changed
so as to prevent the indefinite multiplication of con-
vents, others insisting that the present law, rigorously
carried out, would enable Government to prohibit the
mouks from taking charge of schools, orphanages, and
other charitable institutions. Without special induce-
ment to the contrary, these petitions would have given
rise to an animated debate, and united Protestants and
Rationalists in the House in repelling the accusations
so noisily brought against them in these latter days by
Rome. Such a special motive for caution seems, how-
ever, to have arisen, and it is no other than the fear
that by making what might be interpreted as a Pro-
testant move — not against an extreme party in the

More German Objections to Infallibility. 207

Catholic Church, but against all Catholics, — they
might interfere with the split now going on in the
bosom of the Papal Establishment. This view being
shared also by liberal Catholics, there is little doubt
that Parliament will resolve for the present to hold
its tongue on the delicate subject of monasteries, and
quietly pass over all irate petitions to the order of the
day.

In the meantime, two more Catholic professors of
theology have publicly declared against Infallibility.
Professor Michelis, of the Clerical Seminary of Brauns-
berg, in East Prussia, writes the following vigorous
letter, dated January 21, to the editor of the Allge- ■-
meine Zeitung : —

" Permit me, in a few words, to characterize the
address drawn up in favour of infallibility. It is not
a dogmatic, but a diplomatic document. It not only
avoids making use of the term ' infallibility,' but also
omits alluding to the preliminary question whether the
Bishops are an integral portion of the ecclesiastical
body appointed to teach the nations of the earth. If
they are, how is it possible for the Pope to claim in-
fallibility independent of the Bishops % If they are not,
of what weight are their votes ? If the Pope is really
infallible, he cannot be fallible in declaring himself in-

208 The State of Religion in Germany.

fallible, and Pius IX., in tins nineteenth century of
ours, must not then hesitate to announce what Inno-
cent III. in the thirteenth century regarded as heresy.
Obviously, from a dread of having thus logically to
analyze the matter, the signers of the infallibility ad-
dress have given it its diplomatic form. It is for this
reason that the address, intrinsically untrue from begin-
ning to end, surreptitiously replaces the Primacy and
that which belongs to it by the, as yet, undefined
notion of infallibility. The address, moreover, is con-
ceived in a passionate spirit, and terribly uncharitable.
Not condescending to enter upon the arguments pre-
ferred by the opposition, and entirely overlooking that
they are based on the belief of the Church and the
general acceptation of the Catholic world as it has
been so long received, the address merely notices the
existence of an opposition to make it a ground for
enacting infallibility and all but provoking apostasy.
In keeping with these passionate proceedings is the
coarseness observable in the wording of the address.
We actually find the word blaterare (' stupid prattle ')
used in reference to the highest among the assembled
Fathers. Taking all this into account, the address is
no more than a party intrigue of the Jesuits, who,
having failed to produce a more direct definition of

More German Objections to Infallibility. 209

infallibility, have had recourse to this expedient. The
adoption of the address by the Council would be a
sorry victory of Jesuitic party feelings over the true
spirit of the Church, and a calamity to the Church and
mankind."

Considering this emanates from a priest profes-
sionally engaged in educating other priests, one must
say that if the Pope come to grief it is not for want
of warning. Opinions similar to these have been
avowed by Dr. Schulte, one of the most renowned
Professors of Canon Law at the University of Prague.
In noticing Maret's Du Concile Generate et de la
Paix Religieuse in the Theologisches Literatarblatt,
the best German Catholic review, published at Bonn,
he says : —

" It is a fact that the Church never held the Popes
to be infallible. Otherwise, how could Popes have
been condemned for heresy by (Ecumenical Councils ?
How could these sentences have been regarded as just
and valid by other Popes ? How could Popes have
been deposed, and how could others elected in their
stead have been recognized by the Church ? How
could dogmatic decisions emanating from the Popes
have been subjected to the examination of the Councils,
and in some cases been withdrawn by their authors ?

210 Tlie State of Religion in Germany.

How could the Church have adhered to the conviction
that Popes, for certain derelictions, may be arraigned
and even condemned ? How could several Popes, as,
for instance, Gregory VII. , have thought it necessary
to free themselves from the suspicion of heresy by
oath ? All which proves that the Church did not from
the beginning believe the Popes to be infallible, and
that infallibility was only attributed to the Church as
a whole. Whether the Church passed a verdict at a
General Council, or whether it merely approved deci-
sions given by Popes, or whether the Pope and
episcopacy sanctioned the mandates of local Councils,
the concurrence of Pope and Church was always
required for an infallible decree. This being the case,
we may confidently trust that neither the Council nor
the majority of Bishops assembled will take the much
dreaded step of raising infallibility to the dignity of
a dogma. Infallibility is a quality beyond what belongs
to man. Such a quality can be created only by a
Divine act, or, in other words, the Pope must be
rendered infallible by the special intervention of the
Deity. But as the Pope receives no other ordination
than that appointed for every other Bishop — an ordi-
nation the less calculated to render him infallible,
inasmuch as he who imparts it is not so — we cannot

More German Objections to Infallibility. 211

ascribe to him any such superhuman attribute, unless
on the authority of an express declaration from Christ.
But such a declaration we have not. The mere vote
of the Church can make the Pope just as little infallible
as it could confer upon his primacy the character of
a fundamental and divinely-ordained institution. To
attempt to bestow infallibility upon the Pope by
makinsr him op through some ceremonies invented and
regulated by ordinary mortals would be to make
infallibility not a dogma, but a mere bureaucratic
institution. It is true this would be only following
the example of those who look upon the Syllabus
as a dogmatic decision, though, in reality, it is but
a diplomatic document communicated by the Cardinal
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs through his
envoys to various foreign Courts/'

In addition to these literary announcements of
opinion we have to record an address sent by the
leading ecclesiastics of the diocese of Paderborn to
their Bishop, the notorious partisan of the Pope in
the Council. The address declares against infallibility,
and entreats the Bishop to conform his attitude to the
wishes of his chapter and flock. A similar prayer is
most urgently submitted to the same dignitary by a
Catholic gentleman from his diocese, who, in a long

212 The State of Religion in Germany.

letter to the Kreuz Zeitung, dilates upon the damage
that must be necessarily inflicted upon the orthodox
interest were so absurd a proposition palmed upon the
world as an article of faith. In his opinion the Pope
and the bishops supporting him will incur a fearful
responsibility, if by their making a doubtful and
perfectly unnecessary addition to the Creed, thousands
and thousands of souls should be driven into apostasy
and eternal perdition.

In conclusion, I will append a few lines from the
Berlin Volks Zeitung, giving a good idea of the
sarcastic complacency displayed by the Rationalists in
witnessing the split in the Council : —

" It is a good joke, indeed, to call the Opposition
members at the Council Liberals because of their
reluctance to bow to Papal infallibility. In reality,
the contest raging at Rome is not between blind belief
and rational enlightenment, but between two equally
reactionary parties, both arrayed on the side of blind
belief, and wrangling only which of them is to have the
privilege to dictate it. It is not a struggle of reason
versus authority, but a mere party dispute in the
bosom of the Establishment to decide which of the
opposing factions is to be paramount. However, it is
quite an interesting spectacle to see them at logger-

More German Objections to Infallibility. 213

heads, and as they are both likely to issue from the
combat with strength considerably impaired, we have
every reason to be satisfied."

No doubt, the Rationalists would exult, were the
Pope to be declared, and to declare himself, a god.
What a strength it would give to their own theories,
were one of their most implacable adversaries to commit
himself to such an unprecedented extent ! What hopes
for accelerating the contemplated overthrow of all
religion would they derive from so injudicious a step,
were it really taken by the most ancient representative
of Christianity in Europe ! All which is perfectly
understood by orthodox Catholics in this countiy.
Within the last two months more than one urgent
remonstrance has been privately sent to Rome by
eminent Catholic noblemen and gentlemen, from Berlin,
Breslau, and Cologne. Thus far, however, no impres-
sion seems to have been wrought upon the aspiring
and enthusiastic Pontiff.

Beblin, January 29, 1870.

IX

CHAPTER XXIII.

THE FREEMASONS AND THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

In the more progressive countries of the world the
Freemasons have long ceased to head popular oppo-
sition against religious intolerance. North of the Po,
the Pyrenees, and the Balkan, public opinion has
become a power in this nineteenth century of ours,
which on this one point, at any rate, needs no longer
a special society for its guidance. It is, therefore, all
the more calculated to claim our attention if, after a
protracted and seemingly inviolable silence, a Lodge
of this ancient fraternity finds itself called upon to
deviate from the secluded habits of the Order, and
publicly take up a gauntlet thrown down to all advo-
cates of progress. The Grand Lodge at Baireuth, in
the central or Protestant portion of Franconia (now
subject to Bavaria, formerly Prussian), has issued the
following public circular to its members : —

" As a rule, the Society of Freemasons takes no part
in the political and ecclesiastical contests of the day.

The Freemasons and the Council. 215

Being a league established for moral purposes common
to the whole human race, it unites, by the ties of
common brotherhood, men of various political parties
and different religious belief. But we cannot be ex-
pected to abide in our neutral position when the very
existence of our society is attacked, or when those
moral truths are imperilled which the human race has
at last come to acknowledge, and which are indispen-
sable to them if their destination is to be attained.
In such a case the interest of self-preservation and the
duty of vindicating those sacred truths compel us to
be up and doing. On these grounds we cannot but
direct your attention to the designs hatching at Home
in these latter days, and endangering the peace and
the intellectual progress of civilized humanity. There
is no doubt that these designs partly proceed from
and partly are supported by the Order of the Jesuits,
for many years past the mortal enemy of our fra-
ternity.

" Were the Council, to which all his Bishops have
been convened by Pius IX., to confine its action to the
discipline of the Church, or the duties of the Catholic
clergy, we should have no occasion to interfere. Even
the notorious intention of the Pope, by a new dogma,
to secure for himself the so-called Infallibility, con-

216 The State of Religion in Germany.

cerns us less than it does the various Sovereign States
of the civilized world, whose independence and liberty
may be jeopardized by a human being arrogating to
himself superhuman authority. As for ourselves, In-
fallibility, being based upon an ecclesiastical dogma,
can have no convincing or binding force on the
members of the society, since the moral law, which
is the supreme standard of our actions, is not de-
pendent upon any ecclesiastical authority, but solely
upon truths intelligible to the human reason. All we
feel called upon to do in the present emergency is to
vindicate our right to exist in defiance of the Pope,
who denied it in his Allocution of September 25,
1865, and in defiance of the Council, if, as is probable,
the sentence of condemnation passed by the Pope
should be ratified by it.

" Devoted to the promotion of humane purposes,
our society is neither a member of the Roman Catholic
organization nor subject to the Roman hierarchy. As
long as the State, duly observing the principles of
tolerance and liberalism, protects our rights, and
permits us to exist in its midst, we are indifferent
to the Papal thunders. Of all the reproaches hurled
against us by the Pope, we plead guilty only to this
one — that we practise tolerance towards those pro-

The Freemasons and the Council. 217

fessing other creeds than ours. If the Pope looks
upon this tolerance as a crime, it, in the eyes of the
civilized world, is a virtue of which we need not be
ashamed. All other accusations brought against us
are founded upon mistaken notions of our principles,
and a false view of our aims. The Pope is utterly at
fault in calling us an immoral sect, since morality is
the very essence of our system. Again, the Pope is at
fault when he charges us with the crime of havino-
provoked the European revolutions and wars, for we
enjoin upon our members the conscientious observance
of the laws of the State, and our Lodges are temples
of peace. The Pope is not less at fault when ascribing
to us a most determined hatred against the Christian
religion, for the great majority of our members are
Christians, and our league, being a society with moral
objects, venerates the Founder of the Christian reli-
gion, He having revealed to the world the highest
type of moral rectitude. And the Pope is at fault in
calling us enemies and contemners of God, for it is the
principle of the Freemasons to adore God. Noticing
these grave mistakes of the Pope in what concerns us
so nearly, we cannot but arrive at the conclusion that
the Pope is as fallible as anybody else.

" One of the objects for which the Council has been

218 The State of Religion in Germany.

called together is to condemn the so-called errors of
our age enumerated and denounced some time ago in
the well-known ' Syllabus Errorum ' by Pope Pius IX.
Most of these alleged errors we regard as important
truths, approved by civilized humanity, sanctioned
by modern States, and to be faithfully observed
by all mankind, if it is to fulfil the destiny divinely
apportioned to it. The Pope condemns all philosophy
and science, present and future, which objects to be
fettered and directed by his hierarchical authority.
[Syllabus, 1 — 14, 57.) We, on the contrary, are
convinced that science, from its very nature, is, and
must be, independent of ecclesiastical authority. We
have not forgotten that for all great discoveries and
advancement we are indebted to the spirit of free
inquiry, critical observation, and logical thought ; and
that humanity is scarcely possessed of a single truth,
but it had to be established in spite of the opposition
of the ecclesiastical authorities. The Pope also rejects
freedom of religion (Syllabus, 15 — 18), which we res-
pect as one of the most sacred possessions of mankind,
as a boon which, after a thousand years' struggle and
suffering, has been at last generally acknowledged, and
has put a stop to compulsory professions of faith and
the murderous persecution of heretics. Like his pre-

The Freemasons and the Council. 219

decessor, Pope Gregory XVI., Pius IX., in his ' Ency-
clica; of December 8, 1866, calls liberty of conscience
madness, whereas we view it as the indispensable
guarantee for the truth and sincerity of the relations
of the human soul to God, and as the necessary basis
of a morality which relies upon itself and hates no-
thing so much as falsehood and hypocrisy. The Pope
likewise inveighs against the free exercise of the
different forms of Christianity, demanding that the
Roman Catholic Church be supreme and exclusive in
all countries of the earth. [Syllabus, 77 — 79.) We,
on the other hand, consider the right to profess any
religion in public as one of the most sacred and funda-
mental privileges of the human race, now that it has
passed its childhood. We are certainly not surprised
to find the Pope, in many of his letters, and also in the
' En cy erica/ protesting against freedom of speech and
liberty of the press, which he calls a pernicious pesti-
lence ; but we are still of opinion that the great task
set to mankind by God, of employing and developing
their fund of intellectual capacity, cannot be solved
without that freedom and that liberty. If Pius IX.
declines 'reconciling the Papacy to progress, liberal-
ism, and modern civilization' {Syllabus, 80), this
declaration to us is another proof that the Papal

220 The State of Religion in Germany.

doctrine is unfit to enter into and to accompany
the progressive development of the human race.

" Our society is, no doubt, entitled to examine ques-
tions of such grave importance to the interests of
morality. In our Lodges enlightened, temperate, and
benevolent men from the various classes of society
meet fraternally. As they cannot but take an earnest
interest in these subjects, and as our institutions
secure to them a calm and dignified discussion, and
encourage open confidence, our league, more than
other societies, is in a position seriously, nobly, and
manfully to debate what we have enlarged upon in
the above. Like the Catholic hierarchy, our society
is, moreover, spread over the whole earth. Admitting
with true liberality educated men from all nations,
States, religions, and Churches, and uniting them into
a common alliance, it is pre-eminently called upon to
meet an attack on the most precious possessions of
humanity, made at all points at the same time, by an
equally comprehensive system of defence. We there-
fore request your attention to the moral and intel-
lectual contest now going on, and desire you to notice
the progress of events. The Lodges and other re-
unions held according to Masonic institutions and prac-
tices, as also each member individually in his particular

Tlie Freemasons and the Council. 221

sphere, are called upon to perform the moral duties
with that zeal and exactitude which at so serious and
agitated a time are demanded of the champions of the
most sacred possessions of the human race. In this
expectation we extend to you our right hand of
fellowship, and cordially salute you, according to
Masonic rites."

If public opinion be correct in estimating the pre-
vailing disposition of some other Lodges in Germany,
not all would be inclined to endorse the language of
their Baireuth brethren respecting the worth of eccle-
siastical authority.

Berlin, January 20, 1870.

CHAPTER XXIV.

AN ANTI-PAPAL MOVEMENT.

Closely following each other's example, the most
important Catholic towns of Germany have by this
time declared against the enactment of Infallibility.
Cologne, Bonn, and Breslau have sent congratulatory
addresses to Dr. Dollinger, the Munich Professor, who
was the first to take up the cudgels against the
Jesuits. Miinster and Treves, with other towns in
their dioceses, have memorialised their respective
Bishops ; and Munich itself has conferred its fran-
chise upon the fearless advocate of Catholic freedom
resident within its walls. The addresses and memo-
rials proceeding from these cities are signed, if not
by a large number, at any rate by the most eminent
of the inhabitants, including many who have received
priestly ordination. Among the names appearing in
the Cologne address, for instance, there are the lead-
ing Government officials, judges, lawyers, physicians,
headmasters, and professors of the public schools,

Aii Anti-Papal Movement. 223

some wealthy merchants, and, wonder of wonders,
even the editor of a Catholic paper, publishing for the
edification of Khineland. The teachers of religion
who have subscribed this remarkable document are,
I believe, all of them priests. Similarly, the Bonn
and Breslau addresses bear the signatures of almost
every Catholic professor of any reputation in those
places, while that emanating from Minister is distin-
guished for being the work of the Bishop's own pre-
lates and prebendaries. In all these significant utter-
ances, the subscribers, more or less directly, declare
that for the Pope to push matters to extremity, and
make himself a demigod, will be running the risk of
provoking another schism, and of driving thousands
to desert the Catholic Church. There is no doubt
that this anticipation may eventually turn out to be
correct, whatever the indifference with which the
Catholic masses have hitherto regarded the Council.
In this country Catholics may be divided into three
classes. The first comprehends the people who either
believe in the dogmas of the Church, or, at any rate,
respect it sufficiently to keep objections to themselves ;
the second class are those too indifferent to care for
anything the Pope may think fit to commit or omit ;
while the third consists of a small educated minority

224 The State of Religion in Germany.

who have not broken with their Church, but are de-
sirous to sustain it, or as much of it as can be kept
above water amid the suro-ino; flood of a latitudinarian
age. Though the addresses have only issued from the
last-mentioned section, still it is very possible that
should a rupture ensue, large numbers of the two other
classes will be roused by the kindling spark, and car-
ried away with the enthusiasm of their intellectual
betters. Such a result is the more probable, as the
men now protesting against the Pope's favourite doc-
trine all belong to the wealthy and cultivated strata
of society, whereas those yet remaining indifferent
spectators of the (Ecumenical display may, generally
speaking, be set down as the tradespeople and vil-
lagers. In the Germany of to-day a religious move-
ment is certainly slow to commence, but once really
called forth by the unbearable arrogance of a foreign
priesthood, it will, by that very indifference to reli-
gion, so long retarding its outbreak, be likely to
assume considerable proportions.

In addition to the above more important addresses,
I must not omit mentioning that, with the exception
of one, all professors of Roman Catholic theology at
the University of Prague, as well as eight other
Catholic professors at the same institution, have dc-

An Anti-Papal Movement. 225

dared in favour of Dr. Dollinger and his manly
theses. As much has been done by Dr. Michelis, a
professor in the Catholic seminary at Braunsberg, and
by some Croat notabilities at Agram, who have sent
a glowing epistle to Bishop Strossmayer, the eloquent
representative of their diocese at the Council. Were
he so minded, this Bishop Strossmayer might essen-
tially contribute towards effecting a religious reform
in his country — nay, among more than one tribe of
Sclavonic origin and Papal creed. By his long- con-
tinued vindication of the national claims of the
Sclavonic races, he has achieved such a reputation
among his compatriots that his very name would be
sufficient to encourage them to attempt the realiza-
tion of their old desires for an independent Church.
Even now his speeches at Rome are commented upon
in jubilant leaders in the press of Belgrade, Agram,
and Prague.

How critical the German Bishops consider the
juncture may be gathered from their failing to check
the opposition to the Pope.* True, most of them are
themselves taking part in that opposition, and, indeed,
have given it the impetus it possesses ; but what

* They have since deprecated the assistance of the laity in the
ecclesiastical struggle they are carrying on, but in very mild language,
and only at the direct request of the Vatican.

Q

226 The State of Religion in Germany.

Catholic dignitary would dream of calling in the as-
sistance of the laity to help him in fighting brother
clericals could he possibly dispense with it ? That
the German Bishops are setting aside the ancient and
systematic pride so engrained in their caste is proof
sufficient that in the present emergency they regard
it as less dangerous to give the people a voice in
matters ecclesiastical than let the Pope have his way
unimpeded. Of all the German remonstrants only
Professor Michelis, at Braunsberg, and some of the
Bonn professors of theology, have been mildly called
to order by their Bishops. To make up for the
episcopal want of zeal in punishing his adversaries,
the Pope is actually obliged to fall back upon argu-
ment, and to try to refute those whom he cannot,
as of yore, silence by the strong arm. As we learn
from Cologne, a member of the Episcopal Chapter
there, apparently more Papally inclined than his
own Bishop, has been commissioned by the Vatican
to answer Dollinger's heresies in a pamphlet in Ger-
man. He will have need to call all his erudition to
his aid, as a special journal has just been established
at Cologne for the purpose of combating the pre-
sumptions of the Eoman Pontiff. This interesting
addition to periodical literature, entitled Der Rhein-

An Anti-Papal Movement. 227

ische Merhir, and edited by Dr. Fridolin Hoffman,
is to be an orthodox Catholic organ, yet opposed to
those latest endeavours of the Italian and Spanish
clergy which threaten to render Catholicism an
anomaly in an enlightened country. I say the
Italian and Spanish clergy, as they it is who form
the body guard of the Pope, and who, from their
numerical strength, possess an influence in the Coun-
cil warranted neither by the size nor the intellectual
status of their dioceses. When it is considered that
the 27,000,000 of Italians are represented by 230
cardinals, bishops, abbots, and fathers-general of mo-
nastic orders, whereas the 34,000,000 French have
only eighty-four, and the 19,000,000 German Catho-
lics no more than nineteen deputies at St. Peter's,
the discrepancy is so glaring as to mock all attempts
to account for it in a reasonable way. But the injus-
tice of this arrangement towards the most cultivated
Catholic countries becomes perfectly ludicrous when
observing that the 3,000,000 semi-civilised Sclavo-
nians in European Turkey have been positively al-
lowed to send as many as twelve of their reverend
fathers to the Eternal City ; that Australia, which
is only beginning to be inhabited, has forwarded
thirteen ; and that the Chinese Catholic clergy,

Q 2

228 The State of Religion in Germany.

whose flocks are still dividing their allegiance be-
tween wooden idols and the portraits of the Virgin
Mary, muster fifteen. Again, the Spaniards have
forty members ; the South Americans, thirty ; the
Orientals, forty-two, &c. If the Pope thinks this an
equitable division of votes, he must be of opinion
that the Holy Spirit, whose presence he claims for
the Council, is the stronger in the members the more
ignorant the nations they represent.

Beelin, February 19, 1870.

CHAPTER XXV.

GERMAN BISHOPS COMMENTING UPON THE RELIGIOUS

MOVEMENT.

Four German Bishops, all of them members of the
Anti-infallibility party at the Council, have broken
silence on the religious movement gradually forming
in their respective dioceses. To judge from the tenor
of their utterances, two are beginning; to fear that
from opposing an unerring Pope the public may be
led farther, and end by attacking some other and
more ancient institutions of the Church, dear to the
episcopal heart. In such an event these Bishops who,
it is well known, did not at first object to the growth
of popular opposition at home, apparently looking to
it for the support of their own proceedings at the
Council, would be injured from the very quarter
whence they expected aid. Hence remonstrance.
The two alarmed Prelates are the supreme pastors
of the arch-dioceses of Cologne and Munich, who, in
their official organs, and with their own signatures

230 The State of Religion in Germany.

affixed, exhort the faithful to beware of being in-
volved in religious agitation. According to hirn of
Cologne, the danger of any such entanglement would
consist in supplying the advocates of Infallibility with
a pretext for " passing an ecclesiastical vote on a sub-
ject, which in the opinion of many it is neither neces-
sary nor advantageous to settle at the present time."
The Munich dignitary does not enter into particulars,
but merely contents himself with saying that the ex-
citement prevailing on the matter has been got up
artificially, and had be better allayed, as it cannot but
cause disquietude to many faithful believers. I am
afraid both these admonitory letters will, by the Ger-
man Liberals, be regarded as confirming their impres-
sion, that in declaring against infallibility the Bishops
of this country are actuated less by a rational antagon-
ism to the irrational, than by the fear that to go to
this unprecedented extremity, would be to expose
their entire creed and authority to inconvenient ani-
madversion. An even more determined stand against
the Anti-infallibilists among the laity is made by
another German member of the minority at the
Council, Bishop Ketteler of Mayence. This right
reverend gentleman, who likewise publishes a paper
in the city where his diocesan throne is erected, avails

Comments of German Bishops. 231

himself of this handy medium to inform his flock

(also under his own hand and seal) that he does

not at all agree with Dr. Dollinger, who had changed

from what he was, and in assuming the possibility of

the true doctrine being obscured by an (Ecumenical

Council, in fact ceased to be a Eoman Catholic. Dr.

Dollinger, he goes on to assert, had attacked not only

the infallibility, but also the primacy of the Pope, and

was worthy of the honours heaped upon him by the

enemies of Church ami Holy See. In Herr von Ketteler's

mouth these strictures will surprise no one. Fiery and

talented, he has ever been one of the most active

supporters of Ultramontanism on this side the Alps,

and naturally had far other motives for dissuading the

Vatican from the proclamation of the disputed dogma,

than those actuating the scholarly and pious professor

of Munich University. But with the ever increasing

approbation of his countrymen on his side, Dr.

Dollinger can afford to incur the displeasure of a

Eomanist ecclesiastic. It is certainly a sign of the

times that at a moment when the Ultramontane

representatives of the Bavarian peasantry are met

in force in the Munich Parliament, Dr. Dollino-er

should receive so many congratulatory addresses from

the cultivated classes in his own country, and Germany

232 The State of Religion in Germany.

generally. As lie acquaints us in the last issue of the
Allgemeine Zeitung, he finds it totally impossible to
answer them all separately. Perhaps as remarkable
as Dr. Bollinger's opposition is the conversion to his
principles of another professor of theology, a member
of the same Catholic university with himself. Dr.
Dollinger, an erudite scholar, has, from his profound
knowledge of ecclesiastical history, been moved to
speak out against Papal presumption ; but Dr. Sepp,
who has just avowed the same opinions with his
celebrated colleague, has long been famous in this
part of the world as an ardent and argumentative
writer on the side of the Ultramontane interest, and,
till very lately, was numbered among those who regard
Eome and the Church as identical. Surely, if such a
man is conscientiously moved to turn round, and
begins to make a distinction between the priest and
the creed, the time has come when Jesuits had better
pause and consider. In a book just published by him,
under the title "Projects of Church Eeform," there
occurs a passage, which I will cite as a specimen of
the tone adopted by only a few, it is true, but these
the most learned and eminent representatives of
Catholicism in Germany : —

" Though all Catholics are bound to maintain the

Comments of German Bishops. 233

authority of the Church, they need not acknowledge
the infallibility of a single individual. It is a devilish,
not a heavenly inspiration, which makes a man long
for the title of an unerring judge. When the Roman
emperors were deified, it certainly did not contribute to
the welfare of the world, and what advantage are we
now-a-days to derive from this ambiguous infallibility
to be conferred upon the Pope ? We will never suffer
the head of the Church to be made the Dalai Lama of
the Occident, We will never acknowledge the Pope
as a fountain of revelation and an oracle of the Church.
There is but one Logos, and Christ alone, not his
pontiff, can be an object of worship. Let them have
recourse to the thunders of the Vatican to attain this
height of their ambition — they will yet be impotent.
With the alternative placed before us of recognising
such a doctrine or disobeying Rome, the most faithful
will be compelled by conscience to refuse allegiance.
To the best and most earnest Catholics this novel
presumption is something horrid, while unbelievers
actually compare it to the Apocalypse. It is a no-
torious fact that the government of the Church is
exclusively in the hands of Italians : let the head be
armed with the right to give absolute decisions, and
it is to be foreseen, that the various nations will form

234 The State of Religion in Germany.

separate Churches of their own, and that in addition
to an Anglican and Gallican we shall witness the rise
of a Germanic establishment. We all are aware that
even a hierarchy cannot dispense with popularity. . . .
More dogmas have arisen under the present pontificate
than in the last thousand years, the gentlemen at Eome
being the only ones conscious of their need of such. . . .
For Catholics and Non-Catholics the enactment of in-
fallibility will be the signal for setting to work and
effecting a second dissolution of the order of Jesuits."

The writer of the above is a Catholic believer, and a
Catholic professor of theology in the only Catholic
capital of Germany. Need I say more ?

Far different in purport from the above episcopal
letters is a communication addressed by Bishop Hefele
of Rottenburg to the Stuttgart Volhsblatt. Though
one of the most uncompromising antagonists of the
Jesuits and their latest dogmas, the Bishop complains
that the papers are better informed of what is going
on at the Council than the members themselves. A
signer of the Anti-Infallibility address, he yet had
been unable to obtain a copy until he saw it in the
public journals. He thinks this early publication an
unjustifiable and not very judicious proceeding, but
does not go the length of blaming the interest the

Comments of German Bishops. 235

public naturally take in the debates. Of the manner
in which business is conducted, he says it is terribly
slow ; while, as regards the new rules of the assembly,
all he can do is to hope that they will not too much
curtail liberty of speech.

Notwithstanding that matters are thus in a fair way
of becoming critical, the Prussian Government do not
feel themselves called upon to imitate the French and
Austrian example, and request the Pope to consider
consequences. Being a Protestant Government they
believe they had better keep aloof while the question
is confined to this primary stage of theological debate.
Whatever the issue, they are tolerably safe from the
thunders of the Pope. Should the votes of the Council
lead to a collision between Church and State this
Government, strong in the inbred Protestantism of
the majority of its subjects, may likewise depend on
the valuable assistance of the North German Catholics.
I have already alluded to the attitude of the Breslau
and Minister Catholic Faculties : to-day Ave learn that
all the professors of Catholic theology at Bonn — the
most learned body in that department in Germany —
have sionified their adhesion to Dr. DoUinger's views.

Berlin, February 23, 1870.

CHAPTER XXVI.

RATIONALISM, CATHOLICISM, AND THE POPE.

The moment France insisted upon the privilege
properly belonging to all Catholic States of sending an
Ambassador to the (Ecumenical Council, the Pope lost
no time in introducing the Infallibility Bill. Orders
were also given to expedite the enactment of the
Canons. Before, then, the Due de Broglie, who is
likely to be appointed to represent his country at the
Holy City, can arrive there, the questions at issue, if
not absolutely settled, will have advanced to a stage
at which it will be difficult to stop them. So the
crisis is drawing near, and the nineteenth century,
with all its vast knowledge and enlightenment, is to
witness an enterprise which, according to a German
orthodox Catholic writer, is more worthy of the Dalai
Lama than of the head of Christendom.* Should
public opinion by this enormity be shocked out of its

* Professor Sepp, of Munich, in his new book against Infallibility,
as quoted in letter of February 23.

Rationalism, Catholicism, and the Pope. 237

habitual indifference to matters ecclesiastical, the
political movement of the time may be destined to be
partially replaced by an agitation which, in this
country at any rate, will have a tendency to appeal to
the very depths of man's inner nature. As to the
German Governments, their action will be entirely
guided by what the Pope will be pleased to do after
the dangerous votes he has ordered have been passed
by the Council. Should he really attempt to enforce
the famous Canons which are to perpetuate the
Syllabus, — should he insist upon subverting essential
institutions of modern society, such as liberty of the
press, liberty of instruction, liberty of conscience, &c,
all Governments in this part of the world will be
obliged to declare against him. Whatever their
reluctance to promote Rationalism by officially
declaring against the head of a recognized and time-
honoured form of faith, if the Pope turns revolution-
naive and attacks the fundamental laws of the State,
the Governments will in self-defence be compelled to
resist him, no matter what the consequence to the
cause of religion. But if the Pope prudently allows
the canonized Syllabus to remain a dead letter, at least
for the present, and keeping clear of secular affairs, con-
tents himself with asserting Infallibility as a mere theo-

238 The State of Religion in Germany.

logical crotchet, the German Governments, I think,
will not be over hasty to encourage such religious
agitation as may be called forth by his spiritual pre-
sumption. Mere dogmatical arrogance on the part of
the Holy See hurts no one ; but a religious movement
superadded to the political complications of the age,
might be productive of a perplexing imbroglio and
injure many conservative interests. In this rational-
istic era a German religious movement might, indeed,
become a serious affair, and in its primary results lead
to anything but the advancement of truth. In
Germany scepticism is so omnipotent now-a-days that
were the religious malady of the age to assume an
acute character, and the mind of the nation earnestly
to busy itself with the subject, downright atheism
would probably gain the upper hand at first, and some
time have to elapse before any beneficial result could
be attained. The present state of religious apathy is
bad enough ; but in the critical transition period from
apathy to reformed belief, there might be an episode,
when Infallibility, now a lethargic monster, awakening
from its inert repose, might assume the offensive, and
attack more than one institution of the State. Such
a contingency no Government is likely to wish to
bring on.

Rationalism, Catholicism, and the Pope. 239

In the van of those orthodox and faithful children
of the Church who in the eleventh hour are once more
raising their ■warning voice, we find again Dr.
Dollinger, the stout-hearted Munich prelate and pro-
fessor. With his usual erudition he proves in a long
article, inserted in yesterday's Allgemeine Zeitung,
that the amended rules of procedure just palmed upon
the Council grossly violate all precedent as estab-
lished by so many previous assemblies of the kind.
From the first modest and pious Synod at Jerusalem
down to the Council of Trent, whenever the Bishops
met, each one was permitted freely to communicate his
views to the rest. For men assembled to elucidate
the sublimest truths this privilege was considered all
the more indispensable, as they have always been
regarded as the exponents, not merely of their own
individual notions, but of the views entertained by
their respective flocks. More than this, no dogma has
been ever laid down by any Council if more than a
couple of dissentient voices declared against it. In
nearly every instance perfect agreement was secured
before decisions of the like importance were put to the
vote, the consensus omnium being held to be the very
thing testifying to the presence of the Holy Ghost in
their midst. Now, compare to this the amended rules

240 The State of Religion in Germany.

of Procedure issued by Pio Nono. In accordance with
them a member can be silenced at any moment by the
presiding Cardinal, and a dogma voted by simple
majority. Supposing three hundred and fifty-one
members were to declare in favour of Infallibility,
against three hundred and fifty dissentients, Infalli-
bility, according to Pio Nono, would legally become a
doctrine of the Church, notwithstanding its rejection
by nearly half the reverend representatives. It is true,
the Council rejoices in the presence of too many
Oriental and Italian Bishops to run the risk of
exposing the unprecedented nature of these Papal
proceedings in a]l their hideousness ; yet as there are
about two hundred dissentients in an assembly of
seven hundred, and as those two hundred happen to
belong to the most civilized nations, in striking-
contrast to the pious enthusiasts and ignorant bigots
opposed to them, the working of the new by-laws
Avill produce quite as anomalous results as though
the votes were more equally divided.

As a first symptom of popular sympathy with the
Pope, the Central Committee of the Catholic Societies
in the Diocese of Mayence has issued an address
against Dr. Dollinger and his adherents. This being
— to my knowledge — about the only document of the

Rationalism, Catholicism, and the Pope. 241

kind extant, whereas thousands of the most respect-
able signatures figure in the opposition addresses,
it will not go far in improving the Papal prospects.
The hisfh-soundins; name of " Catholic Societies " is
supposed to cloak a semi-ecclesiastical brotherhood,
chiefly recruited from the humbler classes. These
Societies have been frequently, but always in vain,
asked to publish a list of their members. The other
day the demand was repeated by some orthodox, anti-
Syllabus professors at Breslau, yet again failed to elicit
a reply.

The Eussian Press is in a perfect state of exultation
at the blunders committed by the Pope. Catholicism,
whose most important feature to them is its identifi-
cation with Polonism in their part of the world, will,
they hope, be materially damaged by the Council.

Berlin, March 12, 1870.

CHAPTER XXVII.

PRUSSIA AND THE POPE.

Public opinion begins to be somewhat engrossed by
the venturesome proceedings of the Pope. The Press
as well as society are rife with the prolific theme of
Infallibility. The Conservative papers regret that his
Holiness, from perverted enthusiasm if not excessive
ambition, should have been led to compromise the
most ancient of the established creeds. The Radical
Press, on the contrary, rejoices at his not listening to
the warnings of cautious and worldly-wise counsellors,
but, like a consistent simpleton, fully working out his
irrational principles ; while moderate organs, loathing
the language of their more advanced contemporaries,
yet unwilling to oppose them, preserve a significant
silence. Very remarkable, too, is the attitude of the
journals of the Prussian Government, which are unani-
mous in representing the Papal procedures as foolish,
and in promising the German Bishops their best assist-
ance should a crisis supervene. Could the Prussian

Prussia and the Pope. 243

Government be but sure that the German Bishops will
hold out, and really vote against the statutes they have
opposed in their preliminary stages, it is probable that
more than mere promises would be tendered them in
the present juncture. For in such a case it might
become morally certain that the Pope, though he had
his canons duly enacted, would yet, by the united
resistance of the German Bishops and Governments,
be made to shrink from carrying them out, at least in
these civilized latitudes. But the worst is, there is no
telling how many of the Bishops will remain true to
themselves, now that things are coming to a head. The
estimate taken of their character in this correspondence
seems but too correct. No sooner does the Pope show
that he is determined to have his way than a large
number of his episcopal antagonists are betraying an
inclination to veer round and vote with the Council
and its Head, rather than bring on a rupture in the
Church. Such is the tenour of our latest intellio;ence
from Rome : such, it is thought, the proof incontro-
vertible that, in declaring against Infallibility at all,
many Bishops were not inspired by devotion to un-
changing principle, but only by a prudent wish not to
shock the liberal convictions of the a^e. Now that
they are impotent to prevent the latter alternative,

R 2

244 The State of Religion in Germany.

they are supposed to prefer siding with the Church, in
which their interests centre, to vindicating, at the risk
of a schism, what the world gave them credit for con-
sidering the truth. It is apprehended that when In-
fallibility is put to the vote scarcely a third of the two
hundred opposing Bishops will be found to negative it.
Owing to this melancholy anticipation, the French
Government will probably not insist upon the right
decidedly belonging to them of sending a repre-
sentative to the Council. What, indeed, would be the
use of warning the Infallible one, and encouraging his
timid opponents ? The former stands committed to his
open avowals, and the latter are demonstrating that,
however odious the Papal vagaries, they are less dis-
tasteful to them than an alliance with Liberalism,
which continued resistance would entail.

In one of the articles in which the semi-official Nord
Deutsche has lately criticized the Pope a remark occurs
which deserves to be cited. The' argument on which
the Pope, in the Bill laid before his Ecclesiastical
House, bases his claim to Infallibility, is Christ's ad-
dressing Peter as the Rock on which the Church is to
be built. To this Count Bismark's organ pertinently
replies, by a reference to the many and grave instances
in which the favoured Apostle, as recorded in the

Prussia and the Pope. 245

GosjDels, proved his Fallibility, even after the distinc-
tion conferred upon him. The article winds up by
hoping that in the event of its latest pretensions
hurrying on the overthrow of the Papacy, the various
Christian denominations so long divided by the ascen-
dency of Rome will again draw closer to each other.

No result has to be reported of the attempt of some
Catholic societies to organize a popular movement in
favour of the unerring Pontiff. One Wurtemberg and
nine North German Counts are all that have raised
their voices for Pio Nono since my last. It is only
fair to add that the anti-Papal addresses likewise
ceased the moment it became clear that the Pontiff
would not be turned from his purpose. As they were
mostly signed by good Catholics, anxious for their
Church's weal, it was but natural that a pause should
supervene after what has transpired the last week.
Some of this class are intimidated by the unflinching
resolve of the Vatican ; others may be supposed to be
on the verge of heresy without as yet having made up
their minds. Hence silence.

Berlin, March 15, 1870.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

PEOBABLE RESULTS OF THE COUNCIL.

A few weeks ago Count Beust begged to dissuade
the Papal Government from having the famous Canons,
which are to perpetuate the Syllabus, enacted by the
Council. Of the Note in which these admonitions
were contained I am in a position to subjoin an
abstract. Alluding to the reserve Austria and the
other Catholic Powers have thus far displayed to-
wards the Council, the Vienna Chancellor proceeds to
remark : —

" The Catholic Powers, and more especially Austria
and France, being anxious to leave the Church at
liberty to conduct its own concerns, had not inter-
fered with the arrangements for the Council, and
resigned the right properly belonging to them of
sending representatives to that assembly. In thus
abstaining from all interference they had been actuated
by a wish to show their respect to the Church, and
likewise by a recognition of that principle of modern

Probable Results of the Council. 247

civilization which accorded full and unrestrained
liberty to Church and State within their respective
spheres. For France it had been more easy to adopt
such a course than for Austria, the former, by her
treaties with the Pope, being entitled to stop the
promulgation on her territory of any objectionable
ecclesiastical decrees, a right which the latter, by her
own Concordat, did not possess. In view, therefore,
of what was preparing at the Council, and remember-
ing the protests a short time ago couched by the
Austrian Bishops against the new school and marriage
laws, and the agitation to which their resistance had
given rise, Austria could not but feel uneasy concern-
ing the future. It was not, indeed, the intention of
the Council to enact Papal Infallibility that disquieted
her, for she trusted that this doctrine, if proclaimed at
all, would be expressed in a mild and merely theo-
retical form, similar to the one adopted by the Floren-
tine Council, and, therefore, without much practical
influence on the course of events. Nor had the State
a right to object to the proclamation of other purely
religious Dogmas, such as the immaculate conception
and glorification of the Virgin Mary. But it was
different when the Church was about to claim a per-
manent and comprehensive supremacy over the State,

248 The State of Religion in Germany.

and to arrogate to herself the right of deciding which
of the laws laid down by the secular powers were
binding on the subject, and which not. Unfortunately,
this was the stand-point assumed in the twenty-one
Canons submitted to the Council, and warmly advo-
cated by certain parties. But, not content with estab-
lishing so unacceptable a principle, the Canons pro-
ceeded at once to make use of the prerogative claimed.
The Canons declared many of the fundamental laws
of all modern and civilized States unsound, invalid,
and, in short, accursed. The Canons anathematized
liberty of religion, liberty of the press, liberty of in-
struction, civil marriage, and the amenability of the
clergy to the criminal code, and asserted a variety
of other statutes to be contrary to the laws of God
and Holy Church. Now, supposing these Schemata
to be really passed by the Council, the danger to
France would be very small, as the principles de-
nounced had been the law of the land for nearly a
century, and were likely to be upheld by the common
consent of society. But in Austria legislation had
only recently begun to recognize the necessity of enact-
ing these laws long introduced in France, and the
consequences resulting from clerical opposition to the
new statutes would, therefore, be much more unpleasant.

Probable Results of the Council. 249

For this reason the Austrian Government had applied
to Rome, and pointed out the disastrous results likely
to arise from a struggle between Church and State.
Whatever might be enjoined by the Church, the
Austrian Courts of Law would not be induced to look
leniently on those that broke the laws or incited others
to break them. Add to this that the majority of the
Austrian Bishops were opposed to the Canons, and in
the event of their being passed would be subjected to
the cruel alternative of either not publishing them or
of doing so against their better judgment, and it could
not be denied that there were many reasons for appre-
hending an undesirable issue. Eome should beware of
throwing down the gauntlet to the civilized world."

Together with the growing courage manifested by
the ecclesiastical powers, this Austrian complaint has
caused the French Minister of Foreign Affairs to follow
up his oft-mentioned private letter to the Vatican"''
by an official despatch, uttering the same warnings in
an even more urgent tone. But it is all too late. If
the Pope ever hesitated, he has completely got over his
scruples. His enacting the New Rules of procedure
proves a determination not only to crush the minority
by the majority of the assembled Bishops, which was

* Count Darn's letter and despatch are given in the Appendix.

250 The State of Religion in Germany.

always in his power, but even to silence the remon-
strants whenever he pleases. A bold, and, in his way,
sincerely religious man, Pio Nono evidently despises
considerations of mere worldly prudence, and feels
himself called upon to challenge all that there exists of
culture in this old and tolerably ripe planet of ours.
Nor is he so far wrong in making light of the opposi-
tion offered by the episcopal minority in the Council.
Comparatively liberal as they appear by the side of the
rest, there are few among the recusant Bishops wThose
opposition is not mainly actuated by a dread that, were
the Canons and Infallibility passed, this would tend to
injure rather than benefit the Church. If they can
ward off this peril, well and good ; if not, it is not
they who will aggravate it by standing up for religious
freedom, and thus bring on another schism. Were any
proof needed of this, it would be supplied by the fact
that Cardinal Rauscher, the father of the notorious
Austrian Concordat, and the head of Ultramontanism
in Germany, belongs to the most unflinching members
of the minority at Rome. Then, again, as regards
Catholic Governments, the French dynasty is scarcely
in a position to make an enemy of the Pope, consider-
ing that only a fourth part of the French Bishops are
stanch Gallicans, while the rest, as well as the inferior

Probable Results of the Council. 251

clergy, are devoted to the Pope rather than the inde-
pendence of their National Church. The Austrian
Cabinet, on the other hand, will have to be extremely
cautious and spare the feelings of the Pope and all the
world beside, should a religious controversy arise. To
them religious agitation, superadded to the national
disputes dividing their Empire, would be no joke. Of
course the Pope will not for a time insist so very
rigorously upon each and every one of the Canons
being carried out, or all the Governments of the world
would be forced into fierce antagonism, no matter how
ardent their wish to adopt a more conciliatory policy ;
but this sort of wisdom has uever been foreign to the
Vatican, which always understood to a nicety how
much of its theoretical claims it dared press at a given
moment. On this supposition the only real danger the
Pope can have to encounter on his way will arise from
public opinion revolting against the claims of a super-
stitious priesthood. But such an event the Holy See
has long ceased to fear. Luther, relying upon the en-
thusiasm of a stern and devout age, may have succeeded
in intimidating the purpled dignitaries of Eome ; but
the present period, with its slight interest in matters
transcendental, does not seem sufficiently to command
the Pope's respect to make him ordinarily cautious.

252 The State of Religion in Germany.

From his daring; conduct we are free to infer that he
hopes to enslave the minds of the uneducated more
fully than ever, and yet not rouse the better informed
from that apathy which, while it pretends to ignore
him, permits him to try his worst. Will he be out in
his reckoning after all ? We have to-day to record
some more addresses from Kreuznach, Neuss, and other
Rhenish towns, declaring against Infallibility; but more
is wanted than a mere protest against what is obsolete
to set a religious movement a-going, and insjoire that
faith and earnestness without which there can be no
reform.

Berlin, March 20, 1870.

CHAPTER XXIX.

COMING TO TERMS.

Cardinal Antonelli's reply to the last anxious
despatch of Count Beust fully confirms my anticipa-
tions as to the discreet use the Holy See intends to
make of the new prerogative to be voted by the
Council. " There is," — Cardinal Antonelli has signi-
fied to the Envoy of the Austro-Hnngarian Monarchy
— " a great difference between theory and practice.
No one will ever prevent the Church from proclaiming
the great principles upon which its Divine fabric is
based ; but as regards the application of these sacred
laws, the Church, imitating the example of its heavenly
Founder, is inclined to take into consideration the
natural weaknesses of mankind, and accordingly exacts
only so much from human frailty as is within the
power of every age and country to render." This lan-
guage is in striking contrast with the comprehensive
and unconditional cursing of the Canons. It replaces
fanaticism by prudence, accommodates principle to cir-

254 The State of Religion in Germany.

cumstances, and avowedly modifies the rigidity of a
supernatural code by a reasonable regard for sublunary
time and locality. By this important announcement,
the Pope engages himself to break the new ecclesias-
tical laws, wherever and whenever such infraction
should appear to be conducive to the welfare of the
Church. Accordingly it may be presumed that mixed
marriages will be forbidden in the Tyrol, where public
opinion is sufficiently bigoted to enforce the prohibition,
but winked at in Hungary, whose Magyar population
is too much impressed with the necessity of facing the
world as a national whole to suffer artificial barriers to
be erected in their midst by a foreign priest. Again,
it is likely that the King of Bavaria will not be ex-
communicated for permitting his Lutheran subjects
to profess their religion in a kingdom alleged to be
specially patronized by the Holy Virgin, whereas the
Government of Paraguay are sure to be told that its
only alternative lies between preventing the erection
of Protestant churches or going to Hell. Likewise the
subjection of ecclesiastics to secular Courts will be
interdicted in Bolivia, but connived at in France ;
while Infallibility, scarcely fit to become more than a
shadowy phantom in this civilized quarter of the globe,
will be carried out in downright earnest only among

Coming to Terms. 255

the more highly-coloured and less-elaborately cultivated
inhabitants of the far East and West. It must be
admitted that this cautious method of reconciling the
novel claims of the Pope to the existing realities of
the political world will tend to obviate the disturbing
influence the Council might otherwise exercise upon
the future of civilized States ; but will Pio Nono, will
his successors, be always so cautious in wielding the
omnipotent sceptre as Cardinal Antonelli promises ?
Will not a clergy, who cannot reasonably expect to
bias the educated classes, be strongly tempted to
strive for power through the lower strata of society,
when the million have once been taught in Church and
school to revere the Pope as their God upon earth ?
Unless they hoped their opportunity was coming, what
motive could they have for making preparations to use
it % Though Pio Nono may be an enthusiast, can we
believe his Jesuit eulogists to be actuated by exclu-
sively religious motives in maintaining his supremacy
over worldly affairs 1

We have to record a fresh list of demonstrations
against the Pope and Council. The theological Faculties
of Munich, Bonn, Breslau, and Minister have already
lifted up their voice and pronounced almost unani-
mously against the doings at Rome; the Episcopal

256 The State of Religion in Germany.

Seminary at Braunsberg has produced one of the most
determined antagonists to Infallibility ; and at this
moment Wlirzburg University is joining the goodly
array, one of its priestly Professors, a Dr. Schengg,
openly declaring in his lectures that Infallibility can
neither be based upon nor logically deduced from
Christ's promise to Peter, as related Matt, xvi., 16-18.
"Wurzburg has lono; been in the hands of the Ultramon-
tanes, and its being infected by broader views is a fact
of no small moment. At present Freiburg is the only
place of importance where all the Professors are still in
unison with the Pope. Professor Dollinger, at Munich,
the first to set the anti-Jesuit agitation agoing, has been
distinguished by fresh marks of approbation. From
the circle of Schleiden, in the very orthodox district
of Aix-la-Chapelle, he has received an address, bearing
the signatures of many of the most respectable in-
habitants, and praising him highly for his courageous
conduct. Even more gratifying must have been an
ovation offered by the students attending his lectures.
A few days ago, when the lecture was over, one of
them rose, and, premising that he had been chosen
spokesman by his " commilitons," begged to assure the
learned doctor of their confidence in his teaching and
character, however virulent the attacks launched

Coming to Terms. 257

against hini by the Jesuitic school of theologians. In
answering the young man, who is one day to be a
priest, and who spoke in the name of other candidates
for Holy Orders, Dr. Dollinger said that all he aimed
at as a professor was to enable his pupils to search and
judge for themselves. He taught them what he thought
to be right and true ; upon them devolved the duty of
testing the accuracy of his statements. As you can
easily imagine his popularity has not been diminished
by this modest and straightforward reply. One of the
Bavarian bishops, the Eight Eeverend M. Senestrey,
of Eatisbon, has been so irritated by Dr. Dollinger's
growing ascendency over the students, as to go the
length of declaring that no one who continues to attend
Munich University need apply to him for Holy Orders.
Does not this look as if the plague spot of schism had
already broken out ? Just compare the Eatisbon decree
with the tone of a correspondence another Bishop —
that of Eottenburg — has addressed from Eome to the
Stuttgart Volksblatt, and you will admit that the
diversity of opinion among German prelates has
reached a considerable height. The Eottenburg Bishop
writes as follows : —

" A petition to the Pope is being circulated among
the Bishops asking him to insert in the Ave Maria the

25 8 The State of Religion in Germany.

words, ' conceived without sin/ This is another in-
stance of the extraordinary demands and importunities
assailing us here. This very day the Bishop of Pekin
told me at table that an individual circulating petitions
of this sort had called upon him, and, strange to say,
had shown him his own signature affixed to the paper.
The man had cut it out from some other paper and
pasted it on to the list. Perhaps it was for the same
purpose that while I attended a meeting at Cardinal
Rauscher's, some Italian layman, in the presence of
my young servant, tore off the carte de visite nailed
on the door of my room."

These contemptuous remarks have been loudly re-
echoed by the Liberal as well as the Conservative
organs of the German Protestant press. The Liberals
oppose the Council from principle ; the Conservatives,
however much inclined to look leniently upon its
failing, yet cannot help denouncing its questionable
stratagems.

You will remember Dr. Friedrichs, the Secretary of
Cardinal Hohenlohe at Rome, whom the Papal police
ordered to leave the town, suspecting him of supplying
German papers with inconvenient intelligence about
the Council. As the police would not recall the order,
notwithstanding the intervention of some influential

Coming to Terms. 259

personages, the Bavarian Government have appointed
the objectionable Doctor attache to their Embassy,
thereby liberating him from the tender mercies of the
Santa Hermandad. The Munich Cabinet are not at
all favourable to that faction at Rome whose eccen-
tricities threaten to throw the apple of discord among
their subjects at a period made critical enough by
political broils without any ecclesiastical admixture.

Berlin, March 26, 1870.

s :>

CHAPTER XXX.

THE BAVARIAN ULTEAMONTANES. — I.
{Vide Chapter XVHI.)

The small majority of six the Bavarian Ultramon-
tanes secured in the last elections to the Lower House
of the Munich Parliament has not been long in pro-
ducing the anticipated results. So impatient were
these excited champions of the Holy See to advertise
their sentiments that they thought it incumbent upon
them to do so even in their answer to the speech from
the throne. As their King told them plainly that,
although he had no wish to see Bavaria merged in the
North- German Confederacy, he was yet determined to
adhere to the offensive and defensive alliance already
entered upon, so they must needs answer him in the
same ready and undisguised manner. Provoked by this
candid announcement from the throne, the Bavarian
TJltramontanes introduced addresses into both Houses
of their local representative assembly, insisting that
the treaties establishing military alliance with Prussia,

The Bavarian Ultramontanes. 261

or, what is the same, with the Northern Confederacy,
should be so interpreted as to render them virtually
null and void. The Upper House quickly passed its
address, but on asking for an audience to deliver it,
was curtly told that the King would not receive a
document recommending disloyal measures, and en-
deavouring artificially to keep up the excitement
prevalent in the country. Undaunted by this un-
gracious reply, the Ultramontanes in the Lower House
are at this moment engaged in discussing their own
Address, which, if at all differing from that of the
other legislative body, does so only by an even more
unblushing and indiscreet recommendation to break
the treaty on which Bavaria's connection with Ger-
many rests. As a first step towards attaining their
object, the Ultramontanes in the second chamber loudly
demand that Bavaria, nominally leaving her relations
to Prussia as they are, should yet claim the right to
decide for herself, on the outbreak of a war, whether
Prussia's behaviour in bringing it about has been suffi.-
ciently moral to compel Bavaria's assistance. What
this means in the mouth of these men would be clear
enough of itself, even did they not insist upon a con-
siderable reduction of the Bavarian troops, and con-
tinue, directly or indirectly, to call upon France and

262 The State of Religion in Germany.

Austria to come and destroy the late re-arrangement
of Germany. There can be no doubt as to the nature
of the motives in this interesting juncture directing
the action of the Bavarian Ultramontanes and the
few Absolutists that are making common cause with
them. Both are convinced that the loose ties at
present binding the kingdom to the rest of Ger-
many, if permitted to continue, will soon be tightened,
and ultimately result in Bavaria's complete embodi-
ment with the Confederacy. Such a consummation
both look upon as the direst misfortune that could
befall them. By merging the Bavarians in a common
Germanic Parliament it would deprive Borne of the
last spot in Germany where she is powerful enough
to exercise marked political influence ; by creating a
common political Parliament of all Fatherland, it
would inaugurate a more liberal era, and finally re-
move the last lingering remnants of the old, well-
intentioned, and although certainly not altogether
fruitless, yet obsolete system of Government.

Horrified at this prospect, and irritated by the
hopes of all liberal and enlightened elements in their
own State as well as in the rest of Germany, the
Ultramontanes and their Ultra-Conservative allies, in
their endeavours to obviate such a shocking issue,

The Bavarian Ultramontanes. 263

proceed to the strongest means at their disposal. The
insignificant majority they possess, and the conscious-
ness of their being mainly indebted even for this to
the ignorant villagers voting in the elections against
the more cultivated towns-people, instead of restraining
them from vehement measures, only serves to make
them the more rabid and obstreperous. As nearly all
Bavarian cities, Munich included, are against them,
and the next elections are as likely as not to leave
them in a minority, they imagine it to be their only
policy to show their colours and do their worst, while
they can do anything at all. With a frankness highly
commendable, were it not directed against the hap-
piness of their struggling race, and did it not prize
Rome higher than Germany, they avow their intention
to separate Bavaria from her sister States, and make
it the domain of a foreign ecclesiastic, absorbed in
unprecedented adoration of self. It is as though the
frantic intoxication which seems to have seized the
whole Ultramontane world a.d. 1870 had extended
even to the ordinarily quiet and undemonstrative
latitude of Munich. Fortunately they are impotent to
realize their foolish desires. The King of Bavaria is
too cautious and too patriotic to engage in so venture-
some and ignoble a course, and the Bavarian army

264 The State of Religion in Germany.

bears the experience of the late campaign too well in
mind to wish to fight on any other side except the
Prussian. Add to this, that the great majority of the
educated classes in Bavaria are ranged on the same
side as their King and troops, and the attitude of the
Ultramontanes shrivels up to the nothingness of a
mere wordy row. In all probability the King will
refuse to accept the address of the Lower House, as he
has done that of the Upper. Should the Bavarian
Commons, notwithstanding, try to reduce their army
below the figure required to give effect to the treaties
with this Government, Prussia has the means at her
disposal to extinguish the opposition of these feeble
adversaries. In a former controversy of the same kind
Prussia declared the continuance of Bavaria in the
Customs Union dependent upon her abiding by and
properly carrying out the military treaties. The
announcement sufficed to overcome all opposition.
Bavarian industry, having been adapted to the tariff
and wants of the Zollverein for forty long years, would
be destroyed by exclusion ; nor could the Bavarian
Exchequer, were it to lose its share in the Zollverein
receipts, make both ends meet. As to the plan
broached some time ago by the Ultramontanes, of
commercially separating Bavaria from the rest of the

The Bavarian Ultramontanes. 265

world by a special tariff or making her enter into a
Customs league with Austria, it is a rhodomontade in
which nobody believes. Apart from the ruin of its
manufactures consequent upon separation from the
Zollverein, the kingdom is evidently too small, and the
extent of its frontiers too great, to be able to exclude
smugglers, unless at an unproductive sacrifice of
money and means ; while as to joining Austria, that
would be but to gain a market having a compara-
tively small consumption, and already supplied by
manufacturers possessed of much greater capital than
those of Bavaria. There would also be some incon-
venience connected with participation in the Austrian
paper currency troubles.

The merest allusion by Prussia to these notorious
facts will suffice to prevent the vociferations of the
clerical party at Munich having practical consequences.
This is so certain that the only sensation which the
sputterings of the Bavarian Ultramontanes awaken
here, notwithstanding the noise they make, is closely
akin to that smiling pity with which the civilized
world looks upon the simultaneous efforts of their
brethren at Rome.

Beelin, February 12, 1870.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE BAVARIAN ULTRAMONTANES. — II.

Even should the Bavarian Cabinet resign in conse-
quence of the elections, any new ministers would be
obliged to respect the wishes of their sovereign, who
looks upon the military treaty with Prussia as the
only safeguard of his dynasty amid the ruin of so
many ancient and time-honoured states. * So firm is
the king in this prudent view of his position, that un-
shaken by the success of the other party, he has just
congratulated the constituency of the small town of
Fltssen, near his Alpine castle of Hohenschwangau,
upon their returning a Liberal member. Apart from
these important agencies in favour of unity, the
triumph of the Ultramontanes is scarcely great enough
to permit their acting wholly irrespective of the
Liberals. Of the eight provinces of Bavaria, the two

* Since the above has been written, Prince Hohenlohe and two other
ministers have resigned, and been replaced by statesmen cherishing
principles similar to their own.

Tlie Bavarian Ultramontanes. 267

that are Protestant — the Palatinate and Central Fran-
conia — have returned only Liberals. Another, Suabia,
half Protestant, has elected about as many Liberals as
Ultramontanes, while in the rest the Eomanist party
has gained a small preponderance. Nor ought it to be
overlooked that in the capital, Munich, and some of the
other large towns none but Liberal candidates obtained
a majority. This is a fresh proof that even in the old,
and, comparatively speaking, strictly Catholic portion
of the kingdom, it is only the ignorant inhabitants of
the villages and smaller towns that can be prevailed
upon to oblige their priests at the poll. With the army
and educated classes on his side, with the North ap-
plauding his politics, it may be hoped that the young
King of Bavaria will be able to prevent his good ship
of State from foundering on Ultramontane breakers.

But, futile as the exertions of the Popery party in
the South promise to be in the end, it is a matter of
considerable interest to watch the unremitting energy
with which they swim against the stream. Could
there be any doubt as to the vast importance of the
change which, in more respects than one, will be
wrought some day by the complete reunion of Ger-
many, it would be removed by the resistance offered
to the process in its very outset by the sworn advo-

2G8 The State of Religion in Germany.

cates of moral and intellectual slavery. The Ultra-
montanes have a distinct presentiment that a common
Germanic Parliament is likely to be neither a reac-
tionary nor a radical, but a liberal and a moderate
body. However cunningly the franchise might be
arranged, it would never yield a reactionary result :
a census would give ascendancy to the middle classes,
who are liberal, and universal suffrage, after the ad-
mission of the Southerners to the Confederacy, only
redound to the advantage of the Kadicals. The latter
alternative neither the Prussian government nor the
educated strata of society will submit to ; there re-
mains, then, nothing but to adopt and promote the
former. But nothing would more effectively diminish
Ultramontane authority than the establishment of a
temperate Administration, too liberal not to take an
interest in the intellectual advancement of the people,
and too independent of radical crotchets to permit
haughty sects to abuse religious liberty and preach the
doctrine of intolerance under the protection of laws
enacted for the maintenance of the opposite principles.
No wonder, then, the Ultramontanes should be shocked
by the shadow of a United Fatherland looming in the
distance ; no wonder, that being, of all its states in-
fluential only in Bavaria, they should move Heaven

The Bavarian Ultramontanes. 269

and earth to organize an effective resistance to the pro-
gress of the national movement in this last remaining
stronghold of their German defences. Edged on by
a sort of convulsive paroxysm, they have, in those
Bavarian elections, shunned no lie, no calumny, if it
did but serve their purpose. Perfectly indifferent to
the contempt of all respectable and educated people,
whom they probably think too far gone for recover}7,
they have positively wallowed in falsehood, and told the
poor misguided field hands who form their body guard
any number of nonsensical enormities on the disad-
vantages of joining Lutheran and army-ridden Prussia.
They have tried to revive religious hatred, to inculcate
anew the old and gradually vanishing rivalry between
North and South, and, as all this would have scarcely
furthered their ends in these enlightened times, actually
frightened their subject peasantry with the story that
Prussia, to evade bankruptcy, is looking out for their
pighide money bags. Just to afford a specimen of
their achievements in this particular department of
rhetoric, 1 will quote an electioneering article from
the Munich Volksbote, a famous and favourite organ
of theirs, edited for the benefit of the lower classes.
Cautioning its readers not to choose Liberal mem-
bers, this paper thus alludes to the dreadful con-

270 The State of Religion in Germany.

sequences of a " Pro-Prussian " majority in the
Chambers : —

" Have you any wish to see your king degraded to
the position of a Hohenzollern vassal, a miserable pre-
fect in the pay of the Berlin authorities ? Or do you
want to see the independence of this ancient and
glorious country of Bavaria sacrificed for the benefit
of those hungry, impoverished, and half-starved Prus-
sians ? Are you at all anxious to have your own
officers removed from your own army, and superseded
by the pitiful fops called Prussian lieutenants ? Have
you any desire to witness the transportation of the Ba-
varian regiments to the backwoods of Pomerania, whose
very name cannot be fitly mentioned in decent society,
or to famished East Prussia ? And would you take de-
light in having our cities garrisoned by the voracious
wearers of the Prussian helmet, sent to regale them-
selves in our larders and to propagate Prussian morality
at the expense of the honesty of our women ? Are
our constitutional liberties to be destroyed by the
Prussian cat-o'-nine-tails ? Is the coarse, brutal, and
infamous military rabble, that forms the army of our
Northern neighbour to infect our gallant troops with
its spirit of haughty wickedness ? AVill you consent
to see your pockets emptied to the last penny, and

The Bavarian Ultramontanes. 271

yourselves skinned into the bargain, in order that
Prussia may fulfil its Divine mission ? And you, in-
habitants of Munich, what would you say if your
picture galleries were stripped of their contents, and
all the famous works of art, in whose possession you
have so long gloried, carried off to Berlin 1 Are the
magnificent monuments adorning your public squares
to be pulled down and recast into Prussian guns \ Is
Munich really to become a provincial town, deserted
by your court, unknown to strangers, the abode of
abject misery and penury ? Is civil marriage to be
introduced into this Christian country ? Are your
schools to be demoralised and become nests of Pa-
ganism? Are your churches to be turned into brothels,
where modern goddesses of Eeason are adored by
sensual devotees ? No, you will not permit these
abominations. You will, on the contrary, stand up
for Bavaria," &c, &c.

A nice catalogue of delinquencies to be committed
by the Prussians if ever paramount in Bavaria. But
the event is hardly likely to happen to-morrow, and in
the meantime it is a good thing that these unscru-
pulous marauders are degenerate enough to be roused
to no more serious emotion than a laugh, by prophecies
like the above. Instead of resenting the delineation

272 The State of Religion in Germany.

given of their character, the wicked people of this
country are positively amused at having reduced the
Ultramontanes to a position tacitly admitted to he
desperate by the very excess to which these rantings
are carried. The Prussians certainly regret that the
Ultramontane majority in the Bavarian Chamber will
have the power to render the military alliance between
the two countries less practically useful than it might
be ; but they are also aware that the Ultramontanes
will be impotent to annihilate the important treaty,
and are perfectly content for the time being to let
the matter rest here. Should the Bavarian army be
ever summoned to support the Prussians, it is not the
illiterate peasantry of the Bavarian Alps and plains
that will prevent it, nor are the clergy of their lonely
hamlets likely to exercise any marked influence on the
progress of the world's affairs, when the day dawns on
which the general condition of Europe will admit of
the complete unification of Germany.

Berlin, February 20, 1870.

CHAPTER XXXII.

INCREASING OPPOSITION.

Catholic society begins to shrink from the goings
on at Rome. Like vigilant sentinels astir long before
the main body is aroused from its drowsy slumbers,
the more sensitive minds feel the provocation offered
by the Pope. In many an indignant breast the dis-
pleasure awakened by his eccentric proceedings is too
warm, to be allayed by his promise, that he will use
his new powers with the utmost discretion and
leniency. The idea of having infallibility and the
thousand alleged sins of the civilised state daily set
forth in Church and school, even thought his stupendous
doctrine may not be employed to foment actual re-
bellion, is yet clearly too much for many a latitudi-
narian, nay, for many a devout Catholic. Men, appa-
rently too far gone in unbelief to care for anything
the Pope might advance, or else too blindly attached
to the Church to doubt even her wildest teachings, are
gradually adopting a new set of opinions, and mani-

274 The State of Religion in Germany.

festing a moral repugnance to what is felt to be too
bad for endurance. Certainly feelings such as these,
are, as yet, to be met with only in the upper and more
highly cultivated strata of the middle class, and in this
are confined to a minority, small though daily increas-
ing. Possibly, they will never extend to the lower and
less susceptible grades ; possibly it will take some time
to make them sufficiently prevalent even among the
intelligent and reflecting, for any practical result to
be worked out. But should reform be attempted, it
would assuredly derive considerable impetus from the
warmth created in this present preliminary stage of
sullen discontent. How potent this feeling has
already become you may infer from the fact of the
Rev. Dr. Weiser, Secretary to the Papal Mission at
Munich, finding it necessary to contradict a rumour
charging him with the authorship of the Bavarian
letters in the Unita Cattolica. The Unita, a journal
published under the patronage of the Pope, has been
the Moniteur of the Infallibility Commission from the
outset and ever since the inauguration of the present
Pontifical policy waged a fierce war against all
antagonists, open and unavowed. Among others, the
Bavarian Government has come in for a considerable
share of its righteous anger. If to maintain his

Increasing Opposition. 275

position in Munich society a Papal Secretary of
Legation is obliged to deny all connexion with so
authoritative an organ, the Pope, one is led to con-
clude, cannot retain his former ascendancy over the
Bavarian mind. As much may be guessed from the
King of Bavaria continuing to write demonstrative
letters against the Holy See. His last two missives
were addressed to Father Holzl, a Franciscan monk,
whom he congratulated for defending Dollinger, and
to Professor John Huber, also a Bavarian clergyman,
famous for exposing the shortcomings of the Papacy in
the Allgemeine Zeitung. A relation of this professor,
Dr. Franz Huber, has achieved notoriety by sending a
curious challenge to Pater Eoh, one of the best known
Jesuits in Germany. The Pater, it appears, repeatedly
asserted in the pulpit that the doctrine ordinarily
attributed to his order of the end justifying the means
has never been professed by them. In reply to this,
Dr. Huber offered to prove that the world was right in
believing of the Jesuits what it does, desiring at the
same time the rev. Pater to choose any one learned
faculty as umpire between them. The Pater not
deigning to take up the gauntlet, Dr. Huber thought it
expedient to change the tone argumentative for one
more forcible, and in a fresh letter to his adversary, ac-

T 2

276 The State of Religion in Germany.

costed liini in these uncomplimentary terms : — " Your
declarations in the pulpit are mere Jesuitical bravado,
and your present silence is a token of your want of
honourable feeling. If you are a man, you will, after
this, sue me for libel." This the Pater has till now
omitted doing. All Bavaria animadverts on the
dispute.

Similar symptoms, which if the Pope were not
above watching mere terrestrial events would not
escape his notice, are reported from various parts of
Northern Germany. At Leipsic, Dr. Schenk, a pro-
fessor of Botany in the University there, by extraction
a Bavarian Catholic, has embraced Protestantism for
the avowed reason that he will not subscribe to the
goings on at the Council. At Cologne, the Rhenish
Mercury, a paper expressly established to protest
against the exaggerated demands of the Papacy, is
adopting a more and more sarcastic tone against
adversaries evidently held to be too far gone astray
from the ordinary laws of reason and logic to deserve
any more serious mode of treatment. In a recent
issue, this journal, which professes to be orthodox
withal, begs to inquire whether a Pope would remain
infallible if he should happen to go mad ; or whether
infallibility, in such an emergency, would revert to the

Increasing Opposition. 277

Church and, if so, who was to decide on the exact
moment of the transfer. Again, if the Pope asserted
his sanity, despite his being considered a madman by
ordinary mortals, would it be possible to contradict
him, considering that an infallible mind was, perhaps,
subject to other laws than fallible ones ? Or was it
peradventure to be regarded as the only conclusive
proof of a Pope's insanity if he declared against the
Jesuits ? As the Jesuits accounted for Clement XIV.
abolishing their society by proclaiming him a lunatic,
would every other Pope inimical to their interests be
likewise regarded as a madman, and be stripped of his
divinity accordingly? These and similar questions are
asked in more than one paper. What has become of
the ancient reverential respect for the Pope, if such
quibbles can be raised at his expense in temperate
Catholic organs ?

To refute the infallibilists with evidence supplied
by the Church itself, a Silesian priest has addressed
an interesting letter to the editor of the Breslauer
Zeitung. In lieu of all learned discussion, he simply
contents himself with quoting an article published
no less than fifty-one years ago in the Tubingen
Theological Review, a learned and most respectable
Catholic organ, which would indeed appear to supply

278 The State of Religion in Germany.

a valuable contribution to the controversy. I will
only extract the following from it : —

" Some Protestant theologians having lately twitted
us upon the alleged infallibility of the Pope, we find
it necessary to declare that never has the Catholic
Church acknowledged any doctrine of the kind. Even
the devoutest adherents of Eome never dared to ad-
vance such an axiom. If there were some few Jesuits
longing to bestow this boon upon the Pope they never
dared to call it a tenet proclaimed, or even so much as
admitted, by the Church. All Church history proves
such a thing never to have been accorded the Pope, to
confirm which we refer the reader to Cotta's Com-
mentatio Historico-Tlieologica de Fallibili Pontificis
Romani Auctoritate, ex Actis Concilii Constantiensis
maximum "partem deducta. Lugduni Batavorum,
1 732. Were any further evidence necessary we might
cite the fourth clause of the Declaratio Cleri Galli-
cani in 1682, in which the decisions of the Pope are
declared as admitting of amendment, even when given
on matters of faith."

Disquieted by some attempts of the Jesuits to in-
troduce themselves again into their country, the Swiss
Federal Government have reminded several cantons
that the Order is excluded from holdino; office in

Increasing Opjiosition. 279

church and school in Switzerland. As it required a
civil war to get rid of them, the Swiss are not likely
to admit the fraternity again.

Berlin, April 16, 1870.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

LATEST ASPECTS.

In Silesia three more priests have publicly declared
against infallibility, which they denounce as contrary
to the dogma and dignity of the Church. From the
straightforward language in their pronunciamentoes,
they appear to be acting under the impulse of strong
moral disgust. One of these recusants has been sus-
pended from office by the Episcopal Vicariate ; the two
others remain in the uninterrupted enjoyment of their
stipends, and are permitted to minister at the altar
and the font, as heretofore. If the hesitation which
the Breslau ecclesiastical authorities experience in
punishing dissent is observable in this very dissimilar
treatment of identical cases, it is no less manifest
in a circular missive they have just addressed to
the whole of their diocesan clergy. Far from openly
pronouncing in favour of the contemplated addition
to the Catechism, they only seem to say in this
pastoral letter, that infallibility must not be attacked

Latest Aspects. 281

as long as it is a mere proposition and not yet a
dogma of the Church. Utterances like those of the
above courageous priests are also heard from the
Suabian clergy, who are called upon by the Stuttgart
press to satisfy the demands of the German national
conscience, and inaugurate another secession from
Rome, the seat of a foreign, coarse, and insolent
theology. We have plainly before us the symp-
toms of the clergy awakening to a sense of their
difficult and discreditable position in having to carry
out the dread decrees of the Council. The movement
began nine months ago, when the German bishops
assembled at Fulda to couch a mild protest against
the designs of their aspiring colleagues in Rome ; but
it is only now extending to their subordinates, and in
proportion as it reaches the mere rank and file of
the ecclesiastical host, naturally loses the aristocratic
reserve which marked the first steps of the purpled
and mitred dignitaries. Yet we must not be sanguine
as to its immediate results. The Popish priesthood of
this country, were they to resist the Pope, would have
as much to fear from the support of the Rationalists,
as they would have to suffer from their attacks if
siding with His Holiness. In the former alternative
they are pretty sure, by these heterogeneous allies to

282 The State of Religion in Germany.

be led away to a sphere of modern thought, far beyond
that which the most liberal among them wish to in-
troduce into their creed ; in the latter, reason, science,
and devotion alike will become their irreconcilable
enemies. With this Scylla and Charybdis before
them, which way will they turn? Both being equally
perilous, it may be surmised that, a few impulsive
characters excepted, the priests will probably espouse
that side, which, while no worse than the other from a
religious point of view, has so many secular advan-
tages to recommend it. Before any considerable
number of priests can resolve to head a crusade
ao-ainst the Pope, they must be convinced that there
exists a numerous class of devotees who, however much
opposed to the new-fangled doctrines of the Holy
See, are yet sufficiently orthodox to remain Catholics
though they may discard Pio Nono. But I very much
doubt their believing in the existence of such a class.
Living in the intellectual atmosphere of this country,
they must regard it as morally certain, that in the
event of a Catholic reform being attempted by any-
one, whether priest or layman, it will issue in some-
thing very different to mere rejection of infallibility.
If, then, reform is to ensue at all, it is ten to one
that it will ensue in the secular rather than the

Latest Aspects. 283

ecclesiastical body, and that the manly manifestoes
of individual priests will of themselves have no power
to influence the generality of their cautious and diffi-
dent order.

But will there be any reform at all % With the ex-
perience of the last nine months before us, we can
weigh the chances. First, as regards the impetus that
might be given by the governments opposing the
meddlesome politics of the Pope, we have Cardinal
Antonelli's promise, that his master, for the present
at any rate, will content himself with a mere theo-
retical supremacy over the Kings and nations of the
earth. The governments, therefore, are not likely to
move, as long as they can help it. Nor will the
priests be more eager in opening the battle. Though
many of them are undoubtedly ashamed of having
to teach infallibility in church and school, and more-
over, dread the consequences of outraging common
sense and religion by so absurd and blasphemous a
doctrine, the priests are tied to their exacting master
by the fear of subverting the entire ecclesiastical
fabric, the moment they declare against any portion
of it. And the laity? The masses are mute. Think-
ing Catholics, on the other hand, if orthodox, are
restrained by the same motives as the priests, or if

284 Tlie State of Religion in Germany.

rationalistically inclined, are indifferent to whatever
enormities may be resolved upon at the Vatican.
Such, at any rate, up to this moment remains the
disposition of the majority among the educated. The
minority in this class has far other views. Whether
devout or otherwise, they are daily becoming more
alive to the indignity of remaining members of a
Church, which has waited for the nineteenth century
to place a demigod at her head. From them religious
progress among the German Catholics is most likely
to emanate. But they can only set the stone rolling.
It will require the active sympathy of a much wider
section of society effectively to prolong the move-
ment. Only in the event of moral disgust at the
Papal proceedings growing strong enough to over-
come either the fear of rationalism prevailing among
the pious, or the antipathy to matters religious rife in
latitudinarian circles — can a permanent reform take
place. The day of this retributive consummation,
although we may not live to see its ultimate result,
is yet visibly drawing near. It might be considerably
accelerated by a corresponding revival in the Pro-
testant Church. Or perhaps it will precede, and give
the signal for, such a revival. Its exact date will be
determined by the course of domestic and foreign

Latest Aspects. 285

jiolitics, by the feelings, passions and resolves of many
millions, or, possibly, by the inspirations of a few
leading dictatorial minds.

Berlin, May 7, 1870.

APPENDIX.

A.— LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, TOUCHING THE STATE
OF THE PROTESTANT CHURCH IN GERMANY.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES."

Sir, — Your " Own Correspondent " at Berlin has cen-
sured the religious belief of the majority of Protestants in
Germany, and he has not done so without giving his
reasons for believing that censure to be well merited.
Allow me to confute his arguments by opposing facts to
facts.

For the sake of argument I will accept as a fact that
" three-fourths, of all educated men in Germany are
estranged from the dogmatic teaching of the Christian
creed." Nor will I dispute the honesty of the writer's
assertion that no one who " knows modern Germany will
call it a Christian land, either in the sense Rome gives to
the term or in the meaning Luther attached to it." I
assume yom' correspondent to be an Englishman who has
not been long enough in Germany to know that those who
call themselves Lutherans form a minority far more insig-
nificant than the extreme High Church or Ritualistic party
in England, with which party, however, they must be abso-
lutely identified on all essential points.

288 The State of Religion in Germany.

I .will give you an instance. A few months ago a
Lutheran clergyman of note stated, on a public and solemn
occasion, and in the presence of many Protestants not be-
longing to the so-called Lutheran fraction, that while the
Lutherans do drink the real blood of Christ when partaking
of the Holy Communion, the Protestants of all other de-
nominations drink only wine.

The great majority of Christians has not so learnt Christ,
or the Bible which Luther gave to the people. What
Luther's views on this point were is well known, and three-
fourths of German Protestants do not share that opinion,
but protest against it, as now exactly three hundred and
fifty years ago the great Eeformer Zwingli commenced to do
so. By him was created that great Reformed party in Pro-
testant Germany, of which your correspondent says nothing,
except that he includes it among the three-fourths of what
he ventures to call unbelieving Protestants. To be a Chris-
tian, according to his assertion, means either to be a Ro-
manist or a Lutheran.

That kind of Christianity is indeed denied in the land of
the Reformation by very many, though not quite three-
fourths, of its inhabitants. I thank your correspondent for
his very correct statement that the dogmatism of St.
Athanasius and the statutes of the Council of Nice have
entirely ceased to be a living power. What the dogmas of
the Bible are, and to what part of the world its leading
doctrines can be traced, these are indeed important
questions, on which I for one do not expect enlightenment
from your correspondent at Berlin.

As a son of the late Baron Bunsen, who caused it to be
declared at his funeral by the officiating Lutheran clergy-

Appendix. 289

man that lie died as a son of the Reformed or non-Lutheran
Church,

I have the honour to sign my name as, Sir,
Yours sincerely,

ERNEST DE BUNSEN.

Loudon, August 14, 1869.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES."

Sm, — When I read the letter of your own correspondent
in Berlin on that shocking event in the Cathedral there,
and the reflections he makes upon it on the present state of
religion in Germairy, I was struck with the truthfulness of
the latter. Being at present in this country, and having
frequent opportunities of giving* statements on the same
subject, and of answering questions with regard to it, I
appear sometimes as exaggerating and taking a too gloomy
■view of this matter. How much satisfaction did I find,
therefore, that my views and those of my numerous
brethren of our denomination are so fully corroborated
by one whose observations are so extended and clear !

I regret, at the same time, to find Mr. de Bunsen at
variance with these views, as I entertain a high regard for
him personally, as well as on account of his late very excel-
lent father. But I cannot refrain, for truth's sake, from
contradicting his statement " that those who call themselves
Lutherans form a minority far more insignificant than the
extreme High Church or Ritualistic party in England." If
he means the so-called "Old Lutherans," he is right; but
it is a fact that just at present a very serious struggle is

290 TJie State of Religion in Germany.

going on between the Lutheran party generally against
the Union Church, now the State Church of Prussia, and
some minor States of Germany. This Union consists
of Lutheran and Reformers' Churches, which have "the
consensus of their respective Creeds " as their standard.
Now, the Lutheran party strive with all their might towards
the dissolution of this union, being strengthened by entirely
Lutheran countries, such as Saxony, Hanover, and Schles-
wig-Holstein, who hold fast to the exclusive views of
Luther ; and it may even be doubtful whether they will not
succeed in dissolving the said Union, or, at least, limit it
considerably.

However, I fully agree with your correspondent that all
these movements are confined to a very limited fraction of
our nation as a whole, and that they are slighted and even
contemned by the great majority. Still, I do not under-
value in the same degree those religious communities which
your correspondent calls " a sprinkling of faithful believers
in every part of the country," pointing in particular to the
Wupperthal, which he calls " a tower of Lutheranism," but
which more properly might be called a tower of Reformed
belief. I feel assured also that Berlin itself presents such
a tower of excellent men in the ministry (though these are
more Lutheran in then* views), surrounded by many faithful
believers ; and so Wiirtemberg and other parts of the
country may be pointed to in a similar sense ; nor will your
readers doubt that I also consider our Baptist denomination,
with its seventeen thousand professing members spread over
our country, as a power of great influence on our nation,
while, at the same time, your correspondent is right in esti-
mating all these combined efforts as very small in com-

Appendix. 291

parison with the great majority of our people, so that it is
an undoubted fact that " only a small fraction of the nation
attend Divine service."

I have the honour, Sir, to subscribe myself,
Yours respectfully,

G. W. LEHMANN,

Pastor of the Baptist Church in Berlin.
Walthamstow, August 17, 1869.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES."

Sir, — As your journal is not the place to discuss theo-
logical opinions, I forbear to make any remarks on those
expressed by your Berlin Correspondent in your issue of
August 14 ; but, as one who has resided for some time in
Germany and has interested himself in the religious condi-
tion of that great country, permit me to say a few words as
to the facts to which your correspondent alludes.

It is too true that there is a sad lack of any dogmatic
faith among a large portion of the German community, but
it is no less true that matters in this respect are much
better than they used to be formerly. Infidelity in the last
century spread from the Universities to the clergy, and
thence among the people, but now the Universities are
much more orthodox in then tone ; I might almost say
the majority of the professors are believers in our common
Christianity, and the clergy are most decidedly more or-
thodox in the main. The leaven, however, of an extreme
Ritualism has been widely spread among the people, and it
is not to be wondered at if they are in general passive dis-

v 2

292 The State of Religion in Germany.

believers in the doctrine of the Trinity and the other dis-
tinctive articles of the Christian faith.

But even among them there is a reaction, and much good
is doing in a quiet way. Your correspondent might have
alluded to the mission carried on for the last few years with
much success among the cabmen of Berlin, and the mar-
vellous growth of Sunday Schools in Berlin and other towns
of Germany, all of which date from the last five or six
years.

The political condition of Prussia has had much to do
with the present state of the masses. A few years back the
leading evangelical preachers were all connected in politics
with the extreme Tory party, which upheld the divine right
of Kings. Hence the mass of the Liberal party were opposed
to orthodoxy on account of its political aspects, and even the
sermons of the great Krummacher were neglected. The
times are changing. There is a Liberal-Evangelical party
as well as a Tory-Evangelical, and inasmuch as the relation
in which the Church stands to the State has been a hindrance
in several places in the great Fatherland to free aggressive
evangelical action, a feeling in favour of the separation of
the Church and State has sprung up even in evangelical
quarters. In proof of this, I might refer to the articles in
the Neue Evangelische Kirchenzeitung on the Irish Church
question. There is also a growing feeling among the Liberal
party in favour of disestablishment, and I believe that so far
from such a course endangering the real interests of the
Church in German}', it would lead to an outburst of Evan-
gelical zeal, which would surprise many who look upon Ger-
many as a land of infidels, which it decidedly is not.

As to the want of aspirants for the ministry, I cannot

Appendix. 293

think that can he the case, seeing that the religious, and in
many places a good part of the secular, teaching in German
schools is in the hands of the candidaten, who have to wait
often till beyond thirty years of age before they obtain a
ministerial position.*

On the whole, Sir, I look forward to a speed}- triumph
of the ancient dogmatic Christianity in Germany. It is a
pity that the Confession of Lutheranism was not embraced
in a shorter compass than the Augsburg Confession and the
accompanying documents, as the length of those documents
is a difficulty in requiring a strict adhesion to their letter or
spirit.

Yours very truly,

CHARLES H. H. WEIGHT, M.A.,

Chaplain of Trinity Church, Boulogne,
Late British Chaplain at Dresden.

August 16, 1869.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES."

Sir, — Allow me to correct a misprint which occurs in my
letter which you kindly inserted in your journal of to-da}%
in which I am made to say that " the leaven of an extreme
Ritualism has been widely spread among the people," in-
stead of " the leaven of an extreme nationalism."

In reply to the further remarks of your Berlin corre-
spondent, permit me to say that he judges the Berlin clergy
and the orthodox German theologians very erroneously when

That there is a want of aspirants for the ministry, is confirmed by
General Boon, the Prussian Minister of War, in a decree dated January 6,
1870, referring to this circumstance as a reason why theological students
shall continue to be practically exempt from military service. [Author's
note.]

294 TJie State of Religion in Germany.

he ascribes their growth in orthodox opinions to their fears
of a second recurrence of the scenes of 1848. Any one who
is in the habit of studying German theology can trace the
steady growth of sounder views, from the time of Schlier-
macher onwards. The German theologians are certainly
not led to adopt their theological opinions by craven fears
of disastrous results from an embracing of the opposite
views. However much they may have erred, or do err, they
are led by the desire of discovering truth, or what they think
to be so. And no one acquainted with the writings of Dr.
Tholuck of Halle or Dr. Dorner of Berlin, still less who has
had the pleasure of personal intercourse with them, can
doubt their full sincerity and earnestness in combating
Rationalistic views. They have written against Rationalism
because they have felt and known that it is error, and not
from any fear of the multitude.

Too much has been made of the answer which in an un-
guarded moment a German pastor made regarding move-
ments of the earth. It was a reply extorted at the moment,
and harped upon ever since* by the Rationalist organs; but
no one acquainted with German pastors can imagine that
they have so little intelligence as to believe such notions of
a bygone age.

The clergy are returning to orthodoxj-; it will be the work
of many years to lead back the people. Meanwhile, even
among them there is a considerable reaction towards truth,
and the number of intelligent German laymen who believe
the truth is by no means small.

Yours very truly,
CHARLES H. H. WRIGHT, M.A.

BottloCtNE-suk-Mer, August 17, 1869.

Appendix. 295

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES."

Sir, — My letter to you having called forth several interest-
ing replies, allow me to state that I accept your very well-
informed Berlin Correspondent's frank explanation that
when he expressed his opinion that Germany was no longer
a Christian country he meant that it was not Christian " in
the sense attached to the term by any Protestant creed
whatsoever." If the creeds, or any of them, be taken in
then' literal sense, this is perfectly true. The majority of
German Protestants believe that at no time any persons
were or could have been authorized or capable to lay down
rules for the interpretation of Scripture, which rules were
to be for ever binding on the conscience of mankind. It is
well known that two essentially different methods of inter-
pretation co-existed in the early Christian Church. The
more free interpretation was represented by Clement of
Alexandria, Origen, and St. Jerome ; the narrower one by
St. Augustine. Among the representatives of these schools
in Germany were Zwingli and Luther; in England, the
Dutch Erasmus and Collet. The more enlightened an age
is, the more will uniformity be a bar to religious unity.

I am, Sir, yours sincerely,

EENEST DE BUNSEN.

London, August 21, 1869.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES."

Sir, — I have read with much interest the letters of your
Berlin correspondent which have led to discussion on this

296 The State of Religion in Germany.

topic. The results of my own observations during a former
residence in Germany and at the present time agree fully
with his statements ; and, while much has been written on
this topic, I have read nothing which more faithfully de-
scribes the present state of affairs. The condition of reli-
gion here is, in the view of every evangelical Christian,
simply deplorable. The reaction against Eationalism in
some of the Universities has utterly failed to influence the
masses, the sum of whose religion is, as your correspondent
asserts, a vague and dim idea of the existence of a God.
The Protestant clergy, instead of being looked upon with
respect by the people, as in England and America, are here
resented with contempt, as a sort of spiritual policemen or
religious scavengers. They do no pastoral visiting, and,
unless eloquent in the pulpit, have no influence in the com-
munity. They are upheld simply by the power of the State,
and were this withdrawn there would be no religious reforma-
tion. On the contrary, leading ministers of Saxony have
admitted to me that, if the hand of the State were with-
drawn, the majority of the people would renounce even the
outward forms of Christianity, as they have already re-
nounced its truth. It is but just to sa}r that the state-
ments of Mr. Wright, of Boulogne, are strikingly inaccurate,
and (no doubt unintentionally on his part) calculated to mis-
lead the public.

I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,

JOHN ANKETELL,

Rector of the American Church.
Dresden, Saxony, August 19, 1869.

Appendix. 297

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES."

Sir, — Mr. Anketell, of Dresden, has ventured to assert
that my statements regarding the state of religion in Ger-
many are " strikingly inaccurate," though he has not con-
descended to point out one single inaccuracy into which I
have fallen.

A five years' residence as British Chaplain in Dresden has
taught me to distrust the value of first impressions. The
longer I lived in Germany the more favourable views I was
led to entertain of the state of religion there. Earnest
preachers in Germany have usually as many and enthusi-
astic followers as similarly minded men have in England.
The sermons of Dr. Langbein and of Dr. Ruling at Dresden
are constantly attended by congregations averaging over
two thousand. The same can be said of Dr. Meier's
sermons at the Frauenkirche, and of others. The zealous
pastoral work of Pastor Frohlich in connexion with the
Deaconesses' Institution is well known to those who seek
acquaintance with such subjects ; and very few indeed of the
Dresden clergy are Rationalists.

There is a very considerable number of truly Christian
people in Dresden, and although there is a large body of
the i^eople leavened with Rationalistic views, yet year by
year that is becoming smaller. The Dresden clergy have
awakened to the need of working among the masses, and the
"Inner Mission" is now being actively carried on in Saxony.
Several special Sunday services for children have been set
on foot, and if people have only eyes to see, and know how
to use them, they cannot deny that there are more than
signs of an evangelical reaction. I can bear testimony to

298 TJie State of Religion in Germany.

the piety, earnestness, and scholarship of many of the clerg}r,
not only in Dresden and its environs, but also in Leipsic.

Some good men in Germany may naturally fear for the
results if the connexion of Church and State were to be
severed ; but similar fears are expressed by good men in
England. Mr. Anketell, too, as an American, cannot well
understand the peculiar difficulties which lie sometimes in
the way of a State clerg}\ The large size of parishes is
often a serious hindrance to pastoral visitations, and there
are no small difficulties in the way of altering this state of
things. I can cite instances where the connexion with the
State has seriously retarded evangelical action. I have no
fears for the ultimate result if the State connexion were
withdrawn. The earnest and aggressive Christian minority
would soon gain ground upon the indifferent majority.
Several of the Dresden clergy would work more energetically
if their official position permitted them. Germany suffers
much from the want of free Dissenting churches alongside
of the State Church.

Germany, I emphatically repeat, has full right to be called
a Christian land. I have learnt from intercourse with
Christians there not to deny the possession of a living
Christianity to Protestant brethren who may and do differ
from many of my most cherished convictions. German
Christians are not to be weighed by an English, or even an
American, standard. I only hope Mr. Anketell may prove
as zealous a Christian Minister as some of those whom he
contemptuously styles " spiritual policemen or religious
scavengers." Yours very truly,

CHARLES H. H. WRIGHT, M.A.,

August 24, 1SG9. Chaplain of Trinity Church, Boulogne.

Appendix. 299

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES."

Sir, — Since Mr. Wright, of Boulogne, complains that I
have not specified the "inaccuracies " in his former letter,
permit me to review some of the statements in his second.

1. " The sermons of Drs. Langhein and Ruling are at-
tended by congregations of over two thousand."

The sermons of these eloquent divines are, as I know,
largely attended ; but the fact still remains that out of a
Protestant population in Dresden of over one hundred and
fifty thousand, only six thousand or seven thousand attend
public worship on the Lord's Day. Where are the rest ?

2. "Very few, indeed, of the Dresden clergy are Ra-
tionalists."

Last February I attended by invitation a gathering of the
Protestant clergy of Dresden, where the subject of religious
belief was discussed. The sentiments were broached that
" Alius was as good a Christian as Athanasius," and " the
Lord's Prayer is Creed enough for Christendom." All pre-
sent, except, of course, myself, assented to these proposi-
tions. I am not sufficiently acquainted with Mr. "Wright's
theological opinions to know whether he would consider
these views " Rationalistic " or not.

3. " There is a very considerable number of truly Chris-
tian people in Dresden."

This is certainly to be hoped and believed ; but when Mr.
Wright goes on and says, —

4. " The number of Rationalists is year by year becoming
smaller,"

I can only say I differ from him in this opinion toto
ccelo.

300 The State of Religion in Germany.

5. " The large size of parishes is often a serious hindrance
to pastoral visitations."

This is what we would call in America "drawing it mild."
Every candid observer must have noticed that pastoral visi-
tations, as practised in England and America, are here
almost unheard of. I remember when a student in Prussia,
a dozen years ago, a brother student, son of a Lutheran
clergyman, told me that pastoral visits were quite impossible,
because, if attempted, they would be ascribed to licentious
motives ! * Another reason, whether cause or result, is,
that the pastors are not received in the best society.

A parishioner of mine, who has resided here fifteen years
(a former parishioner of Mr. Wright's, when he was chaplain
here), has written on the subject : —

" The office of clergyman is never sought by the higher
classes ; these men are looked upon as a body belonging to
the community, who are to preach sermons, baptize, marry,
confirm, and administer the sacraments, all of which are
matters of pounds, shillings, and pence. You barter
whether you will have a first class wedding or a common
one. If the former, the church produces velvet cushions ;
if the latter, straw-bottomed chairs. Your child must be
christened when six weeks old — this is the law ; a dollar a
week can defer it at your pleasure. At the sacrament of
the Lord's Supper each member brings his offering and
lays it on the altar ; this becomes the emolument of the
priest (pastor), who quietly pockets it during the holy office.
He is never expected to visit his parishioners. In fact,
except in small country villages, no single clergyman, as

* The moral tone of German society renders this imputation simply
absurd. [Author's note.]

Appendix. 301

with us, has a congregation he can call his own. There are,
say, twenty in a large city, who preach in rotation in the
different churches,* and, of course, the most eloquent are
followed and have the largest audiences, as elsewhere. As
there is no domestic intercourse between the clergyman
and his people, his religious influence is confined to his
pulpit."

The whole is well summed up in the remark that Luther
may " have discovered the pearl of great price ; but it has
a wonderfully poor setting in his own land ! " I cannot
venture to trespass longer on your space, or I might cite
the decision of the Dresden Protestant Verein last March,
to the effect that the doctrine of Christ's atonement for
human sin was an exploded superstition ; and many other
facts and evidences which I have been carefully collecting.
But your Berlin correspondent has so faithfully portrayed
the present religious aspect of Germany that I need not
recite a twice-told tale, unless it is necessary for the in-
formation of Mr. Wright.

I have the honour to be, Sir, your faithful and obedient

servant,

JOHN ANKETELL, A.M.,

Rector of St. John's (American) Church.
Dresden, August 27, 1S69.

The word printed " resented " in my last letter should
have read " treated."

* There are but very few German towns in which this is the case.
[Author's note.]

302 The State of Religion in Germany.

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TIMES."

Sir, — Though professing to answer and refute the state-
ments made in my letter of the 24th ult., Mr. Anketell has
left its main statements quite unanswered.

1. Although the state of religion in Germany is not satis-
factory, I still maintain that there is a decided reaction in
favour of evangelical truth. Mr. Anketell considerably un-
derrates the number of persons who attend worship on the
Lord's Day. It must be borne in mind that the number of
Germans who attend church oftener than once a day is very
small, so that the number attending church on any given
Sunday would represent a greater number of persons than
it would in England, where numbers attend church regu-
larly twice a day. The number also of those who attend
habitually every Sunday is much smaller than in England.
Nearly one-third of the population at Dresden are at least
occasional attendants at Divine service. The attendance at
public worship now is much greater than twent}T years ago,
if the testimony I have received from Germans in Dresden
is to be credited, and this improvement is due greatly to
the earnestness and evangelical preaching of some of the
clergy.

2. As I do not know which of the clergy attended the
meeting Mr. Anketell alludes to, I cannot test the correct-
ness of his statement nor attempt to qualify it. But from
personal knowledge I assert that the majority of the Dres-
den clergy are Trinitarians. Drs. Liebner, Langbein,
Rilling, Kohlschutter, Meier, and others are decidedly op-
posed to Rationalism, although they are not all of the High
Lutheran party. I cannot think of more than some three

Appendix. 303

or four who would be likely to endorse such sentiments as
Mr. Anketell refers to, unless those sentiments were con-
siderably qualified by the context in which they occurred.
I can scarcely credit Mr. Anketell's profession that he is
not sufficiently acquainted with my theological opinions as
to be able to say whether I am verging towards Rationalism
or not, inasmuch as so many of his congregation have been
attached members of my own. To prevent any person
being so far misled by " M. A.'s " professed ignorance as to
regard me as a sympathizer with Rationalism, permit me to
state that my theological views harmonize in the main with
those of the Evangelical party in the Church of England,
as my published works are sufficient to prove to those un-
acquainted with my proceedings.

3. When I stated that there was a considerable number
of truly Christian people in Dresden, I referred to the fact
that among the educated German laity in Dresden were to
be found not a few believers in the leading doctrines of the
Christian faith.

4. Mr Anketell differs toto coelo from my opinion that the
number of Rationalists is decreasing every year. I think I
can adduce as good reasons for holding* my opinion as he
can for holding his.

5. There is no question that in Dresden the enormous
size of the parishes has prevented some earnest men from
attempting pastoral visitations. In country places I have
known German pastors equally active in this respect as
English clergymen similarly situated. If the clergy had
fewer official duties to perform, and smaller parishes were
assigned them, there would soon be a marked improvement
in this respect. English and American chaplains would

304 The State of Religion in Germany.

exercise much more influence for good if, instead of stand-
ing on some supposed superiority in themselves, or in their
Church, and of abusing the clergy of the country in which
they sojourn, they were to seek to hold fraternal intercourse
with them, and to understand their peculiar positions and
difficulties. We have much to learn from the German
clergy, if we have something which we can impart to them
in return.

6. In order not to extend the length of this too lengthy
letter, I will not enter into the questions mooted in the
quotation from the work of my lady friend referred to. As
regards the class, however, from which the German clergy
are drawn, I might remark it is the same as that from which
the ranks of the Scottish clergy are generally recruited.
One must remember that till very lately the army was the
only profession into which the higher classes would enter.
The position of the clergy in Germany is not inferior to
that of the advocates and physicians in that land.

7. As to the Protestanten-Verein, it ought to be known
that the members of that body are all decided Rationalists
of an extreme type. That body has few sympathizers
among the Saxon clergy, and its meetings are not generally
attended by many of the better classes.

I must, in conclusion, profess my total ignorance of any
edifice known as St. John's Church existing in Dresden.
As Americans, however, do Avonders, perhaps such a build-
ing has been erected during the last twelve months.
Yours very truly,

C. H. H. WPJGHT, M.A.,

Chaplain of Trinity Church, Boulogne.

B.— DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE OECUMENICAL

COUNCIL.

SYLLABUS ERRORUM.

" CATALOGUE EMBRACING THE PRINCIPAL ERRORS OF OUR TIME,
AS INDICATED IN THE COXSISTORIAL ALLOCUTIONS, IN THE
ENCYCLICALS, AND OTHER APOSTOLICAL LETTERS OF OUR
MOST HOLT LORD POPE PIUS IX.

" Section I. — Pantheism, Naturalism, and Absolute

Rationalism.

" 1. There is no Highest, Most Wise, Most Providential,
Divine Being as distinct from this universe, and God is the
same with nature, and, therefore, subject to changes. God,
in reality, takes his existence in man and the world, and all
things are God, and have the veriest substance of God ;
and one and the same thing are God and the World, and
hence also Spirit and Matter, Necessity and Liberty, the
True and the False, the Just and Unjust. In effect, God
is in man and in the world ; and all things are God, and
have the very substance of God. God is, therefore, one
and the same thing with the world, and thence mind is con-
founded with matter, necessity with liberty of action, true
with false, good with evil, just with unjust. — (All. ' Max 'una
quidem,' June 9, 1862.)

" 2. All action of God upon man and the world must be
denied. — (All. 'Maxima quidem,' June 9, 1862.)

" 3. Human reason is, utterly without any regard to God,

x

306 The State of Religion in Germany.

the sole arbiter of true and false, good and evil; it is its
own law for itself, and suffices by its natural powers to take
care of the welfare of men and nations. — (All. 'Maxima
quidem,' June 9, 1862.)

" 4. All the truths of religion are derived from the power
inherent in human reason ; hence reason is the highest
norm by which man can and must arrive at the knowledge
of all truths of every kind. — (Encyc. ' Qui pluribus,' Nov.
9, 1846 ; and ' Singulari quidem,' March 17, 1856 ; and
All. ' Maxima quidem,'' June 9, 1862.)

"5. The Divine revelation is imperfect, and, therefore,
subject to a continual and indefinite progress corresponding
to the progress of human reason. — (Encyc. ' Qui pluribus,'
Nov. 9, 1846 ; and All. ' Maxima quidem,' June 9, 1862.)

"6. The Christian faith is opposed to human reason, and
the Divine revelation does not only not assist, but is even
hurtful to the perfection of man. — (Enc}Tc. ' Qui pluribus,'
Nov. 9, 1846, and All. ' Maxima quidem,' June 9, 1862.)

"7. The prophecies and miracles told and narrated in
Holy Scripture are fictions of poets, and the mysteries of
the Christian faith an aggregate of philosophical investiga-
tions; and in the books of both Testaments there are found
mythical inventions, fabulous fictions, and Jesus Christ him-
self is a mythical fiction. — (Encyc. ' Qui pluribus,' Nov. 9>
1846; All. 'Maxima quidem,' June 9, 1862.)

"Section II. — Moderate Rationalism.

" 8. Since human reason is equal to religion itself, theo-
logical science must be treated like that of philosophy. —
(All. ' Singulari quidem pcrfusi.')

Appendix. 307

" 9. All dogmas of the Christian religion are indiscrimi-
nately an object of natural science or philosophy, and human
reason, if only historically cultivated, is able by its natural
powers and principles to arrive at a real knowledge of all,
even the most recondite, dogmas, so that these dogmas have
been placed as an object before this same reason. — (Letter
to Archbishop Freysing, ' Gravissimas; Dec. 4, 1862; letter
to the same, ' Tuas libenter,' Dec. 21, 1863.)

" 10. As the philosopher is one tiling and philosophy is
another, it is the right and duty of the former to submit
himself to the authority which he himself shall have recog-
nized as true ; but philosophy neither can nor ought to sub-
mit to any authority. — (Letter to Archbishop Frej'sing,
' Gravissimas,'' Dec. 11, 1862 ; letter to the same, ' Tuas
libenter; Dec. 21, 1863.)

"11. The Church not only ought in no way to interfere
with philosophy, but ought to tolerate even the errors of
philosophy, leaving it to her to correct herself. — (Letter to
Archbishop Freysing, 'Gravissimas; Dec. 11, 1862.)

"12. The decrees of the Apostolic See and of the Roman
congregations fetter the free progress of science. — (Letter to
Archbishop Freysing, ' Tuas libenter; Dec. 21, 1863.)

" 13. The method and principles in which the old scho-
lastic doctors have treated theology are in no way suitable
to the demands of the age and the progress of sciences. —
(Id. ' Tuas libenter; Dec. 21, 1863.)

" 14. Philosophy must be studied, without any reference
to supernatural revelation. — (Id., ibid.)

" N.B. — With the Rationalistic system are connected, in
"great part, the errors of Anton Giinther, condemned in the
letter to the Cardinal Archbishop of Cologne (' Eximiam

x 2

308 Tlie State of Religion in Germany.

tuam,' June 15, 1847), and in that to the Bishop of Breslau
(' Dolor e haud mediocri,' April 30, 1860).

" Section III. — Indifferentism — Latitudinarianism.

" 15. Every man is free to embrace and profess that reli-
gion which he, guided by the light of reason, believes to be
the true one. — (Apostolic Letter, ' MultipUces inter,' June
10, 1851 ; All. ' Maxima quidem,' June 9, 1862.)

"16. Men may, in the observation of any religion, find
and obtain eternal salvation. — (Encyc. ' Qui pluribus,' Nov.
9, 1846; All. 'Ubiprimum,' Dec. 17, 1847; Encyc. ' Singu-
lari quidem,'' March 17, 1856.)

" 17. One should at least hope for the salvation of all
those who are in no wise within the true Church of Christ.
— (All. ' Singulari quddam,' Dec. 9, 1854 ; Encyc. ' Quanta
conficiamur,' Aug. 10, 1863.)

" 18. Protestantism is nothing else than a different form
of one and the same true Christian religion, in which it is
as possible to please God as it is in the Catholic Church. —
(Encyc. ' Noscitis et Nobiscum,' Dec. 8, 1849.)

" Section IV. — Socialism, Communism, Secret Societies,
Biblical Societies, Clerico-liberal Societies.

"Pests of this description have been often and in the
severest terms reproved, — in the Encyc. ' Qui pluribus,''
November 9, 1846 ; in the All. ' Quibus quantisque,' April
20, 1849; in the Encyc. 'Noscitis et Nobiscum,' December 8,
1849; in the All. 'Singulari quddam,' December 9, 1854; in
the Encyc. ' Quant o conficiamur mcerore,' August 10, 1863.

Appendix. 309

" Section V. — Errors respecting the Church and

her Eights.

"19. The Church is not a true and perfect free society,
nor does she rest upon her own and perpetual rights con-
ferred upon her by her Divine founder ; hut it appertains to
the civil power to define what are the rights and limits
within which the Church may exercise these rights. — (All.
' Singulari quddam,' December 9, 1854; ' Mult is gravi-
busque,' December 17, 1860; 'Maxima quidem,' June 9,
1862.)

" 20. The ecclesiastical power must not exercise its
authority without the permission and assent of the Civil
Government. — (All. ' Meminit unusquisque ,' September 80,
1851.)

"21. The Church has not the power of defining dog-
matically that the religion of the Catholic Church is, ex-
clusively, the true religion. — (Apost. Let. ' Multvplices inter,'
June 10, 1851.)

"22. The obligation whereby Catholic teachers and
writers are absolutely bound is limited to those matters
only which are represented by the infallible judgment of
the Church as dogmas to be believed hi by all. — (Letter
to Archbishop Freysing, ' Tuas libenter,' December 21,
1863.)

" 23. The Roman pontiffs and (Ecumenical Councils
have exceeded the limits of their power, have usurped
rights of Sovereigns, and have also committed errors in
defining matters of dogma and morals. — (Apost. Let.
' Multiplices inter,'' June 10, 1851.)

310 The State of Religion in Germany.

"24. The Church has not the power to use force, nor
has she any direct or indirect temporal power. — (Apost. Let.
'Ad Apostollcce,' August 22, 1851.)

"25. Besides the authority inherent in the Episcopate,
another temporal power is granted to it hy the civil power
either expressly or tacitly, but therefore also revocable by
the civil power whenever it pleases. — (Apost. Let. 'Ad
Apostollcce,'' August 22, 1851.)

"26. The Church has not any natural and legitimate
right of acquiring and possessing. — (' Nunquam,'1 December
18, 1856 ; Encyc. ' Incredibili; September 17, 1863.)

" 27. The Holy Ministers of the Church and the Eoman
Pontiff ought to be absolutely excluded from all charge and
dominion over temporal affairs. — (All. 'Maxima quidem,'
June 9, 1862.)

"28. Bishops have not the right of promulgating even
apostolical letters without the sanction of the Government.
— (All. ' Nunquam fore,' December 15, 1856.)

"29. Spiritual graces granted by the Eoman Pontiff
must be considered null unless they have been asked for by
the civil Government. — (Id., ibid.)

"30. The immunity of the Church and of ecclesiastical
persons had derived its origin from civil law. — (Apost. Let.
'Multiplices inter,' June 10, 1851.)

" 31. The Ecclesiastical jurisdiction for temporal law-
suits, whether civil or criminal, of the clergy, is to be
utterly abolished, even without asking and notwithstanding
the protest of the holy See. — (All. ' Acerbissimum,' Sep-
tember 27, 1852; id. 'Nunquam fore,'' December 15,
1856.)

"32. "Without any violation of natural right or equit}',

Appendix. 311

the personal immunity whereby the clergy are exempt
from performing military duties, may be abrogated, tins
abrogation being called for by civil progress, especially
in a commonwealth constituted upon principles of liberal
government. — (Let. to Bishop Montisregal, ' Singularis
nobilisque,' September 29, 1864.)

" 33. It does not appertain exclusively to ecclesiastical
jurisdiction by any proper and inherent right to direct the
doctrine in theological matters. — (Letter to Archbishop
Freysing, ' Tuas libenter,' December 21, 1863.)

" 34. The doctrine of those who compare the Eoman
Pontiff to a free Sovereign acting in the Universal Church
is a doctrine which prevailed in the Middle Ages. — (Apost.
Let. 'Ad Apostolicce,' August 22, 1851.)

" 35. There is no obstacle to the sentence of a General
Council or the act of all nations transferring the Papal
Sovereignty from the Bishopric and city of Rome to some
other bishop in another city. — (Id., ibid.)

" 36. The definition of a National Council does not admit
of any other discussion, and the civil power may act in con-
formity with this. — (Id., ibid.)

"37. National Churches may be established without the
authority of and totally separated from the Eoman Pontiff.
— (All. ' Midtis gravihusque? December 17, 1860; * Jam-
dudum cernimus,' March 18, 1861.)

"38. The too arbitrary bearing of the Roman Pontiffs
has contributed to the division of the Church into Eastern
and Western. — (Apost. Let. 'Ad Apostolica,' August 22,
1851.)

312 The State of Religion in Germany.

"Section VI. — Errors of Civil Society as much by
itself as considered in its relations to the
Church.

" 39. The State, as the origin and source of all rights,
possesses a certain right not circumscrihed by any limit. —
(All. ' Maxima quidem,'' June 9, 1862.)

" 40. The doctrine of the Catholic Church is opposed to
the laws and interests of human society. — (Encyc. ' Qui
pluribus,' November 9, 1846 ; All. ' Quibus quantisque ,'
April 20, 1849.)

"41. To the civil power, even when exercised by an
infidel Sovereign, belongs an indirect and negative power
over religious affairs ; and, therefore, not only the law called
'Exequatur,' but also the so-called ' Jus appellationis ab
abusu ' is vested in it. — (Apost. Let., August 22, 1851.)

"42. In a legal conflict between the two powers the civil
law prevails. — (Id., ibid.)

" 43. The lay power has authority to rescind, to declare
and render null, solemn Conventions (commonly called
Concordats) entered into with regard to rights belonging
to ecclesiastical immunity with the Holy See, without the
consent of the same, and even notwithstanding its protest.
— (All. 'In Consistoriali,' November 1, 1850; ' Mult is
gravibusque ,' December 17, 1860.)

" 44. The civil authority may interfere in matters relating
to religion, morals, and spiritual government. Hence it has
control over the instructions for the guidance of consciences
issued, conformably with their office, by the pastors of the
Church. Nay, it may decide even on the administration of

Appendix. 313

the Divine Sacraments and the necessary arrangements for
their reception. — (All; 'In Consistoriali,' November 1, 1858;
All. 'Maxima quidem,' June 9, 1862.)

"45. The entire direction of public schools in which the
youth of any Christian States are educated, except in some
respects episcopal seminaries, may and must appertain to
the civil authority, and belong to it in such a manner that no
right shall be recognized as belonging to any other authority
whatsoever of interfering in the discipline of the schools, in
the direction of the studies, in the bestowing of degrees, or
the choice and approval of the teachers. — (All. ' In consis-
toriali,' November 1, 1850; ' Quibus luctuosissimis; Sep-
tember 5, 1851.)

/ " 46. Even in clerical seminaries, the plan to be followed
in the studies is to be submitted to the civil authority. —
(All ' Nunquamfore,' December 15, 1856.)

" 47. The best arrangement of civil society requires that
popular schools which are open to all children of the people
without distinction, and public institutions destined to teach
higher letters and discipline to the young, and to impart
to them education, should be freed from all ecclesiastical
authority and interference, and should be fully subjected to
the civil and political authority, according to the pleasure of
those in authority, in accordance with the common opinions
of the times. — (Letter to Archbishop Freyburg, ' Quiini non
sine; July 14, 1864.)

"48. This manner of instructing youth, alienated from
the Catholic faith and from the power of the Church, and
which teaches the science of natural things and the objects
of terrestrial social life, either exclusively, or at least in the
first instance, may be approved by Catholics. — (Id., ibid.)

314 The State of Religion in Germany.

" 49. The civil power is entitled to prevent ministers of
religion and faithful nations from communicating freely and
mutually with the Roman Pontiff. — (All. ' Maxima quidem,'
June 9, 1862.)

" 50. The lay authority possesses of itself the right of
presenting bishops, and may require of them that they take
possession of their dioceses before having received canonical
institution and the apostolical letter from the Holy See. —
(All. ' Nunquamforc,'' December 15, 1856.)

V "51. The lay authority has even the right of deposing
bishops from the exercise of their pastoral functions, and
is not bound to obey the Eoman Pontiff in matters affecting
the founding of sees and the institution of bishops. — (Apost.
Let. 'Multiplices inter,'' June 10, 1851; All. ' Acerbissimum ,'
September 27, 1852.)

v "52. The Government may by its own authority alter the
period fixed by the Church for the taking of conventual vows
by both sexes, and may enjoin upon all religious establish-
ments to admit nobody to the solemn vows without its per-
mission.— (All. ' Nunquamfore,' December 15, 1856.)

" 53. Laws respecting the protection, rights, and func-
tions of religious establishments must be abrogated; nay,
the civil Government may lend its assistance to all those
who desire to abandon the religious life chosen and to break
then- solemn vows. The Government may in the same way
abolish religious establishments as well as collegial churches
and simple benefices, even when subject to the right of the
Patronate, and may place their goods and revenues under
the administration and disposition of the civil power. —
(All. ' Acerbissimum,'' September 27, 1862 ; ' Probe memine-
ritis,' January 22, 1855 ; and ' Quum saye,' July 26, 1858.)

Appendix. 315

" 54. Kings and princes are not only free from the juris-
diction of the Church, but are even superior to the Church
in the litigation questions of jurisdiction. — (Apost. Let.
' Multiplices inter,'' June 10, 1851.)

" 55. The Church ought to be separated from the State,
and the State from the Church. — (All. ' Acerbissimum,''
September 27, 1862.)

" Section VII. — Errors in Natural and Christian

Morals.

" 56. Moral laws do not stand in need of the Divine
sanction, and there is not the least necessity that human
laws should be conformable to the law of nature or should
receive their binding power from God. — (All. ' Maxima
quidem,'' June 9, 1862.)

" 57. The science of philosophy and morals as well as
the civil laws can and must be independent from Divine
and ecclesiastical authority. — (Id., ibid.)

" 58. No other powers are to be recognized than those
which inhere in matter, and all moral discipline and honesty
is to be placed in the accumulation and increase of riches
by every means, and in the satisfaction of lust. — (Id.,
ibid. All. 'Maxima quidem;' Encyc. ' Quanto conficiamur,'
August 10, 1863.)

"59. Right consists in the material facts, and all human
duties are vain words, and all human facts have the force of
right. — (All. ' Maxima quidem,'' June 9, 1862.)

" 60. Authority is nothing but the sum of numbers and
material forces. — (Id., ibid.)

"61. The injustice of a successful fact is not detrimental

316 The State of Religion in Germany.

to the sanctity of right. — (All. 'Jamdudum cernimus,'
March 18, 1861.)

" 62. The so-called principle of non-intervention must
"be proclaimed and observed. — (All. ' Novos et ante,' Sep-
tember 27, I860.)

" 63. It is allowable to refuse obedience to legitimate
princes, and to rise in insurrection against them. — (Encyc.
' Qui pluribus,' November 9, 1846 ; All. ' Quisque vestrum,'
October 4, 1847; Encyc. ' Noscitis et Nobiscum,' '-December
8, 1849; Apost. Let. ' Cum Catholica,' March 25, 1860.)

" 64. Both the violation of any oath, even the most
solemn, and even every guilty and shameful act repugnant
to the eternal law, are not only not to be rebuked, but even
allowable in every way and worthy of the highest praise
when done from love of the country. — (All. ' Quibus quan-
tisque; April 20, 1849.)

" Section VIII. — Errors as to Christian Marriage.

" 65. It is in no way admissible that Christ has raised
marriage to the dignity of a sacrament. — (Apost. Let. 'Ad
Ajjostolicce,' August 22, 1852.)

" 66. The sacrament of marriage is nothing but an
adjunct to the contract, and separable from it, and the
sacrament itself consists only in the nuptial benediction. —
(Id., ibid.)

"67. By the law of nature the marriage tie is not indis-
soluble, and in many cases divorce, properly so called, may
be pronounced by the civil authority. — (Id., ibid.; All.
' Acerbissimum,' September 27, 1852.)

" 68. The Church has no power of fixing impediments to

Appendix. 317

marriage ; but to civil society belongs that power by which
the existing hindrances can be removed. — (Apost. Let.
' Multiplices inter,' June 10, 1851.)

"69. It is only in more recent centuries that the Church
has begun to fix invalidating obstacles to marriage, availing
herself, not of her own right, but of a right borrowed from
the civil power. — (Apost. Let. ' Ad Apostolicce,' August 22,
1851.)

" 70. The Canons of the Council of Trent which pro-
nounce the censure of anathema against those who dare to
deny the Church the right of fixing invalidating obstacles
are either not dogmatic, or to be considered as emanating
from borrowed power. — (Id., ibid.)

"71. The Tridentine form does not, under penalty of
nullity, bind in cases where the civil law has appointed
another form, and desires that this new form is to be used
in marriage. — (Id., ibid.)

" 72. Boniface VIII. was the first who declared that the
vow of chastity pronounced at ordination annuls nuptials. —
(Id., ibid.)
I " 73. By the power of a mere civil contract a marriage,
in the true sense of the word, may well exist between
Christians, and it is false either that the marriage contract
between Christians must either always be a sacrament, or
that the contract is null if the sacrament is excluded. — (Id.,
ibid., Letter of Pius IX. to King of Sardinia, September 9,
1852; All. ' Acerbisshnum,' September 27, 1852; ' Multis
gravibusque,' December 17, 1860.)

"74. Matrimonial or nuptial causes belong by their
nature to civil jurisdiction. — (Apost. Let. 'Ad Apostolicce,'
August 22, 1851; All. 'Acerbissimum,' September 27, 1852.)

318 The State of Religion in Germany.

" N.B. To this place belong also two other errors regard-
ing the abolition of the celibacy of priests, and the prefer-
ence clue to the state of marriage over that of virginity.
The errors condemned have been refuted : the first in
Encyc. 'Qui plwribus,' November 9, 1846; the second in
Apost. Let. ' MultipHces inter,' June 10, 1851.)

"Section IX. — Errors regarding the Civil Power of
the Sovereign Pontiff.

" 75. The sons of the Christian- Catholic Church are not
agreed upon the compatibility of the temporal with the
spiritual power. — (Apost. Let. 'Ad Apostolicce,' August 22,
1852.)

" 76. The abrogation of the temporal power possessed by
the Apostolic See would contribute to the happiness and
liberty of the Church. — (All. ' Quibus quantisque,' April 20,
1849.)

" N.B. Besides these errors, explicitly pointed out, still
several others are condemned by implication by the propo-
sition and assertion of the doctrine which all Catholics are
bound to respect touching the temporal Government of the
Sovereign Pontiff. These doctrines are lucidly explained in
All. ' Quibus quantisque,' April 20, 1849; in All. 'Si semper
antea,' May 20, 1850; Apost. Let. ' Quum Catholica Ecclesia'
March 26, 1860; AU. ' Novos,' September 28, 1860; ' Jam-
dudum,' March 18, 1861; and 'Maxima quidem,' June 9,
1862.)

Appendix. 319

" Section X. — Errors Referring to Modern

Liberalism.

" 77. In these our days it is no longer expedient that the
Catholic religion shall be held as the only religion of the
State, to the exclusion of all other creeds. — (All. ' Nemo
lustrum,' July 26, 1855.)

V " 78. Hence it has laudably been ordained by the law in
some countries called Catholic that emigrants shall enjoy
the free exercise of their own individual worship, whatever
it be. — (All. ' Acerbissimum,' September 27, 1852.)

"79. For it is false that the civil liberty of every mode
of worship and the full power given to all of openly and
publicly displaying their opinions and their thoughts con-
duces to corrupt the morals and minds of the people more
easily, and to the propagation of the pest of indifference. —
All. ' Nunquam fore,' December 15, 1856.)

" 80. The Roman Pontiff can and ought to reconcile
himself to and to come to an understanding with progress,
liberalism, and modern civilization. — (All. ' Jumdudum
cernimus,' March 18, 1861.) "

THE TWENTY-ONE CANONS:

BEING THE

DRAFT OF A DOGMATICAL DECREE OX THE CHURCH OF
CHRIST, BASED UPON THE SYLLABUS, AND SUBMITTED
TO THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL BY THE POPE IN
FEBRUARY, 1870.

Canon 1. If any man say that the religion of Christ does
not exist, and is not expressed, in any particular association
instituted by Christ himself, hut that it may be properly
observed and exercised by individuals separately without
relation to any society which may be the true Church of
Christ, let him be anathema.

2. If any man say that the Church has not received from
the Lord Jesus Christ any certain and immutable form of
constitution, but that, like other human associations, it has
been subject, and may be subject, according to the changes
of times, to vicissitudes and variations, let him be ana-
thema.

3. If any man say that the Church of the divine promises
is not an external and visible societ}', but is entirely internal
and invisible, let him be anathema.

4. If any man say that the true Church is not a body one
in itself, but that it is composed of various and dispersed
Societies bearing the Christian title, and that it is common
to them all, or that various societies differing from each

Appendix. 321

other in profession of faith and holding separate com-
munion, constitute, as members and portions, a Church of
Christ one and universal, let him be anathema.

5. If any man say, that the Church of Christ is not a
society absolutely necessary for eternal salvation, or that
men may be saved by the adoption of any other religion
whatsoever, let him be anathema.

6. If any man say that this intolerance whereby the
Catholic Church proscribes and condemns all religious sects
which are separate from her communion, is not prescribed
by the Divine law, or that with respect to the truth of
religion it is possible to have opinions only, but not
certainty, and that, consequently, all religious sects should
be tolerated by the Church, let him be anathema.

7. If any man say, that the same Church of Christ may
be obscured by darkness, or infected with evils, in conse-
quence of which it may depart from the wholesome truth
of the faith and manners, deviate from its original institu-
tion, or terminate only in becoming corrupt and depraved,
let him be anathema.

8. If airy man say, that the present Church of Christ is
not the last and supreme institution for obtaining salvation,
but that another is to be looked for from a new and fuller
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, let him be anathema.

v 9. If airy man say, that the Infallibility of the Church is
restricted solely to things which are contained in Divine
revelation, and that it does not also extend to other truths,
which are necessary in order that the great gift of revelation
may be preserved in its integrity, let him be anathema.

10. If any man say, that the Church is not a perfect
society, but a corporation (collegium), or that as such in

322 The State of Religion in Germany.

respect of civil society or the State it is subject to secular
domination, let him be anathema.

11. If any man say, that the Church divinely instituted
is like to a society of equals ; that the Bishops have indeed
an office and a ministry, but not a power of governing
proper to themselves which is bestowed upon them b}^
Divine ordination, and which they ought to exercise freely,
let him be anathema.

12. If any man hold that Christ, our Lord and Sovereign,
has only conferred upon his Church a directing power by
means of its counsels and persuasions, but not of ordering
by its laws, or of constraining and compelling by ante-
cedent judgments and salutary penalties those who wander
and those who are contumacious, let him be anathema.

13. If any man say, that the true Church of Christ, out
of which no one can be saved, is any other than the
Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church, let him be
anathema.

14. If any man sa}r, that the Apostle St. Peter has not
been instituted by our Lord Christ as Prince of all the
Apostles and visible Head of the Church Militant, or that
he received only the preeminence of honour, but not the
primacy of sole and true jurisdiction, let him be anathema.

15. If any man say, that it does not follow from the
institution of our Lord Christ himself that St. Peter has
perpetual successors in his Primacy over the Universal
Church or that the Roman Pontiff is not by Divine right the
successor of Peter in that same primacy, let him be ana-
thema.

16. If any man sa}r, that the Roman Pontiff has only a
function of inspection and direction, but not a full and

Appendix. 323

supreme power of jurisdiction over the Universal Church,
or that his power is not ordinary and immediate over the
whole Church, taken as a whole or separately, let him be
anathema.

V 17. If any man say, that the independent ecclesiastical
power respecting which the Church teaches that it has been
conferred upon it by Christ, and the supreme civil power
cannot co-exist, so that the rights of each may be observed,
let him be anathema.
* 18. If any man say that the power which is necessary
for the government of civil society, does not emanate from
God, or that no obedience is due to it by virtue even of the
law of God, or that such power is repugnant to the natural
liberty of man, let him be anathema.

v 19. If any man say that all rights existing among men are
derived from the political State, or that there is no authority
besides that which is communicated by such State, let him
be anathema.

20. If any man say that in the law of the political State,
or in the public opinion of men has been deposited the
Supreme Rule of conscience for public and social actions,
or that the judgments by which the Church pronounces
upon what is lawful and what is unlawful, do not extend to
such actions, or that by the force of civil law an act, which
by virtue of Divine or ecclesiastical law is unlawful, can
become lawful, let him be anathema.

* 21. If any man say that the laws of the Church have no
binding force until they have been confirmed by the sanction
of the civil power, or that it belongs to the said civil power
to judge and to decree in matters of religion by virtue of its
supreme authority, let liim be anathema.

Y 2

THE INFALLIBILITY BILL,

AS PROPOSED BY THE POPE TO THE OECUMENICAL
COUNCIL ON MARCH 6, 1870.

LATIN ORIGINAL.

I. — Bill.

Caput addendum decreto de Roniani Pontificis Priuiatu.
Romanum Pontificem in rebus fidei et morum defmiendis
errare non posse.

Sancta Romana ecclesia summuni et plenum primatum et
principatum super universam catholicam ecclesiam obtinet,
quern se ab ipso domino in beato Petro, apostolorum prin-
cipe, cujus Romanus Pontifex est successor, cum potestatis
plenitudine recepisse veraciter et liumiliter recognoscit. Et
sicuti pra? cseteris tenetur fidei veritatem defendere, sic et si
quae de fide subortce fuerint quaestiones suo debent iudicio
definiri.* Et quia non potest domini nostri Jesu Christi
prseterniitti sententia dicentis: "tues Petrus, et super banc
petram sedificabo ecclesiam meam,"t bsec quse dicta sunt
rerum probantur effectibus, quia in sede apostolica immacu-
lata est semper catholica servata religio et sancta celebrata
doctrina : \ bine sacro approbante concilio docemus et

* Ex professioue fidei edita a Grajcis in Cone. cec. Lugduu. II.
t Math. xvi. 18.

t Ex formula S. HormisdEe Papa? subscripta a Patribus Couc. 03c. VIII.
Coustautinop. IV.

Appendix. 325

tamquam fidei dogma definimus per diviiiani assistentiam
fieri, ut Romanus Pontifex, qui in persona beati Petri
dictum est ab eodem domino nostro Jesu Christo : " ego
pro te rogavi ut non deficiat fides tua,"* cum supremi
omnium Christianorum doctoris munere fungens pro auc-
toritate definit quid in rebus fidei et morum ab universa
ecclesia tenendum sit, errare non possit ; et banc Romani
Pontificis inerrantiae seu infallibilitatis praerogativam ad
idem objectum porrigi, ad quod infallibilitas ecclesiae ex-
tenditur.

Si quis autem buic nostrae definitioni contradicere, quod
Deus avertat, praesumpserit, sciat se a veritate fidei catho-
licae et ab unitate ecclesiae defecisse.

II. — Papal Message to the Council concerning the

Bill.

Cum plurimi Episcopi petierint a Sanctissimo Domino
Nostro, ut Concilio proponatur thema de infallibilitate Ro-
mani Pontificis, idemque Sanctissimus Dominus Noster, de
consilio peculiaris Congregationis pro recipiendis et expen-
dendis Patrum propositionibus deputatae, memoratae peti-
tioni annuere dignatus sit ; idcirco Rmis. Concilii Patribus
examinanda distribuitur formula novi capitis ea de re
agentis : quae formula scliemati Constitutionis Dogmaticae
de Ecclesia Christl inserenda erit post caput undecimum.
Simul autem Rmi. P. P. monentur ut ii quibus super eodem
capite undecimo et super praedicta formula, nee non super
canonibus 14, 15, 16 aliquid observandum videbitur, ani-
madversiones suas scripto tradant Secretario Concilii intra

♦ Luc. 22, 32.

826 The State- of Religion in Germany.

decern dies, nempe a die octava usque ad diem decimam
septimam Martii inclusive iuxta Decretum 20 Februarii
proxime elapsi.

Ex Secretario Concilii Vaticani die 6 Martii 1870.
Josephus Ep. S. Hippolyti Secretar. Concilii Vatic.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION.

I. — Bill.

" Chapter to be added to the Decree upon the Primacy of
the Roman Pontiff, to the effect that the Roman Pontiff
cannot err in the definition of matters of faith or morals.

" The Holy Roman Church possesses the supreme and
complete primacy and principality over the Universal
Catholic Church, which it verily and humbly acknowledges
to have received with the plenitude of the power of the Lord
himself in the person of St. Peter, the Prince of Apostles, of
whom the Roman Pontiff is the successor.

"And as, above all things, it behoves it to make clear the
truth of the faith, all questions which may arise upon
matters of faith must be determined by its judgment, seeing
that otherwise the words of the Lord Jesus Christ (Thou
art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church) would
be disregarded.

" That which has been set forth upon this point has been
proved by the results, as in the Apostolic See the Catholic
religion has always been preserved immaculate, and its
doctrine has always been maintained at its fulness,
v " Consequently, we inculcate, with the concurrence of the
Holy Council, and we define as a dogma of faith, that,

Appendix. 327

thanks to the Divine assistance, it is that the Roman
Pontiff, of whom it was said in the person of St. Peter by
our same Lord Jesus Christ, "I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen
thy brethren," cannot err when, acting in his quality as
supreme teacher of all Christians, he defines what the
Universal Church must hold in matters of faith and morals,
and that the prerogative of inerrancy or infallibility extends
over the same matters to which the infallibility of the
Church is applicable. But if any one should dare — which
may God forbid ! — to controvert our present definition, let
him know that he departs from the truth of the faith."

II. — Papal Message to the Council concerning the

Blll.

Secretariat of the Vatican Council,
March 6, 1870.

As so many Bishops have beseeched our Most Sacred
Master to submit to the Council a draft concerning the
Infallibility of the Roman Pontiff, and as our Most Sacred
Master, after consulting the Special Congregation appointed
to receive and examine the propositions of the Fathers, has
condescended to comply with the said request : for this
reason the draft of a new chapter on this subject, to be
inserted into the draft of the Dogmatical Decree on the
Church of Christ after the eleventh chapter, is distributed
among the Roman Fathers of the Council, that they ma}r
examine it. At the same time, those Roman Fathers who
should wish to offer any remarks on the eleventh chapter,
or on the new draft and the 14th, 15th, and 16th Canons,

328 TJie State of Religion in Germany.

are, in accordance with the Decree of the 20th February,
desired to transmit their remarks in writing to the Secretary
of the Council in the ten days from March 8 to March 17.
JOSEPHUS EPISC. S. HIPPOLYTI,

Secretary to the Vatican Council.

The Eoman correspondent of ' The Times ' thus expresses
himself on the above stupendous document : —

" In the document before me there are not a few assump-
tions. It is assumed that Jesus Christ gave to Peter
supreme and full primacy and principality over the Uni-
versal Catholic Church. It is assumed, further, that in so
doing He also gave it to the Holy Eoman Church. It is
assumed that the Eoman Pontiff is the successor of Peter ;
and in that assumption is included the assumption that
Peter was at Eome, and that he was Bishop of Eome —
points upon which Scripture happens to be silent. It is
assumed that whatever power Peter had, the Pontiff has
from him, and this assumption is made "truly and humbly,"
for indeed the Pontiff cannot but be all truth and humility.
It is assumed that the Eoman Church is under a distinct
obligation, and has a special power and authority for the
definition ; that is, for the absolute stopping of all questions
of faith that may arise. This is to be done by "its own "
judgment ; that is, by the judgment of the Church of Eome.
It is assumed that the words " Thou art Peter," &c, mean
that the Church was to be built in Peter, not only as respects
his character, his utterances, and his career, and as a pro-
minent example of others like him, but also on the ground

Appendix. 329

that he was the recognized chief of the Apostles and the
predestined founder of a like succession. It is assumed
that these words of our Lord addressed to Peter are proved
to possess the particular significance ascribed to them by
the Church of Eome by the test of results, those results
being the singular and absolute immunity from doctrinal
error enjoyed by the Apostolic See, which, it is assumed,
has kept the whole faith, and that without spot, in a singular
and remarkable manner. It is assumed that it is the place
of the Pope to define — that is, to make and proclaim —
articles of faith; and of an (Ecumenical Council to approve.
It is assumed that when our Lord said he had prayed for
Peter that his faith should not fail, that prayer implied a
promise that both Peter himself and his alleged successors
the Bishops of Rome, would always have a perfectly right
judgment in all theological, spiritual, moral, political, and
social questions. , On these assumptions it is argued and
concluded that the Roman Pontiff whenever he acts and
speaks with authority — that is, in a formal and customary
manner, according to rule and precedent — possesses and
exhibits all the infallibility promised in Holy Writ to the
whole Church ; and that as far as the Church is infallible,
so is he ; in whatever matter it is infallible, in that matter
is he."

And whoever does not believe in it all, will be accursed
in this world and the next !

COUNT DARU'S LETTERS ON THE
(ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

In the beginning of this year Count Dam, the French
Minister of Foreign Affairs, wrote some letters to a person
of high standing at Rome, in which he complained of the
imprudence of the Pope, and threatened to withdraw the
French garrison from the Holy City were Infallibility pro-
claimed as a dogma of the Church. The following are
extracts from these important letters : —

"Pabis, 18 Janvier, 1870.

"... J'ai vu avec regrets quelques unes des choses qui
se sont passees, et cependant je ne peux pas croire a de
trop grandes imprudences de la part de la Cour de Rome.
On ne peut pas s'y aveugler assez pour supposer que le
maintien de nos troupes serait possible le lendemain du
jour ou le dogme de 1' Infallibility serait prononce. Nous
voudrions les laisser a Rome que nous ne le pourrions pas.
II y aura tin mouvement irresistible de l'opinion en France,
auquel il ne sera pas possible de ne pas ceder.

' Certainement, le Saint Pere le sait, le voit, le croit. II
se rendra, je l'espere, aux conseils plus moderes des plus
illustres membres de l'Eglise de France.

" Recevez, &c,

"Dabu."

Appendix. 331

"Paris, 5 Fevrier, 1870.

" Je vous reniercie, Monsieur, des renseignements que
vous voulez bien nie donner. Je crains que le parti en
majorite dans le Concile ne veuille abuser de ses avantages,
et qu'il n'aille avec emportement vers le but. Les passions
religieuses sont encore plus difficile a manier que les passions
politiques.

" J'lionore beaucoup la resistance que leur oppose la
ferine attitude de la minorite des Eveques, et je la seconde
de tous mes efforts. J'ai envoye a plusieurs reprises les
instructions du Gouvernenient a M. de Banneville, qui me
tient au courant de tout, et par sa bouche j'ai fait entendre
la verite au Cardinal Antonelli. II est bien evident que
tout peut etre remis en question par la conduite des Pre-
lats Italiens, Espagnoles, Missionaires, et Vicaires Aposto-
liques, qui semblent vivre dans un nionde a part.

" II est bien evident que Ton peut nous rendre impos-
sible le maintien de notre garnison a Eome aussi bien que
rarrangement des affaires financieres du Saint Siege, dont
j'etais si bien dispose a m'occuper, que Ton peut infirmer
gravement les engagements Concordataires, dont la Propa-
gande ne parait pas tenir le moindre compte, et briser le
pacte qui nous unit. J'en ai prevenu le Cardinal; je ne
cesserai pas de lui representer le danger de la position dans
laquelle il se place, et il nous place ; mais je ne suis pas
sur que ces representations soient ecoutees ; on ne raisonne
pas, on se laisse entrainer aux ardeurs du moment. Si la
minorite peut gagner du temps, elle fera ce qu'il y a de
mieux a faire dans ce moment-ci.

" Le parti revolutionnah'e qui se remue depuis quelque
temps nous donne icfun peu d'embarras.

332 The State of Religion in Germany.

" II conspire et semble vouloir agir prochainement.
Combien on est aveugle a Rome, si Ton ne s'apercoit pas
qu'on lui donne des armes, que la est le danger ; que briser
la force conservative en face d'un tel peril est un acte
insense ! que compromettre la religion par des Syllabus,
c'est jouer le jeu de ceux qui l'attaquent audacieusement
tous les jours a visage decouvert, dans leurs paroles comnie
dans leurs ecrits ! Je crois que les complots revolution-
naires ne reussiront pas, et que ses tentatives seront
reprimes, mais ils sont un symptome de l'etat des esprits,
et Ton devrait en tenir quelque cornpte a Rome.

" Recevez, &c,

" Daeu."

COUNT DARU'S MEMORANDUM ON THE

COUNCIL.

Towards the end of March Count Daru, the then French
Minister of Foreign Affairs, caused a Memorandum to be
drawn up against the proceedings of the Council. It
officially reiterated the warnings previously addressed to the
Pope in a less authoritative form. But M. Ollivier, the
French Prime Minister, objected to these energetic politics
of his colleague. In his opinion, to blame the Pope was a
dangerous game to play on the eve of a plebiscite. It might
lose him the goodwill of the rural priesthood, without which
the requisite number of votes could not be got together for
Napoleon III. It might spoil the demonstrative expression
of popular confidence in the Emperor, so carefully pre-
pared by the Cabinet. Count Daru resigned. His Memo-
randum, as it could not be entirely withdrawal, having
already obtained the approval of some other Courts, was
subsequently communicated at Rome semi-demi-officially,
and on the distinct understanding that it would not be
acted upon. The following are the most important pas-
sages of this remarkable documemt : —

"Recently, questions of political and State interest have
been mooted in the Council. The relations between the
Church and the State have been the subject of propositions

334 The State of Religion in Germany.

which are soon to be brought under discussion. His
Majesty's Government has, therefore, felt it a right and a
duty to offer some observations upon this special point, and
to indicate the inconveniences which may follow upon the
adoption of maxims which trench upon the laws of the
country. In the exercise of this right, and for the accom-
plishment of this duty, it does not apply any pressure that
can in any degree trammel the deliberations of the august
Council. Its intervention is purely moral, and it is confined
to matters which are indisputably within the category of
civil power. In requiring that the laws and rights of civil
society should be respected, it is careful to avoid even the
semblance of disrespect towards the rights and liberties of
religious society. It intervenes simply because it appears
to it that the limits between the separate domains have been
exceeded. Confiding, respectful, fixed in our sentiments,
we address ourselves to the generous mind of the Holy
Father; we recall to his recollection those relations of
mutual good will which, during seventy years, have united
the two Governments, and have insured social and religious
peace. It is in order to preserve those good relations that
we urgently request from the wisdom of the Holy Pontiff
and the Fathers of the Council to erase from the Schema de
Ecdesid all those portions which in the text published, and
not disavowed, would, we fear, have the gravest conse-
quences to legal and social order in all the States of Europe.
The more the doctrine embodied in that document is
examined, the more apparent is it that this doctrine sub-
stantially involves a complete subordination of civil society
to religious society. AVe wish that plausible explanations
or desirable modifications could enable us to give to these

Appendix. 335

resolutions a different interpretation. But in the present
position of affairs, unless we refuse to give to words their
real and natural meaning, it is impossible not to be
convinced that the Schema de Ecclesid would have the
object and end of re-establishing throughout the world the
ascendancy of doctrines subordinating civil society to the
rule of the clergy. In fact, according to the provisions
contained in this Schema, and under the irresistible
sanction of anathema, the infallibility and authority of the
Church must extend not only to truths transmitted by
revelation, but also to all those which may appear to be
necessary to protect the records of tradition. In other
words, this infallibility and this authority have no other
limits than those assigned by the Church, and all principles
of order — civil, political, scientific — fall directly or indirectly
within their competence. It is in this almost boundless
field that the right of the Church would be exercised to
announce decisions and promulgate laws binding upon the
consciences of the faithful, independently of any confirma-
tion from political authority, and even in direct opposition
to laws emanating from political authority. It is within
this domain, the bounds of which the Church alone would
seem to have power to define, that the Canons confer upon
it complete power, at once legislative, judicial, and coercive,
applicable to external acts as well as to internal impressions
— a power which the Church would be enabled to enforce
by material penalties, and to which Christian Princes and
Governments would be bound to render their aid by
punishing those who sought to evade them. It is evident
that if such principles were applied in practice, if Govern-
ments were to retain no power, and civil societies no liberty,

336 The State of Religion in Germany.

beyond the power and the liberty which it might please the
Church to permit them, their most essential rights, the
foundation of their political constitutions, the bases of their
civil legislation in matters of property, family, and education,
might at any time be brought in question by the ecclesias-
tical authority. As a complement of this system it has been
proposed to include in the same decree the personal and
separate InfallibilhVy of the Pope — that is to say, after
having concentrated all political and religious powers in the
hands of the Church, to concentrate all the powers of the
Church in the hands of its chief. Such are the measures
which the (Ecumenical Council would be called upon to
proclaim in the nineteenth century ; and as these maxims
are not admitted or recognized in any part of Christian
Europe, an universal anathema would be hurled in the name
of the Holy Father against all institutions and all societies.
We are told certainly that the Church declares abstract
truths, but does not exact their application ; that, if these
doctrines conflict with existing laws, they conflict only in
point of principle ; in fact, they accommodate themselves to
all forms of government and all legislations. Such a de-
claration is insufficient to reassure us. Can it be admitted
that to-morrow, in the forty thousand parishes of France,
it shall be taught that men are free to believe that they
may think in one manner and act in another ? This dis-
tinction would inflict upon tender consciences the most
cruel torture. We have too much respect for the Church,
we have too high an opinion of its power to allow such an
argument. We are convinced that it is performing and will
perform a serious task, and that, consequently, it will ever
strive to reduce to practice those maxims which it has

Appendix. 337

included in articles of belief as immutable verities. We
could not admit that the most venerable of Pontiffs has
gathered around his throne all the Bishops of the Catholic
world simply to prepare and proclaim fruitless laws, to pass
vain resolutions. It is added that these maxims are not
new, that they simply reproduce the dogmas of an ancient
theological teaching, and that the world has no reason to be
astonished at them, since the Church has ever held the
same language. We acknowledge that fact. It is not now
for the first time that these doctrines make their appearance.
They have been proclaimed in former ages and on various
occasions. But all history attests that they have never been
accepted in this form, and as a whole, by any Sovereign or
by any nation, even in the times when the Catholic faith
was universally held. At all times and in all countries the
absolute independence of the temporal Government and
the Sovereign authority has been emphatically insisted
upon by peoples, by kings, and often by a national clergy.
Even in the middle ages the attempt to enforce these prin-
ciples was the occasion of the most sanguinary conflicts.
The long struggle of the priesthood and the Germanic
Empire is a proof of that. The heresies and schisms
which have by degrees separated from Catholic society the
entire Eastern Church and one half of the Western Church
have sprung from no other causes. It is true that in the
present state of society the declaration of these principles
could not involve such grave consequences. The inde-
pendence of civil society, which at other times might have
been regarded as menaced by them, is now both in fact and
by law beyond all controversy and all attack. Liberty of
conscience and of religious belief being universally admitted,

338 The State of Religion in Germany.

renders it impossible to imagine even the domination of
religious society over political society. We have nothing of
that kind to fear. Those even who most vehemently urge
the Council to convert this doctrine into a dogma admit
that the necessities of the times will condemn such decrees
to remain dead letters. Modern principles have been defini-
tively adopted into the public law of Europe, and will never
be erased from it, because they are indispensable alike to the
dignity and the liberty of men and of Governments. It is
no feeling of political uneasiness which influences us and
dictates the representations which we feel it to be our duty
to address to the Council. It is a fear at once more serious
and more disinterested, the fear that there may be created —
if the wisdom of the Holy See does not prevent it — a kind
of antagonism between civil society and the Church, which
may be equally prejudicial to both. The Government of
the Emperor considers and has always considered these
harmonious relations in the midst of Christian nations as
one of the most essential bases of social peace. How can
that be maintained if the highest religious authority of this
world, that of the Oecumenical Council, should condemn the
maxims upon which legislation reposes, and declare the
principles of public law to be contrary to the principles
inculcated by the Church? When the echo of such decla-
rations issuing from the Vatican shall resound from the
pulpit of the smallest village, and touch the conscience of
the humblest Catholics, will there not be reason to appre-
hend that the germs of difference thus implanted in men's
minds may be developed, and sooner or later be converted
into real facts? The Government of the Emperor has
yielded to the most imperious sense of duty in calling the

Appendix. 339

grave attention of the Fathers of the Council to these
dangers. As far as relates to itself personally nothing
could have been easier than to have silently allowed these
projected resolutions to be adopted, having always the
power to declare null and of no effect every maxim opposed
to the public law or to the general feeling of the French
nation. Advice of this kind has not been wanting. The
Government, however, has not hesitated for a single instant
in repudiating these timid suggestions. The policy which
consists in waiting till an evil be done, and has become
incapable of reconsideration, is a short-sighted policy, and
one which would not be worthy either of the Emperor or of
a great nation like our own. Proved friends of the Church,
it is not our place to recall the proofs of devotion to it
which we have given. But we may say that we remain
faithful to our traditions, and never shall we have rendered
to it a more signal service than on the day when, addressing
the august representatives of Catholicity assembled at Rome,
we warn them of the danger to which they are exposing
themselves. We do not desire to restrict their freedom;
we only raise our voice in order to point out to them the
consequences of their acts. We are towards them the
faithful interpreters of public opinion everywhere expressed,
which, far from remaining silent, speaks aloud and unmis-
takably. It is perilous to brave it, useful to consult it,
necessary to listen to it. There would be an end of public
peace, of the concord between political and religious society,
if a reactionary movement should be excited in men's minds,
and if the enemies of the Church were furnished with a
weapon which they would know only too well how to use
against it. The Cardinal' Secretary of State, in replying

340 TJie State of Religion in Germany.

to the communication which the Emperor's Government
thought it right to make to him immediately upon the
presentation of the Schema de Ecclesid, has hiinself per-
ceived the necessity of allaying the disquietude which the
ideas contained in that document had everywhere occa-
sioned. His Eminence, in his despatch of the 19th of
March, speaking of the two powers, said ' that the com-
petence of each heing perfectly distinct and definite, accord-
ing to the object for which each was established, the Church
does not exercise by virtue of its authorhVy a direct and ab-
solute interference in questions relating to the constitutive
principles of Governments, the forms of civil institutions,
the political rights of citizens, the duties of the State, and
the other points referred to in the note of the 20th of
February.' Afterwards treating of the Concordat, Cardinal
Antonelli again says that ' the points of mutual competency
being settled by that document, any decisions which may be
arrived at by the Council in respect of such matters will not
in any way affect the special stipulations agreed upon be-
tween the Holy See and France and other Powers.' The
Emperor's Government is far from undervaluing the im-
portance of these declarations. It takes notice of them,
and it derives from them great confidence in the definitive
resolutions of the Hohy Father and the Council. It is, in
fact, by adopting the line of conduct marked out by the
Cardinal Secretary of State that the apprehensions which
we have expressed to the Holy See, and which we now
submit to the august assembly itself, can be removed. It
is by declarations based upon these wise maxims that the
Fathers of the Council may return to that point of view
from which public opinion, calm and sympathetic, but now

Appendix. 341

anxious and alarmed, watched the completion of the grand
task committed to their wisdom. It depends upon them to
modify in this sense the propositions which have been sub-
mitted to them, and thus to avoid all declarations which
would be of a nature to disturb and compromise the rela-
tions between the Church and the State. As the guardians
of social peace, Governments have as a first duty to guard
against aught that can affect it. They would be failing in
their duty if under existing circumstances they maintained
silence. The agitation caused in the Christian world by
the expectation of the resolutions of the Council warns them
of the imperious necessity of speaking out and of protesting
against propositions which if they were adopted must inevit-
ably produce grievous troubles. These propositions affect
the State as much as they do religion, the Church, and the
Holy See."

exteact from a despatch dated vlenna, may 10, 1562,
addressed by ferdinand i., emperor of germany,
to Anton Moglitz, Bishop of Prague, his Dele-
gate at the Council of Trent.

" We have no wish to withhold our opinion on this im-
portant point, but on the contrary deem it incumbent upon
us to declare, unreservedly, that in the Germanic Empire
the acts and decisions of the Imperial Parliament are alone
valid and lawful. There is no power on earth which can
absolve any of the Prince Electors, Princes, or Estates from
the duty of conforming to the constitutional decrees of the
Imperial Parliament. It will therefore be advisable for
the Fathers assembled at the Council to refrain from
discussing the acts of secular authority, as vested in the
Emperor and Imperial Parliament of the Holy Roman
Empire of the Germanic Nation. Should they reject this
advice and presume to condemn any acts of the civil power,
they will find nobody to obey their behests, and only render
themselves ridiculous (Utdibrio multorum). Wherefore I
charge you to offer the utmost resistance to any such inten-
tions on the part of the Fathers, and to take care V ■ ^
Imperial decrees and acts be repudiated or conde
them."

The above shows that even three hundred years
when Catholicism was much more imposing than .v

Appendix. 343

constituted powers of Germany objected to the infringement
of their legitimate authority by the Pope. Nor were states-
men, however orthodox, in those early days disposed to shut
their eyes to the very worldly means sometimes employed
to obtain spiritual decrees from the Council. In another
despatch to Ins Delegate, the same Emperor complains that
the Council is frequently exposed to dictation and intimi-
dation from Rome. "The enemies of the Catholic religion,"
he says, "have long been in the habit of insinuating, that
the Holy Spirit is sent to the Council, from Rome, by relays
of post horses (per dispositos equos) — a sarcasm which recent
events have caused to be uttered with double pungency."

THE END.

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