THE 
 
 GERMAN REFORMATION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
"C^^^W 
 
 O" THE 
 
 
-Y<J 
 
 THE 
 
 GERMAN REEORMATION 
 
 OF THE t^ik CerTtu^i^y 
 NINETEENTH CENTURY; 
 
 A SKETCH OF THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT POSITION OP 
 THOSE WHO HAVE RECENTLY SEPARATED THEMSELVES 
 FROM THE CHURCH OF ROME : 
 
 WITH A SHORT NOTICE OF THE 
 
 STATE OF PROTESTANTISM IN P RUSSIA, AUSTRIA, BAVARIA, AND THE 
 
 PRUSSUAi^BBESRSSEBWiNCES. 
 y' OP THE ^ 
 
 "THE CONTINENTAL ECHO.' 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN SNOW, 35, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1846. 
 
3/474 D 
 
 WILLIAM AND RICHrARD WOODCOCK, 
 PRINTEKS, WARWICK LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW, 
 
TO 
 
 THE FREE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND; 
 
 THE INTREPID FOLLOWERS, IN 1843, OP THEIR HEROIC FOREFATHERS, 
 
 WHO IN 1470 — 80 " WANDERED, " 
 
 FOR conscience' SAKE, 
 
 IN DESERTS AND MOUNTAINS, IN DENS AND CAVES OF THE EARTH, 
 
 ( " OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY,") 
 
 TO THE FIRST RELIGIOUS BODY IN BRITAIN 
 
 WHICH STRETCHED OUT THE HAND OF ENCOURAGEMENT 
 
 OR RAISED THE VOICE OF COUNSEL AND WARNING 
 
 TO THE RECENTLY EMANCIPATED FROM PAPAL CHAINS, 
 
 THIS SKETCH OF THE 
 
 RISE, PROGRESS, AND PRESENT CONDITION OF GERMAN CATHOLICISM, 
 
 IS, WITH DEEPEST SENTIMENTS OF RESPECT AND ESTEEM, 
 
 INSCRIBED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 "When, towards ]tlie end of 1844, I transmitted to a private 
 friend (alas, now no more) a translation of Ronge's letter 
 to Bishop Arnoldi, together with a sketch of the effects it 
 had produced, and was producing, expressing at the same 
 time my conviction, that we should yet have occasion to 
 exclaim respecting it, " Behold, how great a matter a little 
 fire kindleth," I was far indeed from anticipating that I 
 should be led providentially to take my stand on the watch- 
 tower of observation, thence to announce to the British public, 
 month by month, in "The Continental Echo," the advances or 
 the hindrances of the reform cause, neither voluntarily with- 
 holding truth, " nor setting down aught in malice." StUl less 
 did I then dream of being induced to attempt giving per- 
 manency to those fugitive pieces, by adding to the number of 
 books, of which we at least equally with Solomon may assert, 
 that ** of making such there is no end." 
 
 In publishing this sketch of the modern secession from 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Popery, I felt prepared to lie under very serious disadvantage, 
 in being debarred, by my continental residence, from guarding 
 against errors of the press, by a personal correction of the 
 proof sheets ; and I oimi to a painful foreboding, that many 
 more errata may be found, claiming the reader's indulgence, 
 than would have escaped the Argus eye of an author. But 
 that the statements contained in the following pages would 
 require either guarantee or defence was no ways suspected by 
 me, till a very few weeks ago. Since, however, the larger 
 portion of the present work was in type, some of the principal 
 actors in the scenes described, have been mercilessly and 
 publicly attacked ; their principles impugned ; their motives 
 maligned ; and the whole reform movement depicted alternately 
 as a piece of consummate charlatanerie, or a tissue of wilfiil 
 exaggeration. Even within the present month, I have been 
 assailed by assertions against Czerski, so positive, and from a 
 quarter so respectable, as for a moment to appal me with 
 dread, lest I should have been the dupe and the abettor of a 
 deceiver ; and so severe was the blow, that even my bodily 
 health staggered under it. I thank God, however, that the 
 inquiries I have since set on foot (in quarters wholly uncon- 
 nected with the movement itself), enable me, with a good 
 conscience, to send forth the following plain unvarnished tale 
 (which, under other feelings, I should unhesitatingly have sup- 
 pressed), in the persuasion that what I have from the very 
 commencement felt will prove permanently true, viz., that 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 a great, momentous, and, in its consequences, incalculable 
 breach, has been made in the walls of Rome's citadel, by the 
 Catholic reform movement. That a large proportion of those 
 who have followed, as well as some prominent leaders in it, 
 are actuated solely by a desire of emancipation from Roman 
 tyranny, and a love of ecclesiastical, as intimately connected 
 with civil liberty, has been my declared conviction from the 
 first ; and with these the Reform consists chiefly in an aban- 
 donment of a hypocritical profession, the rationalistic views 
 they now avow, having ruled in their hearts, though cloaked 
 by an occasional compliance with Roman Catholic rites. To 
 such, Ronge's letter was the opening of the prison door by the 
 master key of public opinion ; and their gain, though infinitely 
 below what it would be, did higher principles guide, is still 
 not small, since habits of duplicity on the most sacred subjects 
 cannot but essentially harden the heart and sear the con- 
 science, while free access to the Scriptures, and the necessity 
 (imposed by their acknowledgment of their supreme au- 
 thority) of appealing to them in defence of their new views, 
 as it must lead to an examination of the inspired volume, may 
 realise, in their happy experience, the fulfilment of that 
 Divine promise, ** my word shall not return unto me void." 
 But never should I have deemed the history of such a reform 
 worthy the employment of my time in writing, or of the 
 Christian public in reading it. I cordially believe Czerski, 
 and those who uphold, with him, the doctrines of positive 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 Christianity, to be sincere and true men.* If I am deceived, 
 I am so by written and published professions, the falsehood 
 of which, if it exist, the Searcher of Hearts alone can detect ; 
 and I err in company with many of God's dear people in this 
 country, who rest with the fullest reliance on the Christian 
 sincerity of Czerski and his party, as well as with the 
 admirable Merle D'Aubigne. f I myself have never yet seen 
 Czerski. Illness had compelled me to a temporary absence 
 from home at the period when he came personally to express 
 his thankfulness for my instrumentality in making his cause 
 known, and the consequent aid he obtained from England, 
 whither he was then en route. And yet, this man has been 
 represented as denying having received any aid from Britain, 
 and that, too, when about to proceed to London by means of 
 that very aid, and to the very editor of "The Continental 
 Echo," who had sent it to him. Nothing short of insanity 
 could have explained this ; and, in accordance with the rule 
 in logic, that what proves too much, proves nothing, I must 
 own, that this assertion chiefly enabled me to wait with calm- 
 ness the issue of my inquiries respecting the other less 
 palpably ridiculous charges. 
 
 After all, human opinion can only be effectually met by 
 facts. I fervently hope that the conduct of those whom 
 party spirit on the one hand, and unchristian retailing of 
 
 * See Appendix B. 
 
 t See " Continental Echo," for Sept. 1846, p. 287. 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 gossip on the other, have combined to assail, will be such as 
 to live down all that disappointed malice or credulous incon- 
 sideration have heaped up against them. They have enrolled 
 themselves among the disciples of a crucified and risen 
 Saviour ; woe be unto them should any prove a Judas ! It 
 would " be good for that man that he had never been born." 
 But let those who speak against them, without sure ground, 
 remember another declaration from the lips of our common 
 Lord, "Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which 
 believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were 
 hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the 
 depth of the sea." There is a day coming in which the 
 secrets of all hearts will be revealed, and when we shall know 
 even as we are known. May the God of mercy grant that 
 that day, for which all other days were made, may proye to 
 thousands who have, or may yet cast off, Koman fetters, for 
 Christ's easy yoke, as well as to the writer of this imperfect 
 record, an entrance into that blood-bought "joy of their 
 Lord," which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath 
 it entered into the human heart to conceive. 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Duchy of Lauenbubg, 
 Aug. 31, 1846. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 STATE OP RELIGION IN GERMANY DUEING THE SIXTEENTH AND 
 SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 
 
 Page 
 
 Vagueness of the word Protestantism — Chancellor Gerson's Dis- 
 tinction between the Catholic and Roman Church — Gradual 
 Progress of Evangelical Protestantism 1 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 STATE OP RELIGION IN GERMANY DURING THE EIGHTEENTH 
 CENTURY. 
 
 Frederick the Great — His Character — His Opposition to Pa- 
 pal Supremacy — Pope Benedict VIII. — Pope Clement XIII. 
 — Hontheim's Work on the Legitimate Power of the Pope 
 — Its Effect — Pope Clement's Bull for the Suppression of the 
 Jesuits — His Death — Cardinal Braschi elected Pope — The 
 Emperor Joseph H.— His Reform — The Toleration Edict- 
 Its Amendment by the Papists — The Pope's Indignation, and 
 unsuccessful Visit to the Emperor — Modifications of the Act 
 of Toleration — Professor Eybel — Discord among the heads of 
 the Papacy — The Ems Punctation — The French Revolution 
 — Buonaparte — His Negociations with Pius VH. — The Con- 
 gress of Vienna — Attempt to form a German Catholic Church 
 
 ' —Restoration of the Jesuits 20 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 REFORMATION OP THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Page 
 Brief Retrospect of its immediate Causes — French Revolution 
 — Spread of French Principles and Politics — Jesuit Influence 
 restored— Priestly Tyranny and Folly — Mixed Marriages — 
 Archbishop of Cologne, and the King of Prussia — Anecdote — 
 Rong^ — His Birth and Education — Disgust at the Routine of 
 the Breslaw Seminary — Settlement at Grottkau — Suspension 
 from his Chaplaincy — Retirement to Walddorf — Thence to 
 Laurahiitte — Lines Written on his Thirtieth Birthday — 
 Bishop Amoldi's Letter and the Holy Coat — Rough's Letter 
 to Bishop Arnoldi — Rong&'s Degradation and Excommuni- 
 cation — Addresses and Presents to Rong^ — Convulsion in the 
 Roman Church — Rough's Appeal to the Inferior Catholic 
 Clergy — Its rapid and extensive Sale 57 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 reformation of the nineteenth century 
 (continued). 
 
 Rough's Justification — His humble Birth and Occupation — 
 Choice of the Clerical Profession — Disgust at the Romish 
 Clergy — Departure from the Alumnat — Appointment to a 
 Chaplaincy at Grottkau — Excommunication from the Romish 
 Church — Strictures on Rough's Opinions . 85 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 reformation op the nineteenth century 
 (continued). 
 
 The Breslaw Church— Its two Parties— Effect of the Announce- 
 ment of the Exhibition of the Holy Coat — Visited by Rong^ 
 — Hbcker's Spirited Address to the Catholics — Its Effects — 
 Resolutions of the Separatists — Great Meeting for Worship — 
 Appointment of Rouge to the Pastorship — Dr. Regenbrecht's 
 Letter on his Secession from the Romish Church 99 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 befoemation of the nineteenth centukt 
 
 (continued). 
 
 Page 
 
 The Holy Coat of Treves— Occasion of its Exhibition— Pam- 
 phlets of Drs. Gildemeister and Sybel — Inquiry into the Genu- 
 ineness of the Holy Coat — Four Tests — Conclusive Evidence 
 of the Imposture— St. Peter's Chair at Venice — History of 
 the Holy Coa.t — Its alleged Removal from Palestine by the 
 Empress Helena — Ingenious Theory of its Previous Preserva- 
 tion — Want of Documentary Evidence — Popular Legends — 
 Extract from the Authorised Litany — Coat of Treves not 
 Genuine according to Papal Decision — A Holy Coat in Eng- 
 land — Brief Notices of other Garments, severally declared by 
 their Possessors to be the Holy Coat 110 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 reformation of the nineteenth century 
 (continued). 
 Czerski — His early Life — Clerical Education — Appointment to 
 Schneidemiihl — Preaching — Excites the Oppositioi\ of Romish 
 Authorities — He and his Adherents Excommunicated — Form- 
 ation of the Apostolic Church of Schneidemiihl — Czerski's 
 " Justification " — Romish Calumnies — Czerski's Marriage — 
 Disinterestedness — Reply to a Proposal to re-enter the Romish 
 Church — Rejection of the Pecuniary Offer — ^Disapproval of 
 the Leipsic Confession — Circular to the Churches of Western 
 Prussia — MuUer's attempt to prevent a Rupture — Czerski's 
 second Circular to the Churches — Letter to a Friend — Letter 
 to Dr. Theiner — The Berlin Deputation — Proposal to form an 
 Episcopalian Cathohc Church — Its Rejection by the Church of 
 Schneidemuhl 123 
 
 CHAPTER VUL 
 befor2hation op the nineteenth century 
 (continued). 
 Dr. Theiner— His History — Secession from the Romish Church 
 — Its Important Consequences — Extracts from his Work, 
 " Efforts at Reform in the Catholic Church" — His Observa- 
 tions on Papal Relics— The Host— Use of the Latin Language 
 in Divine Worship — Compulsory Celibacy of the Priests — 
 Mixed Marriages — Doctrines and Practices of the Romish 
 Church 164 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OP THE REFORM MOVE- 
 MENT, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1845, TO APRIL, 1846. 
 
 Page 
 
 First German Catholic Congregation formed at Leipsic — Suc- 
 ceeded by another at Breslaw — A third at Berlin — Meeting of 
 the first German Council at Leipsic — Its Proceedings — Pro- 
 gress of Reform in the Prussian Provinces— Answer of the 
 King of Saxony to the Romish Clergy of Leipsic — Present 
 Aspects of the Reform Movement — Example of Fanaticism at 
 Heiligenstadt — Excommunication of Kerbler — Diepenbrock — 
 His Conscientiousness — Anecdote illustrative of Court Influ- 
 ence in Saxony— Pleasing Features in the new Movement — 
 The Jansenists — Address of the Magistracy of Magdeburg to 
 the Committee of the German Catholic Church — ^Popularity 
 of Rongfe — Rong^ and Czerski 197 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 chronological sketch of the progress of the reform move- 
 ment, from the commencement op 1845, to april, 1846 
 (continued). 
 
 The New German Catholic Church and the Jesuits — Probable 
 Opposition to the New Church by several Continental Powers 
 — Progress of the New Movement — Quotation from the Ad- 
 dress of a Silesian Lady — Labours of Rong^ and Czerski — 
 Czerski's Ministrations — Dr. Schreiber — Licht — His Letter 
 on leaving the Romish Church — Opinion of the German 
 Catholics at Breslaw on Episcopal Ordination — Persecution . . 220 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 chronological sketch of the progress of the reform move- 
 ment, from the commenoement of 1845, to april, 1846 
 (continued). 
 
 Doctrines of the Leipsic Council— Protest against them — Pro- 
 gress of the new Movement in Posen— Declaration of the King 
 of Hanover— Kerbler— Open-air Meetings for Worship— Vio- 
 lence of the Romanists at Halberstadt 237 
 
CONTENTS. XVll 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 chronological sketch of the progress of the reform move- 
 ment, from the commencement of 1845, to april, 1846 
 
 (continued). 
 
 Page 
 
 Rong^ — His Treatment by Friends and Enemies — Dr. Theiner 
 
 — Meetings of the Romish Clergy — Resolutions — Attempt to 
 
 injure Czerski — Ordinance of the King of Prussia respecting 
 
 the Free Church — One pf its Ministers fined for solemnizing 
 
 a Marriage 252 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 chronological sketch of the progress op the reform move- 
 
 ment, from the commencement op 1845, to april, 1846 
 
 (continued). 
 
 Dr. Theiner's Acceptance of the Pastorship of the Breslavv 
 Church — Confessions of Faith of the Berlin Minority — The 
 Jesuits at Dresden — Declaration of Wittig on seceding from 
 the Roman Church — His Letter — Excesses of the People at 
 Tarnowitz — Distich against Rong^ — Rough's Reception at 
 Frankfort-sur-Maine — Rong^ at Stuttgardt — Attempts on his 
 Life — Breidenbach — Dean Winter — Attack on Rongd and 
 his Friends at Gemsheim — Political Position of the Catholic 
 Dissidents — Entertainment to Rong^ at Darmstadt — Resolu- 
 tions passed by the Dresden Deputies — The late Baron Gio- 
 vanelli — Free Church Movements in various places — Rough's 
 Reception at Constance — Meeting of the German Catholics at 
 Offenbach — Leipsic Fair — Church at Breslaw — Meeting at 
 Berlin — Counsellor Galli's Address — Romish Legends — 
 Letter of Czerski — Death of the Archbishop of Cologne — 
 Sketch of his Life and Character 267 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 chronological sketch of the progress op the reform move- 
 ment, prom the commencement of 1845, to april, 1846 
 (continued). 
 
 Pastor Post — His Integrity — Advertisement by Uhlich — Pro- '■ 
 fessor Hengstenberg — Dr. Schuselka's Secession from the 
 Romish Church — Night Processions — Rong^'s Reception in 
 Dresden — His Portrait— Dr. Scheidel's Treatment at Kip- 
 
XVm CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 penheim — Pleasing Occurrence at Heidelburg — Letter attri- 
 buted to Rong^ — Account of a Roman Catholic Association 
 at Berlin — Secession from the Romish Church of Staniczewski 
 — Quotation from a Speech by Deputy Helcker — Ultramon- 
 tane Efforts in Bavaria 295 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 chronological sketch of the progress of the reform move- 
 
 ment, from the comjtfencement of 1845, to april, 1846 
 
 (continued). 
 
 The Protestant Council at Berlin — Quotation from a Speech by 
 Deputy Zittel — Romish Mandate at Freiburg — Rough's First 
 Public Denunciation of Czerski and his Adherents — Remark- 
 able Sign of the Times — Dr. Hunter's Appointment — Acces- 
 sion of Wilhelm and Kelch — Dissolution of the Silesian Normal 
 School — Appeal to the King of Prussia against General Super- 
 intendent Hahn — Difficulties of the " Free Evangelical Church" 
 of Konigsburg — Relaxation of Opposition to the German Ca- 
 tholics — Reconciliation of Czerski and Rong^ — Czerski's Ex- 
 planatory Letter — Remarks on it — Blasphemous Mummery — 
 TheRomanists in Suabia and Silesia — Extract from the Catho- 
 lic Church Reform Journal — Dr. Theiner's Acquittal — Results 
 of the Reform Movement, and Treatment of the Dissidents in 
 Various Countries 312 
 
 CHAPTER XVL 
 
 THE RUSSIAN CHURCH AND "THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT." 
 
 Sketch of the Prussian Church — Dr. Guerike's Account of a 
 Meeting of the " Friends of Light" at Kothen — Doggrel 
 Rhymes in honour of Uhlich — Extract from a pamphlet — 
 Tone adopted by the Magdeburg Consistory — Pleasing Signs 
 of the Times — Wislicenus — Dr. Hengstenberg — Extract from 
 the Declaration of the 15th of August — Quotations from 
 Dr. Hengstenberg's Reply— The King of Prussia's Reply to 
 the Berlin Magistracy — Singular Baptisms — The King of 
 Prussia's Reply to a Petition on behalf of Wislicenus 335 
 
CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 CHAPTER XVn. 
 
 STATE OF KELIGIOUS PARTIES IN BAVARIA. 
 
 Page 
 
 Kneeling to the Host — Noble Conduct of Count von Giech and 
 Pastor Rendendach — Employment of the latter by the Prus- 
 sian Government — Representation of Grievances by the Gene- 
 ral Protestant Synod — Necessity of British Sympathy and 
 Assistance — Prince von Wrede — His Fearless and Patriotic 
 Opposition to Romish Intolerance — Report of the Committee 
 on Religious Orders — Condemnation of the Jesuits — Prince 
 von Wrede's further Attempts at Reform — The Crown Prince 
 of Bavaria — His Disapproval of Roman Catholic Favoritism . . 372 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE GU8TAVUS-ADOLPHUS ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Its Origin — Erection of a Monument to Gustavus Adolphus — 
 The Fund formed by Overplus Contributions — Formation of 
 Branch Societies— Definite Constitution of the Society — Ro- 
 man Cathohc Opposition — Its Success in Austria and Bavaria 
 — Protestant Objections, and their Ground — Proposed Form- 
 ation of a Similar Society by the German Catholics 386 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PROTESTANTISM IN THE AUSTRIAN DOMINIONS. 
 
 Statistics of Protestantism in Austria — Religious Houses and 
 Orders — The Engines of Popish Proselytism — Number of 
 Protestants who have joined Rome — Protestant Movement in 
 Northern Bohemia — Translation of the Austrian Enactments 
 against the German Catholics — Opposition to this Document 
 in the Saxon Chamber — Remarkable Secessions from Rome 
 in Hungary 394 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 ^BBLIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 ! Page 
 
 Protestantism in the Russian Baltic Provinces — Persecution of 
 the Jews, and the Crafty Reasons for its Present Suspension 
 — The Nuns of Minsk — The Russian Emperor's Visit to Rome 
 — Interview with the Pope — Statement of the Polish Abbess, 
 Mieczyslawska — Opposing Documents on this Subject — Pro- 
 bable Truth of the Original Statement— The Protestants of 
 Livonia — Petition of the Landed Proprietors, praying the 
 Russian Government to purchase their Estates — Persecuting 
 Prosely tism of the Greek Church — Probable Results to Russia, 
 from its persecuting spirit 401 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE JESUITS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTUBY. 
 
 The Character of the Jesuits — Authorities on this Subject — 
 Education the Great Jesuit Engine — Jesuit Influence in Great 
 Britain — Daniel O'Connell and his Jesuitry — Specimens of 
 Modern Jesuit Teaching — Survey of those Countries where 
 the Jesuits are tolerated — Conclusion 417 
 
'■o'hivbrsitt^ 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY DURING THE SIXTEENTH 
 AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 
 
 Vagueness of the word Protestantism — Chancellor Gerson's Dis- 
 tinction between the Catholic and Roman Church — Gradual 
 Progress of Evangelical Protestantism. 
 
 In contemplating the German Reformation of the . nineteenth 
 century, the mind instinctively turns to its great predecessor 
 of the sixteenth, involuntarily instituting a comparison of the 
 circumstances and actors connected with both, in order to 
 discover points of resemblance or dissimilarity, and naturally 
 recurs to the religious and ecclesiastical state of affairs by 
 which each was preceded. In doing so, one cannot help being 
 struck by a kind of cycle in ecclesiastical events, seeming to 
 mark out three centuries as the ever-recurring epoch, at which 
 a revolutionary phase is appointed to enter. Thus the recog- 
 nition of Christianity by Constantine, is the memorable event 
 with which the fourth century commences. The lapse of other 
 three centuries is marked by the promulgation of the Moham- 
 medan imposture. The termination of the ninth, and com- 
 mencement of the tenth centuries, witnessed the introduction 
 and rapid spread of Christianity among the northern nations 
 of Europe. The beginning of the thirteenth is painfully distin- 
 
2 RELIGION IN GERMANY DURING THE 
 
 guished by the long and bloody crusade against the Albigenses, 
 by the increase of papal assumption, and the confirmed estab- 
 lishment of the doctrines of transubstantiation and auricular 
 confession (by the fourth Lateran Council, anno 1212) ; while 
 the sixteenth century was the appointed time for the abolition 
 of both, throughout a large portion of Europe ; and now, once 
 more, after another three hundred years have passed away, the 
 Keformation of the nineteenth century comes upon us with 
 claims to our notice, to all appearance no way inferior to any 
 previous crisis. 
 
 In the Reformation of the sixteenth century, the attack 
 made on Rome's long-esteemed impregnable defences, came 
 upon the world with the suddenness, the force, and the rapidity 
 of the thunderbolt, in vivid exemplification of our Saviour's 
 words, "As the lightning lighteneth from one part of heaven 
 and shineth even to the other, so shall the coming of the Son 
 of Man be;" and, in like manner, although many indications 
 of internal commotion had, during the last fifty years (as in all 
 previous periods of equal duration), disturbed the serenity of 
 Rome's sky, and told the world that the seven hills on which 
 she sitteth, contain, like the neighbouring Vesuvius, volcanic 
 and antagonist forces, which might, one day, " lay her even 
 with the ground, and her children within her," still, when the 
 voice of Ronge was raised, it pealed its war-cry against Rome, 
 on wholly unprepared ears. The Roman and Protestant worlds 
 were alike astonished by the outburst, and knew not, in the 
 first stunning moment, what to look for next ; and while the 
 Romish hierarchy raged against the sacrilegious attack, some 
 Protestant ones were scarcely less indignant ; for it is the 
 nature of ultramontane principles, whether in church or state, 
 to dread innovation as the unpardonable sin, and to prefer 
 retaining all things in undisturbed lethargy, to being wakened 
 by so rude a touch, as the displacing any of the trappings of 
 throne or altar ; fearing, doubtless, lest both should thereby 
 be reduced to a similar result, as was once wittily remarked of 
 majesty, that without its externals it becomes a jest. 
 
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES 3 
 
 Nor does the present movement less bear a comparison in 
 the rapidity of its progress than in the suddenness of its advent, 
 with the events of the sixteenth century; for while 1845, at 
 its entrance, gazed on the stranger with surprise, and doubt 
 whether the duration of the wonder would be marked by days 
 or months, 1846 sees the infant Hercules grown into a formi- 
 dable giant, not only able to maintain past achievements, but 
 to go forth upon aggressive labours. Still further, in pursuing 
 the comparison, we find, that while the priest of Laurahutte, 
 like the monk of Wittemburg, was the first to throw down the 
 gauntlet in public, another, in an obscure village, was, like 
 Kirchenfeld or Carlstadt, the first to sever himself wholly from 
 Rome's communion, and raise a separate and independent 
 standard, by the dispensing of the eucharist in both kinds, 
 the formation of a church, and entering the pale of matrimony. 
 But, alas, here, as far as Ronge is concerned, the parallel between 
 him and Luther ceases ; the great, the distinguishing features 
 of that God-devoted reformer's faith and preaching are sought 
 for in vain in the Silesian apostle (as he has been termed by 
 his admiring followers), and unless the mercy which has so far 
 opened the eyes of his understanding perfect the cure, patriotic, 
 courageous, and emancipated from Roman errors though he be, 
 he will still prove, in the Bible sense of the words, " a blind 
 leader of the blind." Before, however, attempting to give a 
 history of the rise, progress, and extent of the reformation o^ 
 which Germany is now the theatre, it seems desirable to glance 
 at her ecclesiastical aflPairs, and religious state, since the death 
 of Luther, though, as the space to be gone over comprises 
 three centuries, attention must necessarily be limited to the 
 more prominent and important stadii through which Protestant- 
 ism has passed. There is, perhaps, no word which differs so 
 widely in its meaning, according to the sense in which the 
 speaker uses it, as Protestantism. Roman Catholics alone, 
 indeed, may be said to afiix to it one clear and undivided idea, 
 for, with them, it marks every deviation from Romanism, how- 
 ever diverse from each other such deviations may be. But, 
 
 B 2 
 
4 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY DURING THE 
 
 beyond the Roman pale, tlie name of Protestant is claimed by 
 very widely diverging sects. In Ireland, for example, even 
 well-educated persons regard the appellation as the legitimate 
 possession of the Episcopalian only ; while, in Scotland, the 
 Presbyterian claims it as his own. But while all and every 
 one protesting against the assumptions, the errors, and the 
 domination of Rome must be allowed to have a just right to 
 bear a name to which such protestation originally gave rise, 
 German Protestants assume a distinctive designation, the ex- 
 clusive right to which, other separatists from Rome cannot so 
 easily concede, for they term themselves Gospel Protestants, 
 and their communion the Gospel Church. It is true, that by 
 common consent this word " evangelish" (evangelical, gospel) 
 has been translated into the other languages of Europe by the 
 word Lutheran, an appellation, however, which has become 
 peculiarly confusing and unsuitable at the present day, when 
 multitudes, both of congregations and of pastors, still calling 
 themselves evangelical Protestants (a name to which, indeed, 
 they show themselves as little entitled as to that of Lutherans), 
 are openly seceding from the doctrines which Luther held 
 through life, defended with all the energy of his clear and 
 capacious mind, and rested in with unhesitating confidence at 
 his dying hour. In pursuance, therefore, of this history, though 
 it may be I shall frequently be compelled to use the term 
 Lutheran, I shall still adhere, as much as possible, when speak- 
 ing of Bible Christians in that church, to the appellations of 
 evangelical Protestants and Protestantism, in contradistinction 
 to Rationalists and Rationalism, which, according to the cant of 
 modern liberality, assumes to monopolise the true spirit as well 
 as name of enlightened Protestantism. The Reformation of the 
 sixteenth century has been too often and too perspicuously laid 
 before the public eye, more especially in the admirable work of 
 the Rev. Merle d'Aubigne, to admit of any elucidation from my 
 so inferior pen. I purpose, therefore, to pass by all that relates 
 to Luther and his times, remarking only, that the Reformation 
 of which he was the instrument, great, wide-spreading, and 
 
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 5 
 
 permanent as its results have proved, is but one exhibition of 
 the power of that indomitable, because Divine Spirit, which 
 has through every age sustained and protected pure Gospel 
 truth, even amid the darkest and bloodiest scenes of human 
 or Satanic oppression. More than a century before Luther's 
 appearance as a Reformer, a Lutheran spirit spoke by the lips 
 of the Parisian Chancellor Gerson, when he, in the Council of 
 Pisa, 1409, fearlessly avowed a sentiment, which might serve 
 for the rallying banner motto of the Catholic Dissidents of the 
 present day. " The difference," said he, " between the Catholic 
 and Roman Church may shortly be stated thus : the Catholic 
 Church hath Christ for its Head, under whose guidance it can 
 neither err, deceive, teach heresy, nor occasion schism ; the 
 Roman Church, on the contrary, is, as its very name implies, 
 merely an individual Church, which can err, and has erred, and 
 become stained with schism and heresy." Had this distinction 
 been always observed, or were it even now duly regarded, the Ro- 
 man assumption of being the only Catholic or universal Church, 
 would be easier met by the simple denial which a groundless 
 assertion deserves. Nor is it unworthy of remark that this early 
 and bold declaration of Gerson was never condemned, as false 
 or heretical, by the pope of his own or any succeeding age. 
 
 Not even in the middle ages did God leave himself without 
 witness ; for the demand to test and regulate the doctrines of 
 the Church, in accordance with the Sacred Scriptures, was often 
 put forth with a power and a constancy equal to what we find 
 among the later reformers; and though some of those early 
 champions of the Gospel differed from each other on isolated 
 points, they all united, as with one voice, in denouncing the 
 power and authority of the hierarchy as the plague-spot of 
 Christendom. Even the philosophy of those times, the found- 
 ing of universities, and the revival of science, served to nourish 
 and strengthen this spirit of protestation against priestcraft; 
 evincing increased decision, and evolving new energies in every 
 stage of the conflict. Nor was this moral reaction confined 
 to ecclesiastical, but powerfully influenced likewise the civil 
 
6 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY DURING THE 
 
 constitution of society, and this forms one of the most important 
 features of Protestantism, taken in its largest sense, since from 
 it emanated at once the fresh, youthful vigour of civic inde- 
 pendence and corporate rights, and the resistance made by 
 crowned heads to those clerical assumptions, which sought to 
 reduce temporal potentates to the rank of vassals of the Church. 
 Striking proofs of this awakened spirit are to be found in the 
 successful opposition made to the hierarchy by some German 
 emperors (Otho I. and II. and Frederick I.) as well as by Philip 
 le Bel of France, who removed the papal chair from Rome to 
 Avignon, and these successes gave ample opportunity to the 
 opposing party to sift and examine existing relations, whether 
 ecclesiastical or civil, to test their claims and foundations by 
 Scripture and reason ; while such ideas were not only strengthened 
 by interchange, but by contemplating the defects, divisions, and 
 contradictory elements within the Church itself, and the frequent 
 dissensions between its professedly infallible head and his clergy, 
 as well as by observing how oft these had led to the disturbance 
 and even annihilation for a time of ecclesiastical power, as when 
 rival popes contended for the ring of the fisherman, and reci- 
 procally banded the most fearful anathemas against each other. 
 However the outward unity of the Romish Church might 
 be held together by the finely-spun net of ecclesiastical arrange- 
 ments, which rendered its total overthrow difficult, inasmuch 
 as no one could foresee how far the world's social system might 
 be involved in its fall ; still it was impossible that any thinking 
 mind could fail secretly to recognise either the absurdity or 
 the blasphemy of its pretensions, and so Protestantism, in all 
 its essential elements, existed, not only long before Luther's 
 time, but we may boldly assert existed more or less openly, 
 more or less definedly, from the very first development of the 
 Man of Sin, and was proclaimed from time to time by individuals 
 or communities, who, with true nobility of soul, and a seK- 
 sacrificing devotion to the cause of truth of which the world 
 was not worthy, raised their voices against the dominant theories 
 and practice of the ecclesiastical rulers, and strove to replace 
 
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 7 
 
 falsehood by truth, and mere form and show, by the positive 
 dogmas of Christianity. But though maintaining the existence 
 of Protestantism in its widest sense, as coeval with the apostles 
 (for Paul was a Protestant when he protested against the 
 Judaising and temporising duplicity of the prince of the apos- 
 tles, " withstanding him to the face, because he was to be 
 blamed,") yet it is historically true, that Protestantism first 
 received shape and form by the Reformation of the sixteenth 
 century; that by its means the previously existing conviction 
 of individuals came to be the heartfelt persuasion, the dearest 
 sacred possession of the great majority of nations professing 
 Christianity; that for which its confessors spoke, acted, and 
 suffered with the warmest enthusiasm, the most enduring 
 fortitude, and the most self-devoted, self-sacrificing zeal ; his- 
 torically true that the name of Protestantism was never heard 
 until at the memorable Imperial Diet of Spires in 1529, when 
 Romish cunning almost succeeded in its aim of obtaining an 
 entire suppression of the preaching of the pure Gospel, when, 
 with apparent candour but deep diplomatic ^wesse, the Roman- 
 ists suggested the naming of a commission from fifteen provincial 
 diets, to examine and decide on the admissibility of Rome's 
 proposals, well knowing that but three of the fifteen named 
 were gospellers (as they were then called), and thus securing 
 an undoubted and unconquerable majority to the Romanists. 
 While King Ferdinand himself sought to entrap Rome's oppo- 
 nents into an agreement which must insure their overthrow, 
 they, with an indignant feeling of the injustice intended, and 
 inspired with a lively faith in the Divine truth of their cause, 
 resolved to hand in a protest against the proposed commission 
 on the l9th of April, 1529. This protest, whose contents form, 
 even to the present moment, the essential ground of separation 
 from the Romish Church, inasmuch as those who signed pro- 
 tested against being either seduced or compelled to accede to 
 any decision of the Diet which was in any respect contrary to 
 God and His sacred word, or opposed to the salvation of the 
 soul, and a good conscience, gave to the gospellers, and to all 
 
8 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY DURING THE 
 
 likeminded ever since, the name of Protestants, or Protesters, 
 and to their sentiments the distinguishing appellation of Pro- 
 testantism. 
 
 Well known as these facts are, it is necessary still further to 
 remark, that in the postscript to the confession of faith given 
 in by this party to the Augsburg Diet in 1530, and which 
 has thenceforth borne the title of the Augsburg confession, the 
 declaration was again solemnly repeated, that the confessors of 
 the Gospel recognised nothing, in either doctrine or worship, 
 which opposed the divine word recorded in the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures ; so that from the period of the second Diet at Spires, 
 and the shortly hereafter holden diet of Augsburg, dates the 
 distinguishing name of evangelical Protestantism, as applying 
 to an independent ecclesiastical body, which, standing in direct 
 opposition to the Romish or Popish Church, denies and impugns 
 every doctrine not based on the Bible, and freely bows to it, and 
 it alone, in all that regards faith and morals. This spirit of 
 evangelical Protestantism, evinced during and after the Reform- 
 ation, is therefore essentially the same with that displayed in 
 all ages when human inventions are combated for : it is the 
 Spirit of Divine truth revealed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ ; 
 and thus, instead of answering the Popish taunting question, 
 " Where was your Church before Luther ?" by replying, as the 
 late Andrew Fuller advised, " In the wilderness," we may boldly 
 assert, " In the Bible," and all its successive adherents, tracing 
 them back not to the patristic but to the apostolic age, in 
 which, while a Paul planted and an Apollos watered, God him- 
 self gave both the increase and the testimony, by signs and 
 wonders accompanying the word. 
 
 If, however, we attribute the general degeneracy of Christian 
 doctrine to a proneness to defer more to human than divine 
 authority, the most prolific root of evil in the Romish Church 
 was undoubtedly the increase of unscriptural power and supe- 
 riority conceded to the priesthood. Luther's levelling hand 
 knocked this proud human structure to atoms, not so much 
 by reducing the priests, as by restoring the body of Christian 
 
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 9 
 
 believers to the rank God himself has assigned them. " They 
 are," said the reformer, " kings and priests to God, by apostolic 
 warrant ; and, therefore, they need no human intercessor nor 
 mediator, but are, by the Gospel of God's grace, entitled and 
 encouraged to approach His altar, and offer the spiritual sacri- 
 fices of prayer and thanksgiving. The monosyllable, ' priest,' " 
 continues Luther, " has suffered much injustice by being limited 
 in its application to a handful of mortals ; whereas, the Holy 
 Scriptures make no distinction between learned or unlearned, 
 consecrated or unconsecrated, but term all believing souls mi- 
 nisters, servants, stewards, who shall preach to others faith and 
 Gospel liberty." This and many other evidences of Luther's 
 freedom from all desire to elevate himself above his brethren 
 — his earnest deprecation of being regarded or treated as the 
 head of a party — and, most of all, giving a name to a division 
 of the Christian Church, may serve, coupled with what has 
 since taken place, to teach us leniency towards the originators 
 of even grave errors, who may have been equally well-inten- 
 tioned as the admirable Wittemberg reformer, and have as little 
 desired or foreseen, that the asceticism, or image-worship, to 
 which they unwisely gave the first spur, should ever reach the 
 height of fanaticism they have done, as he did, that his furious 
 polemics against Calvin and Zwinglius, which produced the 
 symbolical books and the Formula Concordiae, should lead to 
 the dissension, unchristian railing, and anathematising of the 
 seventeenth century ; or the violence done to conscience, the . 
 compulsory union, and the emigration of the eighteenth ; end- 
 ing in the avowed rationalism and the stern adherence to literal 
 interpretation of the confessional writings, which distinguish 
 the nineteenth century, and have contributed to form that wide- 
 spread latitudinarianism, which says, with a shrug and a smile, 
 " Let every one go to heaven his own way, no doubt each 
 will find his corner when he gets there ;" which have charac- 
 terised the Lutheran Church for the last fifty years, and now 
 threaten to bring about its total dissolution. Evangelical Pro- 
 testantism was powerfully excited, internally and externally, 
 
 B 5 
 
10 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY DURING THE 
 
 towards the end of the sixteenth, and at the commencement of 
 the seventeenth century. Amid fearful conflicts, sometimes of 
 the sword, sometimes of tiie spirit, it had spread throughout 
 Germany with lightning speed, seized on the public mind with 
 the resistless force of a tempest ; and the Romish Church seemed 
 to be not only shaken to its centre, but its influence, save in 
 Austria and Bavaria, nearly annihilated. But, alas, despite 
 the purity of its Bible principles, its firm clinging to the Saviour 
 and His finished work, and an unvarying adherence to the doc- 
 trine of free justification, as the ground and pillar of Luther's 
 Reformation ; despite an entire and lively subjection to the 
 Divine Head of the Church, and a clear and decided con- 
 sciousness of the dignity to which he had raised his followers 
 (as forming the true priesthood of the great and holy temple 
 not made with hands) which animated the Protestants of the 
 sixteenth century, there arose a dissension, which soon grew 
 into a breach, so wide and incurable, as, fostered by the igno- 
 rant zeal of some, and the intolerant bigotry of others, weak- 
 ened the hands of both classes of Protestants, and revived the 
 hopes, as it essentially served the interests, of the Romish 
 party. Thus, while the disputes between the German-Lutheran 
 and the Swiss Reformed Church, rose to a height of animosity, 
 or rather of confessional hatred, which bade defiance to all 
 attempts at conciliation, the Roman Catholic party recovered 
 from its stunning consternation, recruited and concentrated its 
 powers, and, aided by the decrees of the Council of Trent, and 
 the establishment of the Jesuit order, prepared to combat with 
 a unity of counsel no less than with undeviating perseverance, an 
 enemy, whose internal feuds robbed him of half his forces. And, 
 although here and there, even at that early period, Jesuit zeal 
 sometimes overshot the mark, and, while sticking at nothing to 
 effect its ends, occasionally made shipwreck against the rock 
 of scriptural faith, so fijmly fixed in Protestant bosoms, and 
 had thus to vacate posts it believed secure ; it was but a mo- 
 mentary yielding, for the purpose of returning to the attack, 
 under new pretexts, and with still more satanic skill and deeper 
 
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 11 
 
 policy. And, although the religious character which had so 
 suddenly arisen among the nations of Germany in the sixteenth 
 century, became still more prominent in the seventeenth ; yet, 
 everything, for a time, looked gloomily for the Protestant 
 cause. Not only did the Koman hierarchy succeed in stirring 
 up against it the fearful thirty years' war — a conflict unique 
 in the world's history, as well for its duration, and the horrible 
 cruelties by which it was disgracefully distinguished, as for the 
 misery it left behind on the wide theatre of its exploits ; but 
 evangelical Protestantism was, in its church capacity, brought 
 to the brink of ruin by the disunion of its professors, and the 
 indecision or incapacity of the princes who ought to have pro- 
 tected it. And yet, from this low estate, when French and 
 English allies forsook it in the hour of utmost need, when the 
 imperial Austrian armies spread like a resistless, overwhelming 
 flood, over the length and breadth of the land, and the house 
 of Hapsburg seemed on the point of attaining its wish to extir- 
 pate Protestantism from the German soil ; when Rome's proud 
 hierarchy, and the Jesuits, already shouted their paeans of anti- 
 cipated victory ; even at that fearful moment, when, to human 
 view, all was lost, God once more showed, that " man's extre- 
 mity is His opportunity." He called the man who should 
 execute " his counsel from a far country," (Isaiah xlvi. 2), 
 and the high-hearted and pious Gustavus Adolphus hastened to 
 the rescue. The Protestant cause was again triumphant in Ger- 
 many. Its professors were recognised in Switzerland as an inde- 
 pendent and legalised ecclesiastical body, and thus its outward 
 continuance was secured. But, alas, the peace of Westphalia 
 had not sufficed to implant concord, or even forbearance, in 
 the hearts of the rival Protestant churches. The old antipathy 
 between Lutherans and Calvhiists, which, during the suffermgs 
 and terrors of war, had appeared to slumber, was again called 
 forth by various polemical writings, and politico-ecclesiastical 
 conflicts. Among these, may be named the memorable, though 
 fruitless, attempt, made by Frederick William, of Brandenburg, 
 called the Great Elector (himself of the reformed faith), to 
 
12 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY DURING THE 
 
 compel a peace between the two confessions, and that by taking 
 decided part with one of the belligerents ; for he inhibited the 
 use of the Formula Concordiae at ordinations, and its defence 
 from either pulpit or the press ; thereby occasioning the depo- 
 sition and banishment of many excellent Lutheran ministers, 
 and had well-nigh kindled the flames of civil war in his domi- 
 nions. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the mass 
 of the people indeed ceased to take much interest in these 
 confessional disputes, leaving their attack and defence chiefly 
 to the learned ; but religion gained little by the change, as each 
 party contented itself with a pertinacious adherence to its owti 
 dogmas. The strictly orthodox Lutherans clung with obstinacy 
 to the litera scripta of the Formula Concordiae, and other sym- 
 bolical writings ; and the only light which breaks in upon us 
 from them, emanates from such as, burning with a pure love 
 for Christian doctrine, sought to infuse into the chilling at- 
 mosphere of mere dogmatism, the warm and kindly rays of 
 Christian love and active benevolence. But the advocates for 
 buckram, dead-letter orthodoxy, beholding in it the only safe- 
 guard of Protestantism, contended for it with an ardour no way 
 inferior to that which they exhibited against Romanism ; and 
 the result was, a predominant lifelessness and doctrinal mate- 
 rialism, which left, indeed, congregations numerically powerful, 
 and polemically acute, but devoid of that inward life which 
 can alone promote the edification, or even maintain the real 
 existence, of a church. Such a state of things could neither 
 remain unknown nor unused by the Romish party, which, fol- 
 lowing the impulse given by Protestants, bent all its energies 
 to enlist political influence on its side, displaying an activity 
 equal to what it had evinced at the first dawn of the Reformation. 
 Still, the power and dignity of the throne were visibly increased 
 throughout Germany during this century. Protestant princes 
 especially assumed a totally diff'erent position in regard to the 
 clergy. By legalising the Reformation in their several dominions, 
 subjecting, by degrees, nobles, cities, provinces, and estates 
 general, to the authority of the crown, and by appropriating 
 
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 13 
 
 to themselves the office as well as title of head bishop of their 
 respective national churches, they secured an easily available 
 counteraction to hierarchal and clerical machinations. The 
 consistory courts were indeed the appointed proxies of the 
 prince, hut the spirit of the times operated against the German 
 Lutherans, being either regarded, or treated as forming one 
 united national Church, and they were rather a galaxy of 
 separate, independent congregations, to which the so frequently 
 existing diiference of faith between the rulers and the ruled 
 might not a little contribute ; and the highest bestowment of 
 ecclesiastical power on the temporal ruler of a country, for 
 which party hate and confessional antagonism prepared the 
 way and reconciled the minds of men, was argued and debated, 
 philosophically, juridically, and politically, until, at last, as a 
 natural sequence, the Church became, in every country where 
 Protestantism was the dominant faith, an intimately incorpo- 
 rated, though subordinate, portion of the state. Nay, the reli- 
 gious views of the sovereign came to be regarded as sufficient 
 to determine those of his subjects ; and this system, introduced 
 so early as the close of the sixteenth century, when the sym- 
 bolical books were not only composed under the direction, but 
 made the norm of orthodoxy by the authority of princes, 
 must be allowed to have set up that doctrine, so utterly de- 
 structive of even the first principles of liberty of conscience, 
 cujus est regio, ejus est religio, and which, though termed 
 by its advocates in Germany, "the territorial system," was much 
 more aptly denominated " the Caesario papacy." Such a theory, 
 deduced from ultra views of sovereign rights, could not but 
 operate injuriously on ecclesiastical development, and its dele- 
 terious tendency was, even from the first, felt and protested 
 against by the clearer-sighted of that day. But while the Pro- 
 testant dogmas were held down and enslaved by the dead letter 
 of the symbol, the spirit of evangelical Christianity was ever 
 on the watch to elude, if it could not cast ofi", its bonds. 
 
 The opposition made by the Roman hierarchy to Protest- 
 antism in the seventeenth century, had been in full accordance 
 
14 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY DURING THE 
 
 with what previous experience and the decrees of the Council 
 of Trent might have led us to expect, and, consequently, the 
 sufferings endured by the martyrs, for pure doctrine, in the 
 thirty years' war, exceeded in horror, no less than in duration, 
 all previous heathen or Mohammedan persecutions. Even a 
 Roman Catholic bishop* designates the events of that period as 
 " brutal barbarities," and " inhuman atrocities." Still it would 
 be unjust to charge this foul disgrace to humanity on the mass 
 of Roman Catholics ; the blame rests solely with the fanatical 
 hierarchy, who thus sought to regain their own ascendancy, and 
 who, from the college of cardinals downwards, through all the 
 ranks of priests, monks, and Jesuits, not only urged the per- 
 petration, but triumphed with fiendish malignity in the success 
 of every plan of rapine and murder, of which Protestants were 
 the victims. 
 
 But the spirit of Christianity, though wounded to death, was 
 not annihilated, even within the pale of the Roman communion. 
 The Westphalian peace, though constantly condemned by the 
 pope, still remained unshaken, gaining an even firmer footing 
 and larger influence in those states where it had been acknow- 
 ledged ; and the all-wise providence of God prepared a reaction, 
 which was to begin in the Roman Church itself, and, by the 
 development of more liberal views and more scriptural senti- 
 ments, comfort Protestants with the hope of better times. I 
 allude to the Jansenists, who, in the seventeenth century, freed 
 themselves from papal supremacy, and whose example was fol- 
 lowed at various periods, by men of powerful minds in Germany, 
 who advocated the establishment of a National Catholic Church, 
 independent of all foreign pontifical rule. 
 
 If the seventeenth century was a time of almost unmingled 
 severe labour and endurance to Protestants, the eighteenth pre- 
 sented at its entrance a singular mixture of exalted greatness 
 and base abjectness in spiritual things. Formal dogmatism 
 could not quench the light or freeze the warmth of vital piety, 
 
 * Bishop Piasecius, in his Chronicle. 
 
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 15 
 
 60 that the cold speculations and erroneous sentiments of some 
 were continually met and discomfited by the plain scriptural 
 preaching and godly practice of others, producing in the 
 Christian building an increasing compactness and unity, which 
 enabled it to oifer a fearless front to both the open attacks and 
 secret devices of its enemies, of which the Jesuits were at once 
 the most daring and the most successful. 
 
 The powerful influence of this order and their skill in avail- 
 ing themselves of political bribes, were, perhaps, never more 
 strikingly displayed than in the return to Eomanism of two 
 members of the Electoral Saxon family, which had been so 
 peculiarly distinguished for courageous fidelity to the Protest- 
 ant cause, and which the Jesuits succeeded in procuring towards 
 the end of the seventeenth century. Prince Christian Augustus 
 of Saxe-Zeitz led the way in this retrograde movement, by 
 re-entering the Eoman Catholic communion at Paris, in 1 695 ; 
 in reward for which, he was successively made bishop of Raab, 
 archbishop of Gran, and, finally, cardinal. His brother, the 
 Elector Frederick followed his example in 1697, for the pur- 
 pose of getting possession of the throne of Poland — an attain- 
 ment which he learned afterwards to know was neither light 
 nor thornless, and too dearly bought at the price of both out- 
 ward and inward tranquillity. The Elector's recantation was 
 indeed celebrated in Rome with great pomp ; Innocent XII. 
 commanding the St. Ambrosius hymn of praise to be sung in 
 all the churches, and cannon to thunder forth the triumphs 
 of such an accession from the tower of St. Angelo. But the 
 moral worth of this acquisition to Rome was as fully known 
 and as openly proclaimed to the world : even Chevalier Frederick 
 de Loen wrote, " I would concede that the Elector had 
 changed his religion, if he had had one to change, but it 
 is well known that his faith was from childhood limited to 
 that small modicum generally possessed by princes, viz., that 
 there is a God in heaven, but that they themselves are by 
 birthright entitled to do what they please on earth ;" having, 
 therefore, properly speaking, no religion at the time of his 
 
16 STATE OF RELIGION IN GEEMANY DURING THE 
 
 professing Romanism, it is incorrect to say he changed his 
 religion, when he hut exchanged one pretence for another.* 
 
 The commencement of the eighteenth century afforded striking 
 evidence how little even the hest of men are capable of judging 
 what will most promote the cause they have at heart. The 
 horrors of the thirty years' war, the cruelties of persecution, 
 had ceased, and it might have been supposed that the breath- 
 ing time would prove of essential service to the 'progress of 
 religion. But the evil consequences of that war were only then 
 first clearly discovered by the Christian observer. The lax 
 morals, the fiercely excited passions, the proneness to re- 
 venge, above all, the animosity of contending confessions 
 among Protestants themselves, which had been sown among 
 the labours and dangers of campaigning, bore a fearful crop 
 of social dissension ; and we need but to read the history of 
 Prussia, under her last elector, to see how far even Christian 
 spirits could be led from the Gospel maxim, " Whatsoever 
 ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to 
 them." But during that period (the latter half of the seven- 
 teenth century) there was much true piety (mixed with consci- 
 entious wrong-headedness), much warm-hearted, self-sacrificing 
 attachment to the doctrines and ministers of their respective 
 churches, and high-souled resolution not to abate a tittle of what 
 each believed true, while yet loudly condemning the parallel 
 rigidity of creed in his opponent. There was, on the other hand, 
 much coarse vice, much open impiety, much daring mockery 
 of God and his people ; all was, in short, in strong contrast, 
 aijid the portrait of the then state of society, to be true, must 
 be made up of opposing lights and shadows, without scarcely 
 a mellowing tint to round off the lines of demarcation. But a 
 new generation arose, and the face of society changed. Luke- 
 warmness and indifference towards ecclesiastical concerns both 
 sprung from and produced indifference to religion itself ; and, 
 though coupled with a real advance in knowledge, led to con- 
 
 * See Forster's Life of Frederick Augustus, p. 23. 
 

 SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. ^'^^/V* 
 
 duct which made many Christian hearts deplore that the 
 dearly-bought faith of their fathers seemed to be abandoned, 
 now that the excitement of persecution for conscience' sake 
 was removed. 
 
 But Providence here, as at all times, brought good out of 
 evil. Indifference paved the way for toleration of, and a freer 
 intercourse between, different religious parties ; and left men 
 of kindred mind, though in different spheres of action, to edify 
 and build up the spiritual life of the Church. In this respect 
 even the antichristian philosophy of Frederick the Great of 
 Prussia, was, no less than his policy, overruled for good ; while 
 the clear philosophical mind of the Emperor Joseph II. recog- 
 nised the grand principles of freedom of conscience, and thus, 
 under the fostering influence of toleration, evangelical Protes- 
 tantism acquired a more ethical character. Thus, though indif- 
 ference produced great evils, not only to individuals but to the 
 Church, the injury was lessened, though not compensated, by 
 the advances made to juster views of both civil and religious 
 liberty. An important step was at this time taken in regard to 
 the outward constitution of the Church ; the theological oppo- 
 sition which had for some time been made to the territorial 
 system, gained ground, and forced it into another transition 
 state, called the collegiate system, of whom Chancellor Pfaff of 
 Tubingen was the founder, and, by which, church and state 
 came to be regarded as two, intimately connected, but yet sepa- 
 rate institutions, united by one common chief in the person of 
 the sovereign. This modified form of church and state con- 
 nexion was not, however, universally adopted ; and both sys- 
 tems continued to exist in different parts of Germany. 
 
 The freedom of inquiry, and the progress of mental cultiva- 
 tion, which operated during the reign of Frederick the Great so 
 favourably in all departments of science, were of more equivocal 
 service to Christianity : for while they fostered theological re- 
 search and extirpated many a prejudice and not a few lingering 
 superstitions, they opened the door to that spirit of free-thinking 
 which had already obtained firm footing both in England and 
 
18 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY DURING THE 
 
 France, and the infidel literature, more especially of the latter 
 country, began to exercise a wide-spread and baneful influence 
 on the educated portion of German, more particularly of Prus- 
 sian society. Against this species of irreligion, which more 
 than every other flatters the pride of understanding, so dear to 
 the unrenewed mind, nothing but the pure, warm faith of the 
 Gospel could contend with any hope of success ; and the gra- 
 cious Governor of the world made use of the very boldness 
 with which the peculiar doctrines of Christianity were attacked, 
 to rouse the slumbering energies of numbers in their defence, 
 who might have opposed a less flagrant infidelity with more 
 lukewarmness. Philosophic inquiry and historic research had 
 at last established the fact, that the doctrines of the Church and 
 of the Bible were far from being necessarily synonymous ; and 
 the care now bestowed on Biblical criticism, called forth by the 
 necessity of combating antagonist views, soon placed rational- 
 ism and supernaturalism in the strongest and most uncompro- 
 mising opposition. And while the admiration of the philosophy 
 of Kant produced an unhappy revolution in the views of a vast 
 number of theologians, the warm glow of scriptural piety and 
 reverence for God's revealed word which Dr. Philip Spener had, 
 in the previous century, been honoured to awaken so powerfully 
 among his countrymen still lived in many a heart, still breathed 
 in his writings, especially in his devotional songs (that to-this- 
 hour cherished legacy to the Lutheran Church) ; and the naked 
 boldness with w^hicli Rationalism now raised its head, called 
 forth, both from individuals and in the schools, vigorous efforts 
 to restore Bible Christianity to its ancient and well-grounded 
 pre-eminence. Both systems, it is true, gave birth to a vast 
 variety of opinions, each of which found adherents ; and some 
 aimed at the impossible accomplishment of an amalgamation of 
 the antagonist principles. So true it is, that there is nothing 
 new under the sun ; the liberalism of the present day is but 
 an echo of its predecessor of a hundred years ago. But the 
 conflict was not only productive of a higher development of the 
 human intellect, but the spirit of evangelical Protestantism, 
 
SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES. 19 
 
 severing the ore from the dross, learned to use the logical 
 weapons forged for its destruction, in demonstrating the dogmas 
 of the Christian faith, and went on noiselessly, hut surely, to 
 build up the spiritual edifice of the Church, on the basis of 
 irreversible, because Divine, authority. 
 
20 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY DURING THE EIGHTEENTH 
 CENTURY. 
 
 Frederick the Great — His Character — His Opposition to Papal Supre- 
 macy — Pope Benedict VIII. — Pope Clement XIIL — Hontheim's 
 Work on the Legitimate Power of the Pope — Its Effect — Pope 
 Clement's Bull for the Suppression of the Jesuits — His Death — 
 Cardinal Braschi elected Pope — The Emperor Joseph U. — His 
 Reform— The Toleration Edict — Its Amendment by the Papists 
 — The Pope's Indignation, and unsuccessful Visit to the Emperor 
 — Modifications of the Act of Toleration — Professor Eybel — 
 Discord among the Heads of the Papacy — The Ems Punctation 
 — The French Revolution — Buonaparte — His Negociations with 
 Pius VII. — The Congress of Vienna — Attempt to form a German 
 Catholic Church — Restoration of the Jesuits. 
 
 When Frederick the Great ascended the throne of Prussia, 
 all Germany was overrun by a species of Gallic mania, which, 
 mingling in the minutest details of social life, gave a strangely 
 anomalous and unnatural character to her society. This epoch, 
 which has been denominated " the period of enlightenment," 
 and shook in its results all Europe to its centre, gave rise to 
 theories partaking more of the nature of the ignis fatuus than 
 of " the day-spring from on high," which led, in Germany, as 
 elsewhere, to a restless desire for change, a preference of inno- 
 vation for its own sake, and a hankering after foreign habits, 
 manners, and opinions, however irrational, irreligious, or even 
 
STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 21 
 
 immoral these might be. France, even long before attaining 
 to that acme of revolutionary madness, which threw off all 
 authority, whether political or ecclesiastical, and trampled not 
 only on the throne and the altar as their outward insignias, 
 but abolished the most sacred sanctions of revealed, and even 
 the dictates of natural religion, had become familiar with the 
 philosophical cant which pronounces all religious profession to 
 be either despicable superstition, or stiU viler priestcraft. And 
 these sentiments, of which Voltaire was the apostle in France, 
 were, through the instrumentality of Frederick the Great, widely 
 spread, and unhappily greedily adopted throughout Germany. 
 
 Gifted by nature with a keen and searching spirit, a power- 
 ful understanding, and an indomitable will, Frederick was well 
 fitted to wield the sceptre, independent of all religious coercion, 
 and might have exercised a most beneficial influence on the 
 ecclesiastical, as well as political, destinies of his country, had 
 his clear, penetrating genius been guided and sanctified by the 
 implanting of pure Gospel doctrine in his heart. But, unhap- 
 pily, the education he received was calculated to produce the 
 very opposite effect. His father, Frederick William I., while 
 wholly devoid of all high mental qualities, incapable of relish- 
 ing literary or scientific pursuits, indulging even to excess in 
 gross and vulgar pleasures, and disgiisted with his son's pre- 
 ference for intellectual occupations which he himself could not 
 appreciate, was, withal, a rigid observer of the outward forms 
 and ceremonials of religion, and enforced their performance 
 with as much military sternness as he was wont to exhibit in 
 all his domestic arrangements and paternal requirements ; and 
 hence, though professing correct scriptural sentiments, and 
 even careful to provide for his son's instruction in the same, 
 though carefully avoiding whatever could be construed into an 
 approval of Romanism, there was neither warmth nor reality 
 in his own religion, and consequently his precepts and example 
 necessarily proved injurious to the growth of evangelical prin- 
 ciples in the mind of a son, whose personal sufferings, more- 
 over, from his father's tyranny, were themselves sufficient to 
 
22 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 render that father's Christianity suspected, if not disliked. The 
 result of punctilious and rigidly-enforced religious instruction, 
 wherehy the understanding alone was sought to be mastered, 
 and the feelings were wholly neglected, could scarcely have 
 been other than it proved ; so that, as Forster remarks, in his 
 Life of Frederick William, " It was easy to foresee, that the 
 vessel so overloaded with religious ballast, would founder at 
 last." To complete the incongruity, French tutors and French 
 literature were the daily companions of the prince, by which 
 a taste was early formed, which facilitated his imbibing all the 
 Gallic errors he afterwards so assiduously assisted to spread. 
 
 But although Frederick was in this respect an evil genius to 
 the evangelical Church, his philosophical mind rendered him 
 alive, and his determined character averse, to every encroach- 
 ment of the Roman hierarchy in his dominions ; and therefore, 
 while supporting the Protestant Church, or such according to his 
 own politic views, he assuredly lent no inconsiderable aid to the 
 cause of truth generally, by promoting and encouraging the for- 
 mation of an independent party within the Koman Catholic pale, 
 which aimed at the foundation of a German Catholic Church, 
 and thereby escaping from the tyrannous rule of the pope and 
 the hierarchy. With the energy which characterised all his 
 measures, Frederick maintained the supremacy of his royal au- 
 thority, in opposition to pontifical assumption, and the more 
 readily, as the papal government had not hesitated to stir up 
 his subjects to rebellion against their sovereign. But though 
 Frederick had more than once evinced the will and the power 
 to carry on his plans in defiance of papal machinations, the 
 animosity thus excited rose to its highest pitch when, on his 
 conquest of Silesia, which threatened Rome with the loss of 
 one of its fairest spiritual domains in Germany, Pope Benedict 
 XIV. hastened to admonish all pious souls to resist the Prussian 
 monarch's entering on possession; and Cardinal Zinsendorf, then 
 bishop of Breslaw, dared to enter into a treasonable correspon- 
 dence with the Austrian generals. But no sooner had this reached 
 the ear of Frederick, than he had the cardinal seized and com- 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 23 
 
 mitted to prison, where, despite the threats and intrigues of the 
 pope, he held him enthralled, until, after some time, he made 
 use of the same prelate to make a stfll deadlier thrust at papal 
 supremacy, hy not only setting the cardinal at liberty, but 
 appointing him vicar general in Prussia, yet on the express 
 condition that henceforth none of his Eoman Catholic fellow- 
 subjects should make application to Eome on ecclesiastical 
 questions, but look to the cardinal alone as the source of all 
 spiritual arrangement and dispensations. This stunning blow 
 to papal influence in the Prussian dominions roused, as might 
 be expected, the Pontiff's ire, and he made various vain attempts 
 to counteract the appointment of the vicar general, and thus 
 avert the dangerous innovation of a German Catholic Church, to 
 which he foresaw it was likely to pave the way. The example 
 of Frederick the Great, although not the first instance of similar 
 policy in Prussia (since both his father and greatgrandfather 
 had appointed vicars-general for their Roman Catholic subjects), 
 had a powerful effect on the other German states ; so that when 
 the apostacy of the hereditary Prince of Hesse Cassel (who, 
 seduced either by personal inclination, or, as it was said, by 
 the splendours of the Romish ritual, went secretly over to its 
 communion in 1749), became known five years afterwards to 
 his future 'Subjects, not only the estates of the Electorate, but 
 the Romish convert's own father. Landgrave William VIII., 
 united with the other Protestant princes, in adopting such 
 measures as should secure the maintenance of Protestantism in 
 the Landgrave's reigning family and territory. Benedict VIII. 
 tried of course to overturn these, and even ventured to send a 
 circular brief to all German archbishops and bishops, inciting 
 them to oppose their respective sovereigns ; but the attempt 
 proved equally futile as unwise, and was but one of the many 
 instances which this pope gave of his unfitness for the times 
 upon which he had fallen. But though his political and pon- 
 tifical measures lacked wisdom, his personal character was well 
 calculated to ensure him esteem. Mild, benevolent, and atten- 
 tive to his duties : no favourer of the Jesuits : well versed 
 
24 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 in canon law, school divinity, and church history ; friendly to 
 science, and an example as well as promoter of order and 
 discipline, he numbered many learned Protestants among his 
 correspondents ; among others, Voltaire, although it must be 
 owned his Catholic brethren had ground for feeling not a little 
 scandalized at his addressing the boldly avowed infidel as 
 " his beloved son in Christ Jesus ! " He made many eflforts, 
 too, to introduce improvements in morals, and a higher mental 
 culture among his clergy, and even tried to remove some of 
 the most salient abuses from the ritual of his church. His 
 attempts were however productive of little else than vexation 
 to himself. Although he granted some increase of privilege 
 to the Jesuits, it was more from fear than love, for he had well 
 learned to appreciate their mischievous and daring spirit, and 
 the evil influence of many of their regulations. 
 
 Benedict died in 1758, and was succeeded by Clement XIII., 
 a pontiff infinitely less fitted to uphold the dignity of the triple 
 crown (of which he afterwards so sorely felt the weight), and 
 though called to office in the latter half of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, thought, spoke, and acted in unison with the maxims of 
 the fifteenth. But with Clement XIII. we should have little 
 to do, were it not that during his pontificate, and from the bosom 
 of his own communion, a publication issued, not only powerful 
 and attractive in itself, but, as being written by a Roman Catho- 
 lic, doubly valuable to the cause of Protestantism, more espe- 
 cially within the Roman pale. This work, which was given 
 to the public under the title of " The Position of the Church, 
 and the Legitimate Power of the Roman Pontiff," by Justinus 
 Febronius, and aimed at accomplishing a union betw^een Catho- 
 lics and Protestants, was really written by John Nicholas von 
 Kontheim, suffragan bishop of the Electoral Archbishopric 
 of Treves, and pro-chancellor of its university, and already 
 well known to the learned of his own day, by his admirable 
 " Historical Notices of the Archbishopric of Treves." In the 
 preface to the work, to which we have above alluded, he 
 addressed himself directly to Clement XIII., with the open 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 25 
 
 declaration that the real dignity of the Eoman chair, which he 
 was willing to recognise as the centre of Christian unity, con- 
 sisted not in limiting and annihilating, but much rather in 
 asserting and upholding episcopal rights and privileges. " But 
 chiefly," he goes on to say, " he only can be Christ's repre- 
 sentative, who obeys his doctrine and imitates his example ; 
 not he who arrogates to himself supreme power over all things, 
 whether temporal or spiritual. It is not unknown to the papal 
 chair that temporal princes have frequently complained of 
 this proud assumption ; why then has it not removed all just 
 ground of complaint respecting hierarchal interference, by a 
 voluntary moderation ? Cannot the pope perceive that un- 
 founded claims must ever produce proportionable opposition, 
 and that the more mankind are made to groan under spiritual 
 tyranny, the stronger will be their efforts to throw off the 
 yoke ? Deeply is his holiness deceived by the sycophants 
 who persuade him that the empire he now sways will continue 
 for ever. Would that he could perceive that those flatterers 
 but pursue their own interest, and use the pope as an instru- 
 ment for promoting their own designs. Would that he would 
 ponder the account he will have to give at the judgment-seat 
 of God, and forego pretensions to a power which was never 
 delegated to him by heaven." 
 
 From the pope the bold writer turns to Christian kings and 
 rulers, calling upon them to repress priestly domination within 
 its ancient limits. "At present," says he, " the priesthood form a 
 republic, spread over Europe, owning subjection to no sovereign 
 but him of Rome, and which has often proved dangerous to the 
 public peace." Can these princes consent that the churches in 
 their dominions shall continue to be oppressed by a foreign 
 power, although he calls himself a spiritual potentate only ? The 
 questions respecting the asserted universality of the Roman 
 bishopric and of the mediate or immediate cognizance of the 
 bishops were left undetermined by the Council of Trent, and 
 will never be brought to a decision with the good-will of the 
 Roman hierarchy ; for, as the old adage says, " it would be 
 
26 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 easier to wrest the club from the hand of Hercules, than any 
 one of her assumed rights from Kome." Febronius goes on 
 next to urge the bishops to examine their own claims, and 
 oppose, by every means in their power, the hierarchy which has 
 encroached upon them. Lastly, he makes a powerful appeal 
 to the doctors of the canon law, as the chief framers, supporters 
 and promulgators of the monstrous doctrines of the pope's 
 infallibility and supremacy. " Where," cries he, "will you find 
 a trace of pontifical supremacy, during the first eight centuries, 
 in the Christian Church ? Who originated the figment of the 
 bishop of Rome being the representative and vicegerent 
 of Christ ? Who, but the popes themselves, by whose self- 
 arrogated authority the other bishops have been reduced to 
 the rank of mere papal ofiicials ? And then, how many mon- 
 strous propositions have you canonists deduced from papal 
 supremacy ! The pope is to be styled king ; nay, the king of 
 kings ! A god upon earth ! Greater than all saints, excepting 
 the apostle Peter. The pope says, you cannot commit simony, 
 even by selling benefices ! He is bound by no compact : he 
 himself forms with Christ a consistory ; and can stamp right 
 and wrong by his single arbitrary veto ! And to prevent man- 
 kind from discussing and disproving these perversions of all 
 natural and moral obligation, you invented the proposition that 
 to dispute the papal supremacy is a sacrilegious impugnment 
 of the Divine Majesty, and you wind up all by pronouncing 
 the pope above all ecclesiastical as well as civil law, and ame- 
 nable to no earthly power, not even to an aecumenical council of 
 the Church !" " I know," concludes Febronius, " that this book 
 of mine has no other fate to expect than condemnation by the 
 inquisition, and a honourable place in the index prohibitori; and 
 yet it has not advocated a single opinion that is not to be found 
 in the pages of a Gerson, a Natalis Alexander, a Bossuet, and 
 a Fleury, men to whom the Catholic Church owes a larger debt 
 of gratitude than to any of the church fathers." This book, 
 'which avowedly aimed at nothing short of effecting the eman- 
 cipation of Catholic Germany from Roman subjugation, and 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 27 
 
 in SO far aflforded new aid to Protestantism in its struggle with 
 Romanism, fell like a kindling spark amid a mass of combus- 
 tible materials ; and while it met cordial approbation not only 
 from Protestant but Catholic princes, on whom Frederick the 
 Great's independent mode of acting had not been lost, it excited 
 both terror and indignation in the Vatican; since, although 
 such language had often resounded from France during the last 
 century, Germany had hitherto exhibited so edifying a spirit 
 of submission under the papal thraldom, as had ill prepared 
 Rome for hearing her voice raised so unequivocally in favour 
 of anti-hierarchal views. Clement XIII. condemned the book, 
 and called upon the German archbishops and bishops to aid 
 in its suppression, but aU availed little. The work was read, 
 and papal decrees could not blind men to the undeniable truths 
 it contained, even had not others like-minded followed up the 
 blow : but the writings of Ickstatt of Ingolstadt, Barthel of 
 Wurzburg, and of KoUer, Rautenstrauch, and Eybel, in Vienna, 
 fanned the spark into a flame ; and although Febronius, yield- 
 ing to the earnest solicitations of the archbishop of Treves 
 and the threatened vengeance of the pope, gave in a recantation 
 in 1778, under the title of Retractatio, the gain to Rome was 
 small, as he neither adduced any grounds for a change of views, 
 nor any arguments in favour of hierarchal maxims. 
 
 Clement XIII. died in 1769, after having, through the influ- 
 ence of evil counsellors, and especially by the protection he 
 afibrded to the Jesuits, done irreparable injury to the Catholic 
 Church. The whole body was in a state of indescribable ferment, 
 and even among its priesthood were not a few who assisted the 
 spread of Protestant, or at least anti-papal views : never, there- 
 fore, had there been more need of a pope endowed with skill to 
 perceive, and the moderation requisite for applying with success, 
 the remedies called for by the falling fortunes of Romanism ; 
 and such was actually found in the celebrated Ganganelli, who, 
 as Clement XIV., ascended the papal chair in 1769. Gifted 
 to a degree rarely if ever equalled by any of his predecessors, 
 with the art of yielding with grace so soon as resistance was 
 
 c 2 
 
28 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 perceived to be useless, Clement knew so well how to estimate 
 the spirit of his age as to seek to stand well with even Protes- 
 tant powers, and proclaimed his consideration, by prohibiting 
 the reading of the well-known damnatory bull against Protes- 
 tants generally, which were wont to be annually recited on 
 Maunday Thursday. Nay, he went so far in his expressions 
 of liberality, as to say to Count Dahn, Danish ambassador to 
 the court of Turin, "I am so far from feeling prejudice against 
 the learned men of Germany, that I would gladly see many 
 Bruckers and Mosheims in the church committed to my charge, 
 and I deeply regret my ignorance of the German tongue, which 
 debars me from reading the works of Sack and Jerusalem, whom 
 you Protestants prize so highly." * The efforts of Clement XIV. 
 to stand well with the temporal potentates of his time would 
 be deserving of still higher encomium, were there not just 
 ground for attributing them chiefly to a secret conviction that 
 no other policy afforded even a chance of retarding the downfal 
 of the hierarchy, neither was he blind to the dangers likely 
 to accrue to the papacy from the machinations of the Jesuits. 
 Recent events in France, as well as the Jesuit manoeuvres in 
 Vienna, had led him to regard them as a secret canker eating 
 into the very core of pontifical authority ; and convinced him 
 that the order would never rest until, by means of its detestable 
 
 * John F. W, Jerusalem, born at Osnabruck, was one of the most 
 distinguished men of his day, and, in some sense, the founder of the 
 Caroline College at Brunswick, inasmuch as the duke founded it by 
 his advice and according to his plan. After having endured many 
 trials, he was called to drink the bitterest cup of all, by the suicide of 
 his only son, who shot himself in a fit of hypochondriasis. This 
 tragic event is said to have furnished Goethe with the materials for 
 his " Sorrows of Werter," a book which has occasioned many similar 
 catastrophes ! Jerusalem died in 1789, leaving behind him a 
 character for theological attainments and general learning surpassed 
 by none of his contepiporaries, and for cheerful submission to the 
 Divine dispensations, which formed a fine commentary on his religious 
 works; among which, the first place is due to his "Contemplations on 
 tiae Grand Truths of Revelation," published in 1731. 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 29 
 
 morality and boundless ambition, it had chained all temporal 
 power, and even the papacy itself, to the chariot wheels of its 
 domineering authority. But although his dislike was known 
 from the moment of his ascending the papal throne, he re- 
 strained its expression until some favourable crisis should 
 necessitate or justify the act ; and even when, in process of 
 time, various European courts called upon him to suppress the 
 order, he still lingered ; for, notwithstanding his own internal 
 persuasion of its injurious tendencies and culpable designs, he 
 could not deny that the Jesuits had, though in pursuance of 
 their own ends, done essential service to the maintenance of 
 papal authority, since it was incontestible that no set of men 
 had ever so effectually as they resisted the spread of evange- 
 lical Protestantism, so long delayed the sanctioning of pro- 
 testant worship in Roman Catholic countries, or so powerfully 
 and successfully maintained the hierarchal nimbus in all the 
 dogmatical strength of the middle ages ; while, as if with wise 
 forethought to guard itself against the possibility of papal hos- 
 tility, the order was bound by its fundamental law, " to stand 
 ready for any service the church might demand." All these 
 considerations conspired to increase Clement's reluctance to 
 take any decided step against the brotherhood, and he would 
 fain have resorted to the middle course of reform and conse- 
 quent conciliation; but from this he was debarred by the 
 sturdy declaration of their general, Ricci, " They must be what 
 they are, or cease to be" f" Sint ut sunt, ant non sint"J; and 
 thus Clement found himself compelled to yield at length to 
 the demands of the greater European powers, by issuing, on 
 the 21st of July, [1773,] the famous bull, Dominus ac Re- 
 demtor noster, by which the order of Jesuits was for ever 
 abrogated. But, strange as it sounds, while Europe in general, 
 and even Roman Catholic countries, desired and rejoiced in 
 the fall of an order which, except in some foreign missions, 
 had done little good and very much evil to mankind, both in 
 church and state, Frederick the Great, of Prussia, refused to 
 permit the publication of this bull in the Roman Catholic por- 
 
30 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 tions of his dominions. Is there, then, so much truth in the 
 adage, "that extremes meet," as to account for infidelity thus 
 reaching out a helping-hand to superstition ? or was it because 
 the " prince of this world," recognising the Jesuits as better 
 promoters of his cause than even unbelievers, blinded, for his 
 own ends, the eyes of this worldly-wise monarch ? Whatever 
 was the cause, the effect was as stated. In the persuasion that 
 the Jesuits alone understood the true art of tuition, Frederick 
 left them in undisturbed possession of the colleges of Glatz, Glo- 
 gan, Breslaw, Leignitz, Neisse, Oppeln, Sagan and Schweidnitz ; 
 prohibited, however, novices being henceforth received into their 
 houses, obliged the order to lay aside both the name and habit 
 of Jesuits ; and, after giving them a plan of instruction, which 
 they engaged to follow, regularly established them as public 
 instructors, under the designation of " priests of the Eoyal 
 School Institute;" who were in that character to be subject to 
 the revision of an appointed commission. Whatever motive 
 specially induced Frederick the Great to command the laying 
 aside of the name and garb of the order, there could scarcely 
 have been devised one better suited to facilitate their usual 
 serpentine mode of procedure, or more thoroughly in unison 
 with the genius of their policy, and another day wiU doubtless 
 reveal how faithfuUy and assiduously the afforded opportunity 
 was used'; nevertheless, the abrogation of the Jesuit order was 
 a great triumph to evangelical Protestantism, proving the ad- 
 vancement of its principles of civil and ecclesiastical polity, 
 even in those countries where the outward profession remained 
 unaltered. But the signing of this bull of abrogation was Cle- 
 ment's death-warrant. Very soon after the, to him, fatal 21st 
 of June, he was attacked by a lingering disease, evidently the 
 result of poison, which neither himself nor the world hesitated 
 to ascribe to Jesuit contrivance, under which he wasted away, 
 until, on the 22d Sept. 1774, the head of the Christian church 
 died alone, and forsaken in his misery. The stormy conclave, 
 which assembled shortly after his demise, indulged in the most 
 biting and unbecoming sarcasms against him. " Ganganelli is 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 31 
 
 dead," cried one, "and so much the better for us ! He has for five 
 years held the crosier as universal shepherd, and has proved 
 large of body, small of heart, and a tyrant to the cardinals. 
 He favoured the Braschi (afterward Pius VI.) and all thieves 
 and traitors ; he was so great a lover of kings as to sacrifice 
 the Jesuits for their sake, fancying thus to make all square, 
 and pacify both church and state ; but he accomplished nothing 
 by it, save the loss of his own life." Such were the pasqui- 
 nades with which the sacred city teemed, when one, whom they 
 had termed Christ's vicegerent, perished by base assassins ! In 
 Feb. 1775, Cardinal Angelo Braschi was actually elected pope : 
 a favourer of the Jesuits, and enjoying some reputation for 
 activity, prudence and moderation. The populace, nevertheless, 
 rejoiced not at the choice, from a superstitious objection to the 
 name he assumed, that of Pius VI. ; asserting that number six 
 had ever been pernicious to Kome (" Semper sub sextus, per- 
 dita Roma fuit.'' ) Nor did the new pontiiF fulfil either the 
 hopes of his friends, or disappoint the evil auguries of his 
 enemies. Pertinacious in maintaining the papal maxims, he was 
 often vacillating in his resolves ; and, though possessing many 
 personal qualifications, he presented a singular mixture of 
 ambition, vanity, self-will, and irresolution ; and, mistaking the 
 spirit of the age, he was made to feel in no light measure that 
 the papal supremacy must now bend its proud neck before the 
 despotic sway of temporal power. Yet his relations with Pro- 
 testant Germany remained unaltered from those of his pre- 
 decessors, even by the death of Frederick the Great, in 1786, 
 under the reign of whose nephew and successor, Frederick 
 William II., Protestanism made important advances (notwith- 
 standing the soon-occurring horrors of the French revolution), 
 and proved its indwelling power by re-edifying what the so- 
 called illumination under Frederick the Great had pulled down 
 and tried to destroy. 
 
 The workings of this power were manifested within the 
 Roman Catholic Church, likewise, under the government of 
 the high-souled emperor, Joseph II., and attempts were again 
 
32 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 made to realise the ideas which Hontheim and others had ex- 
 pressed, and the practicability of which had been exhibited 
 both by the Galilean Church and the Jansenists. Unhappily, the 
 emperor Joseph was by far too much in advance of his age ; 
 and either not knowing or disregarding the character of his 
 subjects and the spirit of the times, he forgot the slowness of 
 human development, and that no imported knowledge can 
 be made to grow rapidly, but must even be as Protestanism 
 had been, the result of self-acquired internal convictions, 
 leavening, by degrees, the whole mind, so as to become at 
 length its intrinsic and inalienable possession ; and the conse- 
 quence was that but few of his well-intentioned schemes pro- 
 duced the beneficial results he hoped and designed. Yet none 
 of his reforms met such determined and systematic resistance 
 as those which aimed at limiting the power of the priesthood, 
 the suppression of convents, and other religious foundations. 
 His plan, in carrying out which he found a faithful and 
 zealous auxihary in his prime-minister, Kaunitz, may be charac- 
 terised as an embodying of the views advocated by Hontheim, 
 and thus, in imitation of France and the Netherlands, to form 
 a German Catholic Church free from the influence as well as 
 the authority of Rome ; and in furtherance of this end, to 
 educate a really enlightened Christian priesthood, who, casting 
 aside monkish bigotry and Jesuitical intrigue, might preach 
 and promote Christian doctrine and morals among the rising 
 generation, and the mass of the people, without any hin- 
 drance to that freedom of conscience and religious toleration 
 which he desired to see established throughout his dominions. 
 In pursuance of these plans, however, the emperor un- 
 happily mingled much political intrigue, and enlisted a variety 
 of worldly interests in the promotion of his views. These 
 unhallowed weapons could not prosper ; and the jealousy 
 which his project (real or supposed) for restoring the German 
 empire to its earlier greatness, at the expense of minor 
 German states, aroused a feeling sedulously nourished and 
 strengthened by Frederick the Great — gave rise to the coalition 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 33 
 
 of princes, on the 23d of July, 1785, which successfully over- 
 turned all the emperor's designs. Still Joseph had accom- 
 plished great reforms in an incredibly short space of time 
 in the politico-ecclesiastical institutions of his vast dominions. 
 He had, by his own authority, suppressed many convents, 
 applying their revenues to founding and endowing parish 
 churches, schools and seminaries, all of which were organised 
 oh a freer footing than formerly. The monastic clergy he 
 strove to convert into useful members of the state ; and, in 
 order to stimulate the secular clergy to strive after a more 
 suitable education, the emperor introduced the system of pub- 
 lic competition examinations, for the obtaining of benefices, 
 and removed to Pavia the German Hungarian college, which, 
 up to that period, had had its seat at Rome. Those convents 
 which were still suffered to exist, were debarred from all sub- 
 jection to any foreign religious order ; and processions and 
 fraternities entirely suppressed. Such encroachments as 
 those on priestly prerogative, by which the emperor made 
 himself, de facto, the head of the church in his own dominions, 
 could not but rouse indignation, as well as excite alarm in the 
 hierarchy; nor were their fears groundless, for Joseph ad- 
 vanced still further. 
 
 The famous, or rather infamous, eucharist bull, which not 
 only opened a wide door to compulsion of conscience, but 
 shook the very foundations of temporal power, by investing the 
 pope with unlimited authority over all kings and nations, was, 
 by the emperor, commanded to be torn out of the liturgy, and 
 forbidden to be promulgated, under heavy penalties : and re- 
 garding the bull Unigenitus as scarcely less injurious to a 
 state, since it sows the seeds of discord, and propagates the 
 most exceptionable of the Jesuit principles, Joseph II. per- 
 emptorily forbade all bishops within his empire from impos- 
 ing, or even sanctioning the same, either on the inferior clergy 
 or the mass of the people. Having gone so far as to annul 
 the validity of existing bulls, consistency required that he 
 should crown all by commanding that no papal bull or man- 
 
 c 5 
 
34 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 date, nor any ecclesiastical ordinance whatever, should be pro- 
 mulgated without having previously been submitted to imperial 
 scrutiny. These sweeping measures were followed up by an 
 abrogation of all previous limitations of the episcopal right of 
 absolution and papal reservations, by a prohibition of all 
 . appeals to Kome in cases of conscience, or marriage dispensa- 
 tions, as well as the receiving of either ecclesiastical dignities 
 or titles from thence. By these changes, which all occurred 
 between 1780 and 1782, the papal nuncio lost much respect- 
 ability or income ; but the blow fell heaviest on the papal chair 
 itself, especially when followed up by other ordinances designed 
 to simplify the ritual and promote the diffusion of Christian 
 knowledge, for which last purpose the emperor, by his own 
 authority, and without referring to the Roman hierarchy, intro- 
 duced a German hymn-book into the churches, and circulated 
 Bibles among the laity. But, in order to secure permanence 
 to his reforms, the penetrating mind of Joseph II. saw clearly 
 the necessity of establishing a legalised system of religious 
 toleration throughout his states ; and therefore issued, on the 
 30th of June, 1781, his famous toleration edict, which, though 
 limited in various particulars, after the visit of Pope Pius to 
 Vienna, was still a death blow to Romish superiority, and 
 created so much more the wonder of Europe, as emanating 
 from a prince himself professing the Roman Catholic faith. 
 
 This edict secured to Protestants — whether Lutheran or 
 reformed — as well as to adherents of the Greek church, the 
 private exercise of their religious worship ; with the additional 
 privilege that, wherever one hundred families (even though 
 dwelling in villages some miles apart) should be willing to 
 unite, they might erect a chapel and school-house and support 
 a pastor and schoolmaster of their own persuasion, although 
 the chapels must neither have steeples, bells, nor doors opening 
 on the street. The toleration act further declared that, in re- 
 spect of civil rights and privileges, no confessional distinction 
 should any longer exist, and all civil offices, dignities, and em- 
 ployments should be henceforth open to dissenters from the 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 35 
 
 Romish communion, without any pledge or profession of faith 
 being demanded, or involving a liability to take a part in Roman 
 Catholic processions or other ceremonials. In cases of mixed 
 marriages it provided that the children should only be educated 
 in the Roman creed when the father belonged to it ; when, on 
 the contrary, the father was Protestant, the boys should be 
 allowed to follow his faith, and the girls that of their mother : 
 but every disturbance, of either civil or ecclesiastical peace, 
 was to be punished without reference to which confession the 
 culprit belonged. Such ordinances, which struck at the root 
 of a vast variety of the most crying abuses of hierarchal 
 power, naturally called forth all the opposition which the 
 threatened order could exert, and, accordingly, the emperor's 
 enactments were either crippled in their exercise or altogether 
 evaded through Roman Catholic intrigues. The favourite cry 
 of every dominant ecclesiastical establishment, " the church 
 is in danger," became the watchword of the Roman party, and 
 a ready argument against concession ; to which, indeed, the 
 sudden and vast increase of avowed Protestants gave some 
 colour of pretence, for Protestants, who had been so long 
 held down by the iron hand of power in Austria, Bohemia, 
 and Moravia, naturally now stepped forth from compelled con- 
 cealment, and that in such numbers that the papal party was 
 terrified, and contrived to procure, in 1783, an amendment of 
 the toleration edict, which limited its benefits to those Pro- 
 testants who should have enrolled themselves as such, pre- 
 vious to Jan. 1784. All others, who, after the period named, 
 should desire to go over to Protestantism, were to be sub- 
 jected to the ordeal of a six weeks' instruction from their 
 Romish ghostly teachers, before they could be suffered to 
 avow their new views. The only exception made, in regard to 
 toleration, fell with severity on the descendants of Protestant 
 families in Bohemia, who had imbibed deistical, or rationalist, 
 principles, and who were compelled, by the terms of the act, 
 to unite with one or other of the sects thereui recognised. But 
 such as either would not or could not do so (for, of course, 
 
36 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 conscientious Trinitarians would not admit them) were de- 
 prived of their possessions, and banished to the Turkish 
 frontier. So glaring an inconsistency in an act which pro-, 
 fessedly recognised the rights of conscience, furnishes one of 
 the thousand illustrations how unfit man is to legislate on 
 points of belief, over which the All-seeing is not only the sole 
 authorized, but the only competent judge. 
 
 Some Roman Catholic prelates, as the cardinal archbishop 
 of Gran, and the bishop of Stuhlweissenburg, not condescend- 
 ing to counteract by intrigue, raised their voices openly against 
 the act of toleration, and gained several others in refusing to 
 accept the superintendance of the religious orders, as being 
 an encroachment on the papal prerogative. Others, on the 
 contrary, among whom were the bishops of Laibach, and Gratz, 
 and Salzburg, supported their sovereign's plans with all their 
 spiritual influence, and the last-named prelate even recom- 
 mended and enforced the duties of mutual love and forbearance 
 in a special pastoral letter, as if he had desired thereby to wipe 
 away the stain which one of his predecessors had brought on 
 the Salzburg episcopal throne, by a priestly intolerance and 
 vindictive bigotry, which banished so many Protestants from 
 his diocese. But the displeasure of Rome's satellites in Ger- 
 many was trifling, compared to the indignation and dismay of 
 the pope, when the news of these infringements of hierarchical 
 dominion and diminution of ecclesiastical resources, brought 
 about, too, by a degenerate son of the church, reached his ears ; 
 and that at the very time when his favourite scheme of draining 
 the Pontine marshes, conjoined with his strong tendency to 
 nepotism, called for such increase of funds as had induced him 
 to hold frequent congregations of cardinals, and to institute 
 three days' penances, with the promise of one hundred days' 
 plenary indulgence to all who observed them, and brought the 
 oblations customary on such occasions. But all brought in 
 too little for his necessities ; the pontiff resolved on an act of 
 condescension unheard of for ages in the Romish Church — that 
 of paying the visit, before alluded to, to the emperor. Where, 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURYi\^V^37 ^'^^. 
 
 were now ban and interdict — those ready weapons inoJ^^«tv J^, 
 ages with which Rome's spiritual tyrant had been wont to 
 the spirits of refractory monarchs ? The holy father possessed 
 them still, but the progress of evangelical Protestantism had 
 too perceptibly blunted them to make it advisable to venture 
 the honour of the Vatican by the daring attempt; and Pius VI. 
 determined on putting it to the proof, whether the personal 
 presence of the head of Christendom would not win back all 
 the respect and gold which Austria had been wont to pay to 
 the papal throne. The event robbsd him even of this flattering 
 expectation, for, although the emperor received the pontiff with 
 all possible demonstrations of respect, still the very first inter- 
 view must have suggested doubts regarding the successful issue 
 of his journey. On the prime minister, Kaunitz, being presented, 
 the pope held out his hand to receive the accustomed kiss, but, 
 instead of kneeling, to press with all humility his lips upon 
 the hand whose wave was supposed to bestow release from 
 all future suffering, Kaunitz made as if he believed it offered 
 in friendly familiarity, and gave the sacred pontifical hand a 
 hearty German shake ! His holiness was suffered to proceed 
 unhindered from church to church, dispensing blessings and 
 indulgences, and even personally celebrated high mass in the 
 church of St. Stephen's, with all the pomp of Italian cere- 
 monial, but yet he advanced not one step towards the real 
 object of his coming. * 
 
 Joseph had strictly forbidden all the clergy in his dominions, 
 but especially the bishops, to enter into any agreement with the 
 pope respecting ecclesiastical affairs, but, well skilled, it would 
 seem, in the mental reservations and pious frauds of which 
 Roman Catholicism admits, the emperor resorted to a more 
 effectual mode of enforcing his commands, namely, by not 
 only placing the pope under strict surveillance, but by taking 
 
 * The Viennese even exercised their wit on the occasion, saying, 
 " Der papst habe eine messe in wien gelesen, aher ohne eine credo fur 
 den Kaiser, find ohne Gloria fiir sich ! " 
 
38 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 care that the apartments he occupied should be approachable 
 only by one entrance. He evaded, too, all discussion with his 
 venerated guest upon ecclesiastical affairs, by the specious de- 
 claration that every measure adopted had been well considered 
 and concluded on, solely with a view to the weal of his subjects, 
 and if his holiness saw any reason to find fault with them, he 
 could give in the alterations he deemed desirable, in writing, 
 which should forthwith be submitted to an ecclesiastical com- 
 mission. With this the pope was fain to content himself; 
 but while the commissioners were empowered to receive and 
 take note of the papal wishes, the emperor warned them against 
 adopting any resolution founded upon them, without his own 
 previously obtained sanction ; and, in the mean time, Joseph 
 went on uninterruptedly suppressing convents, and enforcing 
 submission to his own ecclesiastical supremacy, without any 
 regard to the pope's presence in his capital, which, however, 
 so far influenced his mind as to produce two concessions to 
 papal credit; first, that the propositions set forth in the bull 
 Unigenitus should neither be impugned nor defended, and 
 that the bishops should receive from the pope, once for all, 
 the requisite authority to issue marriage dispensations, while 
 the provincials of the religious orders might announce their 
 appointments to the pope, but on no account either to seek or 
 accept from him any right or privilege whatsoever. The act 
 of toleration also received some modifications, which deserve 
 notice, as they furnished a loop-hole, which Romish cunning 
 contrived afterwards so to enlarge as to give ample room for 
 the re-introduction of many of the abrogated abuses. These 
 modifications were, first, that no other dissidents from Rome, 
 save Lutherans or Reformed, should be tolerated. Secondly, 
 that in places where the Protestants (on account of not amount- 
 ing to one hundred families) could not have either minister or 
 schoolmaster of their own confession, the children must attend 
 the Roman Catholic school, and baptisms, marriages, and 
 burials be performed by the Romish priest, who should, besides, 
 have a right to pay one visit to a sick Protestant ; and in event 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 39 
 
 of his desiring to return to the Catholic Church, assist him 
 therein. Thirdly, that the hundred Protestant families, stipu- 
 lated in the toleration edict, should he understood as heing 
 synonymous with five hundred individuals. It is easy to per- 
 ceive how both these last emendations might he used to foster 
 proselytism, and to nullify, in numberless instances, the right 
 to form a Protestant church ; for large as the previously ap- 
 pointed number was, still a few new-married couples might, 
 by taking up their domicile near each other, have often served 
 to turn the scale in favour of obtaining legal rights to public 
 worship and Christian privileges, which became hopeless under 
 the new explanation of the clause. Despairing of obtaining 
 more from his stubborn imperial son, Pius VI. left Vienna 
 on the 22d April, 1782, and immediately thereafter the mo- 
 nastery in which he had resided, and of the brotherhood of 
 which he had taken so solemn a leave, was suppressed, by 
 command of the emperor. 
 
 The return of the pope was impatiently looked for at Rome, 
 and Catholic Christendom expected the great results of so 
 unique a journey would speedily be detailed at a special sitting 
 of the college of cardinals ; but the holy father had nothing 
 great to relate, and was forced to confine his communication 
 to the few, and, compared with his hopes, insignificant conces- 
 sions obtained, first in Austria, and afterwards in Bavaria and 
 Swabia, to which he added his fervent hope that the emperor 
 would speedily accede to his further requests in favour of the 
 hierarchy. The hope was vain ; and " the infallible visible 
 head of the church" soon found that he leaned on a broken 
 reed in trusting to the support of his spiritual children ; for 
 Rome's greatest danger, at that moment, arose not so much 
 from the emperor's innovations, great and salutary though 
 they were, as from a resuscitation of previously suppressed 
 efforts at reform in the bosom of the Catholic church itself. 
 Bishop Hontheim (alias Febronius) had broken up the fallow 
 ground, and he was now followed by John Valentine Eybel, 
 professor of canon law in Vienna, who, in his book, entitled 
 
40 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 " Introduction to the Catholic Canon Law," published in 1788, 
 pronounced the temporal power to be wholly independent of 
 the ecclesiastical, and taught, that " dogmas referring to form 
 and discipline, and not involving the essentials of religion, 
 might lawfully he abrogated by a sovereign so soon as they 
 were found to be injurious to the state." And even so early 
 as 1782, and at the very time when Pius VI. arrived at Vienna, 
 Eybel had the boldness to put into the hands of his Catholic 
 fellow-citizens a powerfully-written pamphlet, called " What 
 is the Pope, and what a Bishop ? " Nor were the canonists the 
 only opponents who, in that day, rose up against the political 
 power assumed by the papacy ; other lawyers took up the cause, 
 among whom F. C. von Moser distinguished himself by an 
 able history of the papal nuncios in Germany, in which he 
 clearly exhibited how detrimental their influence had invari- 
 ably proved ; and these, and other similar works, produced a 
 ruinous strife between the inferior and superior clergy, and 
 between these last and the pope, which, meeting a soil highly 
 prepared by recent intellectual development for the growth of 
 such seed, threatened the entire and speedy overthrow of the 
 papal power in Germany. This prospect seemed still more 
 hopeful when four electoral archbishops, Frederick Charles 
 Joseph, archiepiscopal elector of Mayence, Clement Wenzelaus 
 of Treves, Maximilian Francis of Cologne, and Hieronymus of 
 Salzburg, arose to advocate and promote the emperor Joseph's 
 policy. The conjunction of the times favoured, and necessity 
 impelled, their attempt ; for the pope was about to place a 
 new nuncio in Munich for Bavaria and the Palatinate, furnished 
 with full power and equal privileges as those enjoyed by 
 the nuncio in Cologne, and the German archbishops felt that 
 now or never some barrier must be opposed to the papal 
 encroachments, being convinced, by the experience of past 
 ages, as well as by the success which l^ad attended the modern 
 policy of Frederick the Great and the emperor Joseph, that 
 the Catholic church in Germany could well dispense with both 
 a Roman pope and Roman hierarchy. The archbishops of 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 41 
 
 Mayence and of Salzburg took the lead in this opposition, and 
 laying their grievances and apprehensions respecting the 
 ulterior views of the cardinal college before the emperor, 
 called upon him, as supreme patron of the German ecclesias- 
 tical constitution, to aflPord them protection. Joseph listened 
 favourably to the appeal, and constituted the four petitioners 
 archbishops of Germany, by an imperial edict, dated Oct. 12, 
 1785, declaring he never would suffer German archbishops 
 and bishops to be prejudiced in their just rights, and there- 
 fore would only recognize a papal nuncio in the character of 
 ambassador and agent of the papal court, in political matters ; 
 but never would concede to him either spiritual or temporal 
 jurisdiction within his realms. He empowered, therefore, the 
 archbishops vigorously to uphold and defend their rights 
 against the pope's nuncio ; to proceed on the same principle in 
 disavowing the bishops chosen by the pontiff, and to instruct 
 their suffragans accordingly. In defiance of these electoral 
 and imperial declarations, Pius VI. sent Cardinal Zoglio as 
 papal nuncio to Munich, in 1786. 
 
 The Elector Palatine proclaimed to his subjects his will, 
 that they should cease to resort, as hitherto, to the nuncios in 
 Cologne, Lucerne, or Vienna, and apply, on all ecclesiastical 
 affairs, solely to him of Munich ; and the bishop of Friburg 
 received a citation from the pope, to withdraw his obedience 
 from the archbishop of Salzburg (his legitimate temporal as 
 well as ecclesiastical superior), and to give it, without reserve, 
 to Zoglio. 
 
 These proceedings naturally produced new complaints to 
 the emperor, followed, in their turn, by fresh imperial remon- 
 strances and ordinances, while the electoral archbishops, on their 
 part, issued peremptory commands to their subjects to avoid 
 all communion with Zoglio, and apply, when necessary, to 
 Pacca, the papal nuncio at Cologne. Here, then, was the 
 indivisible church, led by its infallible head, ranged in battle 
 array against itself; nuncio against nuncio, archbishop against 
 archbishop : and while the shepherds ordered and counter- 
 
42 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 ordered, denounced and counter-denounced, how must the 
 timid among the flock have trembled, and the unbelieving 
 sneered ! The refractory archbishops opened a congress at Ems, 
 to which they sent representatives, and the resolutions taken 
 by those able men, to whom the archbishops committed the 
 discussions for the maintenance and defence of their original 
 canonical and imperial chartered rights, is known to the world 
 by the name of the Ems punctation. It determined that the 
 pope possesses no jurisdiction in the Catholic church of Ger- 
 many, nor any rank or primacy ; all bishops having been 
 placed on an equal footing by their divine Master, who be- 
 stowed upon all his apostles the powers to bind and to loose, 
 and their successors, continuing in this brotherly equality, 
 during the first ages. Every appeal to Rome was, therefore, 
 henceforth forbidden ; all connexion between German monaste- 
 ries and foreign superiors abrogated ; commands from them, the 
 pope, and his cardinal college, were declared no longer binding ; 
 and full power was conceded to the bishops to make annual 
 ecclesiastical laws, to dispense with religious vows, and to 
 annul the obligation connected with ordination ; papal bulls and 
 mandates were reduced to a conditional validity, depending on 
 their being acceded to and confirmed by the bishop ; and, 
 finally, the papal nuncio was pronounced a mere ambassador, 
 or agent, from Rome ; and, as such, to be regarded as nei- 
 ther empowered nor entitled to interfere with the ecclesi- 
 astical arrangements of the German dioceses. As a natural 
 sequence to the cessation of Romish dispensations, the' pope 
 was declared incompetent to make clerical appointments, or 
 to bestow German benefices, either on natives or foreigners. 
 These resolutions, adopted under the highest ecclesiastical 
 and civil authority of the empire, must be regarded as 
 having laid the first foundation stone of a German Catholic 
 church, and had the building been then suffered to proceed, 
 Germany would have been spared many years of suffering 
 and evil broil, of hypocrisy and infidelity, of spiritual oppres- 
 sion and brutalising superstition, which have kept her even 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 43 
 
 to the present hour (with few intervals of equivocal calm) 
 " like a troubled sea, which cannot rest, and whose waters 
 continually throw up the mire and dirt" of hierarchal decep- 
 tion and despotism, or the foam of rationalism and avowed 
 infidelity, between whose equally false and equally dangerous 
 pretensions, millions of souls, tossed to and fro, now clinging 
 to one and now to another human authority, " perish for lack 
 of knowledge." 
 
 The calling of church councils was even at that early period 
 contemplated by the archbishops, which should decide on the 
 farther steps requisite to ensure the entire emancipation of the 
 German churches from their foreign master. But he saw the 
 danger which threatened him, and, unhappily for Germany, suc- 
 ceeded in warding off the impending blow, by the old familiar 
 weapon of internal dissension, stirred up by hierarchal jealousy 
 and official pride. Some German bishops felt offended at not 
 having been called to take part in the Ems congress : others 
 preferred subjection to a distant superior, to bowing before 
 their own archbishops, and chose rather to aid the pope in 
 regaining his ascendancy, than to see those whom they had 
 hitherto deemed little above themselves, at once converted 
 into the ecclesiastical chiefs of Germany. Individual clerical 
 interests thus clashed with the execution of one grand and 
 general design ; and the emperor was himself involved in diffi- 
 culties, by the imprudent rashness with which he had hurried 
 on reform in his own dominions, and both conspired to enable 
 the Roman hierarchy to raise a shout of triumph over the 
 overthrow of the scheme for elevating the German Catholic 
 church ; a scheme which the violent anti-hierarchal movement 
 in Rome's near vicinity, fostered by Joseph's brother, Leopold, 
 Duke of Tuscany, the total casting off of priest rule by Naples, 
 and the outbreak of the French revolution, all conspired to 
 facilitate, but which fell, crushed, and apparently annihilated, 
 by the widely-spread and well-concentrated ramifications of 
 papal influence. But the triumph, though complete, over 
 Rome's open opponents, was powerless against the awakened 
 
44 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 spirit which was at once the cause and effect of the late 
 attempt, and the blow, though warded off for the moment, was 
 rather postponed than escaped. 
 
 The French revolution burst in full fury upon Europe, 
 tearing down, in its devastating career of a few months, the 
 ecclesiastical no less than the political barriers which it had 
 taken ages to erect around both throne and altar; and 
 Germany was doomed to drink to the dregs that cup of suffer- 
 ing which the Almighty, by the hands of those unconscious 
 ministers of his vengeance, put into the hands of many nations. 
 The Emperor Leopold, worn out by the harassments of a 
 Turkish war, and still more by the disappointment of seeing 
 his best intentions misunderstood and misrepresented, died in 
 1790, and although the accession of his brother, Leopold IL, 
 to the vacant throne, opened the fairest prospects for Germany, 
 since he possessed the spirit of his predecessor, united to more 
 sagacity and moderation, yet his reign was unhappily too short 
 to do more than evince what might have been expected from 
 him. One of the first acts of his government was a decree 
 (issued November, 1790), affording increased freedom of 
 conscience to the Hungarian Protestants, and expressly 
 stating that they should on no occasion be compelled to assist 
 at Koman Catholic processions or festivals, and debarring all 
 landed proprietors and masters of families from interfering in 
 any degree with the religious observances of their vassals or 
 domestics. This able and estimable prince died the 1st of 
 March, 1792, and was succeeded by his son, Francis II., 
 whose various fortunes and sad reverses are familiar to every 
 one at all acquainted with modern history, but which we 
 must pass over in silence, in order to confine our notice 
 entirely to what regards the church. 
 
 The nineteenth century opened with fearful and ever-increas- 
 ing political storms. Napoleon, though born of the revolution, 
 perceived, with his usual penetration, the hopeless instability of 
 such a career as France had lately pursued, passing at once 
 from the grossest superstition to the wildest atheism, and 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 45 
 
 thence retracing her steps, through the various grades of 
 Deism and moral philosophy, in which the recognition of the 
 being of God and of the soul's immortality were made the 
 guardian principles of an equally frigid and stunted morality ; 
 and he resolved on giving back to France fixed religious 
 dogmas, and appointed ecclesiastical forms, which, originating 
 in merely political motives, naturally produced politico-eccle- 
 siastical institutions. Convinced that, in furtherance of those 
 views, a certain degree of connexion with the pope would be 
 useful to him, Buonaparte entered into negociations with 
 Pius VII. (raised to the papal chair in March, 1800), which 
 ended, July, 1801, in a concordat between France and the 
 papal see, by which the greater proportion of the church lands 
 in France became the property of the state, which undertook 
 the support of the clergy. The bishops were to be nominated 
 by the first consul ; but the Romish church, as being that to 
 which the majority of the nation belonged, was to be protected, 
 the pope to be recognised as its ecclesiastical head, and the 
 confirmation of the nominated bishops to rest with his holiness ; 
 but the publication of any bull he might issue to depend on 
 the sanction of government, notwithstanding this and many 
 other humbling clauses in this agreement. Although the same 
 document secured to French Protestants the full and unhin- 
 dered exercise of their religion, and a perfect equality of civil 
 rights with their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, still after all 
 the dangers suffered and dreaded by the Roman §ee, the pope 
 rejoiced and gave thanks with well simulated piety for the 
 boon ; rightly foreseeing how easily priestly skill and Jesuit 
 craft (who more than any other of Adam's race may lay 
 claim to the proverb, " give room for my finger and I will get 
 in my whole hand") would contrive to elicit great hierarchal 
 advantages even from so unpromising an order of things. 
 Meanwhile, important political changes were preparing for 
 Germany which should powerfully influence the ecclesiastical 
 position of both Protestantism and Romanism, and Napoleon 
 was immediately instrumental in stripping the latter of almost 
 
46 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 all its outward splendour. War continued its unintermitted 
 horrors, and victory still waited on the French arms. 
 Moreau's success were followed by the peace of Luneville 
 (February, 1801), by which the archbishopric of Salzburg 
 was made over to the grand duke of Tuscany, and the left 
 bank of the Rhine being added to France, the hereditary 
 princes, thus dispossessed, ,were indemnified for their losses, 
 by being put in possession of the ecclesiastical territories 
 lying on the right bank, and of the imperial free cities. 
 
 The arbiters, or rather commissioners, appointed to adjust 
 these contending claims, and, which held its sittings from 
 August, 1802, to March, 1803, decided on secularising all 
 ecclesiastical sovereignties in Germany, imposing on the tem- 
 poral powers, with which they become respectively incorpo- 
 rated, the duty of supporting divine worship, public instruction, 
 and other institutions of general utility. 
 
 In this division of booty, a great many petty princes ob- 
 tained very considerable accessions to their dominions, and, 
 of course, entertained a proportionate reverence for the 
 French prowess and policy through which they had acquired 
 them. Of the forty-eight imperial free cities then existing, only 
 Liibeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Frankfort, Augsburg and Wiirn- 
 burg, were left in possession of their ancient privileges. All 
 these changes inflicted a most severe blow on the Roman 
 hierarchy in Germany, and, it is specially deserving of notice, 
 that the secularisation of ecclesiastical principalities, far from 
 being the suggestion of Protestant princes (as the advocates 
 of priestly domination in our day boldly assert, in defiance of 
 the plainest historical evidence), was, in fact, brought about 
 by Roman Catholic princes, who, themselves, not only gladly 
 took share in the spoil, but held fast their acquisitions. 
 When, in 1806, the Emperor Francis was compelled to lay 
 aside the ancient title of Emperor of Germany, and content 
 himself with that of Emperor of Austria, the German empire 
 may be said to have virtually ceased to exist ; and, whilst its 
 political unity lay torn and bleeding at a usurper's feet, its 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 47 
 
 ecclesiastical institutions could not thrive : but the spirit of 
 evangelical Protestantism still maintained its ground, proving 
 a blessing not only to individuals but to states, and furthering 
 the political security, by fostering that mental development, 
 and freedom of thought and action, by which alone great 
 plans can be originated or great deeds performed. 
 
 Eomanism, on the contrary, faded away into a lifeless and 
 antiquated mummery, used occasionally, by politic princes 
 professing its faith, as a cover to deeper designs, or a foil to 
 set oif some equivocal measure, but incapable in itself of 
 effecting anything great or noble. Bishoprics, as well as 
 monasteries, together with their territorial possessions, having 
 been secularised, the authority of ecclesiastical princes abro- 
 gated, church patronage having become the prerogative of 
 temporal sovereigns, and the pope himself a prisoner to the 
 bold despot of France, by which, intercourse with, or direc- 
 tions from, the papal see was rendered impossible, the Eoman 
 Catholic church may be considered as being, at that time, 
 virtually dissolved, for the civil power ruled in ecclesiastical 
 matters, as decidedly in papal as in Protestant states. When, "^ 
 however. Napoleon, in his pride of power, and fancied resem- 
 blance to Charlemagne, resolved to be all in all in his wide 
 dominions, and, though willing to use the pope as a puppet in 
 furthering his game, demanded the blindest submission to his 
 arbitrary will, and published a catechism, in which, though 
 the decrees of the council were maintained, unreserved sub- 
 jection to his revolutionary throne formed a fundamental 
 principle ; when he limited the powers of the ecclesiastical 
 princes, infringed the ancient ecclesiastical ordinances, more 
 especially as regarded the formation and dissolution of matri- 
 monial and monastic vows, it was plain that the compulsory 
 treaty of 1801 could not long remain, even outwardly, un- 
 broken, since the pope was naturally as eager to uphold the 
 remnant of his priestly monarchy, as Napoleon was ambitious 
 of undermining and annihilating it. 
 
 The entrance of the French into Rome, in 1808, the 
 
48 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 deposition of the pope, as a temporal prince, in 1809, and 
 the assumption of all ecclesiastical power, by the emperor, 
 to himself, were the results of the long -foreseen rupture. 
 Pius VII. resorted to the antiquated spiritual weapon of the 
 ban, which he thundered forth against all and sundry who 
 should dare to set themselves in opposition to the papacy ; 
 and the ultramontane clergy in Germany, as well as France, 
 produced here and there such commotions as must have con- 
 vinced Napoleon that a Romish re-action might, even in the 
 nineteenth century, bid defiance to his control. But, unused 
 to yield, the French Emperor seized the pope's person, and 
 conveyed him to Savoy ; but, even there, Pius VII. refused 
 to confirm the bishops nominated by Napoleon, who pro- 
 ceeded, in 1811, to appoint a council, composed of French, 
 Italian and German bishops, which should hold its sittings 
 in Paris, and lay the foundation of a national church wholly 
 independent of papal jurisdiction; but ultramontane prin- 
 ciples mingled in their deliberations, and finally succeeded 
 in breaking up the council. Napoleon was hurrying on to 
 his fall, and yet he once more succeeded in obtaining con- 
 cessions from the pope, who was prevailed to sign the con- 
 cordat of Fontainbleau, Jan 7, 1813 ; in which the pontiff's 
 temporal power being passed over in silence, he expressly 
 relinquished the right of appointing bishops in France, and 
 even consented to make that country his residence. But no 
 sooner did the pope become aware what a deadly blow was 
 given to his own usurped power, by this document, than he 
 retracted all the concessions contained in the concordat, while 
 Napoleon, by publishing it in March, 1813, as a law of the 
 empire, displayed to all the world the fraud which the head of 
 the church had put upon him. 
 
 In proportion as the European powers, whether Protestant 
 or Catholic, warred successfully against Napoleon, in like pro- 
 portion did the pope resume his lofty pretensions ; and, even 
 as early as the battle of Leipsic, declined the offer of a partial 
 restitution of his temporalities; and from the first peace of 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 49 
 
 Paris (May, 1814), he coupled every negociation with a 
 stipulation for their complete restoration. He held, in the 
 same month, his solemn re-entrance into Eome, having been 
 restored to temporal and spiritual power, not by Catholic Austria 
 alone, but much more by the aid of powers, to whom, how- 
 ever, the haughty and ambitious priesthood never acknow- 
 ledged their incalculable and unmerited obligations. The 
 constitution of the German confederation in 1814 — 1815, 
 under the prasses-ship of Austria, which guaranteed the honour 
 and dignity of the empire, and regulated the relative political 
 position of the several independent kingdoms, thus voluntarily 
 united in one great and free alliance, the politico-ecclesiastical 
 element could not escape a due share of attention, and the 
 spirit of evangelical Protestantism did not fail to enforce its 
 claims. 
 
 The congress of Vienna not only assured to all Christian 
 confessions complete equality of civil and political rights, but 
 even took into consideration the propriety of erecting a German 
 Catholic church. The fifteenth article declares, that "the 
 rights of Protestants form part of the constitution of every 
 state ; and that whatever rights or privileges have been awarded 
 them by treaties of peace, fundamental laws, or other valid 
 agreements, shall be fully maintained. The Catholic church 
 shall, under the guarantee of the confederation, receive such 
 a constitution as shall suffice for the security of her rights, 
 and such funds as may be necessary for the defraying of 
 her maintenance." This new constitution could not possibly 
 mean a re-establishment of the hierarchy of the middle ages, 
 and must therefore be understood as intimating such an arrange- 
 ment as had already been proposed for the Catholic church 
 in the times of Frederick the Great and Joseph II. by the 
 Ems punctation : so that modern German Romanists dis- 
 play more zeal than historical knowledge, and less prudence 
 than either, when they now invoke the interference of the 
 German diet to repress the efforts at emancipation from Rome's 
 thraldom, making by the German Catholics of the present day. 
 
50 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 Similar views were expressed by the Holy Alliance in 1815, 
 as well as by the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, November, 1818, 
 in the declaration addressed to all the courts of Europe ; and 
 it must be conceded, that, if the rights, privileges, and consti- 
 tution of the Catholic church in Germany were to be regulated 
 and guaranteed by the mutual agency of the confederated 
 princes, it followed, as matter of course, that the supeme 
 oversight of the Catholic, as well as that of the Protestant 
 church, should be vested in the temporal sovereign of each 
 country, to the total exclusion of Rome's supremacy: an 
 exclusion rendered necessary by the long-experienced fact, 
 that the just rights of princes are invariably infringed, the 
 freedom of Protestants intolerably narrowed and oppressed, 
 and the feelings and views of Catholic subjects imbued with 
 an anti-patriotic and factious character, so long as a foreign 
 master, armed with the magical influence of infallible autho- 
 rity in matters of belief, was suiFered to mingle his secret 
 spells in all the relations of public and private life. No 
 proposition, therefore, could have been more offensive to the 
 hierarchy than that of the erection of a German Catholic 
 church, under the powerful auspices of the German confede- 
 ration ; and, accordingly, when the noble-minded de Wessen- 
 berg, then vicar-general of the diocese of Constance, proposed 
 to the Vienna congress that a concordat should be concluded 
 with the pope for the formation of a German Catholic Church, 
 on the principle of recognising all bishoprics as forming one 
 grand whole, under a primate, with suitable endowments, 
 and independent administration, protected but not ruled by 
 the secular power, there arose three orators against him. 
 These were. Baron von Wambold, Cathedral Dean of Worms ; 
 Helfferich, Prebendary of Spires; and Schies, formerly Syndic 
 of the St. Andrew's order at Worms ; who, protesting against 
 what they termed a secularisation of the church, advanced 
 claims equal to any known in the middle ages. Nor was the 
 papacy content with the advocacy of even such zealous friends, 
 for Pius VII. supported and sanctioned their protest by ven- 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 51 
 
 turing to demand, through his nuncio, Cardinal Gonsalvi, the 
 re-estahlishment of the holy Roman kingdom, as the centre 
 of political, as well as ecclesiastical unity ; and, further, the 
 restoration of all the temporalities which had been severed 
 from the Roman see, whether now in the possession of Catholic 
 or Protestant princes ; and, lastly, the immediate restitution or 
 all estates and revenues, of which either the secular or regular 
 clergy had been deprived. So bold a front did the hierarchy 
 re-assume, so little impression had the lesson of the French 
 revolution made on them, that it seemed as if nothing short of a 
 repetition of its horrors, and a prolongation of its power, could 
 suffice to hold them in check : such, too, was the gratitude 
 shown by the pope to those Protestant powers without whose 
 co-operation he could never have been restored to temporal 
 dominion. In how far they evinced either wisdom, consistency, 
 or piety, in affording that aid, is another question. When 
 these demands met the disregard they merited, the sovereign 
 pontiff, no longer daring to risk the ridicule which, rather 
 than submission, excommunication would have drawn forth, 
 resorted to less obtrusive, though scarcely less effective mea- 
 sures, by instigating the oppression of Protestants under popish 
 governments, by denouncing and treating them as heretics, 
 whether from the press, the pulpit, or the confessional, and by 
 making it a case of conscience with every Catholic, whether 
 clerical or laical, to strive against Protestants and Protestantism 
 by all means, lawful or unlawful : while, at the same moment, 
 his official sentiments bore the usual hypocritical impress ; 
 he declaring, that " he resigned himself to wait in patient 
 hope, with prayers and tears, for obtaining that which, under 
 happier auspices (in other words, by diplomatic finesse), the 
 policy of worldly potentates now denied him." Meantime, 
 the diet persisted in the attempt to realise the constitution 
 of a German Catholic church, partly mediately, and partly 
 immediately, by an embassy to Rome. The outlines of an 
 assimilation of the various relations of the Catholic church 
 were signed by Wirtemburg-Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hesse- 
 
 D 2 
 
52 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 Cassel, the electorate (now kingdom) of Saxony, the Duchies 
 of Saxony, Nassau and Aldenhurg ; the two principalities of 
 Schwarzhurg, those of Anhalt, Lippe, the two Hohenzolners, 
 Reuss, and the free town of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, which 
 displayed not only a genuinely patriotic, but a very Christian 
 spirit, with an honest desire to adjust the jarring claims of 
 sovereigns, priesthood and people, on fair and equitable princi- 
 ples. But, despite the moderation of their views, the hierarchy 
 rose almost en masse to oppose the proposed innovations. 
 The necessary retrenchment of priestly power offended them ; 
 and they professed to find a deep insult in tJie requisition 
 that the bishops should swear fealty to their legitimate 
 sovereign, should engage not to enter into any engagement, 
 take part in any conference, or form any connexion, either at 
 home or abroad, calculated to give umbrage to, or excite the 
 just suspicion of, the state ; and, furthermore, that they should 
 bind themselves, so soon as any treasonable combination, 
 either within or without their dioceses, should come to their 
 knowledge, to report the same to their liege lords. Various 
 German bishops did, it is true, take this oath ; but, it is to 
 be feared, very few, without the Jesuitical reservatio mentalis ; 
 and the pope spared no pains, from the moment of his 
 restoration, to bring back things to their ancient footing, and 
 thus to frustrate, if he could not succeed in getting rescinded, 
 the resolutions passed at the congress of Vienna, and the 
 Frankfort diet. Yet he must have seen that the spirit of 
 the age was in direct opposition to his wishes ; and that the 
 liberal party, even of his own church, hesitated not to paint 
 the dangers of priestly domination in the strongest colours. 
 
 The cause of evangelical Protestantism found its boldest 
 supporters in Prussia and Wirtemberg, while Austria and 
 Bavaria stood forward in defence of Romanism ; at the same 
 time, that shallow neology, which had long infected both com- 
 munions, working perhaps still more powerfally, though less 
 avowedly, within the Roman Catholic than in the Protestant 
 pale, began now to yield, in both, to the influence of a more 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 53 
 
 Scriptural belief, displaying itself in fresher and more vigorous 
 efforts to promulgate that which each felt to be true. 
 
 The anti-papal party in the Catholic church of Germany, 
 fully alive to the demoralisation and infidelity which reigned 
 in their own communion under an outward conformity to ritual 
 observances, expressed their sentiments in powerful language ; 
 and detecting, with a discerning eye, the moral defects of their 
 nation, attempted to introduce the requisite reform, by pro- 
 positions for the abolition of various abuses, such as compulsory 
 celibacy, the priestly assumption of the sole education of 
 youth; the denunciation, as unlawful, of marriages between 
 Catholics and Protestants, &c. &c. Wirtemberg and Baden 
 peculiarly distinguished themselves in this strife; but the 
 ultramontane party was but roused to make greater efforts 
 to suffocate and repress any attempt at establishing a more 
 liberal order of things. 
 
 The Jesuits, with their infamous moral code, offered to the 
 hierarchy a ready and most desirable medium for the accom- 
 plishment of its ends ; and, therefore, did this order rise once 
 more in favour with the popes. Pius VII. restored it on the 
 7th of August, 1814, and thus once more evinced to all Europe 
 how easily the papal chair can praise or blame, commend or 
 condemn the same persons and conduct, according as its own 
 interest impels ; and with how little justice the Romish church 
 arrogates to itself the praise of unity and oneness of sentiment ; 
 above aU, what small pretensions its chief and head can make 
 to infallibility, since a Clement could abolish what a Benedict 
 had established, and a Pius re-establish what a Clement had 
 annulled. 
 
 Leo XII., the successor of Pius VII., aided by the Jesuits, 
 though more by secret cabal than by any open demonstra- 
 tion (for the order was not legally tolerated, save in Austria, 
 and some of the Swiss cantons, while its existence in Bavaria 
 was veiled under the name of the Ligorian or Redemptorist 
 order), did his best to secure the re-establishment of papal 
 influence in Protestant states. But his efforts were crowned 
 
54 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY 
 
 with little success, and he strove to indemnify his church for 
 this failure, by exciting the faithful to pray for the extirpation 
 of all heretics and heresy, or, in other words, for the annihila- 
 tion of Protestants and Protestantism ; and, in the same spirit, 
 Pius VIII., who succeeded Leo XII. in 1829, declared, in set 
 terms, to the hishops, that the political equality, granted by 
 temporal princes to Protestants, being one of those points 
 by which the salvation of souls is endangered, could not be 
 lawfully observed, and that, therefore, it was their duty to obey 
 God (that is, the hierarchy) rather than man (that is, their 
 temporal sovereign) ; and while their head thus endeavoured 
 to shake the foundations of the throne, the Romanists, particu- 
 larly those of the Jesuit school, led on by Gorres, of Munich 
 (who at one time was a zealous Jacobin), lauded the hierarchy 
 and Jesuitism, as the only sure pillars of legitimate govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The active share which priestcraft had in producing the 
 July revolution of Paris, is well known ; although, with her 
 accustomed barefaced impudence, Rome did not hesitate to 
 throw all the blame on Protestantism ; and the successor of 
 Pius VIII., the late Pope Gregory XVI., proclaimed, in 
 his first bull, issued February 2d, 1831, that "nothing re- 
 mained for the salvation of church and state, but to combat 
 the enlightenment of the nations under the shield of the 
 blessed Virgin." 
 
 Aided by the judicious efforts of the Jesuits, who, under 
 various disguises, contrived to glide into all the relations of 
 public and private life, the papal views were specially directed 
 upon Germany, and the most perfect success crowned the 
 attempted encroachments on the civil and ecclesiastical liberty 
 of Protestants, under the popish governments of Saxony and 
 Bavaria. In both countries, the marriages between Catholics 
 and Protestants were, in September, 1834, declared unlawful ; 
 whilst even in the Protestant states of Baden, Prussia and 
 Wirtemberg, the hierarchy assumed a much bolder mien, 
 and, by exciting the people to take their part, stirred up a 
 
DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 55 
 
 refractory and rebellious spirit towards their superiors. 
 Such was the presumption which induced the late archbishop 
 of Cologne, Baron von Drost-Vischering, to set up his autho- 
 rity in direct opposition to that of his sovereign, William III. 
 of Prussia; and though compelled, at length, to bend his 
 proud head to the secular power, which removed him from 
 his bishopric, and sent him into exile as a rebellious subject, 
 never was his indomitable will subdued, or his enmity to Pro- 
 testantism softened. Actuated by similar principles, following 
 out similar plans, and supported throughout by the Jesuits, 
 that almost universally spread, well-organised, thoroughly dis- 
 ciplined, and yet invisible legion of spiritual janissaries, the 
 hierarchy has been pursuing the unvaried, though generally 
 silent tenour of its way, seldom, except in extreme cases, 
 alarming Protestant fears, by lifting the veil of subtlety 
 under which all its proceedings are conducted ; and equally, 
 if not more favoured, by the stolid confidence of those who 
 laugh at Romanism as a thing gone by, as by the Utopian 
 dreamers, who fancy it has shared in, and benefited by the 
 modern mental development and march of intellect. In how 
 far popery has improved, either in sense or feeling, we may 
 learn from the history of the last thirty years. How perti- 
 naciously, how undeviatmgly Jesuits follow, as the blood- 
 hound, their track, let France, let Germany, above all, let 
 poor Switzerland tell. What Romanism can effect, despite the 
 illumination, aye, perhaps even by the false infidel illumina- 
 tion of modern science, and proud reliance on human reason, 
 let Protestant England speak — England, lying prostrate, 
 under the incubus of real Romanism, under the name of 
 Puseyism, while hundreds of her learned and gifted sons are 
 voluntarily quaffing the cup of Rome's abominations. Is there, 
 then, no hope ? Yes ; but only in returning to the old ways, 
 seeking out the once weU-known, weU-frequented paths, not 
 of Lutheran, nor of Calvinistic, not of Augustinian, or 
 Jeromian, but of apostolic authority. No patristic rule, 
 no patristic practice, is free from error. " To the law and to 
 
56 STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY. 
 
 the testimony." To Christ's own word. By following even a 
 Paul only (as he himself directs), in so far as he follows 
 Christ, we shall avoid the extremes which diverge to meet, 
 and steer clear of the Scylla and Charybdis of superstition and 
 infidelity ; the danger of being seduced by our own pride of 
 understanding, or of placing ourselves too implicitly under the 
 guidance of any mere human " charmer, charm he never so 
 wisely." On one or other of these rocks have the attempters 
 of ecclesiastical reform, cursorily noted in the preceding 
 pages, been wrecked : all have sought to mingle more or less 
 of worldly wisdom with the new arrangements ; none have 
 deemed the Bible a sufficient directory for the formation of a 
 Christian church ; and hence, as human views and interests 
 were regarded in the proposed reforms, it was natural, nay, 
 unavoidable, that human views and interests should clash 
 with, and oppose, their introduction. Whether the reforma- 
 tion of the Roman Catholic church, to be treated of in the 
 following chapters will prove founded on more enduring 
 principles, time must determine. In one respect it is indeed 
 distinguished from all attempts of the kind since Luther's 
 day, viz., by emanating, not from the high ones of the earth, 
 either clerical or legislative, but, in common with every 
 movement of the present day, from the mass of the people, 
 and this movement being still only progressing, leaves room 
 for both hope and fear : even while I write, a movement 
 among the movers is being manifested, implying an approach- 
 ing crisis, by which we shall probably be able, ere long, to 
 pronounce in how far the work is, or is not, of God. Would 
 that temporal rulers might adopt, in regard to it, the advice 
 of Gamaliel, from the conviction that, in as far as the work 
 is of men, it will come to nought ; and in as far as it is of God, 
 they " cannot overthrow it, lest haply they should be found 
 to fight even against God." (Acts v. 38, 39.) 
 
57 
 
 CHAPTER ni. 
 
 THE REFORMATION OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Brief Retrospect of its immediate Causes — French Revolution — 
 Spread of French Principles and Politics — Jesuit Influence re- 
 stored — Priestly Tyranny and Folly — Mixed Marriages — Arch- 
 bishop of Cologne, and the King of Prussia — Anecdote — Rong6 
 — His Birth and Education— Disgust at the Routine of the Bres- 
 law Seminary — Settlement at Grottkau — Suspension from his 
 Chaplaincy — Retirement to Wald-dorf— Thence to Laurahiitte 
 —Lines Written on His Thirtieth Birthday— Bishop Arnoldi's 
 Letter and the Holy Coat — Rough's Letter to Bishop Amoldi — 
 Rough's Degradation and Excommunication — Addresses and 
 Presents to Ronge — Convulsion in the Roman Church— Rough's 
 Appeal to the Liferior Catholic Clergy — Its Rapid and Extensive 
 Sale. 
 
 No Bible Christian is unacquainted with the sure word of 
 prophecy, by which the ultimate fall of the mystical Babylon, 
 and the annihilation of her long tyranny over the nations, are 
 held up to the faith and hope of believers ; and every symjptom 
 of its approaching accomplishment must be hailed with delight, 
 as one ray of that promised flood of gospel light, which shall 
 one day " cover the earth as the waters do the channel of the 
 sea." As such a symptom, and one, indeed, of no small 
 promise, was regarded, by all who witnessed it, that new refor- 
 mation in Germany whose dawn began to streak the horizon 
 
 D 3 
 
58 
 
 THE REFORMATION 
 
 in the autumn of 1844, and which has progressed with a rapi- 
 dity which we would fain hail as prognosticating a bright and 
 glorious day of religious freedom, at no distant date. What 
 though the views of some of those new claimants of liberty of 
 conscience are crude and imperfect, what though, still worse, the 
 sentiments of others are deeply tinged with rationalism, yet a 
 total separation from the papacy, a public abjuration of Rome's 
 supremacy and Rome's dictation, a renunciation of her dis- 
 tinguishing doctrinal errors and practical abuses, together with 
 a bold assertion of the right of private judgment in religious 
 matters, and, best of all, the Bible being proclaimed as the 
 only rule of faith and morals, are great and important steps 
 on the right road, which ought to ensure the pilgrims a deep 
 feeling of sympathy in every Christian bosom. 
 
 But as many of those whose minds are now to be directed 
 to this recent revival of Luther's spirit among his countrymen, 
 may not be familiar with the details of modern German history, 
 it seems desirable to give a succinct sketch of the social and 
 ecclesiastical position which has essentially contributed to bring 
 on the present crisis. 
 
 When, at the era of the French Revolution, the principles 
 and the politics of that distracted and turbulent nation spread 
 like a volcanic eruption over the rest of the Continent, they 
 found prompt and eager disciples in most, if not in all, the 
 states of Germany ; and the infidelity which had long gnawed, 
 as with secret canker, the vitals of society, lurking beneath the'* 
 pompous ritual and orthodox formulas of Romanism, as com- 
 monly as in the more avowed Socinianism of the Lutheran 
 pulpits, broke forth into an almost universally expressed con- 
 tempt for the most sacred institutions, whether of church or 
 state. But when the armies of France followed hard upon 
 the promulgation of her principles, when, with liberty con- 
 tinually sounding from their lips, they brought oppression and 
 enslavement in their hand, and sought to build up the indepen- 
 dence of " the great nation " by the subjection of all others to 
 its rule or its dictation, the eyes of ail Germans were opened. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 59 
 
 The grace of God sanctified the endurance of national, domestic, 
 and personal affliction to many a heart ; and, while struggling 
 powerfully to throw oflp the incubus of French oppression, 
 thousands acknowledged the inefficacy of philosophy to soothe 
 or to sustain, and turned to " him who had smitten, and who 
 alone could heal them." But still, amid this feeling after 
 the God of their fathers, there was much ignorance, much 
 superstition, much mere animal excitement ; and, accordingly, 
 when the beloved soil of their fatherland, under circumstances 
 of such evident divine interposition as to arrest the attention 
 of the most thoughtless, was at length rescued from the op- 
 pressor's rod, the hearts of the faithful in the land had cause 
 for grief as well as joy, for, while they beheld many " asking 
 the way to Zion," they likewise saw the Catholic priesthood 
 zealously employed in using this reaction for the recovery of 
 their ancient ascendancy ; the Jesuits, especially, fast re- 
 gaining their lost influence, and successfully rebuilding the 
 fallen superstitions, and re-rivetting the degrading, spiritual 
 fetters which an infidel philosophy had loosened, but could 
 not remove, because it had nothing either consolatory or 
 satisfying to the mind of man, to offer in exchange. Aided, 
 then, partly by the excitement springing from the attainment 
 of hard-won civil freedom, partly by the mental exhaustion 
 consequent on all violent efforts (which facilitates a return to 
 old accustomed thoughts and habits), favoured, too, by some 
 weak princes, who, having trembled for their thrones, fancied 
 what had been threatened by infidelity might be strengthened 
 by superstition, the Roman Catholic clergy resumed, with an 
 almost incredible rapidity, their former place, and, with a 
 blind infatuation, which seems inlierent in absolute power, 
 whether priestly or princely, forgetting the lessons of expe- 
 rience, forgetting, too, the large strides made by the human 
 mind during the preceding quarter of a century, they soon 
 began again to domineer and to anathematize, with a disre- 
 gard to private feelings and private judgment, more suited to 
 the sixteenth than to the nineteenth century. And all this was 
 
60 
 
 THE REFORMATION 
 
 borne for years (though with inward resentment) by thou- 
 sands of Roman Catholics, who, however indignant and even 
 disgusted with the incorrigibleness of their spiritual guides, 
 feared to occasion worse evils by resisting and exposing them. 
 But, as "water hollows a stone, not by force, but by often fall- 
 ing," so the ceaseless foolhardy intermeddling of the priests, 
 and their senseless obstinacy in upholding, and even reviving 
 disused, if not abrogated, observances, gradually undermined 
 the foundations of their authority to a dangerous degree ; and, 
 notwithstanding that the evil likely to arise was foreseen 
 and striven against by some of the clearer-sighted among the 
 hierarchy, their efforts were frustrated by the wrongheaded 
 conscientiousness of some high in ecclesiastical office. This 
 was peculiarly evidenced in the question of " mixed marriages " 
 (marriages of Catholics with Protestants), which was carried 
 to such a height of animosity some years ago in the Prussian 
 Khine provinces, as to threaten very serious consequences. 
 
 The deposition of the archbishop of Cologne, by the late 
 king of Prussia, was the result of his violent opposition to 
 such marriages, and although the healing measures afterwards 
 adopted by the papal see, and the moderation with which the 
 Prussian monarch followed up this decisive step in vindication 
 of his subjects' freedom of conscience, conspired to lull the 
 question apparently to sleep, still the private persecution, by 
 Romish priests, of such of their flocks as had committed this 
 ecclesiastical offence, and refused to expiate it, not only by 
 bringing up all their children in the Romish faith, but by tor- 
 menting the heretic partner into professing it, went on with 
 undiminished rigour. As one specimen of the extent to which 
 this system has been carried, may be adduced the following 
 anecdote : — 
 
 Monsieur L. Bohm, of Pamay, a gentleman of landed estate, 
 and a most estimable and highly-respected Catholic, who lives 
 in the utmost concord and domestic happiness with his second 
 wife, a professor of the Lutheran faith, attended the church in 
 Liebenau, for the purpose of confession (in accordance with 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 61 
 
 the Roman Catholic ritual) before partaking of the Lord's 
 Supper on Ash Wednesday. Upon entering the confessional, 
 his ears were saluted with this astounding address from the 
 officiatory priest : — " As thou hast married a Lutheran, I 
 must exprobate thee, in the name of the Holy Queen, for 
 thou hast defiled the church, and must first prove thy regard 
 for her, and thy willingness to ask pardon for thy sin. 
 Besides which, thou must engage that any children thou 
 mayst have shall be baptized, and brought up in the Roman 
 Catholic faith, and must also try to persuade thy wife to 
 profess the same ; and, if it cannot be accomplished by fair 
 means, it must by foul. Thirdly, thou must neither read 
 political newspapers nor books ; I will send thee the Kirchen 
 Zeitung (church journal), and other books, which will 
 bring thee to better thoughts. God himself, in his mercy, 
 chastised thee when about to enter into this sinful marriage 
 (alluding to M. Bohm having then had the misfortune to 
 break his arm in several places by falling against his chaff- 
 cutter), and now thou mayest retire for the present ; and, in 
 order to save thee from public disgrace in the eyes of the con- 
 gregation, I will make the usual sign of the cross after thee 
 as thou art leaving the confessional." 
 
 Cut to the heart, M. Bohm did indeed withdraw ; but with 
 the remark that, as he could not bring himself to yield 
 obedience to such commands, he should be compelled to sepa- 
 rate from the Roman Catholic communion ; a resolution which 
 he has already intimated to his friends, and is on the point of 
 carrying into effect.* It is evident that, in this instance, the 
 priest had mistaken his man, and that the overbent bow sprung 
 back, to the injury of the unskilled archer. But with hundreds 
 the result has been far otherwise ; and who can tell, indeed, 
 how far M. Bohm's courage has been stimulated by recent 
 events, and whether the same tyranny, even one year previous, 
 would have sufficed to produce an open renunciation of Rome ? 
 
 * He has since done so. 
 
62 THE REFORMATION 
 
 But, to return to our more immediate subject. The domi- 
 neering spirit of the Roman hierarchy was exercised, not merely 
 on the flock at large, hut on all the inferior clergy and students 
 in the theological seminaries, who were treated with a revolting 
 hauteur J which was felt, hy many a young and talented mind, 
 to he equally degrading and misplaced ; and which drove many 
 individuals, from time to time, silently to forsake the novitiate, 
 though sometimes at the cost of expatriation. 
 
 But the first who, in modern times, dared to make a puhlic 
 stand against this tyranny, and to hear open testimony against 
 superstition, will-worship, and spiritual bondage, was John 
 Ronge, a priest, whose name now belongs not merely to his 
 age and country, but to the history of the church and the 
 world. Born of poor, but honest parents, in the village of 
 Bischofswalde, in the circle of Neisse, in Upper Silesia, on 
 the 16th of October, 1813, two days before the battle of 
 Leipsic, which gave the final blow to foreign rule in Germany, 
 it might almost seem as if there had been some sympathetic 
 coincidence between the birth of this champion of spiritual 
 freedom and the efforts of those who fought, bled, and con- 
 quered, in the cause of civil liberty. At all events, it may 
 well be hoped, that the benefits conferred on Germany, by the 
 moral courage of the then just-born reformer, will not prove 
 inferior in extent, as they certainly are not in importance, to 
 those achieved by the physical energies of his countrymen, 
 on the ever-memorable 18th of October, 1813. 
 
 John Ronge, the third of ten children, was engaged from 
 his sixth to his twelfth year in herding his father's small 
 flock of sheep ; and received the first rudiments of education 
 in the parish school of his native place. At the recommen- 
 dation of his teacher, who probably discovered in him more 
 than common capabilities, his father placed him, in 1827, at 
 the gymnasium of Neisse, where he evinced peculiar taste for 
 German literature and history. In 1836, he attended the 
 Breslaw university, as a student of theology, and after having 
 finished his course of study, entered, in 1839, the priestly 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 63 
 
 seminary at Breslaw. Here commenced his first experience 
 of what the training of a Roman Catholic priest demands 
 from a young, ingenuous, and freedom -loving mind. Passive, 
 unquestioning submission of every faculty of the soul; the 
 blind reception of every doctrine and tradition; the most abject 
 subjection to hierarchal authority, and the total negation of 
 every exercise of volition, or even of thought, are described by 
 Ronge, in the justification of his dissent from Rome, as some 
 of the means employed, in conjunction with a compulsory and 
 mind-enfeebling idleness, to engraft hypocrisy and a cold, 
 heartless selfishness, on the buoyant ardour of youth, and 
 to reduce the dulled and indurated victims to mere passive 
 instruments and drudges of a bloated and ruthless hierarchy. 
 " Forty youths," says he, in the publication above alluded to, 
 and to which we shall again refer more particularly, *' forty 
 youths," in the full bloom of their age and consciousness of 
 their powers, glided like mummied spectres through the limits 
 of the seminary, casting gloomy,^silent glances at each other, 
 as if each tried to discover whether feelings similar to those 
 which rankled within, were shared by his companions ; while 
 each too vainly sought to kindle in himself that devoted heroism 
 which should enable him, at no distant day, to sacrifice the 
 heaven of his youthful hopes, his wishes, and his freedom, in 
 order, as we were taught, to be more capable of promoting the 
 temporal and eternal welfare of our fellow-creatures. But 
 what chiefly terrified and revolted me, was the mental apathy, 
 varied only by an alternating sense of oppression, of frivolity, 
 of discontent, or of total despondency ; for our time was 
 systematically frittered away in the observance of religious 
 ceremonies, and the repetition of Latin prayers, which occupied, 
 including those of the breviary, five to six hours daily ! Five 
 hours of prayers, and of such prayers ! for youths of twenty- 
 four years, who should afterwards prove the " salt of the earth ! " 
 Wounded in heart, and depressed in mind, Ronge left the 
 alumnat in 1840 ; and after vainly seeking a restoration of his 
 tranquillity in the bosom of his family (devoted Roman Catho- 
 
64 THE REFORMATION 
 
 lies), became, in the month of March following, chaplain of a 
 small place, called Grottkau, seven miles from Breslaw. But 
 his zealous and unwearied endeavours became not only daily 
 more intolerably irksome to himself, from a secret dread that, 
 after all, his ministrations to the rising generation were more 
 likely to produce superstition than piety ; but likewise attracted 
 the suspicion of his superiors, who watched his proceedings 
 with a jealous doubt, that he did not attach sufficient importance 
 to the traditions of the church. Hence, on the appearance of 
 a letter in a public print, animadverting on a recent stretch of 
 hierarchal power, Ronge was called to say, upon oath, whether 
 he were or were not the author. Eonge could not deny, and 
 therefore declined answering at all, to escape severe eccle- 
 siastical punishment. He was, consequently, deprived of his 
 chaplaincy, on the ground of contumacy, on the 30th of January, 
 1843, and adjudged to perform severe penances (ad exercitia 
 spiritualiaj in the Breslaw seminary. The decree of suspen- 
 sion accused him, further, of wearing too long hair, and too 
 short a coat, by which the dignity of his clerical services was 
 impaired ! Ronge replied, by a defence, accompanied by a 
 voluntary and highly honourable testimonial to his character 
 and services, from the town of Grottkau, respectably signed, 
 but of course without effecting any change in the Breslaw 
 dean and chapter. He therefore left the city, and retired to 
 the house of his friend and patron. Count de Reichenbach, of 
 Wald-dorf, near Neisse, who had kindly offered him an asylum. 
 Having, while there, made several vain attempts to obtain a 
 fair trial and restoration of his rights, Ronge betook himself, 
 in 1843, to Laurahiitte, one of the largest smelting works in 
 Upper Silesia, close on the Russian frontier ; and employed 
 himself in the tuition of the sons of respectable families be- 
 longing to the establishment; occupying his leisure hours 
 with literary studies, connected with what still filled his mind 
 — the mental advancement of his countrymen ; and for which a 
 secret voice constantly whispered he should one day be able 
 effectually to labour. This foreboding of a higher destiny. 
 

 'S-. ■"- * 
 
 OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. '^^^ >h 65 '^ / •^ 
 
 expressed itself in lines written on his 30tli birth-day, tS^gi^i^ J ^^ ** 
 of October, 1843, which may be thus freely translated : — 
 
 " My noon is come, yet, ancbor'd fast. 
 
 My chained bark cleaves to the shore ; 
 My fairest dream for ever past. 
 And freedom sleeps to wake no more. 
 
 " And yet, how high my bosom swells ! 
 Vainly I turn and seek for rest : 
 ' On ! on !' a secret voice impels ; 
 * The hour may strike, and all is lost. 
 
 " And high in heaven's flaming arch, 
 A dazzhng glory greets my eye ; 
 I hear the the tones of freedom's march, 
 I see her banner woo the sky. 
 
 " Come weal, come woe ! I'll dare the task 
 For which my secret wishes pine ; 
 And the fair goal, for which I ask. 
 It will, it must, it shall be mine." 
 
 "The hour" struck sooner than he himself anticipated ; for 
 the announced exhibition of the so-called "holy" unseamed 
 coat of Treves, which appeared on the 16th July, 1844, in the 
 shape of a circular letter, from Dr. William Arnoldi, bishop 
 of Treves, stating that, " in the cathedral of that city (com- 
 mencing on the 18th of August), for the space of six weeks 
 (a seventh was afterwards added), the unseamed coat of Jesus 
 Christ should be exhibited for worship ; by visiting which, every 
 pilgrim could obtain all the pardon and indulgence for time 
 and eternity, which Pope Leo X. had, in 1514, assured to 
 the pious honourers of this relic ;" and the thousands of 
 pilgrims who flocked there, together with the blasphemous 
 idolatries and immoralities practised by the devotees, reached 
 the ears of Eonge, even in the retirement of the Silesian 
 mountains. The sleeping lion was roused, and, on the 1st of 
 October, he addressed the following letter to the bishop of 
 Treves : — 
 
66 THE REFORMATION 
 
 LETTER OF JOHANNES RONGE TO BISHOP ARNOLDI, OF 
 TREVES. 
 
 " Laurahiitte, October 1, 1844. 
 " That which sounded in our ears as a fable or fairy tale, 
 that Bishop Arnoldi, of Treves, had commenced exhibiting a 
 garment, called, by him, ' the coat of Christ,' is found, alas, 
 to be no fable, or misrepresentation, but a melancholy truth. 
 Yes, Christians of the nineteenth century ! Yes, ye men of 
 Germany ! ye teachers of religion and morals ! it has forced 
 itself upon your convictions, so that you can no longer refuse 
 it your credence ; for, according to the last accounts, 500,000 
 human beings have already made pilgrimage to this relic, and 
 every day sees new thousands hurrying to do it homage ; espe- 
 cially since this garment is averred to have healed the sick, 
 and performed other miracles. Nay, the tale of marvel has 
 even made its way to other lands ; and, in France, priests of 
 congenial minds have started up to maintain that the true 
 coat of Christ is in their possession, and that of Treves is, 
 consequently, spurious ! Truly, to such folly, we may fairly 
 apply the proverbial expression, 'There are some things 
 which, if they do not turn our brains, we have no brains to 
 turn.' Five hundred thousand rational Germans have already 
 made a pilgrimage to Treves, for the purpose of seeing and 
 worshipping a coat ! By far the larger proportion of these five 
 hundred thousand are of the lowest grades in society ; sunk 
 in poverty, ignorance and superstition ; most of them rendered 
 stupid by oppression and privation, and many brutalized by 
 vice. And now they abandon the cultivation of their fields, 
 forsake their various trades, the care of their households, and 
 the education of their children, and all for what ? to hasten 
 to a despicable farce, an idolatrous festival, got up by the 
 Roman hierarchy ; yes, an idolatrous festival, in the fullest 
 sense of the words ; at which thousands of the giddy multitude 
 are misled to expend that reverence and devotional feeling on 
 a mere garment, the work of human hands, which are due to 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 67 
 
 God alone. Think, too, on the injurious consequences of 
 these pilgrimages. Thousands deny themselves almost the 
 necessaries of life, in order to gather sufficient money to 
 carry on the expense of the journey, and the offerings they 
 make to * the coat,' or rather to the clergy ; while others 
 ohtain the needful sums by a ruinous sacrifice of their own 
 and children's property, or by begging ; and, after their return 
 home, hundreds must pine, or starve, or sicken, from the 
 exhausting effects of a long, and toilsome, and useless jour- 
 ney. But great, incalculably great, as are the external and 
 temporal evils resulting from these pilgrimages, the moral 
 injury is incomparably greater. Is it not justly to be feared 
 that many, brought into pecuniary embarras^ent by the ex- 
 penses of the way, will be tempted to seek help, or indemni- 
 fication, in forbidden paths ? Is it not to be dreaded that the 
 peace and honour of many a family may be destroyed by the 
 wives and daughters having made shipwreck of their good 
 name and purity of heart, if not of person, in such promiscuous 
 and long-continued intercourse with strangers ? Lastly, must 
 not, by this unchristian comedy, a wide door be opened 
 to superstition, the merit of works, will-worship, fanaticism, 
 and all that licentiousness which ever follows in its train? 
 Such, then, are the blessings produced by the exhibition of 
 the 'holy coat,' altogether apart from the question of its 
 genuineness ; and the person who thus openly holds up a 
 garment, the work of men's hands, to veneration and wor- 
 ship, who thus misleads the devotional feelings of the 
 credulous or the ignorant, and who lures, by flattering pre- 
 tences, their last pittance from the starving poor ; who holds 
 up the German nation to the contempt of the world, and 
 causes the threatening thunder-clouds, which already hang 
 over our heads, to lour in deeper and darker masses around 
 us, this man is a bishop, a German bishop ! Bishop Arnoldi 
 of Treves ! To you, then. Bishop Arnoldi, do I now address 
 myself; and, with all the weight which my character as priest 
 and instructor of German youth can lend me, I call upon 
 
68 THE REFORMATION 
 
 you, in tlie name of Germany, in the name of her teachers, 
 nay, in the name of Christianity itself, to withdraw the 
 so-called ' holy coat ' from the gaze of the public, and to 
 forbear making the 'offence,' which is already great, still 
 greater. Know you not? yes, as bishop, you must know, 
 that the founder of Christianity bequeathed, not his coat, but 
 his Spirit, to his disciples. His coat. Bishop Arnoldi, of 
 Treves, was the booty of his executioners ! Know you not ? 
 yes, as bishop you must know, that Christ taught, ' God is a 
 Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in 
 spirit and in truth ;' nay, more ; that by such, he can be wor- 
 shipped everywhere, and not merely in the temple at Jerusa- 
 lem, or on Mount Gerizim, or at Treves, by the instrumentality 
 of the holy coat. Know you not ? yes, as bishop, you must 
 know, that the Gospel expressly forbids the worship of every 
 image, of every relic ; that the believers of the apostolic 
 age, and even during the first three centuries, suffered neither 
 pictures nor relics in their churches ; and yet how many, in- 
 disputably genuine, might not they have been able to produce ? 
 Know you not, further, that paying honour to pictures and 
 relics was a heathen practice, with which the fathers of the 
 first three centuries were wont to taunt their neighbours ? as 
 for example, in Dio., inst. ii. c. 2, nee intelligunt homines 
 ineptissimi, quod si sentire simulacra et moveri possent adora- 
 tura hominem fuissent a quo sunt expolita ('pictures, if pos- 
 sessed of life, should rather worship men by whonJ>they were 
 made, than be worshipped by men.') Lastly, know you not? 
 yes, as bishop, you must know, that it was not until the 
 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, that the healthy, manly 
 minds of the Germanic nations submitted to the degradation 
 of relic-worship, introduced by the Crusaders, along with many 
 an eastern fable and tale of wonder, by means of which their 
 high and holy views of the Godhead, derived from the Scrip- 
 tures, were lowered and obscured. All this. Bishop Arnoldi, 
 of Treves, you know as well, if not better, than I can tell it 
 you : you know, likewise, the consequences which an idolatrous 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 69 
 
 reverence for relics, and other superstitions, has brought upon 
 Germany ; I mean, her temporal and spiritual bondage ; and 
 yet you now begin to offer your relics to public adoration ! 
 But supposing, for argument sake, that you do not know aU 
 this, and that in presenting the * holy coat of Treves' for 
 the world's reverence, you really had only the benefit of 
 Christendom at heart, there are still two heavy charges from 
 which you will find it difficult to clear yourself. First, it is 
 unpardonable in you, if the said garment really be possessed 
 of healing power, to have withheld its aid from suffering 
 humanity until the year 1844 ! Secondly, it is unpardonable 
 in you to make merchandize of this miraculous power, by 
 taking money under the name of ' offerings ' from hundreds 
 of thousands of pilgrims. It must, under all circumstances, 
 be unbecoming a bishop to receive money from the hands of 
 starving penury ; but how much more unpardonable, when, 
 but a few weeks since, you were yourself witness, how abso- 
 lute want drove a portion of the population into insurrections, 
 and others to desperate suicide. Neither be you yourself 
 misled by the concourse of pilgrims (hundreds of thousands 
 though they be) into the belief, that the exhibition meets 
 with general acceptance ; for, believe me, there are millions 
 in whom the despicable spectacle has excited deep horror and 
 bitter indignation. Nor are these feelings confined to one 
 class or party. They pervade all classes, all parties ; not even 
 excepting the Catholic priesthood : and hence, the sentence of 
 your condemnation may reach you sooner than you anticipate ; 
 for already has the historian grasped the pen which shall hold 
 up the name of Arnoldi to the contempt, not only of contempo- 
 raries, but of posterity, as the Tetzel of the nineteenth century. 
 But you, fellow-countrymen, whether your dwelling be near, 
 or remote from Treves, exert your every energy to rescue the 
 German name from this foul blot. Apply to the represen- 
 tatives of your towns, the overseers of your parishes, the 
 superintendents of your districts, the members of your pro- 
 vincial parliaments, and urge them to set their shoulders to 
 
70 THE REFORMATION 
 
 the work. But let each, besides, in his own sphere, employ^ 
 all his influence, with decision,. no less than with perseverance, 
 to stem the encroachments, and to limit the tyrannical power, 
 of the Roman hierarchy. For, well dp you know it, not in 
 Treves only is the trade of indulgences carried on ; but east 
 and west, north and south, rosaries, masses, burials, and in- 
 dulgences, are made the instruments of gathering money, 
 and the night of spiritual darkness draws closer and darker 
 around us.*f§:Let all unite, Protestants as well as Catholics, 
 in this sacred cause ; for our honour and happiness, our free- 
 dom is at stake. Insult not the manes of your forefathers 
 who overthrew the capitol, by enduring the Vatican yoke in 
 Germany. Suffer not the laurels of a Huss, a Hutten, and a 
 Luther to be dishonoured. Let your thoughts become words ; 
 your words, deeds. Lastly, my brethren in vocation, who 
 have the weal of your parishioners, and the honour, liberty, and 
 happiness of your compatriots at heart, keep no longer si- 
 lence. You sin against both your country and your sacred 
 calling, if you longer withhold the honest avowal of your 
 better convictions. I have already addressed you in another 
 way*, and will, therefore, now confine myself to these few 
 words : — show yourselves the true disciples of him who sacri- 
 ficed all for TRUTH, and light, and liberty. Show that 
 you have inherited his Spirit, not his coat. 
 
 Signed, " Johannes Eonge, 
 " Catholic Priest." 
 The consequence of this bold publication, as far as the 
 popish party was concerned, was such as might easily have been 
 foreseen. Calls for denial or retraction of the obnoxious letter 
 having been addressed to Ronge by his diocesan, in vain, ex- 
 communication and degradation followed. But, happily, in 
 these days, ecclesiastical censures in Germany are stripped 
 
 * Allusion is here made to an appeal to the inferior clergy, which 
 was long held back by the censorship, but afterwards published : 
 a translation of it will be given in the following pages. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 71 
 
 of their formidable auxiliaries — the prison, the torture, and 
 the stake. And this, as even Catholics have termed it, 
 "impolitic exercise of power," but drew to Rouge's side 
 many to whom he was before an object of indifference. With 
 the rapidity of lightning, his appeal to reason flashed convic- 
 tion from mind to mind; and as, by means of the press, it 
 spread its way throughout the length and breadth of Germany, 
 unnumbered were the hearts and voices which echoed back 
 these sentiments of John Ronge, and, by words of gratitude 
 and encouragement, stirred him up to advance on the bold 
 course, and to maintain the struggle with the Roman hierar- 
 chy and its priestcraft. Nor was the expression of their ad- 
 miration limited to words ; but sums of money, and cups of 
 value (bought by the spontaneous subscription of hundreds 
 he had never seen), conveyed to Ronge speedy and convincing 
 testimony to the concurrence of his countrymen, in an address 
 to which, as it did but embody the secret language of many 
 a heart, might justly be applied the words of the English 
 poet, as being — 
 
 " Wisdom to advantage dress'd. 
 What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd." 
 
 But this, though somewhat, would have been all too little, 
 had not these addresses and presents'spoken, in unmistakeable 
 language, a generally-felt conviction' of the necessity of eccle- 
 siastical reform. For not Protestants only, nor even princi- 
 pally, contributed these expressions of approbation, or saw, in 
 Rouge's attempt, the commencement of a great and saving 
 change in the Romish church. Far from it ; into the very 
 bosom of that church the bold lance of defiance had been 
 hurled, and there a corresponding movement began to appear; 
 men awoke from that unthinking apathy, that mental cata- 
 lepsy, the natural result of the blind credulity and passive 
 obedience which custom had fastened on them from genera- 
 tion to generation; and the confession of faith openly pro- 
 fessed by the then small, but now flourishing, congregation 
 
72 THE REFORMATION 
 
 at Schneidemulil, headed by their able pastor, Czerski, must 
 be regarded as a most striking evidence that the Roman 
 Catholic church was, as a body, on the eve of an important 
 revolution ; for it does not appear that Rouge's address had 
 reached their ears when they separated from the Romish 
 communion. 
 
 But to return to Rouge. Undeterred by the abuse of the 
 Roman Catholic, or the vituperative attacks of the ultramon- 
 tane press, and regardless, alike, of the fulminations of the 
 diocesan chapter, and the ecclesiastical excommunication of 
 Bishop Latussek, Ronge continued to labour unceasingly in 
 the work of reformation ; and even before his " Justification" 
 had left the press, his long looked-for, and, indeed, long- 
 printed, " Appeal to the inferior Catholic Clergy," was, at last, 
 given to the public, despite the temporary delay occasioned 
 by the interference of the Leipsic police. It powerfully 
 advocates the cause of light and improvement ; and has, there 
 is reason to believe, opened the eyes of many to the evils of 
 the hierarchy. 
 
 Not only from its own merits, but, as being the first appeal 
 made by Rouge directly to his countrymen, it deserves a place 
 here : — 
 
 "appeal to the inferior catholic clergy. 
 
 "When I took pen in hand to address these words to you, I 
 asked myself, ' Will they listen to me ? or, must my appeal 
 pass away unheeded and unimproved V But no, my friends 
 and fellow-labourers in the ministry, I feel, and am sure, that 
 it will not pass thus away. Hitherto, little or nothing has 
 been done for you, who, under the appellation of inferior clergy, 
 are regarded as being, en masse, unfitted for the reception or 
 exercise of moral freedom ; as morally dead, in fact, although 
 you compose the real foundation and kernel of the clerical 
 body. But feelings of duty and aifection compel me to 
 address you ; and I now do so at a time in which even the 
 laity no longer think and act in accordance with the dead 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 73 
 
 letter, but the spirit of religion. Is it becoming, then, that 
 you, the priests and teachers of the people, should be content 
 to remain in a state of blind indecision ? Can it be, that you 
 alone are so deeply sunk in Rome's thraldom, as to be inca- 
 pable of raising yourselves above the dead letter of hierarchal 
 prescription? I cannot, I will not, believe it; for then I 
 must believe that you have forgotten that you are men; I 
 must doubt the triumph of the kingdom of Christ and the 
 cause of righteousness; I must doubt the perfectibility and 
 the advancement of mankind, which you ought and must pro- 
 mote. Oh, yes, I have a better opinion of you, because I 
 have suffered, and do still suffer, with you ; because I know 
 how gigantic is the yoke you are called to bear (the bearing 
 of which is lauded to you as the holiest duty, the greatest 
 merit) ; because many of you have lamented to me over the 
 incurable pangs which the consciousness of being passive 
 slaves of Rome inflicts ; and because I know how, with all 
 the hopelessness of despair, numbers of you have longed, and 
 wished for, the hour of release ; and therefore do I place on 
 you, and in the conquering power of the truth which I proclaim, 
 my fervent confidence of a sure result. 
 
 " Well do I know, indeed, that not all of you are capable of 
 at once bursting the degrading fetters of Rome's servitude, and 
 standing forth as independent German priests, although the 
 very thought is enough to inspire every bosom. But I do 
 hope that my words may suffice to arouse many a torpid, to 
 encourage many a dejected, to open the eyes of many a blinded 
 one ; and that many of you, stimulated by my example, may 
 dare to cast an unprejudiced glance on your inner man, and 
 then, with a cry of horror and woe over the position you 
 occupy, throw yourselves into the spiritual conflict, in order 
 to be men once more. To this I summon you, as men, as 
 independent men ; and this is the feeling which I desire to 
 awaken in your breasts, for the sake of our holy religion, for 
 the sake of your own selves, and of our common father-land. 
 You should become men, filled with a sense of your dignity as 
 
74 THE REFORMATION 
 
 such, as well as with that of your great vocation, and glowing 
 with a holy zeal to elevate the nations of the earth, both 
 spiritually and morally. You should be men, full of love for 
 your calling, and burning to make your fellow-creatures happy ; 
 men imbued with a holy fire, to procure equality of rights for 
 all your fellow-men, without distinction, inflamed with the 
 desire that the reign of righteousness and brotherly love might 
 arise for all the children of men ; full of zeal to evince your 
 sentiments by deeds, and to convert the truth, ' that all men 
 are brethren,' from a mere assertion into a sacred reality. 
 Such men ought you to be, for your calling demands it : but 
 such you are not now, for you are the slaves of the pope ; yes, 
 slaves, neither elevated by a sense of your dignity as men, nor 
 of the greatness of your commission, though you call yourselves 
 ' the chosen,' ' the favoured,' ' the consecrated servants of 
 the Lord.' You do not glow for the honour, the moral 
 freedom, the true well-being of your fellow-citizens. You 
 even oppress the middle and lower classes, though they be 
 those of your parents, and your brothers and sisters, with the 
 sweat of whose faces you are nourished, and yourselves aid in 
 condemning and keeping them down, when they seek to free 
 themselves from the spiritual thraldom of Rome. You gor- 
 mandize, while they hunger ; you live in riot, while they are in 
 penury. Is this false ? Look, there, at a bishop, with his forty- 
 thousand dollars of yearly revenue, and hard by a weaver, who 
 scarcely earns five silver groschen per week, for the support 
 of his family. You are not filled with sacred zeal to promul- 
 gate righteousness, truth, and light, although you hypocritically 
 proclaim from pulpit and altar, ' We alone possess truth, peace, 
 humanity, education, and moral freedom ; we alone are the 
 trustworthy friends and guides of the people. To us must 
 they be confided, if they are to attain happiness after they have 
 left this scene of earthly misery.' Many of you, partly con- 
 sciously, and partly unconsciously, strive to spread superstition, 
 darkness, and spiritual abjectness among the people. You 
 will exclaim, 'Proof, proof!' and you shall have proof, a 
 
OF THE N1NETEE:NTH CENTURY. 75 
 
 hundred, aye, a thousand fold, m the fruits of your preaching 
 and practice. Look at your consecrated priesthood ; what cor- 
 ruption ! Look at the people ; what wretchedness ! ' A good 
 tree cannot bring forth bad fruit ; ' the corruption of the 
 priesthood is the natural fruit of your spirit-killing subjection 
 to your superiors ; the people's wretchedness is the fruit of 
 your oppressions. The pressure under which you yourselves 
 groan, is fearful, is unspeakable ; for you are robbed of the 
 freedom of your reason, of your will, and of your heart. But, 
 because you are yourselves slaves, you desire to see your fellow- 
 citizens such ; your minds are enchained by tyrannical edicts 
 and bulls ; the free flight of your thoughts is hemmed by 
 curses. Your reason is the vile servant of your fears and 
 your selfishness. The so-called church, but, more properly, 
 the ambition of Eome, has enclosed your faith within such 
 narrow limits, that every new idea naturally suggests the 
 trembling question, * Is it orthodox ? ' for these barriers of 
 faith are guarded round by devils, who endanger your salvation 
 so soon as your mind ventures to overstep the prescribed limits. 
 Can you deny it ? Does not the fear of Satan and hell play a 
 much more important part with you than love to God and your 
 fellow-men ? And what doctrines are you prohibited to believe 
 and to teach ? You are further robbed of the freedom of your 
 will. You must render blind obedience to your superiors ; for 
 the command of passive, unquestioning submission, is the first 
 and great commandment of the Komish church. Without it 
 all your virtues are worthless ; and were you in all else fault- 
 less, this would make you criminals. The church of Eome, 
 that kind mother, has deprived you of the common rights of 
 humanity ; so that, as you have seen in my case, you can no 
 longer claim what worldly tribunals do not deny to the greatest 
 delinquent — the right of a fair trial. What, then, is this church, 
 before whose high pretensions you tremble ? Know you, then, 
 that you, in fact, tremble before yourselves ? for you are no 
 less essential portions of the church, than your brethren in 
 office, who officiate at the cathedral, or sit on the bishop's 
 
 E 2 
 
76 THE REFORMATION 
 
 throne ; nay, no less than that Italian hishop, whom you call 
 pope. Have you forgotten that these, your official brethren, 
 whom you seem disposed to worship as gods, neither were, nor 
 wished to be regarded in the first ages of Christianity, as 
 anything above what you are ? Have you forgotten that the 
 bishops and priests were, in those days, chosen by the church, 
 that is, by the people who sat in council, too, along with them ? 
 Even amid all the darkness of the middle ages, the inferior 
 clergy still possessed synods, and could insure attention to their 
 will, when they acted in unity. What have you in the nine- 
 teenth century? Meetings of the arch-presbytery, where 
 each fears to utter a free sentiment in the presence of right 
 reverend brethren. You are mere machines ; and, in regard 
 of your superiors, wholly divested of will. Demand, then, the 
 restitution of the indefeasible rights of humanity. 
 
 "Again, you have been robbed of the freedom of the heart. 
 In you, it is deadened or corrupted ; and how ? Shall I hesi- 
 tate to speak out boldly, lest I should oifer a vantage-ground 
 to the enemy, and put a weapon into the hands of common 
 minds against myself? But, oh! the interests in question 
 are too great, too important, too sacred, involving, as they do, 
 the holiest laws and feelings of nature ; involving, likewise, 
 the happiness and well-being of millions, the virtue, the 
 honour, and the liberty of nations, that I should not gladly 
 expose myself to any suspicion, to any attack, in their defence ; 
 I say, then, in plain words, love, marriage, family ties, are 
 torn from you by the law of celibacy ; and thus are your hearts 
 deadened or corrupted. I say, that this law of celibacy, 
 originating not in the gospel, but in papal ambition, and intro- 
 duced with blood and murder, corrupts your hearts. Tliis 
 command robs you of the hope of possessing an honourable 
 wife, by whose love you would, yourselves, not only be made 
 happier, but ennobled. It robs you of those joys, those hopes 
 of love, which children can bestow ; it impoverishes your 
 feelings, it lays waste your bosoms. But, yet more, this com- 
 mand demoralizes the impulses of nature ; turns you over to 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 77 
 
 intercourse with those disgraces to the female sex, by whom 
 so many are sunk in the slough of dissoluteness, and become 
 to their flocks the objects of disgust or of mockery. This 
 command robs you of the insignia of manly openness, and 
 stamps you hypocrites. When, then, liberty of thought, of will, 
 and of affection, have been taken from you, what remains to 
 you worth living for ? Can a richly-covered board indemnify 
 you for the loss of the best blessings of life ? Indemnify 
 you ! when the cry of want and misery, from thousands of 
 your fellow-creatures, breaks in upon your joyous revels? Or 
 can the groans of others' suffering add zest to your selfish 
 banquet ? You call yourselves the fathers and teachers of the 
 people, then show yourselves really such, by helping to free 
 them from bodily and spiritual wretchedness. To you, above 
 all others, belongs this sacred duty ; but do you ask how it is 
 to be performed ? Not by throwing a few pence to the poor, 
 with the view of lofty superiority ; which, besides that it often 
 incenses as much as it lowers the receiver, is but as a drop 
 of water cast upon a fiery glow. No, enter the lists against 
 the tyrannical power of the Roman hierarchy ; put an end to 
 superstition, that poison of all free industry and virtue ; break 
 down the degrading barriers within which religion and con- 
 science have been confined ; and, in fighting boldly for the 
 temporal and spiritual wants of your flocks, you will promote 
 your own, as well as their interest. Rise, rise, I beseech you, 
 from your state of abject submission. Burst the chains of 
 your cowardice and your shame. Tear asunder the web of 
 hypocrisy which Rome has wound around you, and you will 
 become true priests, and true, because German teachers ; and 
 though now you are nothing, you will then become everything^ 
 for you will be men. Open your minds, at last, to the con- 
 viction that the priest exists for the people, and not the peo- 
 ple for the priest ; and that Christ established his religion, 
 and gave the new commandment of brotherly love, in order 
 that mankind should become good and happy in this life ; and 
 that it is not his will that they should, as the Roman hierarchy 
 
78 THE REFORMATION 
 
 teaches, pine in body and soul on earth, in order to attain 
 felicity beyond the grave. Dare to hold, and to act up to those 
 sentiments, for it is your duty. Cast off the silly priestly 
 arrogance, with which Eome so well knows how to inoculate 
 her sons ; and neither live nor die for Eome's bishop and her 
 imperious prelates, but with and for your fellow-citizens. 
 Seek to obtain an honourable station ; seek the esteem and 
 love of your fellow-men, by activity, decision, and virtue, rather 
 than by watching or begging for some lazy and detested bene- 
 fice ; and learn, at length, to blush for the lacqueyism which 
 humbly accepts a kick from the right reverend superior, rather 
 than an admonition from an honest, unprejudiced man. Ven- 
 ture to combat for your nation's independence and moral free- 
 dom ; your fellow-citizens will support you gladly. Employ 
 the pulpit, the confessional, the chair of the lecturer, which 
 you have so long abused, to promote the darkness and degra- 
 dation of your nation, for its elevation and freedom. Then, 
 and thus, will you become independent with, and through, its 
 independence. Let your first aim be to promote the freedom 
 of the elementary schools ; and that the congregations may 
 have the power of choosing their pastors. Do you keep pace 
 with the spirit of the people and of the age. Yes, go hand 
 in hand with your nation, and you will be invincible ; you will 
 do marvels. Do I dream, in speaking thus ? Look for your- 
 selves, in common life. Look at the result of the temperance 
 societies, in the promotion of which you have, indeed, so 
 far pursued the advancement of your flocks ; though many of 
 you have adopted means to accomplish it, more injurious to 
 their moral character than the most sottish drunkenness could 
 have proved. Do you fear the chapter, the bishops, or the 
 pope ? Not one of them can do aught without you ; for, through 
 you alone is their power effective ; and on your pusillanimity, 
 your ignorance, their present despotism is built. Demand 
 assemblies of the church, and hold them, as was formerly the 
 case, in conjunction with your congregations. Demand that 
 your spiritual superiors should judge according to law and 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 79 
 
 justice, and not at their own arbitrary discretion ; and consent 
 no longer to be their abject, their passive slaves. Be not 
 deceived by any apparent increase of hierarchal power ; it 
 wiU, it must, fall ; for, it is a confession of retrogradation, and 
 Divine Providence hath declared perfection to be the world's 
 goal, * Be ye perfect, as my father in heaven is perfect ! ' 
 Think not that the hierarchy is increasing in influence, be- 
 cause in some German states numerous converts are made to 
 the Eomish communion. The world must, and shall learn, 
 that their conversions are chiefly the result of Jesuit intrigues 
 and Jesuit gold — gold, which those spiritual and consecrated 
 freebooters in Rome's service draw out of the pockets of the 
 deluded populace, by their fosiry and their prayer societies, 
 or obtain from the wealthy by the more wholesale robbery of 
 legacy-hunting. But when the people shall become aware 
 of this, and perceive how religion, so sacred in its eyes, is 
 misused by the Romish hierarchy, it will arise in its wrath, 
 and relentlessly cast off Rome and its hypocritical satellites. 
 
 " You will, perhaps, object ; a large proportion of our people 
 cling now, more than ever, to all Roman ceremonials ; trusting 
 in works of sanctity ; hastening to make pilgrimages and 
 purchase absolution-tokens, in all which, not merely the 
 ignorant millions, but the educated, take share ; refined matrons 
 and maidens join the processions, and the younger clergy are 
 distinguished for fanaticism. 
 
 " 'Does not all this argue for the growth and the triumph 
 of the Romish confession?' It is but too true, that such 
 signs of the times do appear ; signs which would better befit 
 the sixteenth than the ninteenth century ; but they are the 
 cursed fruits of your own cowardice ; the refsult of your defi- 
 ciency in moral courage to oppose the Romanists. You haVe 
 not dared to confront those Romish wolves in German sheep's 
 clothing ; have not ventured to give honour to God and the 
 truth ; have not dared to sacrifice your benefices to your own 
 convictions, or the benefit of your congregations and your 
 nation: and hence it comes that Rome's satellites could fear- 
 
80 THE REFORMATION 
 
 lessly domineer in Catholic Germany, could speak big, shame- 
 lessly revile and intrigue, spreading abroad superstition and 
 darkness, tyrannizing over their flocks ; and were able, free 
 and unhindered, to mislead the credulous multitude and stir up 
 the wildest fanaticism in the breasts of the younger clergy ; 
 they could proclaim the grossest abuses as essential to Christ- 
 ianity, and give out the most senseless inventions for gospel 
 truth ; for seldom, indeed, did any lift his voice to oppose 
 their will ; still seldomer had he the courage to persevere, 
 when they commanded silence. Hence, too, the haughty port 
 of these Romanists, and the bold arrogance with which they 
 presume to designate those who do not pay homage to their 
 views (although forming, in the middle of Germany, the majo- 
 rity of the inhabitants), ' street rabble' (gassen-pobel). But 
 woe for them ; the day has broken, the mask of hypocrisy will 
 soon be torn from their visage. The abused confidence of the 
 people and the younger clergy will cause the flames of a just 
 indignation to burst forth ; the light of truth will shine brighter 
 and brighter; the fabric of lies will fall, and the core-decayed 
 joints and beams of the hierarchal building crumble into 
 dust ; the spirit of truth, of righteousness, and of brotherly 
 love, can never be crushed ; for Christ has promised, not to 
 Romish dominance, but to his own church, ' The Spirit re- 
 mains with you even to the end, and the Spirit will make you 
 free.' * But this Spirit you must seek, this Spirit you must 
 follow ; and then you need fear nothing, your conquest is 
 secured. But you will not flnd this Spirit on the silken pillows 
 of your indolence ; it will not meet you as you luxuriate on 
 downy couches ; the Spirit reveals itself, as formerly, so now, 
 in, and though, humanity. Rise, with seriousness and zeal, to 
 promote the advancement and moral freedom of humankind ; 
 lend a willing ear to the cry of distress ; receive the wishes of 
 your fellow- citizens into your hearts ; and you will find the 
 Spirit, he will reveal himself to you ; you will hear him in the 
 
 * Probably in allusion to Matt, xxviii. 20 ; and 2 Cor. iii. 17. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 81 
 
 voice, in the call of your nation.* And what is this call ? 
 Its words are, ' Separate yourselves from the degrading, un- 
 christian despotism of the bishop of Kome ; and, in unison 
 with your lay fellow-citizens, confess the Christian Catholic 
 religion, in its pure and simple sublimity, free from Rome's 
 curses, compulsions, and hypocrisy, and form a German Catho- 
 lic (that is universal) church, in which you shall no longer be 
 Romish, but German priests and teachers of the people.' 
 This is the voice of your countrymen, the call of your fellow- 
 subjects ; will you follow it ? Will you commence the work 
 without the fear of man ? Oh, I implore, I abjure you to do so. 
 Enter on it without delay ; now, while there is yet time. I 
 supplicate ; nor do I blush to be a supplicant, in so great, so 
 glorious a cause. For I supplicate it in the name of religion, 
 in the name of the independence and peace of Germany ; and 
 I implore it for your own dignity, honour, virtue, and happi- 
 ness, as men. Many of you may reply, ' But then we must 
 sever ourselves from the pope, and that is against gospel 
 doctrines ; for Christ says to Peter, ' Thou art' the rock on 
 which I will build my church, and Peter was bishop of Rome ; 
 and the pope is his successor.' What, my brethren do 
 you take up the words of the exalted Founder of our religion 
 according to the sense of the dead letter ? Know ye not, that 
 Christ founded his church on the faith and love of Peter, and 
 his other disciples and followers, but not on the person of 
 Peter ? Know ye not that Rome never has shrunk from any 
 deception ; that her prelates and servants, as history well teaches 
 us, avail themselves of every means, however unhallowed, to 
 further her interests ? Know ye not, that power and riches 
 have ever been the chief objects of desire with the Roman 
 college ? For that reason, no Catholic is allowed freedom of 
 
 * It is impossible to read this perversion of Scripture, mingled, as 
 it is, with such high and benevolent aspirations, without a sigh, and 
 the earnest wish, that the Spirit which Christ promised to his people, 
 and by which alone they can be made free indeed, may yet be accorded 
 to the fearless, and, we must believe, honest, though as yet spiritually 
 Wind, Kong^ ! 
 
 £ 3 
 
82 THE REFORMATION 
 
 speech or thought in religious matters, but must, with the 
 obedience which belongs to the brute creation, receive and obey 
 the commands of his priest. Oh, you know this well ; and are 
 conscious that you, even you, act contrary to the religion of 
 Christ, when you aid in degrading your fellow-citizens by im- 
 posing papal fetters on them. But you have not courage to 
 emancipate yourselves by risking the loss of daily bread, and 
 you dread suffering and labour ; but such fears are unworthy 
 of the disciples of truth and of Christ. Such ought to fear 
 nothing, but the degradation of themselves and their fellow- 
 men, which is inseparable from the papal yoke ; and therefore 
 it must be their sacred duty to abjure the Koman hierarchy, 
 and become true priests to their nation. Or, do you own your 
 inability to promote the welfare and salvation of your fellow- 
 citizens? Do you feel the need of an Italian bishop, of a 
 foreign power ? You are more capable of promoting their 
 weal than any distant Italian bishop. Or do you dread that 
 the abjuration of Rome will lead to discontent ? Fear it not ; 
 we are men, and will act as men. Let us act with manly 
 courage and consideration ; unite with our fellow-citizens, and, 
 assembled with one accord in free interchange of counsel and 
 opinion, let that which is resolved on as necessary, be carried 
 into effect. Those undertakings cannot excite discontent, in 
 which every shadow of compulsion is unknown. Discontent is, 
 indeed, the natural result of arbitrary power and Romish rule, 
 which knows no law but its own interest, its own supremacy. 
 The Romish hierarchy drives Germany's daughters from the 
 altar, if they have bestowed their hearts on men of a differing 
 confession. It profanes the bridal, virgin modesty of our 
 sisters, by wanton claims, which they foist upon religion. It 
 presumes to refuse the sacrament to Oerman mothers, if their 
 children are not brought up in the Roman Catholic faith. It 
 foams with rage at the idea of every reconciliation between 
 Catholics and Protestants. It is the resolute opposer of peace, 
 however much the people may long for it. 
 
 "The Roman college has laid upon us an unchristian yoke ; 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 83 
 
 introduced abuses into our religion, wMch foster superstition 
 and vice, and deprives us of the doctrine of the gospel. To 
 remove these abuses must he our first care. We must hanish 
 the Latin tongue from our churches, which i& incomprehensible 
 to our people, and is the memorial of our spiritual slavery ; 
 of that flagitious coercion which sins against the clearest awards 
 of the gospel; for, Paul says, 1 Cor. xiv. 19, 'I had rather 
 speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice 
 I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an 
 unknown tongue.' And, in the 23rd verse, he declares ex- 
 pressly, and most justly, the use of a foreign, uncomprehended 
 language, to be the act of the insane. 
 
 " We must further get rid of auricular confession — that insti- 
 tution of mental torture ; that degrading inquisitorial tribunal, 
 which stamps men hypocrites or blinded slaves of the priest- 
 hood ; which holds back' so many Catholics from the partici- 
 pation of the sacred supper ; and which, devoid of all scrip- 
 tural foundation, was first introduced by an ambitious pope, 
 twelve hundred years after the Christian era. 
 
 "We must further abrogate all those pernicious Roman con- 
 trivances for squeezing money out of the people, which under- 
 mine true piety, and degrade the priesthood into mere tax- 
 gatherers for the Roman treasury. Nothing must be left 
 standing, but the pure, true Christian Catholic religion ; and 
 its great commandment, * to love one another,' must be evi- 
 denced, not by words only, but by our conduct towards all 
 our brethren of the human family, of whatever confession or 
 religion they may be. This is, in short, my friends, what I feel 
 myself called upon to address to you, as professing disciples 
 of the truth, and authorized teachers of religion. It is an ex- 
 postulation to which, love for my fellow-citizens, and anxiety 
 for their salvation, well-being and honour, pressed from me; 
 an expostulation which, love to you yourselves, who most 
 severely pine under the Roman yoke, impelled me to utter. 
 It remains with you to decide whether you will follow the 
 urgent calls of religion, of your fellow-citizens, and of your 
 
84 REFORMATION OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 own better convictions. Woe, woe be to such of you as, 
 refusing to listen to this call, prefer remaining in hypocrisy 
 and delusion. The tirst indignation of your people, now 
 awakened to consciousness, will pronounce your sentence in a 
 voice of thunder, and history will engrave the judgment in its 
 pages with indelible characters. Yet the work will be com- 
 pleted without your aid. But to you who follow this call, you 
 who, armed with moral courage, determine to shrink from 
 no sacrifice, no labour, in the performance of your duty ; all 
 happiness and blessing be upon you ! yes, happiness and 
 blessing to all such ! The approbation of their own bosoms 
 will be their rich reward ; the love of the nation and the inef- 
 fable tribute of history will carry down their names to latest 
 posterity." 
 
 This powerful appeal spread, despite the utmost efforts of 
 the papal party, throughout Germany, and (having been trans- 
 lated into Polish) even made its way into Poland and the 
 adjoining countries; so that three editions, of ten thousand 
 each, were speedily bought up. 
 
 His next publication bore the title, " My Justification," 
 which, with the various documents bearing on the circumstances 
 which led to, and followed, his withdrawal from the Romish 
 communion, will be read with interest. Although the law of 
 censorship prohibits the publication of libels against the church 
 of Rome, by any members of her own communion, yet the 
 censor, thinking the pamphlet of an excommunicated priest 
 could not come within that category, permitted the printing of 
 the Justification ; and as all works printed with censorial sanc- 
 tion can be immediately distributed, the application afterwards 
 made for its suppression, by the district censorship, came too 
 late to detain more than fifty copies, which chanced still to be 
 in the printing-office ; all the rest, of an edition of ten thousand, 
 had been already dispatched to every part of Germany, and, 
 though the Romish clergy prohibited its perusal, the power of 
 curiosity was too strong for even priestly influence, and the 
 dangerous truths were read with avidity. 
 
85 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 reformation of the nineteenth century 
 (continued). 
 
 Kongo's Justification — His humble Birth and Occupation — Choice 
 of the Clerical Profession — Disgust at the Eomish Clergy — 
 Departure from the Alumnat — Appointment to a Chaplaincy at 
 Grottkau — Excommunication from the Romish Church — Stric- 
 tures on Rough's Opinions. 
 
 " I WAS born on the 16th of October, 1813, in Bischofs- 
 walde, a village in the circle of Neisse, in the close vicinity of 
 the Sudetic mountain chain. I was the third born child of 
 my parents, who had ten children besides myself (of whom, 
 however, two died early), and as our whole support depended 
 on the produce of a small hereditary farm, possessed by my 
 father, we were early accustomed to industry ; and whilst my 
 eldest brother assisted in the field-work, I, being the second 
 surviving child, was entrusted with the charge of our small 
 flock of sheep. This was my chief occupation during spring, 
 summer and autumn, from my sixth to my twelfth year : in 
 winter, other country employment was found for me. My 
 father was of a grave and fearless nature, with a sound judg- 
 ment, and wholly devoid of superstition. He died in March, 
 1842. Our mother, who devoted herself unceasingly to the 
 care of her family, was taken from us in October, 1831. My 
 education commenced in the village school of my native place. 
 
86 THE REFORMATION 
 
 where the instruction was, indeed, very limited; as the only 
 branches taught, even to the upper classes, were reading, 
 writing, arithmetic, the catechism, and the Bible history. It 
 was only in the last year of my being at school, that geography 
 and the history of Silesia were added to my studies. During 
 the many solitary hours of my shepherd's life I committed to 
 memory the catechism, and the tasks of Bible history, given 
 me by my teacher, and many serious thoughts pressed upon 
 my mind concerning religion generally, a life beyond the 
 grave, time and eternity ; and these thoughts often filled me 
 with melancholy. The persuasions of one of my teachers in- 
 duced my father to send me to the gymnasium of Neisse (a 
 decision to which his numerous family would most likely have 
 prevented him forming for himself), and accordingly I entered 
 it in 1827, and left it in 1836. Foreign languages had little 
 interest for me. Horace and the other Eoman authors were, 
 therefore, no favourites ; but I had the greatest passion for Ger- 
 man literature and history, and Rotteck enchanted me. It 
 was with delight that, in 1836, I entered the university of 
 Breslaw. I felt and knew that I was free, and I would have 
 blushed to think myself capable of abusing that freedom by 
 listlessness and sloth. In common with a number of noble- 
 minded youths, my earnest desire was to cultivate my mind 
 and strengthen my body*. I fixed on theology as my pro- 
 fession, because, feeling a great desire for imparting instruc- 
 tion, the clerical state seemed to me to offer the best oppor- 
 tunities for gratifying that predilection. It is true, I dreaded 
 its formal restraints ; yet I then little knew the compulsory 
 and hypocritical system of the Roman hierarchy, with which I 
 was afterwards but too well acquainted; and, although many 
 of my friends tried to divert me from my purpose, I deemed 
 myself possessed of sufficient strength of mind to meet the 
 difficulties, and even to labour with success, in the sacred 
 calling. My father contributed so liberally to my support, that 
 
 * Certainly somewhat otherwise than is prescribed by the Ro- 
 manists. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 87 
 
 a very small additional stipend enabled me to defray all the 
 university expenses ; and he, at the same time, left me at full 
 liberty to decide on my profession. But I was too well aware 
 of the effort my father was thus called upon to make, burdened, c.iA^ 
 as he was, with the care of providing for eight other children, 
 not to desire to free him from my charge as soon as possible. 
 This was, and I am not ashamed to own it, an additional 
 motive with me for devoting myself to the priestly office ; and 
 how many are there now in it, who have formed the same 
 decision from a similar desire ? During my university course 
 I accomplished my term of military duty, by serving, from 1837 
 to 1838, in the corps of sharp-shooters, commanded by Major 
 von Firks, then stationed at Breslaw. In December, 1839, I 
 entered the alumnat, or priestly seminary; and thus com- 
 menced for me a period of the bitterest sorrows and severest 
 conflicts I have yet been called to endure. The confidence 
 I had till then cherished in the ministers of religion, was 
 banished from my breast, by what I now saw of their mode 
 of life, when brought into closer proximity with them ; and it 
 filled me with horror and disgust to perceive how religion 
 was perverted by them into an engine for the degradation and 
 enslavement of the people ; and how I, myself, was entangled 
 in the fearful web of hypocrisy, with which Rome surrounds 
 her votaries from the cradle to the grave ; while the most 
 holy ordinances were desecrated into means of delusion and 
 oppression. I felt the fetters, of which I had hitherto been 
 ignorant, pressing with burning agony upon every limb ; and 
 well could I perceive how many of my companions writhed 
 under sufferings, to the cause of which they did not dare 
 allude. The policy of the Roman hierarchy contrives to 
 enchain every Catholic with bonds, from which there is no 
 escaping ; and, more wonderful still than the striking of water 
 by Moses from the flinty rock, they know how to extract money 
 from the most sordid penury. But their chief aim and 
 greatest skill are bent upon the education of their ministering 
 servants, the inferior clergy ; and them, therefore, they strive 
 
88 THE REFORMATION 
 
 to shackle inextricably, by both internal and external bonds. 
 The chief armory for such degrading manacles is the alumnat. 
 There the youth, who seeks to become a teacher of mankind, 
 is deeply and painfully enstamped with the seal of bondage. 
 There he is initiated into the mysteries of sanctimonious indo- 
 lence. There his mind, enslaved by fear and the ecclesiastical 
 statutes, is trained to passive obedience, and his inmost soul 
 inoculated with hypocrisy and cold selfishness, until all 
 of human dignity is expelled, and he becomes the unresisting 
 instrument of a foreign will. The torture involved in this 
 process is horrible. Nature rises instinctively against it, 
 and rebels against the demanded sacrifice of the Creator's 
 fairest bestowments. But, by and by, the slave grows calm, 
 and even calmer in proportion to the depth of the grave in 
 which his moral freedom and his manly dignity lie buried. 
 Seldom does even an isolated cry of despair burst from the 
 recesses of his lacerated heart ; or, if so, it is soon drowned in 
 the sonorous prayer of the hypocrites. Every nerve quivers 
 within me, when I recal to mind the insults and ignominious 
 treatment to which we were subjected ; and I could wish that 
 my pen were a flaming torch, to illumine the dark, deep pro- 
 found, in which, while sacred hymns resounded, human hearts 
 were deadened, human minds sunk to apathy. Yet I need 
 but to detail simply what I saw and felt, in order to ensure 
 from those of my fellow-countrymen — who are, as yet, happily 
 unacquainted with the fearful system of Romish stratagem — 
 feelings of tender sympathy and virtuous indignation. On en- 
 tering the seminary, in December, 1839, 1 was struck with the 
 expression of the countenances of the greater portion of my 
 companions ; on almost all of which, consternation, timidity, 
 dismay, profound sorrow, or a sort of desperate resignation, 
 was plainly to be traced. Six of us, who had been previously 
 acquaintances, and even friends, were consigned to one cell on 
 the fijst evening of our arrival ; and so great was our astonish- 
 ment at arrangements so different from what we had expected, 
 that each sought to forget his speechless grief in sleep, without 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 89 
 
 having the courage to utter a word to one another." Then 
 follows a paragraph, quoted at page 63 ; after which, Ronge 
 thus proceeds : " The youth of four-and-twenty had severed 
 himself from the world, and snapped asunder the dearest ties 
 which bind man to man. That ardent enthusiasm, which 
 bounds forward to grasp a bright futurity, was quenched ; and 
 the chdling poison of egotism, gnawing envy, and jealous mis- 
 trust, replaced it in the warm veins of youth. We all felt as 
 if surrounded by an ever-enduring and impenetrable shroud, 
 and as if doleful spirits flitted around us in the darksome 
 night, pouring their funeral dirges on our ear. The despotism 
 of Rome's hierarchy glared continually before me, like some 
 hideous monster which first digs graves in which to bury living 
 youths — graves which engulf the freedom and the happiness of 
 nations ; then, like the vampire, gluts itseK with their blood. 
 The youth, who desires to become a teacher of his kind, finds 
 his manly candour annihilated ; for he must pay blind submis- 
 sion, and yield to the most abject degradation, since the initiatory 
 command imposed upon him is, unconditional obedience. He 
 becomes aware that the arrangements and institutions of the 
 hierarchy are calculated, not for the improvement and eleva- 
 tion, but for the debasement of his nation ; and that he, as 
 the slave of a foreign power, is expected to aid in the work of 
 oppression ; while, in addition to all, he must himself bear 
 the infamy attached to every species of bondage, and share 
 the contempt under which the whole ecclesiastical body lies, 
 from the immorality of many who are doomed to compulsory 
 celibacy. Can glittering gold, wrung from the hand of penury 
 or pious fanaticism ; can the pleasures of the table, or the 
 wine cup, compensate his loss ? Yes, they might, if he prefer 
 being a glutton to being a man. But what can support his 
 mind under such a state of things ? Nothing, but the hope 
 of one day aiding his country to break her chains. This 
 was the thought which sustained me, and bore me up, amid 
 the pressure of an otherwise intolerable bondage. Yet the 
 question constantly recurred, 'Can my energy support the 
 
90 THE REFORMATION 
 
 oppressive weight ? Will my moral power be able to resist the 
 galling yoke ? What, if I were to sink beneath the weight ? 
 What if, from constant contact with hypocrisy, I should myself 
 become a hypocrite, and a just object of scorn to others? 
 Doubts and terrors, such as these, forced themselves upon 
 myself, even from the first, and filled me with unspeakable 
 sorrow, while after experience only served to confirm their 
 justness. Our time was craftily split into fragments, between 
 attending on ceremonies, and the repetition of Latin lip-prayers, 
 for five or six hours daily (including the breviary prayers), 
 five hours of prayers, and of such prayers, for youths of 
 twenty-four years of age, who ought to become the salt of 
 the earth ! Eome makes men slaves under the guise of piety. 
 I did everything in my power to escape from the annihilating 
 conviction with which my conscience constantly reproached 
 me, of having done nothing. But three hours a day were all 
 I could command, after the breviary prayers were got through, 
 for private study ; and this mental labour had to be performed 
 in the presence of twenty other young men, who, having passed 
 their official examination, were considered as being finished. 
 I was often ready to despair, dreading that my moral energy 
 would give way, and I become a prey to hypocrisy and indo- 
 lence. My situation was, indeed, a fearful one; and, with 
 feverish excitement, I have watched through many a sleepless 
 night, praying, in agony of spirit, " If it be possible, let this 
 bitter cup pass from me." But I was forced to drink it. 
 Yet a gleam of happier omen sometimes burst in upon my 
 gloom ; and even in my dreams, I have felt a presentiment that 
 a day of deliverance might come. Deeply wounded in mind 
 and spirit, I left the seminary in 1840. 
 
 " The gates of the alumnat, which had been opened but twice 
 a week, to admit of our intercourse with our fellow-men, were 
 now thrown wide open; and I passed over that prohibited 
 threshold, within which every feeling of independence had 
 been so long buried, and exchanged the martyr-institution for 
 soul and body, for the free air of a fair and joyous world. I 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 91 
 
 drank it in with deep and greedy draughts, gazing with delight 
 on the hlue sky, and the hright beaming sun. Yet neither sky 
 nor sun appeared to me as once they were ; even the earth 
 itself seemed to have grown small and contracted, for my soul 
 and spirit were no longer free. I moved under a conscious 
 feeling of bondage ; but I hastened to my home. There, 
 thought I, this burden will leave my bosom ; there, where 
 I dreamed the happy -dreams of youth ; there, in my native 
 mountain home, the warm, kind glances of my brothers and 
 sisters will impart new warmth to this poor heart, chilled 
 by the hypocritical, sanctimonious glances of Eome's lordly 
 satellites. And the kind, aflPectionate reception with which 
 my brothers and sisters hailed my return, did indeed revive 
 me ; and the joy of finding myself once more among them, 
 chased away, for the moment, the painful consciousness of 
 bondage ; but only to return with redoubled force. Abject 
 demonstrations of reverence paid to my clerical character, 
 awakened me from my short dream of forgetfulness. An 
 old man, whom I had known and loved from childhood, came 
 up to me. I held out my hand to him, and he was about to 
 kiss it. The grey head of age was bent over the hand of 
 youth. ' Is it not enough,' cried I, mentally, ' that I must 
 be myself a bondsman ? must I also become an instrument 
 to promote the degradation of my fellows ? Eome, Kome, 
 thou minglest poison in thy oil of consecration, and human 
 dignity withers beneath its blighting effect.' I was regarded 
 by all with fear and reverence, as if I had suddenly become 
 a higher, a superhuman being, but how ? by the papal bull ? 
 Ah, no ! not a higher, but a more degraded being ; a mere 
 bond-slave, who, under the mask of. sanctity, was destined 
 to deceive his fellow-men. Thus passed the first period of 
 my home-stay in a kind of dull stupefaction, while, decked 
 out like a victim, I was inducted into the ceremonial service 
 of the Romish church. Consideration for my father, and the 
 prospects of my brothers and sisters, conjoined with the pre- 
 judices of the Catholic world, which is taught to believe, and 
 
92 THE REFORMATION 
 
 generally does believe, in the eternal obligation of ecclesias- 
 tical vows, paralysed my mind and feelings. Yet even, while 
 my fetters were being rivetted, a pale, faint ray of light flitted 
 occasionally across the gloom of what appeared my hopeless 
 prison-night ; a presentiment which, feeble as it was, still 
 served to support my spirit, that the chains under which I 
 groaned, would yet be broken ; but when, and how ? I was 
 now to commence my pastoral career, and both the pulpit 
 and the school attracted me strongly ; for, in them, I consi- 
 dered I possessed a sphere of action in which I might labour 
 to good purpose ; and thus I hoped for better times to come. 
 Such were my feelings as I entered on my charge at Grottkau, 
 to which I was appointed chaplain, in March, 1841. 
 
 " Firmly resolved to become a teacher of the people, not in 
 the hierarchal, but in the true sense of the word, and deter- 
 mined to proclaim the truth in all sincerity, and without 
 respect of persons, did I enter upon my office at Grottkau. 
 But, wholly unacquainted with my new sphere of labour, some 
 considerable time elapsed before I could form for myself a 
 system of practical utility. I found, however, in the school, 
 the fittest field in which to exercise my capabilities ; for, 
 independently of my being naturally fond of children, I felt 
 myself nowhere so happy as in this holy nursery-garden of 
 the Lord, in which I could watch the unfolding of youthful 
 .minds, mark every beaming thought as it glanced from unso-' 
 phisticated bosoms, and could inhale the delicious fragrance 
 of childhood's pure and balmy intercourse. In the school, 
 too, I was, generally speaking, free from the espionage with 
 which I was environed in the pulpit, and which wounded my 
 feelings, and paralysed my^ speech; free, too, from the de- 
 pression which universally came over me in the confessional, 
 where I seemed to myself to be set up as an idol, or as a 
 supernatural judge of the thoughts and consciences of my 
 fellow-men. To 'the school, then, I fled with joy, as to a 
 temple of innocence, when hierarchal domination pressed all 
 too heavily on my spirit, and never failed to draw new strength 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 93 
 
 from intercourse with my young associates, though little indeed 
 did the children dream of the infinite service they rendered 
 me. But in all (whether school, confessional, or pulpit), did 
 I strain every nerve to oppose superstition, will-worship, and 
 all the other devices of hierarchal domination and hypocrisy, 
 although the effect produced could he but weak, owing to the 
 strong barriers which Romanism rears up against every species 
 of mental advancement. Within these gloomy inclosures, bent 
 down under such heavy restraint, and shackled in mind as well 
 as body, it was a no less heartless than hopeless labour, to sow 
 and to plant, what was likely, sooner or later, to perish in the 
 stifling atmosphere of superstition. The yoke, indeed, became, 
 from week to week, more intolerable, in proportion as my 
 eyes became opened to the fearful effects produced by Popish 
 despotism on the common people, and to the depravity and 
 moral degradation of many of my clerical brethren, and I felt 
 a daily increasing dread of being myself drawn into the abyss. 
 I recognised it, therefore, as my bounden duty, to declare 
 openly against the abuses and soul-destroying dogmas of the 
 Roman church, and resolved to risk a bodily, rather than a 
 spiritual death." 
 
 Ronge next proceeds to justify his defection from Rome, 
 by detailing the motives which impelled him to it : they are 
 four in number, each enforced by a great variety of illustra- 
 tion ; but, as many of these have either been already, or will 
 hereafter be adduced in the disclosures of himself and his 
 fellow German Catholics, the motives alone require notice 
 here : — 
 
 " My first motive," says he, " for standing forth against 
 -the Romish hierarchy is, the consciousness that it crushes my 
 dignity as a man, and reduces me to a disgraceful vassalage, 
 
 " Secondly. I oppose papal tyranny, because I am thereby 
 restrained in the free exercise of my duty, as a teacher of the 
 people. 
 
 " Thirdly. I oppose the tyrannical power of the Roman hie- 
 rarchy, because I am fully convinced that what they call the 
 
94 THE REFORMATION 
 
 Catholic religion is not its true doctrine, nor one calculated 
 to promote the happiness of the people ; that the Koman hie- 
 rarchy neither teaches nor acts in accordance with the funda- 
 mental doctrines of the religion founded by Christ ; but that 
 it has introduced abuses, and framed statutes, calculated to 
 undermine the spiritual and physical well-being of nations, 
 and serving only to augment the wealth of a privileged priestly 
 caste, of whom the Koman bishop is chief and leader. 
 
 " Lastly. I stand forth against the tyrannical power of the 
 Roman hierarchy, because its statutes directly aim at producing 
 disunion and oppression in my native land." 
 
 To the " Justification" are appended a great variety of docu- 
 ments, bearing on his secession and expulsion from the Roman 
 Catholic church, the official examination, episcopal audience, 
 and final excommunication, to which he was subjected, as 
 well as the more private expostulations in which not only 
 clerical friends, but his own immediate family, took part ; the 
 last of which, as being conducted with much personal affection, 
 as well as Catholic zeal, he describes as having most painfully 
 affected him. But he remained firm against all persuasions, 
 and, true to his convictions, animated by the same feelings, and 
 ready, as well as willing, to bear whatever they might bring upon 
 him. The concluding paragraph of the "Justification" runs 
 thus : — " I have now presented my countrymen with a sketch 
 of my life hitherto, and I call upon them to judge between me 
 and my hierarchal opponents, and calumniators. I have laid 
 before them documentary evidence, in proof that I was without 
 either summons, hearing, or defence (although to all these 
 the commonest malefactor in civilised countries may pretend), 
 deprived of my office, and adjudged to a disgraceful punish- 
 ment, solely for having written the article entitled, ' Rome 
 and the Breslaw Chapter.' I have further adduced documents 
 to prove that, on account of my letter to Bishop Arnoldi, 
 respecting the unseamed coat of Treves, I was, in conformity 
 with the statutes of the Roman canon law, excommunicated by 
 the right reverend chapter, as if I had been a gross criminal. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 95 
 
 But, conscious of having spoken and acted in accordance with 
 my calling, with the gospel, and with my duty as a German 
 teacher, and having been, contrary to every law of equity, 
 deposed from my office, and shut out from the communion of 
 the church, hy the arbitrary sentence of the Komish hierarchy 
 or of its hirelings, I now appear before my countrymen, as a 
 complainant against both, demanding that the Breslaw vicar's 
 court may be called upon to remove my suspension and excom- 
 munication. Nor do I demand justice in my own name only, 
 but in the name of the whole body of the inferior clergy, who 
 have no legal defence against their ecclesiastical superiors ; 
 and, in the name of the congregations themselves, who are 
 helplessly subjugated by the priesthood. Finally, I make my 
 appeal in behalf of all Christendom, accusing the Roman hie- 
 rarchy, which falsely calls itself the Catholic, or universal 
 church, of not only failing to fulfil, but of directly contravening 
 the office to which the gospel calls it, the office of reconciliation, 
 and of perfecting the human race. 
 
 " The Roman hierarchy has converted the gospel doctrine into 
 a system of compulsion, hypocrisy, and usury ; it has debased 
 religion into the hired paramour of the most revolting Jesuitism ; 
 and, instead of furthering the reconcilement and perfection of 
 mankind, keeps alive hatred among nations, enkindles civil 
 war (as may be seen even now in Switzerland and elsewhere), 
 arid degrades man by encouraging hypocrisy and vice. 
 
 *' It is the Roman hierarchy which has originated the yawning 
 cleft we now see to exist between the high and the low, the 
 educated and the uneducated, the rich and the poor, in the vari- 
 ous European nations ; and which contrives to widen it day by 
 day, through the dreaded and oppressive Jesuitical priestcraft; 
 nor can the hastening ruin be warded off by anything short of 
 an energetic and united effort, on the part of nations themselves : 
 but Germans are, above all other people, called to make a stand; 
 and, by calling together a free national council (composed of 
 true priests and layrtien, freely chosen by the congregations, 
 or their representatives), secure the utter annihilation of all 
 
96 THE REFORMATION 
 
 Jesuitism and priestcraft ; and, by purifying religici ^ restore 
 the church to its true office — that office which the necessities 
 of our people, and the spirit of modern times, require, viz., 
 the reconciliation of the high with the low, the educated with 
 the ignorant, the richer with the poorer classes of mankind ; 
 and, by the ennobling and perfecting of the human race, to 
 conciliate all the nations of the earth, by promoting universal 
 love and freedom. And, if we reconcile ourselves with our 
 fellow-men, we reconcile ourselves with God likewise ; for 
 John says, ' If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, 
 he is a liar.' 
 
 " Arise, then, ye men of Germany, France, Great Britain, 
 Italy, and Spain ! Arise, ye men of Europe and America ! 
 Let us join hand in hand to accomplish the work of peace and 
 freedom : the hour is come. Let us break the yoke laid on 
 our faith and conscience. Let us burst the bonds of a hypo- 
 critical hierarchy. Let us annihilate Jesuitism, that fearful 
 mockery of all divine and human laws, and introduce the reign 
 of truth, light, justice, virtue, liberty, and love. Introduce, 
 in short, the true reign of Christ upon earth. 
 
 Dated, "December, 1844. 
 
 (Signed) "Johannes Konge." 
 
 It is almost unnecessary to call the reader's attention to 
 the absence of everything approaching Christian doctrine, in 
 Bonge's " heads of objections." They are just, patriotic, and 
 manly ; but might quite as well have been propounded by an 
 enlightened Jew, or Mohammedan, as by a professing Chris- 
 tian. Christ's word is never quoted; his authority never 
 appealed to, from beginning to end : and such is, alas, the 
 character of Rouge's addresses throughout, while the con- 
 clusion of his appeal is peculiarly marred by glaring misap- 
 plication and misrepresentation of Scripture truth. 
 
 He may be, and we doubt not is, employed by the great 
 Husbandman of the church, to break up the fallow ground ; 
 but, unless the gospel seed be sown by some other labourer, 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 97 
 
 there seems reason to fear that weeds, as noxious as those 
 disturbed by this excavator, will soon take possession of the 
 soil, and self-confidence and seK-righteousness being super- 
 added, the last state of these men may be worse than the first. 
 Shall we then deplore their secession from the church of Eome ? 
 Far from it. Hypocrisy can never be other than a can- 
 kerous, ever-spreading, mass-polluting evil. The infidelity of 
 those who have left the Roman Catholic, or of those who ought 
 to leave the Lutheran communion, was preceded by a forsaking 
 of the doctrines held by each, and, under such circumstances, 
 to observe the letter, while contemning the spirit, is a daring 
 mockery of God and man. Rouge's ambition has been, and 
 is, to eflfect the emancipation of his countrymen from Roman 
 thraldom ; for this he has striven and dared both opprobrium 
 and danger : and verily he hath had, and is having, his re- 
 ward, for he is elevated by many thousands to the rank of a 
 demi-god, and thousands upon thousands have heard his 
 warning voice, and thrown off the shackles of ages ; but his 
 personal religion is Deism. Jesus Christ is, with him, a great 
 and glorious philanthropist, a preacher of peace on earth and 
 good-will to the children of men ; an apostle of the law of love, 
 of humanity, and of pure morality ; and, to the honour of 
 Ronge be it spoken, not even the breath of calumny has dared 
 to cast a stain on the immaculate purity of his own conduct ; 
 and although his first published sentiments were more noted 
 for a want of, than an anti-christian spirit, yet, alas, many of 
 his later ministrations and publications identify him fully 
 with the rationalists of the Protestant church, who seem re- 
 solved to emulate, if not outdo him in ultra-liberalism ; ex- 
 tending their expressions of brotherhood and unity, not to all 
 mankind, whatever be their religious views, but to the reli- 
 gious views of all mankind. Never was there a time when 
 Pantheism had so many votaries as at present in Germany. 
 Love is with them so literally " the fulfilling of the law,'' 
 that they seem desirous of abrogating all distinction of right 
 and wrong, for fear of giving offence to a brother, by seeming 
 
98 REFORMATION OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 to infer that his sentiments can hy possibility be deserving of 
 reprehension; and from this " wide embrace" none hut the 
 puritan of the Protestant, and the ultramontane of the Ro- 
 manist party, are excluded, because neither of these can admit 
 that the distinguishing doctrines of their respective faiths are 
 matters for individual opinion, and that we can be equally 
 good Christians whether we hold them or their opposites. 
 
99 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 reformation of the nineteenth century 
 (continued). 
 
 The Breslaw Church — Its two Parties — Effect of the Announcement 
 of the Exhibition of the Holy Coat — Visited by Rong^ — Hocker's 
 spirited Address to the Catholics — Its effects — Resolutions of the 
 Separatists — Great Meeting for Worship — Appointment of Rong^ 
 to the Pastorship — Dr. Regenbrecht's Letter on his Secession from 
 the Romish Church. 
 
 It is not the first time that Breslaw has played a conspicuous 
 part in the great religious movements of the day. Deeply 
 sunk in the darkness of the middle ages, and devoted to the 
 papal power, it was distinguished in the fifteenth century for 
 the fanatic zeal with which it persecuted the Hussites, and 
 the present parade ground was, in those days, frequently 
 witness to the cruel death inflicted on Protestants. On that 
 fatal spot the worthy Bohemian martyr, John Krase, refusing 
 to recant his sentiments, was burned to death on the 15 th 
 of March, 1420, and bore his sufferings with a Christian 
 constancy. The inhabitants of Breslaw entered with enthu- 
 siasm into the later fierce war against the Hussites, and vied 
 with Zisca's bloodthirsty host in deeds of ruthless violence. 
 In the following century, however, Breslaw, still forward in 
 good or ill, became one of the first supports of the Reforma- 
 tion; for its town council, favouring the reformed doctrine, 
 early invited some young theologians from Wittenburg, who 
 
 F 2 
 
100 THE REFORMATION 
 
 promulgated Lutheranism ; and on the 21st of October, 
 1523, appointed Dr. John Huss, a pupil of Luther's, to the 
 church of St. Magdalen, of which they were the patrons : and 
 now again, after the lapse of so many centuries, during which 
 there have not heen wanting outbursts of both Koman Catholic 
 and Protestant violence within her hounds, Breslaw has once 
 more become a chief seat of a new reform, and boasts the 
 most numerous of all the churches to which that reform has 
 given rise. During the last ten years, the conflicts in Cologne 
 regarding mixed marriages had found their way to Breslaw, 
 and roused that confessional antipathy which had slumbered 
 for half a century ; while a theological contest, carried on with 
 great heat on both sides, between the Roman Catholic and 
 Lutheran clergy, respecting the Roman doctrine of salvation 
 being confined to the Romish church, had drawn, within a 
 still shorter period, a strong line of demarcation between the 
 two confessions, and banished from the Catholic portion of the 
 Breslaw population that social amiability for which they were 
 previously famed. In these circumstances the announcement 
 of the exhibition of the holy tunic appeared, and, before either 
 religious party could recover from its astonishment, was fol- 
 lowed by Rouge's letter, which, like an electric spark falling 
 on inflammable materials, instantly kindled a fire in many a 
 Catholic bosom, which the zealous eff'orts, through the me- 
 dium of the press, of foes no less than friends, helped to fan 
 into a flame. 
 
 Ronge obeyed the call of his admirers, and came to Bres- 
 law towards the end of 1844. A letter, which he wrote shortly 
 after, graphically describes the position and feelings of this 
 remarkable man during the most important epoch of his life. 
 After sketching with a rapid pencil the impression made on 
 his own mind by reading the call of Bishop Arnoldi to wor- 
 ship a coat, and his resolve, and instant execution of the 
 resolve, to answer it, he says, " At the moment of writing the 
 letter, I never thought of consequences ; indignation alone 
 filled my breast for the disgrace put on my country and the 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 101 
 
 common sense of mankind, by this new attempt of Rome. 
 But when it was dispatched, I began to foresee the struggle 
 which must ensue, although I was far from anticipating the 
 rapidity with which the cause would spread, and its powerful, 
 no less than sudden, development. On the 18th of October 
 I received the printed copy of my letter. I left Laurahiitte 
 on the 4th of November, and remained three days with my 
 brother in Appelin, and a fortnight with Count Eeichenbach 
 at Wald-dorf, where the episcopal summons to recal my 
 words reached me. Even at that early period several citizens 
 of Neisse, where I frequently was, declared to me their readi- 
 ness to abjure Rome. On the 23d of November I came to 
 Breslaw, and found it was indeed high time.' 
 
 Early in December came the excommunication. The month 
 was occupied in completing some literary compositions which 
 had been begun in Laurahiitte. The first week of January 
 was very depressing to my spirit, in consequence of the slow 
 advances which the congregation made ; but Hooker's address 
 had done the work, and a book was prepared, in which those 
 who wished to separate from Rome might inscribe their 
 names. The first meeting was held on the 23 d. This influ- 
 ential address by the celebrated painter, Albrecht Hocker, 
 dated the 17th of December, was circulated privately among 
 the Catholics, and was in these terms: — 
 
 " It seems to me as if this Johannes Ronge were here in a • 
 wilderness, even in the midst of enlightened Germany. From 
 all quarters come addresses of thanks, goblets, cups, and golden 
 coins ; but no voice is raised, calling to the believing and like- 
 minded Catholics, * Come, rally round Ronge, that German 
 Catholic priest, let him be our pastor and spiritual teacher.' 
 Therefore I hail you with the divine greeting. Peace be with 
 you, my German Catholic brethren; whoever among you 
 desires to join the new German Catholic church, and to choose 
 Ronge for his spiritual leader and shepherd, let him gather 
 signatures. The writer of this has long ceased to be a youth. 
 He belonged to the men who, in 1813 — 14, responded to 
 
102 THE REFORMATION 
 
 the king's summons ; and as the thundering watchword of 
 the brave field-marshal, ' Forwards ! ' then electrified every 
 German bosom, so let the light which the Lord himself has 
 kindled be now openly shown, and placed * on a candlestick, 
 and not under a bushel.' ' Forwards,' then, assemble round our 
 Johannes Ronge, let him be our pastor and spiritual guide ! 
 Amen. 
 
 (Signed) " Albrecht Hocker, Catholic." 
 
 This spirited address was, as Ronge himself says, decisive. 
 A number of Catholics gave in their written adhesion, and the 
 magistrates having readily granted the use of the hall of 
 session, belonging to the city deputies, for the first meeting of 
 a Catholic church independent of Rome, it was held on the 
 22d of January, 1845, and was most numerously attended. 
 At successive meetings on the 26th and 29th, various resolu- 
 tions were discussed and adopted : — 
 
 First. Separation from Rome. 
 
 Second. The right of the congregation to choose their 
 pastor. 
 
 Third. The abrogation of auricular confession, and 
 
 Fourth. Of the use of the Latin language in divine worship. 
 
 Fifth. Compulsory priestly celibacy. 
 
 This last point gave rise to a very animated discussion, 
 from the desire of some to maintain marriage as a sacrament. 
 It was, however, finally decided in the negative, though, with 
 an express declaration of the sacredness of the nuptial obliga- 
 tion, and the propriety of retaining church rites in its celebra- 
 tion, as being, not only a God-appointed ordinance, but one 
 affording the surest foundation for the moral purity of human 
 society. 
 
 Sixth. Abolition of indulgences, fasts, and pilgrimages. 
 
 Seventh. The doing away with every species of relic 
 worship. 
 
 Eighth. The retaining of the two sacraments, baptism 
 and the Lord's supper. 
 
 Ninth. The right of the laity to the latter in both kinds. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 103 
 
 The next subjects of conference were, the outward ritual to 
 be adopted, the admission of new members to the community, 
 and the confession of faith of the new church. This last was 
 found the most difficult part to arrange. Many would gladly 
 have seen the Bible proposed as the only authority on points 
 of doctrine, but it was acknowledged by all, that their position 
 with regard to the state rendered the adoption of some gene- 
 rally recognised symbol indispensable to them as a Christian 
 community. This important discussion was, however, ad- 
 journed, on discovering that some persons had introduced 
 themselves (they were afterwards found to have been Eoman 
 Catholic students), for the purpose of disturbing the harmony 
 of the meeting. 
 
 On the 2d of February the members again met, when it 
 was decided that the Holy Scriptures should be taken as the 
 only foundation of their faith (the expounding of which no 
 human authority should be allowed to limit); but that, in 
 order to avoid, as much as possible, the semblance of inter- 
 fering with the rights of conscience, that confession of faith 
 commonly called " the apostles' creed," should be retained 
 until more definite arrangements could be made at a future time. 
 But the published confession differed essentially from that of 
 the apostles', as will be seen by the following translation. It 
 consisted of seven articles. " I believe in God the Father, 
 who created the world by his almighty word, and rules it in 
 wisdom, righteousness, and love. I believe in Jesus Christ 
 our Saviour, who hath redeemed us from the bondage of sin 
 by his doctrine, his life, and his death. I believe in the 
 influence of the Holy Spirit upon earth, in a holy Catholic 
 Christian church, in the communion of saints, the forgiveness 
 of sins, and a life everlasting." 
 
 It will at once strike the reader that three essential doc- 
 trines are here omitted, viz., the divinity and vicarious suffer- 
 ings of Christ, and the resurrection of the body, while the 
 work and personality of the Holy Spirit are very equivocally 
 alluded to. Yet, meagre and defective as this creed un- 
 
104 THE REFORMATION 
 
 doubtedly is, " the future more definite arrangements," which 
 took place at the Leipsic conference in March following, 
 proved that it was still too scriptural to meet the views of 
 the majority of the Breslaw church. 
 
 On the 16th of February, a committee of management was 
 appointed, consisting of Dr. Regenhrecht, the excellent 
 Hocker, town counsellor Klein, Dr. Steiner,* and referendary 
 Schmidt. This committee requested, without delay, an au- 
 dience of the Lord President, Dr. Ton Merckel ; and, having 
 laid before him the constitutional rules of the new congrega- 
 tion, solicited its being recognized as an ecclesiastical body. 
 Dr. von Merckel assured them of his giving careful attention 
 to the subject, and forwarding such report to government as 
 his conscience should dictate. 
 
 More than a thousand persons having already openly joined 
 the society, the magistrates were requested to grant the use of 
 the St. Bernhard's church for the first public worship of the 
 German Catholics. Local circumstances, however, prevented 
 this being conceded, and the chapel of the poor-house was 
 accorded them instead. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 9th of March, 1845, was the important, 
 and for many, very joyful day, on which the fetters of 
 spiritual tyranny were thrown off". Twelve hundred confessors 
 of the gospel appeared in the poor-house chapel, which had 
 been festively adorned for the occasion. At ten o'clock a 
 hymn, with organ accompaniment, having been sung. Dr. 
 Steiner, as a member of the congregational committee, ad- 
 vanced to the simple altar, on which a crucifix, a splendid 
 silver-clasped Bible, and two lighted tapers were placed, and 
 delivered a short and simple, but powerfully affecting discourse, 
 pointing out the importance of the occasion, and concluded by 
 
 * By a strange and unfortunate (we presume typographical) error, 
 in the second edition of the " Apostolic Christians," this name is 
 given " Theiner," which leads to the confusing supposition, that the 
 priest of Hundsfeld, who did not leave the Roman Cathohe commu- 
 nion till June, had joined the German Catholics in February. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 105 
 
 calling upon the congregation to make use, for the first time, 
 of the ancient, long-lost, and at length restored, ecclesiastical 
 right of choosing their own pastor. He then adverted to 
 Johannes Ronge, as a person in whom they had found a wor- 
 thy and suitable pastor, but to whom it behoved them now to 
 give an avowed testimony and an open call. To prevent all 
 doubt. Dr. Steiner next called on any present who had any- 
 thing against Ronge, to speak it openly; and, as deep silence 
 followed the appeal, he asked, after a pause, " Do you then 
 call the well-known Mr. John Ronge to the office of your 
 pastor, and recognise him as such ?" A loud, distinct, and 
 full-toned " Yes," resounded through the assembly; and the 
 speaker resumed, " Then let us introduce him solemnly into 
 this house of God, that he may enter upon his office with 
 God's gracious help. Doubtless it will increase the satisfac- 
 tion of you all to know that Ronge will be accompanied by 
 two clerical brethren, the well-known Czerski, pastor of the 
 first free Catholic congregation in Germany, and Mr. Kerbler, 
 hitherto chaplain in Sindenan, near Munsterberg, who has 
 now joined our congregation. ' Receive them in the name of 
 the Lord with all gladness, and hold such in reputation.'" 
 This address was followed by the solemn introduction of the 
 pastor by the committee. The procession was opened by 
 twelve white-robed maidens with flower-garlands ; then walked 
 Ronge, accompanied by Czerski and Kerbler, followed by the 
 committee, among whom, however, it was observed with regret, 
 that Dr. Regenbrecht, who had done so much to bring about 
 this consummation, did not make one. Ronge preached 
 with much acceptance. 
 
 The following day was marked by the celebration of the 
 first baptism among the dissidents. On the 16th of March 
 the first marriage took place, and on the 20th the com- 
 munion was dispensed, for the first time, in both kinds ; the 
 vasa sacra having been presented to them by a Protestant 
 fellow-citizen, and the above-mentioned splendid Bible was 
 a gift from the merchants' company to Ronge. The city 
 
 F 3 
 
106 THE REFORMATION 
 
 authorities assigned them a burial-ground on the 1 1th of April, 
 and, two months later, voted them an aid of 1000 dollars per 
 annum, for three years. 
 
 Priest Kerbler, whose adhesion to the new community is 
 stated above, acted for some time as Rouge's assistant (and 
 was afterwards called to Leipsic), to whom were soon joined 
 two other Catholic priests, Th. Waynarski and H. Ruprecht ; 
 nor is it wonderful that so many pastors were needed, since 
 the congregation increased with such rapidity as to amount, 
 on the 4th of May, to six thousand. The further proceedings 
 of the Breslaw church will be noted in the chronological his- 
 tory of the reform, which forms the latter part of this volume ; 
 it may, therefore, suffice, to conclude this separate account by 
 a translation of the very masterly letter with which Dr. Regen- 
 brecht, professor in the Breslaw university, announced his 
 secession from the church of Rome to Dr. Latussek, suffragan 
 bishop and vicar-general of the diocese i- — 
 " Right Reverend Sir, 
 " The recent efforts of the higher Catholic clergy in our 
 native country, and the part which the right reverend chapter 
 of this diocese has seen fit to take in them, lay upon me the 
 solemn necessity of relieving my conscience by declaring my 
 sentiments to your right reverence with all the straight-forward- 
 ness and candour which the sacredness of the subject demands. 
 When, thirty years since, the valour of German armies and the 
 resolve of those allied powers whose union had effected the de- 
 liverance of our father-land, combined to replace the pope upon 
 the throne of Rome, it would perhaps have been too much for un- 
 prejudiced observers to expect that anything like a fostering 
 of the intellectual kingdom would emanate from Rome ; but 
 equally little could it have been anticipated that the papal court 
 should find, among a clergy educated at German universities, 
 blind instruments for effecting the spiritual bondage of their 
 countrymen. To do this, it was needful that the pope should 
 brand such men as Michael Sailer, S. Hug, G. Hermes, &c., as 
 tainted with heresy, before he could hope to obtain from among 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 107 
 
 Germany's own clergy willing drudges to his despotic rule. 
 But the spirit of the age was one of advancement, and the 
 superior clergy were loud in their complaints of political re- 
 strictions and disahilities. They obtained both freedom and 
 favour in overflowing measure ; and how have this freedom 
 and power been employed ? In building up the kingdom of 
 Christ upon earth ? or in establishing peace and harmony 
 among the various confessors of his name ? No ; but in extend- 
 ing and confirming the power of the pope, and of his generals, 
 the Jesuits ; in crushing the civil and political liberties of 
 the people ; in casting suspicion on every free, intellectual 
 movement ; and in striving to obscure, if they could not 
 extinguish, the light of science. The pure, simple, and, by all, 
 comprehensible gospel, is dangerous, forsooth, to the people. 
 It must therefore be first prepared and worked up into a system 
 of scholastic subtleties and Jesuitical ambiguities, that the 
 people may receive it only through the medium of the priests, 
 and according to the prescription of the hierarchy. Rome is 
 resolved to rule, and the people must be retained in the dark- 
 ness of a blind credulity, to ensure the necessity of such a 
 guide. Contrive but to darken the people's mind; cripple 
 their judgment and enslave their courage ; and then, if you 
 can succeed in sowing seeds of suspicion in the hearts of their 
 rulers, you pave the way of the Jesuits, and prepare a fair 
 field for the exercise of their most refined arts of policy. Do 
 these words sound harshly in the ears of men who, under the 
 influence of papal dread, have learned basely to deny the fight 
 which science once forced upon them, and shamelessly lend 
 themselves to encourage the grossest superstition ? Behold 
 the apostles of the Lord. They carried under the banner of 
 peace the saving message of redemption from the power of sin 
 and error, to all nations ; and the power of truth hurled the 
 idols from their altars. Even in our own day, there are yet to 
 be found God-inspired men who courageously venture life 
 itself on the burning plains of Africa, in order to extirpate 
 fetish-worship, which is a disgrace even to the degraded negro» 
 
108 THE REFORMATION 
 
 But what is the employment of our superior clergy since their 
 restoration to wealth, dignity, and power ? The exhibition of 
 an old rag, a fetish, on a Christian altar, as an object of reve- 
 rence and worship to the ignorant, blindly-credulous multitude ; 
 and a religious body is not ashamed to justify the perpetration 
 of such horrors in sacred places ! A highly-gifted clergyman 
 employs all his eloquence in adjuring heaven and hell, and the 
 powers of this world, to arm themselves against men who dare 
 to obey God's first commandment in preference to a delusion 
 of priestcraft ! Nay, so far is he carried by his holy zeal, 
 as to denounce from the altar all those who, in the spirit of 
 faithful subjects, are aiming to promote the advancement of 
 civil and political rights, and to restrain the usurpations of 
 the hierarchy, as not only condemned by church censure, but 
 as revolutionists and contemners of monarchy ; in plain terms, 
 as guilty of high treason ! In other dioceses, signatures are 
 being sought to petitions, addressed to both the German con- 
 federation and their respective princes, in which protection is 
 sought against * that evil press ' to which the same hierarchy 
 owes so deep a debt for services rendered but a few years since, 
 against those very powers now called upon to crush it. But 
 why do not the clergy summon to their aid those spiritual 
 assistants, over which they so lately held a review ? Their 
 numbers were announced at half a million ; and surely such a 
 host, assembled on one point, and for one special object, must 
 be able to annihilate the obnoxious spirit of German freedom 
 in a single onset. Such a strife were at least fair and frank ; 
 but are we not tempted to doubt the existence of truth in the 
 world, when learned men are found endeavouring to amuse us 
 with the disingenuous theory of a great distinction existing 
 between worship and adoration? Is it possible that these 
 gentlemen have never visited any resort of pilgrims, and 
 therefore never witnessed the natural ebullitions of feeling, 
 and the aberrations produced by an alarmed conscience, in a 
 blindly-credulous and unenlightened concourse? Whoever 
 will lay his hand on his heart, must own, to his own mind at 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 109 
 
 least, that he himself can aflBx no faith to the real carrying 
 out of this abstract theory. But why should not the people 
 he deceived, if a pious end he thereby attained ? Why, for 
 example, may not the miracle-working coat have not only 
 resisted the attacks of moths, mites, and the whole host of 
 tiny tenebriones, during eighteen hundred years, but have 
 likewise neutralized the influence of damp, and carbonic-acid 
 gas ? And even should it be proved, that in our Saviour's 
 days the art of making a robe of such materials, and so arti- 
 ficial in construction, was unknown ; and should it be objected, 
 that Christ himself would assuredly have expended the money 
 more characteristically than by the purchase of so highly- 
 wrought a garment, both scruples are done away with by the 
 statement that the robe was self-made, and self-hid, too, at the 
 period of Treves' destruction. Nor, after all, are these miracles 
 half so wonderful as that of the blood of St. Januarius at 
 Naples, or of Christ's ' table-cloth,' which I have myself seen 
 in St. John's de Lateran ; or of the chapel of Loretto, which a 
 couple of angels carried by night across the Adriatic. May 
 God preserve to us, poor Germans, enlightened and pious princes ; 
 and, at the same time, guard the people against slackening their 
 eflPorts in the pursuit of mental culture and moral improvement : 
 for thus only can we hope to escape the state to which Spain 
 and Italy (so highly favoured as they are by nature) have yet 
 been reduced. The hght of Christianity cannot fail to win its 
 way into the kingdom of darkness, if we persevere to worship 
 God in spirit and in truth. With these words I take my leave 
 of a church, the eiforts and aims of which I cannot reconcile 
 with the spirit of Jesus Christ. 
 *' May God grant me farther help. 
 
 (Signed) "Dr. Kegenbrecht, 
 " Professor in the Royal University of Breslaw. 
 ''December 15th, 1844." 
 
110 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 reformation of the nineteenth century 
 (continued). 
 
 The Holy Coat of Treves — Occasion of its Exhibition — Pamphlets of 
 Drs. Gildemeister and Sybel — Inquiry into the Genuineness of the 
 Holy Coat— Four Tests — Conclusive Evidence of the Imposture 
 — St. Peter's Chair at Venice — History of the Holy Coat — Its 
 alleged Removal from Palestine by the Empress Helena — Inge- 
 nious Theor}' of its Previous Preservation — Want of Documentary 
 Evidence — Popular Legends — Extract from the Authorised Litany 
 — Coat of Treves not Genuine according to Papal Decision — A 
 Holy Coat in England — Brief Notices of other Garments, severally 
 declared by their Possessors to be the Holy Coat. 
 
 If Bishop Arnoldi's object were to attract the eyes of all 
 Europe to his favourite relic, he has assuredly accomplished 
 his purpose ; for millions to whom its very existence was pre- 
 viously unknown, have, during the last eighteen months, seen, 
 read, or heard things concerning it, calculated to produce that 
 state of feeling described in Revelations xiii. 3, " All men 
 wondered after the beast." Doubtless some then gazed with 
 admiring wonder (deluded by the false miracles), and many 
 with indignant wonder, at the blasphemous presumption and 
 daring defiance of the common sense of mankind ; and a similar 
 
REFORMATION OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. Ill 
 
 universal wonder, arising from similarly diverse causes, per- 
 vaded the civilised world when the exhibition of the surreptitious 
 garment was announced, and persevered in, notwithstanding 
 tlie indignation or scoffs of thousands upon thousands. Many 
 and great evils have undeniahly resulted to the bodies and 
 souls of vast numbers, from this most unwise revival, by Bishop 
 Arnoldi, in the nineteenth century, of the Tetzelian tactics, the 
 anti-Roman effects of which were so deeply felt in the sixteenth. 
 Yet never, perhaps, were the power and will of God to bring 
 good out of evil more conspicuously displayed than on this 
 occasion. The blind infatuation of one man has been made 
 the means of opening the eyes of thousands to the incurable 
 fatuity of Rome's counsels. The untimely production of one 
 pious fraud has led to the detection and exposure of a hundred 
 others ; and the attempt to build up and beautify one individual 
 Roman temple, has issued in the disseverment of a very large 
 portion from her "universal church," and laid open to public 
 view so many rotten beams and tottering pillars in the ancient 
 structure, that Rome's best friends must begin to doubt 
 whether, if even this last " deadly wound should be healed," it 
 can be for more than " a short time." As, therefore, the so-called 
 "unseamed coat" has been the innocent, unconscious instru- 
 ment of producing such great effects, some statement respecting 
 its history, appearance, and pretensions, seems indispensable 
 to a work professing to give a detailed account of the com- 
 motions to which it has given rise. Happily, the learned 
 labours of two distinguished professors at the university of 
 Bonn, Drs. Gildemeister and Sybel, render the task compara- 
 tively easy. Their two pamphlets have long been familiar to 
 every German scholar who feels an interest in the late events ; 
 and they have therein given such large and multitudinous 
 extracts from both German and Latin authors, that their 
 assertions must be regarded as indisputable authority.* It is, 
 
 * A just tribute to their merits is paid by Mr. Laing in his " Notes 
 on the Pilgrimage to Treves," when he says, pagexi., "The learning, 
 
112 THE REFORMATION 
 
 however, possible that some reader of these pages may not 
 be fiiUy aware how this contest arose, which has called for 
 so much erudite disputation. It may shortly be stated thus. 
 The cathedral at Treves requiring some repair or adornment, 
 Bishop Arnoldi, in the laudable desire of procuring more liberal 
 aid in money than the faithful seemed disposed to bestow 
 gratuitously, bethought him of attracting a pilgrimage to his 
 diocese; and with that view, he, in conjunction with the Treves 
 Chapter, issued, on the 6th of July, 1844, a circular letter to 
 all the clergy of the diocese, announcing " that an exhibition 
 of the sacred Treves tunic should forthwith be made." The 
 preamble of the letter states that, " In consequence of the 
 numerous pious wishes expressed by the clergy, their reverend 
 father the Lord Bishop had consented to the public exposition 
 and adoration of that most inestimable treasure, the seamless 
 coat of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which is preserved 
 in the Treves cathedral;" and that, therefore, the said sacred 
 coat would be exhibited for general veneration on the 18th of 
 August following, and be continued for the space of six weeks, 
 in order to permit all the inhabitants of the diocese and 
 believers from other countries to avail themselves of the op- 
 portunity to visit so precious a relic ; by doing which, each 
 pilgrim thus visiting the holy coat, who sincerely repented of 
 his sins, made confession, or at least had the full intention of 
 doing so, and moreover lent a helping hand towards the beau- 
 tifying of the Treves cathedral (a work which the holy father 
 much commended), should obtain the same complete and 
 eternally valid remission of sins as was promised by Pope 
 Leo X. in his famous bull, issued in 1514, in which he, " de- 
 siring that the Treves cathedral, which is honoured by being 
 the repository of the seamless coat of our Lord, and of so many 
 other holy relics, may be distinguished by correspondingly mag- 
 nificent ceremonials and adornments, grants a full, perfect, 
 
 research and reading bestowed by Drs. Gildemeister and Sybel have 
 not been equalled since the days of Gibbon." 
 
^ -: >;^' 
 
 OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. VC* .113 
 
 and perpetual absolution to all who make a 
 Treves (on the exposition of the sacred coat), sincerely repentin| 
 of, and doing penance for their sins, or who have steadfastly 
 resolved to do so ; and above all, contribute liberally towards 
 the endowment of the Treves cathedral." It is well known 
 that Pope Leo's motive for this tender regard for Treves was 
 the promise of its bishop to deliver up a part of the gains 
 towards defraying the expenses at that time incurred, by com- 
 pleting the building of St. Peter's at Home. Whether the 
 present pope had any share in setting on foot the pilgrimage 
 of 1844 is unknown; it seems, however, generally attributed 
 wholly to the overflowing zeal of Bishop Arnoldi, who, whatever 
 else he may have failed in, has assuredly succeeded in securing 
 to himself a very conspicuous place in the history of the nine- 
 teenth century. Putting aside, for the present, all consideration 
 of the blasphemy contained in the idea of purchased absolution, 
 and the folly of believing that it is in the power of mortal man 
 to confer it, even the most implicit believers in priestly power 
 must yet require to be certified that the relic, for visiting 
 which he is to be so highly rewarded, really possesses historical 
 evidence of its genuineness. Let us see, then, what the careful 
 investigation of the learned Bonn professor has brought to light. 
 Three questions suggest themselves to the mind in the contem- 
 plation of such a subject : first, is the object to be visited 
 really what it professes to be ? Second, is it lawful to worship 
 a garment even if proved to have belonged to our Lord ? And 
 third, what benefit can a pilgrimage to it bestow on the 
 worshippers ? The first is the only question in the solution 
 of which Protestants can feel an interest ; the other two may 
 weU engage the serious consideration of Roman Catholics. 
 
 The genuineness of the Treves garment might, perhaps, by 
 many unsophisticated minds, be deemed settled, by the start- 
 ling fact of there being twenty-four * tunics, all claiming to be 
 the identical coat of Christ, for which the Roman soldiers cast 
 
 * According to the third edition of the Bonn professor's treatise. 
 
114 THE REFORMATION 
 
 lots, now actually existing, in whole or in part, in so many 
 different places throughout the world. Yet, it may be alleged, 
 that though twenty-four of them must be surreptitious, one 
 may be genuine, and if so, it may be that of Treves ; 
 although it cannot be denied, that each and all have legends, 
 traditions, and miracles, to adduce, and that not one of the 
 whole number is disposed to yield one tittle of its pretensions 
 in favour of the Treves relic ; to which, however, the learned 
 professors pay the compliment of giving it the first place in 
 their inquiry, which they conduct most systematically under 
 the four following divisions, viz., the form, colour, material, 
 and workmanship of the tunic ; and seek to ascertain whether 
 in all, or even any of these particulars, it corresponds with 
 what sacred and profane history would lead us to expect in a 
 garment worn by Jesus Christ. Most unfortunately for Bishop 
 Arnoldi's hobby, the Treves tunic, when weighed in this ba- 
 lance, is found lamentably wanting. First, as to form, its 
 length is stated to be five feet one-and-a-half inches, and must 
 therefore have reached to the feet of even a tall man, and has 
 no pretensions to be called a tunic, but must be regarded as 
 the garment called a stola, worn only by women, priests, or 
 men of effeminate habits, such as the lonians, Lydians, Baby- 
 lonians, and Medes. No reader of the gospel history can 
 imagine that our Lord wore a long tunic (see Mark xii. 38., 
 Luke XX. 46, where he denounced the long robes of the 
 scribes) ; and assuredly, when he so expressly prohibited his 
 disciples to wear two coats, he would not himself set the 
 example of doing so. " We may, therefore," says Drs. Gil- 
 demeister and Sybel, " set it down as established, that the 
 Treves coat is too long to pass for the genuine unseamed coat 
 worn by the Saviour." 
 
 Secondly. The colour of the Treves relic is somewhat 
 difficult to define. It is at present a reddish brown, but that 
 is evidently not its original colour, which persons skilled in 
 such matters aver to have been purple. It has, indeed, a 
 slight tinge of yellow when exposed to a strong light, and 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 115 
 
 such is well known to be the changeful sheen which the 
 Tyrian dye assumes. But all the world likewise knows that 
 this colour was in ancient times so very costly, that its use 
 was limited to robes of ceremony ; not to mention, therefore, 
 how incredible it is that Christ, whose poverty is so often 
 alluded to in Scripture, should have possessed so expensive 
 a garment,* there would surely have been something very 
 senseless in arraying him in a purple" mantle, had he already 
 been dressed in one of his own. If, then, the Treves coat, 
 as its defenders maintain, and its present appearance con- 
 firms, were originally purple, it has no claim to genuineness. 
 
 Thirdly. The material of which it is composed, though 
 purposely kept in obscurity, as if from a consciousness 
 that the result of close inspection would not be favourable to 
 its pretensions, is still so far ascertained as to militate against 
 them. The only author who expresses a decided opinion on 
 the subject, is Brower, and he only maintains that it is not 
 linen. Vicar General Cordel says, it is of fine nettle-cloth ; 
 and two others maintain it feels like velvet or silk, only not 
 quite so yielding to the touch ; and they therefore conclude it 
 to be composed of real nettle-cloth (that is, woven with yarn, 
 spun from the fibres of nettles), and not any imitation of that 
 rare and costly fabric made with flax or cotton yarns. Now, 
 linen was, in ancient times, seldom worn, except by women, 
 priests, or the rich and noble of the land (Luke xvi. 19), 
 and was esteemed too effeminate for men, who wore woollen 
 garments. There is no reason to doubt that the same habits 
 prevailed in Palestine as in other parts of the East ; but, apart 
 from that, we may assume, as certain, that Christ, who certainly 
 alluded with no approval to the fine clothing worn in kings' 
 houses (Matt. xi. 8), would not himself have worn so pompous 
 a garment as the coat of Treves must have been in its day. 
 
 * The Bonn professors calculate that such a garment must have 
 cost, in the time of our Saviour, from £16 to £25, according to the 
 thickness or thinness of the stufiF employed ; and He had not where to 
 lay his head ! 
 
116 THE REFORMATION 
 
 Fourthly. In regard to its workmanship, various writers 
 (all Catholics) unite in acknowledging the great difficulty of 
 now ascertaining the nature of its texture. Two maintain it 
 is impossible to decide whether it be woven or knitted ; but 
 Enen, the oldest authority, in respect of the relic, pronounces, 
 quite decidedly, that it is assuredly not woven, but of that kind 
 of workmanship termed reticulato opere, or knitting. How 
 then shall we reconcile this unequivocal testimony with the 
 sacred text, which declares the coat of Christ to have been 
 " woven from the top throughout ?" The want of any one 
 of the four requisites just enumerated would be sufficient to 
 throw great suspicion on the Treves garment ; but when all four 
 are missing, we may safely assert that any other old coat in 
 the tunic form has just as much claim to be exhibited as this 
 one. But even these evidences are not all which can be brought 
 against it. Close examinations have discovered figures upon 
 it which, by the aid of a microscope, prove to be those of a 
 bird resembling a peacock, of which the head and feet are 
 clearly discernible, which gives strong ground for doubting 
 its being a Palestine garment at all. But never would 
 Christ, who scrupulously fulfilled the whole law, have worn 
 that which was in express contradiction to the command of 
 making no likeness of anything, whether in heaven or in earth. 
 And lastly, to give the final blow to all its pretensions, the 
 seamless coat is discovered to have a seam ! Nor need this 
 refutation of bold, long-continued, and ecclesiastically attested 
 relic pretension surprise us. The Treves coat, unhappily, is 
 far from standing alone in this respect. " In the church of St. 
 Peter's, in Venice, a splendid chair, composed of six pieces of 
 different kinds of marble, is carefully preserved, on which, 
 according to the legend, St. Peter sat when he was bishop 
 of Antioch. Documents can be produced, testifying to its 
 having been presented to the Venetians in the ninth century, 
 by the Byzantine Emperor, Michael. Papal indulgences have 
 been bestowed in reward for the veneration shown it ; unin- 
 terrupted tradition and the unhesitating faith of centuries 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 117 
 
 sanction its pretensions. Nay, probability lends its full aid ; 
 for what is more natural, than that such a memento of the 
 prince of the apostles, itself, too, of an imperishable nature, 
 should have been carefully watched over by the citizens of 
 Antioch, secreted from all the successive conquerors of the 
 city, happily conveyed to Byzantium, and lastly bestowed by a 
 generous emperor on St. Peter's Church in Venice. But, alas ! 
 tradition, papal indulgences, and probability, are all overturned 
 by an unfortunate Arabic inscription on the upper part of the 
 chair, which turns out to be a verse of the Koran, and proves 
 that portion of the chair to have been the tombstone of a 
 Mohammedan, who had fallen in battle with the Christians. 
 The Abbe Assemani, in Padua, and the German oriental scholar 
 Tychsen, both deciphered it in 1787. Assemani's treatise 
 was suppressed by the censor, and the chair continues to this 
 day to receive the accustomed unabated reverence."* How, 
 then, came this wonderful coat to Treves ? The legend states 
 that the empress Helena, commonly called the mother, though 
 by some believed to have been the wife of Constantino the 
 Great, made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 326, and, in her 
 search after sacred places and things in Jerusalem, was so 
 fortunate as to win upon the Christians by her piety, zeal, and 
 benevolence, to such a degree, that they eagerly met her wishes 
 by relinquishing their ^treasured relics in exchange for the 
 money of the empress, who thus became enriched with more 
 than her most sanguine hopes could have anticipated ; and she 
 bore away from Jerusalem the true cross, together with the 
 inscription it had borne, the nails used in the crucifixion, and 
 the identical coat over which the soldiers cast lots. Where, 
 then, had it been during the 300 years ? Professor Marx, in 
 his Romish zeal, finds no difficulty in imagining the following 
 little romance, which makes all plain : " The soldier, " says 
 he, " could not possibly value the garment above its mere 
 material worth ; but St. John and Mary Magdalene could not 
 
 * Preface to Professor Gildemeister and Sybel's pamphlet, page 1 1. 
 
118 THE REFORMATION 
 
 brook the thought of its remaining in such hands ; a small 
 sum bought it from him, and during 300 years the precious 
 memorial was retained with religious care, its very existence 
 concealed from all but a few initiated, and thus secured from 
 the sacrilegious hands of the heathen persecutors. To the 
 pious Helena it was readily ceded, and she, on her return, 
 sent it to Treves (her birth-place), along with other valuable 
 relics, by the hands of Bishop Agricius, when it was depo- 
 sited in the cathedral." Now, supposing that so perishable a 
 material as a garment could have been preserved for 300 
 years, the regard felt for it by Christians appears so perfectly 
 natural, that the only part of the tale which must excite sur- 
 prise is, that any sum could buy it from the possessors. 
 What human heart does not know the tender melancholy 
 with which memorials of those dear, and now removed, are 
 gazed on ; the scrupulous care with which they are preserved : 
 and could it possibly be, that any thing the Saviour of men 
 had ever touched could be shown with undoubted evidence of 
 its genuineness, the whole Christian world might well be par- 
 doned for looking at it with reverence and holy tenderness. 
 What else but this feeling imparts such indescribable interest 
 to the scenery, in and around Jerusalem, where we know 
 Christ was, and which, from its imperishable nature, must be 
 still as it was then ? The Roman Catholic error is, however, 
 twofold : first, in producing as genuine what is either palpably 
 false or doubtful, and then calling, not for respect, but worship 
 towards it, and attaching to that worship the remission of 
 sins. But the next question is, where is the documentary 
 evidence respecting the said coat, from the year 327 to the pre- 
 sent day ? And here it must be owned by Catholics that a sad 
 gap occurs, for the coat is never again heard of till the year 
 1056, at the earliest ; some assign 1514, the very year of Leo's 
 bull, for that in which it first appeared in its present domicile, 
 and find the coincidence rather suspicious. It seems clear 
 that, in 1054, the Treves ecclesiastics had not themselves an 
 idea of the treasure they possessed ; but a kind of preparation 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 119 
 
 was made for the future fraud in a work entitled " Vita 
 Agricii," in which the following statement occurs, whether 
 afterwards interpolated or not, is uncertain : " By tradition 
 from our fathers we learn that a pious bishop of this city having, 
 A.D. 1000, heard various reports of valuable relics being in a 
 certain chest in the cathedral (some supposed it to contain 
 the unseamed coat, others the purple mantle or the shoes of 
 the Saviour), the bishop, after observing some solemn pre- 
 liminaries, ordered the chest to be opened ; but as the first 
 person who looked in was struck with blindness, the exami- 
 nation was for some time postponed." The first fact, how- 
 ever, which can be adduced connected with the Treves coat, 
 goes no farther back than 1121, in which year there is reason 
 to suppose it was deposited in the cathedral by Bishop Brunno ; 
 and on the 1st of May, 1196, certainly brought forth from its 
 receptacle by Archbishop John, when he consecrated the high 
 altar, and was laid by him on the altar of St. Peter. Such dry 
 and uninteresting details are, however, ill calculated to create 
 excitement or enthusiasm, and therefore a variety of strange 
 and marvellous relations are current among the people, all bear- 
 ing a kind of family resemblance to each other, and all testify- 
 ing to the miraculous agency of the sacred coat. The learned 
 professors give many of them to their readers, but one must 
 suffice here as a specimen : " In the neighbourhood of Treves," 
 the legend goes, " the emperor Constantine being, after his 
 conversion, naturally highly incensed with Pontius Pilate for 
 putting Jesus to death, sentenced him to suffer for it ; but 
 whenever Pilate was led forth for execution, he put on the 
 miraculous coat, and forthwith no one could lay a hand on 
 him, to the great astonishment of the emperor. At length 
 St. Veronica revealed the secret ; Constantine took possession 
 of the coat, and Pilate suffered for his crime." The gross 
 anachronisms and incongruities of this tale do not, it seems, at 
 all interfere with its credibility. What wonder, then, if the 
 deficiency of evidence in the coat's history is little accounted 
 of? Some may, perhaps, be disposed to argue, what matters it, 
 
120 THE REFORMATION 
 
 ether it be our Saviour's genuine coat or not; if the people 
 believe it, their reverence is well-grounded, however unfounded 
 may be the pretensions of the tunic. Granted, their rever- 
 ence is justifiable, but not their worship ; and that such was 
 actually paid we have undeniable evidence, for eye and ear- 
 witnesses have testified, that the multitude on their knees before 
 the coat, called out, " Holy coat, I come to thee !" "Holy coat, 
 to thee I pray !" " Holy coat, intercede for me !" Nay, in the 
 authorised Litany of the holy coat we read these blasphemous 
 words : — 
 
 " By the miraculous power of thy sacred coat, by touching 
 which the sick and bowed-down were healed. 
 
 "By thy divine transfiguration on Mount Tabor, where thy 
 raiment became white as snow. 
 
 "By thy bloody sweat on the Mount of Olives, with which 
 thy sacred coat was penetrated and wet through. 
 
 "By thy sacred blood which we worship in thy sacred coat, 
 redeem us, oh Jesus!" &c., &c. 
 
 But we must return to the pretensions of the coat of 
 Treves to be the seamless garment worn by our Lord when 
 led to crucifixion, and the claims made by other cities and 
 nations to be the happy possessors of so precious a relic ; 
 and, first of all, we have to mention, that Treves is rival to 
 herself in the matter ; for her archives contain documents 
 relative to a dispute carried on between the Elector and the 
 Chapter, in the year 1631, respecting another tunica Sal- 
 vatoris nostri Jesu Christi ; and, alas, for the pilgrims of 
 1844, this latter coat was pronounced by Pope Urban VIII., 
 to whose decision the aflPair was referred, to be the true and 
 genuine one. If antiquity be admitted as evidence, all other 
 claimants must retire before the Galatian tunic, which is 
 undoubtedly 500 years older by documentary claim than that 
 of Treves, being mentioned" by Gregory of Tours, who died 
 in 594. Next to the Galatian tunic comes the seamless coat 
 of Tafed (or Jerusalem), of which we first hear, in 740, by 
 the chronicler Fredegar. In 899, another claimant for the 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 121 
 
 honour appeared at Santiago di Compostello, and simul- 
 taneously, if not even before it, another at Oviedo. Eng- 
 land, too, can boast of a tunic deserving precedence of that 
 at Treves : for in the enumeration of the gifts made by 
 Edward the Confessor to Westminster Abbey, is mentioned 
 a portion of the seamless coat, as having been bestowed in 
 1066. 
 
 Want of room compels us to confine our notice of the 
 remaining seamless tunics, which dispute with that of Treves 
 the veneration of the Catholic world, to a mere list of 
 names. Argenteuil, Kowe, Bremen (or Loccum), Ghent, 
 nines. Corbie, Tournay, Cologne, Frankfort, Friaul, Thiers, 
 Constantinople, Georgia or Moscow, Monte dell'Alvernia, 
 Mantua, Mallorka, Halle, and last of all, Turkey, claim to 
 possess the one indivisible garment, which derives its impor- 
 tant value not solely on account of the divine wearer, but as 
 typically shadowing forth the one and indivisible church of 
 Christ, established at the crucifixion ; and which, by falling 
 by lot to a Roman soldier, might be supposed to intimate the 
 committal by divine appointment of the Christian church to 
 Rome's sole guidance and care. And yet, even here the 
 Romanists may be foiled with their own weapons ; for the 
 Russians have, to say the least, an equal, and as far as proba- 
 bility goes, a better claim to call themselves the possessors 
 of the miraculous garment, which, according to their legend, 
 fell to the lot of a Georgian soldier, serving in the Roman army, 
 by whom it was carried home ; and after various miraculous 
 evidences of its power, and passing from hand to hand, and 
 from generation to generation, was at length discovered by 
 the patriarch Filaret Nikititisch, by whom, with consent of 
 the Emperor Michael Feodorowitsch, it was divided into two 
 halves : one half deposited in a golden box, the other half 
 enclosed in the cross which crowned the highest tower of the 
 Kremlin. This last relic is, no doubt, now consigned for 
 ever to oblivion, as the golden cross of the Kremlin was 
 carried oiF by the French, in 1812 ; and finding themselves 
 
122 REFORMATION OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 unable to transport it when overtaken by the calamities of 
 that terrible retreat, they threw it into a lake, whence, in all 
 probability, it never will be withdrawn. 
 
 It must not be forgotten, that in addition to all the places 
 claiming the seamless coat, which was cast lots for, no argu- 
 ment can be founded on the possibility that the Saviour might 
 have had a succession of garments ; for the Roman Catholic 
 legend maintains, the Virgin Mary wove the coat for the 
 infant Jesus, and that it grew with his growth ; so that the 
 Saviour possessed the rare happiness of never having an ill- 
 fitting coat. 
 
123 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 reformation of the nineteenth century 
 (continued). 
 
 Czerski— His early Life — Clerical Education — Appointment to 
 Schneidemiihl — Preaching— Excites the Opposition of the Romish 
 Anthorities — He and his Adherents excommunicated — Formation 
 of the Apostolic-Catholic Church of Schneidemiihl— Czerski's 
 " Justification" — Romish Calumnies — Czerski's Marriage — Dis- 
 interestedness — Reply to a Proposal to re-enter the Romish 
 Church — Rejection of the Pecuniary Offer — Disapproval of the 
 Leipsic Confession — Circular to the Churches of Western Prussia 
 — Miiller's attempt to prevent a Rupture — Czerski's second Cir- 
 cular to the Churches— Letter to a Friend— Letter to Dr. Theiner 
 — The Berlin Deputation — Proposal to form an Episcopalian 
 Catholic Church — Its Rejection by the Church of Schneide- 
 miihl. 
 
 In common with many who have been destined to perform a 
 conspicuous part in the world's drama, John Czerski was 
 bom, not in a palace, but in a cottage, situated in an obscure 
 village of Western Prussia. His parents were pious, but 
 poor ; and hence, his means of education were limited to those 
 attainable in the village school, where only reading (in the 
 Polish language) and the first rules of arithmetic were taught. 
 Thirst for learning impelled him to seek, and previous good 
 conduct procured him, admittance into the free school of 
 
 g2 
 
124 THE REFORMATION 
 
 Bromberg, whence he was in due time advanced to the gymna- 
 sium of Conitz, where he had the happiness to meet teachers 
 who appreciated and fostered his frank independent character. 
 Here his unwearied diligence, eager employment of every op- 
 portunity fur improvement, and a moral conduct on which no 
 suspicion ever rested, gained him the esteem and respect of 
 both superiors and equals. His history, in detail, will after- 
 wards be given in his own words ; it suffices, therefore, 
 shortly to state, that his entrance on the alumnat, or priestly 
 seminary, proved to him also, as to Ronge, the commence- 
 ment of inward conflict and tormenting doubt. Unable to 
 reconcile, either to his own mind, or to each other, various 
 dogmas of the Roman Catholic church, he was led to compare 
 them with the Bible, by which his peace of mind became 
 wholly unhinged; for he began to suspect that the pure gos- 
 pel had been obscured, and even adulterated, by those very 
 ecclesiastical writers, to whose authority he was instructed to 
 bow with unquestioning and reverential submission. The 
 doubts which such distressing suspicions led him to express, 
 gave occasion to many warm disputes with his fellow-students, 
 on the authenticity of some (and they by no means unim- 
 portant) doctrines of the Romish church. These doubts 
 would assuredly have soon given place to certainty, had 
 Czerski had access to proper sources of information; but, 
 many books for which he longed, were only conceded to his 
 urgent entreaty with extreme difficulty, and after long delay. 
 Thought, study, but especially reading of the Scriptures, 
 changed all his forebodings into doleful certainties ; and the 
 breach between Rome and Czerski was thus fully made 
 within the latter's own bosom, although for a little time he 
 still continued outwardly connected with her ; and, like as 
 Ronge, was forced on step by step, to a decisive and open 
 separation from the Romish church, so, though far apart, as 
 to position, wholly independent of his movements, and appa- 
 rently without ever having heard the name of the priest of 
 Grottkau, another CathoUc priest was led by similar means, 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 125 
 
 to similar convictions, and similar resolutions. Yet, in more 
 than one particular, Czerski differs from, and surpasses 
 Ronge. To Czerski, the modest, retiring man, to whose 
 individual character every approach to leadership, or pub- 
 licity, is foreign, belongs the merit, not only of having first 
 entertained the idea of the formation of a Catholic church, 
 independent of, and separate from, Rome ; but of being the 
 first, likewise, to carry this idea into practice. And this bold 
 step brought what had long lain dark and inert in the wishes 
 of thousands, at once to distinctive clearness; and the thought 
 of their hearts took form and substance. In March, 1844, 
 Czerski was appointed assistant to probst Busse, in Schneide- 
 miihl, whose failing health had induced him to apply for a 
 co-pastor. And here he found many parishioners, whose 
 thoughts and feelings coincided with his own. For, in beau- 
 tiful illustration of the manner in which God so often prepares 
 a people for himself in the midst of their enemies, at the 
 same time that he raiseth up suitable pastors to " feed them 
 with wisdom and knowledge," very many individuals in 
 Schneidemiilil had been led to read the Bible, and hence to 
 hunger and thirst for a purer milk of doctrine than their old 
 probst could, or did dispense to them, but which they found 
 in the zealous preaching of the young priest thus providen- 
 tially sent to meet their wants and wishes. Pastor and people 
 went on reading and learning from God's word ; and the free- 
 dom with which Czerski, on all occasions, avowed his religious 
 sentiments, rendered it impossible that this " new thing in 
 the land " could long remain hid from the satellites of Rome. 
 Czerski was summoned to give account of his doctrine before 
 an ecclesiastical tribunal. He, no less than his people, felt 
 that they must now decide on submission, or separation. 
 They chose the latter ; and, after some intermediate ecclesi- 
 astical forms had been observed, excommunication was pro- 
 nounced upon Czerski and all his adherents, whether present 
 or future. This sentence deprived Czerski of his office, and 
 threw him penniless upon the world. But this was the very 
 
126 THE REFORMATION 
 
 fittest soil for the growth and prosperity of the divine seed. 
 All whose hearts had previously felt with him, and many more, 
 whose eyes were hy this very proceeding opened to the uncom- 
 promising tyranny of Rome, rallied closely round the victim 
 of papal denunciation; and with high-hearted courage, the 
 little band dared to raise the banner of spiritual liberty in the 
 face of Germany, and openly abjured the dark and degrading 
 servitude of the Roman hierarchy. On the 27th of October, 
 1844, the new Apostolic Cjatholic church in Schneidemiihl, 
 sent in a written declaration of the step they had taken to the 
 Prussian district government in Bromberg, and solicited its 
 protection. Probst Busse had, by a hasty zeal, already 
 justified, or almost necessitated, this open separation on the 
 part of the adherents of Czerski, by not only excommunicating 
 them as apostates from the Romish church, but prohibiting 
 the burial of any connected with them, whether by sentiment 
 or relationship. Czerski was, as a matter of course, elected 
 pastor of the newly-formed community. The number of its 
 members increased daily, and their published confession of 
 faith, and Czerski's " Justification of his leaving the church of 
 Rome," divided, with Rouge's letter to Bishop Arnoldi, the 
 attention of the German public. The " Justification" contains, 
 in addition to statements very similar to those of Ronge re- 
 specting the effect of priestly education, much more evangelical 
 sentiment, and evinces a closer knowledge of, and humbler 
 submission to, Scripture authority. Ronge's " Justification," 
 as, indeed, his whole public career, speaks of his having left 
 Rome because its deceptions, arrogance, and tyranny, revolted 
 and disgusted his every feeling as man and as German; 
 whOe Czerski seems to have been impelled to the same step 
 by an overpowering conviction that its doctrines [were irre- 
 concilable with the Word of God. He therefore felt and 
 declared himself to be no longer a minister of the Pope and 
 of his false dogmas, but a minister of Almighty God and of 
 his holy doctrines. In this spirit he composed and published 
 the following " Justification : " — 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 127 
 
 " Justification of my Secession from the Church of Rome ; 
 being a Public Circular to all who can or will see, hear, 
 and test, the merits of the case. By Czerski, Apostolic 
 Catholic Priest in Schneidemiihl. 
 "And God said, Let there be light : and light was."^ — Gen. i. 1. 
 " There is no such thing as a prison for the mind. And 
 this great truth, which the experience of ages has only served 
 to confirm, is the telescope through which, as it were, every 
 unprejudiced observer should contemplate the event which has 
 given rise to the following pages ; and I, as the chief actor in 
 this event, which no one will deny, can scarcely fail to exercise 
 a considerable influence on the present and future religious 
 state of the community, feel myself irresistibly called upon, not 
 merely to justify, in the eyes of my reflecting fellow-Christians, 
 the step by which I myself, and the little church connected 
 with me, have been brought into direct opposition with the 
 Roman Catholic church ; but likewise, so much as in me lies, 
 to stir up my Catholic brethren to adopt a similar course. 
 Listen to me, then, all ye who have yet ears to hear ; all who 
 are not wholly . and irrevocably bound in the fetters of an 
 egotistic priestly despotism, hear and test my words, and 
 * hold fast that which is good.' There is no prison for the 
 mind, however much human weakness, combined with human 
 error and human selfishness, may have striven, or may yet 
 strive, to imprison it. But, more especially, there is no such 
 thing as a prison for the Christian's spirit ; for Christ hath won 
 for us, by his divine doctrine, the true freedom of the Spirit ; 
 that freedom which, being in itself true, likewise strives after 
 truth, and by that truth makes us free. Said he not himself 
 to the Jews who believed on him, ' Ye shall know the truth, 
 and the truth shall make you free V Yes,Ohrist hath not 
 only freed us from sin, but likewise, through his divine word, 
 from every fetter which the cunning self-interest and wicked- 
 
 ♦ The reader will observe that the Scripture quotations are taken 
 from the German version. 
 
128 THE REFORMATION 
 
 ness of man would fain impose on us. He hath won for our 
 souls heavenly truth, in all its simple beauty, and made us 
 truly free ; for ' if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be 
 free indeed' (John viii. 36). Now the Lord is that Spirit; 
 and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor. 
 iii. 17). But every attempt to deprive man of this Christ- 
 bestowed freedom, is an offence committed against God him- 
 self; and Christ expressly warns us against such wicked men, 
 who try to enslave the minds of their brethren. 'Ye are 
 bought with a price' (1 Cor. vii. 23). And again, ' Stand 
 fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us 
 free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage' 
 (Gal. V. 1). Could it then have been believed that the spirit 
 of Christianity, furnished as it is with an immortal pattern of 
 humility in the example of him who came to redeem us from 
 spiritual death, could be so v,^arped and misled by the influence 
 of Satanic pride, as to lead man to elevate himself above his 
 brethren, and, robbing them of their freedom, demand for 
 himself a reverence which belongs to God alone ? And yet is 
 it not so ? There has arisen in the Christian church a power 
 which, exerting every energy to repress all spiritual freedom, 
 and degrading the church into a mere plaything of its des- 
 potism, has, by dextrously adding lies and deception to her 
 doctrines, converted them into a mixture of truth and fiction ; 
 and, at the same time, imposed itself upon the stupified mind 
 of man as a second Godhead. This power is the popedom, 
 and its chief and most faithful servants are the Jesuits. Yes, 
 truly, in popery, ' the father of lies' has revealed himself, 
 and its hierarchy has dared, in God's stead, to prescribe laws 
 to men, which they themselves are the last to observe ; well 
 do they exemplify the conduct described in Matt, xxiii., ' The 
 scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat,' &c. It is popery 
 which from the beginning has striven, and still strives, to 
 quench the light of the gospel, and kindle its own in its room ; 
 and even to lock up the book of books, which testifies of God, 
 imposing on the world its own lying code of laws in its 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 129 
 
 Stead. Nor are the means ill chosen for attaining the desired 
 end (which the popedom never loses sight of), — the establish- 
 ing at once of a brutifying spiritual despotism, and absolute 
 earthly power. Yet, although the ignorance of earlier ages 
 enabled it to delude the multitude, and to place fair-robed 
 falsehood on the throne of truth ; although the Jesuits, those 
 true and faithful disciples of the holy see, succeeded in 
 throwing their net over all Christendom, and marching, beneath 
 the banner of their cunning, to many a victory over freedom 
 of thought, still there has been no lack of occasions in which 
 superior minds, in glorious consciousness of their native and 
 unconquerable freedom, have broken through all fetters ; and 
 braving the Inquisition, the stake, or the terrors of a St. 
 Bartholomew's night, have torn off from falsehood her glitter- 
 ing gewgaws, and triumphantly displayed her in all her naked 
 deformity. And now, when an increased measure of intelli- 
 gence is making its way even among the lowest grades of 
 society, so that the unworthy carnival masquerade of a so- 
 called coat of Christ (whose very existence, after a lapse of 
 1800 years, the most pitiable imbecility alone could credit), 
 has called forth universal disgust in every thinking mind, and 
 procured for the resistless appeal of a Ronge, the most wide- 
 resounding and enthusiastically-approving echo ; now, surely, 
 it is beyond the power of human wit or human daring, to com- 
 mand a continuance of the reign of darkness ; but he> to whom 
 alone belongs the power, to which no man, however highly 
 placed, can reach, is God ; a God of light and truth. He 
 said, ' Let there be light, and light was,' though hell itself 
 may have striven to rear itself against it. In former days, the 
 popedom was able to denounce the more enlightened and 
 fearless confessor of a more enlightened faith, as a perjured, 
 apostate heretic, before the silly judgment of the dull multi- 
 tudes, who followed him with an applauding consent to the 
 torture and the stake. But now, even the multitude knows, 
 despite the re-awakened Jesuitical hydra, that thought is free ; 
 that conviction is not a work of man, but of God; and, 
 
 g3 
 
130 THE REFORMATION 
 
 therefore, cannot be confined within human limits, without 
 losing the nature of faith. The reflecting and enlightened 
 mind is now emboldened to reject, what in childhood's twilight 
 had been received as truth, but which his more developed 
 faculties proclaim error, if not deception; and the candid 
 avowal of his convinced conscience will not, in these days, draw 
 upon him the reproach of perjury and apostacy, although the 
 advocates of such fraud may raise the cry of heresy against him. 
 " The mind enslaved by ignorance and error, may be likened 
 to the child under tutelage. It is easy to declaim before 
 either, for neither is capable of exactly distinguishing between 
 the true and the false, between the real and the apparent ; and 
 so, seduced by external glimmer and the imposing authority of 
 saintly pretenders, they both believe blindly, because they are 
 as yet unable to see clearly ; and bind themselves under obli- 
 gations, because they know no better. But shall such a tie 
 become an indissoluble fetter ? In civil society, no engagement 
 entered into in nonage is held valid ; and the world's censure 
 is levelled ^t such as attempt to entangle a minor in obliga- 
 tions, of the consequences of which he is incapable of judging : 
 wherefore, then, should he who has in spiritual things been 
 deceived and entangled, who recognises his error, and sincerely 
 desires to repair it, be denied a similar protection ? Can it be 
 deemed perjury, under the guidance of a more enlightened 
 judgment, to cast off the yoke which a spiritual guardian 
 had induced the inexperienced minor to assume ? And truly, 
 as the age of mental tutelage cannot be fixed, we would do 
 well to beware of pronouncing rash judgment in affairs of con- 
 science : ' Judge not ; that ye be not judged ! ' No ; to 
 acknowledge error, and to forsake error, is no perjury, no 
 crime in the eye of God ; and ought not to be so in the eye 
 of man. But to teach and to act contrary to what a man 
 thinks and believes ; to appear other than what one really is ; 
 that is a sin before God and man ; a dreadful sin, which will 
 weigh heavily in the scale of evil deeds at the judgment-day. 
 Is, then, the papal college, were it even truly the highest of 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 131 
 
 earthly powers, able to absolve from this sm ? Never ! oh, 
 never ! No human power can invest a premeditated lie with 
 the badge of truth. God himself (with reverence be it spoken) 
 cannot, since he must then cease to be the God of truth and 
 righteousness. None but Jesuits can maintain the possibi- 
 lity of such a thing ; and hence, they are the truest servants 
 of that system which has for ages laboured to introduce error 
 and confusion, ignorance and superstition, falsehood and 
 fraud, into the doctrine of light, and truth, and purity, which 
 Christ taught. But, God be thanked, all men are not yet 
 Jesuits. 
 
 " ' Man only sees the outward show,' 
 Which hypocrites are seeking still ; 
 But God the heart's recess can know, 
 Of such as love to do his will. 
 
 "May these words be the line and plummet by which the 
 reader will test my recent actions, and then he will not pass 
 wrong judgment on a step which has been the result of the 
 deepest and fullest convictions. 
 
 " I was born of poor, but pious parents, in Werlubien, a small 
 village in the neighbourhood of Neuenburg, where, until my 
 thirteenth year, I attended the parish school, in which, how- 
 ever, I only learned to read Polish, and the first rudiments of 
 arithmetic ; but, having a great thirst for instruction, I was 
 sent to the grammar-school in Bromberg, which, after nine 
 months' attendance, I exchanged for the gymnasium, or high 
 school of Conitz, where I worked my way up to the highest 
 class. And here, I cannot refrain from returning publicly my 
 heartfelt thanks to the Conitz professors, for the cordial and 
 conscientious manner in which they met my open and straight- 
 forward disposition, aiming, as became able and honest men, 
 to facilitate the free and unartificial development of my mind 
 and character. 
 
 "After having maintained my place in the first class of the 
 gymnasium for eighteen months, I was received into the 
 alumnat (or theological department) of the St. Mary's gym- 
 
132 THE REFORMATION 
 
 nasium in Posen, leaving it again after a residence of six 
 months (with a testimonial to having completed the pre- 
 scribed course), in order to enter the episcopal seminary. 
 There began for me a period of internal conflict and doubt. I 
 studied theology with the utmost eagerness ; but being unable 
 to reconcile to my own mind various propounded dogmas, I 
 compared them with the Bible. This raised, in some degree, 
 the bandage from my eyes ; I began to suspect that the pure 
 light of the gospel had been dimmed and obscured by human 
 interpretation : still, I did not see clearly ; and these doubts 
 led me into frequent argumentative collisions with my fellow- 
 collegians upon isolated articles of belief. Several works 
 (among others, Sarpi's Historia Concilii Tridentini) were only 
 conceded to my perusal with the greatest difficulty in the 
 seminary ; for the whole education of a priest must, as the 
 hierarchy expresses it, be conducted in reference to the church ; 
 and that, as the clergy have the presumption to deem them- 
 selves the church, means neither more nor less, than that all 
 must be conducted and judged of, with reference to the views 
 and interests of a selfish hierarchy. In this view, the reading of 
 the Bible is regulated ; and, on the same principle, the perusal 
 of many other excellent and enlightened books forbidden : in 
 short, the clergy train the young priestly plant entirely to 
 their own taste, and water it with water from the Tiber, in 
 order to secure that the fuU-grown tree may bring forth only 
 Roman fruit. They force, as I may say, every theological 
 student to draw on a coat, brought, cut, and ready from the 
 great clothing warehouse of the Vatican : whether the coat fit 
 or not, is of little consequence ; it may pinch here, and hang 
 loose there ; but one must pull and shift it about, until, for want 
 of a better, it can be borne with. A pair of Roman spectacles is 
 next placed on his nose, through which he must, perforce, look 
 at every object ; and Roman glasses are so cut as seldom to 
 give back any object in its native proportions. I, too, was 
 furnished with such a pair of Roman hierarchal spectacles, 
 and they showed me the world just as Rome willed it. And 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 133 
 
 thus I issued from the seminary, dissatisfied indeed with some 
 dogmas, but still Roman Catholic in sentiment, still regarding 
 the Roman Catholic priest as a being of a superior order, elevated 
 above the weaknesses and frailties of the rest of mankind. 
 
 "But the bandage was soon to be wholly removed from my 
 eyes ; I was soon to see more clearly, and acknowledge more 
 fully, that * man should worship and serve God, and him 
 only' (Matt. iv. 10). I was to ' behold the glory of God with 
 unveiled face, and be led from one clear light to another, as by 
 the Lord the Spirit' (2 Cor. iii. 18, Luther's translation), 
 and learn at once to know and to cast from me the code of 
 lying papal laws which, twining itself round the consciences 
 of men, precludes the exercise of moral freedom. 
 
 " I became vicar of the cathedral of Posen, and spent 
 eighteen months in that capital of priestly rule. There my 
 eyes were opened indeed, for I made in Posen the same 
 discovery which Luther did long ago in Rome ; I perceived 
 that, to very many, might justly be addressed the words of the 
 Lord Jesus, ' Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, 
 for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men ; ye go 
 not in yourselves, and those who would enter in ye hinder!' 
 I saw that the Lord's command, ' Go ye into all the world 
 and preach the gospel to every creature,' as well as the 
 apostolic admonition, * Till I come, give attendance to read- 
 ing, to exhortation, to doctrine' (1 Tim. iv. 13), were almost 
 whoUy neglected; for I perceived that, notwithstanding the 
 hosts of priests around me, thousands whose souls thirsted 
 for the word of God, were suffered to wander through life 
 untaught and unconsoled. Can we really believe that the 
 impious Jesuit doctrine, * the end sanctifies the means,' will 
 maintain its ground in that great day when the Lord of heaven 
 and earth will call each one to account for the talent com- 
 mitted to him ? Oh, no, no ; I saw, I felt this in Posen, and 
 there, too, to all my former doubts was superadded doubt as 
 to the personal sanctity of the priesthood. 
 
 "I applied myself anew to the study of the Bible. I ex- 
 
134 THE REFORMATION 
 
 amined some books which had previously been prohibited to 
 me ; and I became convinced of what I had before suspected, 
 that I was not serving God, but a human despotic power. I 
 read John xiv. 6, * I (that is, Christ) am the way, the truth, 
 and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me;' and 
 1 Tim. xi. 5, ' For there is one God, and one Mediator 
 between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus;' and I asked 
 myself, ' How can these texts be made to agree with the 
 worship of saints, and even of inanimate things, as recently 
 exhibited in the coat of Treves ?' 
 
 " Again, I read in Matt. vii. 1, ' Judge not, that ye be not 
 judged;' and I pondered, 'What then can entitle us to pass 
 sentence in the confessional on the faults and frailties of men, 
 we ourselves being weak and faUible creatures, who have all 
 sinned and come short of the glory of God?' I found written 
 in 1 Tim. iii. 2, * A bishop must be blameless, the husband 
 of one wife;' and in 1 Cor. vii. 2, 'Nevertheless, to avoid 
 fornication, let every man have his own wife ; ' and lastly, I 
 read, 1 Tim. iv. 1 — 6, and I could not help shuddering when 
 I compared the lives of most priests with those words of Holy 
 Writ, and thought on the weight and importance attached 
 to the mere abstinence from meats, while real crimes were 
 palliated or sanctioned ; for oh, how many and bitter are the 
 tears which the senseless vow of celibacy has wrung from 
 those who have become entangled in the snares of unprin- 
 cipled priests ! And how shameless is the consolatory am- 
 biguity by which the uneasy doubts of the young and ardent, 
 as to their capability of steadfastly adhering to the law of 
 chastity, are met ! ' Non unaim, hahehis, sed mille pro una 
 habebis' ('thou shalt not have one wife but a thousand,' 'if not 
 chaste be cautious ');* and whoso will dare to drawback with 
 venturous hand the veil which guards the cell of the monk, or 
 can obtain entrance to the secret chambers of the canting secu- 
 lar clergy, will find Venus enthroned there as chief goddess 
 
 * The German proverb is, *' Wenn nicht enthaltsam sey wachsam." 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 135 
 
 of their idolatry, and often desecrating even the confessional, 
 which is but too frequently employed as a medium and a lure 
 of pollution, to the purest and most innocent minds. But 
 I searched further, and found written in 1 Cor. vii. 16, 
 ' What knowest thou, oh wife, whether thou shalt save thy 
 husband?' I read also the 12th and 13th verses of the same 
 chapter, and I asked myself. How can mortal man forbid 
 marriage among Christians, though of different confessions? 
 Or, will the Roman Catholics confess themselves unentitled to 
 that designation? Have not both Protestants and Catholics 
 been baptized ? Do they not believe in one God and Father, 
 one Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ ? Can, then, the law, 
 which prohibits the marriage of Roman Catholics with Protes- 
 tants, be a law of love, such as Christ commanded ? Or is it 
 not rather a law suggested by the devil, who aims to sow 
 discord among men, that so he may fall upon and devour 
 them (1 Peter v. 8) ? Is not such a prohibition the fruit of 
 the most narrow-minded intolerance, and where hath Christ 
 commanded or sanctioned such a spirit? Christ enforced 
 love, because love is the fulfilling of the law ; and the pope 
 teaches discord and hatred : can that be Christian ? Again, 
 we find written. Matt. v. 17, 'Think not that I am come to 
 destroy the law or the prophets ; I am not come to destroy, but 
 to fulfil :' and yet, although the law says expressly, * Thou shalt 
 not make unto thee any graven image, nor the likeness of any 
 thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in 
 the waters under the earth ; thou shalt not bow down thyself 
 unto them,' the Roman hierarchy commands the worship of 
 images and relics. Can this be termed anythmg but a mockery 
 of God's commandments ? 
 
 "Again, I found, in 1 Cor. xiv. 9, an express apostolic 
 prohibition of speaking in the church in an unknown tongue ; 
 yet the mass is read in Latin, a language wholly incompre- 
 hensible to the majority of the worshippers ; of what benefit, 
 therefore, can the mass be to them? Is not this practice 
 literally what the apostle terms ' speaking into the air ? ' 
 
136 THE REFORMATION 
 
 But once again, I, the Koman Catholic priest, read in Matthew 
 xxiii. 8 — 11, the words of my Divine Master, proclaiming to 
 his apostles, ' Be not ye called rabbi, for one is your master, 
 even Christ, and all ye are brethren;' and * Call no man father 
 upon the earth, for one is your father which is in heaven.' 
 And yet there resides in Rome a man who not only suffers 
 himself to be styled father, but holy father ; and, from his 
 proud and lofty throne, desires to rule the world with a des- 
 potism which extends even to the mind, the faith, and the 
 thoughts of mankind. And he permits himself to be honoured 
 and worshipped, as if he were himself a god, or the Deity had 
 appointed him his vicegerent and representative. But is this 
 Christian ? Can this be designated a teaching of God's reli- 
 gion, according to the mind of Christ ? The pope claims to be 
 the chief bishop in the Christian church ; but on what does 
 he found the arrogant assumption ? Solely on the groundless 
 ipse dixit of one of his predecessors. For, that the apostle 
 Peter was ever Bishop of Rome, far less, that he appointed 
 his successors in that dignity to be primates of the Christian 
 church, is a mere papal figment, which has been many times 
 refuted ; neither was Luther the first impugner of pontifical 
 pretensions. Even as early as the fourth century, the Council 
 of Carthage (Concilium Carthaginiensis III., ann. 397) says 
 expressly, in its 26th canon, ' That the bishop of the first 
 bishopric is not to be regarded as chief priest, or as lord over 
 the other bishops.' Nor was it till a.d. 417, that the arrogant 
 formula, ' for so it hath pleased the apostolic chair,' was 
 employed for the first time by Zosimus ; while the resistance 
 instantly made to such presumption by his episcopal col- 
 leagues, is proved by a letter of the African bishops, addressed 
 to his successor, Pope Bonifacius, ann. 419, in which they 
 say, ' Since it hath pleased Almighty God to raise thee to 
 the throne of the Romish Church, we hope that we shall no 
 longer experience the working of carnal pride and arrogance, 
 which ought never to have been found in the Church of Christ.' 
 I now felt fully convinced, — 
 
^-^:^ 
 
 ^^^ 
 ^'^ 
 
 
 OF THE NINETEENH CENTURY. ^3^ 
 
 " First. That the pope is not a God-appointed ruler ; mi^^J4 
 that, on the contrary, the recognition of any priest, as head of 
 the church, is wholly opposed to the doctrine of Christ. 
 
 " Second. That the dogmas of the hierarchy are irrecon- 
 cilahle with the doctrines of Christ, in the following particulars : 
 
 " A. The setting up of any mediator between God and 
 men, besides the great Mediator, Christ Jesus. 
 
 " B. The doctrine of auricular confession. 
 
 " C. The doctrine of priestly absolution. 
 
 " D. The command of celibacy, which is not only unchrist- 
 ian, but demoralising in the highest degree. 
 
 " E. The prohibition of marriages between Catholics and 
 Protestants is unscriptural. 
 
 " F. The worship of images and relics is unchristian. 
 
 " G. The reading of the mass in a language which is not 
 the vernacular tongue of the people is unchristian. 
 
 " H. The celebration of the Lord's Supper, according to 
 the ritual of the Romish church, is unchristian. 
 
 " Third. I am, moreover, persuaded that the priesthood, 
 as a body, are not animated by a Christian, but a narrow- 
 minded sectarian spirit, which leads its members to forget 
 that we are all brethren, and, as being such, have an equal 
 interest in the kingdom of God. Thus, although in outward 
 semblance I was still a Roman Catholic priest, I was no longer 
 so in the innermost convictions of my soul ; for, I could no 
 longer regard, as true, those doctrines which, as a Roman 
 Catholic priest, it was my duty to hold and to teach. And the 
 questions arose in my mind, how then can I retain the name 
 and profession of one ? How can I hold up my head as an 
 honest man, while teaching that to others which I no longer 
 believe myself? Am I not, on the contrary, bound to confess 
 and teach what I now hold fast as the true faith, unless I would 
 act the part of a hypocrite towards both God and man? 
 Will any one say, that the pope had power to absolve me 
 from all reproach of hypocrisy, even though I had continued 
 to wear an outward semblance contrary to my inward feelings ? 
 
138 THE REFORMATION 
 
 Where, I ask, will you find in tlie Holy Scriptures, that any 
 priest hath power to transmute falsehood into truth ; to ab- 
 solve hypocrisy, and mock the omniscience of the Most High ? 
 Eeader, probe your own heart ; and if a spark of regard for 
 the divine command, to follow what is just and true, yet 
 glimmer there, it will give you the same answer that my 
 conscience did to me ; and the voice of conscience is infallible, 
 for God himself planted it in the breast of man, as his uncor- 
 ruptible judge, even in this lower world. I am too much of a 
 Christian to do any thing against my convictions ; and I was 
 and am too deeply imbued with reverence for the word of 
 God, to be capable of propounding false dogmas as the true 
 genuine doctrine of Christ. On this point, I can appeal 
 fearlessly even to my enemies, as well as to all who have 
 known my professional career hitherto. I therefore threw up 
 my situation in the Roman Catholic church, and withdrew 
 from [under the banner of the hypocritical hierarchy ; avowing 
 openly and frankly my former errors, as well as my newly- 
 adopted views, which are, I trust, founded no longer on human 
 statutes, but in a simple belief of God's own word. 
 
 "But let me not be misunderstood : I abjure the authority 
 of the pope and Romish hierarchy, but I remain a Catholic 
 Christian, a Catholic priest. I do not desire to become a 
 Lutheran, a Calvinist, a Baptist, or a Greek Christian. I re- 
 main a Catholic, but in accordance with the written word ; in 
 accordance with the commands of Christ and his apostles. I am 
 an Apostolic Catholic Christian, an Apostolic Catholic priest, 
 and such I desire to remain : as it is written, let no one say, 
 ' I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas.' ' What ! 
 is Christ divided ? Was Paul crucified for you ? or were you 
 baptized in the name of Paul V I am well aware I shall be 
 calumniated and anathematized ; every art will be employed 
 to alarm my fears ; nor will threats alone be resorted to. 
 Well do I know, that no means will be left untried to bring 
 about my recantation or my punishment ; but all this is fore- 
 told, as by Christ himself, ' Then shall they deliver you up to 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 139 
 
 be afflicted, and shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all 
 nations for my name's sake; but he that endureth to the 
 end shall be saved.' 'Who,' exclaims an apostle, 'who shall 
 separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or 
 distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or sword ? 
 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through 
 Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, 
 nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
 present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any 
 other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of 
 God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.' I am in God's hand ; 
 without whose permission not a sparrow can fall to the ground, 
 not a hair of my head can perish. And, although I see a heavy 
 conflict before me, yet, trusting in God and in the power of 
 his truth, I hope to be strong enough to sacrifice earthly 
 advantages in days to come, as I have done in days that are 
 past. Threats and calumnies I despise ; and, despite the name 
 of heretic, the excommunication, and the anathema, with which 
 I shall be loaded, I will show myself zealous for the true, 
 unadulterated doctrine of Christ, as it has taken possession 
 of my mind ; and henceforth be no more a minister of the pope 
 and his false doctrines, but of , Almighty God only, and of his 
 holy word. I rely upon God, on my right, and on my country. 
 Hear my words, oh pope! thou holy father! No mortal 
 man should claim to be called father in the sense you do ; for 
 one is our Father, even he who is in heaven. Hear it, pope, 
 clergy, and people ; ' he that will be great among you, let him be 
 your minister ;' and ' he that exalteth himself shall be abased !' 
 Hear it, pope ! hear it, ye clergy ! we are called to teach 
 the word of God, but not the wretched inventions of man ; we 
 ought to live in all sobriety and honesty, and should be tem- 
 perate, given to hospitality, apt to teach ; but we should not 
 live in unchastity and fornication ; we should not be given to 
 wine, or be greedy of filthy lucre ; not strikers, but patient ; 
 neither brawlers nor covetous (1 Tim. iii). Hear it, oh pope! 
 and ye Romish clergy ; ye blind leaders of the blind ; I declare 
 
140 THE REFORMATION 
 
 myself free from the banner of your unchristian hierarchy, 
 that I may henceforth live and teach the pure gospel, such 
 as Christ himself proclaimed it to the world. You will hurl 
 your excommunication-thunderbolt at my head ; you may even 
 prepare for me your burning faggots, and forge your chains, 
 as of old ; but here I take my stand, and must abide whatever 
 may befal me. May God be my helper ! Amen." 
 
 Czerski's anticipations of secret as well as open evidences of 
 Romish hostility were very speedily found to have been formed 
 on an intimate knowledge of those with whom he had to do ; 
 for not only did the excommunication and anathema soon issue 
 from the ecclesiastical courts, but calumny, and means of a 
 stiU more flagitious character, were resorted to, for the pur- 
 pose of ridding the hierarchy of so formidable an opponent. 
 No one individual, not even Ronge himself, has been the object 
 of half so much vituperation and slander, or been exposed 
 to so many attacks on his life, as this so unpretending and 
 naturally retiring man, whom no one ever even pretended 
 to suspect of any political design, or any ambitious view. 
 Czerski's duties are rendered much more onerous, his emolu- 
 ments much diminished, his dangers infinitely multiplied, by 
 his leaving the church of Rome. Why then should he be so 
 pre-eminently selected as the target against which her most 
 poisoned arrows are aimed, unless from a consciousness that 
 a champion of the pure gospel, impelled by gospel motives, 
 and wielding the sword of the Spirit, under the sole shelter 
 of the shield of faith, is, after all, a more dangerous antagonist 
 to antichrist, and more likely to win converts, who will abide 
 in the day of trial, than those philosophising patriots who 
 preach German more than Christian liberty, and foster instead 
 of humbling the pride of understanding, and the self-sufficiency 
 of the unconverted heart ? Amid a host of vague and untan- 
 gible calumnies, the Romanists have attempted to fasten two 
 disgraceful characteristics upon Czerski — incontinence and 
 avarice. Without reverting to the fact, that Luther had to 
 bear the first ^aspersion, its folly is exceeded only by its 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 141 
 
 impudence ; for who, in the present day, believes in the prac- 
 tical celibacy of the Romish priesthood, taken collectively, or 
 is ignorant of the unbridled license, which is connived at, if not 
 sanctioned, by the permission to keep as many and as often 
 renewed female inmates (whether under the name of menials, 
 or of cousins and nieces), as may be desired ? 'Wow unam sed 
 mille habebas" is, at least, an historical theorem of the Romish 
 church; and, we see, Czerski states it having been actually 
 propounded to him as a quietus to his expostulation respecting 
 the arbitrary ecclesiastical, but unscriptural celibatic regula- 
 tions. He entered the priestly office full of high and admiring 
 thoughts of the purity and supernal sanctity of the priesthood ; 
 but, when initiated into the mysteries of the monkish cell and 
 the priest's dwelling, he discovered those modern Pharisees to 
 be truly depicted by the divine appellation of " whited sepul- 
 chres," which conceal all manner of loathsomeness and corrup- 
 tion. He shrank from, and abhorred this. He searched the 
 Scriptures, and found in them no prohibition against marriage ; 
 but, on the contrary, an, at least, implied command ; since, 
 among the qualifications of a bishop, the apostle mentions 
 being " the husband of one wife," and therefore, detesting 
 concubinage, which was free to him, Czerski desired to marry, 
 but found himself debarred from it by ecclesiastical law. He 
 then resolved on contracting what has been termed a clandestine, 
 or conscience marriage, with a young woman to whom he had 
 become attached : and this he accordingly did, in the presence 
 of respectable witnesses, summoned for the purpose, and who 
 are still living to attest the fact. For he imagined, that as no 
 Protestant clergyman could, and no Romish priest would, per- 
 form the ceremony, he might thus retain his vicarage, and yet 
 live morally in the sight of God. This act reached, of course, 
 the ears of his superiors, who, although they would have 
 winked at a mistress, revolted at the very semblance of a 
 wife ; and commanded Czerski to put away her whom he 
 regarded and treated as his lawful wife. He refused, avow- 
 ing his conviction of the Bible-lawfulness of marriage ; and 
 
142 THE REFORMATION 
 
 thus matters drew on, until his open renunciation of Rome, 
 followed hy episcopal excommunication, freed him from all the 
 trammels and claims of ecclesiastical judicatories. He then 
 hastened to obtain the legal sanction of a public ceremony for 
 the marriage he had contracted, with all the binding solemnities 
 practicable in his peculiar position. 
 
 But even here the Roman hierarchy tried to interfere, by 
 prevailing on Czerski's mother-in-law to interpose her autho- 
 rity, his wife being a minor, to prevent that legal establish- 
 ment of her daughter's fame and social position, which every 
 mother must naturally desire. But this, and various other 
 insidious attempts, were finally frustrated; the marriage was 
 solemnized by a Lutheran clergyman, in pursuance of orders 
 from the Prussian government : and Cz^rski, whose moral 
 character never suffered in the estimation of those who under- 
 stood the unconquerable legal difficulties of his position, had 
 the gratification to find his congregation, his friends, and his 
 Protestant neighbours, fully satisfied with the purity of his 
 intentions. The second charge of avarice can be much more 
 shortly disposed of. He relinquished a good and certain income 
 for a poor and uncertain one. Nay more, he even gave up part 
 of the scanty salary received from his devoted congregation, 
 in order that they might, during his absence (for the purpose 
 of " setting in order" newly-formed communities, or instructing 
 those who desired to adopt a more evangelical confession), be 
 supplied by an assistant preacher ; he has evinced his practical 
 conviction of the apostolically-recommended duty of believers 
 " caring for their own," by taking his widowed mother and 
 younger brother into his own house ; and is further burdened 
 by assisting another brother who has lost a lucrative situation 
 in the Romish church, in consequence of giving Czerski a 
 night's lodging while passing through on a journey. Lastly, 
 although with a wife and family of his own, and only secured 
 in a salary of £22 10s. per annum, he is frequently called upon 
 to make journeys to infant apostolic churches ; and though 
 ill able to bear any additional expense, and unwilling, at the 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.. 143 
 
 same time, to refuse his aid when thus called upon, he has yet 
 had the courage to meet these extra demands, not by press- 
 ing on the willing exertions of his people, but by limiting his 
 own expenditure to the barest necessaries. In the midst of 
 these trials from without and within, Czerski is content to 
 labour and live for the gospel, neither courting nor fearing 
 publicity, and willingly copying the apostolic model, in jour- 
 neyings often, in perils by his own countrymen (aye, and 
 countrywomen too, since young ladies were actually hound 
 over to keep the peace, in consequence of having pelted him 
 with stones in Posen, at the time of the formation of an 
 apostolic Catholic church there). He is in weariness often, in 
 cold and nakedness ; besides that which cometh on him daily, 
 the care of all those churches which adopt a scriptural symbol, 
 and towards whom, even out of his deep poverty, he manifests 
 the riches of his liberality, so that we have heard of his sending 
 the, for him, large sum of fifty dollars, the third of his income, 
 to assist a poor congregation of apostolic Catholics at Grandentz. 
 But a still nobler and more convincing evidence of Czerski's 
 superiority to all mercenary motives, as well as of his deep 
 sincerity in abjuring Rome, will be found in the following 
 indisputable fact. A Polish lady of rank' and fortune, having 
 been led to believe that motives of temporal interest had in- 
 duced Czerski's secession from the Roman communion, offered 
 him by letter a certain provision for life, not only for himself 
 but for aU his family, if he would re-enter the church, even 
 though he could not its priesthood. Czerski's reply to this 
 very generous, though mistaken offer, is interesting; it ran 
 thus : — 
 
 " Much honoured Lady, 
 " In your letter of the 30th of June, you express your 
 opinion, that in forsaking the creed of the Roman Catholic 
 church, I cast off the revealed doctrine of Christ, and had 
 myself fallen into error, into which I am now striving to lead 
 others. I perceive, with regret, that you regard the church of 
 Rome as identical with the church of Christ, and by conse- 
 
144 THE REFORMATION 
 
 quence consider a forsaking of the former as equivalent to 
 apostatizing from the truth as it is in Jesus. I must hence 
 conclude that your religious instruction has not been derived 
 from the only true source — the Holy Scriptures ; hut from the 
 catechism of Romish hirelings, who speak and teach as their 
 own interest prescribes, or Rome commands. I cannot, there- 
 fore, do otherwise than refer you to the Bible ; and call upon 
 you in the words of Christ, ' Search the Scriptures, for in 
 them ye think that ye have eternal life, and they are they 
 which testify of me' (John v. 29). A diligent study of those 
 Sacred Scriptures which the ancient fathers so urgently com- 
 mend to all Christians, will speedily convince you that the 
 Catholic faith has been distorted, and the pure truths of the 
 gospel obscured, by the ordinances of the Roman hierarchy. 
 On this ground, it became my duty, as it is the duty of every 
 orthodox Christian, to stand forth against ecclesiastical abuses, 
 whencesoever they may have been derived ; and it is, in like 
 manner, your duty to examine for yourself what is truth, 
 and not merely to adopt and repeat what the Romish priests 
 have taught you. It was with the sacrifice of all temporal 
 advantages, that I dared to oppose the usurped authority of 
 the Roman hierarchy ; and no earthly consideration can induce 
 me to lay down the sword of God's word, which I have lifted 
 up against the enemies of Christ. The riches of this world 
 cannot secure either the happiness of my life, nor my peace of 
 mind. Christ says, ' Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon 
 earth, where moth and rust do corrupt, and thieves break 
 through to steal; for where your treasure is, there will your 
 heart be also.' And, again, * Be not careful and anxious, 
 saying, what shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and 
 wherewithal shall we be clothed (for after all these things do 
 the heathens seek), but your heavenly Father knoweth how 
 much of them are needful for you' (Matt. vi. 31, 32, German 
 translation) ; and thus, hearkening to this admonition of the 
 Lord, I seek only the kingdom of God and his righteousness? 
 convinced that he who is the Giver of all good, whether 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 145 
 
 temporal or eternal, will give me my sufficient portion, so that 
 I shall not die of want. You think my conscience must be 
 much disquieted ; you are infinitely mistaken. My conscience 
 is much more quiet now, than when serving as a mercenary 
 in the papal guard ; for I now serve Christ only, and expect 
 salvation solely from him, not from the pope and his usurped 
 power. I protest earnestly to you, that neither the Roman 
 pontiflf, nor a faith grounded on the traditions of the Roman 
 church, can save you. Open your eyes in time ; forsake your 
 worldly god, that you may the more diligently serve the true 
 God, your Father, which is in heaven. 
 
 " In your letter to me, you state your willingness, in the 
 event of my returning to the Romish church, to secure to me, 
 my wife, and my whole family, a sufficient income for life ; 
 but I repeat that earthly possessions can have no value in 
 the eyes of a true Christian. I attach little importance to 
 them ; were it, indeed, otherwise, I might have had ample 
 opportunities of gathering wealth in the church of Rome. 
 Neither did I enter the marriage state for mere sensual grati- 
 fication; but rather to show the world my conviction, that 
 marriage is a divinely-appointed ordinance, and free to all 
 who desire to enter its pale ; from which, therefore, no earthly 
 power is competent to exclude any individual or class of 
 mankind. Had, on the contrary, sensual gratification been 
 my object, neither means nor opportunities (as probably you 
 are well aware) would have been wanting to me, as a Roman 
 Catholic priest; and hence the prevalent immorality of the 
 Roman clergy. A desire to live morally induced me to take 
 a wife, with whom I now live happily, and hope to do so to 
 the end of life ; and I appeal to apostolic authority as my 
 warrant, 1 Tim. iii. 2. 
 
 " I remain, madam, your most devoted servant, 
 
 (Signed) " Johannes Czerski." 
 
 But, although calumnies, even from enemies, are painful to 
 flesh and blood, they are trifles light as air, when compared 
 
 H 
 
146 THE REFORMATION 
 
 with the pangs inflicted by being misunderstood or misrepre- 
 sented by those engaged generally in the same cause, and 
 fighting nominally under the same banner, and this cup of 
 bitterness has been more than once put into Czerski's hand. 
 The first occasion on which any difference of opinion between 
 Ronge and Czerski was observable by the public, was at the 
 Leipsic conference, when the very lax and undefined symbol 
 adopted by the majority, elicited strong remonstrance from 
 Czerski and some others, who are worshippers of Jesus Christ, 
 from a conviction of his godhead, as well as being believers 
 in his *' divine mission" and " historical existence." Failing 
 to obtain the insertion of more explicit Christian dogmas in 
 th« Leipsic confession of faith, and over-persuaded to restrain 
 all open expression of opposition, lest so early a display of 
 disunion should strangle the infant cause of reform in its very 
 birth^ Czerski returned home, resolved to promote the honour 
 of his God and Saviour to the utmost of his power, within the 
 sphere of his own labours. His preaching, and more espe- 
 cially his efforts' to induce the apostolic Catholic churches, 
 which were successively formed in his neighbourhood, to adopt 
 the Schneidemiihl, or in other words, the " Apostles' Creed," 
 as the expression of their faith, soon began to be talked of as 
 wholly at variance with the skeleton model set up at Leipsic ; 
 and, although the professed liberality of the conference left 
 each pastor and church free to add whatever they deemed 
 scriptural doctrine to their individual confession, still the old 
 Pharisaical leaven, which reproached our Lord with ''So say- 
 ing, thou condemnest us also," stirred up the displeasure of the 
 objectors to positive Christian dogmas, — a feeling which rose to 
 open indignation, when Czerski addressed a circular letter to 
 "all Christian Apostolic Catholic churches." This document, 
 important in itself, but still more so in its results, was chiefly 
 intended for, and circulated among, the dissenting congrega- 
 tions in "Western Prussia, and well deserves a place here. 
 Taking for his motto the apostle's address to Philemon, con- 
 tained in four verses of the epistle, beginning with the 4th 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 147 
 
 and ending with the 7th verse, Czerski proceeds thus: — 
 " Such a feeling of joy as that here expressed by the apostle, 
 in regard to Philemon, thrills through my bosom likewise, 
 when I learn that you desire to maintain and uphold our faith, 
 the true faith in Christ, * the word which became flesh, and 
 yet was God* (John i. 1). Confess the crucified one with bold- 
 ness, according as we, too, frankly and freely confess with the 
 apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians ii. 3, and Acts ii. 36. Let us 
 strengthen ourselves when the world mocks at our faith (or, 
 because we cannot preach to please men, even shows hostility 
 towards us), with the words of Christ, ' Whosoever shall con- 
 fess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father 
 who is in heaven;' and we may ask those who doubt his 
 divinity, in the words of Jesus, * Art thou a master in Israel 
 and knowest not these things V But to you I address the 
 words of the beloved disciple who lay on Jesus* breast, * If 
 the anointing which ye have received of him abide in you, 
 then need ye not that another should teach you ? For as this 
 anointing teacheth you of aU things, and is truth and no error, 
 so abide ye in the truth that he hath taught you. Yes, my 
 children, abide united to him, that, when he shall appear, we 
 may have joyful confidence, and not be put to shame before 
 him at his coming (1 John ii. 27, 28, Luther's translation). 
 You have, my brethren, just grounds to be ofiended, that in 
 a confession of faith professedly Christian, Jesus Christ him- 
 self, from whom alone it derives the appellation, should be 
 passed over in silence : he who forms the sole foundation of 
 our faith ; for why, else, should we call ourselves Christians ? 
 If we regard Jesus in the light of a moral teacher merely, I 
 can really see no reason why the disciples of Confucius should 
 not be received as members of our communion ; for, truly, it 
 would not be easy to find fault with the morality he taught ; 
 and the belief in one God was also one of his tenets. But, 
 verily, Jesus Christ is God. He is the stone which was set 
 at nought by the builders, but is become the foundation-stone. 
 Nor is there salvation in any other ; for there is no other name 
 
 h 2 
 
148 THE REFORMATION 
 
 under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved 
 (Acts iv. 11, 12, German translation). It is wholly incom- 
 prehensible how any one can deny the godhead of Jesus 
 Christ, considering how frequently and explicitly it is declared 
 in the New Testament. When Christ asked his disciples 
 what they thought of him, Peter replied, in the name of all, 
 
 * Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And the 
 Lord says of himself, * I am the way, the truth, and the life. 
 No man cometh to the Father but by me' (John xiv. 6). 
 Again, Jesus, when addressed by the high priest in these 
 words, ' I adjure thee by the living God, tell us whether thou 
 be the Christ, the Son of God,' replied, ' Thou sayest it' (or, 
 as it is related by Mark xiv. 62, ' I am'). ' Nevertheless, 
 I say unto you, henceforth you will see the Son of Man 
 seated on the right hand of the Almighty, and coming in the 
 clouds of heaven' (Matt. xxvi. 63, 64, German translation). 
 Thomas, when convinced of the resurrection of Jesus by the 
 testimony of his own eyesight, called out, * My Lord and my 
 God ! ' In the first ages of Christianity, a firm belief in the 
 God-man Christ Jesus was made the constant condition of 
 admission to baptism ; thus we find that the Ethiopian 
 eunuch, when desirous of baptism, prevailed on Philip to 
 administer it by professing, ' I believe that Jesus Christ is 
 the Son of God' (Acts viii. 37). And, indeed, this doctrine 
 pervades the whole New Testament, like a mild yet clear light, 
 guarding us alike from error and misapprehension. What 
 need have we, therefore, of further witness? Possessing 
 which, it seems difficult to conceive how any who affix any 
 value to the Bible, can deny the godhead of Christ. Must 
 not the Koran be of equal value in their eyes? Verily it 
 is tantamount to refusing to see by the brightest light of 
 day. ' But let us join the Apostle John in proclaiming, 
 
 * Whosoever belongs to the company of God's children, over- 
 cometh the world; and this is the world-conquering victory, 
 even our faith. Who can overcome the world but he that 
 believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? ' (1 John v. 4, 5, 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 149 
 
 German translation). How deeply must it li^ve grieved 
 you, beloved brethren, to perceive that men have dared 
 to attempt to shake this foundation corner-stone of our 
 faith, the godhead of Jesus Christ; thereby endangering the 
 whole building of Christianity! But you see in this an 
 evidence, how disturbing and destructive may be the effects 
 of the most peaceful stream, when it bursts its bounds 
 and foams along at its own will. It not only destroys the 
 fair-sown fields of the husbandman, but, in its wild fury, 
 uproots and overturns the firm dwelling in which he hath 
 hitherto lived securely; leaving nothing behind but sterile 
 sand, or putrifying slime. But have you not yourselves 
 raised a voice of lamentation over the destructive tendency 
 which some have striven to give to our noble efforts? Have 
 you not yourselves asked in alarm, what would remain to us, 
 were Christianity assaulted in its very foundation, by removing 
 the doctrine of Christ's divinity ? Therefore do I now lift up 
 my warning voice to you, beloved brethren, that you may give 
 no heed to those who seek to transplant you from Christianity 
 to the barren sands of heathenism ; and to this end, I hereby 
 lay before you the open confession of my faith. * I believe in 
 one God the Father, the Almighty Creator of heaven and of 
 earth ; and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, who was 
 conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary ; suf- 
 fered under Pontius Pilate ; was crucified, dead, and buried ; 
 who descended into hell ; who rose again from the dead on the 
 third day ; who ascended up to heaven, and sits on the right 
 hand of God the Almighty Father, from whence he will come 
 to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy 
 Ghost ; in a holy, universal Christian church ; in the com- 
 munion of saints ; in the forgiveness of sins ; in the resur- 
 rection of the body, and in a life everlasting.' You see, 
 therefore. Christian brethren, that my faith is that of the 
 apostles, and must, therefore, be the true Catholic faith ; 
 and that, far from desiring to impugn the venerable, stable, 
 and unchangeable articles of faith, and doctrines of the true 
 
150 THE REFORMATION 
 
 Catholic church, I call upon every one to join in their de- 
 fence ; for our ohject is not to puU down what God hath huilt, 
 but rather to overturn what men have raised, and falsely 
 called the work of God. Is it not a deep abuse, when a 
 sinful man, such as the bishop of Rome, arrogates to himself 
 divine right, and seeks to rule over the consciences of men, 
 as if he were a god upon earth, even presuming to call him- 
 self the vicegerent of Christ ? When we have one head over 
 all, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, it must be, indeed, a 
 heavy and blasphemous offence to usurp his throne. Know 
 ye not, beloved, that no one of the apostles, neither Peter nor 
 any other, ever attempted to call themselves the vicegerents 
 of their Divine Master, or to regard themselves as other than 
 ministers and promulgators of the word of God ? 
 
 " Search diligently in the Scriptures. Examine Acts x. 
 26 ; Eevelation xxii. 9 ; John xx. 22, 23 ; Acts xi. 1, et seq.; 
 viii. 14, XV. 7, and xiii. 22; 2 Corinthians ix. 5. Christ the 
 head of the church, Ephesians i. 22, xiv. 16 — 23; Colossians 
 i. 18, &c., &c. ; and you will find that Christ is the head over 
 all of his church, and that whosoever arrogates to himself 
 his right and honour, is guilty of a sacrilegious crime, to 
 extirpate which we are bound to join hand in hand, and that 
 with the more determination, on account of the depth of the 
 darkness and the length of time which has added strength 
 to its power. Nor is it enough that this man has, in the 
 madness of his pride, sought to push Christ from his throne ; 
 he has further, in order to prop his power and to estrange his 
 ministering servants from their native connexions, overthrown 
 all laws of God and nature, and, by the invention of the rule 
 of celibacy, thrown a snare around our consciences, opened a 
 wide door to immorality, and given free space for the exercise 
 of the most unbridled licentiousness ; as you, beloved brethren, 
 have but too often had opportunity to observe, and to weep 
 over the abominations committed in holy places. God has, 
 on the contrary, commanded, ' The priest shall take a virgin 
 to wife' (Leviticus xxi. 13, German translation), with which 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 151 
 
 'you may compare Ezekiel xliv. 22, and the apostle Paul's 
 recommendation of marriage, 1 Cor. vii. 2, 1 Tim. iii. 2, and 
 Titus i. 6. Need I, my beloved brethren, further depict 
 the sad picture of what human statutes and inventions have 
 produced ? Do you demand that I should lead you through 
 the melancholy field, in which grows the rank harvest of weeds 
 which men have sowed in the genuine wheat-field of the Lord 
 Jesus? Shall I tell you how men have forbidden us to 
 worship our Lord in our own native tongue ? How the grace 
 of God is openly bought and spld for filthy mammon ? How 
 the food which his kind Father's hand oiFers to the hungry is 
 held back from us, and thereby a temptation put in the way of 
 the innocent to accuse themselves of guilt before God, in tilings 
 which he hath not forbidden, with whom a broken and contrite 
 heart is not despised ? But let it suffice, dear brethren, that 
 I have called your attention to these things, that you may 
 understand that we do not contend with God, but with men : 
 that we defend the commands of God, but openly oppose 
 human tradition, to a very few of which we have alluded, but 
 of which, alas, a host still remain behind. Assemble your- 
 selves. Christian brethren, and unite with each other, hand in 
 hand, to build up the church of Jesus Christ. 
 
 *' Will you sufier yourselves to be misled to assist in rearing 
 any other than that Christian church, which not one people 
 or nation, but every people and nation throughout the uni- 
 verse, should help to rear, and which is destined to assem- 
 ble every people, and kindred, and tongue, within the great 
 father-house of God? Let us, therefore, beloved brethren, call 
 this church not a German Catholic, but a Christian Apostolic 
 Catholic church; for the boundaries of Germany are much too 
 narrow to circumscribe Christianity. Did Christ become man 
 only for the benefit of this or that nation ? Does his doctrine 
 avail for Germans only ? Does it not avail for all mankind ? 
 Let us, then, give up every thing which can by possibility 
 endanger his kingdom, and hold fast by his holy, unalterable 
 doctrines of faith : offering a bold front to the enemy, whom 
 
152 THE REFORMATION 
 
 we are called to combat, and who ' sowed tares among the 
 wheat while men slept.' 
 
 " But we have awakened from sleep. Let, then, the thorns 
 and thistles (that is, the abuses) be gathered into bundles 
 and burned. Take unto you the armour of light and faith. 
 Lift up your voices to God, that his almighty arm may pro- 
 tect us against all the powers of darkness, and his grace prove 
 to us a brazen shield, against which the arrows of human 
 perversity shall impotently dash themselves. The prize is 
 well worth the combat. A Catholic church, such as that which 
 Christ founded, the apostles taught, and the martyrs sealed 
 with their blood, is the object of our struggle. But to this 
 we never can attain unless we throw ourselves, with united 
 force, upon the dark host of human dogmas which have 
 hitherto been imposed upon us as being the commands of 
 God. Lord, lend us thine arm ! May thy grace illumine our 
 understanding ! May thy light shine upon our path, and make 
 day arise where the darkness of night hath hitherto reigned ! 
 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the 
 fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all! Amen (2 Cor. 
 xiii. 13). Written at Schneidemiihl, on Trinity Sunday. 
 
 (Signed) " Johannes Czerski, 
 " Pastor of the Christ. Apost, Cath. Congregation.^^ 
 
 The publication of this letter, though circulated chiefly 
 among those congregations in Western Prussia, which owed 
 their rise, in great measure, to Czerski's instrumentality (and 
 which, even at that early period, counted, according to the 
 monthly return, 2945 members), gave a sudden interruption 
 to the truce, which until the meeting of a general German 
 council had been agreed upon, between the Berlin accusers 
 and defenders of the Leipsic symbol, and seemed likely to 
 lead to an open ranging under different banners ; which, 
 though, in the nature of things, it must sooner or later take 
 place, the rationalist party was specially desirous of retard- 
 ing as long as possible. With this view, Mr. Anton. Miiller, 
 Czerski's early friend, and the talented editor of the Catholic 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 153 
 
 Reform Journal, went in all haste to Sdineidemiilil to pre- 
 vent, if it might be, the threatened separation. Meanwhile 
 the rumour spread, and the Roman Catholic party, not only in 
 Germany, hut in France, sounded loud paans over the speedy 
 dispersion likely to follow disunion in the Catholic ^dissidents' 
 camp. Those who had, whether as friends or foes, followed 
 their course with attention, must have confessed in their 
 secret soul, that a radical difference of religious views had 
 existed between Czerski and Ronge from the beginning; 
 and that, if the opposition were new in profession, it was old 
 in sentiment ; as old and irreconcilable, in fact, as the oppo- 
 sition between Christianity and Deism, and therefore no way 
 likely to induce in either a return to Catholicism, which each 
 had abandoned upon personal and heartfelt conviction, though 
 starting from different premises and tending to different ends. 
 The following letter, which Czerski published on the 17th July, 
 was most probably the result of Mr. MuUer's remonstrances : — 
 " I feel compelled to lay the following statement before the 
 public. It has been urged upon me from various quarters, 
 that my late circular to the Apostolic Catholic churches is 
 calculated to convey the idea that I desire to produce a schism 
 in the new church. It were, indeed, a criminal attempt to 
 hinder the growth of the infant community, by sowing in it 
 the seeds of discord. But I left the church of Rome, not, as 
 many think, from motives of private interest, neither was I 
 led to do so by any human influence ; but I was solely im- 
 pelled by a living faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of the living 
 God (and that with the sacrifice of many worldly advantages, 
 and even at the risk of my life), to oppose the pernicious 
 traditions and superstitions of the Romish church. But with 
 an equally steadfast resignation do I take my stand against 
 all unbelief, in whatever form it may appear, and am very far 
 from making common cause with any who do not acknow- 
 ledge Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. My circular letter, 
 therefore, is not levelled at the Leipsic conference in particular, 
 but against the elements of unbelief, wherever and by whom- 
 
 n 3 
 
154 THE REFORMATION 
 
 soever they may be avowed. For, to keep silence when the 
 truths of Christianity require defence, would he to sin against 
 my Lord and Master Jesus Christ, who hath said, * Whosoever 
 shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my 
 Father in heaven.' Neither did I ever subscribe to the Leipsic 
 confession of faith, which by no means satisfied me ; I only 
 put down my name as having been present at the conference ; 
 and surely all who have the weal of the young cause at heart, 
 must condemn as criminal every attempt to introduce unbe- 
 lief within its pale, under whatever garb. My letter cannot 
 possibly offend any but such as are wholly devoid of faith in 
 Clirist, and are, therefore, enemies of his cross; 'whose god is 
 their beUy, who glory in their shame, who seek earthly things' 
 (Phil. iii. 18, 19). To such the doctrine of Jesus is a stum- 
 bling-block, and the preaching of the cross foolishness (1 Cor, 
 xviii. 23). 
 
 " I appeal, therefore, again to all spiritually-minded 
 Christians, and call upon them in the apostle's words, * Sepa- 
 rate yourselves from superstition ; cast off antiquated fables 
 (1 Tim. iv. 7, Luther's translation); reject vain traditions; 
 but hold fast the faith of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living 
 God.' 'Flee unbelief, but let us strive to follow after right- 
 eousness, love, patience, meekness ; to fight the good fight of 
 faith, and to lay hold on eternal life, to which we are also 
 called' (1 Tim. vi. 11, 12). ' Let our conversation be in 
 heaven, from which also we look for the Saviour, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; who shall transform our frail body into the image 
 of his glorious body, by that mighty power with which he is 
 able to subdue aU things to himself (Phil. iii. 20, 21). 
 
 (Signed) "Johannes Czerski." 
 The above needs no comment, and must find an echo in 
 every Christian heart. The Leipsic and Berlin authorities 
 of course accused Czerski of tergiversation, in having first 
 signed, and then opposed, their creed ; he, however, declares 
 he did not sign it ; and assuredly he did not intend to do 
 so : but the rationalist party have all along evinced so eager a 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 155 
 
 desire to keep an appearance of unanimity on the surface, that 
 I cannot help suspecting the unwary subscription to making 
 one at the conference has, by some "pious fraud," been 
 made available as a subscription of the resolutions there drawn 
 up. But the controversy would not be fairly stated without 
 the excellent letter, in which Czerski defends himself from 
 the charge of having been led to abandon his dissident 
 Catholic brethren at the instigation of foreign ecclesiastical 
 influence (an aspersion which we shall have occasion again 
 to advert to, when repeated by Ronge), and in which the 
 Schneidemiihl pastor meets at once the premature triumphs 
 of the papal party, rejoicing in what it calls "a schism in 
 the schism," and the bitter lamentations of the rationalists, 
 over " the impolicy of weakening, by division, a still infant 
 cause." The letter was published originally in the " Berlin 
 Catholic Reform Journal," and must, therefore, be authentic ; 
 report, indeed, says it was addressed to the editor. 
 
 " Dear Friend, *' Schneidemiihl , July 3. 
 
 *' The suspicion, as expressed in yours of the 26th ult., that 
 I have yielded to foreign ecclesiastical influence, is entirely 
 groundless. No one can abhor the hierarchy, or, in other 
 words, a priestly system for the suppression of human free- 
 dom, whether physical or moral, more than I do ; and I have, 
 I think, shown it plainly enough, by having been the first in 
 modern times who, at the risk of losing all secular advantages, 
 and even life itself, threw off the fetters rivetted by Rome's 
 hierarchy, and fearlessly proclaimed that this caste had no right 
 to domineer over and enslave mankind, robbing them of the 
 liberty with which Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, had 
 made them free. But with the same determination with which 
 I have fought, and continue to fight, against the superstitions 
 and usurpations of Rome, must I likewise combat unbelief, 
 though not under the instigations of foreign influence, but 
 inspired and upheld by a lively faith in Jesus Christ and his 
 revealed salvation. Such aims and efforts can offend none 
 but those who are without faith ; who regard the suggestions 
 
156 THE REFORMATION 
 
 of their own minds as the truth ; and desire to follow the 
 glimmering lamp of reason as their guide through the wilder- 
 ness of life. All such persons know absolutely nothing of 
 Christ: for, supposing them acquainted with the historical 
 fact of his having once existed in this world, still, to the 
 object for which his father sent him upon earth, to what he 
 accomplished during his stay upon earth, and what he there- 
 by became to the human race, they are wholly strangers. 
 The consequence is, they despise his doctrine which they know 
 so little, which they will not receive, and will not follow ; 
 they are not ' with him, and he that is not with him is against 
 him,' as he himself declares (Matt. xii. 30) ; ' and whoso 
 gathereth not with him, scattereth abroad.' Justly, therefore, 
 may all those who worship their own reason as an infallible 
 guide, instead of following the revelation of Christ, be termed 
 his enemies ; for Christ is not to them what he assumes to be. 
 His doctrines, that he is the Son of the living God, that we are 
 ransomed from eternal damnation by his death, and that we can 
 be sanctified only by the Holy Ghost, are to them an offence, 
 and the whole doctrine of the cross, foolishness. Hence, I am 
 fully justified in terming all who refuse to submit humbly to 
 the revealed will of God in regard to Christ, his enemies, and 
 their course actually sinful ; for they sin against the Holy 
 Ghost, which will never be forgiven, neither in this world, 
 nor in the world to come ; they belong to the lost, and it 
 grieves me to think that you, whom I have loved, are resolved 
 to be one of the number. Listen to what the apostle Paul 
 says (1 Cor. i. 18 — 22) of you worldly-wise men. The self- 
 sufficiency, or, more properly, the high-mindedness of rational- 
 ists, prevents them perceiving that their wisdom is, in the sight 
 of God, foolishness ; their supposed advancement, a real retro- 
 gradation ; and it is not the believers in the divinity of Christ 
 who remain beliind in the march of time, but the unbelievers 
 who, following their own imagined wisdom in preference to 
 the positive revelation of God, choose to adopt reason as the 
 principle of reformation and salvation, forgetting that, could 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 157 
 
 their principles be successfully promulgated, the heathen times 
 of Greece and Rome, if not savage barbarism itself, must 
 once more be spread over the earth. All, therefore, who seek^ 
 to promote such views, remain behind the march of time ; for 
 they cling to heathenism, which, thanks be to God, is, to all 
 Christians, a time gone by. ' The light shineth in darkness, 
 but the darkness comprehendeth it not' (John i. 5). You 
 say in your letter, ' It would have been better for my fame, 
 had I kept silence in the case alluded to ; ' * but do you not 
 see I should then have resembled those dumb dogs spoken 
 of by Isaiah Ivi. 10, had I kept silence regarding the endea- 
 vours of those who, since they will not acknowledge Jesus 
 Christ as the Son of God, I must consider his enemies ? I 
 declared, in the presence of the Leipsic council, whoso denied 
 the divinity of Christ, to be no Christian. Can you, too, 
 think me influenced by the desire of worldly fame ? A true 
 Christian seeks his glory in something else than the wild 
 clamour of human applause, ' He that glories, let him glory 
 in the Lord' (1 Cor. i. 31) ; and again, in chap. iii. 20,21, it is 
 written, ' The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they 
 are vain : therefore let no man glory in men, for all things 
 are yours.' 
 
 " You say, ' History will condemn me;' but I tell you, the 
 unbelieving are condemned already (John iii. 17, 18); nay, 
 more, they are declared in Scripture to be not only condemned, 
 but damned; for it is written (Mark xvi. 16), 'Whosoever 
 believeth and is baptized, shall be saved ; but he that believeth 
 not shall be damned.' These are hard sayings to the unbe- 
 lieving ; and because the doctrine of the cross appears foolish- 
 ness to them, they desire to force their opinions on all] the 
 world, not considering that this is really a compelling of con- 
 science, though it be to unbeHef, instead of to belief. And 
 why do they so eagerly seek to enforce their unbelief ? Simply 
 from a desire to find, in its universal adoption, a confirmation 
 of their own wavering resolutions ; a silencing of their own 
 * Czerski's circular letter to the West Prussian churches. 
 
158 THE REFOBMATION 
 
 secret doubts, which assuredly, in their better moments, are 
 €ver prone to awake and disturb their quiet. But it is a vain 
 effort to uproot the true faith, to veil the revealed truth con- 
 cerning the Son of God, or to banish from the world the 
 Holy Ghost — that eternal comforter of suffering humanity. 
 Have you never read what Jesus said, * The stone which 
 the builders rejected is become the head of the corner ; who- 
 soever shall fall upon this stone shall be broken, but upon 
 whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder ? ' 
 
 "The rationalists lighten the victory to the Romanists. 
 How, indeed, can it be otherwise, since both parties, whether 
 credulous papists or sceptical rationalists, follow one and the 
 same end — the extirpation of the true faith and the placing 
 of a false one in its room ; to dislodge divine revelation, and 
 bind their own burdensome human inventions on mankind ? 
 For, is it not palpably a human invention to set up man's 
 puny reason as infallible, in contradistinction to the doctrines 
 laid down in the sacred books of the Old and New Testa- 
 ments? The pope and Roman hierarchy follow a similar 
 course; and the criminally arrogant assumption, of the 
 infallibility of .the Roman pontiff, in conjunction with his 
 cardinals and bishops, is only an attempt to impose the 
 dogmas propounded by their human reason, on the world as 
 divine, and a desire to have them received and followed as 
 such. I know well that you do not, any more than I, believe 
 the Holy Ghost to be limited to the pope, cardinals, or 
 bishops, either individually or conjointly; but I wish you to 
 see, that the papal college acts, in fact, upon rationalist 
 principles, though with much more foresight and circumspec- 
 tion than you do ; and this enables them to employ even the 
 religion of Christ as an engine in accomplishing their selfish 
 ends. They are chiefly distinguished by the secresy with 
 which they pursue their rationalistic views, and the air of 
 sanctity which they contrive to throw over all their proceed- 
 ings; whilst you, on the contrary, advance with open visor 
 to attack and disparage the faith of Christ : but though your 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 159 
 
 selected weapons be different, your aim is identical. Or 
 think you, perhaps, that I do the Romanists injustice, when 
 I say, that they have no faith themselves, and seek to turn 
 away those who have? I can assure you, that by far the 
 greater portion of the Romish priesthood are destitute of all 
 Christian belief, and make a mockery, among themselves, of 
 that which they profess to hold most sacred. I know many 
 who do this ; now you do the same, only not in secret. You 
 have resolved to decide in your assemblies as to the mode of 
 doctrine, and to dictate to your clergy the norm according to 
 wliich they are to instruct you and your children in sacred 
 things. How can you possibly do this — you, who have, in 
 reality, neither doctrine nor faith ? The clergyman is to be 
 your teacher, your spiritual guide, and the cultivator of 
 your souls; what is to be the rule and substance of his 
 teaching ? In consistency with your principles, you cannot 
 advance any articles of faith ; but each must be left to him- 
 self, to choose and to follow his own course of life. Accord- 
 ing to what code can you pretend to try the thief, to punish 
 the murderer, or to render the evil-doer innoxious? The 
 individual reason of each, that sole guide which you allow, 
 had suggested his plans, had approved his deeds. Of what use 
 can a clergyman be, to you, among whom each is constituted 
 his own guide, reformer, redeemer, and recompenser ? Even 
 belief in a future state is left undetermined ; does one of you 
 adopt it ? it is well ; does he reject it ? it is also well. Oh, 
 comfortless creed! Oh, most detestable scepticism, which 
 degrades man to a level with the beasts that perish ! Against 
 so miserable a creed, not only I, but thousands, will contend, 
 to the utmost of their power, in order to ward off from our- 
 selves the guilt and the reproach of having, by our fault, 
 caused any to perish for whom Christ died (1 Cor. viii. 11). 
 "Your friend, "Johannes Czerski." 
 
 One other letter seems, in justice to Czerski, to demand a 
 place here. It appeared in the July number of the " Catholic 
 Reform Journal," and is addressed to Dr. Theiner. It proves 
 
160 THE REFORMATION 
 
 that the accusation brought against Czerski, of a desire to 
 make himself the leader of the party, is without foundation. 
 The letter is as follows : — 
 
 " Reverend sir, and beloved brother in Christ Jesus, 
 
 " The intelligence of your having left the ranks of the 
 Romish priesthood, and your being firmly resolved to devote 
 your powers to the true free church (apart from all human 
 ordinances and traditions), has filled my bosom with joy. 
 
 " I have not, indeed, the honour of your reverence's personal 
 acquaintance; but the spirit of truth by which you are ani- 
 mated, and enabled, in defence of the pure revealed doctrine 
 of Jesus, to enter the lists against all falsehood, is known to 
 all, and has reached even unto me. By this spirit of truth I 
 feel myself attracted towards you ; and these lines are designed 
 to express at once my joy and high estimation of the step 
 you have taken. You may, perhaps, be already aware that I, 
 too, have forsaken the service of Rome, because I perceived in 
 it a heathen rather than a Christian adornment ; and hatred 
 and discord in the place of that love, which the apostle de- 
 clares to be the 'fulfilling of the law' (Romans xiii. 10). 
 Moreover, I severed myself from the Roman priesthood, 
 because the great majority are either voluntary or involuntary 
 hypocrites ; because a living faith in Jesus Christ is abandoned 
 by most of them, and his pure doctrine obscured ; and 
 because, finally, the Romish church justly deserves the re- 
 proach of ' vainly honouring Christ, teaching for doctrines 
 the commandments of men ;' ' laying aside the commandment 
 of God, and thus making the word of God of none effect by 
 her traditions' (Mark vii. 7, 8, 13). I left, therefore, an 
 ecclesiastical society which refuses, in its pride, to see that its 
 established ordinances run counter to the gospel of Christ ; 
 and which seeks to maintain and uphold its own statutes, 
 because on them its worldly power depends, even at the cost 
 of truth itself. My powers, therefore, such as they are, I 
 have consecrated to the spread of pure Christian doctrine, 
 and will conthme to labour in this cause to the end of life. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 161 
 
 " No inconsiderable portion of Roman Catholics have 
 awakened from their spiritual sleep, and opened their eyes 
 upon the pure light of the Sun of righteousness. It is, how- 
 ever, deeply to be deplored, that some of those who have 
 fallen away from Rome, have likewise fallen away from 
 faith in Christ, as the Son of the living God. One cause, 
 perchance, of this distressing state of things may be, the 
 want of a determinate direction for all the new congregations. 
 You, reverend sir, are in a position to afford, by your exten- 
 sive learning, very essential service to the infant church. You 
 can point out to her the course she must follow, in order to 
 pass through the hosts of enemies and rivals which beset her 
 path, towards the great goal she has in view. I, for my part, 
 gladly commit into your hands the guidance of the congrega- 
 tions of a portion of our father-land ; and, in the persuasion 
 that you will go before us in the way which leadeth to salva- 
 tion, I willingly submit myself to your direction. 
 
 (Signed) "Johannes Czerski." 
 Before concluding this summary of the chief points in 
 Czerski's experience, labours, trials, and successes, the details 
 of which will, from time to time, appear in the chronological 
 account of the progress of the reform movement, it is re- 
 quisite to notice a very singular occurrence, which I give on 
 the authority of the " Catholic Reform Journal" for October, 
 1845. The article is dated, Schneidemiihl, October 17. 
 
 " In order to correct the erroneous statements which have 
 appeared in several public journals, respecting some late 
 events which have taken place in the Christian Catholic con- 
 gregation of this place, I beg leave to state the following, as 
 the true circumstances of the case : — 
 
 " Pastor Czerski having for a considerable time carried on a 
 correspondence with the Berlin protest party, the latter sent 
 hither a deputation, consisting of several persons who had 
 been members of the Lutheran church (together with an 
 Englishman named Smith, and his wife), whose commission 
 was to treat with the members of the Christian Catholic con- 
 
162 THE REFORMATION 
 
 gregation here, for procuring them recognition by the state, on 
 condition of their consenting to form an Episcopalian Catholic 
 church. The said deputation attended the divine worship of 
 the Schneidemiihl congregation; and, when it was ended, 
 commenced their negociations with the church committee of 
 management. But it very soon appeared clear to all who 
 were present at the conference, that whoever desired to follow 
 the dictates of his own conscience, must decline all share in 
 bringing about the wishes of the deputation, the purity of 
 whose motives, to appearance at least, were too equivocal to 
 recommend the signature of the document, which had been 
 brought by them for acceptance. 
 
 " The deputation, therefore, left Schneidemiihl without 
 accomplishing the object of their journey ; and, under a feel- 
 ing of mortification at their want of success, so /ar forgot 
 themselves, as to calumniate both Czerski and his church. 
 Among other misrepresentations, they are said to have pro- 
 pagated the report, that Czerski celebrates an almost heathen 
 worship, as in old times, with the censer and the pyx. But 
 Czerski having retained the servitors and the bell in the 
 celebration of mass, is justified by the state of mind prevalent 
 among many of his congregration, who, so recently emanci- 
 pated from Rome's fetters in essentials, still chng to some 
 outward ceremonies ; but no one at all acquainted with 
 Czerski will suspect him of undue regard for mere externals. 
 In this respect, he is isolated from the other congregations in 
 Ms neighbourhood, with the single exception of that at Thorn ; 
 but we confidently trust, that this courageous professor of the 
 faith as it is in Jesus, who has sacrificed all for conscience' 
 sake, will be enabled to recover that full share of acknow- 
 ledgment of his worth which is so justly his due, and of 
 which he has been (we hope) only momentarily deprived. 
 
 ** In the Schneidemiihl confession of faith more recently 
 given in to the Prussian government, the congregation declares, 
 * That after having carefully examined and tested the Augsburg 
 •confession, they find it in aU essential points so conformable 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 163 
 
 to their own views, that they have no hesitation in avowing 
 themselves one in faith with the Lutheran church, in the 
 main; even as they hold in all points with the Catholic 
 church, save and except in regard to the abuses and errors 
 which Rome has introduced.' There is reason to hope that, 
 abiding as they do, by the principle, of taking the Bible for 
 their rule and guide, any unscriptural usage which habit and 
 long-accustomed reverence for the sanction of antiquity has 
 rendered sacred in their eyes will, by degrees, be relin- 
 quished; and that the young of the flock will be educated 
 in so full an acquaintance with the word of God, as to render 
 adherence to superstition of any kind by them as unlikely as 
 it is undesirable. 
 
364 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 reformation of the nineteenth century 
 (continued). 
 
 Dr. Theiner — His History — Secession from the Romish Church — Its 
 Important Consequences — Extracts from his Work, " Efforts at 
 Eeform in the Catholic Church" — His Observations on Papal 
 Relics — The Host — Use of the Latin Language in Divine Worship 
 — Compulsory Celibacy of the Priests — Mixed Marriages — Doc- 
 trines and Practices of the Romish Church. 
 
 The importance attached to Theiner's renunciation of Rome 
 renders some slight account of this Roman Catholic ecclesi- 
 astical teacher necessary. John Anton. Theiner, doctor of theo- 
 logical and canon law, late parish priest of Hundsfeld, is the 
 son of a master shoemaker who, emigrating from Moravia into 
 Silesia, settled in Breslaw, where the subject of this notice 
 was born, December 15, 1799. His education commenced in 
 the cathedral school, then under the direction of Canonicus 
 Kriiger. From that he passed to the Catholic gymnasium in 
 Breslaw, which he attended from 1811 to 1818, and finally 
 devoted himself to the study of theology, under Dereser, in 
 the Breslaw university. Imbibing the spirit which animated 
 the venerable and enlightened Dereser, Theiner's future life 
 received a decidedly scientific theological direction, which 
 was still further advanced by his appointment to the office of 
 
REFORMATION OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 165 
 
 amanuensis of the university library. On the 17th of April, 
 1823, he obtained the degree of Doctor of Theology, and soon 
 after the chaplaincy of Zobten, near Lowenberg. He after- 
 wards officiated for a short time, in 1824, as chaplain in 
 Liegnitz ; and, in the autumn of that year, was appointed 
 extraordinary professor of the Catholic theological faculty in 
 the university of Breslaw; and, in December, 1826, obtained 
 the dignity of a Doctor of Canon Law, from the faculty of 
 jurisprudence in the same university. 
 
 This year was memorable in the annals of reform, for it 
 witnessed the appearance of a very celebrated work, entitled, 
 " The Catholic Church in Silesia," which, though at first pub- 
 lished anonymously, was generally ascribed to the vigorous 
 mind, if not wholly to the pen, of Theiner ; and the dean and 
 chapter were so entirely of this opinion, as to insist on his 
 removal from his professorship, lest the students should be 
 infected with his views. But though among the most eminent, 
 Theiner was far from being the only Silesian ecclesiastic who 
 felt the imperative necessity for reform ; and very many clerical 
 associates, among others, Henkirch (at this moment acting 
 prebendary at the Breslaw cathedral), joined with him in trying 
 to effect some purification of the Romish liturgy from various 
 unnational and unecclesiastical additions. They petitioned 
 their prince bishop to sanction the introduction of the German 
 language into the church service, and besought him to consent 
 to a modification, at least, of antiquated ceremonies ; but their 
 efforts remained fruitless of any good result, only drawing 
 upon themselves severe reproof, and an insinuation that their 
 views savoured of revolutionary intrigue. They, in fact, be- 
 longed to the working clergy, and therefore could count on no 
 support from the hierarchy, and little from the government. 
 Even when the nobility afterwards joined the inferior clergy 
 in an application to the late emperor of Germany (in his 
 capacity of king of Bohemia), imploring his interference to 
 procure them relief from a long list of ecclesiastical grievances, 
 they were referred back to the prince bishop, the government 
 
166 THE REIORMATION 
 
 alleging its unwillingness to meddle with the internal affairs 
 of the church. The only consequence of the petition there- 
 fore was, the deposition of many clergymen, and the compelled 
 declaration of others (on which hung the bishop's forgiveness 
 of the past), that they would in future regulate their conduct, 
 not by Scripture, nor even by the rules laid down by the best 
 doctors of canon law, but solely by the decisions of the council 
 of Trent, The mortifying rigour of this exaction was not 
 suffered to be softened by any public statement of their mo- 
 tives ; the affair gradually fell to the ground, and things went 
 on in Silesia as before. But Dr. Theiner, although forced to 
 yield to ecclesiastical domination, was neither induced to recant 
 nor wholly conceal his sentiments, which, there is reason to 
 believe, were both known and approved by men high in civil 
 authority, who saw with prophetic glance the coming events 
 of 1845, and therefore desired to introduce, in 1826 and 1827, 
 a progressive and unobtrusive reform ; but all such attempts 
 were then suppressed. 
 
 In the summer of 1830, Theiner, in conjunction with his 
 brother. Dr. Augustus Theiner (now resident in Rome), pub- 
 lished his work on " The introduction of compulsory celibacy 
 among the clergy ; " and this led to his half-voluntary, half- 
 compulsory relinquishment of his professorship ; after which, 
 he accepted a call from Count Bliicher to undertake the 
 pastorate of Polsnitz, near Canth. In 1836, an exchange to 
 tlie parish of Griissau was proposed to him : he accepted, and 
 removed thither in August of that year ; but finding his health 
 suffer, and himself debarred from the literary intercourse to 
 which he had been accustomed, he became a candidate for 
 the then vacant parish of Hundsfeld, on which he entered on 
 the 26th of November, 1837 ; and where he continued to 
 officiate until, in obedience to the dictates of his conscience, 
 he resigned his charge, and his connexion with Rome, on the 
 17th of June, 1845. 
 
 It is, therefore, with full justice, that Dr. Theiner is re- 
 garded as having paved the way for the present reform move- 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 167 
 
 ment, and his open adhesion to the German Catholic cause was, 
 consequently, hailed as, an occurrence of incalculable value 
 by friends, whilst by foes it was esteemed an event involving 
 very serious consequences. In proof of the importance at- 
 tached to it, the following extracts from a well-written, though 
 anonymous publication, may be given : — 
 
 " The idea of separation from Kome is, indeed, of an- 
 cient date in Germany ; and, though often for a time lost 
 sight of, ever and anon recurred with increased energy. 
 But recent events had, undoubtedly, given it a breadth and 
 prominence unexampled since the age of Luther; and the 
 boldly-expressed desire, elicited by the revolting exhibition 
 of the so-called 'unseamed coat of Treves,' had met a joyful 
 and ready response throughout the land. Yet, without cast- 
 ing any disparagement on the energetic and laborious efforts 
 of those who first put their hand to the plough of reform, it 
 must be acknowledged, none of them were in all respects 
 gifted with the necessary qualifications of leadership ; and 
 an individual, whose purity of motive, unspotted character, 
 theological attainments, and thorough knowledge, not only of 
 the essentials and non-essentials of Roman Catholicism, but 
 of the wants of a Catholic population, might entitle him to 
 claim, and enable him to fulfil, the high and difficult post, 
 was a desideratum more devoutly to be wished, than likely 
 to be obtained. The importance of finding such a one, whose 
 mind, character, and previous career, might awaken confidence, 
 and give security for the wise guidance of a great and serious 
 religious movement, was, consequently, very generally felt by 
 those who paid a just tribute of admiration to the fearless 
 courage of Ronge, the sterling piety of Czerski, and the long- 
 tried fidelity of the venerable Licht; and many eyes were 
 turned towards Dr. Theiner, as being the fitted, and as they 
 hoped, the appointed one, who should, like a second Moses, 
 lead forth his countrymen from worse than Egyptian bondage. 
 It was, therefore, with eager anxiety, that the well-wishers of 
 the German Catholic cause listened to reports of negociations 
 
168 THE REFORMATION 
 
 "being carried on from Berlin, Leipsic, Breslaw, &c., with the 
 highly-esteemed pastor of Hundsfeld ; and with a correspond- 
 ing disappointment, that they saw weeks and months draw 
 on, without producing the so-much-desired favourable reply. 
 When at length, therefore, the resolve of Dr, Theiner to 
 consecrate his time and talents to the reform cause was 
 publicly announced, the intelligence was not only hailed with 
 triumphant joy by its avowed advocates, but assuredly by 
 thousands besides, who had observed the progress of reform 
 with silent satisfaction, and saw in his acquisition a pledge of 
 its success and stability. In Dr. Theiner they recognised a 
 man whom flatteries could not seduce nor popularity intoxi- 
 cate ; whose honourable position placed him above the suspi- 
 cions of interested motives ; whose established literary fame 
 gave a warrant for the depth of his erudition; and whose efforts^ 
 twenty years ago, in the cause of reform, gave security at once 
 for well-tested principles and stable convictions ; while the 
 spotlessness of his private and official life deprived calumny 
 itself of all power to fasten on him any unworthy motive for 
 desiring change. While, therefore, we would not forget that 
 even the most gifted of men must ever remain but a weak 
 instrument, and that it would be a presumptuous interference 
 with the divine prerogative to depend for the success of so 
 great and blessed a work, as the purifying the church of 
 Christ from papal devices, on the judgment or energies of all, 
 and still less of any individual of the human race ; still, I do 
 feel justified in regarding Theiner's adhesion as of such vast 
 importance to the reform cause, as almost to form a new 
 stadium in its development, while the services he has already 
 rendered to it, even while under hierarchal restraint, afibrd 
 a fair criterion by which to estimate what he may yet achieve. 
 If we look at the short period during which the reform ques- 
 tion has been agitated (scarcely ten months),* its progress 
 
 * This pamphlet was published in August, 1845, and its author 
 declares himself not a German Catholic. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 169 
 
 seems to exceed belief. Many thousands, in all parts of 
 Germany, have already abjured Romish dogmas ; numerous 
 congregations have been formed; private dwellings, public 
 temples, nay, the mountain and the field, have witnessed the 
 reading of the sacred Scriptures and the celebration of divine 
 worship ; but what is much more, the, for ages, inculcated and 
 firmly-rooted prejudice, that one could only be a Catholic by 
 adhering to Roman faith, and Roman ritual, has been so rudely 
 shaken, that it no longer possesses power to terrify the con- 
 science and hold it in thraldom to the hierarchy. The unheard-of 
 celerity aroused the alarm and the activity of the ultramontane 
 party, and it betook itself to the old-accustomed, but somewhat 
 worn-out artifice, of instilling suspicion of treasonable plots, as 
 connected with the reform movement, into the breasts of Ger- 
 man princes, and thus to procure the passing of prohibitory 
 edicts against all meetings, even for religious consultation, 
 although such measures ran directly counter to the most 
 solemnly-sworn concessions of freedom of conscience. Then- 
 next contrivance was to stir up the rabble, by means of public 
 processions and other devotional exercises, to share their views, 
 and attack the adherents of the new doctrine with the more 
 material weapons of fanatical zeal ; and Rome itself, probably 
 regarding the affair as too serious to be trifled with, did not, 
 as upon former occasions, seek protection from the inroads ot 
 the schismatics, by intercessions to the Madonna, but, some- 
 what heretically, applied, it is said, for the, in our days, more 
 powerful help of a puissant German diplomatist. Others 
 counterfeit indifference and a supercilious contempt for the 
 movement; while others still affect a kindly pastoral tone, 
 and thus try to win back the erring sheep to the Roman fold. 
 But neither mask nor soft words are now of much avail ; and 
 far more than any detailed accounts of reform progress do 
 these ultramontane shifts and devices prove the depth of 
 the channel which the new stream has already worn; and 
 the dread felt by the old mariners, lest their worm-eaten, 
 crazy bark should be overwhelmed in its waves. But, just 
 
 I 
 
170 THE REFORMATION 
 
 because of this rapidity in the reform movement, is such a 
 man as Dr. Theiner requisite; whose clear-sighted, compre- 
 hensive mind may direct, guide, regulate, and, if need be, 
 restrain its course, and guard against the irregularities to 
 which every new and popular cause is peculiarly liable. The 
 task is, indeed, not a light, but it is a glorious one. We con- 
 fide in Dr. Theiner' s fitness, no less than in his devoted exer- 
 tion, to fulfil it ; and we trust that very soon he will receive 
 the co-operation of like-minded men, to share with him, in 
 tlie Lord's vineyard, the heat and burden of the day, to the 
 glory of God, the eternal salvation of many souls, and the 
 temporal weal of our German father-land." 
 
 SuchVere the anticipations formed of Dr. Theiner in his new 
 sphere of action, nor is there any reason to fear they have been 
 disappointed. The first service performed by him towards his 
 German Catholic brethren was, furnishing them with a liturgy 
 and catechism, which seem to have met general approval. 
 His next, and greater work, entitled *' Efforts at Eeform in the 
 Catholic Church," of which the first part only has yet appeared, 
 had the honour of being placed in the list of papal prohibited 
 works. Some extracts may serve to show there was good 
 reason for excluding it from the perusal of Roman Catholics. 
 It is addressed " To all Catholic Christians, by whom the 
 Revelation of Jesus Christ is esteemed sacred and eternal 
 truth; but more especially to the congregations of Polsnitz, 
 Griissau, and Hundsfeld," as being those among whom the 
 writer had laboured in the gospel, and commences thus : — 
 " Beloved brethren, among you I have occupied the office of a 
 pastor, and it is for you to judge in how far I have fulfilled 
 its duties. But the priest is called upon to labour, not only 
 by preaching, but by his walk and conversation ; and, in this 
 respect, my conscience bears me such witness, that I can look 
 with confidence to your testimony likewise. The well-being 
 and prosperity of the holy church of Jesus Christ has long lain 
 near my heart ; and therefore it has ever been my warmest wish, 
 and my earnest endeavour, to promote its purification from 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. l7l 
 
 the abuses which, in the course of ages, have crept in ; and to 
 restore it to that state of purity, in which Christ, the Lord, 
 gave it to the world. Nor has it ever been left destitute of 
 men animated by the spirit of Christ, even in those times 
 when corruption was most powerful, and who have lifted up 
 their voices for the purifying of the church, and used their 
 active endeavours to awake anew the Christian life within it. 
 * Verily, when we contemplate the Christian religion, in every 
 place, we find it so grievously and deeply stained, that its 
 form and beauty are no longer recognisable,' was the lamenta- 
 tion of the bishops assembled at the great church council at 
 Basle, in 1431, as expressed in their address to all Christian 
 princes.* 
 
 " The conviction of all Christendom, that the chief seat of 
 corruption was in the papal power, gained ground ; and often 
 was the desire expressed that a thorough purification might 
 take place, of both the head and members of the church. 
 But all in vain ; and this unremoved corruption occasioned 
 the disruption, in the sixteenth century, of a large proportion 
 of professing Christians, from the Roman communion ; more- 
 over, the purification of the church has been the desire and 
 the endeavour of many enlightened princes, bishops, and 
 priests, from that time to this. But such desire for removal 
 of all unchristian admixtures has become still more power- 
 ftilly awakened in our day, and that, not merely in the edu- 
 cated and thinking portion of mankind, but extending even 
 to the lowest of the people. I, too, during the time I was 
 professor of the university of Breslaw, strove to help forward 
 the wished-for improvement, both by my lectures and writings. 
 But never did I, in my sermons or in my parochial intercourse, 
 call your attention to the abuses in the church. I trusted that, 
 under the direction of the Holy Spirit, my pulpit proclamation 
 of the doctrines of Christ, and my explanation of the appointed 
 usages of the church, would suffice not only to guard you from 
 
 * Mans. Consilia, t. xxx., pp. 62, 235, et seq. 
 
 I 2 
 
172 THE REFORMATION 
 
 the pestiferous influence of superstition, but to confirm you in 
 the pure and saving belief of the gospel. 
 
 " I trust in God that I have not laboured among you in vain. 
 But circumstances compel me now to break silence towards 
 you ; for the confidence and love which I have experienced 
 in the midst of you, render it a duty for me to confide to 
 you the motives which impelled me to lay down my office, 
 in order that you may not be led to think evil of a man who 
 has walked among you for years, free from even the breath 
 of scandal. I must, therefore, though reluctant to disturb 
 your peace, now enlighten you respecting some abuses in the 
 church, the removal of which I have formerly, but in vain, 
 tried to accomplish. 
 
 " The abuses which deform the Roman Catholic church, the 
 direct opposition in which it at present stands to the state, 
 to the better spirit of the age ; but, above all, to the pure 
 doctrines of Jesus Christ, and the obstinate resistance of 
 the ecclesiastical superiors to free it from these unchristian 
 impurities, determined me to lay down my office. 
 
 " But I will now touch only on the chief and most crying 
 abuses, those which have, in fact, elicited the present great 
 movement among Catholics; at a future time I propose a 
 more extensive and searching examination of both the doc- 
 trines and the institutions of the Roman church. You have 
 all heard of the exhibition, at Treves, of a garment, professing 
 to be the coat of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and I do not wish to 
 conceal from you, that I fully share in the feelings of just 
 indignation which have been expressed by many, respecting 
 that attempt to mislead and dupe the religious feelings of the 
 people. A reverence for saints, and a respectful regard for 
 their relics (that is, their bodies and the places where they 
 were interred), was common in the first ages of Christianity, 
 but it was shown in a worthy and Christian manner. In 
 the fourth century, however, heathenism made its way into 
 Christianity, and the veneration for the saints, and those who 
 were considered to have died such, was so warped, as to throw 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 173 
 
 the worship of God, in spirit and in truth, into the shade. 
 The veneration of relics degenerated into a similar abuse. 
 Eemains of our Lord, or of his mother, were unknown for 
 many centuries, and only in later ages fraud brought forward 
 many such to view ; not in Treves only, but in above twenty 
 other places, tunics, which are pretended to be coats of Christ, 
 are displayed for the veneration of the faithful. In many 
 places, not small, but large quantities of the blood, hair, teeth, 
 and tears, of the Redeemer, are likewise presented for wor- 
 ship ; and all this without fear or shame, although the very 
 doctrine of the church, respecting the resurrection, must have 
 proved that no remains of the Saviour's body could ever have 
 been possessed by any one. In many diflferent places are 
 still shown the manger and cradle in which the Lord lay ; his 
 swaddling-band and shirt ; the altar, in the temple, at which 
 he was presented; the pillar, in the same, on which he is said 
 to have leaned ; the six water-pots of stone, which were mira- 
 culously filled with wine; pieces of the bread used at the 
 institution of the supper ; the cup employed on the same 
 occasion; Christ's shoes; the towel with which he girded 
 himself to wash the disciples' feet; the handkerchief with 
 which he wiped the bloody sweat from his brow ; the dish in 
 which the paschal lamb was served up ; remnants of the five 
 loaves with which the Lord fed the multitude ; the nails, 
 crown of thorns, spear, reed, and sponge, used at the cruci- 
 fixion ; nay, the very tail of the ass on which the Saviour rode 
 to Jerusalem, is pretended to have been preserved. There 
 is scarcely a church or chapel in Catholic countries in which 
 pieces of the true cross are not held out to the kisses and 
 veneration of the worshippers. But you are much deceived 
 if you think that any one of these pieces of wood ever made 
 part of the cross on which the Lord hung ; they belong to the 
 lying doctrines of the priests. Innumerable are the places 
 where the milk of the virgin, her hair, shifts, gowns, combs, 
 veil, marriage-ring, &c., are displayed. Whole bodies of some 
 apostles are shown in several places at once ; and, in others, 
 
174 THE REFORMATION 
 
 their limbs. But time would fail me, were I to detail all the 
 shameless frauds which even pious Catholic teachers them- 
 selves testify to having been practised on the deluded people 
 by priests, who often drove a thriving trade with their blas- 
 phemous legerdemain. In short, with the miracles and won- 
 ders which pretended saints have performed in their lifetime, 
 and the suppositious bodies or members of saints after their 
 death, wicked monks and priests have invented such unnum- 
 bered frauds and deceptions that Catholic learned men, such 
 as Erasmus, Louis Vives, Melchior, Canns, Antonius, Muratori, 
 and others, have felt constrained openly to declare, that all 
 the deceptive mummeries of the heathen priests, and all the 
 falsehoods of heathen writers respecting their gods and idols, 
 fall far short of those made by priests who arrogate to them- 
 selves the Christian name. But I have somewhat still more 
 melancholy to relate to you : even that holy supper, which our 
 Lord appointed in memorial of himself and his sufferings, has 
 been degraded by self-interested priests into the service of a 
 vile trade and a horrible deception. Nearly 1200 years had 
 elapsed from the days of Christ, before the invention of the 
 'bloody host' was thought of. It soon, however, became 
 more common, and such pretended bleeding hosts were put up 
 to public gaze as sacred treasures. The design of this con- 
 trivance was to convince the people, by the evidence of their 
 senses, of the truth of that Romish doctrine sanctioned by the 
 Lateran Synod (held at Rome, in 1215), that the bread and 
 wine in the supper were, by consecration, converted into the 
 real body and blood of Christ. Miracles were invented as 
 having been performed by these extraordinary hosts; and 
 thousands were attracted to the place of exhibition, to their 
 certain injury both here and hereafter, but greatly to the en- 
 riching of the juggling priests. Not unfrequently, indeed, 
 these bleeding hosts were brought forward for the sole purpose 
 of defrauding the Jews of their property, who were accused of 
 having got hold of, and misused the consecrated wafer, out of 
 which the blood immediately flowed. And when the popular 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 175 
 
 indignation was fairly roused against them, the unhappy 
 Israelites had to pay the penalty, either with their wealth or 
 their lives.* Pious men raised their voices from time to time, 
 alike in lamentation and indignation, over these frauds, anni- 
 hilating the idolatrous delusion when they had the power; 
 and the general church council in Bale commanded that these 
 bleeding hosts should either be eaten by the priests, or, if they 
 felt disgusted by the thought of doing so, be burned. Bishop 
 Nicholas, of Susa, who undertook a visitation throughout 
 Germany, from 1450 to 1452, issued an order, that every 
 bloody host which could be found in that country should be 
 destroyed; nothing of the kind be from henceforth shown to 
 the people, or their miraculous power extolled, ' in order that 
 Christ's flock should no longer be deluded and defrauded for 
 filthy lucre's sake' (one reference must here suffice. Cone. 
 Colon. 1452, Harzh. t. v. p. 416). But this Christian zeal was 
 all in vain ; similar hosts arose without ceasing, and the vile 
 greed of priests and bishops, which was nourished and gratified 
 by the pilgrims which flocked to such wonders, encouraged 
 to a repetition of the wicked deed. Nay, even princes were 
 found who favoured such mischievous devices, for the sake of 
 the profit which such crowds of pilgrims brought to any land 
 where a bloody host was displayed. You, yourselves, my be- 
 loved Hundsfeld parishioners, used to proceed annually to the 
 village of Langewiese, to a festival of the host, whose origin 
 by no means rests on authentic history. In doing so, you 
 but followed the evil example of your former pastors, who 
 
 * A striking confirmation of this statement of Dr. Theiner's, is 
 afforded by the St. Bernhard Church, in Breslaw, which was founded 
 in 1453, by Bernhard de Siena, in honour of a fanatical Franciscan, 
 named John de Capistrano, who, armed with the character of his own 
 sanctity, and with papal plenipotens to boot, travelled through Europe 
 as a converter of the nations ; and, taking Breslaw in his course, left a 
 terrible memento of his visit in the local history of that city, for he 
 procured from a weak monarch the confirmation of the sentence by 
 which forty-one Jews were burned to death, on account of a pre- 
 tended desecration of a consecrated wafer! — (Note by the author). 
 
176 THE REFORMATION 
 
 on that day neglected the pastoral duty of feeding their 
 flock, shut up the church, and themselves wandered to share 
 the feasting at the Langewiese festival. It is well, and I 
 thank God for it, that you have by degrees given up the 
 practice ; and on that, as on other days, attended the regular 
 service of God in your parish church. * * * 
 
 " I proceed now to another subject. 
 
 "I have frequently, in former years, expressed my opinion 
 of the propriety of divine service being held in the vernacular 
 tongue. Christ our Lord never preached or prayed in the 
 Latin language, with which neither his disciples nor country- 
 men were familiar ; neither did he make use of it at the 
 institution of the supper, but expressed himself at all times 
 in the language of the country. Do you believe that the Lord, 
 if he were now to appear among you, would address you in 
 the Latin tongue, which you do not understand? Do you ask, 
 then, why is the mass read to us in Latin ? I will tell you 
 how it has come to pass. As every nation had the sacred 
 Scriptures translated into its language, and the whole public 
 service of God performed in the same, so, in like manner, the 
 numerous nations speaking the Latin tongue, performed their 
 divine service in that language. But when the nations of 
 Germany, Bohemia, and Poland, received Christianity, they, 
 too, felt the desire and the necessity of having their worship 
 celebrated in their native language; but the popes resisted 
 this, and even compelled the abolition of divine service, in 
 the vernacular tongue, in places where it had been introduced ; 
 for their main desire and design being to make themselves 
 rulers over all Christendom, and to subject every nation to 
 the yoke of their traditions, they saw no more suitable and 
 effectual means of securing this, than the introduction, into the 
 service of God, of a language which the people could not 
 understand. Ignorant and avaricious priests readily entered 
 into the scheme. They perceived that the people must be 
 much easier deluded, and that a greater gain was to be made 
 of them, if they knew nothing of what was prayed or acted 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 177 
 
 before them ; and the bishops were, in those days, so sunk in 
 worldly business or pleasure, that they laid the cure of souls 
 very little to heart. In the sixteenth century, people, princes, 
 and pious bishops and priests, who felt a real desire for the 
 reformation of the church, were loud and earnest in their 
 entreaties that the worship of God might be held in the lan- 
 guage of the countries, but the popes again resisted all attempts 
 of the sort. Is, then, the mass only for the priests ? Is the 
 Christian congregation not worth a thought ? Would it be 
 unreasonable to expect that you, who do not know Latin, 
 should have the service in a language by which you could 
 understand what was prayed, and exhorted, and sung to you 
 from the altar ? . And on these grounds, well-meaning, honest 
 minds have, in our days, likewise openly given their votes 
 for the introduction into the church of the language of the 
 country. You have only to consider that the priest is there 
 for your sake ; that what he performs at the altar ought not to 
 be an incomprehensible spectacle, but should serve you for 
 teaching, for edification, for strengthening, and for consolation ; 
 that whosoever will speak to you, or pray with you, must do 
 so in words which you can comprehend, and you will perceive 
 at once the necessity of divine worship being conducted in 
 your native tongue. 
 
 " Moreover, enlightened and pious bishops and clergy have 
 frequently taken much pains to improve the mass-book and 
 ritual, by purifying it from the superstitions which have found 
 their way even into our church books. When, for example, 
 by the consecration of oil, salt, water, &c., those prayers are 
 repeated which, according to the mass-book, are to drive out 
 the devil, and such consecrated articles are represented as 
 possessing actual power against the devil, does not your rea- 
 son rise against it, and do you not feel such prayers to be 
 
 blasphemous ? 
 
 « * « » « * 
 
 " If the life-giving power of Christianity has taken possession 
 of your hearts, you will desire with me that divine service 
 
 I 3 
 
178 THE REFORMATION 
 
 may be performed in the language of every country, and that 
 its ceremonies may be purified from all superstitious admix- 
 ture. I have, in former years, in conjunction with my bro- 
 ther, published a large work upon the ' Compulsory Celibacy 
 of the Clergy,' in which we showed how the law arose, and by 
 what evil methods it was enforced upon the world. Both 
 bishops and priests married in the first ages, and the apostle 
 Peter himself was a married man. In our country, married 
 priests existed in the thirteenth century, and even later. But 
 marriage was at length torn from the clergy, and what came in 
 its stead ? Immorality of every sort. * * * 
 
 " These immoralities and the melancholy consequences 
 which have flowed from them, have excited a wish in many 
 pious ecclesiastics of all grades, for the restoration of marriage 
 to the priesthood. Whole nations, and the most exalted princes, 
 pleaded for it in the sixteenth century ; but the popes con- 
 trived then, too, to retain the law of celibacy, although the 
 licentious lives of many popes and their ecclesiastical courtiers 
 have been the lamentation of the pious, and the mockery of 
 the worldling, in every age of the church. Nor can it be 
 denied that, even in the present day, there are but too many 
 priests addicted to drunkenness, unchastity, and other crimes. 
 I need but appeal to your own knowledge in confirmation of 
 this fact ; for, so deeply sunk is the Catholic priesthood gene- 
 rally, as to morals, that the purest can scarcely escape suspicion, 
 since the public seems hardly to credit the possibility of finding 
 a moral priest. Can there be imagined anything more depress- 
 ing to a virtuous mind, than such a settled opinion among the 
 people ? In later times, both clergy and laity have raised 
 their voices in favour of the abrogation of priestly celibacy ; 
 and I myself have urged its propriety, in order that men may 
 no longer be driven, by such compulsory rules, into vice, and 
 be able to stand before their fiocks with unspotted honour. 
 Yet, as far as I am personally concerned, the question is one of 
 indifference ; I can appeal to every congregation among whom 
 I have ministered, to every servant who has been an inmate of 
 
OF THE NIKETEENTH CENTURY. 179 
 
 my house, and to all those with whom I have ever lived in 
 intimate friendship, that no suspicion of immorality has ever 
 attached itself to my character, nor have I ever felt any desire 
 to enter into the married state. I do not arrogate to myself 
 any peculiar merit on this latter account, but attribute it, 
 partly to my studious habits, and partly to the happiness of 
 . having had my mother as the mistress of my family till within 
 four years since, when she died." 
 
 Dr. Theiner then proceeds to discuss the question of mixed 
 marriages; and argues upon the impolicy, the evil social 
 tendency, and the unchristian spirit of the principle of the 
 prohibition, as well as the tyrannous cruelty of its practice. 
 He proves, by historical evidence, that neither ecclesiastical 
 nor civil law, for upwards of a century, enforced in Silesia such 
 infringements of the rights of conscience, as have of late years 
 been made by the Roman Catholic clergy in this matter, and 
 then proceeds thus : — " But within a few years a totally dif- 
 ferent system has been introduced into Silesia. The Jesuits 
 have brought their foul machinations into play. The express 
 design of this religious order is the immoveable confirmation 
 of the papal power, and the annihilation of Protestantism. 
 The order was indeed abrogated by one pope, but it has since 
 been restored by another ; and has contrived to find entrance 
 even into countries whose sovereigns have promised to main- 
 tain the rights and security of their Protestant subjects. The 
 Jesuits of our day began by exciting commotions in Belgium 
 and Holland, and next succeeded in extending the game to 
 the Rhenish provinces. To them, as to all papists, the peace- 
 ful intercourse of Protestants and Catholics, and, by conse- 
 quence, mixed marriages, is an abomination. The populace, 
 therefore, was stirred up by the false report, that the king 
 designed to force all Catholics to become Protestants, and the 
 pope availed himself of this and other conspiring circum- 
 stances favourable to the re-establishment of his power, to 
 demand that the old marriage regulations should be again put 
 in force, both there and in Silesia. The then prince-bishop 
 
180 THE REFORMATION 
 
 of Breslaw, Count von Sedlintzki, was called upon to oppose 
 the will of his king and the laws of his country ; and, in 
 obedience to the pope's mandate, disturb the peaceful social 
 relations between Catholics and Protestants, by rescinding the 
 long-existing permission of mixed marriages ; but he preferred 
 to lay down his office. He felt it too much to bear, that Rome 
 was not ashamed to impute to him, as a crime, his associating 
 with estimable Protestants, and his refusal to dismiss a Pro- 
 testant servant who had grown grey in the service of his 
 family. And he saw full well that the senseless as well as 
 unchristian law, now wished to be revived, would lead to 
 dissensions, which would infallibly tend to the injury of the 
 Catholic church. But the vicar-general, whom the chapter 
 elected in his room, felt no scruples in proclaiming the papal 
 will ; and from that hour the seed of discord has been sown in 
 Silesia, the union of countless families destroyed, peace of 
 conscience banished from the breast of thousands, and the wel- 
 fare of our country wickedly interrupted. Such are the fruits 
 of Roman interference. And why, you ask, does the Romish 
 priest refuse to celebrate mixed marriages ? Because the 
 papacy maintains that salvation is confined to the Romish 
 church, and that all Protestants, together with heathens, Jews, 
 and Mahometans, are given over to the devil, and must go to 
 hell. But such doctrine is, doubtless, as revolting to your 
 Christian convictions as to your human feelings. * * 
 
 Never can you believe that your Protestant fellow Christians, 
 who worship the same God and believe in the same Redeemer 
 as we do, who strive with us after every Christian virtue, 
 and seek to get to heaven, will be sent down to hell. Some 
 Catholics, indeed, feeling ashamed of this doctrine, have main- 
 tained that the Roman Catholic faith does not exclude the well- 
 intentioned holders of error from salvation. But this expli- 
 cation is a pure invention ; the papacy, the Roman Catholic 
 faith, knows not such distinctions ; and if it did, how dare 
 such violent measures have been resorted to, in regard to those 
 erring sheep, as has often been done ? Innocent wanderers from 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 181 
 
 tlie true faith should have heen treated with gentleness, not 
 with compulsion ; and candidates for matrimony, if of different 
 confessions, ought not to have heen refused the priestly bless- 
 ing, and threatened with excommunication here, and hell here- 
 after, unless they engaged to bring up their children in the 
 Roman faith. Is this the way to promote the honpur of the 
 Catholic church ? The honour of Christ's church is promoted 
 by far other means. By proclaiming his doctrine, by cele- 
 bration of a service purified from abuses, and by the virtuous 
 walk and conversation of its priests. Yet, how often have 
 you been grieved with beholding those who professed such 
 wondrous care for the salvation of their parishioners on this 
 score, very little occupied with their own. And it has been 
 the lamentation of the pious in every age, that not a few 
 Catholic priests, by their vicious lives, not only shut them- 
 selves out from salvation, but helped to destroy the souls of 
 their parishioners. * > ♦ * * 
 
 *'The conscience of modern Catholic priests has suddenly 
 become awakened to the sin of blessing the marriage of a Pro- 
 testant bride or bridegroom, with a Catholic, and yet the matri- 
 monial vow becomes binding by means of being taken by the 
 contracting parties, and not because the priest rehearses it 
 before them, to ensure their repeating it correctly, so that his 
 blessing is nothing more than a prayer for God's blessing on 
 their union. Can it then be sinful for a Catholic priest to wish 
 and pray for good to attend his Protestant fellow Christians ? 
 But if so, how happened it, then, that in former years, when 
 Silesia was under Austrian rule, the Roman Catholic priests 
 not only could, but insisted on marrying, baptising, and bury- 
 ing, all persons, Protestant as well as Catholic, and would not 
 suffer a Protestant clergyman to exercise any of these pastoral 
 functions towards his own church members, except on condi- 
 tion of all the fees being duly paid to the Roman Catholic 
 clergy ? And this compulsion, by which they proved their 
 conscience could be bought over, was supported by law, so 
 long as Silesia was an Austrian province." * * 
 
182 THE REFORMATION 
 
 Dr. Tlieiner next details the various devices of ecclesiastical 
 persecution resorted to for the purpose of compelling Catholics 
 to abstain from, or pay handsomely for, a marriage with 
 Protestants, and the torments inflicted on their consciences 
 afterwards, by denunciations, both from the confessional and 
 pulpit, denial of church privileges, &c., until the conquest of 
 Silesia, by Frederick the Great, put a stop to the tyranny, and 
 introduced a state of social concord which lasted till within a 
 few years back. He then goes on thus : — " What, then, do 
 the Silesian priesthood announce by this revival of a practice 
 which has lain in abeyance for almost a century? Plainly 
 that they have turned back to the fundamental doctrine and 
 rule of papal conduct, that ' faith ought not to be kept with 
 heretics.'* But when Frederick the Great, of Prussia, con- 
 quered the country, that enlightened monarch secured, indeed, 
 liberty of conscience to the Silesian Catholics ; but, assuredly, 
 he did not intend thereby to concede to them the right of 
 oppressing the Protestants, or delivering them over to the 
 arbitrary power of Eome's despotic hierarchy. But the papacy 
 has no other aim than the extirpation of heretics, and hesitates 
 at no means, either of fraud or violence, to accomplish its 
 purpose. It acknowledges the legal existence of no other 
 church but the Roman Catholic; it denounces all toleration 
 of Protestants, and, up to the present hour, protests against 
 the regulations adopted in various countries for securing social 
 harmony between the different confessions. The papacy has 
 ever called on Catholic princes to extirpate Protestantism, 
 teaching that conventions entered into with their heretic 
 
 ♦ Innocent III. avowed the theory which had long been famihar 
 in practice, declaring that it was a universally applicable rule, — Juxta 
 Sanctorum Patrum sanctiones canonicas ac, qui deo et ecclesice (that 
 is, the papal see and the hierarchy) fidem non servat, fides servanda non 
 est. Brief to Philip Augustus, of France (1211), and to the German 
 princes, in reference to the affairs of the Emperor Otho ; Notices et 
 Extraits des Manuscrits de la Bibliotheque du Eoi, t. ii. Paris 1789. 
 pp. 284, 285.— Theiner's Efforts at Reform, &c. p. 33. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 183 
 
 subjects, by which the latter obtained rights and privileges, 
 were no ways binding, though confirmed by oath, and only to 
 be maintained till a favourable moment for throwing off the 
 mask and recommencing open persecution should arrive. In 
 this spirit have the recent orders of Rome, respecting mixed 
 marriages, been conceived and acted upon in Silesia, and that 
 in perfect accordance with other papal dogmas respecting 
 apostates from the true faith. The norm by which every 
 Catholic ought to guide his conduct, has been thus decreed 
 by the pope: all social intercourse, traffic, living, eating, 
 drinking, or even speaking with a Protestant, is forbidden. 
 It is not permitted to enter their churches, listen to their 
 preachers, join with them in prayer, or even attend their 
 funerals ; nay, it is unallowed to greet a heretic, or address 
 to him any appellation indicative of respect. * * * 
 
 Excommunication is threatened to all who read Protestant 
 books, without special permission jQrom the pope. * * 
 
 Heretics cannot, by papal laws, make a will; they forfeit all 
 authority over their children, vassals, and servants, who are 
 freed from obligations of fidelity towards them. The heretic 
 wife forfeits her marriage-portion and every other privilege. 
 Heretics may be incarcerated, either for a definite time or 
 for life, according to the extent of their heresy ; and the un- 
 repentant are subject to be burned to death. Such are the 
 chief points of the papal law against Christians of other 
 confessions.* 
 
 " This is not the place to enter into a detail of the horrors 
 of prosecutions which have been instituted by Rome against 
 heretics, especially by means of the Inquisition, — an insti- 
 tution whose invention would do honour to the arch-fiend 
 himself. But think not that these things occurred merely 
 in times of old, and that nothing similar can happen in the 
 present day. Rome has never relinquished the principle, and 
 fear alone of the temporal power retains its sword in the 
 
 * Let those who desire proof, consult Lueii Ferraris Brompta 
 Bibhotheca, torn, iii., s. v. Haeresis, Hsereticus, pp. 545 — 560. 
 
184 . THE REFORMATION 
 
 scabbard. Rome desires no peace between Catholics and 
 Protestants. ****** 
 
 " The well-known Jesuit doctrine of mental reservation has 
 been employed, at no distant date, to convince kings that oaths 
 made to Protestants are nugatory. They were informed, that 
 as they could not have sworn to favour heresy with their soul, 
 but only with their tongue, they were nowise bound to abide 
 by it; for that the oath must always be interpreted according 
 to the meaning of him who made it, and not of him who 
 received it.* * * * * * * 
 
 " By the constant advocacy of this doctrine, the Jesuits so 
 completely gained the ear and conscience of Augustus II., king 
 of Poland, that they prepared, in the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century, to give the last blow to Protestantism. In 1718, the 
 Lutherans collected together, and printed the enactments which 
 had at various times been made in their favour by kings and 
 senates to secure their liberties, and laid them before Augustus 
 and the estates-general at Grodno. Aware of their intention, 
 George Kasimir Ancuto, a beneficed ecclesiastic in Wilna, pre- 
 pared, with the aid of the Jesuits, a counter memorial, which 
 he distributed in manuscript to the bishops, senators, &c., 
 assembled at the diet; and, in 1719, it appeared in print, 
 with the appended approbation of the bishop of Wilna, and 
 dedicated to all the bishops of the kingdom. It may, there- 
 fore, be justly regarded as the general confession of faith of 
 the Polish hierarchy, and Ancuta was rewarded by being 
 appointed coadjutor in Wilna, with the right of succession to 
 the see, and was nominated by the pope, bishop of Antopatra. 
 According to the principles laid down in this work (in sup- 
 port of all of which passages are cited from the Roman canon 
 
 * Cardinal Stanistuns Hosius, who introduced the accursed Jesuit 
 order, wrote thus to King Stephen Batori : " Et est hoc etiam sacris 
 canonibus cantum, quod juramenta secundum intentionem prcestantis 
 non autem recipientis a Deo judicantur." Compare Instructio juxta 
 quam debet regnum Folonice Regi Stephano gratulari, accompanying 
 the ep. 246, ep. 250, Scc—Tkeiner^s Efforts at Reform, p. 38. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 185 
 
 law and the papal decrees), the Polish hierarchy has thence- 
 forth acted." (The document is too long for insertion, and 
 moreover, in some parts, scarcely fit to be presented to the 
 public in other than the obscurity of a learned language ; I 
 prefer, therefore, to state generally, that dissimulation, mental 
 reservation, and breach of faith in all engagements, however 
 solemn, entered into with heretics, are not merely avowed, 
 but defended throughout). The king's oath, which literally 
 declared, " I will not suflPer any one to be injured or oppressed 
 on account of his religion," is stated to preclude, indeed, his 
 condemning a heretic to death, but as by no means hindering 
 confiscation of goods, banishment, or any other punishment ; 
 *' for this oath of the king, being inimical to the interests of 
 the church, and injurious to episcopal jurisdiction, should not 
 be regarded as an oath so much as a perjury, which kings, 
 consequently, are more bound to break than to keep." The 
 whole concludes thus : " It is contrary to nature, and all divine, 
 ecclesiastical, and state laws, that heretics should be tolerated 
 in Poland, and obtain either office or dignity therein ; nor 
 can any length of prescription be interpreted in their favour. 
 The king, senate, and all Catholics, are bound to extirpate 
 them ; and whoever shall defend, or grant them protection, 
 shelter, or food, or who fails to prpcure the execution of their 
 just punishment, shall himself fall under the ban and censure 
 of the bulla ccence domini.* 
 
 "Such were the principles which guided the Polish hie- 
 rarchy till the dissolution of the monarchy; the confusion, 
 demoralization, and eventual ruin of which, was chiefly their 
 
 * Jus plenum religionis Catholicce, in regno PoIoni(S et M. D. 
 
 Lithuanioe a Georg. Cas. Ancuta VilncB, 1719. 
 
 Similar principles were laid down in the "Warsaw Synod of 1720. 
 Synod. Posnan. a. 1720, Varsavice celeba. Read also, Andrea 
 Lipski, decas quastionum publicarum regni Polonice Posnan. 1726, 
 
 and Vox Catelli pastoritii ab Adalb. Gabr. 
 
 Slawosz. Monasti. 0/ty. 1679, ^c. Sfc. 8fc. — Theiner's Efforts at Reform, 
 pp. 41,42. 
 
186 THE REFORMATION 
 
 work, in conjunction with the Jesuits.* Their line of acting, 
 indeed,, has been the same in all countries ; nor can it be 
 otherwise, for we must remember that infallibility and immu- 
 tability are the professed characteristics of the power they 
 desire to uphold. * * Moreover, every consistent Roman 
 Catholic must take the above quoted papal decrees respecting 
 heretics, as the rule and guide of his sentiments and actions 
 towards them ; hence, all intercourse which such carry on with 
 Protestants, however friendly they may appear, must rest on the 
 basis of dissimulation and mental reservation. They no longer, 
 indeed, denounce Protestants to the Inquisition ; they do not rob 
 them of their property, nor their life ; because all such attempts 
 would at present endanger their own safety. Indulgences, 
 which in former days were so liberally granted by popes for the 
 murder of heretics, are not, under present circumstances, attain- 
 able ; the Roman Catholic Christian therefore has, meanwhile, 
 nothing better to do, than by prayers for the extirpation of 
 heresy, and the enjoyment of the indulgences offered for such 
 services, to strengthen and confirm his own hatred against here- 
 tics ; and with this view does the pope continue to promulgate 
 the doctrines of * No salvation out of the Roman church,' and 
 of the curse and condemnation of all other confessions. So 
 soon, however, as ' custom and habit,' as Benedict XIV., 
 with such hypocritical mildness, expresses it, * can be again 
 brought into play, and there is any possibility of forcibly com- 
 pelling heretics to profess the Roman Catholic faith, then must 
 the faithful cast off aU dissimulation and hypocrisy towards 
 Protestants, and either force them to conform, or execute upon 
 them the full rigour of papal laws.' Allegiance, fealty, pay- 
 ment of taxes, &c., are submitted to by the true disciple of 
 Rome towards Protestant princes, only until a favourable 
 
 * Another portion of this work will prove, that the Jesuits have 
 maintained their indelibility of character, by similar machinations in 
 Poland and the adjoining countries, which have produced, and are 
 producing results similar in nature to those above alluded to by Dr. 
 Theiner. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 187 
 
 conjunction offers to throw off the dominion. ♦ • Only 
 in the bosoms of conscientious patriotic Catholic, but not 
 Komish priests, has the oath of fidelity and allegiance a firm 
 and trustworthy basis. Priests, who are Rome's hirelings, 
 may and do implore a Protestant king, government, or patron, 
 to bestow benefices upon them, asseverating, with all apparent 
 sincerity, the most inviolable fidelity, and the warmest zeal to 
 promote the welfare and prosperity of the country. But when 
 they have got their cure, no promises, no oath, will prove any 
 hindrance to the exercise of intolerance, stirring up strife 
 between Catholic and Protestant, and undermining the very 
 being of the state. They dissembled in acknowledging the 
 patronage rights of a Protestant king, government, or landed 
 proprietor, and gave their promise solely because, as the pope 
 would say, * In the present melancholy and oppressed state 
 of God's church,' they could not otherwise obtain their ends ; 
 but so soon as any change takes place, and the government, 
 from whatever cause, whether from well-intentioned consi- 
 deration for their Catholic subjects, or some unfounded fear 
 of Rome, evince the smallest tendency to yield to its en- 
 croachments, those priests begin instantly to show their true 
 colours, exclaim about oppression and persecution of the 
 Catholic church, or rise openly against the government, and 
 cover their evil designs with the ready Scripture, * "We must 
 obey God rather than man.' " * * * * * 
 Dr. Theiner adduces many instances of presumptuous and 
 rebellious attempts made, even in late years, by the Roman 
 Catholic clergy, against the royal authority in Prussia's Catholic 
 dependencies, into which want of space forbids us to enter ; and 
 then takes up the subject of the pope's asserted supremacy, 
 thus : — '* No one would, perhaps, be unwilling to concede to 
 Rome's bishop a certain degree of consideration and influence 
 in the church, if he acted in Christ's spirit, and for the fur- 
 therance of his rehgion. But a power such as that arrogated 
 by the popes during the dark ages, and which they continue 
 to claim in our day, must be contested by every Christian 
 
188 THE REFORMATION 
 
 whose lot has been cast by Providence under the rule of a 
 Protestant prince, and among Protestant brethren, if he desire 
 to pay the former due and lawful obedience, and the latter 
 that love which Christ and the apostles commanded. 
 
 " You, my brethren, are familiar with the Scriptures, and 
 know that Christ the Lord gave alike to all his apostles the 
 commission to ' teach all nations,* and to found and spread 
 abroad his church ; that he bestowed the Holy Ghost, and 
 the power to bind and to loose on them all, without distinc- 
 tion ; whence an apostle declares, that the church is built on 
 the foundation of the apostles and prophets ; but that Jesus 
 Christ himself is her head. Peter may naturally, at the first, 
 as the possessor of ships, and the leader of his companions, 
 have had a kind of consideration among them ; and something 
 of the same, likewise, among the Lord's disciples, not only from 
 the above circumstances, but from his peculiarly ardent tem- 
 perament. His courageous and decisive devotion to the Lord 
 made him dear to him, and the Saviour admitted him, in 
 common with James and John, to be the sharer of his most 
 confidential retirement. But Peter's forward zeal caused him 
 to fall into error, and the Lord once required to address him 
 with, ' Get thee hence from me, for thou savourest not what is 
 divine, but what is human' (Luther's Bible). Nay, Peter fell 
 so deeply, that he denied his Lord. But the bitterest repen- 
 tance seized him, and his master's saying, * When thou art 
 converted, go and strengthen thy brethren,' brought him anew 
 to the resolve to live to him ; and the pardoning love of his 
 risen Lord, once more bestowed upon him the oversight of 
 the believers. Peter responded to the confidence of his master, 
 as did all the apostles ; but of any rule or superiority enjoyed 
 by him over the rest, the Scripture is wholly silent. Christ 
 desired to banish all ambition from the circle of his disciples ; 
 and Peter himself was so far from assuming pre-eminence, 
 that he calls himself simply an elder (1 Peter v. 1), and 
 submitted to be sent by the church at Jerusalem to Samaria 
 ill furtherance of the Gospel cause. But when he, misunder- 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 189 
 
 standing the great and holy plan of Jesus for the calling of 
 the Gentiles, desired to burden the new converts with keeping 
 the ceremonial law, Paul withstood and openly reproved an 
 attempt so calculated to create contention. The bond of 
 faith alone united, in the first ages, the different Christian 
 congregations into one general (Catholic) church, and the first 
 centuries ascribed no higher power to Peter than to any of the 
 other apostles. « * ♦ * « 
 
 Towards the end of the eleventh century, a daring and politic 
 monk was elected to the Roman see, and, assuming the name 
 of Gregory VII., formed the bold plan of raising the Roman 
 pontiff to the rank of universal monarch, over not only the 
 Christian church, but all temporal princes, and his successors 
 have pertinaciously followed in his track. * * • 
 
 But, in the fourteenth century, the papacy outdid its former 
 self by the shameless lives of those who wore the triple crown, 
 and the world was astonished with the spectacle of several 
 pretended vicegerents of Christ, who at one and the same time 
 laid claim to the dignity, and reciprocally anathematized each 
 other. The reformers of the sixteenth century have generally 
 got the credit of having first termed the papacy * the sink of 
 corruption,' 'the whore of Babylon,' 'the seat of antichrist,' 
 and ' the origin of aU confessional hatred;' but these appel-. 
 lations were by no means invented by them, but applied to 
 Rome long before their time, by some of the worthiest mem- 
 bers of the Catholic church. Francesco Petraren describes 
 the papal court at Avignon, as ' Babylon on the Rhone, where 
 all that men hold sacred is mocked at ; the hope of a future 
 state, the terrors of hell, and the second coming of Christ to 
 judgment, laughed at, as fables and silly inventions ; where 
 cardinals roll in debauchery of the most shameless and revolt- 
 ing nature ; where a dissolute life is the surest road to fame, 
 and whence the Babylonish whore dispensed her filthiness all 
 over the earth.' Nor are the pictures given of the Roman 
 court by Nicolaus d'Oresme, Nicolaus de Clemangis, or even 
 by so firm an adherent of the papacy as Ambrosius Traverfari, 
 
190 THE REFORMATION 
 
 painted in less disgusting colours. * * Popery presses 
 heavily on every department and relation of social Jife. Thus, 
 for example, the pope assumes to himself the sole right of 
 giving dispensations for the solemnization of marriage, within 
 what the hierarchy are pleased to call the forbidden degrees 
 of relationship. And these dispensations have long been a 
 degrading money speculation. They are obtained by money 
 alone, notwithstanding the council of Trent, whose decrees are 
 generally held up as so sacred, commanded them to be given 
 gratuitously. If these marriages are contrary to God's com- 
 mand, no man has power to give a dispensation for them ; but 
 if the prohibition is an invention of man, it is high time it 
 were done away with. * * * g^^ 
 
 the church of Rome will never voluntarily relinquish any 
 assumption she has ever made; nor will a reform ever be 
 brought about within her pale. From century to century, 
 remonstrance and lamentation have been tried, but tried in 
 vain, by her noblest sons. The pope and his rich and 
 luxurious hierarchy have thwarted every effort, and main- 
 tained their power as a heavy oppressive weight on the 
 nations. Both in the last and present centuries, efforts have 
 been made by enlightened and conscientious ecclesiastics, as 
 well to erect a German Catholic church, as to purify and 
 revive Christian doctrine and discipline within it. 
 
 "Early in the present century, much zeal was awakened 
 in Silesia likewise, for the removal of abuses and superstitious 
 observances ; for the increase of edification, by introducing the 
 German language into public worship ; and for the spread of a 
 more living and operative Christianity among the people. 
 But these isolated exertions were constantly repressed by 
 Roman influence and its obedient organs. Thirty years ago, 
 a reformation of the Breslaw diocesan ritual was acknow- 
 ledged to be urgently necessary ; and several new formularies 
 were drawn up by zealous ecclesiastics, with the permission 
 of the then existing church authorities. Even the members 
 of the present chapter (who then occupied the post of parish 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 191 
 
 priests) frequently availed themselves, in the performance of 
 various pastoral functions, of the new ritual adopted by 
 Pracher, Selmar, Winter, Busch, and Wessenberg; and no 
 one has done more distinguished service, in this respect, than 
 the present cathedral preacher, Forster ; he neither exorcised 
 the devil out of children at baptism, nor out of anything 
 which God has created. ♦ » » ^j^g 
 
 exact resemblance of his sermons to those of the best Protes- 
 tant divines, has been recently commented on in the journals 
 of the day ; and in short, priest Forster was, in the parish of 
 Landeshut, a pattern of enlightened toleration ; and the seed 
 of reformation he then sowed is now growing up vigorously 
 to maturity. • * * g^^^ 
 
 alas, the long-promised purification of the ritual is at a 
 stand-still. The ecclesiastical superior courts command a strict 
 adherence to the old one ; the funeral service must again be 
 spoken in Latin ; the devil must be exorcised from salt, oil, and 
 water, as before ; and the inferior clergy must continue to 
 practise such senseless blasphemies and revolting mummeries, 
 until it please the hierarchy to decree that such things may 
 cease. And whence does all this arise? The papal see 
 justly regards priestly celibacy, the Latin service, the impos- 
 ing on the people by indulgences, relics, miraculous pictures, 
 and pilgrimages, and the fanning the flame of dissension 
 and strife between Catholics and Protestants, as the funda- 
 mental pillars of its power ; and, as the right of German 
 archbishops to nominate to bishoprics, though restored to 
 them at the council of Bale, was again taken from them 
 in 1448, by a wily concordat, obtained from the court of 
 Vienna by the arts of the infamous ^neas Sylvius, afterwards 
 Pius II., and has remained with the popes ever since, it 
 enables them to further their own interests, and eifectually to 
 check all improvement, by promoting only such men to the 
 episcopate as they deem likely to do their bidding. Thus, 
 in modern times, we have seen men advanced to that dignity, 
 wholly devoid of learning, and strongly suspected of immo*- 
 
192 THE REFORMATION 
 
 rality ; while men, distinguished for talent, high attainments, 
 pure conduct, and zeal for the cause of Christ and the puri- 
 fication of his church, such as Wessenberg, Drey, and 
 Hirscher, are rejected, and will continue to be so. Wanker 
 and Demeter had to struggle with the greatest opposition in 
 attaining the episcopal chair. * * « 
 
 But, alas, not one bishop in all Germany has yet shown 
 sufficient Christian courage to take up the cause of humanity 
 and religion against Eomish and Jesuit intrigues. It may be, 
 that some among them think more nobly than they act ; but 
 hitherto they have kept silence, and followed submissively in 
 the wake of the Roman galley. 
 
 "What the Bishop of Treves has done for the Christian 
 church, is well known ; and we have, in Cologne, the 
 archiepiscopal coadjutor Geissel (^Anglice Scourge)^ but that 
 he has any inclination to act the scourge, in driving out the 
 buyers and sellers from Christ's temple, we have as yet seen 
 no proof ; on the contrary, he seems to act and feel in full 
 accordance with his brethren in Pontifice Romano. * * 
 He looked on, with perfect complacency, when the so-called 
 coat of Christ was set up, and quietly shared in the booty ex- 
 tracted from the deluded multitude. . Calmly, too, does he walk 
 out and in before the suppositious bodies of the three sacred 
 kings,* and unscrupulously permits the worship of the 11,000 
 virgin skulls in the church of St. Ursula, although the whole 
 civilized world knows the monstrous fable to have been 
 invented in the darkness of the middle ages.-f- He enforces 
 
 * By which are meant, the wise men of the East, to whom the 
 Catholic church has imparted regal dignity to enhance the respect of 
 the people. 
 
 f Nothing was more easy than for the priests of those days to 
 discover bodies of saints, and even to substitute bones of animals 
 for saintly reHcs ; there exists, at this moment, in the Jesuit church 
 at Venice, a bone, carefully deposited in a glass case, which is 
 asserted to have belonged to the holy giant, St. Christopher, but 
 which naturalists have recognised as the bone of a mammoth. — 
 (^Note by Theiner, p. 72.) 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 193 
 
 the observance of the papal decrees against mixed marriages, 
 promulgates the popish doctrine of the eternal damnation of 
 Protestants, and yet scruples not to accept their contribu- 
 tions in aid of the Cologne cathedral. Most likely he quiets 
 his conscience with the doctrine, that the property of all 
 heretics ought to be confiscated, and as that cannot at present 
 be accomplished by force, it is advisable to take their free 
 gift with a good grace. 
 
 " From such bishops you will allow, my brethren, it were 
 vain to expect any benefit to the church of Christ. Such can 
 only be hoped for from liberal-minded princes, who, as the 
 fathers of their subjects, must desire to rescue them from the 
 vassalage of Rome. But, as the shepherds are hirelings, the 
 princes ought to learn from the flocks themselves the weight 
 of the yoke under which they groan, and from which they 
 sigh to be delivered. ***** 
 Christ said, ' To the poor is the gospel preached,' and we are 
 assured ' the common people heard him gladly;' but the 
 priests led him forth to be crucified, and that because they 
 foresaw, that their burdensome traditions, and the idle cere- 
 monies by which they drained the wealth of the people, 
 would cease to attract votaries, if the doctrine of Jesus found 
 general acceptance. The apostles themselves call all believers 
 in Christ, ' a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, God's heri- 
 tage, the called to the adoption of God' (1 Peter ii. 9, v. 3); 
 and, though ambassadors for Christ, decided nothing but in the 
 presence of, and with the concurrent counsel of the people ; 
 a practice which was maintained throughout the apostolic 
 age. It is true, that very soon a distinct priesthood began 
 to be formed, after the model of the Jewish, but still the 
 apostolic doctrine of all Christians being * priests to God,' 
 continued to be upheld. So late as the third century, Cyprian, 
 Bishop of Carthage, wrote from his place of banishment to his 
 clergy, * I cannot singly answer your question, for, at my 
 entrance on the pastoral office, I resolved to abide by the 
 principle of never doing anything of myself, and without your 
 
 K 
 
194 THE REFORMATION 
 
 and the people's consent.'* Neither could any bishop be 
 then chosen without the approval of the congregation. By 
 degrees, however, the people were excluded from all share and 
 influence in church councils, and reduced to a mere passive 
 flock, over which the clergy ruled at pleasure. Hence grew 
 the tyranny of the hierarchy (patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, 
 &c.), which was exercised both over clergy and laity until, in 
 the twelfth century, the popes elevated themselves into sole 
 lords of the church, and made even the bishops their vassals. 
 Yet, even in times of the deepest corruption, the apostolic 
 doctrine of congregational rights was occasionally revived. 
 * * * « « 
 
 Churchmen, zealously desirous of ecclesiastical reform, openly 
 declared,f ' that since, according to the apostle's doctrine, all 
 behevers form one body, of which Christ is the head, and 
 since even common sense teaches that what concerns all 
 should be approved of and decided upon by all, the laity have 
 a just right to vote in church assemblies, and assist in the 
 reformation of the church.' And, verily, all Christians have 
 this right still. For you did Christ set up his kingdom upon 
 earth ; and as you daily pray, ' Thy kingdom come,' so it is 
 your daily duty to labour, that this kingdom may not only 
 grow in your own hearts, but that it may likewise come to , 
 your families, your acquaintances, and all mankind. * * 
 You can justly demand, further, that the pure gospel should 
 be preached to you in a language you can understand. Read 
 what Paul says on this subject in Corinthians xiv. * * 
 * * Hear, also, what the late admirable, learned, 
 
 and pious Thaddaus Antonius Dereser, formerly professor and 
 dean of Breslaw cathedral, says, in reference to this passage 
 of the apostle Paul's writings, ' We ought especially to note 
 
 * Ep. 5, p. 34. Op. ed. Veiiet. 1728. 
 
 J Compare the Gubernaculum Conciliorum, pars vi. c. 3, Von der 
 Hardt., Cons. Constant, t. vi. p. 255, etseq., given in by Andreas von 
 Escobar, bishop of Megara, to the .council of Bale, under the presi- 
 dentship of Cardinal Julianus, an. 1436.— Theiner, p. 77. 
 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 195 
 
 these words of the apostle, that edification, encouragement, 
 and consolation, are the end and aim of public worship. We 
 do not go to church to pay to God our tribute of outward 
 obeisance, as if he were a worldly monarch ; but to awaken 
 the devotional feelings of love, gratitude, and reverence, in 
 ourselves and others. We attend on the public worship of 
 God, in order to be instructed in the truths of religion, to be 
 encouraged in the paths of virtue, and consoled under the 
 trials and burdens of this life. But, if these objects are to be 
 attained, our prayers and praises must be offered in a lan- 
 guage understood by the worshippers, and every devotional 
 exercise performed with decency and order, with seriousness 
 and dignity, so that both understanding and heart may be 
 engaged and ennobled. He who returns from sacred places 
 without having obtained any increase of wisdom, consolation, 
 virtue, or happiness, has lost the hours which he spent in the 
 house of God.'* Is it proper that the priest should call out, 
 
 * The Lord be with you,' ' Lift up your hearts,' ' Let us 
 give thanks unto God, ' all in a language of which you know 
 nothing; and wind up all by quavering out the dismissal, 
 
 * Ite^ missa est (go home, all is over) ? ' Dr. Theiner proceeds, 
 in the same powerful^ straightforward style, to advert to the 
 evils and unscriptural nature of auricular confession, priestly 
 celibacy (of which he gives some fearful examples), and the 
 treasonable tendency of Rome's policy in general, and the 
 practice of the Jesuits in particular, in all countries where the 
 government, or the majority of the nation, is Protestant. We 
 must, however, turn, though reluctantly, from Dr. Theiner's 
 Reformatische Bestrehungen, having already occupied too 
 much space for our limits, and can only cordially express our 
 hope, that one so capable, so zealous, and, as it appears, so 
 scripturally instructed, may be honoured to bring back the 
 
 ♦ Dereser's Erbauungsbuch fur Katholische Christen, auf alle 
 Tage des Kirchen-Jahrs (Deutsche Brevier). Bd. 3. Augs. Rothen- 
 burg 1821, s. S^^.— Theiner's R. B,, p. 79. 
 
 K 2 
 
196 REFORMATION OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Breslaw church to Bihle principles, and a thoroughly orthodox 
 symbol. Eeport is now busy with his name, in conjunction 
 with opposition to Ronge, and we trust, that whatever may be 
 his feeling of consideration for that zealous and undeniably 
 extraordinary man, Theiner will show himself on ' the Lord's 
 side;' and, should infidelity come in like a flood, have yet 
 the Christian courage to lift up the standard of the cross 
 against it." 
 
197 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM 
 MOVEMENT, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1845 TO 
 APRIL 1846. 
 
 First German Catholic Congregation formed at Leipsic — Succeeded 
 by another at Breslaw — A third at Berlin — Meeting of the first 
 German Council at Leipsic — Its proceedings — Progress of Reform 
 in the Prussian Provinces — Answer of the King of Saxony to 
 the Romish Clergy of Leipsic — Present Aspects of the Reform 
 Movement — Example of Fanaticism at Heiligenstadt — Excommu- 
 nication of Kerbler — Diepenbrock — His Conscientiousness — Anec- 
 dote illustrative of Court Influence in Saxony — Pleasing Fea- 
 tures in the new Movement — The Jansenists — Address of the 
 Magistracy of Magdeburg to the Committee of the German 
 Catholic Church — Popularity of Rong^ — Rong^ and Czerski. 
 
 The first German Catholic congregation (after Schneidemiilil) 
 was formed at Leipsic on the 1 7tli January ; but, although 
 formed, little else was done until the 25th of February, on 
 which day public worship was regularly established, under the 
 guidance of Robert Blom; the members amounting to 157. 
 The Breslaw church is, therefore, more generally cited as being 
 the first to follow the example of throwing off the Romish 
 yoke, which it did by forming itself into a separate commu- 
 nion, on the 22nd January, 1845. Ronge received a unani- 
 mous call to become its pastor. The confession of faith, and 
 other particulars relating to the Breslaw church, have already 
 been given under a distinct head. Berlin followed in the 
 march of separation from Rome, on the 25th January, by a 
 
198 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 meeting of Catholics, for the purpose of forming a church : but 
 the confession of faith, which diflfered very little from that of 
 Breslaw, was not published until the 3rd of March, and their 
 first celebration of worship, at which Eonge and Czerski pre- 
 sided, took place on the 30th of the same month. The city 
 deputies granted them an aid of 1,000 dollars (£150) per 
 annum, for three years ; a society established expressly for the 
 purpose of assisting German Catholic congregations throughout 
 the country, voted them 500 dollars, and one hundred ladies 
 formed themselves into an association for promoting the reform 
 cause. Pastor (formerly priest) Branner, was chosen their 
 minister. Having some time previous given in his adhesion to 
 the German Catholic cause at Breslaw, he came recommended 
 to the Berlin church by the testimony of Ronge ; but his 
 election was far from being unanimous. A feeling of dissatis- 
 faction with the negative Christianity which characterised the 
 confession of faith, hitherto adopted by all German Catholic 
 congregations, except that of Schneidemiihl, had from the first 
 been felt and avowed by the more orthodox of the Berlin dissi- 
 dents, who, however, still hoped to effect some improvement 
 by private remonstrance, and especially cherished the expecta- 
 tion of obtaining a decidedly evangelical pastor in Dr. Theiner, 
 of Hundsfeld, who, although he had hitherto refrained from 
 any open demonstration, was believed to be one in heart with 
 the German Catholics. But all seemed now hopelessly frus- 
 trated by the election of Branner, who, though personally 
 unknown, was naturally identified with Rouge's views as being 
 his protege. The orthodox party, therefore, felt called upon 
 to avow their desire for a more scriptural symbol than had 
 been adopted, and published their protest, which will hereafter 
 receive due notice in its proper place. The meeting of the 
 first German council took place at Leipsic on the 25th March, 
 1845, and its proceedings were productive of great and im- 
 portant consequences. A simpler, that is, a more human and 
 less scriptural confession of faith than even those of Breslaw 
 and Berlin, was drawn up, and generally adopted. In vain 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 199 
 
 did Czerski, and others like-minded, protest and strive for the \ 
 insertion of a direct acknowledgment of the divinity of Christ, ' 
 the work of the Spirit, and the resurrection of the body. 
 Numbers, aided by the pseudo liberality of the present day, 
 which' seems to identify indifference with toleration, and seeks 
 to identify a decided expression of principle with bigotry, and 
 the disapproval of error with persecution of those who hold it, 
 carried the question against Scripture and its supporters; and 
 the minority was even prevailed on to refrain, for the present, 
 from all public protest, for fear of injuring the infant cause. 
 It was urged, and not without much plausibility, that any 
 division among them would operate in deterring the Prussian 
 government from recognizing them as a Christian sect ; and 
 that, moreover, as the Leipsic conference had but sketched 
 out a precursory and provisional confession of faith, which 
 might be discussed, enlarged or amended, at a future and 
 general church council, every church was free to add more 
 explicit articles of belief to its own individual code. These 
 counsels of expediency were listened to (I must think both 
 unhappily and unwisely), and the consequence has been, what 
 might easily have been foreseen, a hollow truce for a time, 
 followed by unavoidable and embittered division afterwards. 
 So true is it that the children of this world ever are, and ever 
 will be, wiser in their generation than the children of light ; 
 and that there is no maxim of worldly prudence half so safe 
 for the Christian, as an uncompromising, mild maintenance of 
 Bible doctrine, whether men will hear or whether they will 
 forbear. Brotherly love and unity are " lovely and of good 
 report," but there is no concord between Christ and his oppo- 
 nents ; there can be no union between a believer in his divi- 
 nity and one who denies it ; why thus attempt an impossible 
 amalgamation? To *'do good to all as we have opportunity," 
 does not invalidate the standing aloof from all brotherly com- 
 munion with such as deny " the Lord who bought us ; " and the 
 same apostle who the most expatiates on the Christian law of 
 love, prohibits our so much as " bidding God speed " to any 
 
200 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 who promulgate erroneous doctrine on the grand truths of 
 Christianity. The evil working of this early compliance will 
 be too abundantly evident as we proceed, to render any further 
 preliminary remark necessary ; and the statements which were 
 written down, " as the living moral landscape was flying 
 past," will, better than any laboured detail, convey, it is hoped, 
 a vivid picture of the reform movement of the 19th century. 
 
 March 8. The progress of the reformation in Germany, and 
 more especially in the Prussian provinces, has been strikingly 
 rapid. Not only have the apostolic Catholic churches in 
 Breslaw and Schneidemiihl, increased in numbers, the former 
 counting already six hundred members, but they have been 
 joined by many whose personal character and position in 
 society secure them against any suspicion of other than 
 conscientious motives. Czerski is, at last, notwithstanding 
 all possible chicane was put in requisition to delay or pre- 
 vent it, married, and constantly watched over by numerous 
 friends to prevent the threatened, and, as it is believed, 
 already attempted, assassination. And, although, as a last 
 resource, to intimidate his followers, if not himself, the ban 
 of excommunication has been pronounced solemnly from the 
 pulpit of the Posen cathedral, not only against Czerski, *' but 
 against all and every one who shall adopt his sentiments," 
 that once so dreaded instrument of ecclesiastical tyranny 
 seems to have lost all its power to alarm ; and this attempt 
 to excommunicate a man eight months after he had publicly 
 withdrawn from their communion, and declared his reasons 
 for doing so, appears to excite more ridicule than reverence, 
 even among Catholics. 
 
 Meanwhile, the electric spark seems to be running along a 
 connected, though unseen and unsuspected chain, producing 
 corresponding scintillations, vibrations, or alarms, according 
 as those with whom it comes in contact, rejoice in, or deprecate, 
 the new light and warmth which it elicits. Thus, not only have 
 the Roman Catholics in Berlin, Dresden, Leipsic, Brunswick, 
 Bremen, and various small places in Saxony, caught the flame. 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 201 
 
 and formed congregations of dissenters from Rome, on the 
 basis of those in Breslaw and Schneidemiihl, but even the 
 south'of Germany has been roused. And in Frankfort, Oifen- 
 bach, Elberfeld, Weisbaden, Stockarla in Baden, &c., demon- 
 strations of sympathetic feeling and conviction have been 
 made. Nor is the power of the truth, and the newly-awa- 
 kened brotherly interest for those whom, in former days, they 
 would have thought it a duty to hate, confined to kind words, 
 but manifests itself both in an avowed willingness to brave 
 with them the open violence, or the secret machinations, of an 
 enraged hierarchy, and in contributions made (as of old) by 
 the richer, to support and encourage the poorer professors of 
 the new doctrine. Thus we learn, from Schneidemiihl, that 
 the contributions which, up to the 26th ult., had arrived from 
 various quarters, amounted to upwards of 2,000 dollars ; and 
 as the Schneidemiihl congregation had itself brought together 
 about 3,500, there is no ground to fear but that the more 
 pressing wants of a place of worship, a glebe, and a school- 
 house, together with, at least, a commencing fund for the 
 pastor's stipend, will be gathered. The latter is more needful, 
 as one of the fundamental novelties of the infant reformation 
 is the abrogation of all perquisites (for burials, baptisms, 
 marriages, &c)., which have hitherto formed the chief part, not 
 only of Catholic, but of Protestant pastoral income, and are 
 felt in the Lutheran church itself, as not merely a very irk- 
 some, but most injurious arrangement, by which the pastor is 
 placed in the odious dilemma of either sacrificing a large pro- 
 portion of his lawful, and not over large income, or exacting 
 it even from the destitute (and that, too, as in the case of 
 burials, when their hearts are wrung by sorrow, and their 
 means lessened by the previous sickness), and, worse than all, 
 having his ministrations too often degraded in the opinion of 
 his flock, as being merely his mode of raising money. 
 
 The enemies of the reformation are, meanwhile, far from 
 being idle ; and, in addition to all fair means of stopping the 
 torrent, such as counter-publications, counter-associations, 
 
 K 3 
 
202 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 formation of reading societies (in which carefully selected Roman 
 Catholic books are furnished gratis), they add the institution of 
 new religious orders, such as " the order of the heart of Mary," 
 " the order of the rosary," &c., to the members of which is 
 specially committed the task of praying for the restoration of 
 apostates. Various high privileges, and promises of temporal 
 and spiritual good, are bestowed on such as distinguish them- 
 selves by success in this good work ; and the (at least) equi- 
 I vocal expedient was resorted to, of sending an ecclesiastical 
 / embassy, composed of the Roman Catholic clergy of Leipsic, 
 \ conjoined with those of Dresden, to implore the King of 
 j Saxony to employ his authority, to check the progress of this 
 inroad on the papacy. 
 
 The application to Frederick Augustus, himself a Roman 
 
 Catholic, has, to his eternal honour, put an end for ever to all 
 
 hope of assistance from him ; for he is represented to have ex- 
 
 : pressed his utmost astonishment that he, nineteen-twentieths 
 
 I of whose subjects are Protestants, should be applied to against 
 
 I them, and that, too, at a moment when their conciliatory 
 
 I conduct towards their Roman Catholic fellow-subjects was 
 
 I so grateful to his heart. " You know, moreover," said his 
 
 i majesty, " that I, as king of a constitutional state, have sworn 
 
 I to afford full freedom of conscience to the professors of every 
 
 I creed ; I, therefore, will not lay any hindrance whatever in 
 
 I the way of the present movement, but leave it to take its own 
 
 j free course ; for I neither could nor would try to turn any one 
 
 \ aside from the ritual he deemed conducive to his salvation. 
 
 This," added the king, " is my unalterable resolve;" and, 
 
 / with this unpalatable declaration, the disappointed clergy were 
 
 graciously dismissed. Their attempt and its result soon got 
 
 wind, and the noble reply of the Saxon monarch rang in notes 
 
 of joy and triumph through every street in Leipsic. 
 
 Even where the spirit of reform does not extend to the aban- 
 doning of Rome altogether, it has excited and encouraged the 
 hope of getting rid of some of her shackles ; and thus, not only 
 have several Catholic congregations applied to their bishops to 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 203 
 
 take the initiative ex officio, in throwing off the later exactions 
 and devices of Rome, but more than one Romish clergyman 
 has, through the medium of the press, manfully exhorted the 
 German bishops and higher clergy to "imitate their nobler 
 predecessors in the last century, especially Bishop Hontheim 
 and the members of the congress of Ems, and, by forming a 
 free German Catholic church, get rid at once of the Roman 
 yoke, and the dangers of a schism which now threatens not 
 only the errors but the existence of the Catholic church." 
 Such are the sentiments of Edward Duller, whose " Public 
 Letters to the German Bishops," his "Address to German 
 Catholics, whether priests or laity;" his "Address to German 
 Princes ; " but, above all, his " Jesuits as they were and are," 
 written for, and dedicated to the people of Germany, are bought 
 up almost as fast as they can be published; while the " His- 
 torical Examinations into the Pretensions of the Unseamed 
 Coat of Treves'.' (now, by the way, discovered to have a seam), 
 and twenty-four other unseamed coats, by the Bonn professors, 
 Drs. Gildemeister and Sybel, is passing through its fourth 
 edition. The king of Prussia is highly favourable to the 
 Protestant movement, and leaves all his subjects, even the 
 military, at full liberty to join the new Catholic church. Even 
 in Prague, symptoms of a revival of John Huss's sentiments 
 are beginning to appear. 
 
 It is said, about twenty priests have given in their adherence 
 to Czerski (besides those who have joined his standard in con- 
 junction with their flocks), and declared their readiness to 
 take the oversight of the new churches everywhere starting 
 up. Nor are these communities so despicable, in point of 
 number, as the Roman Catholics try to represent. The church 
 in Breslaw numbers twelve hundred members ; that of Berlin, 
 six hundred; Schneidemiihl, five hundred; Annaberg, two 
 hundred ; and eight or ten other places average four hundred 
 reformers, which, in less than six months, and with so slow 
 a people as the Germans, is wonderful. Indeed, that a very 
 great and important fermentation is now running through the 
 
204 - PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 length and breadth of the German empire, is undeniable ; that 
 much, very much, of it is not of a purely evangelical character 
 is, I fear, equally certain ; but, considering the spread of ration- 
 alism, that is, Socinianism, more or less modified, among all 
 classes, and from which Catholics are as little free as their 
 neighbours (though, so long as all outward forms were com- 
 plied with, the hierarchy winked at where they did not share 
 it), it may well consist with divine wisdom to overturn, over- 
 turn, overturn long-established spiritual tyranny, by means of 
 re-awakened human reason, and make its triumphs of *' the 
 truth as it is in Jesus." It is evident to all who bestow a 
 careful attention on the signs of the times, that the present 
 movements in Germany are two-fold, both in their source and 
 in their aim. Czerski and his party are, I believe, truly in 
 earnest for the advance of religion, and abjure Rome, because 
 the Bible bids it, although they need much increase of light as 
 a body. Czerski, it is known, is more advanced in knowledge, 
 but prudently feeds his flock with gradual additions of strong 
 meat, " as they are able to bear it." Ronge and his party 
 though actually more Protestant in their avowed creed than 
 the Schneidemiililers, have kicked against Rome, on account 
 of her presumptuous interference with the rights of man ; and 
 both will, no doubt, be overruled by God to work together, so 
 as to give a more deadly wound to the beast than it has ever 
 yet received. In Luther's days there was probably more piety, 
 but likewise much more superstition, among the bulk of those 
 who threw off the Romish yoke, than at present ; and so they 
 retained from conscience much which has fettered the progress 
 of Protestantism to this hour, and blunted the edge of their 
 weapons, when attacking Rome's unscriptural usages. Now, 
 on the contrary, the greater proportion of the dissentients have 
 long rebelled in heart against the impositions now thrown off; 
 and, although it were much more delightful to think all who 
 are now casting off Rome, were really putting on Christian 
 nstead of patriotic armour, still, I trust, God will work, and 
 (fho can "let him?" 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 205 
 
 April 15. It is difficult to determine whether the numerous 
 additional defections from Rome which have occurred during 
 the last month, or the indignation and phrenitic attempts to stem 
 the torrent of public opinion which they have excited, speak 
 loudest for the growing importance of the reformation move- 
 ment in Germany. Among the former may he reckoned, not 
 merely accessions of individuals, hut of congregations, which 
 have sprung up with an astonishing and almost simultaneous 
 energy ; among the latter, not only various hostile publica- 
 tions, both in prose and verse (written, it must be owned, 
 with more gall than logic), but the more serious hierarchal 
 demonstrations in the shape of suspensions, degradations, and 
 threatened, or really executed, excommunications ; in some 
 places, too, by vi et armis arguments of violent intrusion into 
 the assemblies of the peaceable reformers by enraged fanatics, 
 and by attacks made upon such as advocate the new move- 
 ment, in the streets. In Berlin and Elberfeld, the unmea- 
 sured animosity of the Roman Catholic party, fanned, no 
 doubt, by secret instigation, broke out in attempts to dis- 
 turb, and, if possible, so to excite, by insult and interruption, 
 the assembled dissenters, as to produce a breach of the peace, 
 and thereby the wished-for prevention, by the police, of a 
 repetition of such meetings. Happily, wisdom and Christian 
 principle were sufficiently predominant among the reformers 
 to frustrate the serpent scheme ; and, although some inter- 
 ruption was endured, the moderation of those present, and the 
 precaution afterwards adopted, of providing the members with 
 admission cards, have prevented a repetition of such outrages, 
 which, moreover, the public voice has very freely stigmatised 
 as evincing weakness as well as wickedness. But, on the 26th 
 of March, a singular and disgraceful example of fanaticism 
 occurred in the town of Heiligenstadt, where, from ten in the 
 morning till five in the afternoon, many hundreds of the inha- 
 bitants surrounded, in a tumultuous manner, the house of a 
 respectable citizen, named Francis Bernard Maring, breaking 
 his windows, and hurling the most ferocious threats of death 
 
206 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 and destruction against him, whose only offence was having 
 some days previously given public notice, in the " District 
 Advertiser," that "he was ready to give information to any 
 desirous of obtaining it, respecting the recent timely and truly 
 Christian reform of the Roman Catholic religion." The police 
 of the Catholic magistracy remained wholly passive through- 
 out, and had not the resident sheriff of the district been 
 of a different mind, and interfered energetically, with the aid 
 of the gens d'armerie, to convey Mr. Maring to a place of 
 safety, the most frightful excesses had, doubtless, taken 
 place. It turns out, that the immediate impulse to this 
 illegal tumult was given by sermons preached on Easter 
 Sunday and Monday by Chaplain Hiibenthal and Pastor Zehrl, 
 in which, while urging the maintenance of the true faith, the 
 occasional necessity of shedding blood is said to have been 
 adverted to : but there are cogent reasons for thinking the 
 Jesuits are at the bottom of this Protestant hatred ; a Jesuit 
 father having spent many weeks in Heiligenstadt, last year, 
 when he held secret conferences with all the parochial clergy 
 of the vicinity, who attended him in succession for the pur- 
 pose. The " Magdeburg Journal," from which this statement 
 is copied, adds, " It would be well if the supreme government 
 (the Prussian) were induced, by this shameM occurrence, to 
 take measures for the protection of the Protestants (much 
 in the minority in Heiligenstadt, and there, and there only, 
 openly termed heretics), and it would probably be found that 
 a military garrison is quite as necessary now as it was thought 
 to be in 1814, for the same purpose." 
 
 In addition to Ronge and Czerski, the German Catholic 
 church has obtained a new clerical confessor ; and, as far as 
 suspension, degradation, and excommunication, can make him 
 so, a martyr, in the person of Carl Kerbler, late chaplain in 
 the Breslaw diocese ;, who, having definitively ranged himself 
 on the side of the reformers, by uniting with them in public 
 worship, and assisting Ronge in his clerical duties, has been 
 honoured by a fulminating denunciation from the consecrating 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 207 
 
 bishop and chapter, vicar Latusseck, similar to that so inno- 
 cuously launched some months since at Konge. It appears 
 that, in giving in his formal resignation to the vicar, Kerbler 
 had made use of expressions which drew from the offended 
 ecclesiastic the following reproof: "You declare that you cast 
 off the Roman hierarchy, by which you can mean no other 
 than the holy. Catholic, apostolic, and, hitherto, your own 
 mother church ; and that you henceforth belong to the 
 Catholic Christian church, by which you can only mean a 
 sect to which you falsely and presumptuously give that 
 name ;" after which the document proceeds, in the usual 
 form, to pronounce Kerbler suspended, degraded, and to be 
 excommunicated, if he do not within eight days repent, 
 recant, and return to the bosom of his mother church. 
 Such return not having occurred, the full weight of ecclesi- 
 astical punishment which the nineteenth century permits, 
 has fallen upon him. Carl Kerbler, from this moment 
 stamped a man of note, was born September the 6th, 
 1815 ; pursued his scientific and theological studies in the 
 gymnasium and university of Breslaw, until 1838; when, 
 having been consecrated as priest, he successively supplied 
 the chaplaincies of Baitzen, Steinem, and Lindenan. In this 
 last, his, with himself, long-debated resolution to separate 
 from the church of Rome, was finally formed ; and that this 
 important step was not taken without due consideration, is evi- 
 denced by his " Treatise on Diocesan Synods," which appeared 
 a considerable time previously in the public journals, under 
 the signature of " A Catholic Priest." It is said that Kerbler 
 intends shortly to publish his " Justification," after the ex- 
 ample of Ronge and Czerski. Curate Eickhorm has likewise 
 given up his situation as Roman Catholic priest, and joined 
 the church under Ronge. He was driven to this step by being 
 taken to task for attending the meetings of the Reformers ; 
 and, although he might probably have lingered some time 
 longer in his old communion, the inquisitorial pertinacity of 
 his spiritual superiors hastened his decision, as it has done 
 
208 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 that of many others. In how far the generally blamed severity 
 and hierarchal lordliness* with which the Eoman Catholic 
 cause is upheld in the Breslaw diocese, will receive any modi- 
 fication under its new prince-bishop, the vicar-general Melchior 
 de Diepenbrock, will now shortly be proved, as, to the great 
 joy of all moderate Roman Catholics, he has at last, and only 
 yielding to the paternal remonstrances and reinforced com- 
 mands of the pope, consented to accept a post involving too 
 much of dignity and wealth to be rejected by minds of 
 ordinary calibre. But Diepenbrock is no ordinary man ; and 
 being not only fully aware of the critical position in 
 which the violence of others has placed the diocese, but 
 personally averse to exercising severity, and yet being too 
 conscientious to shrink from whatever duty may impose on 
 him, he gave at first a decided refusal to the proposed honour. 
 As he is likely to play no unconspicuous part in the future 
 history of the new reformation in Silesia and the adjoining 
 provinces, a - slight sketch of his career hitherto may not be 
 unacceptable. Born in the circle of Munster, Diepenbrock 
 served with distinction as an officer in the Westphalian militia 
 (Landwehr) during the war of liberation, and, on the peace 
 which followed the decisive campaigns of 1813 — 14, devoted 
 himself to the clerical profession ; and, in prosecution of his 
 views, placed himself under the special guidance of the 
 celebrated Michael Ignatius Sailer, then consecrating bishop 
 and administrator 'of the diocese of Ratisbon, who soon 
 conceived a warm friendship for young Diepenbrock, and 
 
 * In confirmation and illustration of this ecclesiastical tyranny, 
 reference may be made to a just published work (from which I shall 
 probably have occasion to make some extracts at a future day), by 
 Dr. L. C. Movers, professor in the university of Breslaw, whose un- 
 questioned statements, and the startling facts he adduces in proof of 
 the systematic plan pursued by the hierarchy, to retain the inferior 
 clergy in the most degrading vassalage, and their flocks in spiritual 
 nonage, excite much attention at present among persons of all con- 
 fessions, as throwing much light on the rise as well as rapid progress 
 of the Ronge movement. 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 209 
 
 entrasted him witli his official correspondence, afterwards 
 promoting him successively to the dignities of prehendary and 
 of spiritual counsellor ; while, by Bishop Sailer's successor, 
 the estimable de Schwahl, he was elevated to the rank of 
 cathedral-dean, and vicar- general. The guiding principle of 
 the Sailerian school was known to be, '' faithful adherence to 
 their own confession, with love to all who call upon the name 
 of the Lord Jesus." Such sentiments could not fail to be 
 unpalatable to the bigots who identified salvation with the 
 most extravagant opposition to all who " followed not with 
 them;" and it is well known that the consequent discordance 
 clouded the last moments of the amiable Bishop de Schwahl, 
 while his chief counsellor, de Diepenbrock, naturally came 
 in for his full share of the blame. The diocese of Breslaw 
 requires at this moment an energetic leader, whose superiority 
 of mind, refined education, extensive knowledge, and deter- 
 mination of character, may Command the respect of all parties, 
 and whose clear judgment can discriminate, while his tact can 
 avail itself of each nuance in the chaos of opinions : truly, 
 a course of conduct easier to prescribe than to follow ; and 
 that the full difficulty of the position was felt by the prince- 
 bishop elect, is clearly evidenced by the following extract of a 
 letter, written by him, February 2, to an intimate friend and 
 former brother in arms, in reply to congratulations on his 
 flattering appointment : — " My nomination to the Breslaw 
 bishopric has occasioned me many days of severe inward 
 conflict ; for, though refusal of the intended honour was, from 
 the first moment, in my heart and on my lips, my resolve 
 was combated so powerfully and so speciously by friends far 
 and near, that I knew not how to make head against them. 
 I have, at last, like a good trooper, when driven to extremity, 
 leaped the square, that is to say, I have cut the gordian-knot, 
 by yesterday dispatching my final refusal. It is very possible 
 that my decision may excite both surprise and displeasure, 
 but that moves me little. I have acted according to my con- . 
 science, and woe to him who should disobey that bosom judge | 
 
210 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 in so important a transaction — a transaction involving his 
 whole life, here and hereafter. To many, doubtless, it will 
 appear wondrous strange that any man should, by one mono- 
 syllable, deprive himself of a mitre, a prince's coronet, and a 
 revenue of 20,000 ducats, when all was his at the cost of 
 another monosyllable. But such persons have yet to learn 
 that true happiness is not the reward of lofty pretensions, but 
 of self-denial."* That such a man should be selected to fill 
 a post of difficulty in delicate conjunctures, does honour to 
 the discrimination ^of the Koman college. That, with such 
 sentiments, he should yet consent to occupy it, is no small 
 evidence of devotedness to what he esteems duty ; and that he 
 may find opportunity to confer such benefits on those com- 
 mitted to his care, as shall indemnify him for the sacrifice of 
 all his private feelings, must be the wish of every admirer of 
 a high-hearted, though mistaken resolve. 
 
 The increase of the reform movement seems, however, to 
 have so far exceeded the anticipations of the Romanists, as to 
 produce a kind of wavering in the magnanimous forbearance 
 of more than one royal court, which appear to have first be- 
 lieved themselves safe in displaying liberality towards a hand- 
 ful of wrong-headed men, whose career would soon be run. 
 Hence, though I was able to state in my last, the noble answer 
 of the king of Saxony, to the Romish clergy, who applied for 
 restraining measures against the followers of Ronge, I regret 
 now to say, that the absence of punishment is all the favour 
 of which the reformers in Dresden can boast, permission to 
 assemble for public worship being denied them, with an inti- 
 mation that toleration, not recognition, must content them, as 
 the upholding of the Roman Catholic rights precludes the 
 granting more. This, from the Catholic ministers of a Catho- 
 lic king in a Protestant country, is sufficiently intolerant ; 
 but when we remember that his spiritual advisers are Jesuits, 
 
 * The letter was written in French, and the phrase ran thus : 
 *' Le vrai bonheur ne s'achete pas a Venchere mais au rabais ! " 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 211 
 
 and that he is himself regarded as a zealous proselyte-maker, 
 our surprise will cease ; and we can only hope, that the an- 
 nounced resolution of the new sect to appeal against this 
 ministerial decision to the house of representatives, will pro- 
 cure them a legalised existence. In proof of the extent of the 
 Saxon court influence, I may relate an anecdote, the truth of 
 which I think I can safely warrant. A physician, hy birth a 
 Saxon, and of a Protestant family, hut who had long been 
 established in Berlin, went last summer to Dresden on a visit 
 to his relations, whom, to his astonishment, he found almost 
 all become Roman Catholics, and so zealous in the display of 
 their new creed, that his heretical presence was everywhere 
 treated as polluting, and his arrival and departure gave occa- 
 sion to a plentiful sprinkling of holy water in most of the 
 houses in which he visited. Shocked, as well as mortified, 
 he made inquiry into the means by which this change of sen- 
 timent had been effected, and learned that court favour was 
 only surely attainable by one road — abjuration of Protes- 
 tantism : this intelligence, and the fact that several of his rela- 
 tions had recently been appointed to situations in the royal 
 household, threw mutual light on each other. Alike grieved 
 and indignant, the physician hastened his return home, but 
 actually fell sick, from chagrin, on his way to Berlin, at the 
 house of a friend, from whom I had this relation. 
 
 Bavaria has long been known as the nest and nursery of 
 Jesuitism ; and its monarch, despite his desire to figure among 
 the liberals and illuminati, is, nevertheless, a most determined 
 protector of the order, and a zealous upholder of the papacy. 
 This spirit, fostered, no doubt, by Jesuit counsels, has lately 
 produced acts of real oppression towards his Protestant sub- 
 jects. One mode is, by removing such clergymen as have 
 disthiguished themselves by courageous remonstrance against 
 the compulsory kneehng of the Protestant soldiery when the 
 host is carried in procession, and against other oppressive in- 
 fringements of liberty of conscience, from their large spheres 
 of usefulness into obscure corners. This is exemplified in the 
 
212 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 case of Dr. Harless, theological professor at the university of 
 Erlangen, who has just been, by royal interference, deprived 
 of his academical chair, and transferred in the character of 
 synodical counsellor (consistorial rath) to the petty town of 
 Baireuth, thus depriving Erlangen, which is the chief seat of 
 Protestantism in Bavaria, of its guiding star. Another and still 
 more arbitrary proceeding is, prohibiting the poorer Protestant 
 churches from receiving assistance from the Gustavus Adol- 
 phus association, lately instituted for the very purpose of 
 helping the less opulent congregations of Protestants through- 
 out Germany ; although it is well known that several such, in 
 the kingdom of Bavaria, are absolutely unable, through poverty, 
 to compass the support of the preached gospel among them. 
 The Bavarian monarch has, likewise, recently given another 
 proof of his predilections, by ordering the erection of a seminary 
 at Altotting, for the reception of pupils from every part of 
 Germany, under the guidance of the Eedemptorists, which is 
 well known to be only another name for the disciples of 
 Loyola. But, whether the kings and great ones of the earth 
 conspire to further or to repress the progress of divine truth, 
 it is our comfort to know, that the King of kings hath guaranteed 
 its spread, and, sooner or later. He will bring it to pass. 
 
 Meantime, we may take a rapid glance at what may be 
 called the " march of disruption" from the Roman hierarchy. 
 We shall, however, have afterwards occasion to notice, that 
 though united as one great and daily increasing army, in 
 attacking Eome, it still seems, for the present, inclined to 
 maintain a kind of allied clanship under different leaders ; 
 which, although as yet, the all-absorbing enthusiasm secures 
 concord in the main, and an agreement to differ in minor 
 points, may hereafter be productive of division and consequent 
 weakness. But, whatever fears human fallibility and human 
 passions may justify, there are two features in the reforma- 
 tion movement on which we can dwell with undivided pleasure 
 — the adoption, by all parties, of the Bible, as the rule and 
 umpire in all that relates to faith and morals, and the earnest 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 213 
 
 desire, which has heen far and wide excited, to obtain Bibles, 
 and thus see and judge for themselves, in how far the allega- 
 tions against Eome are founded on, and separation from her 
 communion justified by, the authority of Scripture. Pastor 
 Czerski has already applied to Berlin for a supply of Bibles 
 for his people, and for them the Lutheran Bible will suffice ; 
 but hundreds, perhaps I may say thousands, of as yet un- 
 convinced Eoman Catholics, are equally desirous of examin- 
 ing God's word, and when the Lutheran Bible is handed to 
 them, they feel no confidence in its genuineness ; they have 
 been used to hear it denounced by their priests as adulterated 
 and heretical, and they cannot bring themselves to read what 
 they fear may contain absolute error under the name of truth. 
 What a blessed gift to these hungering souls would Bibles be, 
 which have received the approbation of the Eoman Catholic 
 church ! 
 
 In Breslaw, Schneidemiihl, and Leipsic, the Catholic Apos- 
 tolic churches are already organized, and the last remnant of 
 their adherence to Eome annulled, by the new pastors exer- 
 cising the pastoral functions of baptizing and dispensing the 
 Lord's supper in both kinds. The formation of the Breslaw 
 congregation into a church, and the instalment of Eonge as 
 its pastor, in which Czerski took a brotherly part, took place 
 on the 9th of March ; the services appeared deeply to impress 
 a crowded and attentive auditory. Those who have as yet 
 exercised the peculiar duties of the pastorate, as Eonge, 
 Czerski, Kerbler, Eichhorn, and some others, are all ordained 
 priests, and there are too many candidates of the same class 
 seeking admission into the German Catholic church, to leave 
 room for anxiety as to how the wants of the already-formed 
 congregations shall be met ; but even should the wide-spread- 
 ing contagion of reform happily include an ordained priest in 
 every place where it gains a congregation, the question has still 
 been deemed worthy discussion, how episcopal ordination (and 
 many still cling to its traditional necessity) shall hereafter be 
 obtained ; and they have turned their eyes towards the Jan- 
 
214 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 senite bishops in Flanders, as a source where such a spiritual 
 desideratum might be sought. Perhaps it may be here not 
 out of place to remind some readers, that the Jansenists derive 
 their name from the (in his day) much celebrated Cornelius 
 Jansen, bishop of Ypres in the Netherlands (obiit 1638), 
 whose work, entitled " Augustinus," in which the Augustine 
 doctrine of " free grace" was advocated as truly orthodox, 
 having been condemned at the instigation of the Jesuits, and 
 prohibited by a bull of Urban VIII. in 1643, which thence 
 obtained the name of the Jansenist controversy, and in which, 
 from the year 1661, Louis XIV. saw fit to mingle. Repeat- 
 edly condemned by papal bulls, and persecuted by govern- 
 ment, Jansenism ceased to be openly professed in France in 
 1730, although its pure morality and consistent scriptural 
 doctrine secured it many secret approvers among the more 
 pious of the clergy, who, by the readiness with which, at the 
 revolution, they took the oath to the constitution, proved they 
 would sooner give up the pope than their principles. But, in 
 the Netherlands alone, there continued to exist an avowed and 
 openly recognised Jansenist establishment which, in conformity 
 with the resolutions passed in the Jansenist synod at Utrecht 
 in 1763, does not cut itself off from the Roman Catholic 
 church, nor refuse to acknowledge the spiritual supremacy of 
 the pope, but denies his infallibility, and, rejecting the bull 
 "Unigenitus" (by which the Jansenists were, in 1713, con- 
 demned, and many of them driven to seek shelter in the 
 Netherlands) ; and, constantly appealing to the decisions of a 
 general council, they hold fast the doctrine and strict morals 
 of the Augustine school, maintaining the spiritual worship of 
 God to be the truest index of piety. The Jansenists (who 
 prefer the appellation of disciples of St. Augustine) have, ever 
 since the year 1723, possessed an archbishop in Utrecht; 
 bishops in Haarlem and Deventer, and a clergy who, submit- 
 ting themselves to the laws, and relinquishing all pretensions 
 to external power or wealth, devote their whole energies to the 
 fulfilment of their duties, and to the maintenance of a well- 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 215 
 
 organized ecclesiastical constitution, whose legal existence and 
 permanence, constantly declared apostate and schismatic by 
 the pope, they owe entirely to the protection of a Protestant 
 government. 
 
 Whether this appeal to the Jansenists will actually be made, 
 and, if made, with what result, remains yet to be seen ; 
 meanwhile, the almost universally-expressed wish, by the new 
 reformers, for summoning a German ecclesiastical council, to 
 deliberate on the minor points, whether of doctrine or disci- 
 pline, in the nascent German Catholic church, has given rise 
 to a preliminary conference, which met at Leipsic (as, taken 
 all in all, the most central point in the reformation movement) 
 on the 24th of March, and was attended by deputies from 
 the cities of Annaberg, Berlin, Brunswick, Breslaw, Chem- 
 nitz, Dresden, Elberfeld, Hildesheim, Magdeburg, and Offen- 
 bach. Merseburg, Oschatz, Dahlen, Zscheppan, Peniz, Nanen, 
 and Leignitz, spoke by proxy ; Worms and Weisbaden, sent 
 letters ; while Wismar, Marienburgh, and Oppeln, intimated 
 to the meeting their being on the eve of forming sister 
 churches ; to which may be added, Landshut, Freistadt, 
 Schweidnitz, and Schlawenztitz, as well as Gorlitz, in the 
 province of Silesia. Pastor Kerbler was present, but Ronge, 
 whose constancy and strength of mind seem likely to be 
 severely tested by the enthusiastic veneration with which, as 
 " apostle of the reformation," he is everywhere greeted, was 
 prevented attending by other engagements. The meeting 
 was professedly only a preliminary one ; the deputies delivered 
 their credentials and sentiments, and several read addresses 
 from their respective committees. When the Magdeburg dele- 
 gate read the cordial address which its magistracy had sent to 
 the Catholic Apostolic converts in that city, every eye beamed 
 with pleasure, and loud congratulations bore witness to the 
 deep and joyful interest it excited. The address, which is 
 entitled, " From the Magistracy of the City of Magdeburg to 
 the Committee of the German Catholic Church here consti- 
 tuted," is dated 18th March, 1845, and runs as follows : — 
 
216 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 " With joyful surprise did we hail the first traces of your 
 sharing in a movement springing from free and truly German 
 feelings. We have, with an ever-heightened interest, watched 
 its progressive development and increase ; and now regard 
 the futurity, which opens before you, with the liveliest and 
 best-founded hopes. Our ancestors were once overwhelmed 
 by an awful calamity which, struggling for spiritual freedom 
 themselves, and the deliverance of the German nation from 
 hierarchal tyranny, was a calamity, of which the very recital, 
 after the lapse of two centuries, makes every ear to tingle ; but 
 the spirit of those brave ancestors still lives in their children, 
 though, thanks to the milder temper of our times, they seek, 
 but to promulgate words of peace by peaceful means. 
 
 " Our country looks with eyes of eager expectation to the 
 resolutions which the Leipsic conference will adopt in the 
 approaching Easter week ; and trusts, above all, to see 
 unanimity, and a foundation, at least, laid of ecclesiastical 
 organization. So soon as that is accomplished, it will be 
 easy to meet the ecclesiastical wants of the congregation in 
 this city ; and we but await that moment, to prove our good- 
 will is not limited by wishes of prosperity, but that we will 
 gladly afford our hearty co-operation to support a cause 
 which shall have thus received the stamp of durability. You 
 may confidently reckon on aid from the city funds, in bearing 
 the necessary expenses of your worship. 
 
 (Signed) " Franke, Chief Magistrate, 
 
 " Bore, ^ 
 
 " Fabricius, 
 
 " gustavus, 
 
 " ScHULZE, City Deputies:' 
 
 " LiPPELL, 
 
 " Heyne, 
 
 " Helms, 
 
 Professor Wigard, from Dresden, and the delegate from 
 Brunswick, gave short addresses ; and, after separating for a 
 short time, the meeting again assembled for business at five 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 217 
 
 o'clock, P.M. Professor Wigard, being chosen chairman, 
 introduced the object of their meeting in a few words ; after 
 which, Kerbler addressed the assembly in Ronge's name, and 
 ended with prayer. The meeting lasted till half-past eight 
 o'clock, during which various subjects were discussed and 
 decided upon, v/hich were voted to be printed. Several meet- 
 ings for divine worship and conference took place on the 
 succeeding days ; when, among other things, a new catechism 
 and hymn-book were decided on as being requisite, and com- 
 mittees appointed to carry out the resolves. 
 
 The list of places given above (many of them of no small 
 importance), where German Catholic churches have been, or 
 are, on the point of being formed, must of itseK prove the 
 immense progress the cause has already made ; and, when it 
 is added, that in some of the larger towns, fifty to ninety 
 members occasionally come forward in one day to have their 
 names enrolled, some estimate may be formed of the conster- 
 nation which has been produced in the enemy's camp. But, 
 if alarmed, they are not in any way discouraged, or led to 
 relax their eiforts for maintaining, and possibly retrieving, 
 their threatened empire. In proof of their activity, I may 
 state as a fact, that in a city of considerable importance, in 
 the north of Germany, the Roman Catholi-c priest (a Jesuit) 
 had received from his superior, and distributed among his 
 flock, antidotal publications against the poison of Ronge's 
 heresy, before any of the heretical writings had reached the 
 city. Verily we may say of the Jesuits, " they are in their 
 generation wiser than the children of light ;" and their 
 unwearied perseverance and unshrinking sacrifices in ad- 
 vancing Satan's kingdom, may well put us to shame, who are so 
 apt to lose heart when we meet with obstacles in promoting 
 the cause of Messiah. 
 
 I have already alluded to the enthusiasm with which Ronge 
 is personally greeted ; a new instance of it, on a large scale, 
 occurred in his recent visit to Berlin, when Czerski, however, 
 shared in the public expressions of respect and sympathy. 
 
218 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 Though several meetings of the German Catholics had been 
 held for divine service in that city, the first which could 
 properly be termed a public assembly of their church, took 
 place on the 30th of March, in the large lecture-room of the 
 city gymnasium, which hai been kindly granted for the pur- 
 pose, and at this Czerski and Ronge presided. The former 
 appeared in his many-coloured embroidered priestly vestment, 
 the latter in a black gown. Above 150 persons received 
 from their hands the elements of the Lord's supper (the one 
 dispensing the bread, and the other the wine), and more than 
 an equal number were forced to resign themselves to delay 
 communicating until another occasion. After divine service, 
 six children were baptised. When Ronge, at the termination 
 of the service, left the hall to return to the carriage which 
 was waiting for him, the countless multitude of men and 
 women which had assembled in the court -yard of the 
 gymnasium, formed themselves into serried ranks on each 
 side his path, and greeted him with silent respect ; but, as 
 soon as he reached the street, the carriage was surrounded by 
 eager crowds, and a thousand-voiced huzzah arose in honour 
 of the fearless priest, who, with uncovered head and profound 
 bows, acknowledged the joyful greetings of a multitude which 
 hemmed his course, and compelled a slow return. No notice 
 is taken, in any account I have seen, of Czerski having re- 
 ceived any particular honour in leaving the place of worship, 
 nor, indeed, in what manner he left it ; most probably, with 
 his accustomed retiring unobtrusiveness, he remained in the 
 disrobing-room till the crowd had dispersed, and then quietly 
 made his way to his lodgings. All who have seen this modest, 
 and, I really believe, truly Christian man, whether at home 
 amid his flock, or in more public scenes, speak with respectful 
 esteem of the simplicity with which he pursues the quiet 
 tenour of his way, and the cordiality, mingled with clerical 
 gravity, of his manners. There followed a public dinner in 
 honour of both clergymen, and some delegates from sister 
 churches, then present in Berlin, on their way back from the 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 219 
 
 Leipsic conference. In the evening,* another entertainment 
 was given; at which, however, Ronge alone enjoyed the 
 honour, as Czerski excused himself on the ground of having 
 promised his return to his congregation at Schneidemiihl 
 against a certain day, which necessitated him to resist the 
 urgent entreaties of his many friends and admirers, and to 
 leave Berlin the same evening. But, while Czerski's de- 
 meanour is lauded as a happy mixture of firmness, humility, 
 and strict clerical decorum, it would be highly unjust to 
 Ronge, were the very slightest aspersion understood as being 
 thrown by this distinction upon liis moral conduct, which, 
 indeed, has never been ventured on by his bitterest opponents ; 
 but his whole conduct, and even his professed principles, 
 indicate a lower grade of spirituality — a more worldly 
 enlightenment — than those of Czerski. I cannot but repeat 
 the opinion expressed in my last, and which every inquiry 
 and occurrence confirms, that there are now two elements at 
 work in producing a separation from Rome — a patriotic and 
 a religious. Were it not for the desire for Bibles, and my 
 conviction that the Almighty will not suffer " His word to 
 return to him void," I should be inclined to fear that the 
 prepondrance of numbers would prove on the side of the 
 former. Nor is this, alas, a new thing under the sun. Where 
 was there ever a field sown with good seed in which the 
 enemy did not sow tares ? And how difficult is it often to 
 discriminate between them while in the blade ! Both must 
 grow together till the harvest; and, though we can neither 
 prevent their being sown, nor impede the growth of weeds, by 
 any human power, we can and should pray the Lord of the 
 harvest to hasten the time when " every plant which his 
 heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up," and 
 nothing remain to hurt or destroy in all God's holy mountain. 
 
 * The early habits of the Germans must not be forgotten, in re- 
 lation to these entertainments. Doubtless the dinner was at two, the 
 evening party at seven ; indeed, it is noticed that Rong€ retired at 
 ten o'clock. 
 
 L 2 
 
220 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM 
 MOVEMENT, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1845 TO 
 
 APRIL, 1846 (continued). 
 
 The New German Catholic Church and the Jesuits — Probable Oppo- 
 sition to the New Church by several Continental Powers —Pro- 
 gress of the New Movement— Quotation from the Address of a 
 Silesian Lady — Labours of Rongfe and Czerski — Czerski's Minis- 
 trations — Dr. Schreiber — Licht — His Letter on leaving the 
 Romish Church — Opinion of the German Catholics at Breslaw 
 on Episcopal Ordination — Persecution. 
 
 May 10. The proceedings of Czerski and Eonge during 
 their stay in Berlin, conjoined with the general enthusiasm 
 their presence excited, and the vast concourse of hearers who, 
 partly from real interest in the cause, and partly, no doubt, 
 from curiosity, filled almost to suffocation the large hall in the 
 Grey-friars' convent (which had been granted to their use by 
 the city magistracy), have, as in all similar cases, operated 
 both for and against them. In the eyes of those who are 
 fond of following the multitude, the reformation movement has 
 acquired new importance; and many timid approvers have 
 undoubtedly been encouraged, by such public demonstrations, 
 to come forward with less reserve ; but " envy, hatred, and 
 all uncharitableness," have likewise been engendered, and 
 that not only in Roman Catholic, but, alas, also in Protestant 
 
PROGRESS OF THE REFORM MOVEMENT. 221 
 
 bosoms, by what tbey consider, perhaps not quite unjustly, a 
 prepostrously high estimate of Ronge's merit (for even here 
 Czerski's retiring character rescues him from the strife as 
 well as from the praise of tongues) ; and more than one 
 public journal has raised not only a warning, but a disparag- 
 ing voice, against the indiscreet zeal of his admirers. But 
 this, Eonge may, and probably does, regard with indiflPerence, 
 except in so far as he may suspect it of being the latent cause 
 of another and much more serious subject of anxiety to him, 
 and to every well-wisher of the new reformation; the un- 
 looked-for hesitation, if not reluctance, of the Prussian govern- 
 ment to recognise the new sect as an ecclesiastical body, 
 though without such recognition, some ecclesiastical acts 
 (marriage for instance), which involve legal rights, are invalid. 
 More than one marriage has already been solemnized (one at 
 Breslaw, and another at Berlin, by Ronge ; and at least one 
 at Schneidemiihl, by Czerski) ; and should, therefore, the 
 recognition of the German Catholic church by the state be 
 refused, or even long delayed, most disastrous consequences, 
 involving the successional rights and legal existence of unborn 
 generations, may be produced, besides operating as a real, 
 though unavowed persecution of the new opinions, and render- 
 ing the position of the already declared reformers one of 
 peculiar and helpless hardship. The Roman Catholic clergy 
 will not marry them until they abjure their heresy ; and if 
 the German Catholic pastors may not marry them, they are 
 reduced to the alternative of celibacy or concubinage. 
 
 There is no doubt entertained of the individual sympathy of 
 the Prussian monarch towards all that is liberal, as well as all 
 that is Protestant ; but his position is one of peculiar delicacy, 
 as well as difficulty, through his domestic relations ; the queen, 
 whose deep and unaffected piety all acknowledge, being, 
 though herself a Protestant, connected by the nearest ties of 
 blood with the most zealous Catholic royal families in Europe. 
 Sister to the reigning king of Bavaria and the queen of 
 Saxony, she is likewise aunt to the present empress of 
 
222 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 Austria, whose imperial consort, it is asserted, personally 
 irritated against the German Catholics, has determined on 
 subjecting them to a persecution equally minute and extensive, 
 wherever his power or influence can reach. Now, it is well 
 known that the emperor is a man of very weak intellect, but 
 of strong piety ; and what better materials could a Jesuit con- 
 fessor wish for, in order to work the ruin of an antagonist 
 faction ? 
 
 The courts of Vienna and Bavaria have, it is said, already 
 given in notes of strong remonstrance to the Prussian 
 government against any favour being extended to the new 
 reformers ; and, by all accounts, the minister, whose special 
 province it is to decide on matters of ecclesiastical polity (der 
 cultus minister )i is far from being an impartial judge, inas- 
 much as he is decidedly hostile to every species of dissent. 
 In reference to this subject, the following extract from the 
 " Silesian News" of the 14th of April, will be read with 
 interest: — "The 'Algemeine Zeitung,' lately published, 
 under the title of ' Letters from Rome,' a statement regard- 
 ing the negociations of France and Austria with the papal 
 court, on the Jesuit question, alluding especially to the fact, 
 that France had condescended to treat directly with the Jesuit 
 general on the subject; and, although it is whispered that 
 confidential propositions made by the pope to the Austrian 
 cabinet, for the public restoration of the Jesuit establishments 
 within the precincts of the Austrian empire, have not, for the 
 present, met the favourable reception which was expected, 
 still the holy father is far from relinquishing, though obliged 
 to postpone, the execution of the scheme. It was, it seems, 
 strongly urged at Vienna, that Jesuit institutions are highly 
 requisite to counteract the efforts of the Protestant propaganda 
 in Bohemia, and more especially since the late rebellion in 
 the Roman Catholic camp has revealed at once * the naked- 
 ness of the land,' and the impotence of the usual barriers to 
 check the enemy's inroads. The French government, to which 
 the Jesuits had formerly done good service, has become 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 223 
 
 estranged from them, by discovering that they had intrigued 
 in favour of the deposed dynasty ; applying to that purpose 
 the very considerable legacy left at their disposal by Monsieur 
 de Blacas, who, as is well known, made the Duke de Bordeaux 
 his sole heir, on condition of paying a yearly sum to the 
 Jesuit general (who, doubtless, had received instructions as 
 to its disposal from the testator) ; but this, at first, purely 
 financial correspondence, led afterwards, it seems, to a regular 
 intercourse, which neither escaped the observation, nor failed 
 to excite the just suspicions, of the French government. The 
 king and all his family are disinclined towards the Jesuits, 
 with the exception of the queen, who not only supports them 
 with all her influence, but applies a large portion of her 
 private income in promoting the re-establishment, in France, 
 of the order, which enjoys also the zealous patronage of a still 
 more distinguished royal lady (the phrase is somewhat am- 
 biguous), the Queen Dowager of Spain, through whose influence, 
 report says, two remarkable official documents will shortly be 
 made public, by which the re-founding of the order of Jesus, 
 and thereby an ecclesiastical restoration worthy of the ancient 
 glory of Spain, will be effected. To these exalted supporters 
 of the Jesuit cause, in the south of Europe, must be added a 
 third royal patron, the king of Sardinia, who is reported to 
 have expressed himself to a representative of one of the great 
 European powers in the following very candid and unmistake- 
 able terms: ' I have,' said the Sardinian monarch, ' convinced 
 myself, that the Jesuits, and they only, are capable of making 
 head against the revolutionists ; and, as I am resolved to stake 
 my last dollar, and my last subject, in repressing the revolu- 
 tionary tendency, it follows, as a matter of course, that I will 
 give the Jesuits full play in my dominions ; and I will, more- 
 over, use my utmost efforts to induce every Catholic sovereign 
 in Europe to share my sentiments.' 'I, some time since,' con- 
 tinues the Italian correspondent of the ' Algemeine Zeitung,' 
 ' informed you of the presentation of a memorial from Eome 
 to Munich, in which the German Catholic movement is repre- 
 
224 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 sented as being connected with, if not originating in, revolu- 
 tionary principles and associations ; and the seeds of suspicion, 
 thus sown with so much cunning forethought, already begin to 
 bear a golden harvest, for all the long-existing differences 
 between the crown and the hierarchy of Bavaria have just 
 been reconciled, through the intervention of an able Roman 
 diplomatist, and the result will be the adoption of measures 
 equally energetic as inexorable against the German Ca- 
 tholics.'" 
 
 The German public is, therefore, now on the qui vive as to 
 what the Prussian government will do ; recognition, not sup- 
 port, is all that the German Catholics seek, and, were that ob- 
 tained, neither money nor members would be wanting ; but this 
 is, unfortunately, as clearly perceived by the Romanists as by 
 the reformers, and the former will therefore leave no influence 
 untaxed to keep at least in abeyance that legal acknowledg- 
 ment, which can alone give validity to the ecclesiastical rights 
 of the dissentients, and secure them against future arbitrary 
 aggression. 
 
 Still, notwithstanding all hindrances, the movement is 
 progressing. Thus, in Dantzic, the first public worship of the 
 Apostolic Catholics (held in the reform church of St. Peter 
 and St. Paul) is described as deeply affecting ; the solemn 
 interest of the scene being heightened by the public recanta- 
 tion, at the altar, of two Roman Catholic priests from Pelpin, 
 brought by pastor Czerski, whom they afterwards assisted in 
 conducting the service. 
 
 In Potsdam, too, the commencement of a German Catholic 
 church has been made. Its first meeting took place on the 
 13th ult., and, as occurred in Berlin, suffered some interrup- 
 tions from the noisy opposition of some fanatics, who were, 
 however, quickly removed. A great impression is said to 
 have been made by the speech of a person who was, during 
 eight years, chaplain in the Roman Catholic church, and is 
 now in the service of the Prussian government. Fifty-four 
 members enrolled themselves the first day, who will, for the 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 225 
 
 present, worship with the Berlin congregation ; railway com- 
 munication having made Potsdam almost a suburb of the 
 capital, where, although the government hesitate, the city 
 magistracy are not only inclined to accommodate the reformers 
 with the use of the churches, but to aid them with the sum of 
 1,000 dollars (£150 sterling) annually, for the next three 
 years, out of the city funds. Associations have likewise been 
 formed in several places to assist the cause of reform : thus, 
 for example, in Stettin, a society has arisen, consisting of 216 
 members, for the purpose of aiding infant German Catholic 
 churches with the funds requisite for their ecclesiastical 
 accommodation, and pastors' support. The society contains 
 Koman Catholics as well as Protestants ; and, disclaiming all 
 desire to proselyte into the Lutheran, or out of the Roman 
 Catholic church, confines itself solely to assisting such as have, 
 from conscientious motives, seceded from the latter commu- 
 nion, leaving them free to judge for themselves, what church's 
 order is most consonant to the word of God. 
 
 Another, and perhaps, in Germany (where the female sex is 
 little prone to take part in either political or religious changes), 
 a still more remarkable " sign of the times" is, the published 
 address of a Silesian lady " to her sisters, whether married or 
 single." The following quotation will suffice to show the 
 spirit in which it is written : " Ask not what says Rome, or 
 Vienna, or Munich; but, ' What saith the Holy Spirit?' which 
 we have the highest authority for expecting will become more 
 and more the ruling spirit of the latter day. Do not remain 
 behind the women of the sixteenth century, but, as Catherine 
 di Bora (afterwards Luther's wife) dared to rise superior to 
 the prejudices of her age, and leave the walls of her convent, 
 so do you, my Christian sisters, emancipate yourselves from the 
 gloomy seclusion and apathetic indifference of past times, and 
 enter the province of a permitted publicity. Yet, as it beseems 
 not our sex in temporal conflict, even for the sacred cause of 
 liberty and country, to fight with the sword, so neither let us 
 now mingle in the strife of words. But where minds are to 
 
 L 3 
 
226 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 be roused or encouraged, where sorrows are to be soothed, or 
 wounds received in the cause of truth are to be healed, let us 
 be promptly ready with our words of cheer and our services 
 of love." 
 
 I have already stated that the high place Ronge has attained 
 in the minds of a large portion of his countrymen, and the in- 
 creasing celebrity and influence which his perambulatory visits 
 to the newly-formed or contemplated churches procures for 
 him, have excited the envy of some, and the fears of others ; 
 and yet it must be allowed that he has never, as yet, given any 
 evidence of being unduly puffed up ; and it is equally certain 
 that, under existing circumstances, such journeys as he and 
 Czerski undertake in their respective districts, are indispen- 
 sable to the sustentation of the cause they have so much at 
 heart ; for, so long as the want of recognition, on the part of 
 the state, keeps the German Catholic church a legal nonentity, 
 it cannot be expected that many priests will throw up their 
 cures, however much disposed to do so, and become dependants 
 on isolated congregations, for whom the timid prognosticate 
 an arbitrary suppression; and, therefore, until each congre- 
 gation is provided with a pastor, the comparatively few priests 
 who have joined the free church, must visit, from time to time, 
 the destitute churches, to lead divine worship, administer ordi- 
 nances, and, as far as they can, " set in order the things that 
 are wanting." On their return from such home missionary 
 tours, they are in the habit of reporting to their own congre- 
 gations the most interesting details of their journeys, which 
 often afford not only subject of encouragement to themselves, 
 but of sympathy with others. Thus, in a statement now before 
 me, dated Breslaw, April 17, it is related: "In yesterday's 
 general meeting of the German Catholic church, pastor Ronge 
 gave a short sketch of his recent tour, and communicated the 
 agreeable information, that 1000 dollars having been placed at 
 his disposal, by the mercantile house of Jacobs, in Potsdam, 
 he proposed applying this sum to the commencement of a 
 credit fund for behoof of the German Catholic church in this 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 227 
 
 place, oil principles analagous to those of the institution called 
 ' the Citizen's Refuge.' Pastor Ronge also paid into the 
 hands of the church's financial committee, a collection made at 
 Berlin, amounting to twenty-two dollars, * and at Bamberg of 
 twenty-eight dollars ; after which, he presented to the assembly 
 the Roman Catholic priest, Thos. Waymarski, who has relin- 
 quished his cure in the diocese of Pryzmist, in Galicia, for the 
 sake of joining the German Catholic church. His credentials 
 of ordination ( liter ce formulce) having been duly examined, 
 it was resolved to admit him to membership, and to institute 
 (according to the invariable rule in such cases) strict inquiry 
 respecting his past character, conduct, and qualifications, with 
 a view to his eventually obtaining a pastorate in Upper Silesia, 
 or the duchy of Posen, for which latter he seems peculiarly 
 suited, Polish being his mother tongue. The formation of a 
 school, and likewise of a religious library, for the use of the 
 congregation, were next resolved on, and committees appointed 
 to carry out the designs. Ronge has again left us for Berlin, 
 and on his way home, which he expects to reach by the middle 
 of next week, will hold divine service in Frankfort (on the 
 Oder), Glogan and Freystadt." The " Berlin News" notices the 
 visit just intimated in the following terms : — " Rouge's sermon, 
 preached yesterday, by permission of the magistrates, in the 
 hall of the Grey-friars' convent, was most numerously attended, 
 and may be regarded as forming an epoch in the history of 
 the German Catholic church here. The text chosen was Matt, 
 vii. 19, 20, and the admirable discourse founded upon it created 
 great sensation. The singing was aided by the royal cho- 
 risters, Kranse, Zstesche, Schmidt," &c. 
 
 The following testimony to the effective ministrations of 
 Czerski, will not be read without interest: — 
 
 " Thorn, April 8. 
 
 " I have just returned from the public worship of the German 
 
 Apostolic Catholics, at which pastor Czerski presided. It was 
 
 fortunate that the elders had not contented themselves, as was 
 
 * A Prussian dollar is, as near as may be, three shillings sterUng. 
 
228 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 proposed, witli the reformed diurch ; for even the afterwards- 
 selected and much larger building belonging to the old Lutheran 
 congregation, was filled to overflowing. Mass, sermon, commu- 
 nion, all was in exact conformity with the Catholic ritual ; and, 
 lastly, a baptism, but all in German. It was impossible not to 
 identify oneself in feeling with the Catholics, and imagine with 
 what ecstasy of delight they must have heard, instead of the (to 
 most ears) unintelligible, though familiar Latin words, ' Credo 
 in unum^' ^c; the creed pronounced, for the first time, by the 
 ministering priest, in their own beloved native tongue. The dis- 
 course was a simple statement of gospel truth; the subject, the 
 Good Shepherd, considered under two points of view, — by what 
 we recognize Him, and by what He recognises us ; and as little 
 controversial as was compatible with the circumstances of the 
 newly-formed church ; while even that little was spoken in the 
 mildest spirit, and truly accorded with the apostolic example, 
 ' Being cursed, we bless; being condemned, we pray' (1 Cor. 
 iv. 12, 13, Luther's translation). The confession-address was 
 spoken at the altar, and turned chiefly on the absolute necessity 
 of a sincere self-examination, accompanied by a decided dis- 
 avowal of transubstantiation, ' the ordinance being throughout 
 of a spiritual nature.' The service was concluded by a short 
 address in Polish, which all acquainted with that language 
 pronounced a piece of powerful and spirit-stirring eloquence. 
 Only fifty communicants had previously announced themselves, 
 but a hundred more associated themselves to them at the altar, 
 and it was necessary to procure more bread. Immediately 
 after divine service (which appeared to have had a most bene- 
 ficial impression on all present), a very considerable number 
 of new members came forward, and gave in their adherence to 
 the German Catholic church. 
 
 " There have not been wanting additions, during the last 
 month, of new churches to the list of those previously enu- 
 merated as seceders from Rome ; yet their accession of 
 strength has chiefly consisted in an increase of numbers in 
 those churches already detailed, and in the (for the Roman 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. ' 229 
 
 cause) istill more injurious defection of some men of no small 
 note, who have joined the ranks of the reformers. Foremost 
 among these must be named Dr. Henry Schreiber, Catholic 
 priest and professor of history in the university of Freiburg, a 
 city long famed for its patronage, not merely of strict papal, 
 but of Jesuit doctrine. Dr. Schreiber was at one time pro- 
 fessor of doctrinal divinity (der dogmatick), but was forced to 
 vacate that chair, on account of having, with his characteristic 
 candour, denied the scriptural origin of the celibacy of the 
 clergy. He assimilated in principle nearly with the Wessen- 
 burg* school, to which nine-tenths of his clerical brethren 
 belong secretly, and would publicly, if they dared ; and 
 Schreiber's character stands too high in the opinions of all 
 parties, both as a conscientious and prudent man, for his 
 defections from the Romish church, to be stigmatized as either 
 ill-considered, or ill-intentioned. His change of views was 
 made public by the following letter to his archbishop : — 'I 
 have now the honour to intimate to your eminence, that I have 
 given in my adherence to the German Catholic church. My 
 doctrine and life have long been open to your inspection, and 
 must have convinced you, that to know and to bear witness 
 to the truth, has been my strenuous, and most sacred duty, 
 whether as a private Christian, or in my capacity of professor 
 of this university ; and I therefore indulge the hope, that your 
 eminence will not withhold your belief that the step I have 
 now taken is the result of strict examination, and a purely 
 religious conviction. 
 
 " Dated, Easter-day, 1845. (Signed) " Schreiber. 
 
 "Dr. ." 
 
 It yet remains to be seen how t'he archbishop will act, and 
 whether excommunication and deprivation of his professorship 
 will follow, but nothing has hitherto transpired; and most 
 
 * Its leader was Ignatius Henry de Wessenburg, until 1827, 
 Vicar General of the bishopric of CJonstance, whose manly resistance 
 to papal assumption made him long as much the pride of his country 
 as his talents, whether as orator, historian, or poet. 
 
230 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 probably, all methods of conciliation will be tried, in order to 
 recapture so distinguished a prize out of the hands of the 
 dissentients ; though, from his known firmness of character, 
 we need have little fear of their proving more successful with 
 him than with pastor Licht, who owed his emancipation 
 from Rome's fetters (as well as Ronge) to the pious fraud 
 of Bishop Arnoldi, in the matter of the "unseamed holy coat of 
 Treves ; " and truly, in this, as in many other cases, we may 
 see a fulfilment of the ancient saying, "Whom the gods wish 
 to destroy, they first infatuate." Had^the good Bishop Arnoldi, 
 less zealous and more wise, left the coat in its dark nook, 
 much of the light which is now pervading Germany would, in 
 all probability, have remained hid with it. In his treatment 
 of pastor Licht, Arnoldi out-Heroded Herod ; and its relation 
 may serve to show, how much of the fermenting element ex- 
 isted in the Romish church, even previous to the late rising 
 of the mass, as well as how much cause the overweening zeal 
 of its hierarchy has given to the papal power to exclaim, 
 "Save me from my friends. " 
 
 In Bavaria, where the maintenance or revival of every 
 species of superstition is quite as agreeable to the million, as 
 favourable to the ambitious views of the higher clergy, there 
 was originated, in 1842, the ingenious device of forming a 
 pilgrimage-association, whose members should regularly visit, 
 every spring and autumn, such holy stations as might be 
 agreed upon. Priest Licbt, who, for upwards of thirty years, had 
 officiated as parish priest of Leiwen, a village in the diocese of 
 Treves, distinguished alike by strict Catholic doctrine, and a 
 purely gospel walk and conversation, deemed himself called 
 upon, both as a good Catholic, and as being entrusted with the 
 cure of souls, to warn and exhort his parishioners, and all 
 others of his own communion, against joining or forming such 
 associations ; and for this pujpose he wrote, and published at 
 Treves, a little work, under the title of "The Pilgrimage 
 Pocket Companion, for the use of Catholics in town and country;" 
 containing, indeed, only the ancient Catholic doctrine on the 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 231 
 
 subject, but proving that going a pilgrimage was not essential 
 to the character of a good Catholic. These views were, however, 
 very far from being those of his ghostly superiors in Treves, 
 and they warned the honest priest against the expression of 
 such unauthorized opinions. Licht, however, put more faith, 
 in the ancient dogmas of his church than in those of the Treves 
 vicar ship -general ; and, accordingly, when the exhibition of the 
 holy coat commenced, he again fearlessly raised his voice, 
 protested against the proceeding at Treves, exhorted his parish- 
 ioners to serve and honour God in their homes, and at length 
 published (through Korner, in Frankfort) a pamphlet, entitled 
 " Catholic Voices," which has already passed through three 
 editions. The little work, though written with the utmost 
 moderation, and in accordance with the opinions of the ancient 
 Roman Catholic fathers, gave high oiFence, and Licht received 
 a mandate from Treves, which pronounced the alternative 
 " recantation or suspension." Sincere conviction leaves an 
 honest man no choice ; retractation was impossible, and Bishop 
 Arnoldi issued the decree of suspension against this excellent 
 pastor, who had for thirty years fed his flock with irreproach- 
 able diligence, appending thereunto the threat that, if, within 
 a given time, Licht did not repent, and become a convert to 
 the coat, degradation and excommunication should follow. 
 The result was such as those who know the unbending and 
 fearless character of Licht in matters of conscience, expected. 
 He declined all retractation of what he believed to be truth, 
 and, after sundry attempts to win, or frighten him over, the 
 threatened ban was pronounced ; and on March 20, he received 
 official notice to vacate the parsonage-house to his successor, 
 who would enter on his office on Easter-day, the 23rd. Licht 
 complied on the instant, hiring temporarily a sorry lodging, 
 resolved to await the expected reply from Berlin to a memo- 
 rial sent by him to the Prussian ministry ; on which ground 
 he likewise declined accepting the invitation of the Elberfeldt 
 German Catholics, to give them the benefit of his services 
 during the Easter week. At length, on April 1 , pastor Licht 
 
232 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 closed his thirty years' connexion with the Treves hierarchy, 
 by the following letter : — " Although, in my last address (of 
 the 26th ult.) to my right rev. superiors, I considered myself 
 to have taken leave of them with all becoming respect, and 
 regarded all further explanation on that point as unnecessary, 
 I, nevertheless, cannot refrain from adding to the former cor- 
 respondence and renunciation, the express declaration that, 
 after maturely weighing the subject before God and ray con- 
 science, I have, like many other independent and conscientious 
 men, come to the resolution of joining the German Catholic 
 church, and hereby express my adherence to the general prin- 
 ciples and definitions laid down in the council held at Leipsic 
 on the 23rd ult., reserving to myself the right of retaining 
 my peculiar views on minor points. In taking this highly 
 important step in my life and profession, and to which, I can 
 appeal to God, I have been impelled solely by moral and reli- 
 gious motives, I have kept especially in view the well-known 
 and memorable apothegms of two celebrated men ; the first 
 is that of Vincent Cyrenensis, ' in matters of faith, receive and 
 hold fast what has been believed in all times, in all places, 
 and by all persons.' The second is the golden sentence of St. 
 Augustine, ' in essentials, unity ; in doubtful points, freedom ; 
 in all things, love.' But, since I find this candid avowal will 
 not satisfy my Roman Catholic episcopal superior in Treves, 
 who believes himself bound by his episcopal oath, in all things 
 to uphold and further the papal interests, I hereby finally and 
 solemnly declare myself separated from the Romish, but by no 
 means from the ancient Catholic Church. It is devoutly to 
 be hoped, that the good Spirit of God, whose workings are 
 even now visible in opening up ' the way of the Lord,' will 
 more and more establish and bring near to us the true king- 
 dom of God, that kingdom set up on earth by Jesus Christ, 
 the Son of God, the only mediator between God and man ; and * 
 by bringing about and confirming peace and love among all 
 the confessors of his name, hasten the accomplishment of his 
 sublime promise, ' There shall be one fold and one shepherd.' 
 

 REFORM MOVEMENT. \v^*^^^ 
 
 Amen. So be it. The grace of God, and the love 
 
 be, through the influence of the Holy Spirit, always with us*" 
 
 (Signed) " L. W. Light, Catholic Pastor.' 
 
 This excellent man has now accepted the pastorate of the 
 German Catholic church in Elberfeldt. 
 
 A new, and in some respects, important step, has just been 
 announced as having been taken by the reformers at Breslaw, 
 which proves that there, at least, the German Catholics have 
 ceased to regard episcopal ordinations as indispensable. On 
 the 4th inst., after the conclusion of the usual public worship 
 of the day (in which pastor Hofferrichter, formerly a clergy- 
 man of the Lutheran church, who has, with his coadjutor, 
 lately joined the German Catholics, officiated for the first 
 time), three candidates for the pastoral office were ordained 
 by Ronge, and two clerical brethren. The names of these 
 new labourers in the vineyard are Euprecht, Vogtherr, and 
 Wieczorek, all formerly candidates for the priesthood in the 
 Roman Catholic church. Ronge was the chief officiator ; and 
 having, with his clerical assistant and the three aspirants, 
 advanced to the altar, he read our Saviour's commission to 
 his disciples (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20) ; and, after having vindi- 
 cated, in a lucid and powerful address, the inalienable right 
 of Christian congregations to elect their own office-bearers, 
 he appealed to the assembled church, if they shared his 
 sentiments ? A unanimous and joyfully pronounced " Yes" 
 resounding through the place of meeting, attested their full 
 approval. The scriptural directions concerning the most im- 
 portant duties of both pastors and people, were then quoted 
 and enforced by the two other clergymen. Next followed 
 the ordination, by laying on of hands, by the three already 
 ordained ministers. Ronge then invoked the divine blessing 
 on the solemn service^ after which, the new pastors partook 
 of the Lord's Supper, and then received the warm congratula- 
 tions of their assembled friends and brethren, many of whom 
 gave signs of almost overpowering emotion. The entire 
 service, which was nearly identical with that observed on 
 
 N ^^c 
 
!234 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 similar occasions in the Lutheran church, is described as 
 having been deeply impressive. Two of the newly-ordained 
 ministers will immediately enter on their duties in Upper 
 Silesia, where the number of small, but ever-increasing con- 
 gregations, calls loudly for pastoral instruction and care. 
 Pastors Waynarski and Wieczorek, being masters of Polish, 
 are expected to employ their earliest leisure in translating, 
 not only writings bearing on the new reformation, but the 
 Bible, into that language ; and, in this prospect, it is a matter 
 of rejoicing, that no hindrance whatever has, as yet, been laid . 
 in the way of the new opinions by the Russian censorship in 
 Poland, where a thousand copies of Ronge's and Czerski's 
 publications have already been circulated ; although the well- 
 known bigoted subserviency of the Poles of all classes to the 
 sway of Rome gives little hope that they will make much 
 impression. 
 
 The grand duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt has taken the lead 
 in liberalism, by declaring in favour of the German Catholics 
 of Offenbach. The government demanded to know from the 
 prince-bishop of Mayence, whether he would, for the present, 
 insist on his clergy performing the ecclesiastical ceremonials of 
 marriages, burials, &c., towards their nonconforming brethren; 
 and receiving an answer in the negative, official information 
 has been given to the Protestant clergyman of Offenbach, that 
 he shall, until further ecclesiastical arrangements can be 
 made, regard himself as empowered and required to fulfil 
 those indispensable duties. A somewhat similar decision has 
 been come to in Dresden, where the positive refusal of the 
 Roman Catholic clergy to recognise those who abjure the 
 hierarchy as in any way belonging to the Catholic church, 
 has compelled a permission that such pastoral services as 
 admit not of delay, may be afforded by Lutheran clergymen, 
 until the meeting of the Saxon parliament, to which the 
 Dresden reformers have resolved to apply for a decision of 
 the question of their recognition. In the mean time, the 
 government abides by its obstinate refusal, not only of all 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 235 
 
 acknowledgment, but of all permission to the reformers to 
 hold public meetings ; and further prohibits their constituting 
 themselves as German Catholics, restricting them to the 
 appellation of "An Association for the purpose of conferring 
 on Ecclesiastical Questions." 
 
 But the efforts to check the advance of " the movement," ^ 
 whether proceeding from its avowed or concealed enemies, have 
 by no means been limited during the past month, to negative, 
 or even legalized opposition, but have broken forth in instances 
 of ferocious bigotry and unbridled hostility, in regarding 
 which, one may fancy oneself transported back to the dark ages. 
 Thus, from Stargard, in Pomerania, we learn that a brother 
 of pastor Czerski's, organist of the Roman Catholic church in 
 the little town of Komersk, has lost his situation in conse- 
 quence of affording his heretical brother a night's lodging, as 
 he was passing through the place. And, moreover, that 
 Czerski, having spent the night in the house of his father-in- 
 law, residing in Skurziews, the dwelling was surrounded by a 
 crowd of fanatics, who bombarded it with stones for the space 
 of three hours. Happily, the object of their animosity, whom 
 they were resolved to seize on his leaving the house, had set 
 forward on his journey much earlier than they anticipated, and 
 by this means, probably, saved his life. The Roman Catholic 
 priest of Bonin has threatened all Czerski's relatives with 
 excommunication, if they dare to hold any communication with 
 him. The above-mentioned attack upon Czerski, probably 
 gave rise to a false report of Ronge having been assassinated, 
 which filled Frankfort (on the Oder), for some hours, with 
 horror and consternation. 
 
 Nor are such exhibitions confined to the " fierce barbarians , 
 of the north ;" for an equally disgraceful attack is reported 
 as having been recently made on the truly venerable pastor 
 Licht, on the banks of the Moselle, as that conscientious and 
 irreproachable man was travelling from Liewen, his late 
 Roman Catholic parish, towards Elberfeldt, the scene of his 
 future labours among the German Catholics. Having come as 
 
236 PROGRESS OF THE REFORM MOVEMENT. 
 
 far as Barncastel by boat, he there landed, in order to pursue 
 a much shorter route across the hills on foot, leaving the boat, 
 with his furniture and other baggage, to follow the circuitous 
 windings of the stream to its destination. But scarcely had 
 the courageous confessor of his honest convictions set foot in 
 Barncastel, than the news of his arrival spread with the 
 rapidity of lightning through the town, and a mob gathering on 
 the instant, followed him, not only with the most opprobrious 
 and brutal insult and abuse through the streets, but, as soon 
 as he had passed the gates, betook themselves to still more 
 effective expressions of their rage, and showers of stones flew 
 about his aged head, though happily without inflicting serious 
 injury. This dangerous convoy accompanied him half way 
 up the mountain, where some vine-dressers succeeded, by re- 
 monstrances, mingled with threats, in persuading the ruthless 
 bigots to return home. 
 
 The managing committee of the German Catholic commu- 
 nity in Offenbach have found themselves necessitated to free 
 themselves, by a published declaration, from aspersions which 
 appeared against them in a late number of the " Frankfort (sur 
 Maine) Journal," accusing them of using religion and the name 
 of reform, only to cover their real views as " radicals and 
 socialists." How universally, in all ages of the world, has 
 ecclesiastical tyranny set up the bugbear of political intrigue as 
 a shield against all attempts to limit its power, or correct its 
 abuse ! " They who have turned the world upside down" is a 
 designation, of which, if incurred by conduct similar to that 
 which brought it on the apostles, no one need be ashamed. 
 
237 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM 
 MOVEMENT, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1845 TO 
 
 APRIL, 1846 (continued). 
 
 Doctrines of the Leipsic Council — Protest against them — Progress of 
 the new Movement in Posen — Declaration of the King of Hanover 
 — Kerbler — Open-air Meetings for Worship — Violence of the 
 Romanists at Halberstadt. 
 
 June 16. The opinion I have more than once expressed, 
 that two distinct, and, in a religious point of view, hetero- 
 geneous elements, were combined in the present German 
 opposition to the hierarchal despotism of Rome ; as well as 
 my fear that, as is, alas, usually the case, the worldly might 
 be found to out-number the devout combatants for spiritual 
 freedom, have both received confirmation from recent events. 
 The very meagre statement of gospel doctrine promulgated by 
 the Leipsic council, and the failure of Czerski, and others like- 
 minded with him, to procure the adoption of more positively 
 Christian dogmas, gave new ground for apprehension as to 
 the soundness of the religious principles of some influential 
 men among the reformers. Yet, as the confession of faith 
 was at length acquiesced in by all, on the avowed ground 
 that it should be regarded as merely preliminary to a more 
 enlarged and explicit symbol, to be discussed in a future 
 
238 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 Christian council, those ohservers of the reform movement who 
 felt interested in its true progress, were led to cherish the hope 
 that the leaven of Christian principle might, hy God's blessing, 
 gradually "leaven the whole lump." Doubtless, such a hope, 
 in conjunction with the very natural desire to maintain, as 
 long as possible, " the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace," 
 with brethren who, in many essential points, were one heart 
 and one soul with them, induced the "Apostolic Catholics" 
 (after vainly contending for a more explicit avowal of the divi- 
 nity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the doctrines of the atonement, 
 salvation by faith alone, regeneration, and the resurrection of 
 the body, than appeared to them to be conveyed in the con- 
 fession of faith approved of by the majority), to subscribe to 
 those generalities in which they could assuredly safely concur 
 with their brethren ; retaining, however, their own view of 
 gospel truth, and the right (in accordance with the fundamental 
 principle of the Scriptures, being the only infallible authority 
 and guide) both to profess and to promulgate whatever they 
 find therein, without fear of giving umbrage to any one. When 
 this posture of aflfairs is considered, it may not, perhaps, seem 
 unfair to regard the appellations assumed by the several 
 churches, as indicative in most, though not in all cases, of 
 the tone, whether patriotic or Christian, prevalent in the 
 respective separatist congregations; Schneidemiihl and its 
 congeners adopting the name Apostolic, Breslaw, Brunswick, 
 Berlin ; and many others, that of German Catholics. That 
 this distinction is not wholly either imaginary or accidental, 
 is proved by the circumstance, that the question of what name 
 should be assumed, was discussed at the Leipsic conference, 
 and the Apostolics were out- voted by the Germans. Yet it 
 would, probably, be unjust to make this the test of the com- 
 parative strength of the parties, since it must be supposed 
 that to many, the chosen appellation may have appeared an 
 immaterial, to others, perhaps, a politic measure ; while to 
 none, surely, could it seem of sufficient importance to justify 
 disunion. Accordingly, though " German Catholic" was resolved 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 239 
 
 on as the general appellation, and adopted (probably for that 
 reason) by the more recently formed churches, "Apostolic" is 
 retained by such as had before so denominated themselves. 
 
 But if the likelihood of disunion, as consequent upon dif- 
 ference of sentiment, might safely have been argued, a 
 priori, from the natural tendencies of human nature, and the 
 impossibility for even the most sanguine to assume that so 
 large a body (numbering already a hundred and ten congre- 
 gations, and above ten thousand members) should not con- 
 tain a large proportion actuated by other than purely religious 
 motives, surmise and apprehension on the subject have been 
 alike put an end to, by an occurrence which, though in itself 
 distressing, yet, in the principles which produced, and the 
 results which will probably jflow from it, furnishes ground for 
 rejoicing, both to the Christian and the merely philanthropic 
 observer. I allude to a protest published in Whitsun-week, by 
 seven members of the German Catholic congregation in Berlin, 
 against the Leipsic confession of faith. That the popish 
 party draw fair auguries of their own triumph from this early 
 threatening of dissension in the enemy's camp, is natural, but 
 assuredly premature ; for, though the host of the reformers 
 may divide, it will neither be lessened, nor induced to return 
 to Rome. The patriotic party will retain its own, at least ; 
 and the infidelity which has long lurked beneath the obser- 
 vance of external forms, and at which the popish clergy 
 winked so long, as neither their power nor their emoluments 
 were affected by it, will probably show itself wholly undis- 
 guised, since the shackles of superstition and the restraint 
 of custom have been thrown off. But, though we may have 
 cause to mourn the absence of Christian motives, even for 
 right actions, should we not also rejoice when men no longer 
 profess what they do not believe ; and have, without being 
 worse Christians than they were before, become better citi- 
 zens ? While, on the other hand, may we not indulge the 
 hope, that the avowal of a higher and holier creed by some 
 engaged in the same sacred cause with themselves, may lead 
 
240 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 many to examine the foundations on which their own faith is 
 built ? And, as they have now access to the standard and test 
 of truth, the Bible, it were sinful to doubt that the effect will 
 be, in regard to numbers, the exchange of an hereditary pro- 
 fession for a true and living faith. 
 
 The protest above alluded to, and which was signed by 
 A. Banlig, P. Paulus Zerneitzik, and Dietrich, runs as follows : 
 — " One portion of the German Catholic church in this city, 
 having declared its adherence to the principles and views of 
 the Leipsic council, and being now in daily expectation of the 
 arrival of a clergyman who is announced to be of entirely 
 corresponding sentiments, it appears to us that ' the reform' 
 has now attained to that degree of maturity which warrants 
 us in regarding and judging it as a whole. 
 
 " We have hitherto followed all its movements in the spirit 
 of that love which ' beareth all things, believeth all things, 
 hopeth all things.' Our last hope (the source at once of our 
 courage and of our delay) was based on the call given to a 
 priest from whom we could confidently expect a truly Christ- 
 ian re-organization of the Berlin German Catholic church. 
 But the priest for whom we hoped, comes not ; and as re- 
 organization, in accordance with our views of what a German 
 Catholic church ought to be, is no longer to be looked for, 
 we feel ourselves called upon, by the voice of conscience, to 
 enter our solemn protest, before God and the world, against a 
 reform, which we believe in our hearts will conduct all who 
 entrust themselves to it, to the brink of destruction. 
 
 " We protest against the symbol adopted by the Leipsic 
 council, and acceded to by the German Catholics in this city. 
 We could be satisfied to concur in the first article of their 
 confession of faith (the belief in one God), had we found it fol- 
 lowed by a second, acknowledging the Son, without whom no 
 one can either truly know or come to the Father (John v. 23, 
 xiv. 6 ; 1 John ii. 23). But the second article of the Leipsic 
 creed bears no higher testimony to Jesus than the poor empty 
 assertion that, * he is our Saviour,' thus elevating a large and 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 241 
 
 accommodating cap of liberty, which heads the most various, 
 and even heterogeneous, may contrive to put on. But what 
 avails an outward assemblage of numerous concurring heads, 
 if the unity of heart produced by possessing ' one faith,' ' one 
 hope,' ' one love,' be wanting ? ' If, then, in the article re- 
 ferring to God the Father, more definite expressions might have 
 been selected, in that referring to Jesus Christ, they ought 
 to have been so; and that precisely, because our estimate of 
 Christ forms the line of decided and indisputable demarcation 
 between Christianity, Judaism, and heathenism; between, in 
 short, the true believer and the infidel. A silent passing 
 over of such a turning-point in a Christian confession of faith 
 argues, to say the least of it, a weakness, which must be an 
 eternal reproach to any Christian community ; and we feel im- 
 peratively called upon to throw this disgrace from us. What 
 must the rest of Christendom think of us, if our confession of 
 Him, whose name we bear, be so tamely, so coldly, so ambi- 
 guously expressed ? ' That which fills the heart, must overflow 
 at the mouth' (Luke vi. 45, Luther's translation). As fathers 
 of families, we are bound to consider the future instruction of 
 our children ; and as what does not appear in a church's con- 
 fession of faith, cannot be demanded either from its ministers 
 or members, what security have we that the sacred truths, in 
 defence of which has flowed the precious blood of countless 
 martyrs, will ever be made the ground of instruction to our 
 posterity ? Wherein, we ask (and let every man put the ques- 
 tion to himself), wherein do we acknowledge the divinity of 
 Jesus Christ, if we are silent upon that which every Christian 
 tongue has confessed, and will confess to the end of time, that 
 ' Jesus Christ our Lord is the only-begotten Son of God, who 
 was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin 
 Mary ? ' What becomes of the historical facts connected with 
 our redemption by Christ, that eternal foundation of our Christ- 
 ian belief in reconciliation with God, our peace of conscience, 
 and our strength, courage, and joy, whether living, sufiering, or 
 dying, if our confession suppress the great truths, that Jesus 
 
242 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 Christ ' suiFered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and 
 buried ; that he descended into hell ; the third day he rose 
 again from the dead ; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on 
 the right hand of God the Father, from whence he shall come 
 to judge the quick and the dead ? ' If we suppress this, we 
 suppress, too, that we are Christians at all ; and it is of 
 no sort of consequence whether we hold or deny the third 
 article of the creed respecting the Holy Ghost ; for, as ' no 
 man cometh to the Father but by the Son, so it is the Son 
 alone who sendeth us the Spirit from the Father (John xv. 
 26) ; and thus the emptiness of the second article regulates 
 and sufficiently restricts the meaning of the third. We 
 still, indeed, hear of 'a holy Catholic church,' but it is a 
 mere shadowy pageant, a building without a foundation to 
 rest on; and by thus mutilating the ancient confession, by 
 which all true Christians on earth were able to extend to each 
 other the right hand of fellowship, the bond of union with 
 them all has been silently cut asunder. But, if it is designed 
 to cast aside all doctrinal and historical connexion with the 
 ancient and modern Christian church, and to erect a new one 
 in accordance, as the modern phrase is, with the spirit of the 
 times and the sense of Scripture as interpreted by Christian- 
 ized reason, we take leave to hold aloof from such a church. 
 We never had any intention of withdrawing from that ancient 
 church, whose establishment eighteen hundred years ago by 
 the triune God, is celebrated by thankful millions to the pre- 
 sent day. We desire to remain Catholic, while we cease to 
 be Eoman Catholic ; and, though abjuring human traditions 
 and superstitions, we wish to abide Christians, and as incorpo- 
 rated with that communion of saints which has been erased 
 from the Leipsic confession of faith. Mention is further made 
 therein of ' the forgiveness of sins,' and 'the life everlasting; ' 
 but we maintain, on the authority of Scripture, that neither 
 the one nor the other is attainable, in its power and glory, 
 by such as shrink from confessing the Bible doctrines of the 
 divinity of Christ ; of his, for us, completed work of redemp- 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 243 
 
 tion, by living, suffering, and dying in our stead, and of the 
 resurrection of the body, though that, too, has been rejected 
 by the Leipsic council (1 Peter xviii. 19; 2 Cor. v. 19 — 21 ; 
 1 John V. 12 ; ii. 18, 19). 
 
 " Our protest is neither the offspring of foreign influence, 
 nor of self-conceit and pride. Our sole, but all-engrossing 
 object, is the eternal salvation of our own immortal souls, 
 and the souls of those who are committed to our care, as well 
 as of all who will listen to our warning voice ; and therefore 
 we join to our protest an earnest entreaty to all who share 
 our sentiments, to separate themselves from a reform (the 
 tendency of which is sufficiently evidenced by its published 
 creed), and to unite with us in trying to realise the noble 
 and exalted idea of a truly reformed, and therefore genuinely 
 Christian Catholic Church. We stand on the positive foun- 
 dations of Christianity, * on the foundation of the apostles and 
 prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.' 
 Whatsoever, in the handed-down traditions of the church, is 
 found not to coincide with the Scriptures of the Old and New 
 Testament, we unhesitathigly relinquish ; but all shall be 
 retained which is proved to be in unison with them. 'A 
 clergyman, formerly belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, 
 but who ten years since voluntarily resigned his office, after 
 having, courageously and in faith, struggled against, and suf- 
 fered from Rome, has declared himself willing to lead our 
 sacerdotal worship. The holy mass shall be celebrated every 
 Sunday in true scriptural form ; and we are resolved to have, 
 uninterruptedly, the services of prayer, singing, and preach- 
 ing, from ordained lips, until our ecclesiastical order and 
 position can be finally appointed and determined. Come, then, 
 and see ; the undersigned will gladly afford every informa- 
 tion respecting the time and place in which the first divine 
 service among us shall be held. These are solemn times, 
 and such call for decision ; more especially in circumstances 
 in which indecision must prove the most deadly foe. An 
 act is called for, which may promote the salvation of many, 
 
 M 2 
 
244 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 and, perhaps, by God's gracious help, pave the way for that 
 noble unity, after which the believing faithful, of all ages and 
 all lands, have pined and longed. May the compassionate 
 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ have compassion 
 upon us in the Holy Ghost, and give us both to will and 
 to do of his good pleasure, to the glory of his holy name, 
 and the salvation of all our brethren. Amen !' " 
 
 This, in many respects, pleasing document called forth, the 
 very next day, a counter declaration from the other German 
 Catholics in Berlin, in which the protesting party was accused 
 of entertaining rash and ungrounded suspicions against the 
 orthodoxy of the majority, and especially of having errone- 
 ously regarded the Leipsic confession of faith in the light 
 of a definitive and fully-digested creed, instead of what it 
 really is, a preliminary and provisory profession of gene- 
 rally-acknowledged doctrines ; or, as having displaced the 
 more orthodox Berlin confession. On this ground, measures 
 of reconciliation were actually adopted ; so that, while the pro- 
 test remains an unretracted evidence of the gospel sentiments 
 of some, the threatened division into two congregations was 
 deferred until the points of difference, being discussed in a 
 general meeting of the Berlin reformers, should prove in 
 how far a separation was desirable or necessary. This meet- 
 ing took place, accordingly, on the 21st ultimo, was most 
 numerously attended, and the various objectionable, or rather 
 defective parts of the Leipsic confession, argued with no in- 
 considerable warmth. Yet, the sitting terminated in a reso- 
 lution to leave all the debateable doctrinal points to the con- 
 sideration and decision of a shortly-to-be summoned general 
 church council; and, therefore, the meetings for public 
 worship, now conducted by the new pastor, Branner (a 
 protege of Eonge's), continue to be attended by both parties. 
 That this outward union is one of policy rather than of con- 
 viction, cannot admit of a doubt ; but (independent of the 
 peculiar danger in their case of affording the government a 
 fair pretext for refusing to recognise " a house divided against 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 245 
 
 itself") is not a similar mingling of " iron and miry clay," 
 unhappily to be found in every existing religious community 
 in whicli the idea of nationality prevails ? Look at the 
 opposing sections of the churches of England and Scotland ; 
 examine the state of the Genevan and Lutheran churches ; 
 glance, too, behind the scenes in the Roman Catholic church ; 
 and the acknowledgment must be made, that, if the existence 
 of rationalist and evangelical views in the German Catholic 
 church threatens its stability, the danger is, at least, not pecu- 
 liar to the new; sect, but equally shared by other ecclesias- 
 tical bodies, venerable alike from age and numbers. 
 
 In respect of the progress made by the reformers during 
 the last month, it must be pronounced to have been at once 
 uninterrupted and extensive. In the arch-duchy of Posen, 
 which has long been justly viewed as the head-quarters of hie- 
 rarchal rule, the reform movement is manifestly advancing 
 rapidly, which is, in some degree, explained by the fact, that in 
 no other portion of the Prussian monarchy are so numerous 
 and such crying abuses of ecclesiastical power to be found ; 
 in the exercise of which, too, the clergy find zealous auxiliaries 
 in the aristocracy. The two new prince-bishops, Przyhske in 
 Posen, and Diepenbrock in Silesia, may, perhaps, be able to 
 check the torrent, should they apply their great influence, 
 not only to the removal of abuses, but to encourage a higher 
 degree of education among the inferior clergy ; but, if we may 
 trust private accounts from those districts, a suppression of 
 the reform is no longer to be thought of ; it is already much 
 too firmly fixed, if not in the open avowal, assuredly in the 
 convictions and wishes of a large proportion of the, as yet, 
 unseparated Roman Catholic population. Of this the Prussian 
 government is well aware ; and, taught by the utter failure ot 
 compulsion in suppressing the " old Lutherans," is little likely 
 to meet the hopes of the Romanists by any violent measures. 
 The long-delayed and extremely cautious declaration of the 
 king of Hanover, which has just appeared under date of 7th 
 of June, in answer to the formal application of a branch of 
 
246 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 the German Catholic Church at Hildesheim for recognition, 
 seems to indicate the line of policy likely to be followed by 
 all governments, not exclusively Catholic. It is in substance 
 as follows: — "As those formerly belonging to the Koman 
 Catholic Church from whom we have received the said peti- 
 tion, have not as yet satisfactorily proved their adherence to 
 any positive form of Christian faith, inasmuch as they have 
 not adopted any one of the general ancient creeds of the 
 church, his majesty cannot permit their bearing the name, 
 in this kingdom, of a Christian or German Catholic Church. 
 And as, moreover, his majesty will never consent to coun- 
 tenance a new Christian sect in his dominions, the organi- 
 zation of which might possibly, in any degree, endanger the 
 quiet of the same, his majesty cannot feel disposed to grant 
 the request of the petition. In regard of all spiritual services 
 among the so-called German Catholics, which involve civil 
 order, it is his majesty's pleasure that such should be per- 
 formed by the Lutheran clergyman for the present ; and they 
 have received instruction to celebrate baptisms, marriages, 
 and burials, accordingly." The meetings for worship, the 
 dispensing of sacraments, go on, however, as before ; time 
 must prove whether any legal measures will yet be adopted 
 to enforce a more valid observance ; meantime, as far as 
 marriages and burials are concerned, the German dissenters 
 are, I presume, treated exactly as English dissenters were 
 till within a very few years back ; and, considering the new- 
 ness of dissent in these countries, the moderation of the 
 opposition deserves all acknowledgment. The absence of all 
 demonstration on the part of Rome excites much surprise ; 
 true, indeed, low murmuring threats of a coming and over- 
 whelming blow, are darkly hinted, through the medium of the 
 press, but, as yet, nothing has occurred ; and the reformers 
 seem as fearless for their persons as for the continuance and 
 spread of their doctrines. Of the priests who have joined 
 the dissentients, Kerbler creates the greatest sensation by his 
 pulpit talents and theological attainments, which are acknow- 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 247 
 
 ledged by Romanists themselves to be distinguished ; and his 
 defection is consequently doubly deplored by them, both for 
 the loss sustained by the communion he has forsaken, and the 
 gain acquired by that to which he is gone over. He has been 
 engaged in a preaching tour through the Rhemish provinces, 
 similar to those undertaken by Ronge and Czerski in the 
 north, and his auditories are described as amounting occa- 
 donally to two, and even three thousand. A new congre- 
 gation was formed in Krefeld on the 15th ult., at which he 
 presided. The Leipsic confession was adopted, as far as it 
 goes, more especially in all regarding separation from Rome ; 
 but the second article was by unanimous consent so enlarged, 
 as to contain a full declaration of the divinity and atonement 
 of the Lord Jesus. The meeting, which was numerous, was 
 attended by the Protestant husbands of many Roman Catholic 
 women, who proposed to sign the new confession of faith in 
 the name of their wives ; but this, though a probably only 
 seeming undue assumption of marital power, was overruled by 
 a resolution to hold a second meeting on the 18th, at which 
 such females as desired it, might personally avow their wish 
 for membership. I cannot repress the hope that the Krefeld 
 example will be followed by very many congregations, now that 
 the deficiencies, whether of wording or of spirit, in the Leipsic 
 confession, have been pointed out ; of which the following com- 
 munication from Breslaw is confirmatory : — 
 
 '* June 6. It begins to be evident, even here, that the 
 streams of religious excitement which, though issuing from 
 two separate sources, have, for some time past, mingled their 
 waters, and pursued a united course (as having one common 
 origin and one avowed end), are likely soon to divide into 
 different channels : the one (whose deep, quiet waters, long 
 nourished and augmented by continual recurrence to the 
 secret well-spring of its rise — the Bible, only burst all 
 restraining barriers when the thus-gathered strength could 
 no longer be repressed) is connected with the name of Czerski. 
 The other, a broader, more popular, but likewise shallower 
 
248 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 Stream, follows the leadings of Ronge." Sharing such ex- 
 pectations, it is with double pleasure that one reads of 
 Czerski's tour throughout Prussia (proper), *' having given an 
 astonishing impulse to his cause throughout the whole pro- 
 vince." In Konigsberg, he was received with marks of 
 distinction by the professors and privy councillors, Burdach 
 and Gebsir, and celebrated divine service in Dantzic, Thorn, 
 and all the chief towns in his route, in most of which Apos- 
 tolic Catholic churches have been formed. 
 ' At Thorn, on the 26th ultimo, Anseler, Bernharett, paro- 
 chial administrator of the St. Mary's Church, declared pub- 
 licly, at the conclusion of mass, his abjuration of the Romish 
 church, and afterwards sent the keys of the church over 
 which he has hitherto presided, to the city magistracy. A 
 churchwarden of St. Mary's signified his defection from the 
 church of Rome, at the same time. Czerski held the first 
 public worship of the Apostolic Catholic church, at Brom- 
 berg, on the 17th ult., dispensed the Lord's Supper to ninety 
 communicants, and baptized the son of a nobleman. 
 
 The difficulty occasioned by the use of churches, &c., being 
 now denied to the dissenters from Romanism, has forced them 
 to resort to a measure which intimately assimilates them with 
 almost all, in every age and land, who have differed in religious 
 matters from " the powers that be," meeting for worship 
 in the " temple not made with hands," under the free vault 
 of heaven. This occurred on the 18th ult., at Sadow, near 
 Lubinitz, when Wieczorek preached to a large assembly on a 
 hill, taking his text from our Lord's sermon on the mount ; 
 but a still more impressive scene is described as having 
 occurred at Schwersenz, on the 20th ult., under the auspices 
 of Czerski. An Apostolic Catholic church in that place, 
 having solicited and obtained his promise to visit them, an 
 opposition was got up to prevent what the "Romanists consi- 
 dered a disgrace to their town, and violent measures were 
 openly spoken of as unavoidable, if Czerski and his abettors 
 should not desist from their purpose. The police magistrate 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 249 
 
 of the district, M. de Minutoli, being informed of the threat- 
 ened disturbance, appeared in person, accompanied by a posse 
 of gens d'armes and police officers, early in the morning of 
 the 20th, at Schwersenz, and, by his presence and wise 
 arrangements, effectually preserved the peace. The service 
 was planned to be held in the Lutheran church, with the 
 cheerful consent of both clergyman and congregation ; but, 
 when about to proceed thither, Czerski was suddenly informed 
 by the burgomaster that, in consequence of orders from a 
 higher quarter, the use of the church could not be accorded. 
 The proposal was then made by some of Czerski's friends to 
 hold their worship in the open air, to which he instantly 
 assented. In the elevated, and most picturesquely-situated 
 churchyard, which overlooks the town, and beneath the shade 
 of a group of old and lofty trees, an altar with its attendant 
 candles and crucifix was, with great celerity, erected ; and, 
 when the appointed hour for worship (nine o'clock) struck, 
 above two thousand persons, of both sexes and all ages, had 
 assembled, who ranged themselves, with quiet and devout 
 demeanour, in a large semicircle in front of the altar, while 
 the forty church members formed likewise an inner half-circle. 
 A clear and cloudless sky smiled on the truly impressive 
 solemnity, which lasted two hours, during which not even a 
 momentary disturbance occurred. The service began with 
 singing, then followed the creed, and other parts of the mass ; 
 all, as well as the responses, being spoken in German : after 
 • which Czerski delivered a discourse, first in German, and 
 then in Polish, and concluded by dispensing the eucharist, 
 in both kinds, to the members. 
 
 During this last service, there took place a singular, and 
 not uninstructive occurrence, inasmuch as it proved that the 
 new converts are both suffered to think, and do think, for 
 themselves. A man upwards of seventy, and a young married 
 woman whose husband was absent, withdrew from the circle 
 of communicants, after having received the bread only ; upon 
 . which, as if eager to fill up the places, thus left vacant, a 
 
 M 3 
 
250 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 countryman, and the wife of a townsman, pressed through the 
 close-wedged round of spectators, and, kneeling down, joined 
 themselves to the new church by a solemn and apparently de- 
 . vout partaking of the sacred communion. When the service 
 was over, which seems to have made a much deeper as well 
 as more extensive impression than if the use of the church had 
 been granted, M. de Minutoli, with his attendants, conducted 
 Czerski back to his carriage, and thus secured him against 
 any sudden ebullition of fanaticism, although, it must be 
 owned, no symptoms of such was noticeable in the awe-struck 
 multitude. 
 
 Far different, indeed, was the conduct of the Halberstadt 
 Romanists on occasion of a meeting of German Catholics, 
 for the purpose of constituting a church, on the 31st ult. 
 The town contains 15,000 inhabitants, of whom not more 
 than 2500 are Roman Catholics ; and yet, a portion of that 
 minority succeeded in attacking, and, by rude violence, inter- 
 rupting, and for the moment dispersing, an assemblage of 
 peaceable people, met together in the town-hall for the deli- 
 beration of a sacred question of conscience. The aggressors 
 were not mere rabble, however deserving of the name by 
 their behaviour, but were led on by four Catholic school- 
 masters, attended by most of their scholars, were mostly armed 
 with sticks, and, animated apparently, as the account states, 
 "more by the earthly excitement of brandy, than by the hea- 
 venly spirit of religion," they broke in upon the meeting, 
 overpowered every attempt at remonstrance or argument, 
 by senseless cries and abusive language, shouted " Long live 
 the pope, Bishop Arnoldi, the church of Rome, the king, 
 and the burgomaster of Halberstadt !" maligned the German 
 Catholics as traitors against government and state, tore to 
 pieces the copies of the Leipsic confession, which were lying on 
 the table, and stamped them under foot ; signed a declaration, 
 brought ready drawn up by a schoolmaster, of eternal fealty 
 to Rome, &c.; then, jumping on the tables, screamed out of 
 the windows to the gaping populace without, "We have 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 251 
 
 conquered ; there is an end to the new church." They at last 
 left the place of meeting, joined the waiting mob, and, hurrying 
 with it to the Franciscan church, returned thanks to the Most 
 High for the success of their crusade against the infidels. 
 All this time the police thought themselves happy in having 
 warded off actual violence from the persons of the Catholic dis- 
 senters, whose cause, however, has been materially furthered 
 by such fanatical opposition. Many of the more respectable 
 Roman Catholics have already sent in their adherence to the 
 new sect, and others have openly declared they are ashamed 
 of remaining connected with a clergy which does not protest 
 against such unjustifiable means of upholding their church. 
 The four Roman Catholic schoolmasters, who took active part 
 in the tumult, have been expelled from singing clubs and other 
 voluntary associations to which they belonged, and the good 
 citizens of Halberstadt are so shocked at being thus marked 
 out to the world as Goths and Vandals, that there is Reason 
 to hope they will both countenance and assist the little band 
 of courageous confessors to whom their late brethren seem 
 so well inclined to accord the crown of martyrdom. 
 
252 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM 
 MOVEMENT, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1845 TO 
 
 APRIL, 1846 (continued). 
 
 Ronge — His Treatment by Friends and Enemies — Dr. Theiner — 
 Meetings of the Romish Clergy — Resolutions — Attempt to injure 
 Czerski — Ordinance of the King of Prussia respecting the Free 
 Church — One of its Ministers fined for solemnizing a Marriage. 
 
 July 8. All is quiet in the reformed camp. The monthly 
 Journal of the Catholic Church Reform, published in Berlin 
 by A. Miiller, conjointly with Ronge and Czerski, continues to 
 hold the language of orthodox Christianity ; and there are not 
 wanting persons who hope, from Rouge's upright, candid, and 
 unprejudiced character, that the spirit as well as the letter of 
 Scripture will yet find entrance to his mind, and then assuredly 
 he will fearlessly preach whatever he honestly believes. He 
 has recently had a specimen of the extremes of human adula- 
 tion and hatred during a visit to his native place, Bishops- 
 walde. In the neighbouring town of Neisse, which he and 
 his friends entered at two o'clock on Sunday morning, for the 
 purpose of constituting a German Catholic Church, the news 
 of his arrival spread so rapidly, that a crowd assembled before 
 his windows as early as five o'clock. At ten. Rouge drove 
 to the place of meeting, where ninety-three families enrolled 
 
PROGRESS OF THE REFORM MOVEMENT. 253 
 
 themselves as members. During Ronge's sermon, the Roman 
 Catholic congregations being likewise assembled, the officiat- 
 ing priest availed himself of the opportunity to denounce the 
 reformer and his errand from the altar. The effect manifested 
 itself plainly enough, when both congregations, being dis- 
 missed nearly at the same time, met in the street ; but the 
 popukr discontent was held in check, by the presence of the 
 military then assembling for parade ; and thus Ronge, whom 
 the Roman Catholic gymnasium, scholars saluted with an 
 enthusiastic " Viva,^ reached his dwelling unmolested, though 
 his friends were edified' by hearing, on all sides, kind wishes 
 for his and their elevation to the honours of the gallows and 
 the wheel. Ronge's brothers and sisters had, on this occasion, 
 given in their adherence to the new church, and accompained 
 him in the evening to Bishopswalde ; but not without danger, 
 for showers of large stones assailed the carriages, by one of 
 which the postillion was severely wounded on the cheek, and, 
 although the carriages were closed (as tightly as foreign 
 vehicles can be), they were afterwards found to contain several 
 ponderous missiles. Ronge's reception at his native place 
 was cordial ; a report had preceded him that his hands had 
 been cut off in Neisse, and so he was obliged to afford ocular 
 demonstration of possessing both, by shaking hands, right and 
 left, with old and young, in the village. 
 
 On returning the following morning to Neisse, he found 
 the aspect of affairs totally altered. Three officers awaited 
 his arrival to invite him, in the name of their regiment, to 
 a dinner; and when, at the termination of a handsome and 
 extremely courteous entertainment, a carriage came to the 
 door, to convey the reformer to Walddorf, the country seat of 
 Count Reichenbach (the kind patron with whom Ronge spent 
 the interval which elapsed between his suspension and final 
 abjuration of the Roman church), the general comman- 
 dant conducted him to the vehicle, where the gymnasiumists 
 waited to greet him with a second " Viva /" and to whom 
 he addressed a few words of cordial acknowledgment. The 
 
254 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 whole route to Walddorf being guarded by a succession of 
 sentinels, no evil could occur to the travellers ; and, after 
 spending a couple of hours with the count and a numerous 
 company he had assembled for the occasion, Ronge and his 
 friends drove onward to Grottkau, where he formerly officiated 
 as priest. The young ladies, and the children of the town, 
 formerly his scholars, met him before the gates, and the 
 whole population seemed to have assembled before the post- 
 house to receive him, Ronge proceeded at once to the house 
 of the Lutheran clergyman, and the whole host of hurrahing 
 young people followed in his train. His more immediate 
 scholars had assumed the right to rank themselves around the 
 carriage, and, as he stepped out, each pressed forward to shake 
 him by the hand. Spending a happy quarter of an hour 
 among these attached young hearts, he again drove off, and 
 found the fanatical portion of the populace waiting his appear- 
 ance without the gates, to salute him with stones and mud, 
 so that he might bear off with him characteristic testimonials 
 of the various classes in Grottkau. Whatever we may think of 
 Rouge's doctrinal defects, it is impossible to doubt such un- 
 equivocal evidence of his moral qualifications. But, perhaps, 
 for the desirable progress of the Catholic reform movement, 
 the most hopeful occurrence which I have to relate is, the 
 decision of Dr. Theiner to separate from the Roman Catholic 
 church. This, for the latter, severe blow, was hastened, as so 
 many others have been, by the indiscreet zeal of the diocesan 
 vicar, Latussek, who, towards the end of April, wrote, de- 
 manding a contradiction from Theiner, of " the reports in 
 circulation respecting his intended junction with the German 
 Catholics; failing which, their truth would be taken for granted, 
 and his excommunication follow." Theiner, it is said, replied, 
 he would not give the demanded declaration ; that the chapter 
 might do its pleasure as regarded him ; but, if it decided on 
 hostile measures, he had five statements ready, which he like- 
 wise would lay before the public, and which might, perchance, 
 be neither agreeable nor beneficial to the chapter. The 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 255 
 
 threatened breach was apparently healed through the inter- 
 vention of Dr. Ritter (canon of the cathedral), but, on the 
 renewal of similar reports in the newspapers, and when a 
 reprint of some of Theiner's works, written assuredly in no 
 ultramontane spirit, began to appear, Latussek again launched 
 a threatening letter against the priest of Hundsfeld, which 
 occasioned his inviting his patron and churchwardens to meet 
 him on the morning of the 17th of June, when he declared to 
 them his resolution to lay down his office in the Romish 
 church, and to give intimation to that effect to the diocesan 
 vicar. This he accordingly did, and his immediate suspen- 
 sion and conditional excommunication (that is, if he do not 
 within a given time return to the bosom of the church) 
 followed, as a matter of course. 
 
 The character of Theiner, whether as a general scholar, 
 thoroughly trained theologian, eloquent writer, long-experienced 
 priest, and expert controversialist, joined to his blameless 
 life and orthodox creed, makes him the very man needed by 
 the Catholic reformers at the present crisis. Invitations from 
 Berlin and Leipsic, with very considerable temporal offers 
 (which, however, may well be deemed uninfluential with the 
 man who has voluntarily laid down the richest cure in Silesia), 
 have been declined for the present, though in the most friendly 
 terms { and a gratifying testimony to his value, especially to 
 their cause, is expressed in an address presented to him, in 
 the name of the Breslaw Catholic reformers, on the 27th ult., 
 by their most distinguished members, and in which they 
 declare their willingness to follow him and Ronge under the 
 Christian banner, and trusting to the defence of" the sword of 
 the Spirit." He has, without exactly accepting any pastoral 
 charge among them, announced his determination to remain, 
 for the present, in Breslaw, regarding Silesia as the cradle of 
 the new reformation, he himself, beyond all question, having 
 been its first mover in years gone by. It is, perhaps, a no less 
 wise than natural resolve, since nowhere else can his influ- 
 ence and his example be expected to work so powerfully as in 
 
256 PROGRESS OF T^E 
 
 his native province, and among his former clerical associates, 
 many of whom are believed to he of kindred mind with him, 
 as to the necessity of reforms in the Roman Catholic Church. 
 A very great and abiding service has been already rendered 
 to the reformed Catholic church by Dr. Theiner in a just 
 published liturgy and form of public worship for their use, 
 which justifies the expectations of the Berlin protestors, whose 
 disappointment at Theiner's declining their offered pastorate 
 led to the temporary division (mentioned in the "Echo" for July), 
 but whom this work will, it is hoped, tend to reunite. The 
 solemnity of the mass, by which he understands the celebra- 
 tion of the Lord's Supper, and which he regards as properly 
 the rallying point of the New Testament church service, is by 
 him divested of all superstitious and papal additions. He 
 professes to return to the model of the first Christian churches, 
 and therefore says, " the German Catholic worship must be 
 purged of all the pomp and glitter of outward ceremonial, and 
 adopt the noble simplicity of apostolic Christianity in their 
 room; and, without excluding the aids of music, painting, 
 and architecture, these must be only employed in so far as it 
 is compatible with a dignified simplicity, and with elevating 
 the spiritual above the material sense." On this ground, 
 splendid garments, burning of incense, signing themselves 
 with the cross, genuflexions, and other unmeaning ceremonies, 
 unknown to the first Christians, as well as the worship of the 
 host, which was introduced only in the thirteenth century, are 
 to be discontinued ; and, while all mysterious and magical 
 influences are denied to the mass, as the productions of ages 
 of gross superstition, the ordinance of a preached gospel is to 
 be restored to its place in public worship, after the reading of 
 portions of Scripture in the German tongue. The communion 
 in both kinds is given back to the laity, and the compulsory 
 auricular confession abolished. The prayers which he has 
 introduced into the liturgy are copied from those in the oldest 
 Catholic prayer-books ; and he has, with admirable ability, 
 contrived to embody in his " reformed mass" all those purer 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 257 
 
 views which have in modern times emanated from such Roman 
 Catholic theologians as V. A. Winter, of Landshut, and dean 
 and professor J. B. Hirscher, of Freiburg, to whom he openly 
 avows his obligations. 
 
 Thus the German Catholic movement has, in Theiner, gained 
 the first theologian who, to all the warmth and freedom of a 
 truly religious conviction, adds a thorough knowledge of the 
 Roman Catholic church in all its phases, and a complete 
 mastery of its scholastic divinity and traditional lore. 
 
 The conviction of the necessity of reform is indeed spread- 
 ing far and wide. In addition to the testimony borne to that 
 necessity by the pastors assembled at Radolfzell on the 23rd 
 of April, may be noted a meeting of the clergy connected 
 with the rural deanery of Linzgan, held at Salem, on the 27th 
 of March last, for the purpose of conferring on an archiepiscopal 
 pastoral letter which called their attention " to the present 
 excitement prevalent in the Roman Catholic church." The 
 meeting consisted of thirty-two clergymen, as representatives 
 of thirty-seven parishes ; and having been exhorted by Dean 
 Wocheler, of Weberlingen, to a faithful, candid, and yet 
 calm and temperate discussion of the probable causes, and 
 most suitable remedies for the present state of things, they 
 proceeded to business. The debates were warm and keenly 
 contested ; yet, the longer the discussion lasted, the more 
 evident it became, that a large proportion of the disputants 
 continued to be animated by the spirit which prevailed dur- 
 ing the whole of Wessenberg's administration of the (then) 
 diocese of Constance, and for some years after his removal. 
 After many hours spent in a free interchange of sentiments, 
 the majority agreed on the following heads of desired improve- 
 ment : — 
 
 First. The re-introduction of diocesan synods, according 
 to ancient ecclesiastical regulation. 
 
 Second. Revision and suitable alteration of the Catholic 
 public worship. 
 
 Third. An improved system of education for theological 
 
258 
 
 students, with special reference to the inculcation of a spirit 
 of Christian love, and the avoidance of a distorted devoteeism. 
 
 Fourth. The abrogation of the compulsory celibacy of the 
 clergy. 
 
 Regarding these points, the resolutionists beg respectfully 
 to inform the superior church courts of their decision, and to 
 entreat the summoning of a diocesan synod with as little 
 delay as possible. When the resolution respecting the annul- 
 ling of the law of celibacy was put to the vote, the vicar 
 of Markdorf rose, and, in a tone of solemn feeling, spoke as 
 follows : — " My brethren, in a matter so important as the pre- 
 sent, I cannot content myself with speaking a bare yes or no. 
 You are all aware that, in the course of a few days, I shall have 
 completed my 76th year. Fifty-three years are passed since I 
 entered the clerical vocation, and thirty-three years have I been 
 a member of the Linzgan chapter ; you will none of you, I 
 think, require my assurance, that I have no thoughts of 
 marrying, but study, pastoral experience, and knowledge of 
 human nature, compel me to express, as the venerable Bishop 
 Paphunzins did in the Nicene council, the earnest and well- 
 meant desire, that our church would lay no heavier burden 
 on her priests than her great founder Jesus Christ did. I 
 vote for the proposed abolition." 
 
 A ludicrously malicious attempt to injure Czerski must be 
 mentioned, viz., the publication of a brochure against him in 
 the name of his own mother. Though no one could have fan- 
 cied the good woman, who is guiltless even of the mechanical 
 art of penmanship, its author, still it was at first supposed 
 possible that priestly influence might have obtained her con- 
 sent to give her name to the compilation ; but the whole turns 
 out to be a mere fabrication, neither the mother, nor bro- 
 ther of Czerski, whose name also figured in the pamphlet, as 
 authenticating his mother's statements, having ever heard of 
 it until shown it by Czerski himself. Dr. Schreiber, professor 
 of Friburg, whose adherence to the German Catholics I re- 
 cently mentioned, although not yet deprived of his professorship, 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 259 
 
 has been forbidden to give lectures either publicly or in his own 
 dwelling, until a decision be finally come to respecting the 
 consequences involved in his defection from the church of Rome. 
 The question is likewise now pending, whether Dr. Eegen- 
 brecht, in Breslaw, shall be dismissed from that university. 
 
 But while the popish party thus shrink from suffering their 
 followers to come into contact with enlightened opponents, 
 tliey challenge, as it were, Protestants to the combat, by ex- 
 hibiting all the mummeries of their worship, with an almost- 
 forgotten, and long-disused pomp. Processions, no less than 
 pilgrimages, are the order of the day. Knights, nobles, and 
 high-born dames, are seen prostrate in the streets when the 
 host is carried past. The highest clergy display a zealous 
 humility in officiating in the most common church services, 
 and every possible device is put in requisition, to furnish the 
 illiterate with so much show and shadow as may supply the 
 lack of substantial instruction. For the more intellectual there 
 are books enough furnished, both in prose and verse. The 
 German booksellers should strike a medal in honour of Ronge ; 
 for between himself, his abettors, and his opposers, a golden 
 literary harvest is being reaped ; upwards of three hundred 
 publications, pro and con.^ are said to be in circulation ; and 
 yet Austria and Bavaria do their best to stop, Saxony and 
 some other powers to turn, the current. The two former pro- 
 hibit all which bear on the controverted subject; perhaps 
 wisely arguing, that as publications hostile to the new opinions 
 must at least advert to the statements they contradict, some 
 portion of the poison must be imbibed with the antidote. 
 But, " debar as they may, light will make its way," if not 
 through windows, at least through chinks, large enough to 
 show the darkness within. The proposed journal by R. Blom, 
 of Leipsic, which, refused by the Saxon censor, is now to 
 appear in Attenburg, has yet to prove its principles. God 
 grant that the illumination it spreads may show itself derived 
 from the pure, sunny light of heaven, and not from the poor, 
 dull, and often-distorted rays furnished by the lamp of " a 
 
260 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 vain philosophy, after the tradition of men, and the rudiments 
 of the world, but not after Christ." The present state of the 
 Lutheran church is especially deserving of attention at this 
 time, since the long-prevailing latitudinarianism, which has 
 suffered all sorts of heretical theories to emanate, without 
 reproof, both from the pulpits and pens of Lutheran divines, 
 containing, in various shades of intensity, all the gradations 
 lying between the orthodoxy of Luther and the pure deism of 
 Strauss, seems about to terminate in a decisive expulsion of 
 those who, while occupying Lutheran churches, and subscrib- 
 ing Lutheran articles of belief, are exerting every talent and 
 acquirement in representing the Scriptures, taken in their plain 
 and literal meaning, as unworthy the credence of enlightened 
 minds, and as being manifestly, though not " cunningly devised 
 fables." How many, such expulsion, if effected, will leave 
 behind, remains to be proved ; but assuredly, the bold front 
 assumed by those styling themselves the " Friends of Light," 
 or the " Protestant Friends," and the far-spreading ramifica- 
 tions of their influence which their late public meetings have 
 laid open, are calculated to excite a fear that the Lutheran 
 clerical host, if brought to the test of gospel truth, will melt, 
 like Gideon's, into a very small number. Happily, we can 
 rejoice in the thought, that even these may be more than 
 enough for God to save his Israel by (Judges vii. 6, 7). 
 
 Fermentation, discontent, and separation seem, indeed, to. 
 have an unusually large prepondrance in the composition of 
 modern society. Even the Jews are engaged in most earnest 
 conflict with each other, on the question of "reform." And, 
 while no one at all acquainted with the darkly-deep ignorance, 
 superstition, and slavish submission to rabbinical authority, 
 in which the Israelitish body is retained, in many parts of the 
 Continent, can doubt that reform is sorely needed ; still it is 
 to be feared that infidelity and "the pride of understanding" 
 form too largely component parts of the movement, to render 
 the contemplation of its progress (and it does greatly progress) 
 cheering in a religious, whatever it may be in a philosophical 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 261 
 
 point of view. It may, under these circumstances, excite less 
 surprise, that not only are Jews among the recently-announced 
 contributors to the German Catholic Church at Breslaw, but 
 that two highly respected Israelites are stated to have become 
 its members. 
 
 A late ordinance of the king of Prussia (published on the 
 20th of May) respecting the " Catholic Dissidents" (as they are 
 therein termed), marks their anomalous position. It prohibits 
 all interference with their religious freedom, but also the 
 slightest authorisation of them by government, and that ex- 
 pressly because of " the as yet undetermined tendency of the 
 religious movement." On this ground, churches and other 
 public buildings belonging to the state, are not to be thrown 
 open to them ; but neither are individuals nor communities 
 to be hindered in affording them voluntary accommodation. 
 They may baptise and bury, but both must be registered in 
 the Lutherans' church-books. Their marriages are to be, as 
 all dissenters hitherto, celebrated by Lutheran clergymen, and 
 where such are solemnized by their own preachers, they are, 
 as invalid, to be denied registration. This, however, does not 
 apply to the Rhenish provinces, where marriage is by law a 
 civil compact. Eichhornhas been fined fifty dollars (£7 10s. 
 sterling) for marrying a couple ; as we have not seen any 
 notice of similar fines being levied from Ronge, Czerski, 
 and Licht, who have all solemnized marriages, there must be 
 something peculiar in this case, or perhaps a new law on the 
 subject. 
 
262 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM 
 MOVEMENT, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1845 TO 
 
 APRIL, 1846 (continued). 
 
 Dr. Theiner's Acceptance of the Pastorship of the Breslaw Church — 
 Confession otTaith of the Berlin Minority — The Jesuits atDresden 
 — Declaration of Wittig on seceding from the Roman Church — 
 His Letter — Excesses of the People at Tarnowitz. — Distich against 
 Konge — Rouge's Reception at Frankfort sur Maine — Rong^ at 
 Stuttgardt — Attempts on his Life — Breidenbach — Dean Winter, 
 
 August 12. The events of the last month have served to 
 increase, rather than to diminish, the confidence of its friends 
 in the reform movement, proving its cause at once deeply 
 seated and widely spread ; for, as it has been well observed, "had 
 the spark ehcited by Eonge's attack on the soi-disant ' sacred 
 coat' found no tinder in the minds of his fellow-Catholics, 
 the flash would have been as evanescent as it was sudden, or 
 only burned the hand that had dared to call it forth." 
 
 The Prussian royal ordinance, by which government officers 
 were debarred from laying any hindrance in the way of the 
 German Catholics, and the nearly contemporaneous prohibition 
 of granting them the use of Lutheran churches, or any govern- 
 ment building, for the celebration of their worship, being 
 
PROGRESS OF THE REFORM MOVEMENT. 263 
 
 naturally enough considered as contradictory, many remon- 
 strances were made, as well by the advocates of religious 
 freedom against the injustice, as by the friends of social order 
 against the policy of the latter measure ; and there being, 
 moreover, good reason to apprehend that its result, viz., the 
 assembling of vast multitudes in the open air (always in the 
 immediate vicinity, and often in the churchyard of the debarred 
 churches) would lead to discontent with, if not to a breach of, 
 the laws, the prohibition has been officially withdrawn ; and there 
 is now no legal hindrance to the German Catholics holding 
 their religious meetings in Lutheran churches, with the consent 
 of the respective congregations and clergy. A still further 
 approximation to the acknowledgment of the new sect is, the 
 recent recognition of the ecclesiastical validity of their bap- 
 tisms (on the ground that the form used sufficiently responds 
 to the Christian rite), registration in the Lutheran church-books 
 being required merely for the purposes of civil order. Further, 
 in all places where popular interference, with dissentients has 
 either shown itself, or been threatened (and they are not 
 unfrequent), the civil, and, if requisite, the military power, has 
 invariably afforded them prompt protection. The Koman Catho- 
 lics, especially in Breslaw and its neighbourhood, since the 
 arrival of the new prince-bishop, seem to have adopted a 
 Nicodemian policy. The scrutinies which have been in many 
 places commenced, with a view to checking or punishing the 
 dissenters from Rome, are for the present suspended ; and the 
 principle of " let it alone, and perhaps it may die a natural 
 death," has supplanted the excommunications and fulmina- 
 tions against heresy, which were previously the order of the 
 day. 
 
 The decision which Dr. Theiner would make as to the place 
 of his future residence has, for some time, afforded the news- 
 papers an almost daily paragraph. Now, he was stated to 
 have consented to go to Berlin ; now, to have yielded to the 
 entreaties of the Leipsic congregation ; and then, again, to 
 remain true to his Breslaw friends. This last seems, at all 
 
264 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 events, to be his present resolve, as we learn from Breslaw, 
 that " on the 3rd of this month. Dr. Theiner, the much- 
 venerated, the long-desired, entered on his new pastoral sphere, 
 being introduced to the congregation by Dr. Regenbrecht, as 
 the man to whom, from the commencement of the reform 
 movement, all eyes had turned, and who had at length resolved 
 to devote himself to its further development, as pastor of the 
 Breslaw church. His election was then carried by acclama- 
 tion — the hitherto adopted, though, it must be owned, scarcely 
 suitable mode of voting, in church matters. Dr. Theiner 
 then celebrated divine service in the usual way. In his sermon 
 he enlarged on the real signification and importance of the 
 Messiah. The liturgy was the same, as to arrangement, as 
 that hitherto used; but the several prayers were selected 
 from the prayer-book, prepared by Dr. Theiner, for the use 
 of the Berlin congregation, which, both for their intrinsic 
 merit, and the happy manner in which they harmonized, found 
 unqualified approval. The sacred eucharist was'^ext cele- 
 brated, being dispensed by Dr. Theiner, assisted by curate 
 HofFrichter, to a very numerous body of communicants. Thus 
 has this highly-extolled man entered fully into the active 
 service of a cause which he formerly could only promote by 
 his writings, and his acquisition may well give rise to the 
 most sanguine hopes for its future success and prosperity. 
 
 The Berlin minority has now published its confession of 
 faith, and with the Rev. Dr. Pribill, whose views fully accord, 
 has definitely resolved on forming a separate communion. A 
 short preamble, the substance of which is, " without confes- 
 sion there can be neither be true faith, nor a true church of 
 Christ," is followed by their confession, which is simply the 
 apostles' creed, with explanations of its several clauses ; and, 
 in conclusion, they say, "we must, if we would avoid being 
 driven about by every wind of doctrine, declare openly before 
 the Lord, and all true members of his body, the church, what 
 we believe and desire. But we do not wish to debar ourselves 
 from that free and unhindered search into Scripture, that 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 265 
 
 * freedom,' we would say, ' with which the Son of God makes us 
 free' (John viii. 36). We do not assert that we can learn no 
 more ; but this we do assert, that ' other foundation can never 
 be laid than that which is already laid — Jesus Christ;' and 
 that every further development of our confession and profes- 
 sion must rest on this ground alone. We never contem- 
 plated the formation of such a symbol as that adopted by the 
 Leipsic conference. We hope never to make common cause 
 with superstition, but as little to give the hand of fellowship 
 to unbelief; and desire simply, following the sure lamp of 
 God's word, to confess, and ever be ready to avow, what is 
 the anchor of our hope and the tenour of our faith" (1 Peter 
 iii. 15). 
 
 The following important intelligence is communicated from 
 Dresden, under date of August 7, 1845 : — By the will of the 
 recently-deceased Father Grachi, confessor to the late king, a 
 very considerable legacy is bequeathed to a branch of his order 
 (the Jesuits) resident in Kothen ; and the report current some 
 time ago, that the romantically situated Castle of Wesenstein 
 is destined to become a Jesuit college, appears not to have been 
 without foundation. Among the papers of a freeman of this city 
 who died lately, has been found a printed prayer-book, entitled 
 "A Manual of Devotion, for the use of those Members of the 
 Catholic Congregation in Dresden, who belong to the Brother- 
 hood bearing the name of the ' Agony of Jesus on the Cross ;' 
 with permission of the magistrates of Dresden, 1817." On the 
 fly-leaf, facing the title-page, stands the following attestation : 
 — " On this 5th of February, anno 1843 (here followed the 
 name of the deceased), was enrolled in the meritorious brother- 
 hood of the Agony of Jesus in the chapel royal, Dresden. After 
 his death, this attest to be sent back there — Soli Deo Gloria^ 
 iii." From another note, in the middle of the book, it is evi- 
 dent that the brotherhood has existed since 1729. The disco- 
 very of the prayer-book has naturally caused a great and very 
 unfavourable impression. On the 9th instant, three sermons, 
 preached by the pastor of Schneidemiihl, were publicly burnt 
 
266 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 in the Roman Catholic church of Posen. These obnoxious 
 gospel discourses were preached at Schwersenz, to a small 
 Catholic congregation, and afterwards published by request. 
 The commotions which the papal party continued to excite in 
 Posen during Czerski's last visit, have so far answered the 
 end proposed, as to elicit a government order for his refraining 
 to preach there in time to come, without a previously-obtained 
 government permission. This has, however, been petitioned 
 against, as an infringement of the royal pledge, " not to lay 
 any impediments in the way of the German Catholics, in the free 
 exercise of their religious duties." Another congregation has 
 been added to those already existing in the grand duchy of 
 Poseh. The inhabitants of Franstadt, Lissa, Reisen, and 
 Tabarowa, have united to form a church at Franstadt, and 
 have adopted the Schneidemiihl confession of faith, but were 
 denied by the local magistracy the use of the council chamber 
 for their first meeting for worship. An addition to the clergy of 
 the new Catholic church has just been made in the person of 
 priest Wittig, who has published the following declaration : — 
 
 " Hamburg, August 19. 
 " I have struggled for years, but time has decided ; the 
 conflict for freedom of mind is ended ; and I avow my sepa- 
 ration from Rome, the Romish hierarchy, and the church, 
 to which I have belonged for seventeen years ; and hereby 
 declare my adhesion to the Christian Catholic church. But, 
 in taking leave of my beloved Catholic congregation in Ham- 
 burg, I cannot but gratefully advert to the cordial sympathy 
 of my colleague, Pastor Schiff, as well as of the committee 
 of management, and aU the members who have honoured 
 me with a friendship which I can never forget, and for 
 which I now beg to express my sincere thanks. If any 
 shall attack my character on account of the step I have 
 now taken, they are free to do so, so it be manfully and 
 honourably done ; against all fair weapons I shall know how 
 to defend myself. But I can no longer belong to the Romish 
 church, for my conscience forbids it ; and I will neither dis- 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 267 
 
 semble nor conceal what strict examination has proved to me 
 to be true. I declare, therefore, once more, with all solemnity, 
 that I abjure Eome and its hierarchy. 
 
 (Signed) " Hermann Wittig, 
 
 ^^ Late priest of the Roman Catholic congregation in Ham- 
 burg, and formerly teacher, during eleven gears, of 
 the Gymnasium at Vechta.'' 
 
 On the 24th inst. the Christian Catholics in Konigsberg, 
 having obtained the use of the cathedral during the intervals 
 of Protestant worship, held their first meeting for divine ser- 
 vice ; and it is an interesting fact, that on the same day, three 
 hundred years before, the first Protestant bishop preached his 
 first gospel sermon in that very church. Meantime, the move- 
 ment is spreading also in the south; for we learn from 
 Soleure, that sentence of banishment has been passed upon 
 Franciscus Amman, formerly a Capuchin friar, on the ground 
 of his having favoured the reform cause, and recommended it 
 both verbally and by the distribution of its publications ; while, 
 from Constance, is reported the suspension, and consequent 
 voluntary abdication of his ofiice, and abjuration of Rome, of 
 Vicar Wiirmle, in Wahlwies. The causes are variously stated ; 
 but the chief grounds for suspension appear to have been, first, 
 his declining to read from the pulpit a pastoral denunciation, 
 by his diocesan, of the German Catholics ; and, secondly, hi.s 
 having avowed, in one of his sermons, an unfavourable opinion 
 of the Sisters of Charity. He left his former vicarage on the 
 20th ultimo, to join pastor Kerbler at Ulm, who was expected 
 to celebrate the first public worship of the reformed Catholic 
 church in that city, on the 22nd. Kerbler's clerical ser- 
 vices seem to be increasingly acceptable, and his auditories so 
 numerous, as to preclude meeting in churches, even when no 
 official hindrance is offered to their being used by the " new 
 sect, " whose numerical importance commands attention alike 
 from friend and foe. 
 
 September. "We learn from Posen, under date of the 3rd 
 inst., that Czerski has declared his consent to refrain from 
 
 n2 
 
268 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 obeying any call to dispense spiritual instruction, as merely a 
 temporary submission, which his conscience will not permit 
 him to adhere to longer than to try the effect of respectful 
 remonstrance. His preaching in Schwersenz, which is not 
 interfered with, attracts very many hearers from Posen. It is 
 singular, however, that Czerski alone is debarred from preach- 
 ing in the latter place. The dissidents from Kome, in that 
 most papal city, have chosen a pastor, named Post ; and their 
 choice has been officially confirmed, on condition that he takes 
 up his residence in Posen, and not, as was intended, in Kawiez. 
 The pilgrimage to Czenstochan, on the 8th inst., was joined 
 by fifty-five persons from the city of Posen, and only forty- 
 eight from the neighbourhood, being a very small number 
 compared with former years. 
 
 Priest Wittig, lat^ of Hamburg, has again come before the 
 public, by a letter dated Magdeburg, Sept. 4, in which he thus 
 refutes the calumnies which had been published against him 
 by an anonymous correspondent of the " Altona Mercury :" 
 — " From the time of my appointment as pastor missionis in 
 Hamburg by the episcopal authorities, and acknowledged 
 as such by the senate, I have invariably held fast the prin- 
 ciple of general love and toleration, without any distinction of 
 religious confession, in opposition to all zealots whatsoever. 
 Against the exhibition in Treves, and the miracles supposed 
 to have been performed there, I spoke in the most decided 
 and open manner ; but I defended the religion in which 1 was 
 born and brought up, to the best of my power, and sought to 
 establish pure Catholic doctrine, as I understood it, against all 
 opponents, whether Pietists, Rationalists, or Rongeites. My 
 audience was at all times numerous ; and, if my delivery had 
 been so disgusting as my anonymous adversary describes, it 
 would surely have diminished. I fought for my religion so 
 long as I could find spiritual weapons wherewith to carry on 
 the contest, or my conscience allowed me to use them. The 
 Bishop of Osnabruck never suspended me from office, although 
 he prohibited my preaching for a short time, on account of 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 269 
 
 my freedom of speech. I laid down my office voluntarily, 
 and conviction alone has led me to join the German Catholics. 
 I held no correspondence with any one respecting my change of 
 views, neither did any one advise me to separate from Rome ; 
 hut I have had many painful days to endure for some time 
 past. My opponent ascribes evil motives to me ; I therefore 
 hereby declare him a malicious calumniator. I challenge him 
 to come forth from his hiding-place, and avow himself like an 
 honest German ; and then he is free to persevere in his accu- 
 sations against me. I fear not being able to disprove them ; 
 but should he succeed in convicting me of error or fault, I 
 will confess it frankly and freely before all the world. 
 
 (Signed) " Hermann Wittig, 
 
 " German Catholic pastor. ^^ 
 
 A letter from Halberstadt of Sept. 8, announces that Pastor 
 Wittig had accepted the invitation of the Roman dissidents 
 of that place, and celebrated divine service in the Holy-Ghost 
 church ; at which, besides the members of the new community, 
 very many Roman Catholics, and from six to eight hundred 
 Protestants, were present. The German Catholics have, it 
 seems, given a regular call to Wittig to remain as their pastor ; 
 which, however, he has not definitely accepted, but promised 
 to return after his visits to Berlin and Leipsic, and spend 
 some months there. 
 
 The inhabitants of Eichstadt, in Bavaria, have recently been 
 regaled with a very pompous ceremonial. The anniversary 
 of the establishment of its bishopric, which has now existed 
 1 1 00 years, was celebrated on the 7th inst. The whole city, 
 but more particularly the cathedral, was festively adorned; 
 the choir being entirely covered with a new carpet, 286 feet 
 square, embroidered by the ladies of Eichstadt and other places 
 throughout the bishopric. The solemn procession of St. 
 Willibach and St. Walburga was joined by the archbishop of 
 Munchen-Freising, the bishops of Augsburg, Spires, Wurz- 
 burg, Ratisbon, and Eichstadt, and an immense number from 
 Eichstadt, and its neighbourhood. A ^society was some time 
 
270 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 since formed in the Leitmeritz diocese, under the immediate 
 patronage of its bishop, in honour of " the Immaculate Heart 
 of the Virgin Mary," to which the inferior clergy, in a body, 
 and their most zealous adherents, have given their support. 
 But Bishop Hille has recently come forward with a new evi- 
 dence of his zeal, by commanding the introduction of so-called 
 " spiritual exercises," in which a majority of the clergy, and 
 considerable numbers of the more devout among the laity, take 
 part. The members of this godly society were convened in 
 Leitmeritz the beginning of this month, for the purpose of 
 spending eight days consecutively in the said spiritual exer- 
 cises ; among which, and certainly not the least remarkable, 
 is the subjecting themselves voluntarily to a severe mutual 
 scourging. Total silence is imposed on them during the whole 
 period of their being together ; and strict fasting, except a 
 light soup for supper, is enforced, while every species of bodily 
 convenience or recreation is forbidden. 
 
 Breslaw papers of the 3rd inst. mention, that the inn in 
 which Konge lodged while in Tarnowitz, was assailed by such 
 a cannonade of large stones, that in one room, only one window 
 of which looked to the street, stones of fifteen to twenty pounds 
 were found. One of these formidable missiles fell upon a 
 sheet of letter paper, on which a merchant was in the act of 
 writing a letter. It is somewhat remarkable, that the rioters 
 commenced their work of mischief amid loud shouts of " Long 
 live King Frederick William the Fourth ! " Ronge, meanwhile, 
 was quietly seated in an unsuspected, and therefore unattacked 
 room of the hotel, conversing with some members of the Tar- 
 nowitz Christian Catholic congregation. A commission has 
 been appointed by the Prussian government to examine into 
 the origin of these excesses, and thirty-one individuals have 
 in consequence been arrested. These are far from belonging 
 to the lowest or even middle class of citizens ; and persons of 
 even official note are asserted to have taken a lead in the 
 tumult. Every detail serves to prove that fanaticism of the 
 grossest kind prevails among the people, nor has priestly aid 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 271 
 
 been wanting to foster its growth. Report goes, that a dis- 
 tich in the Bohemian dialect, which may be thus translated, 
 
 " Take ye sticks and staves to hand. 
 Drive ye Rong^ from our land," 
 
 has been distributed through the village, and sung by the 
 children. The prince-bishop has, it is said, already begun tt) 
 feel some of the diiflculties of his ecclesiastical position, and 
 to form a more due estimate of the importance and extent of 
 the reform movement. Various propositions made by Von 
 Diepenbrock, for regaining lost ground by healing measures, 
 have met but little approval in some quarters ; although he has, 
 it is asserted, the utmost reason to be satisfied with the ready 
 co-operation of the Prussian government, and to have avowed 
 his determination to go hand-in-hand with it. Meanwhile, 
 the dissenters from Rome are increasing, not only in Breslaw, 
 where one-fourth of the Catholic population (reckoned at about 
 30,000) has joined the new sect, but throughout the whole pro- 
 vince. Congregations have been lately established at Sprottan 
 and Auras; while several other places, such as Sagan, Frank- 
 enstein, and even Patchkan, are expected speedily to follow 
 the example. 
 
 But the most remarkable occurrence of this month, in re- 
 gard to the German Catholic cause, is, Rouge's journey towards 
 the German Catholic synod in Stuttgardt, in whose proceedings 
 he has been specially invited to take a share. In proceeding 
 thither he visited various places ; and, in like manner, as during 
 his first tour through Silesia, was everywhere greeted with 
 strong manifestations of admiration from his friends, varied 
 by an occasional Romish demonstration, perhaps equally flat- 
 tering to his importance, but somewhat dangerous to his safety. 
 His arrival, however, at Frankfort-sur-Maine, has been marked 
 by circumstances too extraordinary not to deserve detailed 
 notice. It is thus described by an eye-witness : — " Shortly 
 after ten o'clock, a.m., Ronge entered our city on his way to 
 Stuttgardt, in a carriage garlanded with flowers, and followed 
 
272 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 by a train of from sixteen to twenty travelling carriages. 
 Thousands upon thousands of people awaited his arrival before 
 the gates of the city, and accompanied him with a ceaseless 
 succession of vivas to the post-house, where he alighted. The 
 rejoicings, shouts, and hurrahs of the multitude, became so 
 deafening, that Ronge at length appeared at a window in the 
 second story of an adjoining house, whence he gave a short 
 address to the waiting mass of human beings, expressive of 
 his heartfelt gratitude for the extraordinary reception he had 
 met with ; his regret that his necessarily short stay precluded 
 his replying to it as he wished; and his intention of soon 
 returning to Frankfort for a longer period. Soon after eleven 
 o'clock, a.m., he drove oiF towards Stuttgardt, but such was 
 the pressure of the crowd, as to compel passing through the 
 streets at a funeral pace, and it was not without difficulty, that 
 numbers were prevented actually stopping the carriage for the 
 purpose of touching the reformer's person." 
 
 Rouge's entrance into Stuttgardt itself, appears to have 
 been modest enough. The Wirtemburg government had also 
 decided on refusing the German Catholics the use of a church 
 to hold their conference in, though one had been granted to 
 them by the ecclesiastical authorities. The ground for this 
 refusal is, that a public celebration of divine worship, in a 
 building belonging to the established church, would be tanta- 
 mount to their recognition as a religious body, for which, in- 
 deed, they have applied, but have not yet obtained it. They 
 have been, therefore, directed to hold their proposed meetings, 
 either in some private building, or in one of the churches 
 belonging to the reformed (or Genevese) congregation. This 
 denial has, however, so essentially served the German Catholic 
 cause, that a respectable journal states : — " The interest 
 hitherto felt for the new sect, by the public generally, was 
 comparatively trifling ; but now, all at once, an eager desire to 
 aid them seems to have arisen, and petitions in favour of 
 their toleration come in from all quarters ; a fact which very 
 evidently proves that a religious movement can, by no system 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT 
 
 273 
 
 of resistance, be so eiFectually rendered harmless, as by 
 leaving it a free and unhindered course ; for, so soon as, either 
 with or without a foundation, the idea of arbitrary suppression 
 is spread abroad, the German phlegm gives place to eager 
 sympathy, and an almost expiring lamp of public interest is 
 instantly re-fanned into a flame. A petition, to which two 
 thousand signatures are already appended, has been presented 
 by the Lutheran citizens of Stuttgardt, praying that one of 
 their churches may be granted to the use of their German 
 Catholic brethren." 
 
 On the I5th, a considerable number of deputies to the German 
 Catholic synod, assembled for divine worship in the reformed 
 church, which was festively hung with flowers, and filled to 
 overflowing, although cards of admission alone procured en- 
 trance. Kerbler presided. The communion plate, presented to 
 the new congregation by some Lutheran well-wisher in the city, 
 was used, for the first time, on this occasion. Private meet- 
 ings had been held on the morning and afternoon of the 14th, 
 as well as before service on the 15th, for the purpose of 
 arranging the preliminary business (the election of a praeses, 
 and secretaries, &c.) preparatory to the public meeting, which 
 assembled at three o'clock, p.m., in the hall of the Silberburg, 
 granted by the directors of the Museum Society, which was 
 most numerously attended by persons of both sexes, and all 
 confessions. Twenty-four delegates, many of whom appeared 
 as proxies for several congregations, were present, besides de- 
 puties from London and Eotterdam, who, as may be supposed, 
 were there more as listeners than as actual participators in 
 the proceedings. On the 16th, another business meeting took 
 place, in which, however, no questions were discussed ; but the 
 time was chiefly occupied by a somewhat lengthy statement 
 of the nature and importance of German Catholicism, and a 
 reply to the often-put question, " What do the German Catho- 
 lics aim at ? " The next meeting is appointed to take place in 
 Frankfort, where many points respecting church government, 
 and a more extended organization, which were on this occa- 
 
 N 3 
 
274 
 
 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 sion merely suggested, will be more definitely settled. On 
 the 17th, the synod completed its sittings, and the solemnities 
 were terminated by divine service, conducted by Ronge and 
 Dowiat. On the 18th, Ronge and his travelling companions 
 departed from Stuttgardt, after having received many testimo- 
 nials of aiFection from his adherents. Poems, garlands, and 
 still more valuable proofs of attachment, were bestowed upon 
 him in the various companies to which he was invited, during 
 his stay in the Wirtemburg capital. At ten o'clock in the 
 morning, a great concourse of people was already assembled 
 in the Dorothen square, who greeted Ronge and his compa- 
 nions as they issued from the dwelling (which was almost co- 
 vered with garlands), with a joyful viva. A flower-wreathed 
 carriage stood in waiting to receive the reformers, and drove 
 off amid deafening shouts of " Long life to Ronge! " and es- 
 corted by several friends on horseback and in carriages. But, 
 with all his popularity, Ronge, like all great men, must be 
 content to pay the usual penalty of greatness, being both 
 envied and hated. A curious anecdote, illustrative of this, 
 may be adduced as forming an instructive contrast to the 
 almost idolatrous worship, of which, during his tour, he was 
 the object. A Frankfort paper, dated Sept. 19, states, " It is 
 singular enough, that at both extremities of the Prussian 
 dominions, at Tarnowitz and Saarlonis, attacks should have 
 been made, or intended, against Ronge." There, on the borders 
 of Galicia, the life of the real Ronge was attempted ; here, on the 
 frontiers of France, an unfortunate guitarist, whom the mob 
 chose to identify with the antagonist of Bishop Arnoldi and 
 the sacred tunic, although the poor fellow wore a moustache, 
 and was wholly devoid of all clerical appearance, was so 
 roughly handled as to escape actual danger only through the 
 intervention of the police. Indeed, the ultramontane party in 
 modern times sufficiently evidences its identity of sentiment 
 with brethren of former days. During the high solemnities 
 in Munster, the party pointed to the cage, yet hanging on the 
 tower of St. Lambert's church, in which the unfortunate 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 275 
 
 anabaptists, John of Leyden, Bockholt, &c., groaned out their 
 earthly existence, with a meaning glance, which the Roman 
 Catholic population would have no difficulty in interpreting. 
 
 The " Elberfeld News" informs us, that " the late Roman 
 Catholic priest, Breidenbach, of Strutt, a man of distinguished 
 oratorical powers, and possessed not only of the love of his 
 parishioners, but of the respect and esteem of his ghostly 
 superiors, having very recently forsaken the Roman for the 
 German Catholic church, has accepted a call to preside over 
 that branch of it which exists here, and was received to-day 
 in a really magnificent manner. The discharge of nearly 
 thirty pieces of ordnance, and a cortege of above ten thousand 
 persons, whose vivas rent the air, hailed his approach to the 
 city. The German Catholic cause has obtained, by the acqui- 
 sition of Breidenbach, a powerful support, not merely in Iser- 
 lohn, but through the surrounding district, where many con- 
 gregations exist, and more are in contemplation. A new one 
 was definitively organized on the 7th inst. in our neighbouring 
 town, Hagen." The bishop of Mayence has also deemed it 
 his duty to announce to his clergy the apostacy of one of their 
 brethren, the late Dean Winter, in Alzei, from the Roman 
 Catholic church. The exhortations and admonitions with 
 which the notification is accompanied, are singularly mild; 
 and, whilst they are exhorted to pray for the restoration of 
 their erring brother to the bosom of the true church, the new 
 Catholic sect, to which he has jomed himself, is adverted to in 
 much more moderate terms than in the ban lately published 
 by the bishop of Fulda. 
 
 Rhenish journals mention, that Rouge's writings, whether in 
 French or German, have been seized on the borders of France, 
 because they might assist in introducing one more religious 
 sect into that country, which has too many already. Even 
 those which were under cover to individual Protestants, were 
 refused admission, and, every application to the minister 
 proving fruitless, the writings were finally disposed of by 
 committing them to the flames. 
 
276 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM 
 MOVEMENT, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1845 TO 
 
 APRIL, 1846 (continued). 
 
 Attack on Rong^ and his Friends at Gernsheim — ^Political Position 
 of the Catholic Dissidents — Entertainment to Rong^ at Darm- 
 stadt — Resolutions passed by the Dresden Deputies — The late 
 Baron Giovanelli — Free Church Movements in various places — 
 Rough's Reception at Constance — Meeting of the German Catho- 
 lics at Offenbach — Leipsic Fair — Church at Breslaw — Meeting at 
 Berlin — Counsellor Galli's Address — Romish Legends — Letter of 
 Czerski — Death of the Archbishop of Cologne — Sketch of his 
 Life and Character. 
 
 October. While Czerski, in Western Prussia ; Pribill, in 
 Berlin ; Theiner, in Silesia ; and Licht, in the Rhenish pro- 
 vinces; with very many holding the same purely evangelical 
 views, are devoting every energy to promote the true Bible 
 prosperity of the Apostolic Catholic church, Ronge, accom- 
 panied by his brother, and Dowiat, are still engaged in what 
 may justly be termed a triumphant procession through the 
 south of Germany; and not without experiencing, as very 
 recent accounts inform us, the dangers, as well as honours 
 of greatness. From Worms, for example, where he received 
 
PROGRESS OF THE REFORM MOVEMENT. 277 
 
 the most unbounded and flattering attention, he was attended 
 as far as Gernsheim by above two hundred friends and 
 admirers, who thence intended to return home, per steam- 
 boat, in the evening ; but the most fanatical attack was made 
 upon them by an infuriated populace, with whom, according 
 to custom, women and policemen joined, and not only stones, 
 but knives, were used in the melee. The coolness and intre- 
 pidity of the gens-d'armerie alone prevented much bloodshed ; 
 but the disgraceful outrage must necessarily be examined, 
 and, if possible, its repetition prevented ; though how, when 
 the mob is known to be but the instrument of those who 
 should know better, is a question easier put than answered. 
 The Friends of Light are, by late government regulations, con- 
 demned to inactivity and comparative silence, for the present ; 
 no public meetings, no formation of branch societies, no 
 missionary tours in the cause of light, are suffered to take 
 place ; while the principles advocated, and the changes desired 
 by the " Protestant Friends," are under investigation. Nor 
 is there in those prohibitions anything inimical to religious 
 liberty, in as far as that is guaranteed by existing laws in 
 Prussia ; for the clergy, having no colleague in country 
 parishes, ought to attend to parochial duties, which is incom- 
 patible with constant travelling. Political meetings are 
 illegal ; ecclesiastical meetings can only take place by order 
 of the constituted ecclesiastical authorities ; associations and 
 branch societies must be approved before they can legally 
 exist : therefore the government could, and has, laid a 
 restraining hand on all the operations of the Friends of Light, 
 without any new arbitrary enactment, but merely by enforcing 
 long-existing ones. The political position of the Catholic 
 dissidents is yet a very equivocal one. The Saxon chamber 
 has debated on the question of their recognition, as a religious 
 community, and decided against the measure at present, on 
 the ground, that their principles, as a body, are not as yet 
 sufficiently defined, and permanently settled, to admit of 
 pronouncing their doctrine and worship evangelical. There is 
 
278 l^ROGRESS OF THE 
 
 much talk of a general council being summoned in Germany, 
 for the friendly discussion of religious differences, and to 
 facilitate, if possible, the adoption of some general course of 
 policy, by which religious liberty, properly so called, may be 
 preserved, and political intrigues, under the name of religion, 
 be guarded against. Certes, a problem of difficult solution 
 in our days, in which Jesuitical and Socialist efforts are 
 mining society in opposite directions. The former are specially 
 active in Bohemia at present, whether in their own name, or 
 in that of " the Brotherhood of the Immaculate Heart of the 
 blessed Virgin," for which they busy themselves to procure 
 adherents, by the distribution of tracts, pictures, and miracle- 
 working medallions, which find, of course, high favour with 
 an ignorant and superstitious populace. But, despite of all 
 their craft, and really praiseworthy diligence in their calling, 
 a reaction has begun. Konge's writings have, no one knows 
 how, eluded the vigilance of the literary Douane, and found 
 entrance among the people. Many of the ancient noblesse are 
 believed never to have abjured, in heart, the doctrine which 
 their forefathers sealed with their blood; and the spirit of 
 Huss is suspected yet to burn purely, though secretly, in 
 many a Bohemian heart : if so, we may yet live to receive 
 good news from that far, and most interesting country. 
 
 On the 8th inst., Ronge, Dowiat, and Hieromini, were 
 entertained at Darmstadt with great pomp ; dinner was ordered 
 for 250 guests, and a vocal concert, w"hich, on account of 
 unfavourable weather, could not be held in the open air, as 
 intended, took place in the Great Hall. 
 
 Consistorial Counsellor Snethlage left Berlin some months 
 since, commissioned by the king to make a journey of exami- 
 nation and observation, throughout Germany, in order, not so 
 much to promote or procure the formation of a general 
 German ecclesiastical council, as for the purpose of entering 
 into more intimate relations with the other Protestant states 
 belonging to the German confederation ; and thereby to concert 
 what measures may be most conducive to the general weal, in 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 279 
 
 the present perplexed and excited state of religious feeling ; 
 and, more particularly, what line of general policy the interests 
 of Christianity demand to be adopted toward the various 
 phases of the Lutheran church. 
 
 On dit, that Counsellor Snethlage is commissioned to invite 
 deputies from all the Protestant states, whether in the north 
 or south of Germany, to meet together at Berlin, where a 
 friendly conference is intended to he held, in which all eccle- 
 siastical questions shall he freely discussed, examined, and, if 
 advisable, decided upon, in as far, at least, as general principles 
 and state policy are involved in them ; but, whatever may be 
 resolved on, as the conference is to maintain the character of 
 a private friendly consultation, no decision which the majority 
 may come to shall be regarded as in any way binding on the 
 governments who may send deputies thither, or as in the 
 smallest degree prejudicial to the individual independence of 
 the existing ecclesiastical establishments in the several states. 
 Still, such a conference, however free the principles, or broad 
 the basis, on which it may be formed, cannot but be regarded, 
 under present circumstances, as of high importance. It is 
 rumoured, that the time of meeting will be postponed, at 
 the request of the Saxon government, until the rising of the 
 Saxon estates-general. 
 
 The foUowmg resolutions were passed by the Dresden de- 
 puties on the 12th of October, in their 458th sitting, "Where- 
 as we learn, by an intimation from the cultus minister, that 
 the concession of churches to the German Catholics for their 
 worship, although recommended both by the council and depu- 
 ties of this city, has been refused, an almost unanimous vote 
 has been passed this day (there being only four dissentients), 
 to solicit the town council to prepare and present a petition 
 to the estates-general, praying that the German Catholics may 
 be recognised by the state." The interest taken by the 
 public in the discussions of the senate is unexampled ; the 
 galleries are always crowded, and, in general conversation, the 
 debates form the chief and most eagerly-pursued subject. 
 
280 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 A legacy of several estates, near Kattern, producing some 
 35,000 florins revenue, which lately fell to the Jesuits, on 
 condition of an establishment of that order being erected with- 
 in ten years in the Treves diocese, has drawn their attention 
 to the southern portion of the Tyrol ; and, a few days ago, 
 they purchased the house of professor Ringler, in Trient, for 
 40,000 florins, which has, for some years past, been occupied 
 as a private seminary. The consent of the episcopal ordinary 
 is scarcely doubtful, as all the arrangements for the purchase, 
 with a view to this new establishment, were made with the 
 assistance of the vicar-general. 
 
 The death of Baron Joseph de Giovanelli was lately an- 
 nounced, but with little comment, in the daily papers ; and 
 yet, were it not that the Tyrol press is as stolidly dumb as 
 the Italian, did it partake, in any measure, the warmth and 
 energy which distinguish the Swiss, assuredly as many con- 
 flicting opinions would have clashed over his grave as not 
 long since made themselves heard over that of Sen, of Ebersol, 
 between whom and the baron there was much similarity, 
 although the latter rose as high above the Swiss tribune in 
 educational refinement, as he did in social rank. But, who- 
 ever may be destined to write the history of the last twenty 
 years, in reference to the religious struggles by which the 
 Tyrol has been distinguished, will do well to mark two events 
 — making, as it were, the prelude to that ever-widening, in- 
 creasingly complexed system of confused circles, now over- 
 spreading every land in which the German tongue is spoken — 
 two events which must ever be intimately connected, in Tyrol's 
 history, with the name of Giovanelli, — the recalling of the 
 Jesuits, and the exiling of the Zillerthal Protestants, to whom 
 a hospitable asylum was opened in Prussian Silesia, at the 
 very time when Prussia's old Lutheran subjects were forced 
 to seek a similar place of repose from ecclesiastical oppression 
 across the wide ocean. The most entire seclusion of the Tyrolese 
 from all communion with men of other lands and sentiments, 
 was the watchword of Joseph de Giovanelli. The religious 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 281 
 
 movements of our times have suggested to a Berlin theolo- 
 gical student, named Schwarz, the idea of drawing out a table, 
 displaying, in a distinct and easily comprehensible manner, 
 the Christian church, with all her sections and sub-sections, 
 from the apostolic down to the German Catholic, and Friends- 
 of-Light communities. It enables one to perceive, indeed, 
 that the religious excitement of our day is no novelty, since, 
 from the commencement of the Christian era, oiFences have 
 arisen, and heresies have spread ; but it likewise evinces, 
 that at no previous period were religious distinctions so much 
 appreciated, or so largely adopted, by the million. Happy 
 those who, amid the fluctuations of human opinion, and the 
 ever-changing "winds of doctrme," have learned to draw 
 deeply, constantly, and in full assurance of faith, from that 
 infallible source of instruction — the Holy Scriptures, from 
 searching which, no sincere student was ever sent empty 
 away. 
 
 Accounts from Silesia state, that very many Bohemian 
 families have left their native land on account of religion, and 
 entered the Leignitz district, with the design of uniting with 
 the Silesian Catholic dissidents. The government of Prague, 
 it is said, formerly applied to have them delivered up, but 
 the president of Liegnitz, Monsieur de Witzloben, having 
 applied to the Prussian government for instruction, received 
 for answer, that although there assuredly existed between 
 Austria and Prussia a mutual agreement for the delivery of 
 criminals, emigrants, for conscience' sake, could not be re- 
 garded in that light by Prussia, who herself guarantees reli- 
 gious freedom to her own subjects of every confession. In 
 consequence of which reply, the Prague authorities have de- 
 sisted from their demand, having no civil offence to allege 
 against these fugitives from ecclesiastical tyranny. That 
 they will not long remain without followers, seems hopeful, 
 from the following statement, which we have from a respect- 
 able source: — " It is well known, that those noble Bohemian 
 families, who, two hundred years ago, were forced into the 
 
282 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 Eoman Catholic church by those powerful persuasives, fire 
 and sword, are, even to the present day, distinguished by a 
 peculiar moderation and reserve in their religious profession, 
 which indicates more conformity with the outward observances 
 than zeal for the dogmas of the Romish church. Among those 
 noble descendants of the army of martyrs, old recollections 
 are said to have been powerfully revived by the late religious 
 movements, and, uniting with patriotic feelings, to threaten 
 important results at no very distant date. Nor are the Bible 
 Christians of the Catholic church extirpated, although they 
 have been silenced." 
 
 " The Frankfort Journal" mentions, that the village of 
 Jerschendorf, near Neumark, in Silesia, having unanimously 
 embraced German Catholicism, considered that according to law, 
 the village church belonged to them ; but, when they were on 
 the point of commencing divine service, they were interdicted 
 by the authorities, who were aided by several gens d'armes. 
 On the 1st, the people celebrated the anniversary of the pub- 
 lication of Rouge's letter to the bishop of Treves, declaring that 
 all the attempts to suppress the second reformation would now 
 prove altogether vain. The 5th of October was an important 
 day inBreslaw, as the first public divine service was performed 
 in the new church. The large edifice was crowded to excess, 
 the congregation offering a faithful representation of the 
 adherents of the new church, as persons of all ages, and 
 belonging to every different class of society and religious 
 persuasion, were present. The German Catholic congrega- 
 tion held divine service in Reisen, for the first time, on the 3rd 
 of this month. A Magdeburg paper announces, that the 
 prince-bishop, Yon Diepenbrock, has threatened the late priest 
 Hitschke with excommunication and degradation, which, 
 unless the prince-bishop relent, or the priest return to the bosom 
 of the true church, will be executed within three weeks, with 
 all the formalities of " bell, book and candle-light." 
 
 A curious report has reached the Rhenish provinces, that 
 in one of the fringe-makers' shops, in Rome, three costly 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 283 
 
 roses now attract general attention. It is whispered, they 
 are commanded by the papal high treasurer, and destined 
 (after consecration) as gifts to three German sovereigns, who 
 have merited special favour with the Roman pontiff, by their 
 stern opposition to the reform movement. Two Protestant 
 potentates are even named as intended recipients of this dis- 
 tinction ; there is, indeed, no saying to what extent of folly 
 fanaticism may go. The holy coat of Treves is sufficient proof 
 that superstition can lead to imbecility ; but, while his Holiness 
 manufactures roses for others, I suspect he finds thorns 
 enough sown in his path by the voice and pen of Ronge. 
 
 The city and neighbourhood of Constance have lately presented 
 a scene of great agitation. Ronge arrived there on the 16th 
 inst., but was met, so soon as he entered the city, by an official 
 prohibition to discourse publicly to the people. It was there- 
 fore determined to hold a meeting across the frontier, on the 
 free soil of Switzerland. The day appointed was the 18th, 
 and the place of meeting a large meadow belonging to the 
 parish of Emmishof, and separated from the city wall of Con- 
 stance only by a brook. At noon, crowds were seen hurrying 
 from all quarters, but most numerously from the city, and 
 ranging themselves in dense masses round the platform which 
 had been erected for the speakers. At the same time, a mob 
 of ragged girls and boys, attended by every species of veritable 
 canaille, assembled on a hill on the Baden side of the brook, 
 and prepared to exercise their talents in a most boisterous 
 demonstration, in which they were encouraged, if not sup- 
 ported, by some who ought to have known better. 
 
 Shortly after twelve o'clock, Ronge, his travelling compa- 
 nions, and some of the Constance German Catholics, ap- 
 peared on the platform, and were received with loud vivas by 
 the waiting multitude, amounting, at least, to three thousand 
 persons. Mr. Fickler, a native of Constance, began to address 
 them on the occasion of their coming together, but was greeted, 
 first by hisses, and then by louder interruptions. He recog- 
 nised and named some of the ringleaders, in the hope of 
 
284 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 shaming them into silence, but without effect: on which, some 
 sturdy fellows resorted to the argumentum ad hominem, and, 
 seizing the foremost yellers with a vigorous grasp, fairly pitched 
 them to the other side of the stream. On this, the Baden 
 municipal guard showed symptoms of an inclination to cross 
 the frontier in defence of their aggrieved fellow-citizens ; but a 
 brave Swiss called out, in a stentorian voice, ^^ Restez vous la! 
 "foreign bayonets are neither needed nor welcome on our 
 republican soil." Ronge now came forward to speak, but 
 his words were drowned by a fearful yelling from the city wall, 
 which was kept up, without intermission, by a rabble of young 
 and old, during the whole of his address. In vain did the 
 committee solicit the police to put a stop to the tumult. 
 Their chief replied, he had got no orders, and could not act 
 without them. 
 
 Ronge's speech was ended, but not so the uproar ; when a 
 somewhat corpulent gentleman, armed with a good stout stick, 
 advanced boldly to the mob, and fairly drove them from their 
 position, the police looking quietly on. Dowiat next advanced 
 to the front of the platform, and delivered a most animated 
 harangue, displaying infinitely greater talents for public speak- 
 ing than Ronge possesses. The aim of both addresses was 
 to show the necessity of entering the lists against the Roman 
 hierarchy ; but Dowiat was not content with that, but launched 
 out with equal zeal against priestcraft and pietists, concluding a 
 very florid, but certainly eloquent speech, with a spirit-stirring 
 appeal to all present to join the reformers in the spread of 
 pure Christianity. Mr. Fickler once more addressed his 
 countrymen ; and, after bitterly lamenting that the Baden 
 authorities, while they denied to a native German the right 
 of speaking his sentiments on German soil, could yet suffer 
 a rude mob to insult him and a peaceable assembly, on the 
 friendly ground of Switzerland, gave the signal for a viva in 
 honour of the land of Tell, which was responded to with an 
 enthusiasm which seemed to shake both earth and sky. The 
 meeting was then dismissed with the intimation, that the 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 285 
 
 German Catholics of Constance having heen refused the use of 
 any place of worship in their native city, would celebrate 
 their first public service, the following day, in the Swiss village 
 of Tagerweilen, when Eonge would preach. It is deserving 
 observation, that it was on the 18th of October, that day so 
 generally celebrated throughout Germany as the anniversary 
 of a release from French oppression, that this exercise of 
 local tyranny was displayed towards the champion of moral 
 freedom. 
 
 At the meeting held by the German Catholics in Offenbach, 
 on occasion of Rouge's visit, 13,000 cards were issued for the 
 public worship at which he presided. The Lutheran ladies of 
 the city presented the new community, whom they hailed as a 
 sister church, with a splendid silver goblet, to be used in the 
 now-restored participation of the cup in the eucharist, of 
 which they had been so long deprived. 
 
 The great Leipsic fair, which was held the beginning of this 
 month, afforded a favourable opportunity for making many 
 strangers acquainted with the principles and progress of the 
 German Catholics. By far the greater proportion of the 
 foreigners who visit the fair, belong to the Romish commu- 
 nion ; and, although the elder portion are faithful adherents of 
 popery, that is far from being the case with the younger indi- 
 viduals, whether Belgians, French, Americans, or Italians, who 
 crowd this German mart; and such of them as understood 
 German, were naturally led by curiosity to attend the German 
 Catholic worship. Yet, if we may judge by the frequent repe- 
 tition of their visits, curiosity alone could not have been the 
 motive, and almost all of them carried away a portrait of Ronge, 
 whose bold character seemed to have especially won their 
 regard. 
 
 The Christian Catholic church in Breslaw has received 
 official intimation, ' ' that their preachers will no longer be 
 permitted to celebrate divine service, except in the places over 
 which they have been nominated pastors; and it therefore 
 behoves them to meet this difficulty, by having a joint-pastor 
 
286 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 ordained over several congregations, since it is resolved by 
 government no longer to suffer the ambulatory spiritual 
 services of the Christian Catholic church." But, while this 
 check is given to the dissidents, the meetings of the Koman 
 Catholic Heading (or Boromans) Society, are likewise for- 
 bidden. Eeports are current in the west of Germany, that 
 measures of a hostile nature are preparing against Konge on 
 account of his last publication, " the Appeal," regarding 
 which, it is said, legal proceedings will be instituted, on the 
 ground of its containing statements of a libellous nature. We 
 may feel sure that the Eomanists will do their utmost to injure 
 him ; but it seems more than doubtful, whether the proposed 
 measure may not have a directly contrary effect, by giving 
 him and his sentiments a wider range. 
 
 The first meeting of the provincial synod of the German 
 Catholic congregations of Brandenburg, Pomerania, and the pro- 
 vince of Saxony, was held in Berlin, on the 24th of this month. 
 There were twenty-seven deputies present, and M. Branner, 
 pastor of the largest Berlin congregation, opened the proceed- 
 ings by a short address; after w^hich, Chancery Counsellor 
 Galli, who acted as praeses, next detailed the object for which 
 they were assembled. 
 
 " In strict adherence," continued he, " to Christianity, as 
 laid down in the Scriptures, we desire to form a church on 
 such enlarged principles of freedom as may enclose the 
 world. But, to this end, the church must be united ; and all 
 its members combine to fix its fundamental principles on an 
 immovable basis. Issuing from the bosom of the Komish 
 church, the attainment of real unity and universality was the 
 normal idea of the spiritual movement. The general synod, 
 which met at Leipsic on the 26th of March last, propounded 
 the first principles of doctrine, ritual, and ecclesiastical con- 
 stitution, but this groundwork required further extension 
 and development ; provincial and national synods have ever 
 served to the establishment and maintenance of permanent 
 foundations ; and, as Silesia led the way in forming these, so 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 287 
 
 Western and Eastern Prussia speedily followed : next came 
 Saxony, with statutes of its own ; and lastly, Southern and 
 Western Germany, the result of whose synodal meeting at 
 Stuttgardt has not yet been made public. These examples 
 we are now met to copy. The three here represented pro- 
 vinces contain nineteen congregations, which, with the excep- 
 tion of three, have all sent deputies to this meeting, three lay- 
 men and one pastor from each ; and, having thus succinctly 
 touched on the motives which have brought us here, it may be 
 well to proceed at once to the business of the meeting." 
 
 After this opening speech, various necessary regulations 
 were next agreed to ; such as, that the votes should be given, 
 not by congregations, but individually; that the president 
 should have a casting vote ; and, that the agreement of two- 
 thirds should be sufficient to pass a resolution ; and the praeses 
 read a letter from Bonge, in which he lauds synodal arrange- 
 ments, and communicates in how far he had then been able to 
 advance the reform cause in the south and west of Germany. 
 Suabia he pronounces completely dead ; but the Ehine districts 
 becoming daily more alive to its importance. After this, the 
 conference, properly speaking, commenced ; but the resolutions 
 passed would occupy too much space in detail. With respect 
 to doctrine, the decisions of the Leipsic conference have been 
 followed. As regards ecclesiastical constitution, the majority 
 of opinions seem inclined towards a hybrid between Congre- 
 gationalism and Presbyterianism ; for, while each congrega- 
 tion is to preserve its individual independence, the internal 
 management will be conducted by a committee of manage- 
 ment very much resembling Presbyterian elders, which, how- 
 ever, are to be chosen by the members at large. The fact, 
 that the German Catholic church contains two classes of 
 persons wholly opposed to each other in religious sentiments, 
 and only united under one banner in respect of opposition to 
 Rome, cannot be too closely kept in mind. And the views 
 advocated by their respective leaders, Czerski and Ronge, 
 have, it is hoped, been already sufficiently developed in the 
 
288 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 preceding 'pages. Yet even error may be more highly coloured 
 than truth requires. Thus, Ronge has been represented as 
 declaring publicly, that "if the Roman Catholics have a pope 
 at Rome, the Protestants have made a book their pope, which 
 book is but a dead letter." It is true that Ronge used these 
 words, though not, we believe, in reference to the Bible, but to 
 the Augsburg confession, which the anti-Lutheran-party quite 
 as much oppose as Ronge can, and as openly accuse their 
 orthodox brethren of idolizing it. It will be seen by the 
 account given in another chapter of this work (the xvith), 
 that a large proportion of German Protestants venture on as 
 bold a denial of some parts of Scripture truth, ^even while main- 
 taining the Bible to be the only book of reference in matters 
 of faith, as the most determined Rongeite can possibly do. 
 
 But, while the German Catholics are submitting even sacred 
 and inspired doctrines to the test and authority of human 
 reason, their late Roman Catholic brethren are helping forward 
 the cause of infidelity^ quite as effectually by an opposite con- 
 duct. Thus we learn that, in the Rhenish provinces, the 
 ultramontane party can devise no better way of beating Ger- 
 man Catholic pamphlets out of the field, than by circulating 
 the most ridiculous legends among the populace. Two may 
 suffice to give an idea of the rest : — "In Mayence," says one of 
 those edifying little books," a Roman Catholic girl was servant 
 in a Lutheran family, and had the misfortune to fall danger- 
 ously sick. Being unable to leave her bed, she earnestly 
 desired to partake of the sacrament, but the heretic family 
 would listen to no entreaty, and obstinately denied her the 
 desired spiritual comfort. Upon which, the poor girl prayed 
 to St. Barbara, and, behold, the saint appeared with cup and 
 wafer (attended by two angels as servitors), and adminstered 
 the sacred eucharist to the longing believer, despite the church 
 prohibition of females venturing to dispense the sacrament." 
 The other tale treats of St. Gertrude, and is as follows : " One 
 day a priest, in breaking the bread at the altar, suddenly per- 
 ceived, to his great confusion, that he had lost a piece about 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 289 
 
 the size of a bean. All search was vain, and so, in his distress, 
 he applied to St. Gertrude to solve the mystery. The saint 
 smiled. He repeated his question. She smiled again ; hut, 
 at length, softened by his anxiety, informed him, that Christ 
 himself had brought the missing piece of consecrated bread, 
 and fed her with the sacred food." Such follies might well be 
 laughed at, were they not equally dishonouring to God and 
 hurtful to men ; for, when related with all the solemnity of truth 
 by priestly lips, must not the educated Catholic feel tempted 
 to place the real miracles of the Sacred Scriptures in the same 
 category, and thus become a sceptic of the true as well as the 
 false ? As some relief to Christian feeling, shocked and pained 
 by such exhibitions of fraud on the part of the priests, and 
 imbecility on that of the people, the following letter from 
 Czerski, published in the December number of the " Continental 
 Echo," may here find a place. It is dated the 27th of October, 
 and is addressed to a lady through whom the kind contributions, 
 sent by some English Christians to the editor of the "Echo," 
 had been transmitted to Czerski : — 
 " Honoured Madam, 
 *'I learn, from your esteemed lines of the 17th, that s6me 
 kind friends in England have destined seventy-three dollars, 
 Prussian money, for my benefit, and you desire to know how 
 that may be safest sent. * * * You 
 
 further request that I would furnish you with some notices of 
 the progress of the Catholic reform, which I would gladly do, 
 were it not that I am ignorant how much is already known 
 by you, and consequently it might be needful to enter into a 
 greater detail than I can at present command time for. I am 
 overwhelmed with business; but as I shall of course write my 
 thankful acknowledgment of this English bounty when I have 
 received it, I shall then, I hope, be more at leisure to give the 
 desired intelligence. Meantime, I will only state, in general 
 terms, that the blessed truth, that ' the gospel of Jesus Christ 
 is the power of God unto salvation to all that believe,' receives 
 its confirmation in the hearts and lives of those in this region, 
 
 o 
 
290 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 who have fixed their hope and trust in Jesus Christ, the Son 
 of the living God. In this belief, and avowal of positive 
 Christian doctrine, stand firm, the churches in Schneidemiihl, 
 Posen, Kawiecz, Bromberg, Thorn, Grandenz, Nackel, Polichno, 
 Chodziesen, Freystadt, Schwedrens, Lissor, andReissen; while, 
 I rejoice to add, individuals are from day to day brought to join 
 this profession, from seemg that whosoever forsakes Christ, for- 
 sakes all, and will himself be forsaken, and become an orphan, 
 being deprived of his heavenly Father. The hierarchy, indeed, 
 rages and storms against us, but we stand fast, trusting in God ; 
 and, 'if He be for us, who can be against us?' The churches 
 which have adopted the confession of positive Christian, for 
 which I contend, are, of course, forsaken by those who call them- 
 selves the Friends of Light and Reason ; and as the Romanists 
 seek to injure us by all possible means, our difficulties are not 
 few, especially in regard of pecuniary means. Still we know 
 that the kingdom of God is not of this world; that it was 
 not built up by silver and gold ; and, therefore, though we be 
 forsaken by the world, we cast ourselves with full comfort of 
 hope upon God, our faithful helper in every time of need, 
 knowing that He will not leave us to suffer any real injury. 
 We have, with the help of God, built quite a new church, which 
 is already finished, with the exception of the interior arrange- 
 ments. The whole of the money necessary to the building, 
 was obtained by voluntary contributions ; and, though it is truly 
 all expended, yet we doubt not that God will yet raise up 
 friends who will feel for our necessities, and be willing to lend 
 a helping hand to their needy brethren. I can say no more at 
 present, but hope to write again soon ; and, with feelings of the 
 truest esteem and respect, I remain, honoured madam, your 
 devoted servant, (Signed) "J. Czerski," 
 
 The ultramontane party has lost one of its staunchest and 
 most conscientious and respected supporters, by the death of 
 Clement Augustus Baron von Drost Vischering, archbishop of 
 Cologne, who, after a long and painful illness, expired on the 
 19th inst. The deceased prelate was deposed from the exer- 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 291 
 
 cise of his archiepiscopal functions by the late king of Prussia, 
 on account of his pertinacious adherence to papal commands 
 in the law of mixed marriages, thereby placing the inferior 
 clergy of his diocese in the painful dilemma of acting in direct 
 opposition to the law of the land, or breaking their oath of 
 obedience and submission to episcopal authority. But, though 
 deposed, and even exiled for a time, the pope refused to 
 appoint a successor to the archbishopric, which was therefore 
 administered by Bishop Geissel, as coadjutor and successor. 
 Some account of the last days of a man who made such a stir 
 both in the political and ecclesiastical world, may deserve a 
 place in these pages, especially as his strong opposition to 
 mixed marriages in the Rhenish provinces assuredly laid the 
 foundation of that soreness of feeling in regard to Roman 
 tyranny, which made the proposal and example of a Catholic 
 dhurch, independent of papal rule, so gladly hailed by 
 thousands who had long sighed for emancipation, but dreaded 
 abjuring long-accustomed habits, and time-honoured names. 
 The suiFerings of the venerable prelate were so very great for 
 some weeks previous to his demise, as to draw from him the 
 earnest desire, though mingled with perfect submission to the 
 divine will, that he might soon be released jfrom them by 
 death. Some days previous to his decease, numbers of 
 devotees sought admission to his dying couch, in order to 
 obtain the, in their estimation, so efficacious episcopal bene- 
 diction. But, in the near approach of death, which doubtless 
 dissipates ecclesiastical, no less than other illusions, the con- 
 sciousness of human weakness overmastered archiepiscopal 
 pride, and he invariably followed the accorded blessing by a 
 request to be remembered in the prayers of his suppliants. 
 The funeral of the archbishop took place at Munster (where 
 he had resided for some years), on the 23rd inst. The corpse 
 was borne by priests to the cathedral, where the altar and 
 pulpit were hung with black. The consecrating bishop, 
 Claessen (sent from Cologne for the purpose, by the present 
 archbishop, who, to general surprise, did not come in person), 
 
 o 2 
 
292 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 read tlie mass for the soul, and prebend Kellerman the funeral 
 oration, after which the coffin was lowered into the vault in 
 front of the high altar. An immense crowd witnessed the 
 ceremony. During the days in which the prelate lay in state, 
 the chamber was filled by a constant succession of such as 
 curiosity, reverence, or superstition, attracted to view the 
 imposing spectacle. A certain party in Cologne have met a 
 severe disappointment in the testamentary arrangement of the 
 archbishop, which fixed his funeral to be held wherever he 
 might die, as they had counted on making his burial service 
 in Cologne the occasion of an ultramontane demonstration. 
 By a codicil to his last will, the deceased prelate thus 
 expressed his wishes respecting his funeral : — " I wish to be 
 buried where I die ; the bell tolling, and all other burial re- 
 quisites to be arranged with as little expense as is consistent 
 with propriety, and the usual prayers to be employed. I 
 desire that a simple graven slab may be placed on my last 
 resting-place, with no other inscription than the following 
 words, in Roman characters : (Translation) ' Here lie the 
 mortal remains of Archbishop Clement Augustus, of Cologne, 
 Legatus Natus of the holy Roman chair, and Baron von Drost 
 Vischering, born January 21, 1773, and died 
 Pray for his poor soul.' " 
 
 The paper containing the above was found beside the arch- 
 bishop when he expired. 
 
 The following sketch appeared in the "Algemeine Zeitung :" 
 — " It was but in September last, that Maximilian Caspar, the 
 brother of the archbishop, celebrated his episcopal jubilee; 
 and seldom, perhaps, has one family rejoiced in three such 
 eminent members, or lost them all by death within so short 
 a period. The death of three distinguished brothers within 
 the space of six weeks, without the intervention of any 
 epidemic, assuredly belongs to the rare occurrences of this 
 world. The first called away, was Maximilian Baron von 
 Drost, royal Prussian councillor ; the second, the Imperial 
 Austrian Lieutenant Field-Marshal Baron Joseph; and the 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 293 
 
 third, Clement Augustus (the not more exalted by ecclesias- 
 tical dignity than by historical celebrity), archbishop of Cologne. 
 The reverend prelate was born on January 21, 1773, at the 
 paternal Castle of Vorholm, not far from Munster, of which see 
 he became vicar-general, and afterwards, indeed from 1826 up 
 to the time of his installation as archbishop of Cologne, held 
 the office of consecrating bishop in that diocese. He received 
 hifi education in the Munster academy, and enjoyed an inti- 
 mately familiar intercourse with the celebrated Princess Amelia 
 de Gallitzin, and their mutual friends, StoUberg, Hemsterhuys, 
 Fiirstenberg, and the philosophic Overberg; and, while his 
 mind was stored with knowledge, his talents were cultivated 
 and developed. He was a master of languages, both ancient 
 ajid modern ; played on several instruments, and more espe- 
 cially on the harp, with uncommon skill. His attainments 
 in painting and poetry were above mediocrity, as several 
 paintings in oil, and a vast store of religious poetry, whether 
 in the possession of his friends, or among his papers, amply 
 testify. He was strongly inclined to asceticism, and with 
 much peculiarity of character was endowed with an indomitable 
 firmness and unbending decision. In externals he was 
 simple and unpretending ; wants he had none, and lived in 
 the exercise of a Socratic moderation, and an almost hermit 
 seclusion, devoted only to religion and her fairest handmaid 
 — ^benevolence, with a rare and self-denying zeal. His eiForts 
 in the cause of humanity are almost unexampled ; and, by the 
 foundation in his native city of an hospital of the Sisters of 
 Mercy, he has reared an undying monument to his name. 
 Neither age, sex, nor confession, are inquired into respecting 
 those who seek entrance into this admirable institution ; bodily 
 suffering and poverty alone form the pre-requisites to admis- 
 sion, as expressly appointed by Clement Augustus himself. 
 In 1798, he received priest's orders, and shortly after entered, 
 with ardent zeal, on the duties of a parish priest in Frecken- 
 hurst, an establishment in the vicinity of "Warendorf. In 
 May, 1836, chosen to the high dignity of the archbishopric of 
 
294 PROGRESS OF THE REFORM MOVEMENT. 
 
 Cologne, he entered upon its duties with the approving confirm- 
 ation of his sovereign. But the well-known dispute which 
 arose between the church and state (on account of the so-called 
 mixed marriages) occasioned his removal to Minden, one year 
 after his instalment. There four years were passed in quiet 
 performance of the duties of personal religion, and the enjoy- 
 ment of private friendship, until, in 1841, the archbishop's 
 health began to give way, and the negociations for an accommo- 
 dation of the differences having entirely failed, the archbishop 
 consented to receive the Bishop von Geissel, of Spires, as 
 coadjutor ; and, being thereupon relieved from the obligations 
 to reside at Minden, first retired to Castle Darfeld, a paternal 
 residence of the Drost Vischering family, and thence returned 
 once more to Munster, and resided, till his death, in the antique 
 mansion belonging to the former minister, and afterwards vicar- 
 general, Baron von Fiirstenberg^ 
 
295 
 
 CHAPTER XrV. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM 
 MOVEMENT, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1845 TO 
 
 APRIL, 1846 (continued). 
 
 Pastor Post — His Integrity — ^Advertisement by Uhlich — Professor 
 Hengstenberg — Dr. Schuselka's Secession from the Romish Church 
 — Night Processions — Kongo's Reception in Dresden — His Por- 
 trait — Dr. Scheidel's Treatment at Kippenheim — Pleasing Occur- 
 rence at Heidelburg — Letter attributed to Rong^ — Account of a 
 Roman Catholic Association at Berlin — Secession from the 
 Romish Church of Staniczewski — Quotation from a Speech by 
 Deputy Helcker — Ultramontane Efforts in Bavaria. 
 
 November. — ^A new attempt made to bribe a German Catho- 
 lic preacher from this reform cause, has renewed the memory 
 
 of Madame de K 's handsome, though ineffectual, offer to 
 
 Czerski. The new occurrence is related as follows : — A few 
 days ago. Pastor Post, whose slender and precarious income 
 might, were worldly interest his ruling motive, dispose him 
 to relinquish his active and laboriously useful office, for some 
 lighter and more lucrative employment, was visited by a re- 
 spectably dressed Jew, ostensibly from. Schwerin (a town in 
 the Grand Duchy of Posen), who, after delivering a kind greet- 
 ing from a brother Catholic residing in Krotoschen, began to 
 
296 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 express his warm admiration of Pastor Post's zeal, from 
 which he proceeded to dilate on the precarious nature and 
 many hardships of his present position ; darkly hinted at the 
 dangers which might accrue, and wound up all by asking, 
 point blank, whether Pastor Post would not feel disposed to 
 give up his office, whose remuneration so ill corresponded with 
 its toils and dangers, for the annual income of six hundred 
 dollars, to be paid in any place (not within the duchy of 
 Posen) which he might appoint ; adding, that his return to 
 Koman Catholicism would not even be stipulated for, pro- 
 vided only he would pledge himself to relinquish all active 
 promotion of the new sect. Post, concealing his indignation, 
 requested to know if the person with whom he had the honour 
 to speak, would pay him the proposed sum. " Whence, or 
 from whom the money comes," replied the Jew, " must be a 
 matter of indifference to you ; it is sufficient that I declare 
 myself ready, at this moment, to make over to you a capital 
 of twelve thousand dollars, with the necessary document to 
 enable you to enjoy the interest thereof." The worthy pastor 
 returned many thanks for the gratification which such a tes- 
 timony to his importance to the reform cause afforded him, 
 and conducted the disappointed commissioner to the door, 
 who, as is well known, neither would, nor could, give such 
 a sum for such a purpose, and who must, therefore, be but 
 the agent of another ; nor are the well-informed at much loss 
 to. give a shrewd guess at the real offerer. The congregation 
 now numbers three hundred, of whom two hundred and fifty 
 are communicants ; and P9,stor Post has established a class 
 for the instruction of young people, preparatory to their con- 
 firmation ; it is attended at present by fourteen. 
 
 The present ferment in the Lutheran church has induced 
 Dr. A. Neander, so celebrated as a church historian, to publish 
 a pamphlet, under the title of " Words of Peace to both 
 Parties." Dr. Neander's chief object is to effect recon- 
 ciliation and mutual Christian recognition between those 
 who, notwithstanding acknowledged undeniable differences of 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 297 
 
 opinion, are yet united in the belief of the grand and dis- 
 tinguishing doctrines of Christianity, acknowledging fairly 
 that, while he ardently desires that these could " agree to 
 differ," any coalition or levelling of direct contrarieties must 
 be regarded as the result of either egregious folly, or the 
 most perfect latitudinarianism. 
 
 A Magdeburg paper of Nov. 10, contains the following 
 rather amusing advertisement, from the leader of the " Friends 
 of Light :" — " I am very ready to receive books and letters, 
 which the obliging authors or senders inform me are intended 
 to convert me ; for I am of opinion that every man should 
 keep his eye and his mind open to whatever it may be de- 
 sirable to learn. But those who are willing to take this 
 trouble about me, should not, I think, expect me to keep my 
 purse open too, for the purpose of paying the carriage of their 
 friendly packages. I have, indeed, done this quietly more 
 than once, but the expense becomes too serious ; and I hereby 
 request that all such letters may, in future, be either post- 
 paid, or marked on the outside ' for conversion.' 
 
 (Signed) " Uhlich Magdeburg." 
 
 The attacks made on Professor Hengstenberg, from time 
 to time, but especially in the magistrates' address to the king, 
 has recently called forth a demonstration in his favour, from 
 a portion of the theological students at the Berlin university. 
 On the evening of the 7th inst., they assembled before the 
 professor's house, and, having sung a serenade, presented him 
 with a splendidly bound Bible, bearing the inscription — 
 " Das Wort siesollen lassen stahn" (a line from Luther's most 
 celebrated hymn, and which means, " the Bible they must let 
 alone"). The professor appeared much affected by this volun- 
 tary testimonial to his clerical principles, and concluded an 
 impressive address to all present with the following words : — 
 " I receive this proof of your love as a declaration of attach- 
 ment, not to me personally, but to the confession which, amid 
 much weakness, I have yet, with full assurance of faith, already 
 made, and desire still to make : viz., the confession of man's 
 
 o 3 
 
298 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 sinful state by nature ; his incapacity to keep the law of God 
 as its demands require ; redemption by the sacrificial death of 
 Christ ; and the appropriation of His atonement by faith alone. 
 These things are not dogmas of a party, but distinguishing 
 Bible doctrines ; and therefore the spirit of the world op- 
 poses them, and hates, not so much the orthodox, as their 
 orthodoxy. I conclude with urging upon all to search the 
 Scriptures, not for the purpose of sitting in judgment upon 
 them, but to judge ourselves by them." 
 
 The German Catholics of Hanan have been prohibited 
 from receiving Ronge. Nay, even the dinner which had been 
 arranged to be given in his honour, in the hotel called " the 
 Giant," was forbidden by the police. As, however, intelligence 
 was brought them that the reformer intended to spend one 
 day, at least, at Offenbach, very many of the Hanan townsfolk 
 proceeded thither to greet him, while others congregated on 
 the high road to see him as he passed. 
 
 Yet, by all accounts, the religious and ecclesiastical excite- 
 ment prevalent throughout Germany, has made comparatively 
 little progress in the districts of the Lower Rhine. The con- 
 gregations which have there ventured to form themselves on 
 the German Catholic model, are inconsiderable in numbers, 
 when regarded in relation to the denseness of the population. 
 And, although here and there, and even in archiepiscopal 
 Cologne itself, no small interest for the cause may be felt, the 
 courage to avow it seems wanting ; nor can it be denied that, 
 under present circumstances, no small measure of courage 
 would be requisite to do so. Meanwhile, the ultramontane 
 party overlooks no opportunity of extending its ramifications. 
 Thus, for instance, it lately fell upon the notable idea of form- 
 ing a Roman Catholic agricultural association, and set every 
 engine at work to fill the directing committee of the farming 
 societies with zealous Catholics. Unfortunately for the suo^ 
 cess of this plan, a few electioneering manoeuvres were dis- 
 covered, which put some to shame, and others on their guard. 
 The same party at Cologne seek to check the reform tendencies 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 299 
 
 by a constant succession of processions, which, as the populace 
 are never weary of seeing them, serve to occupy the imagina- 
 tion, without greatly engaging the reasoning powers, of the 
 multitude. The festival of St. Ursula, revived by their late 
 archbishop, amused the people for eight days ; and, as All Saints' 
 day fell this year on a Sunday (on which it is not deemed 
 proper to have any melancholy reminiscences), its celebration 
 was postponed to the Monday, and the people were thus gra- 
 tified by two successive holidays. 
 
 The journey of Consistory Counsellor Snethlage promises to 
 be of much greater ecclesiastical importance for the people of 
 Germany, than was at first anticipated ; and his mission is said 
 to have met very cordial support in some, and approval from 
 most if not all the governments he has as yet visited. 
 
 Ronge's triumphal tour is ended, and he is on his way home 
 to Breslaw, where a rather unpleasant occupation awaits him, 
 namely, the defence of his " Appeal, " against which, legal pro- 
 ceedings, on the ground of an infringement of the law of libel, 
 have already been commenced by the Roman Catholic party. 
 During his tour he found time to publish what he calls a 
 '* Perikopen," or Collection of Texts for every Day in the Year, 
 for the use (chiefly) of German Catholic preachers. As the 
 texts are word for word from the Bible, of course they are in 
 themselves excellent ; but yet it is easy even here to descry 
 the bent of the collector's mind, since it does not contain a 
 single text bearing directly on the divinity of our Lord ; while 
 all those in which the manhood is asserted, have been carefully 
 collated. Ronge's great desire for union and concord among 
 all mankind, and his paramount admiration of the precepts 
 of the second table of the law, shine also conspicuous in this 
 selection, which, like the party from which it emanates, deserves 
 the monitory emendation of our Lord to the seK-righteous of 
 his day, " These things ought you to do, and not leave the 
 others undone. " 
 
 Dr Theiner's threatened excommunication is not yet issued, 
 and he appears to be going on quietly to exercise the duties 
 
300- PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 of a Christian pastor in Breslaw. His recently-published 
 book, " Attempts at Catholic Reform in Silesia," figures in 
 the last papal list of prohibited works. Another reformer, 
 named Vincent Galitsky, a Pole by birth, has published his 
 confession of faith, the same nearly as Czerski's, and a rather 
 interesting address to Roman Catholics in general, and his 
 own nation in particular, exposing the false assumptions and 
 erroneous doctrines of the Church of Rome, and calling on the 
 liberty-loving Poles to cast off that spiritual bondage under 
 whose sway the most complete temporal liberty could not 
 make them truly free. 
 
 Pastor Licht, formerly Roman Catholic priest of Liewen, 
 in the diocese of Treves, from which he was first suspended, 
 and then driven out and excommunicated, on account of his 
 open opposition to pilgrimages, processions, and relic worship, 
 has published a most interesting pamphlet, from which it is 
 very evident that many of those he left behind, though still 
 outwardly adhering to Romanism, are inwardly convinced of 
 its unscriptural and oppressive tyranny, from owning which, 
 timidity, or temporal motives of another nature, as yet keep 
 members back. The age, long-proved zeal, and spotless 
 character of Licht, give much weight to his testimony in the 
 Rhenish provinces ; he is now pastor of the German Catholic 
 Church in Elberfeld. 
 
 The order issued by the Prussian government for restrain- 
 ing the preaching tours of the reformers, although believed 
 to be chiefly aimed at, as well as first exercised towards the 
 *' Friends of Light" in the Lutheran church, will necessarily 
 limit the intelligence of the reform movement to narrower 
 bounds than hitherto ; but its having much effect on the real 
 progress of the new sect, is questionable. The seed has not 
 only bCten sown, but has sprung up in so many places, that 
 human authority can avail but little against its growth. A sect 
 which, within one little year, has gained 60,000 members, — 
 for such, by the latest account, is the present number of those 
 professing the principles of Catholic reform, — may well be 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 30l 
 
 regarded as safe from all hostile pressure from witliout ; the 
 chief danger must arise from the restlessness and tendency to 
 extremes natural to all popular movements, and which, in 
 those who seek emancipation from Rome's rule, only because 
 they dislike subordination in any shape (of which it is to be 
 feared some considerable number may be found in the reform 
 body), may lead to a splitting and dividing of their strength, 
 at which the Roman party would rejoice, as an already begun, 
 and most certain, triumph. Yet, much as division is to 
 be deprecated, union with error is infinitely more to be 
 shunned ; and, in this choice of difficulties — a choice, however, 
 which is by no means peculiar to the German Catholics, but 
 ever has, and ever will occur, in all cases when a multitude 
 of human beings become awake to the outward and tangible 
 evils of a system, while but comparatively few discern the 
 heart-canker of the disease — in, therefore, this choice of ac- 
 knowledged difficulties, all friends to truth must surely strive 
 to further and promote the efforts of those who have chosen 
 the right path, trusting that from them, as from cities set on a 
 hill, a guiding light may reach other wanderers, and enable 
 them to find the true and only city of refuge, Christ Jesus, 
 our deliverer from the wrath to come. 
 
 December. At the public worship in which Ronge pre^ 
 sided during his stay in Weimar, the celebrated Dr. Francis 
 Schuselka, from Jena, gave in his open adhesion to the Ger- 
 man Catholic Church, by becoming one of the communicants. 
 He declared at the altar, that he had refrained, during the last 
 fourteen years, from partaking of the Lord's Supper, in cou'^ 
 sequence of his conviction of the unscriptural nature of many 
 of the Romish doctrines, and his inability to profess what 
 he did not believe. Schuselka's defection from Rome is 
 peculiarly important in respect of Austria. He has just 
 published a work of great merit, entitled, " The New Church 
 and the Old Policy," which will, doubtless, prove an aid to the 
 reform cause. 
 
 One of the modes adopted by the ultramontane party, by 
 
302 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 which to occupy the minds, or rather the eyes of the people, 
 and divert them from giving heed to the pernicious doctrines 
 of reform, is the revival of night processions, which, as well as 
 many other long-discontinued usages, have been raked up 
 from the dust of ages, to amuse the faithful in the nineteenth 
 century. They were commenced on the 18th of August last, 
 and continued every Friday, until the 6th of October, which, 
 being the conclusion for the season, was very numerously 
 attended. Not less than 4,000 persons, each carrying either 
 a taper, a lantern, or a torch, and accompanied by a number 
 of white-robed maidens, bearing splendid banners of various 
 sizes and devices, passed, at half-past nine o'clock of that 
 evening, across the city market, to the Bishop's court. There 
 a hymn was sung, and Bishop Arnoldi appeared on the bal- 
 cony, and dispensed his blessing to the people ; a proof that 
 these religious demonstrations, even supposing them not to 
 have originated with the higher clergy, are, at least, secretly 
 approved and encouraged by them. Nor are such fooleries 
 confined to the South. Monsieur de Olszewsky, a cavalry 
 officer, who served with distinguished bravery in the Polish 
 and French revolutions, now seventy-four years old, is at 
 present engaged in making a pilgrimage to Eome on foot, in 
 order to fulfil a pious vow. Clothed in a modest pilgrim's 
 cloak of coarse gray camlet, and steadying his tottering steps 
 by leaning on a stout walking-stick made of Turkish agriot, 
 he was seen wandering, a wallet on his age-bent shoulders, 
 through Lower Silesia, about the middle of October, towards 
 the Eternal City. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the reports so industriously circulated, 
 that Konge was to be arrested so soon as he should re-enter 
 the Prussian dominions, he passed safely and unmolested on 
 his way, and even in Dresden met with a reception calculated 
 to excite his vanity in no small degree. After spending three 
 days in the Saxon capital, he drove off in an open carriage 
 from the house of his friend (situated, as it chanced, close to 
 the Hotel de Ville and the police-office), and making, it would 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 303 
 
 appear, an intentional detour^ passed through the principal 
 streets, and close by the royal palace. A dense crowd 
 surrounded the carriage ; matrons and young girls showered 
 nosegays and garlands upon him so profusely that the car- 
 riage might have passed for the car of Flora, and he was 
 repeatedly obliged to stop to shake hands with one and ano- 
 ther of his admiring friends. Professor "Wigard sat in the 
 carriage with the reformer, and a cavalcade convoyed him 
 for some distance on his homeward way. He must, how- 
 ever, after all, be a very dangerous foe to the Eoman Catholic 
 church, else that professedly rock-built community would not 
 make war against his very picture, as was done in Catholic 
 Bavaria the other day. AschafFenburg, a city belonging to 
 the kingdom of Bavaria, though within the " ZoUverland," 
 holds its annual fair the beginning of December ; and, on 
 the last occasion, was attended, among other visitors, by a 
 dealer in printed goods from the town of Bockenheim, in the 
 electorate of Hesse, who, among other wares, displayed to 
 view some pocket handkerchiefs, on which Eonge's portrait, 
 or what was designed for such, was printed. An intimation 
 of the terrible offence was made to the police, who forthwith 
 dispatched officers with written instructions to seize and con- 
 fiscate the offending handkerchiefs, and to search diligently 
 the other goods of the Hessian's booth, lest any more of the 
 obnoxious article, or others of a similar nature, should be 
 hid among them, through which even the face of reform 
 might be smuggled into orthodox Bavaria. But the Aschaf- 
 fenburg police might have spared themselves this gratuitous 
 attack upon a poor man's lawful property, in the vain expec- 
 tation of denying ingress to Rouge's sentiments, for these 
 are already in possession of many minds in Bavaria. 
 
 A Silesian journal, under date of the 17th of December, 
 1845, states, "If the Roman Catholic hierarchy count over 
 their flock at the beginning of the new year, they will detect 
 a deficit of 40,000 souls in this province alone, in which 
 there now exists forty-five Christian Catholic congregations. 
 
^04 
 
 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 Among these, Breslaw is the largest, numbering no less than 
 eight thousand members, while Schwerdnitz (more of a country 
 place) counts seven hundred communicants. One circum- 
 stance is of peculiar importance, viz., that the greater pro- 
 portion of the late accessions to the new sect has been won 
 from the most thoroughly popish districts of our province, 
 and particularly in the vicinity of Neisse. Such communi- 
 cations confirm the assertion, which all impartial and well- 
 informed persons make, that German Catholicism is not the 
 less surely progressing, because it talks less, or is less talked 
 of. Independent of the fact, that the divisions in the Lutheran 
 church are a newer novelty than the Roman schism, we must 
 remember that various Protestant governments have agreed 
 upon observing a kind of armed neutrality towards the Catholic 
 dissidents, professing to throw no hindrance whatever in their 
 way ; but, at the same time, cutting off their chief, if not 
 their sole means of attracting attention, and winning prose- 
 lytes to their opinions, viz., public addresses and missionary 
 tours. Each dissident preacher, limited, not merely to his 
 own neighbourhood, but to the congregation or congregations 
 over which he has been specially chosen pastor, may work as 
 effectually, and perhaps even more so, within the prescribed 
 sphere ; but his success is not likely to become the subject of 
 newspaper notice, except when now and then a new congre- 
 gation starting up, or the secession and excommunication of a 
 Romish priest, excites observation, and furnishes a paragraph. 
 Some of the German Catholics, both clergy and laity, era- 
 ploy the press as an engine for promoting the good cause ; 
 while others, more especially in the south of Germany, have 
 taken, or are about to take, steps for procuring, by petition or 
 other legitimate modes, their recognition, as a religious body, 
 by their respective governments. In several chambers, as 
 those of Saxony and Baden, their cause has been powerfully 
 advocated by men of liberal and enlightened minds, though 
 wholly unconnected with the dissident body. These efforts 
 have not been fruitless, for we learn from Carlsruhe (where 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. ^^jJt"- 
 
 "both court and hierarchy were leagued against the movement 
 and where Ronge, on his otherwise triumphant career, met 
 determined opposition), that " the German Catholic cause 
 seems to have entered on a new stadium. The hostile feeling 
 towards it, which previously prevailed in the highest quarter, 
 has given place, as we are credibly informed, to more 
 favourable sentiments, so that it is currently believed that 
 the ministry is now seriously engaged in preparing a law, by 
 which the position of the German Catholics will be defined, 
 and adequately secured, in regard to all civil rights and reli- 
 gious freedom." On the other hand, the Wirtemburg govern- 
 ment has recently shown a disposition to draw back from the 
 liberal policy it has hitherto displayed, by officially prohibiting 
 M.Wiirmle, pastor of the German Catholic church in Stuttgardt, 
 from imparting religious instruction to the children of his own 
 members. As the Catholic dissidents will not send their 
 children to either the Roman Catholic or Protestant clergy, 
 for instruction, prohibiting their own pastor to instruct them 
 is virtually debarring the children from catechetical discipline 
 altogether. The Stuttgardt German Catholics have declared 
 their intention of bringing the question before the chamber. 
 Dissent from Roman Catholicism, without going over to Pro- 
 testantism, "being a new thing upon the earth," it is very 
 probable that existing laws afford no neutral ground on which 
 such an anomaly can exist, and that the government felt called 
 upon to interfere, in order to provoke an agitation, and conse- 
 quent settlement of the question. The necessity of some legal 
 and open recognition of the German Catholics becomes, indeed, 
 every day more evident, unless it shall be left to the petty 
 magistrates of every town " to play such antic tricks, in sup- 
 port of their " brief authority," as might make the " angels 
 weep." Such a case occurred, for example, on the 2nd inst., 
 at Kippenheim, in the Grand Duchy of Baden. The com- 
 mittee of the Reading Society there, having invited Dr. Scheidel 
 (pastor of the German Catholic church at Heidelberg) to assist 
 them with his advice as to the formation of a reading circle, 
 
306 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 he arrived in Kippenheim for that purpose, on the 31st of 
 December. Next morning the burgomaster received orders 
 from the district court at Ettenheim, to demand the production 
 of Dr. Scheidel's travelling passport, and, if such were not 
 forthcoming, to turn him out of the city. In obedience to this 
 requisition, the burgomaster summoned Dr. Scheidel to appear 
 before him ; and, as the doctor had never thought of asking a 
 passport for such a journey, he was commanded instantly to 
 leave Kippenheim, else he should forthwith be delivered over 
 to the district court by a detachment of gens d'armes. Of 
 course Dr. Scheidel submitted to this stretch of power, and 
 returned at once to Heidelberg, declaring, however, his deter- 
 mination to apply for redress, and thereby ascertain whether 
 a Baden subject forfeits his legal rights by becoming a German 
 Catholic, so as to be incapable of travelling firom one town to 
 another within his native land, without a passport. 
 
 In striking contrast to the foregoing, is an occurrence which 
 took place in Heidelberg on the 31st of December (the same 
 day on which Dr. Scheidel arrived at Kippenheim). A great 
 number of Catholics, assembled in the Hotel de Ville, openly 
 declared their earnest desire that a day of re-union of both 
 religious confessions, the Protestant and Catholic, might soon 
 arrive ; that all Catholics holding this sentiment should be 
 present at the celebration of the Heidelberg reformation festival 
 (appointed for the 7th inst., being the three hundredth anni- 
 versary of the recognition of Protestantism in Heidelberg) ; and, 
 at the same time, they desired to express to all their Protestant 
 brethren their determination that nothing should in future be 
 wanting, on their part, to promote and hasten the happy period 
 when perfect unanimity of feeling, and equality of legal rights 
 and privileges, might so completely amalgamate both confes- 
 sions, as to their social and civil relations, that a festival, 
 commemorative of their re-union, might not be far distant. 
 
 A reported letter of Eonge's to the editor of the " Suabian 
 Museum," published at Esslingen, is making a great noise. 
 It is as follows : — 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 307 
 
 " Dear Friend and Brother, 
 
 *' I have succeeded in procuring a union with the leaders 
 of the Protestant Friends. They come, in consequence of a 
 pressure from ahove (an allusion to the government), into our 
 church. I have been hut two days in Silesia, and yet I 
 have already won a battle for the Protestants. In one of our 
 villages a congregation had been constituted, chiefly composed 
 of Protestants, and divine service had been celebrated several 
 times, when, lo, an order from the Lord President forbade its 
 repetition, and threatened the preacher, who had hitherto pre- 
 sided, with imprisonment. All the preachers were intimidated. 
 I learned the state of aifairs on my arrival, and determined 
 to venture a coup^ at all risks. It was my duty to do so, 
 and, if needs must, to go to prison for it. The Eomanists 
 triumphed, and, as I was told, hissed at our cowardice. How 
 could I bear that ? Immediately on my arrival at Breslaw, 
 I invited the praeses of their committee to come to me, heard 
 his complaints, and the resolutions of the congregation, and, in 
 spite of all the fears and remonstrances of my friends here, I 
 hastened to the scene of action. Neither the police nor the 
 district magistrate had time left them to interfere. I cele- 
 brated divine worship in a private house ; but, at the same 
 time, installed a minister over those who joined in this family 
 worship. In all this there was nothing illegal, and yet the 
 congregation was formed. About an hour after my departure 
 (for the solemnity took place at six o'clock on the morning of 
 the 6th of December), the magistrate arrived with his gens 
 d^armeSf but too late — everything was over. What may be 
 undertaken against me, I know not; but I am prepared to 
 defend my own rights and the reform cause with all the powers 
 of which I am master. One thing is, however, secured ; the 
 door is now opened for Protestants to join us, and they will 
 do so by congregations, not individuals. 
 " Yours, 
 
 (Signed) " Ronge. 
 
 *^ Dated, Breslaw, December 7, 1845." 
 
308 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 By this proceeding, the Lutheran clergyman of course 
 forfeits a large portion of his legalised income ; and the ex- 
 ample, if followed, as it is likely to be, will necessitate some 
 species of legislation, though what, is assuredly very difficult 
 to prescribe. 
 
 The formation of a dissenting Protestant church in Konigs- 
 berg is an entirely new feature in the ecclesiastical world, 
 the particulars of which can scarcely be regarded as belong- 
 ing to the German Catholic movement, though undoubtedly 
 arising out of it. They are given at length in the " Conti- 
 nental Echo" for Feb. 1846. 
 
 The Apostolic Catholic church at Schneidemiihl has lately 
 been gratified by a munificent gift from Stettin, which has 
 called forth the liveliest expressions of thankfulness and joy. 
 The corporation of merchants in that city have, it seems, in 
 conjunction with other generous and benevolent individuals 
 of both sexes, collected the sum of 218 dollars (£32 14s. 
 sterling), and remitted it to the committee of the Schneide- 
 miihl congregation, with the expressed wish that it may be 
 expended in the purchase of an organ, to be placed in their 
 new and nearly completed church. 
 
 The small German Catholic church at Hildesheim has, for 
 some time, sunk into oblivion : but the cause is sufficiently 
 obvious, since it is now ascertained that the Hanoverian 
 government has given strict orders to the censorship, not to 
 suffer any allusion to the new sect to be made in the public 
 journals ; indeed, with the exception of Hesse-Cassel, no 
 German state has restrained the anti-Eoman movement 
 within such narrow limits as the kingdom of Hanover, which 
 is the more remarkable, as King Ernest Augustus has always 
 been distinguished as an ultra-Protestant, and the neigh- 
 bouring and nearly related state of Brunswick has not 
 merely protected the German Catholics, but almost recognised 
 them. 
 
 The Christian Catholic church in Miihlhausen (near Frank- 
 fort-sur-Maine) celebrated its first public worship on the 8th 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 309: 
 
 of this month in St. James's church, which the magistrates 
 kindly granted for their use. Pastor Kerbler preached, 
 and afterwards introduced the future minister. Dr. Bergman, 
 to the people of his charge. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Eomish party is not idle. Jesuits have 
 contrived to obtain a settlement at Annaberg ; and there is 
 reason to fear that this is no accidental selection, but one of 
 a concerted chain of outposts, by which convenient points 
 d'appui are secured for the operations of the order in the 
 Rhenish provinces. 
 
 The discovery of a Catholic association in Berlin, under the 
 name of " the Rose Order," is at present the subject of legal 
 investigation. This society appears to be, like a number of 
 similar ones which have long existed in Silesia, a sort of 
 lodge, in which various gradations of initiated are enrolled. 
 Thus, fifteen individual members compose a rose wreath ; 
 fifteen wreaths a rose branch ; and fifteen rose branches a 
 rose tree. A Romish ecclesiastic stands at the head of this 
 singular association, and is the leader of the individual mem- 
 bers as well as of the whole society. Each member receives a 
 sheet of paper adorned with a rose, and containing various 
 verses (mostly of a religious nature), to learn by heart, or to 
 sing. The design of the society is maintained to be, and 
 most probably is, of a purely religious nature; yet, as its 
 tendency and aim are undeniably the spread of Romish doc- 
 trines, more especially among the populace, it evidently falls 
 within the examination, at least, of the police. Thus, it has 
 been found, that a considerable number of Protestant maid- 
 servants have been inveigled into the society, through one of 
 whom the discovery of its existence was attained, and by her 
 master an intimation given to the consistory, who are now 
 engaged in investigating the matter. 
 
 The Romish priest Staniczewski, officiating clergyman at 
 the Church of the Cross, in Breslaw, has just given in his 
 resignation of his charge, and an intimation of his secession 
 from the Romish communion, to the Prince-Bishop von 
 
310 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 Diepenbrock. This higlily-respectable man, whose labours 
 during the last sixteen years, in various parishes, have ob- 
 tained for him the highest testimonials to his clerical zeal and 
 personal character from his ecclesiastical superiors, has now 
 joined the Christian Catholic church, and promises to prove a 
 very valuable accession. He has hitherto preached every 
 Sunday and holiday in the church of the Cross, in Polish, to 
 the great edification of his hearers ; and his perfect know- 
 ledge of that language will render him a most efficient 
 minister for the inhabitants of Upper Silesia. 
 
 The committees of all German Catholic churches through- 
 out the Grand Duchy of Baden, intend shortly to hold a 
 conference, for the purpose of consulting and resolving on 
 the best mode of promoting their cause, and the most 
 suitable steps to be taken to ensure it a favourable atten- 
 tion in the now assembled chambers. They are warranted 
 to expect support from the liberal members, and the late 
 oration of Deputy Helcker may well justify the warmest 
 hopes of the friends of civil as well as religious freedom. He 
 lays particular stress on the efforts made by the ultramon- 
 tane party to re-establish the ancient hierarchal despotism, 
 and ascribes the attempt, as well as the probability of its 
 success, to the unholy doctrine of "Divine right," which, 
 advancing with the shibboleth of " Throne and Altar" on its 
 standard, seeks to re-establish political and ecclesiastical 
 absolutism, by means of the alliance of church and state. 
 " In pursuance of this system," says he, " it has been possible 
 to erect in a country inhabited by the most enlightened 
 Catholic clergy and laity in Europe, and that not only with- 
 out, but actually against their wishes, an ultra-Komish party, 
 which is daily fostered and favoured, while the liberal Catholics 
 are neglected, and the freedom of the university annulled. 
 Those teachers of Catholic moral philosophy and canon law, 
 whose liberal principles raised a barrier against the encroach- 
 ments of ultra-Eomanists, are removed, and the university, 
 despite all the expense lavished on it, is so entirely ruined 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 311 
 
 that a professor lately declared, while standing by the grave 
 of one of his colleagues, ' It was little wonder if Freiburg 
 professors wasted away in body and mind.' Such are the 
 consequences of the system now pursued : ' What man sows, 
 that will he also reap.' But its destructive effects on Baden 
 are doubly deplorable, for, paining, offending, and ultimately 
 banishing the liberal and enlightened Catholic clergy, it leaves 
 the laity a prey to the intrigues of the rankest Jesuitism, and, 
 mocking the advances in civilization and mental culture, 
 undermines, at once, the best foundations of ecclesiastical and 
 civil polity." The following statement from Katisbon affords 
 no equivocal testimony to the asserted ultramontane efforts : — 
 " The Carmelites of this city have, with the king's (Bavaria) 
 permission, re-purchased the monastery formerly possessed 
 by their order, for the sum of 30,000 florins. The monastery, 
 which is situated in the handsomest portion of our city, was 
 suppressed in 1810 ; the order, however, was restored in 1836, 
 by express command of his majesty, and consists, at pre- 
 sent, of twelve persons — seven priests, and five lay brethren. 
 A report is also current, that the extensive and magnificent 
 castle and grounds belonging to Deputy Keller, in Edisheim, 
 had just been purchased by government for the purpose of 
 converting it into a monastery. For what order of monks it 
 is destined, has not yet transpired ; but such establishments 
 are multiplying, with unwonted rapidity, in the Bavarian 
 dominions."* 
 
 * It will be seen in Chapter XVIL, that this subject has been 
 made a matter of complaint in the Bavarian chamber. 
 
312 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL SKETCH OF THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORM 
 MOVEMENT, FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1845 TO 
 
 APRIL, 1846 (continued). 
 
 The Protestant Couucil at Berlin — Quotation from a Speech by De- 
 puty Zittel — Romish Mandate at Freiburg — Kongo's First Public 
 Denunciation of Czerski and his Adherents — Remarkable Sign of 
 the Times — Dr. Hunter's Appointment — Accession of Wilhelm 
 and Kelch — Dissolution of the Silesian Normal School — Appeal 
 to the King of Prussia against General Superintendent Hahn — 
 Difficulties of the "Free Evangelical Church" of Konigsburg — 
 Relaxation of Opposition to the German Catholics — Reconciliation 
 of Czerski and Rong^ — Czerski's Explanatory Letter — Remarks 
 on it — Blasphemous Mummery — The Romanists in Suabia and 
 Silesia — Extract from" the Catholic Church Reform Journal — 
 Dr. Theiner's Acquittal — Results of the Reform Movement, and 
 Treatment of the Dissidents in Various Countries. 
 
 January. The Protestant council, whose assembling at 
 Berlin has been so long announced, commenced its sittings on 
 the 5th Inst. ; of course nothing connected with its proceedings 
 has yet transpired. The members who have been announced 
 as composing it appear as representatives of their respective 
 states ; and, as most of the Protestant governments have 
 sent one or more deputies, their number is said to amount 
 already to thirty, and more are expected. If, therefore, " in 
 the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom," much may be 
 hoped from this constellation of ecclesiastical luminaries ; 
 
PROGRESS OF THE REFORM MOVEMENT. 313 
 
 but, alas, there is reason to fear that unity of sentiment is 
 about the smallest of the ingredients they bring with them. 
 Besides, they are, after all, endowed solely with political, but 
 not with a semblance of spiritual power. They are not the 
 deputies of the churches, but merely of the princes of this 
 world. May God give them the spirit of moderation, for- 
 bearance, and love ; else, evil instead of good, disunion in- 
 stead of union, will be the result of their decisions. Uhlich, 
 the leader of the Friends of Light, has addressed a long 
 letter to the council, impressing upon it, that entire liberty 
 of conscience is essential to the very existence of Christianity ; 
 but, as might be expected from him, deducing, from this great 
 and irrefragable truth, motives for leaving points of faith 
 wholly undefined, and thus opening the door to the most dis- 
 cordant sentiments within each individual church. 
 
 "The Berlin Reform Journal" gives the following notices 
 respecting the progress of the German Catholic cause in dif- 
 ferent places. The congregation here is now increased to • 
 2,400 members, of whom fifty, on an average, have hitherto 
 been added monthly. Through the contribution of funds to 
 the cause of reform, the congregation already possesses a 
 burial-ground, a site for a church, and a considerable sum 
 towards its erection, which, it is hoped, will soon be sufficient 
 to admit of the building being commenced. Ecclesiastical 
 reform is likely to make rapid advances in Baden before 
 long. The actual results come more slowly before the public 
 eye than they might, from the determination of the clergy 
 who desire reform, to seek it through regular channels only. 
 The answer which is now expected to the address (demanding 
 the revivals of synods, and which Dean Kiinzer signed with 
 the rest) will bring matters to a crisis. For, if the petition 
 be negatived, Rome will lose, at one blow, 50,000 disciples, 
 who now but await the result of the legitimate means they 
 have tried for effecting reform within the church, before re- 
 sorting to the ultimate step of separating from its communion. 
 The fate of Rome, in a thousand instances, now hangs on the 
 
 p 
 
314 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 balance; and, unless the hierarchy listen to the guardian 
 angel, who whispers " Beware ! " we shall soon receive a new 
 commentary on the old adage, " Vestigia nulla retrorsum,^' 
 Another petition for the summoning of a diocesan synod has 
 been forwarded to the Archbishop of Freiburg. The sub- 
 scriptions, 280 in number, prove the interest taken in the 
 subject by all classes of the Eoman Catholic population, 
 although the majority are of the educated part of the commu- 
 nity. It is to be hoped, the demand will meet that attention 
 which its own importance and the respectability of the peti- 
 tioners seem to warrant. 
 
 A debate of a most animated nature is reported to have 
 taken place in the Baden chamber, on the 15th ultimo, on 
 occasion of the motion made by deputy Zittel (a Lutheran 
 pastor), in favour of universal liberty of conscience. The 
 ingenious and spirited speech with which he introduced and 
 supported it, drew down the liveliest demonstrations of ap- 
 proval from the galleries, which were crowded with eager 
 listeners ; and an almost unanimous " bravo " greeted its 
 termination. One passage of his speech well deserves a place 
 here : — 
 
 " In making this motion, " said Pastor Zittel, " I believe 
 myself fulfilling the duty of a Protestant clergyman, for free 
 inquiry is linked with the very essence of Protestantism. 
 My proposition has been originated by an event, which a 
 great modern historian (Gervinus) has designated as a public 
 blessing, as a great step in the regeneration of the human 
 mind, and in consonance with what has very often occurred in 
 the political world ; an ecclesiastical aggression furnished the 
 occasion for this ecclesiastical reaction. Modern statesmen 
 seem to forget that new barriers raised against freedom gene- 
 rally effect the very contrary of what is intended ; so that 
 the friends of liberty might be tempted to wish for stronger 
 demonstrations of encroachment, in the expectation that the 
 counteraction would be stronger too. But, though it is easy 
 to understand the unalterable principles which drive the 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 315 
 
 ultramontane party to act against the German Catholics, it is 
 more difficult to discover why civil government should aid 
 in the crusade. The only solution is to be found in the 
 spread of Jesuitism. When that order was suppressed by 
 the pope, its members then settled down in all the German 
 states (by far the greater portion under different disguises), 
 and thus they still continue to surround us on every side. 
 The best, if not the only effectual weapon against Jesuitism, is 
 the German Catholic movement ; and therefore every effort 
 must and will be made, by the friends of that order, to 
 suppress any antagonist principle. I never," continued the 
 orator, " could have believed that the government of Baden 
 would have actually entered the lists against the German 
 reform movement ; yet so it is. The first step was, granting 
 permission for the establishment of the order of the ' Sisters of 
 Mercy,' for I coincide in sentiment with Deputy Eomer, in 
 Stuttgardt, ' Let the Sisters of Mercy come first, and the 
 JTesuits come next.' The permission of an establishment of 
 ' Sisters of Mercy,' and a permission to carry on proselytism 
 at every sick bed, are synonymous. And, although our 
 government has acted with creditable decision (in regard to 
 the question of mixed marriages) against the Archbishop of 
 Freiburg, to whom have they committed the execution of 
 their decrees ? To helpless clergymen, who stand between two 
 antagonist commands, and know not which to obey." 
 
 " A professor of the Freiburg university has been suspended 
 from office for uniting himself to the German Catholics, and 
 what is the use made of the censorship ? While Ronge's 
 letter was altogether suppressed, the grossest libels against 
 the German Catholics are suffered to appear, and yet nothing 
 either immoral or unchristian had ever been alleged against 
 them." After a long debate, in which Privy Councillor 
 Nebenius took part, defending the procedure of government 
 in general terms, and reserving details till the bill should be 
 under discussion, the motion of Deputy (Pastor) Zittel was 
 carried unanimously. It has naturally caused no small stir 
 
 p 2 
 
316 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 among the ultramontane party, and they have accomplished 
 the getting up of a host of petitions against it, from a large 
 proportion of the Catholic congregations. But the sense of 
 the educated part of the community is in favour of the motion. 
 The enlightened Roman Catholics are themselves desirous of 
 emancipation from hierarchal despotism ; and the ever in- 
 creasing desire for the re-introduction of synods, and the 
 respectably signed petitions to that effect, which have been 
 sent in to the Archbishop of Freiburg, sufficiently point out 
 the necessity of yielding part, if the Romish party hope to 
 retain any portion of their present authority. 
 
 M. Zittel's motion cannot, in fact, offend any but a bigot ; 
 for, far from wishing to trench on the liberties of the Roman 
 Catholics, it proposes to leave them perfect freedom, both of 
 doctrine and of ritual. It only demands for dissenters, whether 
 Protestant or Catholic, equal freedom ; but that is what the 
 hierarchy will use every means in their power to prevent. 
 Hence the bitter tone in which the generality of the petitions 
 sent in against it, are expressed. One little congregation in 
 the neighbourhood of Haldshut has even gone so far as to 
 pray the grand duke to end the contest by dissolving the 
 chamber. * On the other hand, addresses of thanks have 
 been presented to M. Zittel, for his energetic and courageous 
 advocacy of liberty of conscience ; and the town of Frankfort- 
 sur-Maine has distinguished itself by forwarding its address 
 of thanks (signed, it is said, by all religious denominations, 
 except the ultramontane Roman party) to the reverend gen- 
 tleman, by a most respectable deputation. 
 
 Accounts from Freiburg hint at a new collision as likely to 
 take place between the ultramontane party and the govern- 
 ment, the hierarchy having recently issued a mandate to 
 all parish priests, forbidding the admission of any person to 
 stand sponsor, who does not confess and receive the sacra- 
 
 * And what is not a little remarkable, he actually did so very 
 shortly afterwards; though we can scarcely suppose in consequence 
 of this suggestion. 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 317 
 
 ment at Easter, and to limit the celebration of marriage rites 
 by the same rule. Now as, during Lent, no marriage is per- 
 mitted in Catholic countries, this last order has no retrospec- 
 tive working ; but, with respect to baptisms, it must exclude 
 all sponsors who did not communicate last Easter (therefore, 
 before the passing of the law) ; and, as children dare not, by 
 Roman Catholics, be kept back from baptism longer than 
 eight days, this new invention may much interfere with family 
 arrangements. It is, however, an admirable mode of securing 
 an increase of Easter offerings, and there is no text in the 
 Bible more acted up to in the Roman Catholic church, than 
 " money answereth all things." None of the great leaders of 
 the Catholic reform movement have made, during the last 
 month, any active demonstration; and, since Ronge's return 
 to Breslaw, he seems to have restricted his exertions within 
 the sphere of his pastoral duties. 
 
 February. In a small pamphlet, entitled " New and Old 
 Enemies," Ronge takes the field, for the first time (as far as I 
 am aware), against Czerski, and the pastors and congregations 
 who join him in upholding the positive doctrines of Christianity. 
 And, in order to rob Czerski even of that measure of esteem 
 which the world shows to individual conviction and consistency, 
 Ronge represents him as the mere echo of a Lutheran clergy- 
 man at Bromberg, whose superior talent and finesse had sub- 
 jugated the mind and ruled the conduct of the Schneidemiihl 
 pastor. Thus fades the last hope that the bold exposer of 
 Rome's delusions, the courageous advocate of the rights of 
 his countrymen, whether as men or as Germans, would yet 
 become the champion of gospel as well as of patriotic senti- 
 ments ; since the absence of all the distinguishing doctrines of 
 Christianity which, from the first, cast a chill over the joy with 
 which we hailed his attacks on Rome's lying wonders, is now 
 exchanged for direct hostility towards every doctrine peculiar 
 to the religion of Jesus Christ. It seems due alike to Czerski 
 and Ronge, to make one extract from the above-mentioned 
 pamphlet, that each may stand or fall in the opinion of the 
 
318 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 British public on his own showing: — " The Bromherg clergy- 
 man," says Ronge, at the seventh page, " exhibited his cunning 
 (I can find no fitter term), by prevailing on Czerski to publish 
 a letter wholly subversive of the spirit of the reformation of the 
 nineteenth century." This letter runs word for word thus : — 
 
 *' I honour every rationalist who uses his ratio as the spi- 
 ritual eye with which he examines and proves the revelation 
 of eternal truth, but who, at the same time, willingly and 
 humbly submits himself to the authority of God's word ; but 
 I abhor, from the bottom of my heart, all those Rationalists 
 who, in their pride, refuse, like the angels who kept not their 
 first estate, to give that honour to God which is his due, and 
 elevate their own reason on the altar of worship. I abhor 
 all who, pretending to rest upon the Bible, presume to subject 
 the revealed will of God to the dictum of their weak reason, 
 and appeal to what they call the ' original light,' against the 
 word of the Most High. God himself will, doubtless, soon 
 put an end to their mad career, and cast them down from the 
 heights of their pride, as he did the angels who fell. * * 
 " I opposed the sinful proceedings of the Leipsic council 
 with all my power, and earnestly hoped the enemies of Christ 
 might be brought to the acknowledgment of the truth ; but 
 I contradict every supposition of my being involved in this 
 approval of unbelief, for the worshippers of reason are, in my 
 view, unbelievers, and not Christians." 
 
 (Signed) "Czerski." 
 
 "This letter," proceeds Ronge, "needs no comment. When 
 did Christ abhor any one ? Who, pray, are the worshippers of 
 reason ? But, after the publication of such a letter, the reform- 
 ation could no longer recognise Czerski as one of her champions, 
 but must turn from him and his followers as her opponents. 
 And can we be blamed for this ? It has, indeed, cost me a severe 
 struggle to enter the lists against Czerski ; but I saw that 
 he and his wholly misunderstood the spirit of the reforma- 
 tion of the nineteenth century, and were eagerly digging its 
 grave ; hence, I am compelled to come forward in its defence." 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 319 
 
 The pamphlet proceeds throughout in the same strain, con- 
 founding the condemnation of error with the condemnation of 
 those who hold it, and exclaiming against the setting up of all 
 positive dogmas, as an infringement of liberty of conscience 
 and brotherly love. 
 
 We need follow this pamphlet no further than to remark, 
 that it serves to show, not merely how scriptural Czerski's 
 views continue, but how unscriptural the Rongeite party is 
 avowedly become. It is true they have lost nothing by 
 foregoing the hypocritical profession they previously held, of 
 Romish doctrines, while they have undoubtedly gained by 
 escaping from a vassalage, to which may perhaps be traced a 
 chief portion of their infidelity ; and since even they refer to 
 the Bible, and put it into the hands of their followers, we may 
 still rejoice in the hope that good will ultimately be done by 
 their having emancipated themselves from a yoke, which 
 "neither they nor their fathers were able to bear." Would 
 that they may be prevented using their liberty to the extent 
 of licentiousness ; and, rejecting the law of Christ, fall into a 
 worse bondage than that from which they have escaped. 
 
 One very remarkable sign of the times assuredly is, that 
 while the attention of the Roman college seems exclusively 
 fixed on England, and novenums and triduums are appointed 
 by the pope, at the request of the faithful, in order to propitiate 
 Heaven towards heretic England, and to implore the spread of 
 Catholicism there, no one seems to feel any interest in 
 Germany. Hundreds of thousands of its population are for- 
 saking the Roman pale, yet the pope seems to say, " Am I my 
 brother's keeper?" He neither issues bulls against, nor 
 appoints prayers for them. Does he know that, with regard 
 to a considerable number, he may safely leave them to follow 
 openly the infidelity they have long nourished under Romanist 
 forms ? Or has even his Holiness learned, that anathemas 
 would, in the nineteenth century, be scorned, and that Romish 
 prayers, being better appreciated by those who have left, than 
 by those who are hovering at the entrance of popery, would 
 
320 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 run a great risk of being laughed at, and placed in the sarrie 
 category with the holy tunic ? At all events, he keeps silence, 
 and the so-long-threatened bull against the German Catholics 
 has not yet appeared. 
 
 The famous Dr. Hurter, late of Schaffhausen, whose apos- 
 tacy from Protestantism obtained him such high favour 
 during his last year's residence in Eome, has been for some 
 months in Vienna, where, as report goes, a high post in the 
 censorship is to be superadded to his appointments of Privy 
 Councillor, and Historian of the empire. There can, therefore, 
 be little doubt that his influence will be zealously employed in 
 the promotion of every measure which can favour bigotry and 
 intolerance. 
 
 Several clerical accessions have been made lately to the 
 German Catholics. A preacher, named Wilhelm, was ordained 
 by Ronge, as pastor over the Christian Catholic congregation in 
 Festenburg. The service took place on the 18th of January, 
 and yet, as the patron of the Lutheran church in that place 
 refused its use to the dissidents, the ordination had to be 
 celebrated in the open air. For the same cause a baptism had 
 to be performed on the 19th, under the open vault of heaven, 
 notwithstanding the very inclement state of the weather, 
 Czerski and Sylvester ordained preacher Kelch, likewise, on the 
 18th of January, in the Schneidemiihl place of worship. The 
 new deacon is appointed to officiate in Chodziesen, where the 
 congregation, though small, is on the increase. Pastor Syl- 
 vester, as a man of more clerical experience, is now appointed 
 over the larger church in Rawiecz. 
 
 The Prussian province of Silesia is at this moment torn by 
 religious factions. The rationalism which has so long infected 
 the Lutheran church there, having attracted the notice of 
 government, various measures have been adopted to check it. 
 The most recent one is the dissolution of the seminary for 
 training schoolmasters, in which, it seems, rationalist views 
 had led to such a spirit of anarchy and insubordination, that the 
 superintendent, a clergyman of orthodox Lutheran faith, saw 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 321 
 
 himself compelled to lay the matter before the king, who, 
 naturally weighing the vain efforts already tried to reduce the 
 refractory to obedience, and probably unwilling that a host of 
 rationalist schoolmasters should, by completing their course, 
 be fitted for carrying their poisonous doctrine into the parish 
 schools of his dominions, dissolved the institution by his own 
 royal mandate. The coup was indisputably an arbitrary, but 
 in Prussia a perfectly legitimate exercise of his prerogative ; 
 and, so long as the king is the recognised head of the church, 
 there can be no doubt that he is bound to see that the doctrines 
 of that church are respected within her own pale. Dismay 
 and indignation have been the consequence ; and, considering 
 the prepondrance of rationalist views, the latter feeling is 
 probably the predominating one. 
 
 The next event that occupies public attention in that quar- 
 ter, is a direct appeal to the Prussian monarch, signed by a 
 great number of Lutheran clergymen, against their general 
 superintendent, Hahn, for re-introducing the use of the sym- 
 bolical books at ordinations. This petition, supported by the 
 magistrates and city deputies of Breslaw, was sent off to Berlin, 
 in opposition to the active and strenuous representations of the 
 governor of the province, the Lord President Von Hedel. 
 
 His Majesty's answer is as follows: — "The magistracy of 
 Breslaw have misunderstood the cabinet order respecting the 
 act of union (between the Lutheran and reformed churches in 
 Prussia), as the obligation to abide by the symbolical books 
 was in no degree thereby annulled. Therefore those general 
 superintendents who have hitherto neglected to employ them 
 at ordinations, are blameworthy, and the present general super- 
 intendent has acted according to his duty." Whether this de- 
 cision will lead, in Silesia, as in Konigsburg, to the formation 
 of what they call " a Free Evangelical Church," remains to be 
 proved. Assuredly it would be better for all parties, if those 
 who dissent from the Lutheran church in sentiment were to 
 withdraw from its communion, by which the poor people who 
 attend church in the belief that they are to be fed with the 
 
 p 3 
 
322 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 doctrine which they revere as being the faith of their fathers, 
 might be brought to think, examine, and choose for themselves, 
 either the old paths or the new ; at present, the one haK have 
 no fixed belief at all. But, in the present state of the law, 
 there are many difficulties which the free church in Konigs- 
 burg is now experiencing. The consistory prohibited Dr. Eupp 
 from preaching ; the people called upon him to do so, and he 
 complied. The result was, an examination of the clerical 
 offender, and his two chief supporters. Dr. Denter and a mer- 
 chant named Negenboni, before the high court of judicature. 
 They were asked how they came to celebrate divine worship 
 in opposition to the consistorial prohibition, and if they de- 
 signed to repeat the offence; the Lord President remarking 
 that, in that case, he would feel necessitated to prevent the 
 service at all risks, even by force. Dr. Denter replied, that 
 they had understood the official prohibition to refer only to 
 one particular occasion ; since which, having complied with 
 the legal forms requisite to obtaining a formal recognition by 
 the state, they deemed themselves entitled to urge Dr. Rupp 
 to hold divine service, for which the congregation so very much 
 longed ; and they trusted that no greater hindrances would be 
 laid in the way of Protestant than of Catholic dissent, the 
 Catholic dissidents being permitted to meet for worship, 
 although they, too, were not yet legalized as a religious body. 
 Having obtained permission from the court to consult with the 
 other members of the committee. Dr. Denter returned, and 
 announced to the Lord President that, " it being far from their 
 wish to show opposition to the government, they would refrain 
 from holding divine worship for a time, provided Dr. Rupp 
 were permitted to give them a religious discourse every Sun- 
 day ; but, if that should be refused, the committee could not 
 answer for the congregation submitting even to a temporary 
 suspension of their social worship." The Lord President re- 
 served to himself the right of delaying a definitive response 
 for four days, in order to obtain directions from Berlin. The 
 only affairs of consequence which have recently occurred in 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 323 
 
 the German Catholic Church, are three. The Wirtemburg 
 government has relaxed its opposition, and permitted the Ger- 
 man Catholic pastor to impart religious instruction to the 
 children of his own members. Professor Schreiber, who was 
 the first who openly sided with the Catholic dissidents in the 
 Duchy of Baden, and defended the steps he had taken in a 
 small but spirited pamphlet, entitled " the Principles of the 
 German Catholic Church," has at length obtained leave to retire 
 upon a pension. Being now free from university rule, it is 
 probable he will come more openly forward in the service of 
 the German Catholic Church ; and at Ulm, the recognition of 
 the new sect is settled on the following basis : — they may meet 
 for worship (but without ringing of bells) in any place suited 
 to the number of members ; they may choose a pastor (whose 
 nomination must, however, be certified to the authorities), and 
 he will be allowed to baptize and bury, the several occasions 
 being regularly announced to the Lutheran ministers of the 
 parish in which such baptism or burial occurs, that he may 
 registrate the same in the parish books ; but no marriage will 
 be recognised as being valid in civil law, which is .not cele- 
 brated by a Lutheran clergyman. Further, it is not permitted 
 to the Catholic dissidents to invite any pastor of their commu- 
 nion from a distance to preach to them, without having first 
 asked and obtained leave from the magistracy. Hanover and 
 Hesse-Cassel do not suifer any exercise of worship by the 
 German Catholics within their bounds. 
 
 An article has appeared in several German papers, dated 
 Posen, February 9, which ran as follows : — " By letters from 
 Rawiecz, we learn that the reconciliation between Czerski 
 and Ronge, which took place 'there on the 3rd inst., has 
 made a deep impression on all minds. That the ultimate and 
 influential agent in bringing about this desirable event, is the 
 excellent Dr. Theiner, there can be no doubt, but the imme- 
 diate agent in the aifair is differently stated ; some assigning 
 Pastor Sylvester (for whom, as the author of the admirable 
 'Letter to the Pope,' Dr. Theiner felt a deep interest, and 
 
324 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 corresponded with him) ; others, Pastor Post, as the mediator 
 by whom the reconciliation has been brought about." 
 
 March. This reported union of the leaders of the ration- 
 alist and evangelical parties among the Catholic dissidents 
 having found its way into English journals, by a strangely 
 mangled translation of a letter from Ronge, it seems expe- 
 dient to give a correct one before submitting the reply which 
 Czerski sent in answer to a requested explanation of the mys- 
 terious transaction. 
 
 The translation above alluded to, professes to give the 
 letter of Abbe Ronge to the President of the Christian 
 Catholic Communes, and commences, " Dear brothers and 
 sisters." It may be remarked, en passant^ that as Ronge 
 never was an abbe in the Roman Catholic church, and as the 
 German Catholics recognise no clerical grades, but profess 
 to find, in the New Testament model, a perfect equality of 
 pastoral authority, he must be presumed to owe this ecclesias- 
 tical dignity to the gratuitous politesse of either the French 
 or English press. Neither does there exist in the new sect 
 any such office as " President of Communes ;" though, if 
 there did, an individual could hardly be addressed, " Dear 
 brothers and sisters." But to pass on to the letter which 
 really was published by Ronge. It was addressed to the 
 various Christian Catholic congregations, and ran thus : — 
 " Dear Brethren and Sisters, 
 "I rejoice to be able to communicate to you the happy 
 intelligence, that Czerski has united with the other Christian 
 Catholic communities in the same manner as at Leipsic ; and 
 that Pastor Post, of Posen, has done the same. The concilia- 
 tion took place at Rawiecz, on the 3d inst. The congregation 
 there, which had at first followed the course adopted by 
 Czerski, having agreed unanimously to the Leipsic confession, 
 Theiner and myself went thither by invitation, to celebrate 
 divine worship. On our arrival, we found Czerski and Post 
 there before us, who shook hands with us, and declared, in the 
 name of their respective congregations, that, while abiding by 
 
RFFORM MOVEMENT. 325 
 
 their own principles, they were, nevertheless, willing to co- 
 operate with other congregations in promoting the well-being 
 and happiness of mankind. The union being thus effected on 
 the principle laid down at Leipsic, no other was committed to 
 writing, and the conference was confined to verbal commu- 
 nications ; it was, however, decided that Czerski and Post 
 should address a letter to the Christian Catholic congregations 
 generally, in which a full explanation of the views and motives 
 of the present re-union should be given ; the design and ten- 
 dencies of reform be plainly stated ; and the practice of 
 condemning and excommunicating those who think differently 
 on some points, expressly denounced ; but, above all, the 
 realities of the Christian religion be insisted on. We 
 separated, promising that Germany would not be unmindful 
 of her Sclavonian brethren. Dear brethren and sisters, you 
 also, doubtless, will hold out the right hand of fellowship. 
 You, too, will rejoice to see the true Christian spirit, which 
 knows not how to condemn, spread far and wide; and the 
 realisation, in the nineteenth century, of that essentially 
 Christian doctrine, ' Hereby shall all men know that ye are 
 my disciples, by the love which ye bear one to another.' 
 
 (Signed) "Ronge. 
 ^^ Dated, Breslaw, February/ 5, 1846." 
 
 At the same time that the foregoing very ingenious, but 
 somewhat Jesuitical letter, was making the tour of the 
 public papers, a Berlin newspaper, of the 11th of February 
 published the following: — "Our journals present the public 
 with a declaration of the committee of management of the 
 Schneidemiihl new Catholic church, which contains an indirect 
 protest against the Leipsic confession, and a direct adhesion to 
 the apostolic creed ; and, upon the whole, may be regarded as 
 nearly synonymous with that emitted, some time since, by the 
 smaller of the new Catholic congregations in this city (under 
 the direction of Pastor Pribil and Professor Zittmar), which 
 has zealously availed itself of every opportunity to avow its 
 firm adherence to the Apostles' Creed, both in word and deed. 
 
326 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 According to private letters from Breslaw, Dr. Theiner, 
 president of the German Catholic committee there, is much 
 averse to any interference in the affairs of the congregation, 
 by members of other confessions ; being of opinion that the 
 development and perfecting of their ecclesiastical constitu- 
 tion ought to proceed from themselves." 
 
 Taking this Berlin paragraph as a guiding clue to unra- 
 velling the hidden meanings of Rouge's letter, it seems plain 
 that the only Leipsic principle which was mutually adopted at 
 the Rawiecz conference, was that by which every congregation 
 retained the power of making up deficiencies, by such additions 
 to its own creed, as it found in the Bible ; that the union, 
 therefore, there effected, was one of co-operation against 
 Rome, rather than with each other. This, indeed, is as plainly 
 admitted by Ronge, as it suited his purpose to do, where he 
 states that Czerski and Post professed their willingness, while 
 abiding by their own principles, to labour, in common with 
 other congregations, for the weal of mankind ; while the 
 equivocal phrase, which begins the next sentence — "The 
 union being thus effected, on the principles laid down at 
 Leipsic," is neutralised by its termination, which asserts that, 
 " above all, the realities of Christianity are to be insisted on." 
 Yet, however self-contradictory this sentence may be, it will 
 appear evident, from the following letter from Czerski, that the 
 latter clause was the avowal by which the reconciliation was 
 effected. In how far sincerity dictated, or practice will 
 corroborate, the profession, a little time will disclose. But 
 some light is thrown upon the transaction by the following 
 circumstances : — ^A copy of Rouge's published letter having 
 been transmitted to Czerski by the writer of these pages, with 
 an earnest request to be informed, at his earliest convenience, 
 whether it contained a fair statement of what passed at Rawiecz ; 
 and, if so, in what manner he could account for the complete 
 revolution in his own views and sentiments, which must have 
 occurred within the short space of three days, that being 
 the interval between his letter addressed to the editor of the 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 327 
 
 " Continental Echo," and which appeared in the March number 
 of that journal, dated the 30th of January, while the meeting 
 at Rawiecz took place on the 3rd of February. The following 
 is the reply which was received in due course : — 
 
 Schneidemuhl, March 2. 
 "I am at this moment engaged in preparing a circular 
 letter to all the Christian Catholic churches, detailing the true 
 relationships of the Rawiecz coalition. I content myself, 
 therefore, at present, with announcing this to you, and as- 
 suring you that I have not retracted one foot's-breadth from 
 my former position. The world itself could not proffer a 
 price for which I would barter my belief in Jesus Christ, the 
 Son of the living God ; and we have only joined together, in 
 order, in the exercise of mutual love and forbearance, to fight 
 with united forces against the encroachments of Rome. How, 
 indeed, could I ever unite with unbelief? But the Breslaw 
 brethren gave me the assurance that they desire to preach 
 Christ, the crucified one, the Son of the living God ; and if 
 they abide by this, our dissensions must cease with its cause. 
 The grace of God be with you. Yours, &c. 
 
 (Signed) *'J. Czerski." 
 It would surely he unjust to decide in how far the agree- 
 ment in question was warranted by Christian principle, pre- 
 vious to receiving the promised circular letter, which has not 
 yet left the press, and which may naturally enough have been 
 delayed, both in composition and printing, by the political 
 disturbances with which the Schneidemuhl district, in com- 
 mon with Posen and great part of Western Prussia, has 
 recently been visited, and from which they are not yet ex"empt. 
 Moreover, considering the bold, firm stand, which both Czerski 
 and Post have hitherto made against infidelity, it would be 
 uncharitable to suffer even a surmise to dim the brightness of 
 their gospel testimony; let us rather realise, in regard to them, 
 the Christian love described by the apostle in 1 Cor. xiii. 5 — 7. 
 Nor is there small ground for hope that, through Dr. Theiner's 
 influence, Ronge will, in future, bridle both pen and tongue 
 
328 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 (for the first avowals of enmity, wliether from the pulpit or 
 press, were made while absent from Breslaw, on his southern 
 tour), and thus, ostensibly at least, ground of oifence, and the 
 necessity for direct opposition, will he taken away. But 
 ' should it ever appear (which God forbid) that Czerski and 
 Post have been seduced from their steadfastness, into an 
 apparent coalition with those from whom they differ toto ccelo 
 in heart, can the religious world cast a stone of condemna- 
 tion at them with a good conscience ? What body of profess- 
 ing Christians holding the evangelical principles upon which 
 they stand, has come forward to aid the tottering steps of 
 those just escaped from the leading-strings of Eome ? None 
 but the free church of Scotland, and the reformed church of 
 France — ^brilliant and honourable exceptions, both ; and the 
 excellent counsel of the former especially, had it been followed 
 up in a similar way by other ecclesiastical communities, 
 accompanied by such assistance as would have shown they 
 loved, not in word only, but in deed and in truth, might 
 have done much, not only to establish and strengthen, but to 
 rectify, purify, and set in order the things that are wanting. 
 But, alas, all stood, and stand, aloof. No Protestants in 
 their own country have, as a body, professed sympathy with 
 the Catholic dissidents, but the " Friends of Light ;" and they, 
 as may well be supposed, would rather quench than help to trim 
 the gospel flame among them. No British publication, as far 
 as I am aware, save the " Continental Echo," has advanced the 
 cause of the Apostolic Catholic Christians, by seeking for them 
 the prayers and the contributions of British Christians ; yet 
 the congregations who cling to positive Christianity are 
 known to be poor in worldly possessions, comparatively few 
 as to numbers, peculiarly the objects of derision or detestation 
 to the Roman Catholic bigots, and contemned as unenlightened, 
 narrow-minded, and devoid of Christian love, by the illuminatiy 
 whether among the Protestant friends or German Catholics. 
 Would it, then, be very wonderful, if, thus left alone in the 
 midst of their enemies, the doctrine of expediency, which has 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 329 
 
 entangled many who had better opportunities of instruction, 
 should have led to coalescing with irreligion, wearing the garb 
 of their party, and have won the ear of those babes in Christ, 
 especially when it came in the guise of that angel of light — 
 Christian love ? From this danger they might have been 
 saved, if fellow-Christians had done their duty. It is, indeed, 
 very certain that if the Schneidemiihl and other congrega- 
 tions are truly the people of God, He will cause enlargement 
 and deliverance to arise to them from some other quarter, 
 however long British Christians may hold their peace ;* but 
 who can tell when, or how, such indifference will be required 
 at their hand ? Money is much needed by these poor people ; 
 they are harassed by war, the cantonments of soldiery, and 
 the consequent much increased dearness of provisions. But 
 they need much more than money ; they need counsel, encou- 
 ragement, and, above all, fervent intercessions for them before 
 the throne of God, that they " may be able to stand in the 
 evil day, and, having done all, to stand." 
 
 A blasphemous mummery, which has for some time been 
 carried on at Paderborn, by an apostate Lutheran clergyman, 
 named Gossler, has at length been put a stop to by authority, 
 and the offender confined to his convent. The facts were these : 
 — this infamous apostate, whose zeal, as is generally the case 
 with such, outstripped his discretion, commenced some months 
 ago (but only to members of the true church) the exhibition 
 of a nun of the St. Clarissa order, bearing on her brow marks 
 of the crown of thorns worn by our Lord. These marks, he 
 maintained, distilled a certain number of blood-gouts (from 
 80 to 115) daily, of which the ghostly charlatan published a 
 printed facsimile, which, being sold to the credulous multitude, 
 brought him and his female companion a tolerable income. 
 The more respectable Catholics were highly scandalized by 
 this disgraceful exhibition, yet Father Gossler's superiors 
 were either unwilling or unable to put a stop to it, although, 
 
 * Esther iv. 14. 
 
PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 horrible to relate, the Holy Supper of our Lord was prosti- 
 tuted to aid the vile fraud, as it was pretended that this selected 
 bride of Heaven ate nothing but the consecrated wafer, daily 
 dispensed to her by her priestly showman. A providential 
 occurrence, however, put an end to the wicked priest's gains, 
 though scarcely, it is feared, to the people's delusion. The 
 serious illness of the nun requiring medical aid, a physician 
 (Dr. Sebregondi) was called in, who discovered, and, though 
 a Catholic, denounced the cheat, which led at once to an 
 authoritative removal of the two accomplices to their respec- 
 tive convents. But Father Gossler, it is said, has already 
 denounced the physician to the populace as an unbeliever 
 and adversary, by which he has incurred much popular 
 indignation. 
 
 One of the latest manifestations of the Romanists has been 
 made in Suabia, on the 8th inst., on which day a circular 
 letter from the Rottenburg Chapter was read from every 
 Catholic pulpit throughout the country, pronouncing the 
 excommunication of the German Catholics. The document 
 concludes by declaring the apostates shut out from the Ca- 
 tholic communion ; admonishes the parish priests to lay a 
 firm foundation of faith, by diligent instruction and reading ; 
 to re-establish all the ordinances and usages of the Catholic 
 church, in their purity ; and specially calls upon them to pray 
 for the restoration of the wanderers ; entreating them to be 
 unwearied in their endeavours to accomplish the perfecting 
 of the faithful, and to confirm their adherence to the rock 
 on which the Catholic church is built. 
 
 The Roman Catholic church in Silesia continues to exhibit 
 signs of vitality ; and an ardent wish has been expressed in 
 several places, particularly in Oppeln and Neisse, consonant 
 to the petitions presented to the Archbishop of Cologne, for 
 the revival of diocesan synods. It is even said, that the 
 Prince-bishop of Breslaw, no less than the Bishop of Culm, 
 are decidedly favourable to the measure. In the present 
 state of excitement, its adoption would assuredly be a wise 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 331 
 
 tribute to public opinion, and might, more than any other, 
 check dissent, by affording a hope of improvement within the 
 pale of the church. 
 
 April. Although the expected letter from Czerski has not 
 yet been published, the following extract from a statement 
 made in the March number of the " Catholic Church Reform 
 Journal for 1846," seems to put the footing on which the 
 Rawiecz conference was conducted, in the plainest light. The 
 passage is as follows : — " As to the points respecting which 
 the union of the Christian Catholic clergymen who met here 
 on February 3, was founded, there could be no proposition 
 of concession] on either side, since the first church council 
 at Leipsic assured to each individual congregation the right 
 to hold its own peculiar views, provided these did not con- 
 travene the general principle " (viz., separation from, and 
 independence of, Rome). " Czerski will retain the apostolic 
 confession of faith, and the public ritual he has hitherto ob- 
 served in divine worship, as well as the clerical dress ; both 
 of these being justly regarded as important in the Roman 
 controversy in the Grand Duchy of Posen. In other respects 
 he will not hold aloof from Ronge, but strive to promote the 
 glorious work of the reformation, by uniting his efforts to 
 those of his brethren." 
 
 It is not a little remarkable, that the 18th of February, as 
 the tri-centenary anniversary of Luther's death, was comme- 
 morated by the German Catholics, as well as the evangelical 
 portion of the Protestant church, but not by the " Friends of 
 Light," who therefore show themselves more determinedly 
 opposed to the Lutheran confession than the new dissidents 
 from Rome, who, in fact, profess to desire an extension and 
 completion of the reformation of the sixteenth century. 
 
 A most gratifying decision by the Prussian courts of law 
 has just been announced. Dr. Theiner having been prosecuted 
 by the Roman Catholic authorities in Breslaw, for his lately 
 published work, "Attempts at Reform in the Catholic Church," 
 on the ground that it contained libellous matter against " a 
 
332 PROGRESS OF THE 
 
 religious body recognised in the Prussian state," Dr. Theiner 
 has been acquitted ; and the book, which, during the time of 
 the trial, was prohibited from being sold, has been released 
 from interdict. And although, here and there, instances of 
 oppression exercised towards the dissident Catholics are heard 
 of, upon the whole, the German government, with the exception 
 of Austria and Hesse- Cassel, observe a system of neutrality 
 towards them. 
 
 The strong contrast formed by the distinguishing names 
 German Catholic and Apostolic Christian Catholic, hitherto 
 borne by the several congregations of dissidents, and the sen- 
 timents so openly expressed by Czerski, that German Catholic 
 was much too sectarian an appellation for the professors of a 
 religion intended for the world, led Ronge, some time since, to 
 propose a middle course, viz., the universal adoption of the 
 name Christian Catholic, without any other distinctive prae- 
 nomen. This proposition has been recently repeated in the 
 " Catholic Reform Church Journal," and, at the same time, the 
 announcement of a general council intended to be held in 1847 ; 
 at which, as it may be hoped the reformers will then have 
 attained a legalised position, as well as a firmer basis and better 
 organised internal arrangement, the definitive settlement shall 
 be made of such ecclesiastical affairs among them, as must, 
 under present circumstances, remain undetermined and con- 
 tingent. Meantime, the results of the reform movement, and 
 the position of its adherents up to the present day (April 8), 
 maybe thus shortly stated: — In August, 1844, Bishop Arnoldi 
 of Treves set up the holy tunic for worship. In October, 1844, 
 Johannes Ronge published his indignant expostulation against 
 the blasphemous mummery. In January, 1845, the first sepa- 
 ration from Rome, consequent on that letter, was made. And 
 now, in the commencement of 1846, Christian Catholic churches 
 have been established in 321 places (in some of which, such 
 as Breslaw, Berlin, and Leipsic, several congregations exist), 
 forming a chain from Konigsburg to Snarbruck, and from 
 Kill, on the Baltic, to Constance, while the number of members 
 
REFORM MOVEMENT. 333 
 
 is computed at above 100,000. So much for the gaping 
 wound which Rome has received in twenty months. The 
 position of the dissidents, in the different countries, may he 
 thus classed : — in Brunswick favoured, if not recognised ; 
 in Prussia, Wirtemhurg, and Hesse Darmstadt, protected; 
 in Hanover and Baden, repressed ; in Saxony, suffered ; in 
 Austria and Hesse-Cassel, persecuted. 
 
 What tale the proposed meeting in 1847 will tell, no one 
 can foresee ; hut whoever contemplates, with an unprejudiced 
 eye, the distracted state of the Protestant church in Germany, 
 and the political discontent, and tendency to insubordination, 
 which mark the middle and lower orders in many parts of the 
 country, cannot be blind to the fact, that there are some very 
 alarming symptoms in the present temper of our times. The 
 people of England, who have so long been accustomed to 
 hear their rulers and legal enactments expatiated upon with 
 considerable license, and who can smile at the vituperation 
 which they know would be silenced, did any real foreign danger 
 threaten Britain, can but ill judge of the marvellous change 
 which has come over continental society in this respect ; a 
 change which may end beneficially, but will, probably, be accom- 
 panied by some devastating effects in its progress. Tlie whole 
 of continental Europe may be said to be in a state of ferment. 
 Religion, or rather ecclesiastical institutions, is the subject 
 which engrosses every grade of society, and " overturn, over- 
 turn, overturn" them, is the wish, more or less plainly declared, 
 of the majority. But what do they desire to put in their place? 
 Churches founded on ' the model of those gathered by the 
 apostles ? By no means ; for Paul laid down positive dogmas, 
 declaring all who denied them, anathema maranatha ! The 
 loving and beloved apostle, John, proclaims him an antichrist 
 who denieth either the Father or the Son. But in these days 
 of ultra fraternising, we are to hail every man a brother in 
 Christ, whether he uphold or trample on the doctrine the 
 Saviour taught. And the freedom of Protestantism is sup- 
 posed to require the leaving every man to " do that which 
 
834 PROGRESS OF THE REFORM MOVEMENT. 
 
 seemeth right in his own eyes;" while he may yet claim to be 
 treated as a member of this or that Christian body, though it 
 be formed on totally different principles. This applies, in its 
 fullest sense, to the " Friends of Light ;" and assuredly the 
 present commotions in the Protestant church are more dangerous 
 to the peace and order of society, than all the Catholic dissidents 
 could effect, were they even disposed to subvert the existing 
 state of tilings. A determination to be free from all control, 
 not the desire to follow Christ and Him solely, is the prevailing 
 motive which influences the mobocracy, which is now endea- 
 vouring, by means of subtle and designing spirits, to overthrow 
 existing ecclesiastical institutions. Would the "powers that 
 be" but leave the leaders to the capricious support of their 
 own followers, the world would soon see a diminution, not only 
 of " the loaves and fishes," but of the candidates for gathering 
 " the fragments that would be left." With very few excep- 
 tions, " the Friends of Light" partake, in small measure, of the 
 spirit of martyrdom ; and are stimulated to strengthen their 
 party by the hope of securing, by numbers, the legalised reten- 
 tion of those worldly good things which, as ministers of an 
 established church, they now enjoy, and which they must 
 necessarily forfeit, unless they can compass the unchristian- 
 ising of the formulas now binding in that church. What will be 
 the end, God alone knows. Perhaps He is about to call on his 
 own people, in all confessions, to separate themselves from 
 the unbelievers, and antedate on earth the separation which 
 will take place in eternity, when the followers of Christ, out 
 of every country, nation, class, and degree, will form the one 
 brotherhood which shall never be dissolved. 
 
335 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 
 
 Sketch of the Prussian Church — Dr. Guerike's Account of a Meeting 
 of " the Friends of Light" at Kbthen — Doggrel Rhymes in honour 
 of Uhlich — Extract from a Pamphlet — Tone adopted by the Mag- 
 deburg Consistory — Pleasing Signs of the Times — Wislicenus — 
 Dr. Hengstenberg— Extract from "the Declaration of the 15th of 
 August — Quotations from Dr. Hengstenberg's Reply — The King 
 of Prussia's Reply to the Berlin Magistracy — Singular Baptisms 
 —The King of Prussia's Reply to a Petition on behalf of Wis- 
 licenus. , 
 
 One of the greatest anomalies in the Protestant world, is 
 certainly that now presented by the divided state of the 
 Lutheran church, more especially in Prussia and Saxony ; and 
 the boldness with which rationalism propounds its unscrip- 
 tural views, under an infinite variety of shades. Public atten- 
 tion has been, for months past, peculiarly attracted to this 
 subject, by the hitherto unexampled audacity with which one 
 party has lately erected the banner of scepticism ; and, by 
 adopting a popular tone and style of argument, seems to have 
 lamentably succeeded in infusing its poison (formerly chiefly 
 confined to the learned theorist or the high-born libertine), into 
 the heart's blood of the million. But, before giving a detailed 
 account of the sentiments and operations of this party, which, 
 under the fair designations of " the Friends of Light," or " the 
 
336 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 Protestant Friends," has ventured to avow the most daring 
 enmity to Christianity, some notice of the causes which have 
 contributed to promote the growth of rationalism in Germany, 
 and especially in the Prussian states, may he necessary for the 
 information of English readers. First and chief, may justly 
 be named the deluge of infidel publications which poured in 
 upon the country in the reign of Frederick the Great, whether 
 from the pen of Voltaire, long the idol of that monarch and 
 his court, or of such as had imbibed his spirit, and equalled 
 him in blasphemy, if not in wit. Secondly, the gradual 
 amalgamation, or rather the engulfing of the ecclesiastical 
 in the civil polity of Prussia, which, though commenced 
 under Frederick the Great, and progressing under Frederick 
 William II., received its full completion under the late king, 
 Frederick William III. When the French occupation, in 
 1806, had wholly overturned all previous organization in 
 his kingdom, an entirely new system was planned, and, in 
 1807 — 1809, brought into operation; by which, among other 
 changes, the still legal, though, during the two previous 
 reigns, much abridged, independence of the Lutheran church, 
 was annihilated ; and it became, in the most literal sense of the 
 words, part and parcel of the state, forming thenceforward 
 a branch of the ministerial department for home affairs. In 
 1815 — 17, a division of labour took place, by which a sepa- 
 rate minister was appointed over the ecclesiastical, the educa- 
 tional, and the medical departments, under the general name 
 oi^^der Cultus Minister j" synonymous with its French proto- 
 type, "/e Ministre des Cultes.'' The first person clothed 
 with this tripartite dignity, was Baron von Altenstein, a man 
 of distinguished talent and liberal views of state policy, but 
 too much disposed to regard the creed of a nation as, equally 
 with its jurisprudence, a government affair. He therefore 
 cordially concurred with his undoubtedly weU - intentioned 
 sovereign, in carrying through a measure wholly at variance 
 with the rights of conscience, and which, aiming at producing 
 an outward uniformity, both of doctrine and worship, throughout 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 337 
 
 the Prussian dominions, only added one proof more of the 
 futility of every attempt to force either conviction or its pro- 
 fession, on conscientious minds. There is, moreover, much 
 reason to fear, it not only favoured the admission of unscrupu- 
 lous men into the sacred ministry, but accustomed the minds 
 of rising theologians to very lax views of their obligation 
 to hold and to teach the doctrines to which they subscribed ; 
 — an evil seed, the harvest of which the present generation is 
 destined to reap. The measure to which I allude was the 
 union of the Lutheran and reformed churches — an object of 
 desire to many Prussian monarchs, and the attempt to procure 
 which, at a much earlier period, viz., in the time of the great 
 elector Frederick (grandson of John Sigismund, the first 
 prince of the house of Brandenburg who professed the re- 
 formed faith), was the source of much discontent, oppression, 
 and even persecution, though carried on ostensibly, and per- 
 haps really, for the (supposed) promotion of love and unity. 
 The instrument employed to carry the modern measure into 
 effect was a new "agende," an ecclesiastical ordinance, which 
 comprehended not only a new liturgy and minutely-prescribed 
 forms of worship, but various alterations and modifications of 
 the ancient Lutheran doctrine. These were introduced with 
 the view of so assimilating it to that of the reformed church, 
 as to merge both in what was thenceforth to be termed the 
 united Prussian church, and forming, in fact, a kind of half- 
 way house for both communions to meet and shake hands in. 
 This enactment was published in 1822, and, though intended 
 by Frederick William IIL to be a healing measure, was re- 
 garded, by the rigid of both communions, as an open infringe- 
 ment of the rights' of conscience ; and yet, under the joint 
 influence of absolute and military ideas, it was not merely 
 recommended to the adoption of his subjects, but enforced on 
 all Lutheran clergymen, under the penalty of expulsion ; and 
 thus became " a stone of stumbling 'and a rock of offence" to 
 many pious pastors and congregations, and a pregnant source 
 of much real, though not avowed, persecution. For resistance 
 
338 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 was regarded in the light of rebellion to royal authority, and 
 the adherence of congregations to their deposed pastors, as well 
 as the exercise of pastoral functions by such (in compliance 
 with the entreaties of their attached flocks), was treated as 
 contumacy. Their assemblies for worship were dispersed by 
 mihtary force ; and a repetition of the offence (worshipping 
 God according to their conscience) punished by fine or im- 
 prisonment. In short, the scenes exhibited in Scotland in 
 1670-80 (though in the mitigated form which the nineteenth 
 century made necessary), were reacted; and hundreds sought 
 refuge from ruinous fines and incarceration, in expatriation. 
 In 1836, even this sad resource was, by royal edict, denied 
 them ; and the singular anomaly was presented to the world, of 
 William III. of Prussia, with one hand giving an asylum in his 
 dominions to Tyrolese refugees, fleeing from Austrian oppres- 
 sion for conscience' sake ; and, with the other, not only issuing 
 restrictive and punitive decrees against his own subjects, for 
 a precisely similar resistance, but prohibiting their seeking 
 elsewhere that relief which Austria herself had conceded. Such 
 is the necessary result of man's assuming that absolute con- 
 trol over his fellow-creatures, which Omniscience and Omni- 
 presence are alone equal to exercise. 
 
 The promulgation of the agende gave unavoidably the cowp- 
 de-grace to ecclesiastical power in Prussia. The nomination 
 to all pastorates was restricted to private patrons or to the 
 government. The congregations, equally with the former 
 real and stiU nominal ecclesiastical superiors, lost all voice 
 in the election, and the functions of the church courts were 
 reduced to the examination of, and pronouncing upon, the qua- 
 lifications and eligibility of candidates, to whom the, in some 
 respects purposely, vague statements of the agende, furnished 
 excellent opportunities for veiling any defects of orthodoxy, of 
 which they might be conscious. Without, therefore, throwing 
 any imputation on the piety of some who felt at liberty to 
 adopt the royally-prescribed liturgy, or of others who con- 
 scientiously accepted appointments vacated by less complying 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 339 
 
 ministers, it can be no breach of charity to assume, that 
 many entered the Prussian church, at this time, from inte- 
 rested motives, and signed the new confession of faith, with a 
 " mental reservation, " worthy of the rankest Jesuitism. For 
 we find them now coming forward with the most unblushing 
 avowal of sentiments and principles, directly opposed to those 
 contained, not merely in the ancient symbolical books of the 
 Lutheran church, but in that very agende, which they ac- 
 cepted as the expression of their faith, and which they still 
 continue to read from Sunday to Sunday, at the altar, with a 
 barefaced hypocrisy, and a daring mockery of the heart- 
 searching, truth-loving God, of which an honest heathen 
 would be ashamed. 
 
 In justification of such strong expressions, I shall give a 
 few specimens of the published sentiments of those " Friends 
 of Light," who have, however, but lately withdrawn "the 
 bushel," beneath which their " light " long glimmered upon 
 their work of undermining (more especially in schools, and 
 the pastoral instruction given to candidates for confirmation), 
 and having now placed it on the " candlestick " of publicity, 
 both by means of the press and public meetings, there is no 
 longer any difficulty in estimating either the nature or origin 
 of the unhallowed flame. 
 
 A report published by Dr. Guerike, professor in Halle, in 
 the *' Evangelische Kirchen Zeitung" (or Lutheran Church 
 Magazine), for June 8, 1844, gives the following account of a 
 meeting held at Kothen (duchy of Saxe Kothen), on the 29th 
 of May, 1844:— 
 
 *' Seeing Pastor Uhlich, of Pommelte, the perpetual praeses, 
 and, as he may fairly be termed, the leader of the ' Protestant 
 Friends' (as they now prefer being designated), at the last 
 meeting of our ecclesiastical association at Guadan, where he 
 appeared in the passive characters of guest and observer, I 
 took courage to ask if I, in the capacity of church historian, 
 might, for once, occupy a similar position at the next general 
 meeting, at Kothen ; and my question being answered by an 
 
 q2 
 
340 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 unconditional affirmative, I carried my design into effect, on 
 the 29th ult., for the first, and assuredly for the last time. 
 Three hundred persons, at least, were assembled, of which one- 
 fourth might be theologians ; the remainder chiefly artisans, 
 tflffinsioen, and peasants, from Kothen, Anhalt, and their 
 respective neighbourhoods, but not one female (as was proved 
 by the afterwards published list of the company), contrasting 
 thereby remarkably enough with the Guadan meeting, in 
 which they w^ere so numerous. A hearty welcome to all 
 those closely ranked Friends of Light, which ended in a sort 
 of prayer (but without the usually concluding Amen) from 
 the lips of Archdeacon Dr. Fischer, of Leipsic, opened the pro- 
 ceedings, and was followed by an address from Pastor Uhlich, 
 who thenceforward, with great ability, and in a most attrac- 
 tive manner, filled the office of president. Of distinguished 
 talent, and equally beloved and honoured by the Protestant 
 Friends (one of them called him afterwards the Protestant 
 apostle), he pursues, in the most prudent, active, and appa- 
 rently candid manner, the interests of his party. On this 
 occasion, he descanted clearly, decidedly, and with most 
 winning subtlety, on the excellences and objectionable redun- 
 dances of the ' ancient creed,' whose adherents he divided 
 into ' puritanical,' * mystical,' * ecclesiastical,' and ' scientific* 
 fractions ; describing, as the characteristic and untenable 
 doctrines of these four subdivisions, the doctrine of original 
 sin, and atonement by the blood of Christ ; those of the 
 Trinity, and the divinity of Jesus Christ; the doctrine of a 
 church (referring to the expression in the Apostles' Creed, 
 ' I believe in one holy and apostolic church,' for ' the church,' 
 according to them, is * the root of all evil') ; and lastly, every 
 scientific theory 'not based on reason,' or, in other words, 
 not provable by the evidence of the senses. All this was 
 listened to, without attempt at contradiction ; and, after Coun- 
 sellor Tsensee, of Kothen, had given an account of a late 
 meeting of five hundred of his townsmen (in which various 
 points, both religious and political, had been discussed, in 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 341 
 
 full accordance with the views of the * Protestant Friends'), 
 and several subjects of minor interest had been touched upon 
 by various speakers, Pastor Wislicenus, of Halle, delivered a 
 discourse upon the question — *06 Schrift, Ob GeisV (Scrip- 
 ture or Spirit) ? which, in reference to the general principle 
 on which the Protestant church should rest, proclaimed, with 
 so naked an audacity, their belief (the speaker uniformly 
 employed the pronoun we) that not the Scriptures, but the 
 spirit (the generally-implanted spirit, or reason of man) is 
 the norm of faith, that every listener in whose breast even a 
 germ of Bible faith existed, could not but tremble; and even 
 among the * Protestant Friends,' a slight show of opposition 
 was made. One, a layman, declared, he could not consent 
 to give up the Scriptures ; and a theologian, whose person 
 was unknown to me, pronounced, with evident emotion, 'the 
 Bible, properly explained, to be the perpetual norm of Christ- 
 ian faith.' This dissent, feeble as it was, was elicited by the 
 following declaration by Pastor Wislicenus : — We do not be- 
 lieve that Jesus was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and born of 
 a virgin, but that he came into existence like any other man ; 
 we avow, openly and fearlessly, when Scripture statements are 
 brought forward in opposition to ours, that our doctrine is 
 not Scriptural,' &c. &c., which gave occasion to a lawyer to 
 propose an immediate corresponding modification of the Apos- 
 tles' Creed, but, in the excitement which reigned in the assem- 
 bly, he met with little attention. In vain Archdeacon Fischer, 
 and some other prominent men, tried anxiously to impress on 
 the meeting the right of every speaker to be heard to an 
 end ; and that the present was neither the time nor the place 
 for discussion. The opposition, though faint, remained firm, 
 and, with a few conciliatory sentences, and an * Amen,' the 
 able president closed the sitting at half past two o'clock. 
 
 '' The amply covered board at which I imprudently enough 
 (though necessity more than inclination led to the decision) 
 occupied a seat, and the harmony of several choruses in 
 honour of the emancipated mind of Germany, and of * Our 
 
34^ THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 O'Connell/ soon put all dissonance to flight ; and, deeply 
 grieved, though somewhat comforted by the resolve (recipro- 
 cated by some young teachers who joined me on my way 
 home) to have paid my last visit to a meeting of * Protestant 
 Friends,' and by the renewed and increased consciousness of 
 oneness with all who keep ' the faith,' I took my departure 
 from poor Kothen. 
 
 (Signed) " Guerike." 
 
 The phrase, *' Our O'Connell, " is an allusion to an adulatory 
 doggrel, in honour of Uhlich, in which he is compared to the 
 Irish demagogue, and which was sung with thundering ap- 
 plause. The following is a tolerably faithful translation of 
 this effusion, as given by Guerike : — 
 
 " Here's a health to our O'Connell too, 
 Though he has ne'er been suedj 
 He leads the heart of man and maid 
 Where'er to bim seems good. 
 
 " To parliament he is not sent, 
 Pommette's rights to guard ; 
 In Kothen's hall he proves his claim 
 To woolsack and to sword. 
 
 *' The people flock to honour him, 
 The clergy own his reign ; 
 The king* himself, from Anderbeck, 
 Has followed in his train. " 
 
 Another, and in some respects perhaps less dangerous, 
 because still more blasphemous, opposer of Bible Christianity 
 than Wislicenus, is Pastor Konig, of Anderbeck, who, about 
 \ four years since, expressed his hope of seeing a German-|- 
 
 '•' This allusion to the jolly rubicund Pastor Konig (Anglice 
 king) of Anderbeck, one of the most daringly blasphemous of the 
 " Friends of Light," and author of a calumnious attack on Bishop 
 Drasake, was loudly cheered. 
 
 t There seems a suspicious sympathy in this adoption of the 
 word German, as designatory of the free -thinking Protestants, as 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 343 
 
 Christian church established ; and although it seems that the 
 realization of this beau ideal of an unbelieving Christian 
 church has not proved either so easy or rapid as he desired, 
 the scheme is not abandoned; for, in aj^amphlet chiefly J V 
 launched at Dr. Guerike's account of the Kothen meeting, 
 and addressed to "the Friends of the German Christian I 
 church," this pastor of the united church in the Prussian 
 province of Saxony abjures, in plain, unvarnished terms, the 
 ground and pillar of that church — the doctrine of justification 
 by faith. His words are, — " Luther made the doctrine of 
 justification through faith in the merits of Christ the funda- 
 mental article of the Christian creed, and found therein the 
 only source of salvation. People have long and variously 
 given themselves infinite trouble, even up to the present day, 
 to uphold this genuinely Lutheran dogma, as of undiminished 
 validity in the evangelical (Lutheran) church ; but it is all in 
 vain. This dogma of the Augustine monk appears to us an 
 innovation, set up, indeed, by ancient ecclesiastical teachers, 
 and long maintained in respect and authority. But the 
 custom of receiving incomprehensibilities, merely because 
 they are propounded from pulpits or professors' chairs, has 
 sufiered a severe shock in our enlightened age. We have 
 not got so many floggings in our youth as little Martin did. 
 We have purer conceptions of the Supreme Being than those ^^ 
 of the Augustine monk, and therefore we are not afraid of 
 God's wrath, and seek no means of extinguishing it. The 
 ideas of justification by, and of trust in, the merits of another, 
 lie entirely beyond childish or popular comprehension ; and hp 
 only jvhq has previously learned by rote to speak of himself 
 as ['a poor wretched sinner,'/ will consent to acknowledge, 
 that his hope of justification before God, is grounded on the 
 
 well as of their (God be thanked, only in some respects) congenial 
 Catholic brethren. I was not aware, till a few days ago, of this 
 scheme of Pastor Konig's, but find it a confirmation of my previous 
 suspicion, that, in selecting a German Catholic for their cognomen, 
 some, at least, " meant more than met the ear." 
 
hi 
 
 A 
 
 344 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 merits of a third person. All attempts, we repeat it, to 
 obtain a general admission of such representations in our day, 
 are wholly vain ; and this we are far from regarding as a 
 misfortune. The advocates for these dogmas call upon us to 
 leave the communion of the church, since we have forsaken 
 j its doctrines. They are infinitely obliging ; but we maintain 
 j ourselves to be the truly evangelical, which they, petty fraction 
 as they are, would wish to turn out. Again, I say, they are 
 infinitely obliging ; but I would advise them not to mistake 
 their position. Let those, too, be suffered to put in a word 
 among whom we have for years preached our gospel ; and let 
 them say, whether they prefer it to the contrition, the litany, 
 and eternal punishment, to which our opponents would hand 
 them over. I warn them not to deceive themselves as to the 
 sentiments of the people ; when the measure is full, it will 
 run over." _, __^ 
 
 This allusion to their popularity, is a favourite ground for 
 exultation among "the Protestant Friends;" and the manner 
 in which it might display itself, received a very apposite 
 commentary, in a letter addressed by a citizen of Kothen to 
 Dr. Guerike, in which he is warned against returning to that 
 town, that they may thus "be spared the trouble of giving 
 him a. public execution"— an admirable evidence, truly, of the 
 civilising nature of the instructions given in poor Kothen. 
 Pastor Kqnig's tirade, which contains many passages equalling, 
 if not surpassing, the ribald blasphemy of Paine, and conse- 
 quently too gross to stain our pages with, boldly enough 
 adduces the ordinance of the late king, as favourable to their 
 heresy; "therefore," says he, "did most of us follow the 
 call of our late monarch, of happy memory ; and, casting aside 
 both the Lutheran and Calvinistic, adopted the pure Christian 
 doctrine in their stead." In laying this blasphemous extract 
 before the public. Professor Guerike justly exclaims, " Oh, 
 woe to the church that endures such men! Oh, triple woe to 
 the church that must endure them !" 
 
 In explanation, at once of the taunting insolence with 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 345 
 
 which Konig alludes tO- the strength of numbers on his side, - l/-' 
 
 and the almost desponding sorrow with which the Bihle A 
 Lutherans regard their position, the fact must he again re- 
 ferred to, that rationalism, formerly the exclusive property 
 of speculative theologians and professors, spread, in the latter 
 ^nd of the eighteenth century, among a dissolute aristocracy, 
 who, too enlightened to he able any longer to still the re- 
 proaches of conscience by superstitious penances and priestly 
 absolution, gladly took refage in a system which left the 
 doctrines of revelation to be rejected or retained at man's good 
 pleasure; and has now, alas, infected great masses of the 
 people, who in some districts (more especially in the Prussian / 
 province of Saxony) rally round their blind leaders, and / 
 openly declare their resolution to abide by, and defend them, 
 cost what it may. They, on their part, having long zealously, 
 but so quietly as to escape the notice of both the king and his 
 Cultus Minister, undermined the Bible faith of their flocks, 
 no longer seek concealment, but boldly raise the banner of 
 infidelity, and, confiding in their alarmingly extensive affiliated 
 societies, seem to regard themselves, and perhaps not without 
 just ground, as safe from all attempts at expulsion, which 
 many apprehend would lead to tumult of the most serious 
 description. 
 
 It may naturally be asked, has nothing then been done, 
 either by the government or the sound part of the church, to 
 check, at least, this fearful evil ? And the reply must be — ■ 
 authoritatively, or collectively, nothing. By a strange ano- 
 maly, an absolute government, where the censorship is wielded 
 with no baby hand, and political offences, whether spoken or 
 written, are visited with condign and speedy punishment; 
 where the king is head of the church, in a degree inferior only 
 to the papal rule ; and where such tender concern for the rights 
 of the Roman Catholic church is evinced, as to guard against 
 even an implied approval of dissent from it ; — by a most strange 
 anomaly, language, such as already quoted, has been suffered 
 to issue, without censure, from the pens and pulpits of estab- 
 
 Q 3 
 
S46 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 lished clmrch clergymen. And yet, perhaps even this anomaly 
 is not so great as that presented by the hesitating, timid, or 
 latitudinarian conduct of very many Protestant clergymen (in 
 reference to these " Friends of Light"), who yet personally 
 cling to, and preach the truth as it is in Jesus. 
 
 Dr. Guerike's (of Halle) undaunted and zealous efforts to 
 place the character and designs of those " false brethren" in 
 their true light before the public, as well as his representa- 
 tion of the imminent danger of the souls thrown within 
 reach of their influence, have indeed roused a few to feel both 
 for their Lord's injured honour, and that of their denomination ; 
 and at various clerical meetings (which, for consultation, and 
 the regulation of combined effort in the missionary and other 
 Christian labours of love, are laudably frequent throughout 
 Germany) the question was mooted, whether, independent of 
 any step being taken by the still-existing church courts,' it 
 was not their duty to protest against the heresy, and, indi- 
 vidually at least, " separate themselves from the company of 
 those wicked men." The proposal was met by some with 
 timidity, by others with mawkishly overstrained dilations on 
 "the law of love;" while one member advanced the strange 
 opinion, that " as they were not the gardeners, but the plants 
 in the Lord's vineyard, the growth of weeds was, in fact, owing 
 to the good plants not having so grown as to occupy all the 
 room ; and that, consequently, repentance of their own faults, 
 not rooting up of others, was their present duty." To this it was, 
 indeed, replied, that to protest against a deadly error, which had 
 too long been suffered to occupy the soil, was itself evidence of 
 a growth in knowledge, if not in grace ; and another speaker 
 allowed the essential difference between protesting against, 
 and rooting up ; demurring, however, against anything ap- 
 proaching to exclusion, because these brethren belonged to 
 the church, and the right of exclusion was not theirs.* This 
 difficulty was very naturally met by the fact, " that the 
 
 * A doctrine, however true, singular in the mouth of a Lutheran 
 clergyman ; but he meant to defend the church court rights merely. 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 347 
 
 heretical brethren had bona fide excluded themselves, by 
 openly contemning, deriding, and reviling, the fundamental, 
 and, among so many differing sections of the Christian church, 
 still common and uniting bond, — faith in a divine, suffering, 
 atoning, risen, and glorified Redeemer, and were thus, by 
 their own act, much further removed from the Lutheran 
 church, than the pope, or even Mahomet, who acknowledged 
 much that they deny." At length even the most orthodox 
 were forced to admit the painful difficulty of their position, 
 since, whatever they might do as Christians, they had no 
 power as clergymen; for, with all the paraphernalia and 
 titular distinctions of a regularly organized church establish- 
 ment, the power is fallen from their hands ; synods, consistorial 
 courts, superintendents, &c., are, in Prussia, as far as the 
 discipline is concerned, a dead letter; and, as a Lutheran 
 clergyman said, with a somewhat painful attempt at face- 
 tiousness, " One of our brethren was greatly puzzled by being 
 asked, in behalf of the Free Church of Scotland, how the Lu- 
 theran sister church could be appealed to ? I," continued the 
 narrator, " would have unhesitatingly advised their addressing 
 themselves to our most gracious sovereign, for he is, after all, 
 the sum and substance of our ecclesiastical jurisprudence and 
 discipline." 
 
 In full accordance with this view of the case, is the tone 
 adopted by the Magdeburg consistory, when it at length 
 decided on warning its district pastors against attending the 
 meetings of "the Protestant Friends;" for the admonition 
 was worded with such a cautious avoidance of every expres- 
 sion which could be interpreted into an abridgment of free- 
 will, as if the countenancing, if not uniting, with those who 
 deny the Saviour, was at every man's option, whatever he 
 might have subscribed or professed. But, in the midst of so 
 much to depress and to shock us, there are still many bright 
 spots in the German Protestant horizon ; and not a few manly 
 voices and vigorous pens have been set in motion to testify 
 their allegiance to a crucified and risen Saviour. Above two 
 
348 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 hundred pastors have signed declarations, and published them 
 in the " Church Magazine," against those heretics, and more 
 than one admirable exhibition of Christian courage and deci- 
 sion in denouncing them, has appeared in the same journal/ 
 The first follower of Guerike in this honourable warfare, was 
 f rederick Liebetrut, pastor in Wittbrietzen, whose sentiments 
 are so consonant to the feelings of every Christian, as well to 
 deserve a place, did space allow of their insertion. One occur- 
 rence is, however, too pleasing to be omitted. In the second 
 meeting of the Protestant Friends, held on the 24th of Septem- 
 ber, 1844, atKothen, two hopeful symptoms of a reaction ap- 
 peared. The first was occasioned by the churchwarden Schwarz, 
 I from Jena, who amended the dogma, by which spirit is given 
 / the preference over Scripture, by proposing that it should 
 / run, " not the letter, but the spirit of Scripture," when a 
 / loud "bravo" resounded through the assembly. The second 
 > occurred when Pastor Uhlich, having wound up his discourse 
 with the words, " God grant that we may soon be relieved 
 / 1 from the apostolic creed," added, " and let the whole assembly 
 cry, Amen." But not a voice responded to his call. Scarcely 
 here and there a whispered "Amen" caught the listening ear. 
 " But," continued the correspondence from which this is ex- 
 tracted, "the most cheering communication I have to make you, 
 refers to the meeting of the ' Friends of Missions,' held on the 
 26th of September in the Lutheran church, granted (it is said, 
 at the special request of our duchess) by the duke, in opposi- 
 tion to the wishes of the consistory. The ch\irch was crowded, 
 the duchess and princesses, attended by many of the court, 
 occupying the ducal pew. Pastor Westermeyer delivered a 
 powerful defence of the beloved, and so sorely attacked word 
 of God, from the 46th Psahn ; dwelling more especially on the 
 first seven verses. The collection was liberal ; but while the 
 missionary friends were afterwards assembled at dinner, they 
 were honoured by a present from the duchess, so opportune, 
 and so appropriate, as to delight every heart. It was a copy 
 of Herschberg's Bible (new edition), and, although the duchess 
 
x^ 
 
 AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 349 
 
 had designed purchasing and pi'esenting to the society a new 
 and finely-bound copy of this precious book, her serene high- 
 ness now intimated that, "being anxious to present it im- 
 mediately, she had resolved on sending her own copy, in which 
 she had, with her own hand, inscribed her favourite text, "I 
 am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh to the 
 Father but by me ;" and added, " in memory of the 26th of 
 September, 1844. Kothen — Anhalt." " You may imagine," 
 continues my informer, " what impression this unexpected and 
 most gratifying attestation of the duchess's sentiments made on 
 all present. Tears stood in the eyes of many at the thought, 
 that even in " poor Kothen the word of God could boast of 
 
 love and honour from the highest in the land.? 
 
 But to return to Pastor Wislicenus : — he was at length 
 called upon by the Consistory of Magdeburg, to enter on his 
 defence at Wittenburg ; and the day of trial occurring during 
 the May meeting* of the " Friends of Light," held as usual at 
 Kothen, the attitude they would assume on the occasion 
 was watched with much solicitude by the religious public; 
 The number of clerical leaders is stated, in the "Deutsche 
 Algemeine Zeitung," at fifty ; thirty-four of whom were dele- 
 gates from Prussia : but the " Magdeburg News " describes 
 them as much more numerous, and as including representa- 
 tives from all parts of Germany, " extending from Western 
 Prussia to the Weser, and from the Black Forest to the shores 
 of the north and Baltic seas." The aggregate amount of 
 those assembled it states at above two thousand, who, from 
 want of room in the usual hall of meeting, held their confer- 
 ence in the open air. Yet we may hope that this affords 
 no legitimate criterion of the amount of actual adherents pre- 
 sent, as curiosity may have brought many, and a desire to 
 know, in order the more effectually to combat their errors, 
 not a few, to the meeting. But, even under the most favour- 
 able view of the case, the speeches delivered, and the resolu- 
 tions unanimously passed in favour of Wislicenus, unhappily 
 * It commenced May 15, 1845. 
 
350 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 leave no room for assuming that the heresy of Uhlich, Konig, 
 Wislicenus and Co., has lost ground -since the former meet- 
 ings. Meantime Pastor Wislicenus, having obeyed the sum- 
 mons to Wittenburg, and there openly avowed that his senti- 
 ments and preaching were in direct opposition to the letter 
 of the Lutheran statutes, at the same time declaring his con- 
 viction, that neither these nor the Bible ought to be under- 
 stood otherwise than as modified by the advanced state of 
 knowledge, and in accordance with " the spirit of the times," 
 he was granted four weeks to consider whether or not he would 
 voluntarily abdicate his office as Lutheran pastor (abstaining, 
 meanwhile, from preaching or exercising any other clerical 
 function), and, till his decision is made, proceedings are of 
 course suspended. Thus circumstanced, he returned from 
 Wittenberg to Kothen, during the sittings of his " Protestant 
 Friends." He was received with the heartiest welcome, and 
 his account of the examination, and his answers, met by an 
 unanimous declaration " that, in the opinion of the association, 
 he had acted in full accordance with his duty, and the main- 
 tenance of his rights as a Protestant clergyman." A formal 
 resolution, embodying and adopting the sentiments of Wisli- 
 cenus, in their most ultra sense, followed (which may here- 
 after be transcribed as an authentic registration of the prin- 
 ciples of this party) ; and the concluding act of the meeting 
 was a resolution declaratory of their joyful recognition of, and 
 brotherly greeting^to^ iLQ^mancipated Catholic congregations, 
 and tlieir~hope that the efforts of these new reforniers, com- 
 bined with their own, may concur, in accordance with the 
 liberal spirit of true Christianity, to hasten the time when 
 there will be but " one fold and one shepherd." It cannot 
 be denied that such fraternising, which can find response 
 only from the unbelieving portion of the reformers, and of 
 which, to their honour be it spoken, they have taken no 
 public notice, is calculated to render them suspected by 
 every friend of revelation. Nor can we wonder at its being 
 adduced by the Roman Catholic party, as affording proof, 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 351 
 
 that a hatred of gospel light, no less than of ecclesiastical 
 subordination, lies at the root of the reform movement. 
 With respect to the Lutheran church, a few weeks, or, at 
 most, months, will probably decide much for it ; and it is de- 
 voutly to be wished that the warmest advocates for outward 
 unity may perceive that it is better to have an enemy without, 
 than within, the camp ; better to lose a gangrened limb, than 
 to suffer it to remain until it has insinuated its moral poison 
 throughout the body ; less dangerous for the people to be 
 made aware that all Lutheran ministers are not "true men," 
 than to be left under the guidance of those who, though they 
 have subscribed to Lutheran statutes, and still bear rule in, 
 and enjoy the emoluments arising from Lutheran congrega- 
 tions, employ the influence and legalized authority of their 
 position, to uproot the principles they have sworn to guard. 
 
 This state of things may suffice to furnish a reply to two 
 questions which are frequently put : first, why the Catholic dis- 
 sidents do not join the Protestant communion, by which many 
 temporal inconveniences would be avoided? And secondly, 
 how it comes, that not only several Lutheran clergymen have 
 gone over to the German Catholics, but that one, still holding 
 office in the Lutheran church (Pfeilschmidt, preacher in Dres- 
 den), has publicly advocated the desirableness of their doing 
 so in a body ? For, assuredly, even were no motives of con- 
 science, or other considerations of policy, in the way, it would 
 be very unwise in the German Catholics to unite themselves 
 at present with a body whose internal divisions threaten dis- 
 severment or anarchy ; moreover, as no Lutheran deserter has 
 either left the orthodox side, or joined the Apostolic Catholic 
 churches, we may perhaps assume that a previous adoption 
 of lax sentiments regarding the distinguishing doctrines of.the 
 gospel, and possibly, too, a respectable uneasiness under the 
 outward profession of what they do not believe, may have led 
 to the decision of those who have exchanged the German Pro- 
 testant for the German Catholic church. The efforts of the 
 " Friends of Light" to make good their footing in Berlin, 
 
-¥'- 
 
 < 
 
 352 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 have happily proved abortive; at all events, in any degree 
 equal to the progress they have made in Konigsburg, Mag- 
 deburg, Leipsic, &c. And the declarations which have, from 
 time to time, appeared from numbers of highly estimable and 
 influential Lutheran clergymen, against their pernicious doc- 
 trines, cheer with the hope that, even at the eleventh hour, a 
 vigorous show of resistance may check many in their downward 
 course. On the other hand, there is but too much reason to 
 fear that their sentiments have many congeners even in Berlin, 
 and that, were the court less decidedly evangelical, rationalism 
 would have more open defenders. The censorship which at 
 firstlaid the blasphemous pamphlet by Wislicenus, " Oh Schrift, 
 Ob Geist,'' under interdict, has now permitted its "publication 
 on the ground of its being a philosophical discussion. High 
 treason against the Prussian monarch, although promulgated 
 under the form of a philosophical discussion, would rscarcely 
 be thus tenderly dealt with by the Berlin censorship.* 
 
 A very short time proved that the above anticipation was 
 just. Matters were seen to have gone too far for any one, 
 connected with the Prussian church, to feel at liberty to remain 
 neutral ; and Dr. Hengstenberg, the truly pious and devoted, 
 though perhaps ultra-Lutheran, editor of the " Berlin Church 
 Magazine," took the field with a bold and uncompromising de- 
 nunciation of the unchristian doctrines held by Ulilich, Konig, 
 Wislicenus, and their supporters. Some Lutheran divines, 
 feeling or fancying "the law of love" and the right of private 
 judgment impugned thereby, resolved on making a counter 
 demonstration, somewhat hastily, it would seem, for several 
 have since tried to explain away no small portion of their 
 pristine ardour. To give a just idea, therefore, of the present 
 stat^ of parties in the united Prussian Protestant church, it is 
 requisite to state that it nourishes in its bosom three distinc- 
 tive divisions (though each containing a number of subdivi- 
 
 * The foregoing was written on the 8th of August, 1845, and 
 published in the September number of the " Continental Echo," almost 
 exactly as here given. 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 353 
 
 sions, adhering more or less closely to their leader), which may- 
 be designated in general terms as, first, the orthodox rigidly 
 Lutheran party, headed by Dt^_Hengstenberg, and of which 
 his "Church Magazine" is the organ; secondly, the rational- 
 ists under the leadership of pastors Uhlich and Konig; and, 
 thirdly, an intermediate, very numerous, and most influential 
 class, who may be denominated the disciples of the famous 
 Sc^eiermacher; and who, though holding fast the doctrine 
 of justification by faith, and the unconditional subjection of 
 human reason to the dicta of revelation in all that regards the 
 personal character and mediatorial work of Christ, are little 
 better than free-thinkers in respect to the most prominent 
 and luminously stated facts of Bible history. Not even the 
 main points and pillars of the Apostolic Creed, such as " Christ's 
 being conceived of the Holy Ghost," " coming to judge the 
 quick and the dead," nor the doctrine of " His own resurrec- 
 tion," although made by an apostle almost the hingeing point of 
 our salvation, when he says, "if Christ be not risen, our preach- 
 ing is vain, and your faith is also vain ;" — not even these funda- 
 mental articles have escaped their unsparing criticism. And 
 yet, so incomprehensible are the contradictions of which the 
 human mind is capable, that there are many among those scep- 
 tics, whose claim to the name of Christian, Hengstenberg himself 
 will not dispute. Many who love, trust in, and preach " Jesus 
 Christ, and him crucified," as all their salvation and all their 
 desire, and who yet look on a belief in the miracles recorded 
 either in the Old or New Testament, nay, even in the doctrine 
 of the Trinity, as non-essential (nehen sachen, literally secon- 
 dary matters), which ought to be left to the free, unbiassed adop- 
 tion, or rejection of individuals, without in any degree affecting 
 their Christian character, for which reason they hold they 
 ought not to be introduced either into public worship or eccle- 
 siastical constitutions, nor submitted for subscription to can- 
 didates for ordination. This party is, therefore, equally hostile 
 to the symbolical books, as " the Friends of Light," though 
 they are far from approving the lengths they have gone, and 
 
354 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 more especially object to such subjects being handled in th^ 
 pulpit, or other than what may be termed professionally and 
 philosophically. But, above all, they are incapable of, even in 
 thought, far less in words, adopting the profane and ribald 
 tone in which Konig, for example, treats sacred subjects gene- 
 rally (more particularly the person of the Messiah), and seeks 
 to palliate his own want of devotional feeling, by professing 
 to think no such thing exists, save in the imagination of the 
 enthusiast, or the cant of the hypocrite. 
 
 When such diverse, may we not say such deeply erroneous 
 sentiments, on points of doctrine esteemed by the mass of 
 Christians as " the first principles of the oracles of God," are 
 known to exist among the divines of the established or recog- 
 nised Protestant churches of Germany, is it quite fair to deny 
 recognition, as a Christian sect, to the German Catholics, on 
 the ground of their having excluded from their confession 
 what the others have excluded from their belief ? Or, can we 
 wonder that those who themselves take such unwarrantable 
 liberties with the sacred record, should shrink with extreme 
 sensitiveness from any strong expression of censure being 
 passed on those who but seek wholly to overturn what they 
 themselves have half pulled down ? Hence, it is less difficult 
 to understand why the rationalist party has been suffered to 
 go on so long, and advance so far, without let or hindrance ; 
 why, even to the present hour, the trial of Wislicenus, 
 now going on for months, is not yet terminated ; and how 
 clergymen, who profess to think him quite wrong in doctrine, 
 are yet loud in their outcry at the cruelty and persecution 
 which would be evinced- were he robbed of his charge, for 
 merely using the distinctive privilege of a Protestant, — the 
 right of private judgment. It is difficult to conceive that 
 men of clear minds can really utter such a sophism with a 
 good conscience ; for wide, surely, is the difference between 
 forbidding a man to hold or avow certain sentiments, and 
 insisting that with such views he cannot hold office in a 
 church which professes a totally opposite creed ; above all, 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 355 
 
 that he cannot be permitted to enjoy, not only rank and 
 emoluments, from the ecclesiastical institution from which he 
 diiFers, but be facilitated in his endeavours to uproot its prin- 
 ciples, after having sworn to maintain them. Another class of 
 Lutherans oflPer a kind of negative defence of Wislicenus (who, 
 after all, is the most candid and self-devoted of the rationalist 
 leaders), by saying that, allowing, as they fully do, that he has 
 contravened the fiindamental doctrines of the church to which 
 he belongs, and therefore ought not to be suffered to remain, 
 still it is for the church court alone to call him to account ; 
 and therefore those clergymen who have published their abhor- 
 rence of his unscriptural views, and especially a few who have 
 announced their resolve not to hold church fellowship with him 
 or his associates (by asking them to preach, or reciprocating 
 any pastoral duties with them), have most unwarrantably inter- 
 fered with the prerogatives of the church courts, and are, in 
 fact, themselves liable to be punished for a breach of discipline, 
 should they make good their threat of virtually excommuni- 
 cating (so far as they can) clergymen, still recognised as such 
 by the highest civil and ecclesiastical authorities in the land. 
 This is not the place for entering on a discussion of the merits 
 or demerits of these various opinions, the sophistry of which 
 in a moral, and their justness in a politico-ecclesiastical point 
 of view, naturally suggest the questions, easier asked than 
 answered. First, what should conscientious ministers do, if the 
 church courts cannot, or will not, exclude heretical preachers 
 from the established church ? And secondly, if subscription 
 to articles of belief do ■ not necessarily involve forfeiture of 
 office, as indubitably consequent on an avowed departure from 
 them, of what use is subscription ? Leaving these questions 
 to the consideration of reflecting minds, the previous state- 
 ments will, it is hoped, enable the reader to understand the 
 acts which have, during the few last months, brought the 
 internal dissensions of the Lutheran church more prominently 
 before the public. The orthodox clergy having, as already 
 mentioned, frankly and indignantly abjured all community of 
 
356 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 sentiment with " the Friends of Light," the moderates (to 
 adopt a phrase in common use among Scottish Presbyterians) 
 assembled, and drew up a declaration, which was signed by 
 eighty-seven members (clerical and laical) of the Lutheran 
 church, with Bishop Eylert, and superintendent Ebert, and Dr. 
 Drasecke, at their head, which was conceived in the following 
 terms ; and, from its date, is generally known in the polemical 
 world by the name of " the Declaration of the 15th August :" — 
 "There has arisen into consequence, in the Lutheran church, 
 a party * which rigidly adheres to the form in which Christ- 
 ianity was thrown at the commencement of the reformation. 
 This formula is their pope.-f They regard whosoever sub- 
 scribes unconditionally to it, as a believer ; but consider all 
 who, in any respect, decline from it, as not only unbelievers, 
 but disloyal. This party has ' zeal, but not according to know- 
 ledge.' They aim at ruling in the church, and were the first 
 to unite together (by means of their common organ, the Evan- 
 gelical Church Magazine), in violation of all ecclesiastical order, 
 and to the endangering of all gospel freedom of faith and con- 
 science, to exercise the church ban, and to endeavour to con- 
 quer by the weight of numbers. In opposition to them, an 
 antagonist party has enrolled itself to meet numbers by 
 numbers; but which has, alas, gone to the very opposite 
 confessional extreme, by which space and opportunity have 
 been afforded for the intermingling of the most foreign 
 and anomalous elements. Thus, we behold the spirit of 
 brotherly agreement in our church giving way on all sides 
 to one of a tumultuary and threatening nature. The evan- 
 gelical (Lutheran) church is undeniably in danger of being 
 split into various factions ; and hence it must be the duty of 
 all her true members to come forward and try to stem the evil. 
 From this motive, and this only, the undersigned regard it 
 as their imperative duty to declare their sentiments. Taking 
 
 * The German word, or rather the Germanised Latin word, partei, 
 adopted in this declaration, more properly denotes a faction, 
 t Ronge said no more. 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 357 
 
 for their stand the fundamental ground of the reformation, that 
 ' Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,' is the 
 sole foundation of their salvation, they yet maintain that the 
 doctrinal formula is within the province of that free develop- 
 ment which is derived from and leads to Christ. Under this 
 conviction, they see no other possible salutary termination of 
 the present conflict, than by conceding to all parties free and 
 unhindered permission to display their principles, unfettered 
 by any arbitrary exclusiveness, and that, by calling such an 
 ecclesiastical constitution into existence, as will admit of the 
 church (by the aid of God's grace, and the lively co-operation 
 of all its members) reforming itself, and re-attaining to vigour 
 and energy. ' ' Signed^by_86j^tor§,4u:QffissQr5 and- members _ 
 of thelib^aLpxnf p s si on s . 
 
 As might easily be foreseen, so decided a manifesto against 
 the orthodox, put forth by men standing so high in official and 
 personal estimation, speedily called forth counter declarations 
 and argmngn.tations with^^ perhaps, the 
 
 most important is the reply of Dr. Hen^stenberg, which, both 
 for its own merits, and as being his justification against so 
 public an attack, seems deserving of being selected to repel it. 
 A few of the most striking passages will convince most readers, 
 not only which party holds the scriptural side of the argument, 
 but that German Christendom is divided into, not two extremes 
 merely, but an almost endless variety of hair-splitting, phi- 
 losophic theories— an unhappy state of things, which is much 
 fostered by the generally-allowed maxim (though a paradox 
 to plain minds), that a man, and even a divine, may theorise 
 to the utmost verge of unbelief, on most points of faith, with- 
 out ceasing to have a right to be regarded as a Christian, pro- 
 vided he uphold the divine mission, binding authority, and 
 exalted character, of Him whom they still call their Lord and 
 Saviour, Jesus Christ, even while stripping him of his most 
 essential claims to that appellation. 
 
 After rebutting the charge of having, by an assumption of 
 dictation, " stirred up the antagonist party," as the declaration 
 
358 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 States, "to meet numbers by numbers," Dr. Hengstenberg 
 remarks, "Were this a question of injurious personality merely, 
 or durst we follow the dictates of inclination, willingly would 
 we obey the command, * Resist not evil, but whosoever shall 
 smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.' 
 But this is a question of infinitely higher moment, in which 
 are involved the true faith — that only source of true love, and 
 the dearest interests of the church. In such a cause we dare 
 not yield one foot of ground, nor, for the sake of a puny sen- 
 timentality, falsely called love, withhold one iota of the truth, 
 though it must cut like a two-edged sword." Dr. Hengsten- 
 berg then proceeds to show that the drawers-up of the decla- 
 ration belong to the Schleiermacher school, although there is 
 reason to believe that many who signed it (as, assuredly, many 
 of those who have read it) understood the proclamation of 
 Jesus Christ, "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," being 
 the foundation of their faith, as a full acknowledgment of 
 his Giodhead. But this is far from being the case. If Jesus 
 Christ be but a divinely-appointed mediator ; the only perfect 
 man that ever lived; the purest, most God-devoted, most 
 benevolent, most exalted of teachers, prophets, and martyrs ; 
 He was that yesterday; He is that to-day; He will be so 
 for ever. And an Arian can use that Bible phrase with as 
 much sincerity as a Trinitarian. To evidence that some who 
 adopt it as their motto do not regard the Bible as an inspired 
 book in all its parts. Dr. Hengstenberg quotes the following 
 sentence from a published letter, addressed to an orthodox 
 clergyman by Dr. Pyschon (one of the subscribers of the 
 declaration): — " I hold the Sacred Scriptures, in so far as 
 they proceed directly from Christ, and in so far as they are 
 prophetical, to be truly the word of God, beyond which human 
 wisdom dare not advance ; as that word which, being per- 
 fect and eternal truth, is in itself glorious and complete, and 
 neither requiring nor susceptible of improvement. With this 
 confession, I can bid defiance to hell itself." "It is plain," 
 says Dr. Hengstenberg, " that it is not the Bible as a whole. 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 359 
 
 but only extracts from it, which are sacred in Dr. Pyschon's 
 eyes. There exist not for him sacred Scriptures, but only 
 sacred words in the Scriptures, and the selection of those 
 rests wholly with himself. But we, in fact, do not possess any 
 Scriptures which can properly be said to proceed directly from 
 Jesus Christ. He hath spoken to his church through the 
 medium of his disciples, and he who refuses to recognise the 
 authority of Scripture, except as emanating directly from the 
 Saviour, gives up its inspiration, on which alone is founded 
 its authority in the church. For Dr. Pyschon, therefore, the 
 powerful words, " it is written," have no existence : for so 
 soon as what is written clashes with some favourite opinion, 
 the difficulty is got rid of by suggesting, "Is it then per- 
 fectly certain that God really said so and so?" Nor can 
 anything be more illusory than the exception in favour of 
 the prophetic writings ; for, whatever in them is inconvenient 
 to the reader, can be as easily got rid of by denying that it is 
 prophecy." * * " Neither does Dr. Pyschon 
 
 secure any justification of his views by quoting Luther's 
 preference of the gospel of John above the other three evan- 
 gelists ; for to pronounce the head a more noble member 
 than the foot, is something very different from cutting the 
 latter off. * * * * Again, the 
 
 eighty-six assert the obstinacy with which the orthodox cling 
 to their beloved " formula, which is their pope." Hengsten- 
 berg replies, it is no mere formula to which they adhere, but 
 something infinitely more important^ and which forms the line 
 of demarcation between them and their opponents ; it is, in 
 fact, a clinging to the most distinguishing doctrines of Christ- 
 ianity, — the divinity of the Saviour, the personality of the 
 Holy Spirit, the inspiration of the whole Scriptures, and, 
 per consequence, the reception of various dogmas, such as 
 original sin, the personal agency of Satan, the resurrection of 
 the body, &c., which, under other views of Scripture, may be 
 and are regarded as allegorical, or even erroneous. Quotations 
 would lead too far, for the whole pamphlet is so excellent, the 
 
360 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 difficulty lies in selection ; one more must therefore suffice :-— 
 " After all that has been said and quoted, it must be plain to 
 the reader, with what right ' the declaration' denominates us 
 a party." That none surely more fitly applies to those who 
 have abandoned the venerable banner of the church (in order 
 to range themselves under a new one) than to those who can 
 only be accused of rallying round it too exclusively. But 
 since, without any fault of our own, we are forced into the 
 position of a party, it well becomes us to watch, lest we fall 
 into any of the evils incident to party. God is our witness 
 that we strive to avoid such, and may his blessing enable us 
 to succeed. 
 
 The declaration says, "this formula is their pope ;" and 
 this, combined with other ^previous expressions, doubtless is 
 meant to convey, that the sacred text, " I believe, therefore 
 have I spoken," does not apply to us, but that we have 
 assumed an outward profession, without any corresponding 
 inward conviction. Such an accusation is no light one ; and, 
 we must be permitted to say, brought by some, at least, who 
 are consciously aware of the contrary. We seek not, indeed, 
 to maintain that we have adopted our present views wholly 
 independent of the Augsburg Confession ; and still less, 
 irrespective of those beautiful hymns, which speak to us in 
 such powerful and heart-stirring language, or that we have 
 become Lutherans, as if it were by accident. The writer of 
 these lines can well remember what the Augsburg Confession 
 proved to him, when it come into his hands, at a period when 
 faith was only in " the blade," when, with his best endeavours, 
 the Holy Scriptures were not clear to him ; and how this 
 confession helped him through, what appeared to him, an 
 inextricable labyrinth of contradictory assertions. He remem- 
 bers, too, an after-time in which his faith derived increase of 
 strength, and a more vigorous growth, from feeding on those 
 hymns, during times of sore conflict and heavy trial. And 
 perhaps there are few, if any, among us, who have attained 
 to the clear and decided views held by the church, without 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OP LIGHT. 361 
 
 having profited by her testimony. But this is something widely 
 different from mere subjection to ecclesiastical dogmas, and an 
 outward formula. We have put the Lutheran confession to 
 the test, by comparing it with the only unerring touchstone — 
 the Holy Scriptures, and have found it stand the trial. We 
 have thus been enabled, by degrees, to throw away our own 
 wisdom by piecemeal ; and, having now attained to entire, and 
 yet independent, agreement with the doctrine of our church, 
 the Augsburg confession might, as far as we are individually 
 concerned, be thrown aside. We no longer need to refer to it, 
 except on church questions. Its doctrines are inscribed on 
 the fleshly tablets of our hearts, not with pen and ink, but 
 with the finger of the living God. * * * 
 
 Le Blanc relates, in his " Histoire de Dix Ans^'^ that Casimir 
 Perrier exclaimed, as he fell wounded after a desperate confiicty 
 Ah, je suis perdu ! Us nC ont tue ! But, although he was 
 fighting in a noble, it was a worldly cause, and the human 
 body is not invulnerable. The congregation of God, however, 
 though surrounded by enemies, and threatened on every side, 
 has her helper in heaven, and her witness is on high. " Un- 
 less the Lord had been my help, my soul had dwelt in silence. 
 I said, my foot slippeth, but thy mercy, oh Lord, held me up. 
 I had much sorrow of heart, but thy comforts delighted my 
 soul. They gather themselves together against the soul of 
 the righteous, and condemn innocent blood ; but the Lord is 
 my defence, and my God is my rock of refuge."* "They 
 thrust sore at me, that I might fall, but the Lord helped me. 
 I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. 
 The Lord indeed chastens me, but He hath not given me 
 over to death." f 
 
 Such was the position of affairs when the " Friends of 
 Light" attempted to form an interest for their cause in Berlin, 
 by holding meetings, &c. The government interfered, however. 
 
 * Psalmxciv. 17— 22. German translation, 
 t Psalm cxviii. 13, 17, 18. German translation. 
 
 R 
 
362 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 ill a very energetic manner, and, as is generally believed, 
 by the express command of the king, whose personal piety, 
 there is too much reason to think, is far from gaining him 
 I favour in the eyes of the majority of his subjects. The Berlin 
 'l magistracy took up the cause, and resolved, in their wisdom, 
 I to try the effect of an official expostulation with his majesty, 
 ■ ostensibly in favour of " liberty of conscience," but which, in 
 I some respects, might more justly be termed a manifesto in 
 / favour of unbelief. The step was, in itself, assuredly a 
 novel one, and the mode of doing it still more so ; for the 
 • monarch was treated to a theological discussion of such un- 
 warrantable length and difFuseness, that, if the practice were 
 to become general, it might well deprive crowned heads of all 
 desire to add the mitre to their regal honours, and lead them 
 to relinquish, with all readiness, the onerous headship of the 
 church, more especially if their people should adopt the foolish 
 Prussian notion, that a king who assumes the functions of 
 Chief Bishop, is bound to study and perform the duties of 
 the high office. The Prussian monarch, though proverbial 
 for his good nature, certainly felt very desirous to avoid the 
 infliction of this magisterial tirade ; and succeeded in post- 
 poning it for some time, by several demurs, founded on court 
 etiquette. But German perseverance carried the day, and, 
 at length, on the 2nd of October, the Berlin magistrates 
 appeared before their sovereign, and delivered their address, 
 which is much too long, wordy, and generally uninteresting, 
 to be given at length, and may be compressed into two 
 grand divisions: hatred of Luther anism, and admiration of 
 "the Friends of Light;" and a consequent desire that the first 
 might be checked, the latter encouraged, with a due share 
 of flourishes about "the spirit of truth, holiness, and love, 
 which eternally acts and moves in human nature," " the 
 march of intellect," " the enlightened spirit of the age," &c. ; 
 all which, it is pretty plainly hinted, will no longer submit 
 to the trammels of any religious symbol, but desire to keep 
 possession of the rights, privileges, immunities, and emolu- 
 
AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 363 
 
 ments of a church establishment, without being annoyed by 
 any defined, or even recognised, creed ; but, as the king's 
 reply sufficiently shows the chief points of this very remark- 
 able address, and is, moreover, in itself well worthy of being 
 recorded, it is here given at length. After having listened 
 with exemplary patience and great attention to the municipal 
 harangue, Frederick William spoke as follows : — 
 
 " I granted the Berlin magistracy a sufficiently long interval, 
 in order to afford them time for reflection on the step they have 
 to-day taken. I further imposed, as a condition of my receiving 
 their address, that it should be presented and read to me by 
 the magistrates themselves, and all with the hope of leading 
 them to see the matter in another light, and become themselves 
 aware of the incongruity of their holding a long theological 
 discussion in the presence of, and face to face with, their 
 sovereign. 
 
 "Nevertheless, gentlemen, you have persisted in your 
 wish, and I have yielded to that wish ; willingly granting to 
 the highest civil jurisdiction of my beloved native city what 
 I would deny to others.* The sentiments of patriotism 
 and loyalty, of which its magistrates have, from time imme- 
 morial, shown so brilliant an example, justifies such a dis- 
 tinction. 
 
 "You have spoken, gentlemen; I have listened; and I will 
 now reply, as well as I can, on the spur of the moment. 
 
 "The magistracy displays much interest in ecclesiastical 
 affairs. I must, therefore, take it for granted that it is well 
 acquainted with the juridical position of our Lutheran church, 
 and is consequently aware that when the church, at the Re- 
 formation, felt itself in want of a supporting, controlling, and 
 protecting power, both the church and the reformers conjoined 
 
 * An endless succession of theological addresses from the corpo- 
 rations of his countless cities, all taking the tone and following the 
 example of the capital, evidently passed at this moment in grim array 
 before the prophetic vision of the monarch, and suggested this 
 caveat. 
 
 R 2 
 
864 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 in devolving that power on the sovereign. This power rests 
 with heavy weight on my crown, and imposes stern and 
 solemn duties upon me. But it likewise gives me the incon- 
 testible and uncontested right to interfere in the constitution 
 of the church. This, however, I will not do. The five hy-past 
 years of my reign plainly testify this ; and I request, gentle- 
 men, that you may note these words, for they constitute the 
 pith and marrow of my answer. I will not interfere, and that 
 because it is my unalterable principle that the church should 
 constitute itself. The late king bestowed a precious boon on 
 the church by giving you synods. A former head of the 
 ecclesiastical department was not favourable to this regulation, 
 and suffered it to drop into desuetude. The present chief of 
 that department fearing publicity and light as little as I do 
 myself, these courts have been re-awakened and revived. 
 The synods are the authorised organs through which the 
 opinions of the church should be expressed, and if they origi- 
 nate a proposition for any alteration in the constitution of the 
 church, I will gladly put my hand to the work, and bless the 
 day when I can give back ecclesiastical power into the hands 
 to which it by right belongs ; but, without the invitation of 
 the proper organs, I will do nothing. I must deny to the 
 magistracy every legal competence either to suggest, or to 
 carry out, any change in the constitution of the established 
 church ; but I willingly concede the moral right of every 
 magistracy, which fulfils its patronage duties with distin- 
 guished fidelity, proves on every occasion as well as those 
 involving change merely, that it feels an interest in church 
 matters, and especially strives to draw closer and firmer the 
 bonds of Protestant brotherly love. But, gentlemen, I cannot 
 Jay my hand on my heart, and say I recognise this moral 
 competence in the magistrates now before me. Cast, I pray 
 you, a glance on the ecclesiastical state of this city. In no 
 other throughout the land is the pastoral charge so hopelessly 
 difficult as here. One circumstance deserves particular 
 attention. Incredible as it may sound, it is yet true, that 
 

 r>vM«\>c 
 
 AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 365 i 
 
 under the reign of Frederick William I., when this city 
 counted only from 50,000 to 70,000 inhabitants, the number 
 of clergy was, I say not proportionally, but numerically, 
 greater than at the present day, when its population amounts 
 to nearly 400,000 souls. Many suggestions for amending so j 
 unbearable a state of things have, from time to time, been I 
 made, by private individuals, by congregations, by my late / 
 royal father, and by myself ; but every effort has been met by 
 such distressing difficulties that, while some propositions have 
 been carried out with much trouble and great delay, others 
 have entirely failed. 
 
 ** Protestant brotherly love, too, has recently been deeply i 
 wounded by the frigid refusal of the magistrates to grant to \ 
 English Protestants temporary accommodation in one of the 
 many churches of which they have the patronage, at the very 
 time when they offered, and, as I believe, unsolicited, the use 
 of two churches to the dissenters from the Romish commu- 
 nion. With such evidence before me, it is impossible for me 
 to concede, as I most gladly would wish to do, even a moral 
 competence to the Berlin magistracy. But it remains for me 
 to advert to a still more painful part of the address. I allude 
 to that in which the orthodox believers of the Lutheran church 
 are designated as a faction. This grieves me, and yet is not '. 
 all; "for^ it goes on plainly, though covertly, to accuse my^ . 
 government of favouring the faction. On this last point, gen- 
 tlemen, a sense of my own dignity, and that of the officers of 
 my government, commands me to observe the silence of deep- 
 felt injury ; but of the other, I must speak. The magistracy 
 so far forgets itself as to name one individual, as the banner- V-^, ?tX 
 bearer among a set of men, whom no impartial observer, not j 
 one of yourselves, gentlemen, nor I myself, can blame for 
 aught else than an almost over-anxiety to perform, or a too 
 strict interpretation of the duties incumbent on them. So 
 far I might have agreed with you. But at what moment do 
 you bring an accusation against these men ? At a time when 
 our church is disgraced and grieved by such as have taken 
 
366 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 the same sacred oath to the same confession as the others, 
 
 voluntarily and solemnly at the altar of God ; and who, yet 
 
 hearing ahout in their bosoms the consciousness of this oath, 
 
 are preaching apostacy to the people, using illegal means to 
 
 excite their minds, and procuring subscriptions to popular 
 
 and unauthorised assemblages. [ But of this body no leader is 
 
 noted in the address. Against their monstrous attempts, no 
 
 word of virtuous indignation is uttered. The eyes of all 
 
 Europe are fixed upon us and the movements in our church. 
 
 \ ,What must the adherents of other confessions, what even the 
 
 ! most impartial among them, think of the state of our church 
 
 and our patronage, when the magistrates of Berlin bring, in 
 
 j^ the presence of their sovereign, such heavy accusations 
 
 \ against the too faithful ; while against the others, though 
 
 \ deficient in not one single criterion belonging to a faction, 
 
 i and a very dangerous faction too, no syllable of disapproving 
 
 ) animadversion is heard. Gentlemen, this has deeply wounded 
 
 ; me ; I mourn over it as a calamity ; and must, therefore, express 
 
 /my full and heartfelt disappointment. True friendship can- 
 
 \ not exist without fidelity ; and to this I have now paid my 
 
 ; tribute, by telling you, whom I willingly call my friends, what 
 
 \my conscience calls upon me to say. During four centuries, 
 
 a fair bond of love and confidence has subsisted between this 
 
 ' city and its princes, which has often been tested and always 
 
 proved a blessing. In the persuasion that my well-meant 
 
 , words will only serve to strengthen and confirm this bond, 
 
 \you are now dismissed with friendly feelings." ( Sie sind 
 
 im gnader entlassen). 
 
 The person attacked in the address, as the leader of the 
 orthodox, or, as their opponents call them, the puritanic party, 
 is Dr. Hengstenberg, of whose sentiments and character we 
 have already given so many details. The English Protes- 
 tants who were refused the use of a Berlin church, were mis- 
 sionaries to the Jews, who desired to preach to that people. 
 The Berlin magistrates excuse themselves for their refusal by 
 alleging, that as the English have a place of worship in Berlin 
 
1/ 
 
 AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 367 
 
 already, tliey considered the missionaries would assuredly 
 obtain church accommodation from their own countrymen, if 
 they were deserving of obtaining it. It has since been stated, 
 these missionaries were dissenters, and, as such, inadmissible to ; 
 the pulpit of the English ambassador's chapel ; yet, assuredly, 
 not more dissenters in regard to the episcopal, than of the 
 Lutheran church, exclusion from which was pronounced, by 
 the Prussian monarch, want of brotherly love. Was it anything 
 less in their own countrymen ? That the Berlin magistracy * 
 did not retire in very good humour, may well be imagined, j 
 A very few days after, they sent a second address to the king, 
 in which they exculpated themselves from all blame, on the ,v 
 score of deficiency of church accommodation and pastoral in- '^■"'^^^ 
 struction in Berlin, by asserting that the power of providing 
 *^an mcfearse of either did not rest with them. They were 
 required to produce documentary evidence to that effect ; but 
 no more public manifestation has been made, and the whole A 
 affair has died away. Meanwhile, the " Friends of Light" con- - y*— ^. 
 tinned making all the efforts the law allowed, but their wings / UJ 
 having been completely clipped as to missionary tours and I 
 public meetings, their cause has lately been chiefly fostered by \ 
 means of the press. But the disclosures made by publica- 
 tions, meetings of town deputies, the declarations of individual 
 clergymen against the orthodox party, which r an like w ild- 
 fire thr^ough the length and breadth of the land, the secession 
 of whole parishes in Silesia from the Lutheran, and their 
 junction with the (rerman Catholic church, by which they 
 escaped at once from the syinb'oncaI'l)oaEs7 and all else con- 
 nected with the establishment, — all disclosed a degree of dis- 
 union, and an unhingedness of the German Lutheran church 
 (these movements being no way confined to Prussia), that 
 convinced all thinking men of the importance, if not necessity, 
 of some comprehensive measures being adopted to rescue the 
 evangelical {i. e. the Lutheran) church from utter dissolution. 
 All eyes were turned, therefore, to the conference at Berlin, / 
 which, originally planned, it is believed, by the kings of 
 
X 
 
 368 
 
 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 Prussia and Wirtemburg, at length assembled on the 6th of 
 January, 1846, and was attended by upwards of thirty depu- 
 ties ; all the Protestant states of Germany, with very few 
 exceptions, having sent representatives. But eyes and expec- 
 tations have hitherto alike turned towards the conference in 
 vain, for nothing has transpired of these proceedings. The 
 very latest intelligence up to this date (April 2) states that 
 it is fully resolved to give the result of their deliberations to 
 the world ; but that, as each government represented in the 
 conference, must be consulted upon the point, and as some 
 desire a full, and others only a partial, account of what has 
 been learned, discussed, and determined, to be laid before 
 the public, the report must be held back, until this knotty 
 point shall be settled. Meanwhile, Lutheran clergymen go 
 on, " doing every man that which is right in his own eyes." 
 ( yfrhe formation of a dissenting Protestant church in Konigs- 
 
 "^^^Tiir^ Ifburg, which took place in December, 1845, has been imitated 
 in some places, and hailed with triumph and congratulation 
 in others. In Darmstadt and Offenbach, numerously attended 
 meetings have been held, with " a view to a reorganization 
 of the Protestant church," in order "to set forward and 
 complete the reformation of the sixteenth century." Similar 
 intentions have been manifested at Worms and many other 
 places, and an address from Halle, signed by all the church- 
 wardens but one, was forwarded to the Berlin conference, 
 praying for the annulling of the symbolical books, as a ne- 
 / cessary part of the new constitution of the German church. 
 In this there might be more to rejoice over than to lament, 
 since there can be little doubt that Luther's reform needs 
 reformation ; but, alas, there is too much reason to fear that 
 the advance contemplated by the majority of the modern illu- 
 minati is a departure from the truth as it is in Jesus ; a pro- 
 motion and spread, not of that apostolic worship '* which is 
 our reasonable service," but a service of reason in the stead 
 of God. The trial of Wislicenus has led to some odd dis- 
 closures respecting the official practice of some Lutheran 
 
X 
 
 AND THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 369 
 
 divines, and several have already been called to account by 
 their respective consistories, for irregularities in the celebra- 
 tion of different church rites, more particularly baptism. 
 The following communication from Hallej_dated the 27th of 
 March, 1846, may serve at once to authenticate the foregoing 
 statements and observations, and to prove that, however the 
 outward Lutheran church may be finally constituted, a vast 
 number of those now within her pale might, with perfect 
 propriety, elect Ronge for their apostle, if, indeed, he would 
 deem some of them Christian enough^ for him to identify 
 himself with them : — 
 
 " The extent to which the opposition to the apostolic 
 symbol has been carried in this city, may be seen from the 
 following facts, which have very recently occurred :■ — Deacon 
 Hildebrandt having been called to celebrate a baptism, and 
 receiving no answer from the godfather and godmother pre- 
 sent, when he put, the usual question to them (if they desired 
 the child to be baptized in the name of the Trinity), he re- 
 peated it, when Preacher Hildenhagen, well known as one of 
 the ' Friends of Light,' alone answered, ' Yes.' ' Am I,' asked 
 Deacon Hildebrandt, ' to take silence for consent in the others?' 
 They all answered, *Yes;' upon which the clergyman re- 
 sumed, * "Well, then, I baptize this child in accordance with 
 that faith to which you belong.' Persons on whom we can 
 rely, have assured us, that no previous agreement had been 
 made between the parties in this strange transaction. But a 
 similar one occurred shortly afterwards, only, in the second 
 case, the clergyman who should have officiated, left the room ; 
 he sent, however, another (Deacon Haseman) in his place, who 
 required a written declaration of their faith (or rather of their 
 want of it) from the baptismal witnesses (touf zeugen) ; and 
 then, without hesitation, baptized the child, as Deacon Hilde- 
 brandt had done the other. Report says that Wislicenus will 
 be reinstated," and well he may, unless a host of others are 
 put out. And yet we can scarcely think the King of Prussia 
 can reconcile it to his conscience to let such things continue. 
 
 R 3 
 
370 THE PRUSSIAN CHURCH 
 
 So long as he holds the office of head of the church, he is 
 assuredly bound to see to it, that honest men officiate in it, 
 and they cannot be termed even honest men, who swear to 
 uphold doctrines which they disbelieve, and do their utmost 
 to undermine. The following anecdote, which made the round 
 of the papers at the time, and never was contradicted, may 
 show the feelings of Frederick "William on this subject: — 
 
 " On his late progress towards the Rhine, the Prussian 
 monarch passed through Halle ; and a bookseller of that city, 
 named Schwetchke, seized the opportunity to approach his 
 sovereign with a petition in favour of Wislicenus, who is now 
 upon trial before the Magdeburg Consistory, on a charge of 
 heresy. The king is stated, in an article, dated Berlin, 
 August 5, to have answered thus: — 'You express much 
 sympathy for this man, but sympathetic cures are some- 
 times fatal. I have no desire to act le Tartuffe towards 
 any one, but the engagements into which this Wislicenus 
 entered at his ordination, have been broken ; he is, therefore, 
 a perjured priest, and I will not suffer such : he has trodden 
 the sacraments under foot.' Schwetchke trying to disprove 
 this, the king resumed, ' Twelve men of probity have assured 
 me of the fact, as well as that his church was never attended 
 by above thirty or forty persons. Of what, then, do his 
 followers consist ? Of church-goers, or of non-church-goers ? 
 Protests will have no influence with me.' Schwetchke re- 
 marked, that none had been made at Halle, and the monarch 
 went on : 'I am not speaking of Halle, but you think to 
 impose upon me with your unions and your meetings at 
 Kothen. You are much mistaken. My determinations are 
 not to be thus altered ; and (though I say it unwillingly) I 
 have the power to carry through my will, and such conduct 
 will but induce me to draw the reins tighter. I have sworn 
 to exercise law and justice, and Wislicenus shall have both ; 
 but I owe the same to my people and the church. Why could 
 he not have left it, and formed a sect of his own ? No one 
 would have hindered him. It is, at all events, time enough to 
 
ANI> THE FRIENDS OF LIGHT. 371 
 
 appeal to my clemency when sentence has been passed against 
 him ; to promise it beforehand, would be interfering with the 
 course of justice.' " 
 
 April 4. Since the foregoing was written, intelligence has 
 come of the death, by apoplexy, of one unhappy man, who 
 has attained to a bad pre-eminence of late years — the Pastor 
 Konig. He expired, it seems, on March 24, at Halle, 
 whither he had removed, last December, for medical treatment, 
 under what was believed to be inflammation of the lungs. His 
 last end, however, was sudden, apoplexy having supervened. 
 He had not quite completed his fortieth year. He is now 
 gone where he will know whether the Bible was true or false ; 
 Jesus Christ, God or man. To his own master he standeth 
 or falleth. God grant that he may have repented before it 
 was too late, and so find mercy of the Lord in that day. 
 
372 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 STATE OF RELIGIOUS PARTIES IN BAVARIA. 
 
 Kneeling to the Host — Noble Conduct of Count von Gieeh and Pastor 
 Rendendach — Employment of the latter by the Prussian Govern- 
 ment — Representation of Grievances by the General Protestant 
 Synod — Necessity of British Sympathy and Assistance — Prince 
 von Wrede — his Fearless and Patriotic Opposition to Romish 
 Intolerance — Report of the Committee on Religious Orders — 
 Condemnation of the Jesuits — Prince von Wrede's further At- 
 tempts at Reform — The Crown Prince of Bavaria — His Disap- 
 proval of Roman Catholic Favouritism. 
 
 TftE compulsory observance of kneeling to the host has 
 long been a pregnant source of complaint and suffering to the 
 Bavarian Protestants ; and many have been the voices raised 
 against it by men of talent, rank, and high character for 
 integrity and political discernment : among whom none has, of 
 late years, more distinguished himself than Count Charles von 
 Giech — not only in his place as a senator, but, through the 
 medium of the press, he has, at much personal sacrifice, 
 manfully maintained the truth, that as man ought to kneel 
 before God, so, likewise, he should do so before him only ; con- 
 quently, that kneeling " before the host is a virtual acknow- 
 ledgment of the doctrine of transubstantiation, and cannot be 
 performed by any Protestant with a good conscience." The 
 open avowal of these sentiments, and the consequent rejection 
 
RELIGIOUS PARTIES IN BAVARIA. 373 
 
 of all those glosses, by which kneeling before the host by the 
 servants of the crown, whether civil or military, has been, and 
 is still, held forth as a mere act of submission to the law of 
 the land, with which private conviction is in no way compro- 
 mised, necessitated Count von Giech to throw up an office 
 which he held under government, and retire into private life 
 — a sacrifice for conscience' sake, much enhanced by the very 
 limited fortune possessed by the count. But while Protestant 
 laymen must be content to relinquish court favour if they 
 would maintain a consistent profession of their principles, the 
 Protestant clergy have a still harder task assigned them, for 
 they are bound to teach that which constantly exposes them 
 to conflict with the ruling powers, and the examples of actual 
 persecution among them are neither few nor lightly to be 
 borne. One recent occurrence of this nature which has, from 
 peculiar circumstances, attracted much attention, may be here 
 stated. A Protestant clergyman, named Redendach, having 
 in the pulpit declared his conviction, that no Protestant ought, 
 under any circumstances, to wound his conscience by joining 
 in an act of idolatrous worship, was tried for the offence, and 
 sentenced to one year's imprisonment in a fortress. The 
 severe award was, indeed, afterwards mitigated by an exercise 
 of royal clemency, in shortening the period of incarceration, but 
 without any reversal of the ground on which sentence had 
 been passed ; and therefore, although the Protestant consistory 
 repeatedly urged Pastor Redendach to re-enter on his clerical 
 duties, he invariably refused, declaring that if his condemna- 
 tion was just in law, he could not expect to be long reinstated 
 before his conscience would compel him to incur a repetition 
 of the same. Early in the present year, however, the Prus- 
 sian government gave the martyr of Protestant principles 
 an equally unexpected and unsought-for appointment to a 
 living, in the province of Saxony, with a revenue of 1,100 
 dollars per annum (£165), and to this new city of refuge he 
 departed without delay. But individual views and individual 
 sufferings sink into nothing, when compared with the long list 
 
374 RELIGIOUS PARTIES 
 
 of grievances which, tinder the rule of a king, professing the 
 most liberal sentiments, the son, the husband, and the father- 
 in-law of Protestant princesses, the Protestant subjects of 
 Bavaria are called to endure. Of these, a pamphlet, published 
 in Berne, gives the following summary: — "The representation 
 of the grievances drawn up by the general Protestant synod 
 at their last two meetings in 1844, contains six chief grounds 
 of complaint: — 
 
 " First. The infraction of the chartered rights of the general 
 synods, as evidenced by the fact, that not only the deputies of 
 the last two synods held in Ansbach and Baireuth, were in 
 various ways restricted in the exercise of their legitimate 
 operations ; but ninety-seven petitions, emanating from them, 
 were suppressed by the royal commissioners armed with their 
 secret instructions. 
 
 " Second. The increased difficulty experienced in forming 
 new congregations ; by the demand made to them to furnish 
 proof of possessing such large funds for meeting the prospec^ 
 tive necessities of the future church, as generally deprives 
 them of all hope of ever seeing their desire realised. 
 
 " Third. The limitation of the worship of the scattered 
 Protestant population, who, being unable, from their poverty, 
 to pay for the services of a clergyman more than twice, or 
 at the most four times a year, are, nevertheless, watched over 
 with the utmost strictness, to prevent their coming together 
 for any less regular celebration of divine worship. 
 
 " Fourth. The permitted change of creed to minors of the 
 Protestant communion, while Catholics in nonage are legally 
 incapable of becoming Protestants. 
 
 " Fifth. The permitted imparting of instruction in the Roman 
 Catholic doctrine to Protestant minors and orphans, even 
 although already admitted into the Protestant church by con- 
 firmation, in which too frequent evidence is practically aiForded 
 that the Catholic clergy carry on their proselytism in a man- 
 ner which is a mockery both of the spirit and letter of the 
 constitution. 
 
IN BAVARIA. 375 
 
 " Sixth. The prohibition of the Gustavus Adolphus Society 
 affording aid in Bavaria. Under this head, proof is given of 
 the extreme poverty of the majority of the Protestant congre- 
 gations in Bavaria, and how peculiarly they stand in need of 
 foreign aid, since they experience none of that munificent 
 government care which is exercised towards the other church ; 
 while, on the other hand, Bavarian Catholics have full liberty 
 to extend the hand of brotherly assistance to their fellow- 
 believers in Prussia, Saxony, and other Protestant lands." 
 
 The pamphlet, which is written in a tone of admirable mode- 
 ration, combined with manly decision, concludes thus : — " The 
 Bavarian Protestants have been on their guard, despite the 
 grievances to which, since 1838, they have been subjected, to 
 be in no degree wanting in fidelity and devotion to the govern- 
 ment, regarding it as that rule which God himself hath set 
 over them; they have studied to bring their complaints before 
 the throne with all due reverence, and have sought redress in 
 legitimate and constitutional ways. May the counsellors of 
 the crown be able to answer for having advised the rejection 
 of their just complaints as ungrounded, by which the uniting 
 bonds of love and confidence between the governed and the 
 governing, have been rudely shaken. But Protestants will 
 never suffer themselves to be betrayed into any infraction of 
 their duties as *subjects ; neither do they bring complaints 
 against the Catholic church as a body, but only against a party 
 in that church, which has, unhappily, of late years, obtained too 
 much influence with the government in church affairs. As 
 Protestants, they desire and follow after peace ; but they must 
 likewise continue to protest against every encroachment on 
 their constitutional rights and liberties, and, should immediate 
 redress be denied them, they will still persevere, hoping for 
 a future, better time, when justice will and must be done 
 them." 
 
 The foregoing address is surely well calculated to excite at 
 once our sympathy and respect for the Protestants of Bavaria ; 
 and as the king is supposed, at least to lay much stress on 
 
376 RELIGIOUS PARTIES 
 
 the world's applause, and willingly to gather golden opinions 
 from all sorts of men, perhaps he might learn a lesson through 
 England's free press, that fine speeches about paternal feelings, 
 and his desire to see his subjects of all confessions happy, of 
 which his majesty is abundantly lavish, are, after all, a poor 
 compensation for the secret sanction of Jesuitism, under a less 
 alarming name, and a real wounding of the conscience, and 
 infringement of the rights of his subjects, while professing to 
 rule them with law and equity. And thus it is with the so- 
 much-vaunted and so-often-repeated modifications of the law 
 of kneeling to the host, and which, with true Jesuit cunning, 
 has been frequently officially so stated, that the cursory peruser 
 would fancy all objectionable clauses so entirely wiped out from 
 the enactment, that none but the most obstinately refractory 
 spirits could advance a complaint. Yet what is the fact ? The 
 general rule propounded is, " None but Catholic soldiers shall 
 be appointed to attend processions of the host; only in the 
 church (to which Catholics alone are expected to go) will 
 worship of the ' Most Holy' be demanded," &c. : and this sounds 
 so fair and equitable, that one is disposed to exclaim, " "What 
 more can be asked or expected?" But then follow the 
 exceptions to the general rule; and they are, unhappily, so 
 numerous and so extensive, as literally to make the rule a dead 
 letter, which keeps, indeed, a promise of relief to the ear, but 
 breaks it to the sense. Protestant soldiers, for example, must 
 take their turn of guard duty, and when the host is carried 
 past a guard-house, it is commanded that the guard turn out 
 and present arms, kneeling ; the next exceptions are, when a 
 regiment, being on a march, meets a priest with the host, and 
 some of the soldiery desire to confess, halt must be made, and 
 all must kneel. Here, again, Protestants must be supposed to 
 be present. Or, if a regiment going to, or returning from, 
 parade, meet a procession, the prostration must be conceded ; 
 or if a priest, meeting a military detachment, feel moved in 
 his spirit to communicate ghostly instruction to some of the 
 faithful among them, all must halt, and thus, if he produce 
 
IN BAVARIA. 377 
 
 the host, another exception to the Protestant freedom ; words, 
 in short, are feeble to depict the irritating annoyances with 
 which the constitutional rights and immunities of Bavarian 
 Protestants are hemmed in, and all but nullified. Yet it is 
 not by Protestant oppression merely, but by a gradual increase 
 of Catholic aggression, that the government of Bavaria has 
 been for some years past distinguished ; and it can therefore 
 excite but little surprise, that the full cup of indignation begins 
 to overflow, and that patriotic and enlightened men of all 
 persuasions feel revolted by such a state of things, and have 
 begun to attempt its redress. 
 
 As leader in this new movement, may be designated the 
 Prince von Wrede, who, in his place as senator, has, in the pre- 
 sent session (1846), proposed a variety of resolutions, all aimed 
 at checking the arrogant assumption and bigoted intolerance 
 of the Roman Catholic clergy. The view taken by high-minded 
 men in other parts of the German fatherland, of this bold 
 enterprise, is powerfully expressed by a Prussian nobleman, 
 Baron de Biilow, who published the following advertisement 
 in " the Berlin News :" — " It is worth while, after all, to have 
 a soldier's blood in one's veins. Prince von Wrede, the son 
 of that brave soldier and successful commander, whose name 
 stands recorded in the annals of military fame, has, in bring- 
 ing the incredibly audacious behaviour of the Eichstadt clergy 
 under the notice of the Bavarian senate, chosen a much more 
 dangerous field of conflict for himself than any of those in 
 which his brave father fought with so much honour ; for at 
 every step he sets his foot upon a viper or an adder. I 
 take the liberty, therefore, thus publicly to express, in my 
 own name, and of every old Prussian soldier, the esteem and 
 approbation which we feel for the worthy son of such a sire. 
 (Signed) " Freiherr von Bulow." 
 
 The conflict above alluded to with the ecclesiastical power, 
 was commenced by Prince von Wrede calling the attention of 
 the senate to some recent acts of presumption and intolerance, 
 of which the Bavarian clergy had been guilty, acting under the 
 
378 ^ RELIGIOUS PARTIES 
 
 influence and according to the express commands of a foreign 
 spiritual chief, in proof of which he cited the reproving 
 letters written by the pope to the Bavarian Bishop of Augsburg 
 and the abbot of Scheyern, for their having sanctioned the 
 oiFering up of the usual prayers for the dead, in the Catholic 
 churches, for the soul of a heretic, in the person of the deceased 
 Queen Caroline, mother of the reigning monarch, and which 
 had been rehearsed in compliance with the request of the king, 
 who is himself a strict Catholic ; and still more, the omission 
 on the festival of St. Theresa (the reigning queen, who is a 
 Protestant, bearing that name), of her majesty's natne in sing- 
 ing that verse of the " Te Deum Laudamus^"" " Salvum fac 
 Regem,*^ and the substituting therefor the name of the bishop 
 of the diocese, immediately after that of the king, in every 
 Eoman Catholic church throughout Bavaria. In reference to 
 this bold act of exclusion from the prayers of her subjects, 
 the Prince von Wrede said, "It is, I own, incomprehensible to 
 me, how a good Christian, a good Catholic, a good subject, or 
 a good minister of religion, could so far forget himself as to 
 omit seizing every opportunity which came in his way, of 
 testifying his public respect and regard for the consort of his 
 sovereign, and the queen of the realm ; but still more incredible, 
 that occasions, such as a birthday, where custom prescribes 
 more especial notice of so exalted a personage, should be selected 
 for marking her out to invidious and contemptuous observa- 
 tion. Yet perhaps even such behaviour in ordained servants 
 of the church, was less incongruous and incompatible with 
 Christian humility, than the insertion of the diocesan's name 
 in direct juxtaposition with that of his sovereign, in such a 
 canticle as Salvum fac Regem nostrum. Common prudence 
 would, one should think, prevent bishops from displaying such 
 arrogance." Yet even this was not all which Prince von 
 Wrede was able to advance in proof of ecclesiastical bigotry ; 
 for he adduced the unreproved behaviour of the Carmelites of 
 Wiirzburg, who, on the eve of the 15th of last October (which, 
 being the said festival of St. Theresa, is commonly regarded 
 
IN BAVARIA. 379 
 
 and celebrated as the fete-day of the queen), had the pre- 
 sumption to place a placard on the walls of their convent, 
 inviting all good Catholics to take part in the special prayers 
 for the conversion of heretics, appointed to be offered up on 
 the morrow in the church of the barefooted Carmelites, and 
 promising plenary indulgence to all who should take part in 
 the said holy duty. Another proposition of Prince von Wrede, 
 grounded on such clerical arrogance, was, that the senate 
 might take cognizance of the great increase of religious orders 
 and religious houses in Bavaria of late years, and praying es- 
 pecially that some measures might be devised for expelling, 
 or, at least, rendering harmless, the order of Redemptorists, 
 which is but another name for Jesuits, who, under their own 
 appellation, are debarred by law from having any footing in 
 Bavaria. But, notwithstanding the strong facts, the just 
 reasoning, and the powerful eloquence, with which Prince von 
 Wrede supported his motions, they were all negatived in the 
 senate, yet happily only to be revived in another form, and 
 that by a Koman Catholic senator, who, as president of the 
 committee, appointed specially to consider the religious order 
 question, gave in, on Feb. 21, 1846, the following reply, as 
 being the result of the committee's deliberations, and which 
 well deserves to be pondered by all admirers of monastic insti- 
 tutions in general, and of the order of Jesuits and its congeners 
 in particular : — 
 
 Prince Louis, of Oettingen-Wallerstein, having, as praeses 
 of the committee, proposed the rejection of the Prince von 
 Wrede's proposition, submitted the following as a fitting sub- 
 stitute for it : — " The estates of the kingdom desire to express 
 their full confidence that the crown will neither openly re- 
 cognise, nor secretly aid, any religious order, whose tenets or 
 practice tend to endanger confessional tranquillity, and ground 
 their expectations on the following considerations: — It is 
 above all things requisite to make a distinction between 
 such convents as are included in the concordat, and those 
 which, without any reference to that ecclesiastical compact, 
 
380 RELIGIOUS PARTIES 
 
 have been voluntarily admitted into the kingdom of Bavaria, 
 for so long, and no longer, than the government pleases. 
 In the first category, are the Benedictine and Augustine 
 orders, together with the Brothers and Sisters of Mercy ; in 
 the second, all other monastic or congregational institutions 
 whatsoever. In treating of the religious orders sanctioned by 
 the concordat, I deem it superfluous to say one word in defence 
 of the orders of Mercy ; for, assuredly, no one will be disposed 
 to dispute that the onerous duty of attendance on the sick 
 will be very dilfferently performed by those who connect the 
 very lowest service with a regard to eternity and the Eternal, 
 than by the mere hireling ; and there are, probably, but few 
 persons in Bavaria, indisposed to rejoice in the aid afforded to 
 the community by these religious bodies : provided always, 
 first, that the sisterhoods are not entrusted with the financial 
 affairs of the various hospitals ; secondly, that these labours 
 of Christian love remain in perfect unison with the spirit 
 which animated their founder, St. Vincentius de Paula, free 
 from all admixture of asceticism ; and thirdly, that no fanatical 
 spiritual counsellor is permitted to cross the threshold of these 
 religious houses. These three premises are of the utmost 
 importance : the first and third being the result of bitter ex- 
 perience ; the second, suggested by some rules introduced into 
 different sisterhoods, by individual abbesses of the order of 
 Mercy. If the conviction of the Catholic population be de- 
 cidedly expressed in favour of an increase of the secular clergy, 
 it is undoubtedly the duty of the government to provide for 
 their suitable maintenance, as they are bound also to do, 
 when the necessities of the Protestant part of the population 
 are brought before them.* If, on the contrary, the Catholic 
 conviction is in favour of the regular clergy, then let the state 
 take measures for the due support of these ; but, at the same 
 time, be on the watch to retain them within the limits of law 
 and order. Above all, let government take care, that no reli- 
 
 * Bound to do so — a la bonne heure! but when or where, in 
 Bavaria, is this duty performed in regard to Protestants ? 
 
IN BAVARIA. 38t 
 
 gious order be suffered to exist in Bavaria, that is likely to 
 endanger, in any way, the friendly relations of the different con- 
 fessions towards each other, or the Catholic confession, consi- 
 dered in itself. That the Jesuits must not be suffered to tread 
 the Bavarian soil, is clear. They were instituted for the pur- 
 pose of combating Protestantism ; their declared object is, to 
 be the ' ecclesia militans ' towards every other creed than their 
 own ; and their entrance, whether with open or closed visor, 
 into a country where differing confessions are allowed, would 
 be the signal for a gloomy futurity. Loud is the warning 
 spoken by the bloody footsteps which mark the progress of 
 those fathers in a neighbouring land. The exact rules of the 
 Redemptorists are unknown to me, and ostensibly they hold 
 aloof from all confessional questions ; while controversial 
 sermons, as far as I am aware, are unknown among them. 
 On the contrary, all the inquiries I have histituted would 
 seem to convey the idea, that they occupy themselves entirely 
 with the inner constitution of man. But, unless all appear- 
 3,nces are illusory, their efforts are far from being directed 
 to ennoble the human mind. Instead of drawing it upward 
 by sentiments of genuine Christian reverence and love, they 
 sink it into the lowest pit of gross materialism. Their pul- 
 pit discourses upon chastity are so expressed, as to convey, 
 as I have been assured, a knowledge of vice, to which the 
 ears as well as the bosoms of maidenly modesty, should be 
 strangers ; so that I have heard of strictly orthodox Catholic 
 matrons, who have found themselves compelled to leave the 
 church with their daughters, to save them from the pollution 
 of the sermon. Their confessionals are said frequently to 
 produce outbursts of religious madness. Their adherents burn 
 with hatred against all non-Catholics. The servants who are 
 under their influence, are spies upon their masters ; the children 
 whom they can control, are set to watch their parents. In 
 one word, their operations seem to scatter the seeds of a rank 
 harvest of discord. Deeply do I lament the introduction of 
 this society into our country. I thank my God that I had 
 
382 RELIGIOUS PARTIES 
 
 no share in it. But documentary evidence of these accusa- 
 tions has not been yet. laid before me. The first legislative 
 body in a country dare not, without such proof, pronounce 
 judgment upon a set of men, whose permitted exertions are 
 secured by all the vested rights of Bavarian citizenship. I 
 feel therefore bound, so long to oppose the proposition of 
 Prince von Wrede, until, either in the course of the discus- 
 sion, or by behoof of regular parliamentary inquiry, proofs 
 can be produced which shall enable us to form a clear 
 opinion, and deliver a collective decision." 
 
 This speech of the Eoman Catholic defender, not of the 
 Kedemptorists, but merely of their right to be heard, was 
 met by the Prince von Wrede, by an expression of his full 
 conviction, — a conviction in which he said " many zealous 
 Catholics shared — that the Redemptorist order was wholly 
 unsuited for the present day, but, least of all, for Bavaria, 
 in the present day." He appealed to the circular of the 
 Rev. Ordinary, Miinchen-Freysing, in proof that the com- 
 mon opinion of the public was against them ; that hypo- 
 chondriacal persons had been driven by their fanatical mis- 
 sion sermons to excesses dangerous even to life ; and that 
 large sums of money were gathered by the order, and sent in 
 aid of Redemptorists in other countries. " When, therefore," 
 concluded the bold and energetic speaker, " when it is remem- 
 bered that our Protestant fellow-subjects are not only not 
 permitted to make collections within their native land, in aid 
 of poor congregations, whether for the purpose of building new, 
 or repairing old places of worship, but thq,t they are even pro- 
 hibited from accepting aid from foreign well-wishers, for these 
 purposes ; when we even know a case, in which a Protestant 
 district president was forced to relinquish his post, solely 
 because he had received such a collection, then I ask, are there 
 not just and powerful reasons for the estates of the kingdom 
 weighing and examining into what has been alleged ? The 
 Redemptorists are permitted unmeasured freedom of operation 
 by the government. For them, collects are freely and openly 
 
IN BAVARIA, 383 
 
 made ; and that not for their own support within this realm, 
 but for all those kindred institutions by which they seek to pro- 
 pagate their doctrine in other lands ; but, to the Protestants, 
 even the means necessary to their existence is denied. Where, 
 I ask, where is the justice of this distinction? " 
 
 Another and very important question laid before the senate by 
 the indefatigable Prince von Wrede, is the legacy-hunting, at 
 present so successfully practised throughout Bavaria, by va- 
 rious religious orders, but, most of all, by the Redemptorists ; 
 and it is hoped that his eiForts will be so far crowned with suc- 
 cess, as to make the civil power alive to, and watchful against, 
 the machinations of those spiritual marauders who steal into 
 houses, and carry captive, not silly women merely, but very 
 much spoil, robbing the fatherless and widows of their earthly 
 inheritance, and too generally the dying of their souls, by 
 sending them down to the grave with a lie in their right hand. 
 The attempted reform of Prince von Wrede has been, for the 
 moment, frustrated ; but those who know Prince Louis von 
 Oettingen-Wallerstein are persuaded, that the seeming re- 
 pulse was but given for the purpose of ensuring the question 
 a much fuller investigation in the second chamber than it 
 would have met in the first ; and that, sincere Catholic as he 
 is, no Protestant can more truly desire full equality of civil 
 rights and religious privileges than he does ; and none more 
 conscientiously abhor all priestcraft and Jesuitry. In such 
 hands, not merely Protestantism but truth is safe ; and we 
 may hope that the battle, though checked for the moment, will 
 again be renewed ; and error, delusion, oppression, and per- 
 secution, finally quit the field in Bavaria, and throughout the 
 world. Thus circumstanced, it is only natural that the ultra- 
 montane party should use the most strenuous efforts to exclude 
 the German Catholic doctrine from the Bavarian dominions, 
 and the rigid censorship is much in favour of the fulfilment 
 of their wishes ; yet we do hear of some symptoms of the 
 Ronge publications, as they are generally called, having found 
 their way, like other smuggled goods, even across the Bava- 
 
S84 
 
 RELIGIOUS PARTIES 
 
 rian frontier. "Would that we could indulge the hope, that the 
 true light will soon pierce the thick darkness of that region, 
 and the day-spring of genuine gospel truth establish the reign 
 of the Redeemer, in the room of the Redemptorists. 
 
 Even now a report is very prevalent (to which collateral 
 circumstances impart a considerable share of probability), 
 that the Crown Prince of Bavaria, the future sovereign of that 
 realm, is completely convinced of the injustice and impolicy 
 of the system of Roman Catholic favouritism, which the present 
 prime minister, M. Von Abel, so sedulously fosters. The prince, 
 it is said, having made himself fully master of the bearings 
 of the diiferent questions recently brought before the chambers, 
 had conveyed his pointed disapprobation to the minister ; and 
 that his disappointment at failing to effect any alteration in 
 the ministeral line of policy, is the true motive for his leaving 
 the country, with his Protestant consort, for the purpose of 
 making a long tour through Europe, to which no definite 
 termination is announced. Before departing from Munich, 
 the prince is asserted to have written a letter to Prince von 
 Wrede, in which he wished him cordial success in all his plans 
 for the benefit of his country. It were, indeed, more than 
 extraordinary, could a young and talented prince see, without 
 disgust and displeasure, his mother's memory, his wife's fame, 
 made the butt of arrogant priests, and held up to the commi- 
 seration or abhorrence of his future subjects, with barefaced 
 effrontery, by barefooted monks ; or if he could view, without 
 displeasure, those professing a faith which cannot but be at 
 least respectable in his eyes, subjected to such illegal oppres- 
 sion and carking annoyance as are calculated to alienate their 
 affections from his government, and disturb those social rela- 
 tions of peace and amity which can alone establish national 
 prosperity on a firm basis. 
 
 Should this report, then, of the crown prince's feelings be 
 founded in truth, a day of long unknown happiness may yet 
 dawn on the Bavarian Protestants at no very distant date ; for 
 the reigning monarch is fast descending into the vale of years. 
 
IN BAVARIA. 385 
 
 and he may thank his ghostly friends and his ultramontane 
 minister, if the prospect of his demise he one of not unmingled 
 sorrow to a considerable portion of his subjects. But again, 
 if the report he true, the prince has acted most wisely in 
 removing from Bavaria, and likewise in relinquishing his 
 previously-announced plan of wintering in Italy. If he wish 
 to enjoy ''long life, and see many days," he will do well" 
 to avoid all intimate contact with persons and places under 
 Jesuit influence, lest the prospective danger to the church 
 should suggest the advisahleness of procuring for him such 
 an apoplexy as conveyed Popes Clement XIII. and XIV, so 
 rapidly from this nether sphere. 
 
386 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ASSOCIATION. 
 
 Its Origin — Erection of a Monument to Gustavus Adolphus — The 
 Fund formed by Overplus Contributions — Formation of Branch 
 Societies — Definite Constitution of the Society — Roman Catholic 
 Opposition — Its Success in Austria and Bavaria — Protestant 
 Objections, and their Ground — Proposed Formation of a Similar 
 Society by the German Catholics. 
 
 This now widely spread society shares the fate of many 
 other human institutions, in being lauded to the skies by 
 some, while by others (though highly approving its object) 
 the constitution of the society is so much disapproved, as 
 to prevent their joining its ranks. It may, therefore, be 
 desirable to say a few words explanatory of this diversity 
 of views. The origin of the society, wholly different in 
 aim to what it has since become, is thus described in a 
 pamphlet, written by Pastor Hessenmiiller, of St. Ulrici, 
 in Brunswick: — 
 
 " A simple stone marked the memorable spot in the plain 
 of Liitzen, where, on November 6, 1632, Sweden's mighty 
 and high-souled monarch, Gustavus Adolphus, paid with 
 life the forfeit of his devotion to the Protestant cause. On 
 the 6th of November, 1832, being the bi-centenary anni- 
 versary of the hero's death, a number of Protestants resolved 
 on erecting a memorial more worthy of his deeds in their 
 
THE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ASSOCIATION. 387 
 
 behalf, and of the grateful feelings with which they are still 
 remembered. 
 
 " The public announcement of this design met so ready and 
 joyful a response, that on November 6, 1837, they were 
 enabled to carry the project into execution, by the erection 
 of a monument of a pyramidal form (surmounting, but not 
 concealing the ancient rough stone memorial), and bear- 
 ing the following inscriptions on the four entablatures, one 
 of which occupies the space beneath the roof, on each of the 
 four sides of this slender open temple. The inscriptions are, 
 of course, in German, but may be thus translated. The front 
 entablature bears: — 
 
 " First. Here fell Gustavus Adolphus, November 6, 1632. 
 
 " Second. He led the battle of the Lord. 1 Sam. xxv. 28. 
 
 " Third. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even 
 our faith. 1 John v. 4. 
 
 " Fourth. God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of 
 power and love, and of discipline (Luther's translation). 
 
 " But the contributions had come in so liberally that, after 
 all expenses were paid, a very considerable balance remained 
 in the hands of the committee, which it was determined to 
 apply in aid of a fund for the relief of suffering Protestant 
 congregations, — an object for which the public sympathy had 
 already been invoked by Dr. Grossman, of Leipsic, in 1832. 
 The society which that worthy ecclesiastic then called into 
 being, was appropriately named ' the Gustavus Adolphus 
 Association,' as significantly indicative of its aim and object, 
 viz., the relief of poor brethren of the Protestant communion, 
 more especially in Catholic countries or districts ; and their 
 adopted motto was (Gal. vi.'lO), 'Let us do good unto all 
 men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.' 
 The infant institution found zealous support from Saxony and 
 Thiiringen, but was either little known or little heeded in other 
 parts of Germany, until Dr. Zimmerman, court chaplain in 
 Darmstadt, published, on the 31st of October, 1841, in the 
 ' Universal Church Magazine,' ' An invitation to the Pro- 
 
 s2 
 
388 THE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ASSOCIATION. 
 
 testant world to unite in aid of Protestants in all portions of 
 the globe, who are suffering ecclesiastical privations or op- 
 pressions.' The appeal found its way to the hearts of thou- 
 sands. Branch societies were formed all over Germany. The 
 glow of a pure enthusiasm burned in every bosom. No one 
 asked who had begun, but only how best they could forward 
 the holy work ; and the first general meeting held at Leipsic, 
 on the 16th of September, 1842, gave a fine specimen of 
 Christian public spirit. The way thus opened at Leipsic, was 
 completed at Frankfort-sur-Maine, on the 21st and 22nd of 
 September, 1843, when the society was definitively constituted 
 under the denomination of ' the Evangelical Gustavus Adolphus 
 Association,' and drew up statutes, embodying the essential 
 principles of all the previously existing individual societies. 
 The third general meeting took place at Gottingen, on the 1 0th 
 and 11th of September, 1844, when the institution received 
 an important increase of strength by the accession of the 
 Prussian society to the general association. Link after link 
 has since been added to the chain, until every division of 
 Protestant Germany is more or less bound by it. But, even 
 in other countries where local hindrances interfered with its 
 open reception, sympathy is felt, and liberality shown by indi- 
 vidual benevolence."* But no human institution is without 
 its opposers or its defects. In the first ranks of the former, in 
 regard to "the Gustavus Adolphus Association," are, of course, 
 the Roman Catholics ; and, did they merely refuse their aid, it 
 would neither be strange nor blameworthy. But their oppo- 
 sition is far from being displayed in so negative a manner. In 
 all countries where they can exert it, they enlist their influence 
 with " the powers that be," to prevent the detested heretics, 
 whom they will not themselves aid, from receiving aid from 
 others ; and in the Austrian and Bavarian dominions their 
 success is perfect. With respect to the latter country, where 
 
 * Die Geguer der Gustav-Adolph Stifling. S. vi. von C. Hessen- 
 miiller. 
 
THE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ASSOCIATION. 389 
 
 equality of civil rights, irrespective of religious confessions, is 
 the law of the land, it was last year hinted that it would be 
 well for the association so far to concede to the prejudices of 
 the Roman Catholics, as to change its designation (as the 
 memory of Gustavus Adolphus naturally did not live in the 
 odour of sanctity amongst the descendants of those whom his 
 conquering arms suhdued) ; and it was suggested that, in that 
 case, it was probable the society would be suiFered, if not to 
 gather, at least to distribute, its funds in Bavaria. But 
 though the utmost readiness was at once expressed to make 
 the proposed change, provided the future free operations of 
 the association were first guaranteed, no such promise could be 
 obtained, and of course the name and the exclusion remain 
 as before. 
 
 But the Roman Catholics are not the only opposers of the 
 Gustavus Adolphus Association, as at present constituted ; 
 and, although it may safely be asserted that no Protestant 
 can feel otherwise than friendly towards the object and desire 
 to fiirther the general design of the association, still many 
 very benevolent, kind, and wise, as well as pious persons, 
 demur at joining a society which, while bearing as its motto, 
 "Do good to all, specially to those of the household of faith," 
 expressly prohibits, by its statutes, all inquiry into the faith 
 of those to be aided, requiring, in fact, nought but opposition 
 to Rome as the polar star of its operations, and the sole claim 
 to its aid. " Now if this broad line of benevolence were to 
 be adopted," say th*e objectors, "not only ought the second 
 clause of the Bible quotation to be omitted, but the exclusion 
 of Roman Catholics too, for they, surely,- are included in the 
 Gospel command, ' Do good to all men as you have oppor- 
 tunity;' and there can be no adherence to the second clause, 
 without some mode of ascertaining who are of the household 
 of faith. Protestations against Rome cannot, by any stretch of 
 argument, be said to do so, else Mohammedans and Jews, is 
 Roman Catholic countries, would come within the category ; 
 and many consider joining a society which expressly debars 
 
390 THE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ASSOCIATION. 
 
 any member from even introducing the subject of Christ's 
 divinity and similar fundamental, but unhappily, at present, 
 impugned points of doctrine, as being a tacit denial of their 
 creed; so that they feel as if, on entering the society's 
 assembly-room, they were required to leave their Christian 
 allegiance at the door ; besides, they are far from feeling sure 
 that the Protestants they may be called to aid, are not more alien 
 from themselves in doctrine, than the Romanists against whom 
 they protest ; being, in plain terms, more disposed to join hands 
 with a Papist than with a Socinian. They, in fact, feel as 
 many British Christians might, if invited to join in aiding the 
 German Catholics generally, without being permitted to ap- 
 propriate their bounty to those of them whom they, at least, 
 deem of the 'household of faith.'" 
 
 It may be very true, as stated by a writer in the " Continental 
 Echo" for December, 1845, that "those great periodical meet- 
 ings, this mingling of different elements, does good, by enabling 
 men to see and really know one another, who are commonly kept 
 aloof by confessional disparities ;" but his further assertion, 
 that "it cannot but contribute to the advancement of the truth 
 as it is in Jesus," can only be true, if, as he says, there is 
 "active and unrestricted communion of ideas among them." 
 In that case, indeed, truth never needs to fear being brought 
 into conflict with error ; but this is exactly the point on which 
 those whom he calls "the timid and narrow-minded," object, 
 for they maintain, that not controversy merely, which might 
 disturb business, but every avowal of c6ntroverted views, is 
 debarred by the rules of this society, whose aid is granted to 
 all who protest against Rome, whether they be Lutherans, 
 Calvinists, Arians, or Socinians. 
 
 Assuredly this cannot, and does not, prevent Bible Christ- 
 ians from speaking their sentiments outside the committee- 
 room. It is also true, that very many excellent and orthodox 
 men think it their duty to support the society, and they, 
 doubtless, see more reason for hope than for fear in the 
 plan that has been adopted ; yet it is scarcely fair to desig- 
 
THE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ASSOCIATION. 391 
 
 tiate all who cannot feel so sanguinely, as " timid and narrow- 
 minded." 
 
 If it be warrantable to judge of the safety of a system by 
 the fruits produced by similar principles, then, assuredly, the 
 temporising plan, the " all for love and everything else well 
 lost" cry of young Germany might serve to deter rather than 
 to allure sober-minded Christians to its adoption, since it 
 seems in a fair way of throwing faith and a good conscience 
 overboard, and thus, like many other extremes, paving the 
 way for the triumphant return of its opposite, whether that be 
 puseyism or popery. 
 
 Before quitting this subject, a circumstance more imme- 
 diately connected with the German Catholic movement may 
 not be unworthy of notice. 
 
 Impeded as the Roman dissidents are from travelling to 
 preach beyond thfeir own bounds, the press is their only 
 succedaneum, and perhaps one fully equivalent to that of 
 which they are deprived ; and this feeling has suggested to 
 many the idea of forming a society somewhat analogous to 
 the Gustavus Adolphus Association, inasmuch as the design is 
 to aid their former brethren in the faith by means of distri- 
 buting what they most need, instruction respecting the errors 
 of popery. Among others who have advocated this plan, is 
 Pastor Licht, of Elberfeld. The many striking particulars 
 connected with the secession of this remarkable man from 
 the Church of Rome, and the persecutions he endured before 
 being quietly re-established in the exercise of pastoral duties 
 in Elberfeld, which have been already noted in the course of 
 the chronological narrative, will, doubtless, impart additional 
 interest to the following letter, written by him, and which 
 appeared in the November number of the "Catholic Reform 
 Journal," 1845 : — 
 
 " Dear brethren and sisters in the Lord, 
 
 "When, at our memorable meeting at "Witten, on the 21st 
 of last July, the honour was done me of drinking my health, 
 I. replied by endeavouring to impress on all present the 
 
392 THE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ASSOCIATION. 
 
 necessity for every nobly constituted mind, whether male 
 or female, to 'press forward,' and sought to show that it is 
 our duty to go ceaselessly 'forward' with our understanding, 
 and ' forward' with our heart. Of this urgency of advancement, 
 and the necessity that exists for it, I desire once more to 
 speak ; and I would especially call attention to the fact, that 
 our opponents are everywhere on the alert, to dispute every 
 inch of ground with us. I would call your attention to the 
 abuse, the calumnies, and the falsehoods, which they circulate 
 against us, both in word and writing, from the pulpit, at the 
 table d'hote^ in the streets, and everywhere. We must not 
 remain indifferent to all this, far less be discouraged by it ; but 
 only be impelled to press ' forward' more intrepidly. God stands 
 by the courageous combatant. Let us reflect on what our 
 enemies do, only that we may shape our conduct accordingly. 
 Have you not perceived how the Koman Catholic popu- 
 lation is at this moment worked upon in all conceivable 
 ways, and every bait thrown out which can be supposed 
 most likely to attract or retain them ? Look at the great 
 processions and pilgrimages by which the people are enticed 
 to the so-called places of grace. See how the Archbishop 
 of Posen set on foot a great procession, to which multitudes 
 were specially invited, for the purpose of making a politico- 
 religious demonstration, on which occasion he had the bones 
 of two 'glorified kings_^of Poland' carried about, and the 
 minds of the people were worked up to such fanaticism 
 that the most shameful excesses were committed, though 
 not by the populace alone. Have you yet to learn how 
 the Bishops of Limburg and Fulda, in particular, thunder 
 forth against us, as disloyal and revolutionary persons, and 
 launch their excommunications against us ? Have you not 
 heard that, in Cologne, a Borromans Society has long existed, 
 which seeks by all means, and with a zeal worthy a better 
 cause, to propagate and distribute Eoman Catholic writings 
 amongst the people ? But, above all, are you not aware what 
 subtle manoeuvres the Jesuits, those truest satellites of the 
 
THE GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS ASSOCIATION, 393 
 
 ■Romish hierarchy, put in use, in all quarters, and by all means, 
 to work their ends, whether publicly or secretly ? And shall 
 we stand by, tame spectators of all this ? No ; let us go 
 'forward.' Let us oppose to our enemies a fearless front, 
 and meet them with corresponding, although more powerful 
 weapons, as far as the distribution of books is concerned, 
 but, above all, by bringing the Bible into every house to 
 which we have access. To feed the hungry, to give drink to 
 the thirsty, to clothe the naked, is a work of corporeal bene- 
 volence ; but it is a much greater to instruct the ignorant, to 
 counsel the doubting, and to open the eyes of the spiritually 
 blind. We must blush, as Christians, if, in any house belong- 
 ing to our people, the Christian code were wanting. The 
 Bible Societies aid us nobly ; they help us ' forward,' but we 
 must ourselves unite in the work to the utmost of our power." 
 
 This letter, in conjunction with many other similar appeals 
 in favour of the formation of a society for the purchase and 
 spread of German Catholic publications, has led to an estab- 
 lishment of the sort in Berlin, as being the most suitable, 
 both for procuring the requisite publications, and the means 
 for printing and distributing them. 
 
 As to what shall be printed and distributed, the difficulty 
 of choice lies in the multiplicity, not the paucity, of suitable 
 writings : for, assuredly, never was such a flood of publications 
 bearing on one subject, seen to issue from the press, within 
 so short a time, as the reform cause can boast of. Even the 
 booksellers allow that they are astounded to think where the 
 writers found leisure to pen such close successions as sometimes 
 appear, or where the readers are to come from. Yet these last 
 must exist, for every work of any pretension goes through 
 several editions in an incredibly short space of time ; and these 
 are emissaries exceedingly difficult to prevent entering and 
 operating even within the strongly-guarded bounds of Austria 
 and Bavaria, and, if report may be credited, have made some 
 impression in the latter, whose Roman Catholic population is 
 allowed to be the most thoroughly papal in Europe. 
 
 s 3 
 
394 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PROTESTANTISM IN THE AUSTRIAN DOMINIONS. 
 
 Statistics of Protestantism in Austria — Religious Houses and Orders 
 — The Engines of Popish Proseljtism — Number of Protestants 
 who have joined Rome — ^Protestant Movement in Northern Bohe- 
 mia — Translation of the Austrian Enactments against the Ger- 
 man Catholics — Opposition to this Document in the Saxon 
 Chamber — Remarkable Secessions from Rome, in Hungarj-. 
 
 According to an official statistical report published in Vienna* 
 in 1837, the number of Protestants within the Austrian empire 
 amounted to — 
 
 Lutherans 1,234,574 or 3,48 per cent. 
 
 Helvetian Confession 2,193,117 or 6,19 „ 
 
 Unitarians 43,750 or 12 „ 
 
 WhiletheCathohcs amount to.. 25,0 14,267 or 70,66 „ 
 The two confessions of the Greek 
 
 church, to - 6,276,239 or 17,72 „ 
 
 Jews, to 639,051 or 1,80 „ 
 
 And other sects, to , 1,736 or 0,03 „ 
 
 When to this disparity is added the influence of the court, 
 the vast number of religious orders, and the immense privi- 
 leges they enjoy, it may easily be perceived that it requires 
 no small share of decision of character, or of serious religious 
 conviction, to maintain a Protestant profession under such 
 circumstances. 
 
 A specification published in the ^^Diario di Roma^''* May, 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN THE AUSTRIAN DOMINIONS. 395 
 
 1842, gives the following list of religious houses within the 
 Austrian hounds : — 766 monasteries helonging to 27 diiFerent 
 orders — containing 10,354 enrolled monks ; and 157 con- 
 vents, helonging to 29 dijQPerent orders, and containing 3661 
 nuns. Besides these, the Austrian almanac for 1842 asserts 
 the number of Jesuits to have then increased to 302, of 
 which 125 were priests ; and we may well believe them to 
 have at least doubled during the last four years. In Galicia, 
 they then possessed 16 establishments of various grades of 
 importance ; and colleges in Gratz, Verona, Inspruck, and 
 Linz. The Redemptorists (which is only an alias for Jesuits), 
 who possess one large monastery in Vienna and a smaller 
 one in Styria, amount to 122, of which 68 are priests. The 
 Purists (another subdivision of Jesuits) are 800 in number, 
 with 67 religious houses. 
 
 It is self-evident, that so large a disposable spiritual force 
 can and must work with good effect, in promoting the spread 
 of popery, and no engine has been found more conducive to 
 proselytism in Austria, as elsewhere, than the opposition to 
 the formation of mixed marriages, or a judicious use of them 
 after they are made. If the Protestant party, whether male 
 or female, is more in love with the Catholic partner desired 
 to be obtained, than with the doctrines of his or her church, 
 proselytism takes place at once, and a new convert is intro- 
 duced with triumph into the fellowship of Holy Mother 
 Church. If, on the contrary, resistance be made to that, the 
 refusal of priestly benediction on the union, unless all the 
 children be engaged to be brought up in the Romish faith, 
 proves effectual, nine times out of ten, either before or after 
 the union ; and, in either case, the progeny at least is gained 
 for the Romanist party. But the ferment produced by the 
 disputes on this subject, which arose some years since, in the 
 Rhenish provinces, and were thence transplanted to other 
 parts of Catholic Germany, has occasioned a notable de- 
 crease in the number of mixed marriages celebrated of late 
 years in strictly orthodox Austria ; the result, probably, of a 
 
396 PROTESTANTISM IN THE 
 
 greater feeling of hostility and consequent diminution of in- 
 tercourse between the confessions, perhaps also of a stronger 
 alarm having been infused into the Catholic population re- 
 garding the danger of contact with heretics. The fact, at 
 all events, is proved by a statistical survey of the Austrian 
 population from 1834 to 1840, published by Becher, which 
 shows a regular decrease in the number of such marriages. 
 In 1836 they amounted to 1317. The following year 
 showed a deficiency, as only 1294 occurred, and in 1839 th& 
 number was only 1177. The Protestant church, however, 
 loses many members through other legally facilitated and 
 zealously exercised means of proselytism by the agency of 
 the Roman Catholic clergy. Eichler, from whom I quote,^ 
 says, "A specification now lying before me, gives the follow- 
 ing statement of the number of Protestants who had returned 
 to the Catholic church (as this Catholic author phrases it), as 
 being, in 1833, 481; 1834,470; 1835,474; 1836,528; 
 1837,493; 1838,578; 1839,588; 1840,491; or, onaa, 
 average, about 500 annually, the greater number of proselytes 
 being obtained in Bohemia and Moravia." In respect of this 
 last statement, it is highly gratifying to know that in 1842 
 Bohemia began to evince symptoms of an opposite tendency. 
 The " Algemeiner Kirchen Zeitung," published 9th October, 
 1842, relates, "It is very remarkable that in Northern Bohe- 
 mia, a strong inclination to separating from the Roman Catholic 
 communion has manifested itself. In the vicinity of Morgenthal 
 many families are said to have arrived at the conviction, that 
 a number of Romish ordinances and appointments are incon- 
 sistent with the doctrines of Holy Writ ; ecclesiastical commis-. 
 sioners have been already sent amongst the people to try to 
 calm their doubts, ^and turn them back to their own faith, but 
 their arguments have been met by peasants with the Bible in 
 their hands. It is further asserted, that several families re- 
 siding in Tetschen (on the Elbe) are preparing to separate 
 from Rome." This, then, was two years before Ronge's voice 
 ^was raised against the papacy ; and we rejoice to know that, 
 
AUSTRIAN DOMINIONS. 397 
 
 during 1845, despite all political and hierarchal hindrances, 
 the descendants of the ancient Hussites have heard, and many 
 of them obeyed, the call, " Come out of her, my people, that ye 
 he not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her 
 plagues." It caimot, therefore, excite wonder, though it must 
 regret, that the Austrian government has now issued a regular 
 manifesto against the German Catholics. The official docu- 
 ment is addressed to all governors in Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, 
 Galicia, Austria above and below the Inn, Styria, lUyria, and 
 the sea coasts, and contains ten paragraphs, of which the 
 following is a translation : — 
 
 " First. The so-called German Catholics being a sect no 
 ways recognised in the Austrian dominions, are an illegal 
 association, and have no claims to free residence within the 
 same ; and the members, according to the degree in which 
 they contravene the various paragraphs (which are cited) of 
 the criminal code, shall be treated either as criminals or 
 offenders against police regulations. 
 
 " Second. The Austrian ambassadors in foreign countries 
 Ijjave received instructions on no account to give passports to 
 any foreigners belonging to this sect, with the design of their 
 entering the Austrian territory ; and, should any such make 
 good their entrance there without a passport^ they are instantly 
 to be sent out of the country, and intimation given of the 
 occurrence to their government. 
 
 " Third, Any Austrian who is a member of the said sect, 
 living in another country, and desirous of returning to his 
 native land, can only obtain permission to do so by forsaking 
 the said sect, and entering into some other religious deno- 
 mination tolerated in Austria. 
 
 " Fourth. All foreigners belonging to this sect now re- 
 siding in the Austrian dominions, to be immediately sent out 
 of the country ; and, 
 
 " Fifth. Natives who have joined, or may desire to join this 
 sect, have the choice of forsaking it or emigrating, and that 
 without delay. 
 
398 PROTESTANTISM IN THE 
 
 " Sixth. In cases of death amongst these sectaries, no 
 burial service can be allowed them, except the clergyman 
 under whose pastoral care they formerly were, be pleased to 
 perform the same ; if not, the corpse must be committed to 
 the grave by the police, in silence. 
 
 " Seventh. As his imperial majesty will not tolerate any 
 government officer or magistrate joining that sect, it is com- 
 manded that such as do so shall be dismissed, and, unless 
 they abjure the sect, must leave the country. 
 
 " Eighth. Although the police courts are entrusted with 
 watching over all religious oflPences and disorders, and em- 
 powered to punish every contravention of the laws in these 
 respects with prompt severity, still the clergy are peculiarly 
 called, by their office, to guard against the rise as well as 
 the progress of the sect in question ; and the ordinaries are 
 directed, by confidential communication of these regula- 
 tions, to stir up their subordinate clergy to due zeal in this 
 respect. 
 
 " Ninth and tenth. These regulations are to be transmitted 
 to all governors of districts, but with the express caution to 
 avoid, in promulgating them, all unnecessary eclat^ and only 
 to communicate them fully to the magistracy of such frontier 
 places as, from frequent contact with foreigners, are most 
 likely to be infected by a sympathy for this heresy." 
 
 This remarkable document is supposed to be the result of in- 
 structions received from Rome, the papal see having, it is said, 
 resolved on making no direct and public manifestation against 
 the dissidents ; but, instead of the long-expected bull of ex- 
 communication, have sent private directions to all governments 
 still faithful to its cause, to adopt vigorous police regulations 
 in regard to these refractory children of Mother Church. But 
 in several of the provinces named in the Vienna manifesto, 
 late events have given the government a strong lesson, that 
 it may have worse antagonists to contend with than Catholic 
 dissidents ; for it is a remarkable, and to them highly honour- 
 able fact, that no one belonging to the new sect has as yet 
 
AUSTRIAN DOMINIONS. 399 
 
 been implicated in the insurrectionary movements which have 
 been so rife in the Grand Duchy of Posen, Galicia, and Cracow. 
 What will be the result of this strong measure in the Austrian 
 dominions, time alone can tell ; but, that it will not be taken 
 quite patiently by other countries, seems probable, from the 
 motion made on the 19th of March by Deputy Rewitzer, in 
 the Dresden chamber, in which, after stating that the Austrian 
 ambassador at the Saxon court had already acted on these 
 instructions from his government, and refused a passport to a 
 Dresden merchant to go into Austria, on the ground of his 
 being a German Catholic, Deputy Rewitzer moved "that such 
 measures should be immediately taken as should be found 
 necessary to secure to all Saxon subjects the same freedom 
 of intercourse with the allied and friendly power of Austria 
 as had hitherto been enjoyed." The Saxon minister replied, 
 that no official communication on the subject had yet been 
 made by the Austrian to the Saxon government; but that he 
 pledged himseK to make the necessary inquiries, and to lay 
 the reply before the chamber. Thus stands the matter at 
 present; and it would be premature even to hazard a conjec- 
 ture on what is likely to be the final decision. Yet, recent 
 events in Galicia might teach even Austria that fidelity to 
 an earthly sovereign does not now, any more than in days 
 that are past, weigh a feather in the scale with the Roman 
 Catholic priesthood, if the interests of the church are to be 
 promoted by rebellion. In addition to this, it is to be remem- 
 bered that, immensely extensive as is the Austrian empire, it 
 partakes of the weakness inherent in all masses made up of 
 heterogeneous and unamalgamable materials. " The iron and 
 the miry clay" threaten its ruin, no less than that of the 
 ancient Roman empire ^ and when we consider that, especially 
 in religious matters, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, 
 and Galicia, not only differ in confession, but are bound by 
 actually different ecclesiastical laws, so that, what is legally 
 admissible in the one, is not in the other, it must be evident 
 to every reflective mind, that the empire contains within its 
 
400 PROTESTANTISM IN THE AUSTRIAN DOMINIONS. 
 
 own bosom sufficient elements of disunion, without stirring 
 up and inflaming them by encroachment and persecution. 
 
 Some very remarkable secessions from the Roman com- 
 munion have occurred in Hungary during the past year; 
 among which may be mentioned, Baroness Dercsensy, Count 
 Haldeck, a Franciscan Monk, and another of the order of the 
 Pious Schools, who had attained to the rank of Professor and 
 Doctor of Moral Philosophy. Indeed, the accustomed order 
 of affairs seems quite changed of late; formerly, 800 to 1000 
 Protestants went over annually to Romanism, but, in 1845, 
 35 only have turned Catholic, in return for 900 Catholics who 
 have professed Protestantism, 
 
401 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 Protestantism in the Russian Baltic Provinces — Persecutions of the 
 Jews, and the Crafty Reasons for its Present Suspension — The 
 Nuns of Minsk — The Russian Emperor's Visit to Rome— Inter- 
 view with the Pope— Statement of the Polish Abbess— Mieczys- 
 lawska — Opposing Documents on this Subject — Probable Truth 
 of the Original Statement — The Protestants of Livonia — Petition 
 of the Landed Proprietors, praying the Russian Government to 
 purchase their Estates — Persecuting Proselytism of the Greek 
 Church— Probable Results to Russia, from its persecuting spirit 
 
 The Protestant inhabitants of Courland, Livonia, Esthonia, 
 and Lithuania, being all German colonists, who carried their 
 religion with them into the regions of their adoption, it seems 
 necessary to take some notice of them here, especially as the 
 proselyting spirit of the Russian government under the Em- 
 peror Nicholas has, of late years, assumed a despotic and 
 persecuting character towards all, whether Jews, Catholics, 
 or Lutherans, who do not yield to the plainly-expressed wish, 
 that they should join the Greek communion. With respect 
 to Jews, the various ukases which have been issued during 
 the three last years, extending even to the articles of female 
 attire, which the Russian tyrant, not satisfied witli controlling 
 
402 RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 higher things, desires to submit to his sway, sufficiently attest 
 the all-encroaching nature of Russian policy ; and, although 
 the public papers assert that the last oppressive measures, 
 which have induced the patriotic Sir Moses Montefiore once 
 more to forsake English elegance and comfort, in behalf of 
 oppressed Israel, have been postponed for four years, the 
 world may be confidently assured that such relaxation is solely 
 the result of policy, not of humanity. The fact, that at the 
 present time, when scarcity, arising from two successive bad 
 harvests, and still more, perhaps, from deficiency of agricul- 
 tural energy, as the natural results of political agitation, is felt 
 in various districts of the empire, the activity and unwearied 
 industry of the Jews cannot well be dispensed with ; and, on 
 this selfish ground alone, are they suffered to remain in their 
 accustomed localities, and to prosecute their accustomed com- 
 mission-trade. Of Roman Catholic persecution we have heard 
 enough to make *' every several hair to stand on end, like 
 quills upon the fretful porcupine ;" and still it is difficult to 
 know how to draw the line between all swallowing-credulity 
 and gnat-straining scepticism ; for to Russia belongs the 
 praise, j9ar excellence, of that charity which hides home defects. 
 For several years past, reports have been bruited of stern and 
 relentless usage experienced by the Romanists in Russia ; 
 but, in the summer of 1845, Christendom was appalled by 
 those shapeless visions at once taking form and substance in 
 the revelations of the Basilian nuns of Minsk, whose widely- 
 proclaimed sufferings, asserted, contradicted, and re-asserted, 
 have furnished innumerable paragraphs for the daily press. 
 No notice, indeed, was taken by the Russian government of 
 all these newspaper squibs. The empress went to Palermo 
 for her health. The emperor followed to visit the imperial 
 invalid, and all the world wondered if he would visit Rome, 
 where the Polish abbess was known to be ; and, if he ven- 
 tured, what would be his reception. The emperor did visit 
 Rome, and was received by the pope with all the distinction 
 due to his rank. The pontiff met him at the door of the 
 
RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 403 
 
 anti- chamber, where the attendants were edified hy seeing the 
 heads of the Greek and Catholic churches, those antipodes in 
 every possible sense, embrace each other. The interview 
 which followed was strictly private, only the confidential at- 
 tendants of each monarch being admitted to it. No authentic 
 account, therefore, can be given of what passed on either side ; 
 but the pope is represented as having displayed a truly patri- 
 archal care for his flock in the Russian dominions, and to 
 have fearlessly stated facts concerning their treatment, which 
 the emperor is said to have professed utter ignorance of. 
 When all was over, his Holiness is stated to have returned 
 thanks to God, with uplifted hands and eyes, for having been 
 granted the long-desired, but unhoped-for opportunity, of 
 pouring these truths into the imperial ears, and thus acting 
 the part of a good shepherd towards his smitten and dispersed 
 Russian flock. The interview being ended, the pope re-con- 
 ducted the emperor to the door, where, as well as on occasion 
 of a second visit, all external marks of friendship and con- 
 sideration were observed towards him. But it was noted 
 that the pontiff did not return the emperor's visit, and that 
 he experienced from the Roman ladies very little of that flat- 
 tering attention which he is accustomed to meet, and is said 
 greatly to value, from the fair sex. Meanwhile, the story of 
 the Russian nuns was again revived. Doubts were felt and 
 expressed as to the possibility of the statements being true ; 
 and, while the Romanists affirmed, and their opponents denied, 
 the allegations, even the visit of the autocrat was conceived 
 a prima facie refutation of them. But very soon a document 
 appeared in the public journals, purporting to be a declaration, 
 made upon oath, by the Polish Abbess, Mieczyslawska, before 
 the pope, at repeated interviews, between the 8th November 
 and 6th December, 1845. 
 
 According to this remarkable statement, the sufferings of 
 the nuns of the St. Basil order at Minsk, commenced in the 
 summer of 1838, when an apostate Roman Catholic bishop, 
 named Joseph Sieraazko (now Archbishop of Lithuania), began 
 
404 RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 to exercise his skill, both verbally and by writing, to induce 
 the sisterhood to forsake their faith, and go over to the Greek 
 Church, to which end, dazzling promises and fierce threaten- 
 ings were alternately employed. The nuns rejected these 
 proposals with disdain, reminding their former superior of his 
 apostacy in very plain terms. He replied, the emperor granted 
 them three months for consideration, whether they chose to 
 retain their present possessions, which the monarch's favour 
 might increase, or exchange them for the mines of Siberia. 
 
 " Scarcely," says the abbess, " had the third day dawned 
 after this conversation, when Siemazko, accompanied by 
 UzikoflF, the Civil Governor of Minsk, and a detachment of 
 soldiers, forced open the gates, and entered the convent, at the 
 moment we were leaving our cells in order to proceed to 
 chapel, and the soldiers placed themselves before the doors 
 of the cells, to cut off our retreat thither. At the sight of 
 this danger, the sisterhood pressed closely around me. It 
 was Friday. * Whither go you ? ' demanded Siemazko, in 
 a harsh voice. 'To meditation,' said I. ' To meditation!' 
 re-echoed he, with a laugh, and then proceeded : — ' I gave 
 you, by his majesty's commands, three months for considera- 
 tion, but I have returned on the third day, to prevent worse 
 consequences. The last moment of your freedom is arrived ; 
 you can now choose between comfort and Siberian labour.' 
 ' We choose the better part, rather Siberian labour than 
 treachery towards our Lord Jesus Christ and his vicegerent.' 
 * Wait a bit,' cried he ; ' when I have flayed off your skin 
 with rods, you will be more yielding.' The sisterhood ut- 
 tered a cry of indignation, and I could distinctly recognise 
 the voice of sister Wawrzecha, exclaiming, ' Take our skin 
 and our flesh ; break our bones too : we will still remain 
 faithful to our Saviour.' Upon hearing this, Siemazko 
 commanded the soldiers to drive us forth ; then turning to 
 me, exclaimed, 'Thou descendant of a Polish dog, I will 
 tear thy tongue out.' " 
 
 The more humane governor, moved by the entreaties of 
 
RELIGIOUS ASPECT OP RUSSIA. 405 
 
 the abbess, prevailed on the enraged bishop to suffer the un- 
 happy women to partake of the sacrament, for the last time 
 in their own church. Thirty-five entered the chapel, but only 
 thirty-four left it alive ; one nun had died of fear and grief at 
 the altar. They were now forced by the soldiers to set out 
 at once towards Witebsk, being permitted, at the intercession 
 of the governor, to take a wooden cross with them, and 
 reached that place after a torturing march of seven days. 
 The abbess thus relates what followed: — '* We were placed in 
 Witebsk under the command of a proto-pope, or superior of 
 a convent of schismatic nuns, named Czernici (or black sis- 
 ters),* to whom the Witebsk convent belonging to the St. 
 Basil order, had been given up about six months before. 
 They were a rude and boisterous set, chiefly soldiers' widows, 
 from the banks of the Don, whom we never saw either praying 
 or working, but who spent their time in singing ribald songs, 
 scolding, fighting, and tearing out one another's hair. After 
 such scenes, their prioress, who bore in her hand a sort of 
 crook, as insignia of office, usually condemned the guilty to 
 make numerous prostrations before herself, and to pay fines, 
 which were expended in the purchase of brandy, of which they 
 all drank to intoxication. This daily debauch ended with 
 songs and loud hurrahs in honour of the -Emperor Nicholas ; 
 and this was the mode in which the Czernici performed their 
 engagement to pray for the czar and his family, for which 
 they are paid seven silver rubles each per month. Such were 
 the beings whom we found installed in the Witebsk convent 
 of the St. Basil nuns, whose persecution began six months 
 before ours. Being driven from their own dwelling, our 
 good sisters were huddled together in a damp and cold apart- 
 ment in the cattle-court, where, deprived of all, they were 
 forced to perform the most menial services for the Czernici. 
 The society had consisted of seventeen sisters, and a very aged 
 and saintly abbess named Eusabia Tyminska, who, however, 
 
 * From their dress. 
 
406 RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 with four of the sisterhood, had sunk under their sufferings 
 before our arrival. When we entered the court-yard, the 
 handcuffs, by means of which we had been bound two and 
 two together, during the march, were removed ; and in their 
 stead chains were affixed to our ancles, which we wore night 
 and day for seven long years. On entering our new prison, 
 the thirteen surviving Basilian nuns threw themselves at my 
 feet, weeping, and exclaiming, ' We have lost our mother, and 
 are orphans ; receive us as thy children, and we will praise the 
 name of the Lord together.' The popes, the Czernici, and 
 the guards, endeavoured, by blows and ill usage, to repress 
 these effusions of the heart, but they could not. We wept 
 together, and God comforted us. * * * 
 
 Before six in the morning we were compelled to sweep the 
 whole house, to heat the stoves, to carry wood and water, 
 and have all restored to order and regularity, after the orgies - 
 of the preceding night. At six, we were led to the tasks 
 assigned us, which varied with the season of the year ; at first 
 we had to break stones, and convey them in wheelbarrows (to 
 which we were chained) to the appointed place. From twelve 
 to one o'clock we had leave to rest, after which we returned 
 to work till dark ; and after that, were employed in the 
 kitchen, in tending the cattle, or in fetching fuel and water 
 for the next morning. The Czernici tried, in all possible 
 ways, to make these labours more heavy and painful to us. 
 They intentionally soiled the kitchen and chambers ; poured 
 out the water we had brought ; insulted us unceasingly ; and 
 beat us without mercy. We were shut up at night (still 
 chained) in our prison, and we spent the time, a very few 
 hours of sleep excepted, at the foot of our crucifix perform- 
 ing the prescribed rules of our order, as we had no time by 
 day to do so. We always began our prayers by prostrating 
 ourselves with our faces on the earth, and imploring God to 
 turn the heart of the emperor. The fare we received was so 
 scanty, that we were often driven by hunger to eat, in sum- 
 mer, the herbs of the field ; and, in winter, the food given 
 
RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 407 
 
 to the cows and swine, in spite of the blows and insults of 
 the Czernici, who, called out 'Ye are not worthy of pigs' 
 meat. ' 
 
 " About two months after our arrival at Witehsk, the pu- 
 nishment of scourging was commenced, and repeated regularly 
 twice a week. Siemazko had commanded thirty stripes, but 
 the Superior, Michelewicz, added twenty more of his own 
 accord. We prepared ourselves for the scourging, by pon- 
 dering on that which our Lord Jesus endured. His passion 
 was our strength, our comfort, and salvation, under every 
 species of martyrdom to which we were subjected through 
 fidelity to him. We were scourged under an open shed in 
 the court, in the presence of nuns, popes, deacons, or who- 
 ever else lived and blasphemed God, in this house, once conse- 
 crated to retirement and piety. The decree for the scourg- 
 ing was always read, and then I was called upon first to lay 
 myself down, and receive the stripes. It was not necessary 
 to bind us. We clung to the cross, and did not move, even 
 while the rods tore our flesh. Yet it was an almost intoler- 
 able pain to be exposed naked to all eyes ; but we remem- 
 bered this, too, was a suffering borne by our Lord. 'Oh, 
 Jesus, rescue my soul by thy cross and passion!' was the 
 only exclamation ever heard amid these blows. To add to our 
 sufferings, we were forced to witness each other's scourging; 
 while the Czernici triumphed, and clapped their hands at the 
 sight of our streaming blood. When the scourging was ended, 
 we began to sing the Te Deum, and were compelled by our 
 tormentors to resume our hard tasks without a moment's 
 interval to recover ourselves. Our pathway was marked by 
 blood-gouts, and not unfrequently pieces of loose flesh hung 
 from our bodies, stripped off by the rods. When any weaker 
 than the rest sunk down exhausted, blows of a stick forced 
 them onward; and, on one occasion, when a sister, named 
 Colomba Gorska, fainted in returning to work, Michelewicz 
 brought her to herself by beating her : she contrived to reach 
 the wheelbarrow, and re-loaded it, but, at the first attempt 
 
408 RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 to push it forward, fell down and expired. Several other 
 sisters sunk under ill-usage. Baptista Downac was burnt to 
 death in a large stove which she was engaged in heating, and 
 in which the Czernici shut her up. Another died from the 
 blows inflicted by the prioress with a billet of wood, and two 
 others from the effects of scourging. Notwithstandmg the 
 intense coldness of that climate in winter, we were denied all 
 fuel, so that our limbs became perfectly chilled, which greatly 
 increased the pain of our wounds. Imprisonment was occa- 
 sionally awarded as a punishment, but that afforded us some 
 peaceful, I might say cheerful, hours ; for we prayed without 
 ceasing, and composed a hymn, the singing of which was our 
 refreshment and consolation, its chorus was — * Bear patiently, 
 ye suffering handmaidens of the Lord. If we fight for him, he 
 will one day count our tears and grant the victory to our faith ; 
 then shall our chains be broken and we shall leave these 
 prison walls. Thy will be ever blessed. Thou wilt bestow 
 upon us crowns in heaven.' 
 
 " When we had been two years in Witebsk, we were removed 
 to Polozk, where our torments were only increased. It were 
 impossible to relate all we endured, but one anecdote may 
 show what share the emperor had in it. Siemazko arrived 
 in the autumn of 1841, at Polozk; greeted us with a familiar 
 — ^how goes it ? and then proceeded to express his satisfaction 
 that we had at length recognised the wrath of God in what 
 had befallen us, and, desisting from our obstinacy, were now 
 willing to accept the benefits of the orthodox faith. * Who,' 
 replied I, * hath induced thee to tempt us again?' ' Thyself, ' 
 said he, ' or, if not thou personally, thy sisters have.' ' Which of 
 them ? ' asked I. But, before he could reply, all the nuns in- 
 dignantly repelled the accusation ; and I, turning to Siemazko, 
 said, ' Thou desirest, apostate as thou art, to ensnare us in 
 the manner of the Pharisees, but thou shalt not succeed ; for 
 we are prepared, and with God's help, always will be so, to 
 die for our faith, as some of our sisters have done already.' 
 ' Barest thou say this to me ? Knowest thou them with whom 
 
RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 409 
 
 tiibu speakest?' cried the enraged bishop. *Yes,' said I 
 * I know it well ; to an apostate and traitor to the church of 
 the Lord Jesus.' Sieraazko replied to me by a blow on the 
 cheek. ' Our Lord,' said I, ' commands us, when we are 
 smitten on one cheek, to turn the other also ; here is mme, 
 smite again if thou darest.' He did dare; and by such 
 blows, which were repeated almost every time he came, he 
 knocked nine teeth out of my head. . ' I will show thee 
 who I am,' said he, foaming, 'I will show thee that the 
 emperor and I are all one.' So saying, he drew a paper 
 from his pocket, carefully unfolded it, and handing it to 
 me, commanded that I should read the imperial ukase with 
 so loud a voice, that all the sisterhood might hear. It 
 was as follows : ' All that the Arch- Arch- Arch Bey Siemazko 
 (which means, triple Archbishop) has done, and all that he 
 will do, for the promotion of the true faith, is approved and 
 confirmed, and hereby declared by me to be trebly holy ; and I 
 command that no one shall presume to oppose him, or, in event 
 of opposition, that all military governors, at the simple request 
 of the Arch-Arch-Arch Bey Siemazko, shall instantly furnish 
 him with such military aid as he may require. 
 
 ' Signed by my own imperial hand, ' Nicholas. ' 
 " The ukase having been read, Siemazko drew forth a peti- 
 tion, which the nuns had transmitted to the emperor after 
 their arrival at Polozk, and in which they protested against 
 the sequestration of their lands at Minsk, and the withdrawal 
 of their weekly pension. Siemazko, as he displayed the 
 petition, gave me a frightful blow on the face, saying, ' I will 
 teach you to write to the emperor.' On the margin of the 
 petition were written the words, ' What you desire shall be 
 accorded, if you change your faith.' ' There,' roared the bishop, 
 as he pointed them out, 'there is the proof that the emperor 
 and I are one.' Then followed the most shocking treatment 
 of the aged abbess, so that at last she sunk to the ground 
 covered with blood. ' Who wrote this petition?' cried the 
 bishop. ' I did,' said the abbess. * All of us,' interposed the 
 
410 RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 sisterhood. *Wlio gave you stamped paper?' asked the- 
 bishop. *The poor hought it for us,' was the reply. His rage 
 knew no hounds, and he shouted, " When I have flogged you 
 three successive times, you will have learned to speak truth 
 to me.' This threat hegan to he put in execution the same 
 day ; the nuns were scourged till night, and one of them died 
 in consequence. * Henceforth,' says the ahbess, ' the poor 
 were debarred from coming to us, and we were thus robbed of 
 our last resource ; for they shared their bread with us, and 
 but for the Jews (whom both the popes and the Czernici 
 feared, because they were always in their debt for brandy), 
 who occasionally gave us the grains from which the brandy 
 had been distilled, we should probably have died of hunger. ' " 
 The abbess then details at considerable length the horrible 
 martyrdom she continued to endure at Polozk and Madzioly ; 
 describes her flight thence ; and concludes with a warm eulogy 
 on the faith of a deceased abbess of the Basilian order, who 
 died as a martyr on her way to Siberia, and to whose inter- 
 cession she ascribes the firmness with which the whole order 
 have since been enabled to sustain the persecutions to which 
 they have been subjected under the reign of the Emperor 
 Nicholas, summing up all with these words, " Of the 245 
 nuns, of which the order consisted, all have, without any 
 exception, evinced unalterable attachment to Christ, to their 
 church, and their faith ; sealing their fidelity to Christ and his 
 vicegerent with their blood. To God alone be the praise ! 
 (Signed) " Makrina Mieczyslawska." 
 
 To the above declaration is appended the following : — " We, 
 the undersigned, declare that we have heard the foregoing 
 recital from the mother Makrina's own lips, that it has been 
 written down in her presence, and that it accords, in every 
 respect, with the details we had previously learned from her. 
 
 (Signed) "Maximilianus Ryllo, Rector of the Propaganda. 
 "Abbot Alex. Jelowski, Rector of St. Claudius. 
 " Abbot Aloys Leitner, D.D. of the Propaganda." 
 
RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 411 
 
 This document was printed in a Polish Journal, published 
 at Paris, and likewise in the " Univers,'' and excited very 
 great and just indignation. An official note is said to have 
 been immediately addressed by Cardinal Lambruschini to the 
 Russian Ambassador, Monsieur de BoutenieflP, in which he ex- 
 pressed the pope's regret at the publication of this document, 
 a copy of which must have been obtained by fraudulent means, 
 and his determination to discover the individual who had been 
 guilty of an indiscretion, so calculated to disturb the present 
 good understanding, and impede the negociations pending 
 between the holy see and Russia. In all this there is not a 
 hint invalidatory of its truth ; on the contrary, a document 
 obtained by fraudulent means must, at least, have existed. 
 
 Soon after, an official Russian note was presented to the 
 pope, which contains, indeed, a direct denial, but no disproval, 
 of the facts alleged ; but an air of ridicule is sought to be 
 given to the accusation by asserting, that no convent of Basi- 
 lian nuns ever existed at Kowno, and could not, consequently, 
 have been removed thence. This very lame defence is founded 
 on the circumstance, that in the first statement respecting the 
 sufferings of the Basilian nuns, in a Polish journal, entitled, 
 "The Third of May," Kowno was erroneously printed instead 
 of Minsk, as Prince Adam Czartoryski very justly remarks, 
 in a letter published in the " Journal des Dehats" a mis- 
 take which the journal in question corrected in its very next 
 number. Now, it is merely against that one assertion of the 
 journal ("the Third of May"), that the Russian note protests. 
 It denounces, as a hideous falsehood, a statement admitted 
 to be erroneous ; and, whilst all the journals of Europe, and 
 all the publications on the subject, have invariably spoken 
 of the convent of Minsk, the Russian note of January does 
 not even mention the name of that town, and confines itself 
 to affirm, that no Basilian convent ever existed at Kowno. 
 Such an oversight in an official document so long prepar- 
 ing, dispenses us from refuting the other assertions. The 
 denials it contains relative to the habits of Russia and her 
 
 T 2 
 
412 RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 government, are little in accordance with the accounts published 
 by all travellers who have lately visited that country. Some 
 of them are contradicted by the reports, regarded as authentic, 
 and contained among the documents annexed to the allocution 
 of the pope respecting Poland, published in 1842. As to 
 the narrative of the Abbess of Minsk, whoever has heard it 
 from her own lips, at Posen, Paris, or Rome, has invariably 
 been inspired with full confidence in, and respect for, the 
 martyrs. Time, we doubt not, will afford proof of its strict 
 correctness ; meanwhile, it should be borne in mind, that the 
 corroboration of any fact which has occurred in Russia, 
 imperils the life and liberty of the witness, without at all 
 serving the accused. 
 
 In addition to Count Czartoryski's attestation, two distinct 
 testimonies in support of part, at least, of the abbess's recital, 
 have been published. One, in a letter by a lady (who signs 
 herself, Anne Birt) addressed to the editor of the " Times," in 
 which she says, " I think it my duty to state that, being at 
 Posen in the month of July last, I saw the Abbess Mieczys- 
 lawska in the convent of the Sisters of Charity, on the very 
 day she arrived there. She bore all the appearance of one 
 having just completed a long and painful pilgrimage ; her 
 feet were swollen frightfully, and it was with great difficulty 
 she could walk. She was interrogated in my presence by the 
 Sisters of Charity, who informed me they had seen on her 
 person the marks of the blows and stripes she had received. 
 * * * I heard her give the account 
 
 of her sufferings, which filled all present with indignation 
 and horror," &c. In exact conformity with the above, is the 
 following letter from four Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de 
 Paul, published in the " Univers ;" — " We, the undersigned, 
 Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, lately arrived in 
 France, in consequence of the persecutions to which our order 
 has been made victim by the Russian government in the pro- 
 vince of Lithuania — persecutions which terminated in the 
 dissolution of our congregation at Wilna — declare and certify 
 
RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 413 
 
 that, through the intermediation of our sisters at Minsk, we 
 have had frequent relations with the Basilians who existed 
 in that town. It is, therefore, with a perfect knowledge of 
 the fact, and to bear testimony to the truth, that we afl&rm 
 that there did then exist a convent of Basilians at Minsk ; 
 and sign our names to this certificate. Done at Paris, this 
 8th of March, 1846, at the house of the Sisters of Charity of 
 St. Casimir, No. 1, Rue d' Ivry." 
 
 Now, from all this, it seems exceedingly difficult to believe 
 that an undue measure of public indignation has been meted 
 out to the Eussian ecclesiastical authorities, although per- 
 haps the emperor knew not the extent of atrocity to which 
 his proselyting spirit, and the court favour which success in 
 that way secures, may have superinduced. It is, indeed, not 
 only possible, but perhaps probable, that this fiend in human 
 shape, Siemazko, forged the ukase, and the marghial note on 
 the petition ; and that, therefore, Nicholas spoke truth when 
 he told the pope it was all perfectly new to him. Yet the per- 
 secuting spirit of the Greek Church and the love of prosely- 
 tising, are neither confined to Roman Catholics nor Jews ; and 
 testimony concerning them rests on evidence of a far less start- 
 ling and apparently apocryphal nature, than that of the Basi- 
 lian abbess ; moreover, it is no new thing under the sun, for 
 Russian ukases to speak very tolerant and liberal language, 
 and yet their execution be carried on in a manner at which 
 the Grand Turk would blush. This, again, may not be the 
 fault so much as the misfortune of the czar. Well, however, 
 would it be for some millions of human beings, could he learn 
 from it, how unfit man, sinful, short-sighted, and prejudiced 
 man, is to be entrusted with, how incapable he is of wielding 
 absolute power. 
 
 The Protestants of Livonia have long known what is meant 
 by Russian toleration ; and the negative persecution of exclu- 
 sion from all the advantages and aids which a government 
 can bestow, has, for many years, been familiar to every class 
 among them ; though so long as daily labour sufficed to procure 
 
414 RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 daily bread, the peasant probably felt less affected by court 
 disfavour, than the noble. But it is easy to conceive what 
 fearful scenes of domestic discord and individual suffering 
 are likely to arise from this state of things. Nor are these 
 sufferings limited to the lower orders. The Protestant nobles 
 and landed proprietors have their share of confessional endu- 
 rance, not only by finding themselves excluded from all posts 
 of honour or emolument, but by a thousand acts of petty and 
 tyrannous annoyance, to which the government officials can 
 with impunity subject them. The consequence is, that a 
 petition, signed by nearly all the Protestant proprietors in 
 Livonia, was recently presented to the emperor, praying that 
 the government would purchase their estates, and permit them 
 to emigrate to Germany, which was their original native land. 
 It seemed highly probable that their request would be complied 
 with, as, by this means, all the peasantry would have become 
 imperial serfs, and no impediment any longer exist to their 
 speedy conversion to the Greek church, the rules of which 
 seem to admit of quite as much laxity, in matters of public 
 faith, as those of the Roman Catholic. For example, the 
 emperor lately published a ukase, at which all attempts at 
 proselytising, by means of either promises or threats, were 
 expressly denounced. Yet what says another ukase ? "All 
 who procure the adhesion of one hundred converts to the 
 ' Greek communion, whether from among the heathen or the 
 heretical, shall thereby be entitled to the distinction of the St. 
 Anna order." Further, it is free to every peasant to join 
 the Greek church, without, as heretofore, having to signify the 
 same, either to his master or his clergyman, neither of whom 
 have any right even to remonstrate with him on the subject. 
 It is easy to perceive how the bribe of the St. Anna order, 
 which elevates to the rank of nobility, may operate in tempt- 
 ing irreligious men of landed estate, to procure, by fair means 
 or foul, the necessary hundred converts among their vassals ; 
 and equally plain, how the ignorant peasants are left at the 
 mercy of the Greek popes (as the priests are called), without 
 
RJELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 415 
 
 either landlord or minister having the power to argue against 
 their apostacy. The emperor, however, has not seen fit to 
 grant the petition of the Livonian nobles. Whether, autocrat 
 as he is, his Roman visit has taught him that European con- 
 tempt will follow perseverance in the persecuting system ; or 
 whether, as is generally supposed, the King of Prussia has 
 interposed his influence in favour of the sorely-tried Protest- 
 ants under Russian sway, certain it is, that since the emperor's 
 return from Italy, the proselyting zeal of the Greek clergy 
 has been restrained in the Baltic provinces. Their oppression 
 was one of peculiar hardship, from the circumstance that the 
 free exercise of their religion was guaranteed to the Protestant 
 inhabitants when these provinces were ceded to Russia; and 
 the King of Prussia, who has so often appeared as the protector 
 of Protestantism, might feel entitled, as he certainly would 
 be inclined, to ameliorate the condition of suffering brethren 
 in the faith. Yet, judging by analogy, we are more disposed 
 to ascribe the present respite to a perception of the danger 
 likely to accrue to the Russian empire, from an unchecked 
 perseverance in the system of proselyting persecution. By 
 attacking all religions save her own, it is evident Russia 
 cannot escape drawing upon herself the hatred of all foreign 
 nations ; and, with respect to many of them, this has abeady 
 taken place. Where is there a Jew or a Cathohc throughout 
 the wide world, favourably disposed towards Russia? And 
 what is the cause ? The persecution of both, of which Russia 
 is guilty ; and, as if that were not enough, she must attack 
 Protestantism likewise, in the provinces of Livonia, Esthonia, 
 and Lithuania. 
 
 It were well for Russia to consider whether, in event of 
 any sudden foreign attack, this hostile bearing towards all 
 other religions may not be found a dangerous concomitant to 
 other political antipathies. However great is her population, 
 however gigantic her area, she must fall before a general 
 attack, since the whole extent of her European border is 
 beset with religions which she has wantonly made her foes. 
 
416 RELIGIOUS ASPECT OF RUSSIA. 
 
 The Protestant Finn, who sees in the religious oppres- 
 sion of his Livonian and Esthonian brethren in the faith, a 
 prophetic picture of his own, would, in event of a general 
 war, joyfully hasten to the standard of his former countrymen, 
 the Swedes. A German army would be welcomed, with open 
 arms, by the German-descended population of Eussia's Baltic 
 provinces ; and with what enthusiasm would not the Eoman 
 Catholics of ancient Poland, from the southern Ukraine 
 even to the northern Samogitia, hail any enemy of detested 
 Russia ! When, to all these weak points, is added her Circas- 
 sian war, the fate of Russia, in the event of a combined and 
 simultaneous effort from Finland to Moldavia, could not long 
 be doubtful. Such a catastrophe, however, is far from being 
 desirable ; and it is much more agreeable to anticipate an 
 abandonment of the recent proselyting spirit, and a return to 
 Russia's earlier and better policy of universal religious tolera- 
 tion. Nothing short of this, combined with a liberal system 
 of commerce, can enable her to re-acquire that favour in the 
 eyes of Europe which she once enjoyed, more especially 
 during the war of Liberation; for due consideration and 
 favour shown to foreign interests can alone win, for any state, 
 the friendship of other nations. 
 
417 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE JESUITS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 The Character of the Jesuits — Authorities on this Subject— Educa- 
 tion the Great Jesuit Engine — Jesuit Influence in Great Britain — 
 Daniel O'Connell and his Jesuitry — Specimens of Modern Jesuit 
 Teaching — Survey of those Countries where the Jesuits are tole- 
 rated — Conclusion. 
 
 The rise and spread of Jesuitism is matter of history, while 
 the services and merits of their order have so often employed 
 the pens of both the learned and the witty, the priest and 
 the layman, that it might have been supposed Jesuits were 
 thoroughly known to the rest of mankind. And yet it is not 
 so, for without impiety we may aver of Jesuitism in its essence 
 and its practice, its far-sighted policy and its wide-spread 
 ramifications, that it possesses a height and a depth, a breadth 
 and a length, which passeth the comprehension of ordinary 
 men. Yet enough may be discovered from various accredited 
 authors, to enable us to form a tolerably correct estimate of the 
 principles and practice of the order ; and perhaps nowhere 
 can a more terse and graphic epitome of them be found than 
 in Brockhaus's Conversation Lexicon, a perusal of which well- 
 written and authentic work must lead every impartial person 
 to pronounce the Society of Jesus a bitter satire on his ge- 
 nuine disciples ; since, from their beginning to the present- 
 
 T 3 
 
418 THE JESUITS OF THE 
 
 moment, their own aggrandizement, not the benefit of man- 
 kind, has been their aim and object ; and they have sought 
 to propitiate and ingratiate themselves more with states and 
 princes, than even with the Roman Catholic, and far less with 
 the gospel church. Yet these men, so justly branded as the 
 most dangerous of all monks, who were characterised by 
 one of their early generals, Francisco Borgia, as " creeping 
 in Hke lambs and ruling like wolves, until they were literally 
 driven away like dogs," now seek to realise the final clause 
 of his allegory, by "renewing their youth like eagles" (be it 
 remarked, still retaining the character of creatures of prey), 
 so that unless the vigilance of human, or rather the kind care 
 of divine government frustrate their attempt, we, or our imme- 
 diate posterity, are likely to see days of sorrow, which the 
 world fondly flattered itself were passed away, never to return. 
 Could it indeed be asserted, that the Jesuits had become better 
 by the lapse of time, had they relinquished their immoral 
 maxims, and changed their religious sentiments (if indeed 
 they deserve to be called religious) in any essential par- 
 ticular, did the admirable description given of them in 
 Pascal's " Lettres de Province,'* no longer apply, did they 
 now, though at the eleventh hour, even profess to recog- 
 nise, in their capacity of instructors of youth, the wants and 
 the requirements af the human mind, and the true and en- 
 nobling purpose of education, we might be less grieved at the 
 prospect of their restoration, and more inclined calmly to await 
 the proof of future years, as to whether their improvement 
 were real or hypocritical. But since, far from having benefitted 
 by the lapse of time, or being purified by misfortune, they 
 have only become (according to the testimony of various 
 credible writers* during the last ten years) more subtle, more 
 
 * Readers little versed in this branch of modern literature, are 
 referred to the " Catechismo de Gesuiti" Leipsic, 1820. l)e la Chalo- 
 tiUs, Comtes rendus des Constitutions des Jesuites, Paris, 1832. Les 
 Jesuites Anciens et Nouveau, par Simon, Paris, 1826. Les soirees 
 de St. Acheal, Brussels, 1826. Jordan's distinguished work, " Die 
 
NINETEENTH CENTURY. 419 
 
 covetous, and more dangerous, it is surely a work of humanity, 
 as well as prudence, to open the eyes of men, if possible, to the 
 risk to which every social relation of life will be exposed, if 
 the most powerful, persevering, wily, and mischievous of all 
 secret associations should, under deceptive views of either 
 its merits or its harmlessness, be suffered again to obtain an 
 establishment amongst us. Perhaps few works are better 
 calculated to do this than those of Adam von Bucher (of 
 which a complete edition was published at Munich, in 1819, by 
 Joseph von Klessing), as their perusal will suffice to show the 
 views, principles, and secret springs of action, by which those 
 holy fathers have ever been guided. Bucher was himself 
 educated at a Jesuit seminary, studied at a Jesuit university, 
 and bore, during a long life, the character of a truly devout, 
 zealous, and blameless Catholic priest. The testimony of such 
 a man must have great weight with all impartial persons ; and 
 hence his " Contributions to the History of the Jesuits in Bava- 
 ria," have ever been highly esteemed as historical documents. 
 Yet, in this work, the hypocritical pretensions of the Jesuits to 
 religion, and their genuine love of worldly power and earthly 
 possessions (of which their conduct in Paraguay gives ample 
 evidence), are painted to the life ; their conduct, as teachers, 
 laid open ; their customs, manners, and rules of life, all plainly 
 disclosed, together with various biographical notices and anec- 
 dotes, illustrative of their worth, whether in the pulpit or the 
 confessional, as well as of their successful legacy-hunting and 
 not infrequent suppression or forgery of wills. And what 
 they were in his days, they are, and must necessarily be, to 
 the present hour, since none of their principles or maxims 
 has ever been changed. 
 
 After the Paris revolution of 1830 had exiled them from 
 France, the Jesuits made their chief attacks upon Belgium, 
 
 Jesuiten et der Jesuitismus" Altona, 1839. And, in evidence of their 
 deep share in the Belgian revolution, the well-known work, " Das 
 Scharze Buck oder die Enthullte Propaganda Belgiens," Altenburg, 
 1838. 
 
420 THE JESUITS OF THE 
 
 Italy and Switzerland, although Germany was not wholly 
 overlooked, as they attempted, and not altogether without suc- 
 cess, to insinuate themselves under other appellations into 
 various parts of the empire. More recently their strenuous 
 efforts have been directed against Bavaria. But, in every 
 place, their main object is to possess themselves of the sinews, 
 and, as it were, to command the future fate of the nation, by 
 getting into their hands the education of its youth, on whose 
 facile minds their subtle sophistries, fair-seeming and gentle 
 governance (gentle in the main, notwithstanding the degrad- 
 ing system of corporeal punishment which they advocate), 
 seldom fails to make an impression favourable to their future 
 influence. Without going all lengths with the pope, we may 
 safely admit that in some very important respects — 
 " Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclin'd ; " 
 
 and therefore would earnestly urge upon all who do not desire 
 to see their sons become the dupes or the tools of Jesuits, the 
 wisdom of withholding them from Jesuit seminaries. Their 
 great capability as instructors, and their distinguished ser- 
 vices in the various fields of literature, is the common cant of 
 ultra-liberalism in the present day, even in Britain, in which 
 stronghold of Protestantism the latest and boldest attacks of 
 the order have been hazarded ; and, if we may judge by 
 appearances, not without having had just grounds for antici- 
 pating success. We have not room for entering into an exami- 
 nation of what Jesuits have given to the world in the different 
 departments of science ; but can fearlessly assert, that who- 
 ever chooses to institute a comparison between their produc- 
 tions, whether in theology, history, general science, or belles 
 lettres, will find that neither their attainments, nor the use 
 they have made of them, deserve the eulogiums which it has 
 pleased their advocates or their pupils to pass upon them. 
 The latter, indeed, may perhaps be excused for thus seeking to 
 swell their own sails by a side wind of praise, while lauding 
 the superiority of their instructors. It is undoubtedly strange, 
 
NINETEENTH CENTURY. 421-. 
 
 and yet true, that very few enlightened Roman Catholics on 
 the Continent (not personally connected with the order) can 
 be found disposed to join in the praises so lavishly bestowed 
 in England on Jesuits. Whence comes this anomaly ? Is it 
 because Britons have been so long unused to their machina- 
 tions, that they have forgotten and cannot credit their danger 
 and extent ? Or is it that Puseyism familiarly called in Ger- 
 many, " a bastard of popery," is paving the way for its corps 
 of spiritual janissaries ? Or, worst of all, is there reason to dread 
 that Jesuits have not been so much strangers in Great Britain 
 as was supposed ; but that many of those who have gone, or 
 ought to go, over to Rome, are in reality Jesuits, some of them 
 in clerical robes, others in short skirts, as the Germans term 
 that most numerous and most dangerous phalanx, who, not 
 known as Jesuits, but on the contrary, appearing to earn their 
 bread in some honest calling, whether of trade or as mem- 
 bers of liberal professions, make their way into all classes of 
 society, stir up the bigots of their own religion to oppose all 
 education but what is under priestly rule, and, more marvellous 
 still, succeed in getting Protestants to oppose it likewise ; 
 and thus contrive to make their greatest enemies subserve 
 their plans, by resisting all education not introduced with the 
 " shibboleth " of their party ? This is a master stroke ; for 
 well do the Jesuits know that seminaries which would en- 
 lighten the mind without any ostensible dogmatic instruction^ 
 are infinitely more dangerous to them than seats of learning 
 where Protestantism is professionally taught. Hence, their 
 outcry in England as in France, that " colleges not under 
 priest-rule are unchristian." The German author of a small 
 but clever pamphlet, called " the Jesuit Plague," thus ex- 
 presses himself on this subject : — " You kind-hearted liberals 
 of Germany, who have sent addresses to the patriot, Daniel 
 O'Connell, are not your eyes at length opened to his true cha- 
 racter and your own folly ? See you not, by his opposition 
 to the anti-Jesuit French law of instruction, that he is a 
 genuine disciple of Loyola? Wherefore, I would ask you. 
 
422 THE JESUITS OF THE 
 
 does O'Connell so particularly desire an Irish parliament, and 
 try to make his countrymen dissatisfied with a share in that 
 of Britain, although the English constitution is allowed to be 
 the most liberal that has ever yet existed ? Wherefore but 
 because he hopes an Irish parliament would secure to the 
 Jesuits full swing and sway in the Green Isle ? You, my 
 countrymen, may applaud O'Connell as much and as long as 
 you will ; but you must dispense with my joining in it, for 
 he was educated at St. Omer's." 
 
 But laying aside what Jesuits have or have not done for 
 general science, as being, after all, a matter of infinitely less 
 importance than the nature of their religious instruction, let 
 us examine what they deem necessary for Catholic children to 
 learn, and for those of riper years to practise, in order to 
 secure God's favour here, and heaven hereafter. In pursuing 
 this inquiry, we shall not go back to distant times, but quote 
 from a catechism which was drawn up by a Jesuit Father, 
 named Sconville, and which having been highly recommended 
 by Bishop Laurent, the present enlightened papal nuncio in 
 Luxemburg, is now used for the youth under his episcopal 
 care. Bishop Laurent is, moreover, a man of eminent spiritual 
 powers, having been able, as we learn from the Luxemburg 
 (Catholic) Journal, to exorcise a possessed person so recently 
 as 1842, and that so undeniably, that the evil spirit was seen 
 going out of the church in which the exorcism took place. A 
 few extracts from this catechism will probably suffice for most 
 readers : — 
 
 *' Q. Of what use is the sign of the Holy Cross ? 
 
 " A. To destroy all sorts of sorcery, and to drive away the 
 devil, ghosts, and all temptations. 
 
 " Q. In what place will each one arise in the resurrec- 
 tion? 
 
 " A, Each one will rise in that place where the largest 
 portion of his body remains, 
 
 " Q. In what form will each rise again ? 
 
NINETEENTH CENTURY. 423 
 
 " A. Of a middling stature, with well-proportioned limbs, 
 and each according to the sex previously possessed. 
 
 " Q. In what age shall we rise from the dead ? 
 
 " A. In the age of Christ, as if we all were thirty-three 
 years old. 
 
 " Q. Shall the world be inhabited again ? 
 
 " A. Some think unbaptised children will inhabit it, but 
 none else, not even the beasts. 
 
 " Q. Is it allowable to take one's wages or anything else 
 due to us, in a secret, clandestine manner ? 
 
 " A. He who will act safely in this, must ask his priest. 
 
 " Q. Must stolen goods be restored, and the injury made 
 good? 
 
 " A» Yes, and to those to whom it belongs, if possible. 
 
 " Q, If the owner is unknown, what is to be done ? 
 
 " A. It must be given to God, as the Master of all, in the 
 way of masses, alms, &c., for the benefit of the owner. 
 
 " Q, Are there any more church laws ? 
 
 ** A, Oh yes, there are others. 
 
 " Q. What are they? 
 
 " A, It is commanded, for instance, to pay tithes, 
 
 " Q. Of what should tithes be paid? 
 
 " A. According to right, of everything, but the custom of 
 the place must decide. 
 
 " Q. Is it a sin not to pay tithes? 
 
 " A. Yes, it is a great sin. 
 
 " Q. How does the church punish the non-payment of 
 tithes? 
 
 " A. She commands that such as do not pay, shall be 
 excommunicated, and not restored until they have re-paid 
 all. 
 
 " Q. What if they were wicked priests who should get 
 the tithes? 
 
 " A, Honour is still due to them, for they remain vicars 
 of God. 
 
 " Q. Where is hell? 
 
424 THE JESUITS OF THE 
 
 " A. Hell is in the middle of the earth. 
 " Q, Is hell very large? 
 
 *' A. Not very, for the damned lie packed in it one upon 
 another, like the bricks in a brick oven." 
 
 Such are the instructions which a Jesuit bishop of the 
 nineteenth century thinks suitable for improving the heart 
 and mind of Roman Catholic youth. 
 
 As a specimen of Jesuit devotional exercises for those of 
 riper years, we may give a few extracts from a work pub- 
 lished in 1764 by Father Pembie, entitled, " Pietas quoti- 
 diana erga S. D. Matrem Mariam,'^ (or daily devotions to 
 the Holy Mother Mary), and in which the following modes 
 of propitiating her are recommended : — 
 
 " First, Undertake a mental pilgrimage, and visit, in 
 spirit, all the miracle-working images of Mary, throughout 
 the world, 
 
 " Second. Repeat the "Magnificat" six times, in honour 
 of the six persons who were present with St. Elizabeth at the 
 time of the visitation of our Lady. 
 
 " Third. Repeat nine psalms in honour of the nine months 
 during which Christ abode in the Virgin's womb. 
 
 " Fourth, Repeat every hour of the day, ' Holy Mary, 
 make me meek and chaste!' 
 
 " Fifth. Worship during the night towards a church dedi- 
 cated to the Virgin. 
 
 *' Sixth. Oifer to her the first cherries which come to 
 table. 
 
 " Seventh. Scourge thyself, box thine ears, and pray the 
 Virgin to present these blows as sacrifices before God. 
 
 " Eighth. Engrave the name * Mary' on thy bosom with 
 a knife, or corrode it into the flesh. 
 
 " Ninth. Kiss the name " Mary," as often as you see it. 
 
 "Tenth. Send pious thoughts to the greater Mary in 
 Rome. 
 
 " Eleventh. Make verses, or repeat them in her honour, as. 
 
NINETEENTH CENTURY. 425 
 
 for example, that devout hymn addressed to her hair-comb 
 (there are five verses, but the last will suffice) : 
 
 " In all dangers give to us thy care, 
 Shield us from them with thy precious hair ; 
 Safely by thy curling locks us guide 
 To the city where all joys abide.' 
 
 " Twelfth. Tell the Virgin you would be willing to give 
 up your place in heaven to her, if she had not one already. 
 
 " Thirteenth. Implore Mary to get you an audience by her 
 Son. 
 
 "Fourteenth. Eepeat 'Mary, hail!' twelve times a-day, 
 in honour of the twelve stars which encircle her head." 
 
 Some other directions for honouring the Holy Virgin are 
 not fit to meet the public eye ; but these are enough, if not 
 more than enough, to show what contemptible puerilities 
 those " benefactors of the human race," as Mr. O'Connell calls 
 them, have substituted for the sublime doctrine and worship 
 taught in the Bible. Nor ought we, perhaps, to wonder that, 
 with such a mode of instruction, they should dread the inju- 
 rious comparison which must be made, wherever real learning 
 and true enlightenment supersede their superstitious and de- 
 grading educational system. When, moreover, the immense 
 stake for which they play is considered, we could scarcely 
 blame them for making all possible (were they but lawful) 
 efforts, to retain a position of such incalculable influence. To 
 judge of that influence, let us turn our eyes away from those 
 countries where they appear openly in the garb of their order, 
 to where they have existed by sufferance only, and perhaps 
 wholly unknown to the mass of the people. As an example 
 of the first, we may instance France, where, though the Jesuit 
 order, per se, appeared so small as to be by many held wholly 
 unimportant, the affiliated societies which follow its secret 
 rules obey its directions, and, as it #ere, move like moons 
 around the Jesuit sun, are alarmingly numerous. They, in 
 fact, cover France as with a net, and are of all grades of 
 
426 THE JESUITS OF THE 
 
 society. There are not only aristocratic and plebeian, but 
 Tiers etats societies, yet not one which does not contribute 
 its quota of revenue. 
 
 The Society of St. Vincent de Paula numbers 2,000 mem- 
 bers in Paris alone ; but its adherents in the provinces are 
 countless. The brotherhood of the " Immaculate Heart of 
 Mary" has 50,000 members in Paris. The St. Augustine 
 brethren and the missionaries for the distribution of pious 
 books, are the most active agents of the Jesuit propaganda. 
 Their associations for the spread of the faith contain 800,000 
 members, every one of which contributes five centimes per 
 week to the funds. Austria and Bavaria do not admit Jesuits 
 under their own name, but they are well represented by the 
 Redemptorists, and especially well served by the " Sisters of 
 Mercy," and those of " the Sacred Heart," most of whom are 
 only female Jesuits, and bound by the same secret instruc- 
 tions as their father confessors, whose views they further with 
 blind devotion and unwearied zeal. And what are the fruits 
 of these Jesuit manoeuvres? Family disunion, confessional 
 hatred, oppression of Protestants, and, as consequent thereon, 
 a deeply-felt, though not openly-avowed, discontent. 
 
 If we turn to those states where Jesuits are sanctioned by 
 law, what do we find ? In the papal dominions, absolute rule ; 
 oppressive tyranny ; a starving population ; the finances in 
 disorder ; the schools in decay ; public security endangered 
 by bands of robbers ; all freedom of action restricted ; a con- 
 stant succession of unripe or betrayed conspiracies occurring ; 
 and the head of Christendom lending money to the state at 
 most Jewish interest. In Modena, despotic power ; yet a 
 ceaseless interchange of the wildest anarchy and the most 
 ruthless tyranny. In Sardinia, absolute power ; the Protest- 
 ants on a lower footing than the Jews. In Naples, despotism, 
 revolutions, executions, famines ; all advancement at a stand. 
 In Spain, a wholly disorganized nation, the sport of factions, 
 who rage against each other with a reciprocally annihilating 
 violence. It may be said, the Jesuits are banished thence. 
 
NINETEENTH CENTURY. 427 
 
 True, they are so de jure, but de facto they are there in 
 hundreds, but in short skirts, nor will they ever desist from 
 their endeavours at a formal re-instatement, for which, indeed, 
 they may more confidently look, since the return of the pious 
 Christina to watch the opening blossom of her royal daughter's 
 mind. Her relative, the amiable and unhappy queen of the 
 French (so dextrously do Jesuits know how to adapt themselves 
 to the most opposite characters), is said likewise to weep and 
 tremble beneath their sway ; for they have persuaded her that 
 the early deaths of the Duke of Orleans and the Princess 
 Marie are judgments from Heaven on account of the disfavour 
 shown to the Jesuits ; and by consequence that their restoration 
 can alone rescue Louis Philippe and all her other dear ones 
 from the sword, now suspended as by a single hair over their 
 devoted heads. 
 
 In Ireland, Jesuitism stalks abroad almost unmasked; and 
 is it not, with its day-light assassinations, nightly fire-raising, 
 and wholesale murders, become almost a disgrace to civilized 
 nations, while even England suffers under the infliction of 
 more than one establishment of this moral pest ? And what is 
 the result? English nobles laud and defend the holders of 
 principles such as every English heart abhors. No wonder, 
 then, that Rome triumphs over England's tendency to popery, 
 and haQs Puseyism as her best ally. 
 
 There are two accusations against Romanism, which its advo- 
 cates either boldly deny, or refer back to the dark ages ; and 
 hence, as wholly inapplicable to our enlightened days. The first 
 is, the prohibition of the Scriptures to the laity ; the other, the 
 denial of salvation to all without the pale of the Roman church. 
 But how do modern Jesuits stand, when tried on these two 
 points ? Pope Clement XIV. dissolved the Society of Jesus ; 
 and his successor, Pius VI., and the sharer of his sentiments 
 in regard to that order, recommended the reading of the Bible 
 as salutary. Pius VII. restored the Jesuits, and, with equal 
 consistency, prohibited the perusal of the Scriptures, denomi- 
 nating the Bible Society a most cunning invention of Satan, 
 
428 JESUITS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 for the undermining of the foundations of religion ; while Leo 
 XII., another patron of Jesuitism, declared in plain terms 
 the Bible to be, in respect of the laity, the gospel of the devil, 
 instead of the gospel of Christ. A modern Jesuit, named 
 Fabius, has declared all religious confessions besides the 
 Roman, to be " hot-beds of sin, and cisterns of the wilder- 
 ness." The Arch-Presbyter Weber openly termed Lutheran- 
 ism a patched-up beggar's cloak ; and the now zealous Jesuit 
 priest, Gorres, who figured during the revolution as an equally 
 violent Jacobin (one of the many evidences that extremes 
 meet), does not hesitate, in the present day, to pronounce the 
 Reformation " the second fall of man." Such have been, in 
 modern times, a few of the results of Jesuitism on civil society, 
 and its operation* on ecclesiastical matters ; and they seem 
 sufficient to arrest the attention and alarm the fears of the 
 most careless, at the thought of such a society obtaining legal 
 sanction to its proceedings, and establishment in Protestant 
 lands. May the great Head of the Church, in whose hand 
 are the hearts of kings and of rulers, ward off the danger 
 which appears now to threaten Britain, from their inroad ; and 
 may all his people be doubly alive to the duty thus imposed on 
 them, to watch and pray ; so that, should " the enemy be per- 
 mitted to come in like a flood," they may be able to raise up 
 the standard of the Lord against him. 
 
429 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 Since the foregoing pages have been sent to press, the Ger- 
 man Catholic cause has made a great and unexpected advance, 
 in consequence of the decision to which the Hanoverian, 
 Saxon, Wirtemburg, and Saxe Weimar governments have 
 come, to admit its adherents to all the civil rights and privi- 
 leges enjoyed by other tolerated Christian sects ; with permis- 
 sion to hold divine worship in Protestant churches (with consent 
 of their respective congregations), though without ringing of 
 bells ; and, still further, by the effectual remonstrance of the 
 Saxon with the Austrian government, by which, as far as the 
 natives of Saxony are concerned, the late prohibitory edict 
 against German Catholics entering the Austrian territory, may 
 be considered as annulled. It is now arranged that the reli- 
 gious belief of Saxon German Catholics travelling to Austria 
 or its dependencies, shall not be alluded to in their passports. 
 The King of Hanover's recognition of the Hildesheim sece- 
 ders from Rome, was conditional upon their adoption of the 
 Schneidemiihl confession of faith, which he conceived neces- 
 sary to his regarding them as a Christian sect, and the con- 
 dition has been complied with, we must hope from convic- 
 tion, and not necessity. Prussia, and indeed all the other 
 Protestant states of Germany, are expected soon to follow 
 with similar modified and provisional recognitions ; which, 
 indeed, the immense numbers, as well as great respectability 
 
430 APPENDIX. 
 
 of those who have joined the new denomination, render almost 
 imperative on their respective governments. 
 
 A few events have also occurred which it seems desirable 
 briefly to touch upon, in order to bring the present state of 
 the reform movement as fully as possible before the public. 
 Even as early as April, the reconciliation between Czerski 
 and Ronge, as announced by the latter, through the medium 
 of the newspapers, gave just ground for alarm as to the 
 soundness of the religious principles of the Schneidemiihl 
 pastor. But since then a published explanation by him has 
 happily put the affair in a totally different light. We thereby 
 learn, that Czerski went to Rawiecz to meet Dr. Theiner 
 only ; and found, to his surprise, Ronge also had arrived 
 — that the latter offered the hand of reconciliation ; professed 
 to see that the Leipsic formula was defective ; and declared 
 his resolution to propose a more definitely Christian formula 
 at the first synodial conference — that Czerski, having been 
 previously deeply aggrieved by Ronge, was induced, by 
 the fear of appearing implacable, to give his hand in return ; 
 but that he did not thereby intend to express any unity of 
 sentiment with Ronge, except in opposition to Rome, and 
 in as far as the Silesian reformer professed the principles 
 of positive Christianity. The presence, and probably the 
 counsel, of Dr. Theiner, of whose evangelical views no 
 doubt has ever been entertained, served, we may suppose, to 
 confirm Czerski in a line of conduct which ulterior events 
 have doubtless shown him to have been imprudent, not to 
 say sinful. The meeting of the reformed synod, which took 
 place at Breslaw on the 3rd of June, has removed even the 
 flimsy veil of Christianity which Ronge had still retained, 
 and displayed his Socinian views in naked deformity. Dr. 
 Theiner took no part in the discussions there carried on ; 
 having, since February last (a few days after the Rawiecz 
 meeting), withdrawn altogether from any pastoral or othet 
 connexion with Ronge ; but, by no means from the reform 
 cause, to which he continues steadily attached. 
 
APPENDIX. 431- 
 
 A synod of the Apostolic Catholics is announced as about 
 to he held in Berlin on the 22nd inst., at which it is expected 
 Dr. Theiner will appear openly on the Lord's side. Czerski 
 is known to have gone to Breslaw for the purpose of con- 
 ferring with him on the subject ; and we may hope, thlat on 
 occasion of his own approaching visit to London, he will so 
 fully identify himself with the holders of the doctrines of posi- 
 tive Christianity, as to remove every shadow of uneasiness from 
 the minds of Christian well-wishers ; and, at the same time, 
 every occasion from "those who seek occasion" to malign 
 all who are sufficiently earnest in religious matters, to esteem 
 it their duty to think and act for themselves on the subject ; 
 although, by so doing, they must separate from the herd of 
 mere hereditary professors, whether Catholic or Protestant. 
 Another important step in the reform movement, is the partial 
 recognition of the dissidents by the governments of Hanover 
 and Saxony ; and a third event, which may essentially operate 
 in their favour, is the death of Pope Gregory XVI. without 
 his having fulminated the long-threatened papal excommu- 
 nication against them. His successor, Pius IX., is described 
 as a man of liberal views, considerab^p talents, great modera- 
 tion, and much simplicity of manners. He is, moreover, said 
 to be thoroughly convinced of the imperative necessity of 
 radical and extensive reforms taking place in the Romish 
 church, in order to ward off impending defections from it. 
 He has already begun the work of retrenchment in the 
 pontifical suite ; has reduced the thirty-six office-bearers, 
 supported by the late pope, to eight ; discharged a large 
 proportion of the Swiss guard ; sold the immense papal stud 
 of carriage-horses, and resorts to most of his sacerdotal 
 functions, either on foot, or in the plainest and most unpre- 
 tending equipage. He has further announced his hope of 
 being able, by economy and good management, to free the 
 patrimony of St. Peter, withm eight years, from the enormous 
 debt with which it is now burdened, and to which Gregory 
 XVI. very largely contributed ; although he contrived, at the 
 
432 APPENDIX. 
 
 same time, to amass a prodigious private fortune, all of which 
 he has left hy will to his own relatives. This proceeding has> 
 given high offence to the Roman people ; and the more so, as 
 it is in direct contradiction to the canon law, which affirms that, 
 whatever property a Romish priest acquires, during, and hy 
 his ecclesiastical office, must, at his death, revert to the 
 church; that is, be hy him devoted to charitable and pious 
 uses. The members of the German college in Rome are 
 particularly scandalized by Gregory's conduct in this respect, 
 on which their countrymen of all grades freely animadvert, 
 exclaiming against the gross inconsistency of which the " in- 
 fallible head of the church " has been guilty, in contravening, 
 at his death, that canon law, of the inviolability of which he 
 was, throughout his whole pontificate, so peculiarly staunch an 
 upholder, and on which he rested his defence for supporting 
 the late Archbishop of Cologne against his sovereign. " It 
 is sad," cry the heretics, *' to see the spiritual head of Chris- 
 tendom identifying himself with the veriest worldling, by 
 showing the difference he makes between meum and tuum. 
 Of the spirit which animates some of the hierarchy he has left 
 behind, we may judge from the following account of a funeral 
 oration, delivered at Naples, on occasion of the demise of 
 Gregory XVI., by Monseigneur Luca, Bishop of Aversa. It 
 being according to etiquette that the corps diplomatique 
 should be present on such an occasion, the papal nuncio 
 warned the bishop to avoid every offensive political allusion. 
 But, so far from following this prudent counsel, Monseigneur 
 took upon himself to criticise, in no measured terms, the 
 religious and ecclesiastical state of Europe. He began with 
 France; touched on the commotions to which it had been 
 subjected ; mourned over the errors of the Abbe Lammen- 
 nais and the scandals which the opponents of the Jesuits had 
 introduced into the French church ; but expressed consolation 
 in reflecting on the re-awakened piety of the French nation, 
 and the support which the late pontiff' had found, amid all his 
 trials, in the devout virtues of the reigning monarch. 
 
APPENDIX. 433 
 
 Prussia came next in order; and, after alluding to the 
 persecution of the Archbishop of Cologne, the preacher ven- 
 tured, though in the presence of the Prussian minister, to 
 aver that the late king " had been overtaken by the judgment 
 of God." 
 
 Eussia next came under the lash. The emperor was 
 denominated the modern Tamerlane ; and, after a violent phi- 
 lippic regarding the late persecutions of the Romanists in 
 Russia and Poland, the orator proceeded to compare the con- 
 ference of the late pope with the " northern despot," to that of 
 the holy Leo with Attila, saying, as Leo had stopped the 
 career of the fierce Hun, so Gregory XVL had checked this 
 modern innovator in his ruthless course. It may be fancied 
 how the Russian minister looked during this tirade. Spain, 
 Portugal, and especially England (probably from regard to 
 her late zealous advocacy of the Jesuits), were mentioned with 
 much consideration. Austria, strangely enough, was passed 
 by without notice. As Russia and Prussia alone had the 
 honour of being formally attacked, the ministers of both 
 courts gave in notes of remonstrance to the nuncio, who, 
 however, excused himself by pleading severe illness, which 
 had debarred him from a previous examination of the offensive 
 oration. With such clergy, papal moderation must be a 
 virtue of peculiarly difficult exercise; and should Pius IX. 
 persevere in public retrenchment and private devotion, sim- 
 plicity and austerity, it may justly be doubted whether even 
 his comparatively early attainment of St. Peter's chair, and 
 the robust health he has hitherto enjoyed, will suffice to 
 secure him against the accidents which have so frequently 
 shortened the lives of reform-loving pontiffs. Under his rule, 
 at all events, the reform cause has little to fear from perse- 
 cution ; but it may be more efficaciously assailed if he succeed: 
 in removing some of the crying abuses, and in checking that 
 hierarchal insolence and tyranny, which have proved the 
 ruling incentive with very many to withdraw from the Romish 
 communion. 
 
 u 
 
434 APPENDIX, 
 
 "address of the free church to the GERMAN 
 CATHOLICS. 
 
 " To the Rev. Messrs. Ronge, CzersJci, Kerhler, Eichhorn, 
 Lichtf Waymarski, Dr. Schreiberf Dr. Theiner, and 
 other Members and Friends of the New Catholic Church 
 of Germany. 
 
 "Much respected Sirs, 
 "As Convener of the Free Church of Scotland's Committee 
 of Correspondence with continental and other churches, I 
 am instructed by the committee, and also by the General 
 Assembly, which has lately adjourned, to address you on the 
 great religious movement which has recently taken place in 
 your country, and with which your names are associated. 
 I feel some difficulty in the task, not from any hesitation 
 as to the way in which you should be addressed, or as to the 
 reception which my communication is likely to meet with at 
 your hands ; but from my imperfect acquaintance with the 
 precise character of your movement, the stage which it has 
 reached, and the views which it would, therefore, be most 
 useful to bring before you. In common with multitudes, 
 the committee, of which I am convener, having heard, with 
 the most lively satisfaction, of the manly course which you 
 have pursued, is most anxious to express its sympathy, and 
 to encourage you to follow out what you have begun. Should, 
 therefore, any thing escape from my pen which does not cor- 
 rectly describe your position, or which may seem to attribute 
 to you sentiments which you do not hold, I trust you will for- 
 give me, and trace the error to the true source — the imperfect 
 knowledge which we have in this country of your movement. 
 "Allow me, first of all, to express the sincere and univer- 
 sal joy which your secession from the Church of Rome has 
 awakened. We thank God for the new German movement ; 
 and regard it as one of the signs of the wonderful times in 
 which we live. You may have received many congratulations 
 from public bodies, near and at a distance ; but you can receive 
 none more warm than from the Free Church of Scotland. 
 
APPENDIX. 435 
 
 Though we have not left the church of our fathers ; though, 
 on the contrary, we hold that we are the Church of Scotland, 
 yet, recently called, by the voice of conscience, to renounce 
 our connexion with the state — called upon in various ways 
 to suffer in consequence of this step, we can all the better 
 sympathize with others who, in the providence of God, have 
 seen it to be their duty to protest against the church in which 
 they were baptized and brought up, and who, in consequence, 
 have been exposed to trials of different kinds. 
 
 "We rejoice that, unlike not a few, whose knowledge of 
 divine truth and professed principles ought to cany them 
 out of the Church of Rome, but who, from various false 
 motives, still cling to h^r communion — you, guided and sus- 
 tained, we trust, by the Lord, have had the courage to declare 
 yourselves a free church. It is the plain and solemn duty 
 of all who would not partake of the sins, or receive of the 
 plagues of the spiritual Babylon, to comply with the call of 
 God's Word, no matter what it may cost — " Come out of 
 her, my people," (Rev. viii. 4). No doubt this is an im- 
 portant step which may involve you in serious consequences, 
 if it has not already done so. You can expect nothing, but 
 that the Church of Rome, including many dear friends, will 
 be very angry ; and, it may be, let loose persecution against 
 you. It is possible that you may meet with little sympathy 
 jfrom some Protestants, of whom better things might have 
 been anticipated. They may be displeased because you have 
 not all at once gone so far as they could wish ; or, because 
 you have gone farther in simple obedience to the Word of 
 God, than they have gone themselves. But, whatever may 
 be the feelings with which you are regarded in some quarters 
 — ^whatever may be the treatment which the civil power may 
 mete out to you — in withdrawing from the apostate Church 
 of Rome, you will enjoy the approbation of your own con- 
 sciences, and of the great mass of the intelligent and the good 
 in all Christian churches. Above all, if you are animated 
 in this step, as we trust you are, by the sincere love of the 
 
 u 2 
 
436 APPENDIX. 
 
 truth as it is in Jesus, you will receive the approval of the 
 Great Head of the Church, whose favour is an ample com- 
 pensation for all trial and sorrow. It affords us of the Free 
 Church of Scotland, the greatest satisfaction to commit you 
 and your people, by intercessory prayer, to his protection 
 and guidance. We implore Him to shield you by his pro- 
 vidence from every outward danger ; to direct you by his 
 word and his Spirit ; to keep you from every misapprehension 
 and error ; to preserve you from giving any just cause of 
 offence ; to lead you into all truth, and to prosper, spiritually 
 and abundantly, the great work in which you are engaged ; so 
 that your movement may prove the commencement of a real 
 and lasting reformation, not only to Popish Germany, but to 
 Popish Christendom. 
 
 "While we express our warm-hearted sympathy and hope, 
 we are, at the same time, anxious to be useful to you. It 
 is the best expression of our love, to seek to lead brethren 
 into the knowledge of the truth, and to guard them against all 
 hurtful error. You will, therefore, bear with us while we 
 offer one or two suggestions. Amid the conflicting sentiments 
 respecting your movement which are abroad, we have anxiously 
 turned to the authoritative confessions of faith, which have 
 been given forth, by at least some of the parties of whom you 
 are the recognised leaders. Now, in what professes to be 
 the confession of faith of the congregation of Leipsic, consist- 
 ing of twenty-nine articles, we meet with very much which 
 is admirable — the whole indicating great progress, and call- 
 ing loudly for gratitude to God. At the same time, here are 
 statements, particularly in regard to the first four articles, 
 which, it may be, admit of a sound and scriptural interpreta- 
 tion, but which will also allow of an interpretation fatal to the 
 principles on which a truly evangelical church can be built. 
 It is said. Article 1. : — 
 
 "'The foundation of the Christian faith should be solely 
 and exclusively the Holy Scriptures, and reason pervaded and 
 actuated by true Christian principles in their interpretation.' 
 
APPENDIX. 437 
 
 If the meaning of this be, that reason, in the exercise of 
 private judgment, and solemn responsibility to God, and 
 seeking and relying on the Holy Spirit, without whose teach- 
 ing, reason is fallacious, is to interpret the Word of God as 
 the exclusive rule — the statement is scriptural — in harmony 
 with the confessions of faith of all Protestant churches, and 
 safe from any injurious consequence. But, if the meaning be, 
 that reason — the poor, blind, and fallible mind of man — is 
 to be raised to the rank of Holy Scripture, and constituted 
 along with it the sole and exclusive foundation of the Christ- 
 ian faith, what is this but re-introducing that very human 
 authority in religious things, in a new form, of which you 
 complain in the Church of Rome, and from which you have 
 broken off? What is this but building afresh what you have 
 just pulled down ? Surely nothing is more uncertain than the 
 reason of man, varying with individuals and ages ; yea, in 
 the same individual at different times. Plainly the only and 
 exclusive rule of faith is the Word of God, as discovered by 
 the teaching of the Spirit of God. 
 
 " In the 2nd Article it is said^ — * The community accepts 
 the Apostolic Creed as its own. It is the problem of the 
 church, as of the individual, to reduce its contents to a liv- 
 ing recognition, corresponding with the principles of the age.' 
 Is the meaning of this, that the articles of the Apostolic 
 Creed are to be made to correspond with the principles of 
 the age ? So far as these articles are founded on the Word 
 of God, they are immutable like itself. To suppose them to 
 admit of being adapted to the current spirit and prevailing 
 principles of the age, is to suppose that they are not fixed 
 and true — indeed, it is to entertain a notion inconsistent with 
 the very idea of a Divine Revelation. From the nature of 
 the case, a revelation must be perfect, and so unchangeable. 
 
 "Article 3rd bears — that in 'the difference of statement 
 and interpretation, with regard to the given contents of the 
 confession of faith, the community finds no ground for ex- 
 communication or anathematizing.' If by this be meant, 
 
438 APPENDIX. 
 
 that men ought not to be subjected to civil penalties for 
 difference of opinion as to the doctrines of their confession, 
 the sentiment is unexceptionable — in harmony with Scripture 
 and enlightened experience. But if it be meant, that a 
 Christian church is not to exclude from its membership even 
 those who deny and ridicule the most important articles of 
 its faith, this were to introduce a latitudinarianism — repug- 
 nant to the love of truth, and to the spirit and examples of 
 the Word of God. Scripture recognises excommunication 
 in serious cases, among the instruments of discipline. It 
 may be natural for you, smarting under the outrageous inter- 
 dicts and anathemas of the Church of Kome — utterly un- 
 scriptural in their character — to reject the warrant and entire 
 doctrine of excommunication. But properly, scripturally un- 
 derstood, this part of church discipline is kind and gracious. 
 It is intended, by solemn emblem, now to warn grievous 
 offenders of the rejection to which they will certainly be 
 exposed on the great day, if they persist in their enmity to 
 the truth, and in their love of sin. Hence, the apostolic excom- 
 munications were inflicted in love, that the soul might be 
 saved, not destroyed, in the day of the Lord Jesus. 1 Cor. v. 5. 
 " Lastly, the 4th Article teaches, as an inference from the 
 above, ' That no one should be anathematized on account of 
 the exercise of the right of free enquiry conceded to him, 
 because,' it is added, ' it is impossible to fix a completely 
 definite rule of faith for the human mind.' No one, certainly, 
 should be anathematized, in the sense of being either civilly 
 or ecclesiastically punished, for the mere exercise of the 
 right of private judgment. But if, in the exercise of this 
 undoubted right, a man, through his own innate depravity, 
 or any other adverse influence, comes to entertain theological 
 views at variance with the standard of truth and morality, 
 and injurious to the best interests of the church with which 
 he is connected, surely it is the duty of that church, without 
 inflicting civil pains, to separate him from its communion. 
 To say that it is impossible to fix a completely definite rule 
 
APPENDIX. 439 
 
 of faith for the human mind, is to say, that the Word of God 
 is not a definite or perfect rule. There may be differences 
 among Christians acknowledging the authority of the Word, 
 what articles should, and what articles should not, form terms 
 of church communion. But there should be no question 
 among men who have professedly received a divine revelation, 
 both that it is a definite rule, and that, through it, God's 
 mind, as to church membership, may be ascertained. Why 
 should it be impossible, with a Divine Word in our hands, to 
 fix a completely definite rule of faith for the human mind ? 
 Was not the Word given, among other things, for the express 
 purpose of determining men's religious faith? Apart from 
 this, where, comparatively speaking, is its value ? 
 
 "Respected Pastors. — A few other points might, perhaps, 
 be noticed, but these are the most important. We beg it may 
 be understood we do not charge you or your flocks with hold- 
 ing the views on which we have animadverted thus freely. 
 It is possible that you hold the articles of the confession of 
 faith, on which we have been commenting, in a correct and 
 orthodox sense ; but the language, at least, is open to serious 
 misunderstanding, and the points involved are so important, 
 especially at the starting of a new Catholic church, that you 
 will forgive our anxiety in pointing out what, in common 
 with all sound evangelical churches, we believe to be both 
 erroneous and dangerous. It cannot be too frequently or too 
 earnestly pressed upon our minds, that the Word of God, as 
 spiritually discerned, is the only rule of faith and duty ; that it 
 is perfect, so as not to admit of any change or improvement 
 with the progress of time ; and that the relation of men to the 
 Christian church, and their separation from it, must be deter- 
 mined by the principles and rules which the Word supplies, 
 and not by notions of human reason or liberty. If God has 
 spoken, we may be sure that his mind admits of being ascer- 
 tained ; and, if so, that is our imperative duty to know, believe, 
 and obey it alone. It is this which constitutes the grand 
 distinction between the religion of God and the religions of 
 
440 APPENDIX. 
 
 men — the one is determined "by the Inspired Word — the otherj 
 by the mind of men, whether reason or superstition. 
 
 " Rejoicing to learn that, as befits your position, there is a 
 strong desire for the Word of God among your people ; and 
 anxious, at the same time, to testify our solemn conviction, 
 that this is the exclusive standard and storehouse of divine 
 truth, we shall be glad to aid, in any way which may be 
 deemed most desirable, in furnishing you with copies of 
 the Sacred Volume. Many of our people have already, and 
 for years, contributed to the dissemination of the Scriptures, 
 in your native language, in the northern parts of Germany ; 
 and nothing would rejoice our hearts more than to put into 
 the hands of all your people, copies of the Word of God, and 
 to call upon them to read, and study, and interpret its pages 
 for themselves — subject to no authority save a solemn sense 
 of responsibility to the Author of the Bible, and humble 
 and prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit, to enable them 
 to understand and receive the truths and rules revealed. 
 Meanwhile, as a token of our good-will, and anxiety to be of 
 spiritual service to you, we have been at the pains to obtain a 
 translation, into your language, of a brief and popular summary 
 of our religious faith and practice as a church, of which we 
 beg your acceptance, and to which we call your earnest atten- 
 tion, 'The Shorter Catechism of the Westminster Assembly 
 of Divines, with Scripture Proofs.' We may add, that the 
 summary is one in which, with a few exceptions, all the 
 branches of the Church of Christ in Scotland, though diiFering 
 on matters of external order and administration, cordially 
 agree ; and that it constitutes the primary religious instruction 
 which all our Scottish youth receive, and which has had an 
 important influence in forming the national character. We 
 cannot doubt that there is very much of it, if not all, in which 
 you will concur ; you will observe, that it describes the Scrip- 
 tures of the Old and New Testaments, as not only a rule (as 
 if there were others), but * the only rule to direct us how we 
 may glorify and enjoy God.' 
 
APPENDIX. 441 
 
 " You will also remark, that it brings prominently forward 
 ihe doctrine of gratuitous salvation. 
 
 "Permit us, in conclusion, to advert to this as one of the 
 chief peculiarities of Divine Revelation. The 33d question asks, 
 * What is Justification V The answer is, ' Justification is an 
 act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and 
 accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteous- 
 ness of Christ, imputed to us, and received by faith alone.' 
 We have not had an opportunity of certainly learning from 
 your publications which have reached this country, whether 
 this be a leading doctrine of the New German Catholic 
 Church, or not. We earnestly trust that it may be so. We 
 are persuaded that it is a grand doctrine of the Word of God 
 — that it lies at the foundation of many other doctrines-— and 
 that it is so important as to give a character to the entire 
 religious system, of which it forms a part. We are per- 
 suaded that it constitutes the leading distinction between the 
 religion of God, and all the religions of men — in other words, 
 between what is true and what is false, in the most important 
 interests of men, for time and for eternity. It is the antagonist 
 of Rome at every point. What question can compare, for one 
 moment, in importance with the question — How a perishing 
 sinner may be justified with God ? and what answer can sur- 
 pass, in interest and preciousness, the reply, that he is justified 
 — not by works, services, or sacrifices of his own, or of his 
 priest — but by the free mercy of God, through the right- 
 eousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one High Priest, 
 received by faith — that he is pardoned and accepted by God, 
 in a way which lays an immediate foundation for peace, and 
 holiness, and joy? Suffer us to invite your attention, and 
 that of your flocks, with all affection and earnestness, to this 
 great and most important of doctrines. Apart from a correct 
 understanding and cordial reception of it, any abandonment 
 of Rome is a mere lopping off of a few superfluous branches, 
 while the root and substance of the tree remain the same. 
 What avails it to carry your people out of the Church of 
 
 u 3 
 
442 APPENDIX. 
 
 Rome, if they are still to expect to be saved in the same way, 
 by their own works, in one form or another ? Besides, men 
 standing on the same foundation with Rome, will have a 
 strong tendency, when tempted, to return to her communion. 
 They have, after all, made no real change. There is one fea- 
 ture in your writings which have reached us, with which we 
 have been much struck, and in which we need scarcely add 
 that we cordially sympathise — we mean, your hatred of 
 oppression, and your love of liberty and freedom. It is a 
 precious boon — valuable in itself, and valuable in its bearing 
 upon every thing else ; like health, its value can scarcely be 
 exaggerated. The kingdom of Christ is, indeed, the freest 
 kingdom on earth. But, permit us to remind you, that there 
 are few, if any, religious doctrines which so immediately 
 aflfect it, as the doctrine of salvation by free grace without 
 works. That doctrine, in the highest interests of man, sets 
 him completely free from the thraldom of his fellows, from 
 the impositions of the Church of Rome. It brings salvation 
 to him at once, and directly from God ; and its sense and 
 benefits are kept alive by the free, prayerful, and perpetual 
 use of the Holy Scriptures, at once the sign and the instru- 
 ment of religious freedom. 
 
 " On every account, then, for your own sakes, and for the 
 sakes of those who are to arise after you, from the value of the 
 doctrine in itself, and in its consequences upon other doc- 
 trines, from its influence on general religious liberty, let us 
 encourage you to study well the great doctrine of gratuitous sal- 
 vation, to be familiarly and experimentally acquainted with it, to 
 give it the prominence in your teaching which it possesses in the 
 Word of God, and never to forget that it lies at the foundation 
 of all real and permanent reformation in the Christian church. 
 Ecclesiastical tyranny, on the one hand, and the enthusiastic 
 love of freedom on the other ; the applause, too, of men, may 
 lead for a time to important religious changes ; but all his- 
 tory proclaims, that it is only where this central truth of 
 divine revelation is understood and propagated, that the 
 
APPENDIX. 443 
 
 individual soul can be blessed with peace and purity, and that 
 the reform of the collective church can be permanent, and 
 truly worthy of a sacrifice. If the doctrine of salvation by 
 the free grace of God, without works or deeds of law, be so 
 important, the foundations upon which this doctrine proceeds, 
 and the other truths which are essential to its success, cannot be 
 less precious — such as the divinity of the Son, and the deity 
 and personality of the Holy Spirit. The Church of Rome, 
 and some Protestants, unworthy of the name, may neutralize 
 or deny these glorious doctrines — the one, by raising a crea- 
 ture to the rank of a Divine Redeemer — the other, by rejecting 
 the divinity of the Son altogether ; but those who bow to the 
 supremacy of the Word know, from its testimony, as well as 
 their own experience, that it is only on the ground of a divine 
 atonement having been rendered, that a free salvation can be 
 oflFered ; and that such are the depravity and moral weakness 
 of man, after all, that nothing short of the grace of a divine 
 agent, even the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, 
 can persuade the sinner to accept of the gratuitous salvation 
 which has been provided, or to walk forward in the way of a 
 holy and joyful obedience. 
 
 " Of course, it is scarcely necessary to remind you that, inde- 
 pendently of the doctrine of justification by faith without 
 works, we hold and continually urge the doctrines of the 
 divinity and personality of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, as 
 most clearly revealed in the Word, above mere human reason, 
 but not inconsistent with its enlightened dictates ; that we hold 
 them as great and peculiar truths of revelation, standing on 
 an independent basis of their own — in themselves most impor- 
 tant — while we rejoice in them from their connection with the 
 scriptural method of a sinner's justification and sanctification. 
 
 " In conclusion, permit us to express our earnest hope, that 
 while you abandon the false doctrine of Rome, and are kept 
 from the false doctrine of many bearing the Protestant name^ 
 you will also be delivered yourselves, and strive, by God's 
 grace, to deliver your flocks, from the corrupt practices of 
 
444 APPENDIX. 
 
 the world, sunk in slothfulness and sin. There must be a 
 correct evangelical creed, in order to scripturally moral and 
 religious practice ; but there may be a correct creed without 
 a correspondingly correct deportment ; and, therefore, do we 
 beseech you, for your own sakes, and for the sake of your 
 people, but especially for the honour of divine truth before 
 men, that you be separated from every evil work ; from all 
 unlawful compliances with the spirit and course of the world ; 
 yea, that you adorn the doctrine of Christ, so that no enemy 
 shall have it in his power to say, that your separation from 
 Rome was dictated by a desire to escape from the restraints 
 of self-denial, and to live as you pleased, in carelessness and 
 sin. You cannot be ignorant that the great mass of men 
 judge of a religious system, and of a Christian church, by the 
 moral and spiritual character of its supporters. They have 
 no other mode of judgment. May the character of the office- 
 bearers and members of the new Catholic church be so noted 
 for non-conformity to the world, for purity, humility, gentle- 
 ness, loyalty, benignity, that all spectators shall be con- 
 strained to draw the inference, that you belong to the school 
 and family of Jesus. We, as a committee of the Free Church 
 of Scotland, shall be delighted to hear from you by letter, or 
 should any of your number visit our country, to show you 
 every Christian kindness in person. Meanwhile, we pray 
 that, proceeding on the exclusive authority of the Word of 
 God, you may know and teach the doctrines to which we 
 have referred, more and more, and rejoice in their precious- 
 ness. We also pray, that you may be the instruments of 
 making them known yet more and more extensively ; that 
 you may be guided in all your perplexities, and sustained in 
 all your difficulties, by the grace of God and the Spirit, and 
 that you may be the honoured instruments, in his hands, of 
 rearing a temple dedicated to the honour of Jehovah, destined 
 never to pass away. 
 
 " John G. Lorimer, Convener. 
 '' Edinburgh^ July, 1S45." 
 
APPENDIX. . 445 
 
 ADDRESS FROM THE LEADERS OF THE FRENCH EVANGE- 
 LICAL, TO THOSE OF THE GERMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 " ' Salvation and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ !' 
 " 'AH power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, there- 
 fore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' (Matt, xxviii 18 
 19). 
 
 " ' Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I 
 in the midst of them.' (Matt, xviii. 20). 
 
 " Beloved Brethren, 
 
 "Tlie divine promise which the Redeemer of mankind gave 
 at the moment of his departure from this earth, is daily more and 
 more fulfilled. It is in vain that despotism and ignorance 
 vie with each other in trying to quench the flame of eternal 
 and divine truth. In vain do they strive in all portions of the 
 world, but especially in Germany — a land so rich in science 
 and religious feeling, to uprear the altars of error, superstition, 
 and falsehood. The fetters of bondage are at length broken, 
 and the gates of hell can no longer prevail against the ' Word, 
 which was made flesh.' 
 
 "How heartily, therefore, do we wish success to the noble 
 efforts you are now making, and how deeply do we rejoice over 
 the proofs of sympathy which you everywhere meet with. 
 Oh, may God himself fill you with a lively, pure, and un- 
 flinching faith ! May he strengthen you for the hard conflict 
 which you have to fight in defence of his law ! Then, beloved 
 apostles of the Master whom we serve, will your way be safe 
 and sure. How could it indeed be otherwise, since you, like 
 ourselves, far from having any desire to overthrow the altars of 
 our fathers, come with the gospel in hand, to rebuild them in 
 the hearts of your sons ? You have perceived, dear brethren, 
 that it is no faith of human origin, no newly-invented or dis- 
 covered faith, which ought to be promulgated through the 
 world ; for such, the nations would look to us in vain. No, 
 no ; we seek to establish the doctrine of the pure religion of 
 
446 . APPENDIX. 
 
 Jesus Christ, unchangeable and divine as its author ; confirm- 
 ing and comforting the soul ; rich in precepts, equally impor- 
 tant to our head and heart ; in one word, it is the Christian 
 religion, brought back to that original, fair, and affecting sim- 
 plicity, in which it shone in the apostolic times, and not a 
 danger-bringing doctrine of the understanding merely, which 
 discourages the soul, drives it from doubt to doubt, from 
 denial to denial, and leads to annihilation of faith, and utter 
 despair. Happier than our brethren in France, you enjoy 
 almost everywhere the free exercise of your 'worship ; and, if 
 here and there restraints interfere, they are less the results of 
 arbitrary attack, than the consequence of existing state arrange- 
 ments, which, in so large an empire as that of Germany, is 
 necessarily severed by various contending interests. 
 
 *' Our constitutional charter — a product of the revolution of 
 1830, proclaimed, indeed, the free exercise of our worship. 
 ' The soil of France,' it is continually repeated, ' is the classic 
 ground of religious liberty;' and yet this boasted liberty is, as 
 far as we are concerned, but a bitter mockery, since our tem- 
 ples have been everywhere shut up by force, and we ourselves, 
 after seven years' peaceful exercise of our religion, under the 
 shelter of the law, are now dragged from one court of justice 
 to another ; and, despite every appeal and protest which we 
 have perseveringly laid before government, during the last 
 eight years, we have not yet been able to obtain justice. Yet, 
 beloved brother, we are far from losing courage. Our mission, 
 like your own, is so sacred, so worthy of heaven and of earth, 
 that it cannot but soon triumph over the evil designs of rulers ; 
 and the last efforts which they have made to restrain our pro- 
 gress, have only contributed to the promotion of true Christ- 
 ianity, and the realization of the general wish of mankind. 
 
 "The great movement which now rules among you, and 
 which has excited much approving sympathy in our country, 
 gives ground to hope that a happier futurity awaits reform in 
 France. 
 
 *' The persecution which we now endure will, doubtless, soon 
 
APPENDIX. 447 
 
 cease ; for it is impossible that the French rulers should not 
 at length perceive, that a nation like ours cannot he much 
 longer oppressed, nor remain an indiflPerent spectator of the 
 great religious revolution, which, though it began fifteen years 
 ago, within its own bosom, has now extended boldly and 
 freely, far beyond our bounds. 
 
 " The warmest and most sincere wishes, therefore, of the 
 French evangelical church are yours. And may our prayers 
 find access with our Heavenly Father, that he may send down 
 upon you the Spirit of might and of truth ; that he may preserve 
 you by that word which can alone guide you surely to the 
 completion of the regeneration of his beloved church, and to 
 the spread of his divine will. Such wishes are righteous, for 
 the disciples of Jesus Christ know no distinction of nation or 
 of region. All nations are, in God's sight, but separate 
 families of the same great brotherhood, which Christian love 
 is destined to unite in the fulfilment of their duties. 
 
 " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and his blessing, be 
 upon you, beloved brethren, to guide you and to guard you in 
 the fulfilment of your gospel office ; may he lift up the light of 
 his countenance upon you, and be gracious unto you. The love 
 of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. 
 Amen. 
 
 ''Dated, Paris, August 15th, 1845." 
 
 Here followed the signatures, but they are not given in the 
 printed document. 
 
 ADDRESS FROM THE COMMITTEE OF THE PRIESTS PRO- 
 TECTION SOCIETY FOR IRELAND, TO THE REV. J. RONGE. 
 
 " Dublin, Committee Rooms, 23, Upper Sackville Street. 
 
 ''August 11, 1845. 
 *' Rev. and dear Sir, and Brother, 
 "We, the committee, to whom is entrusted the management 
 of the affairs of a society established in Ireland, for the pro- 
 tection of priests, who have, from conscientious motives, 
 
448 APPENDIX. 
 
 seceded from the Church of Rome, salute you with the holy 
 benediction, wishing you health, and that the grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ may be with you, and with your spirit, for 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 "We have received the gratifying intelligence that, through 
 divine grace, your eyes have been opened to see the soul- 
 destroying effect of the errors of the papal system, and of the 
 unscriptural dominion of the Church of Rome ; and we 
 'greatly rejoice' that you have taken courage, and have put 
 away the abominable idols ' by which you were carried away, 
 even as you were led.' We are confident of this very thing, 
 that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it 
 until the day of Jesus Christ ; and that, ' if in any thing you 
 be otherwise minded,' than the pure gospel of the grace of 
 God lays down for your guidance, ' God shall reveal even this 
 unto you.' 
 
 " While we congratulate you on the important change which 
 has been wrought in you, we cannot withhold our sympathy, 
 when we consider the extent of the trials and persecutions to 
 which you have been, and may yet be exposed as a deserter 
 from the standard of an usurped supremacy, as merciless as 
 it is tyrannical and insatiable ; and, in virtue of which, rulers 
 have been excommunicated, governments dissolved, and mul- 
 titudes doomed to temporal misery and eternal perdition. 
 Our heart's desire, and prayer to God for you is, ' that as you 
 have renounced Romanism, and allegiance to him who pre- 
 sumptuously and impiously claims to be ' head over all things 
 to the church,' God the Holy Ghost may vouchsafe to apply 
 to your heart the glorious truths of the everlasting gospel, 
 and lead you, by his renovating and life-giving influence, 
 into a clearer and fuller knowledge of Christ, as the only 
 foundation of your hope, the only meritorious cause of your 
 acceptance with God, the only source of your salvation, ' for 
 there is none other name under heaven given among men, 
 whereby we must be saved.' (Acts iv. 12). 
 
 " We take this opportunity of conveying also, through you, 
 
APPENDIX. 449 
 
 our warm congratulation and sympathy to all the members 
 of the new church, incorporated under the name of the ' Ger- 
 man Catholic church," now no longer weighed down under 
 the burden of a galling, though a passive slavery to Rome ; 
 and we pray that the presence of Him, who led the spirit of 
 Luther to larger conceptions of divine truth, and gave him 
 courage equal to his work, may be vouchsafed to them, as 
 well as to you ; and that through your instrumentality, as well 
 as theirs, the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 
 may be so increased, that your spiritual children shall have 
 cause to say again in your ears, ' The place is too strait for 
 me, give place to me that I may dwell.' May you possess, in 
 its scriptural purity, the true faith of the gospel ; be justified 
 by faith in the infinite merits and all-atoning blood of the 
 Son of God ; be sanctified by the power of the Holy Ghost ; 
 and be enabled ' to hold fast the beginning of your confidence 
 steadfast unto the end.' May your last end be like Luther's ; 
 when about to depart hence, and be seen no more, he is said 
 to have uttered these words of hope and confidence, * Oh, my 
 Father, God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of all con- 
 solation ! I thank thee for having revealed to me thy well- 
 beloved Son, in whom I believe ; whom I have preached and 
 acknowledged, loved and celebrated, and whom the pope and 
 impious persecute ; I commend to thee my soul ; oh, Jesus 
 Christ my Lord, I am quitting this earthly body ; I am leaving 
 this life, but I know that I shall abide eternally with thee ! ' 
 And may grace, mercy, and peace, be multiplied to you from 
 God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen ! 
 
 " With all Christian love we beg to subscribe ourselves, rev. 
 and dear sir, your affectionate fellow-workers and brethren 
 in the Lord. 
 
 For the committee, 
 (Signed) "Thomas Scott, a.m.. Clerk. > rr c » 
 " C. H. MiNCHiN, A.M., Clerk. ) 
 
450 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 IN IRELAND, TO THE REV. J. CZERSKI, OF SCHNEIDE- 
 MUHL. 
 
 " Reverend and dear Brother, 
 
 " We have heard, with extreme interest, of the religious 
 revolution going forward in your country, and commonly de- 
 scribed as the German Catholic Reformation. We are aware 
 that your own name has been honourably associated with this 
 movement ; and we have, therefore, thought it right to address 
 to you a friendly communication. Our letter is to be regarded 
 as a public document ; and you are, consequently, at liberty to 
 submit it to any of your fellow-reformers. 
 
 " We beg to state to you, that the church which we represent, 
 has long existed in this island, and that it at present numbers 
 nearly live hundred ministers, who have the charge of about 
 three-quarters of a million of people. Our confession of faith 
 is that which was drawn up in the seventeenth century, by 
 the assembly of divines at Westminster. This symbol, as you 
 may perhaps, be aware, is generally adopted by Presbyterian 
 churches, in all those countries where the English language is 
 spoken. We believe it to be founded upon, and agreeable to, 
 the word of God ; and, though we do not consider that it pos- 
 sesses any intrinsic authority, we think such a formulary oi 
 importance, inasmuch as, in addition to its other advantages 
 it affords every one a fair opportunity of becoming thoroughly 
 acquainted with our religious principles. We may add, that 
 this document recognises the great doctrines held in common 
 by the leading Protestant churches. It asserts the fall of man ; 
 the atonement of Christ; the Godhead of the Father, Son, 
 and Holy Ghost ; the necessity of a new birth into righteous- 
 ness, and justification by faith alone. 
 
 " We have learnt, dear brother, with much satisfaction, that 
 you have been under the tuition of the Great Teacher, and 
 that your renunciation of Romanism has been connected with 
 a spiritual change from darkness to light. We rejoice to hear 
 
APPENDIX. 451 
 
 that, whilst rejecting the traditions of men, you have exhibited 
 a disposition to submit yourself implicitly to the direction of 
 the written word of God ; and pray, that he who puts wisdom 
 in the inward parts, will guide you into all truth. 
 
 " The Bible is a transcript of the mind of the Eternal; it 
 sets forth but 'one faith;' and, in reading it, all would see 
 * eye to eye,' did all enjoy the same measure of divine illumina- 
 tion. It is written, ' The secret of the Lord is with those that 
 fear him, and he will show them his covenant.' Ps. xxv. 14. 
 And again, ' If any man will do his will, he shall know of the 
 doctrine, whether it be of God.' John vii. 17. We bless our 
 heavenly King, that he has already taught you so many of 
 the wonders of his law ; and we trust that he will still con- 
 tinue to lead you in a plain path, making you of quick under- 
 standing in the things pertaining to the common salvation. 
 The instructions given of old to Joshua may be appropriately 
 addressed to the evangelical leader of the German Catholic 
 Reformation : — ' This book of the law shall not depart out of 
 thy mouth ; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, 
 that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written 
 therein; for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and 
 then thou shalt have good success.' Joshua i. 8. 
 
 " The Spirit is the Great Architect of the church ; for, except 
 the Lord build his house, they labour in vain that build it. 
 It is the office of the Spirit to testify of the Redeemer ; and all 
 the truths of the Gospel tend to show forth the honour of his 
 name, and conspire to make his praise glorious. Such as love 
 his salvation should say continually, the Lord Jesus be mag- 
 nified. We are delighted to hear, beloved brother, that you 
 are disposed to give due prominence to the atonement and the 
 deity of Christ in all your ministrations ; and we earnestly hope 
 that your fellow-reformers will be led fully to appreciate these 
 cardinal principles. It is the preaching of Christ crucified, 
 which humbles the sinner, and comforts the saint. Justifica- 
 tion by faith in an atoning Saviour, is the grand article of the 
 Bible; and a theological system which does not distinctly 
 
452 APPENDIX. 
 
 recognise this central truth, is destitute of the glory that 
 excelleth. ' Other foundation can no man lay than that is 
 laid, which is Jesus Christ.' 1 Cor. iii. 2. 
 
 " You are placed, dear brother, at present, in a most critical 
 position; and every step which you now take, may involve 
 consequences of the deepest importance to yourself, to your 
 adherents, and to posterity. May the good Lord hold up your 
 goings in his paths, that you may not stumble ! We express 
 ourselves the more earnestly upon this subject, because we 
 know that you must be surrounded with temptations ; for the 
 great adversary of souls will not permit any good work to go 
 forward without disturbance. Your heart may be ready to 
 faint within you when you survey the difficulties which you 
 must encounter ; but he who has called you to this service, can 
 gird you with strength for its accomplishment. Some may 
 trouble you by seeking their own aggrandisement rather than 
 the glory of Christ ; some may attempt to adulterate the gospel 
 by mingling it with philosophy, falsely so called ; and others, 
 lagain, may evince a desire to return to the system of super- 
 stition which you have recently relinquished. May He who 
 holds the seven stars in his right hand, illuminate your path, 
 and enable you to go foi-ward in the good and the right way. 
 
 " "We presume, dear brother, that your attention has already 
 been directed to the subject of ecclesiastical discipline and 
 government, as no church can exist without some species of 
 organization. And here we would venture to recommend our 
 Presbyterian polity to your favourable consideration. We 
 have experienced largely the blessings of this system ; and we 
 conceive that, in an eminent degree, it secures liberty without 
 licentiousness, and combines an adequate representation of 
 popular feeling with a due mixture of clerical influence. 
 With us all church officers are elected by the people, but 
 church government is vested in the hands of the pastors and 
 elders. You know that the church was anciently ruled by Pres- 
 byteries, synods, and councils ; and that, as the authority of 
 the presbytery declined, the bishops increased their pretensions, 
 
APPENDIX. 453 
 
 and extended their jurisdiction. At length, the pope assumed 
 all power ; and thus the primitive form of the Christian common- 
 wealth completely disappeared. Whilst Presbyterianism is, 
 we believe, the divine pattern of church polity, it is also, we 
 are disposed to think, eminently adapted to the genius of the 
 German people. 
 
 "We have appointed a committee to correspond with evan- 
 gelical churches in other countries ; and we desire an epistolary 
 intercourse with yourself and your distinguished colleagues. 
 Germany has often occupied a prominent place in the history 
 of Christendom, for the Italian pontiff has found many of his 
 most resohite antagonists in the country, which could never be 
 conquered by Imperial Rome. We remember that Germany 
 gave birth to Huss, and Jerome, and Luther ; and we trust 
 that, in connexion with the great cause of truth and godliness, 
 the name of Czerski will also descend with honour to the latest 
 posterity. 
 
 " Signed, in the name, and by the authority, of the General 
 Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, 
 
 "James Morgan, Moderator. 
 " Thomas M. Reid, a.m.. Senior Clerk. 
 " Robert Park, a.m.. Junior Clerk. 
 ''Belfast, July 11, 1846." 
 
 At a Meeting of the Pastors of the Independent or Congre^ 
 
 gational Churches, and the Professors of their Colleges in 
 
 London and its vicinity, who constitute what is denominated 
 
 The Congregational Board, held at the Library, Blom- 
 
 field Street, London, on Tuesday, June 16, 1846. 
 
 The Rev. John Blackburn in the chair. 
 "It was moved by the Rev. Ebenezer Henderson, Doctor in 
 
 Philosophy, and Theological Tutor of Highbury College, and 
 
 unanimously resolved, 
 
454 APPENDIX. 
 
 " That this board, deeply sensible of the importance of the 
 religious movements at present taking place in Germany, 
 regards with lively interest the secession of multitudes from 
 the communion of Kome ; and rejoices in cordially extending 
 the right hand of fellowship to those who have distinctly 
 avowed their belief in the great fundamental doctrines of the 
 Gospel, and their determination to maintain the independence 
 of their churches according to the principles exhibited in the 
 New Testament ; earnestly praying, that the glorified Head of 
 the Church may fulfil in them all the good pleasure of his 
 goodness, and the work of faith with power ; and that the 
 address now read be adopted, and forwarded to the Rev. John 
 Czerski, pastor of the congregation recently formed at Schneide- 
 rauhl : — 
 
 " To the Rev. John Czerski, and the Christian brethren in 
 Germany, who walk with him in the faith and order of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 " Dear and honoured Brethren, 
 
 "As our beloved country has enjoyed innumerable bless- 
 ings, through the emancipation of the understandings and 
 consciences of her people from the spiritual domination of 
 Rome, so we cannot hear, beloved brethren, that you have 
 come out of that communion, escaping from her errors and 
 her plagues, but with heartfelt gratitude and lively joy. 
 
 " You have obtained your spiritual emancipation by an appeal 
 to the Sacred Scriptures, being assured that the writings of 
 inspired prophets and apostles are able to make men wise unto 
 salvation, through faith in Christ Jesus. 
 
 " The truths which they declare require no additions to 
 secure the great ends for which the Son of God was manifested. 
 We rejoice that you have found that the Gospel of Christ is 
 the power of God for salvation to all who confide in Him, and 
 not the speculations of philosophers, nor the rules of moralists, 
 nor the ceremonies of priests. The things which are hid from 
 the wise and prudent, are revealed to the true followers of 
 Christ. By his Spirit they are guided into the truth, and find 
 
APPENDIX. 455 
 
 that his word is able to make them perfect, thoroughly fur- 
 nished for every good word and work. 
 
 " May the eternal Spirit, whose office it is to take of the- 
 things of Christ, and show them to his humble disciples, lead 
 you, dear brethren, into the knowledge and enjoyment of all 
 truth ; and may ' the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledgment 
 of the truth which is according to godliness,' abound amongst 
 you more and more. 
 
 " We deeply lament the oppressive proceedings to which 
 some of you have been subjected by those who, unhappily, still 
 think that it belongs to the office which they hold in secular 
 things, to interfere with the spread of religious convictions. 
 
 " As the kingdom of Christ is not of this world, we believe 
 it can be advanced only in the way it was first established. 
 Persecution has never been useful when employed on the side 
 of truth; but it has always been overruled for good, when 
 used against the truth. Let this be the encouragement of our 
 brethren who are called to suffer for the sake of Christ. The 
 things which are adverse will turn to the furtherance of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 " May He who suffered for us, leaving us an example that 
 we should tread in his steps, fill you with his own Spirit, and 
 enable you to witness a good confession. May he strengthen 
 you in every season of trial, that you may steadfastly maintain 
 his Gospel, and hold fast your fidelity to him, following the 
 noble band of martyrs and confessors, who in your mountains 
 and valleys have borne witness to the truth, and confirmed their 
 testimony with their blood. 
 
 " Our experience in this land, and that of our forefathers, 
 during several centuries, confirm our convictions, that the 
 Gospel of Christ is enfeebled by an association, either with sys- 
 tems of philosophy, or with ecclesiastical traditions : and that 
 the Church of Christ is most prosperous, when free both from 
 the control and patronage of worldly men. We think that 
 the history of your country would teach the same lessons, and 
 
456 APPENDIX. 
 
 show, that to seek to improve the Gospel and the Church of 
 Christ, as described in the New Testament, is to bring on them 
 error, weakness, and corruption. 
 
 " May you stand fast, dear brethren, in the truth, the love, 
 the liberty, the holiness, and the joy of the Gospel of our God 
 and Saviour. And may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spiiit, be 
 with you all, is the earnest prayer of, 
 
 " Dear and honoured brethren, 
 
 ," Your affectionate friends in the bonds of the Gospel, 
 
 " John Blackburn, Chairman, 
 " George Rose, Secretary.'' 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 CZERSKI'S VISIT TO ENGLAND. 
 
 It is not itiy intention, in the remaining pages of this work, 
 to enter into a defence of Czerski's character as a man and 
 a Christian. I simply propose to narrate the circumstances 
 connected with his late visit to England, so as to render 
 this volume, as far as the recency of the events and their yet 
 undeveloped results will admit, a complete " History of the 
 German Reformation of the Nineteenth Century." 
 
 Czerski visited England in compliance with an invitation 
 from Christian friends in that country. He arrived in Lon- 
 don, accompanied hy his friend Post, on the 14th of August. 
 On the previous day there appeared in the " Record " news- 
 paper the following letter : — 
 
 " ANTI-ROMANIST MOVEMENT IN GERMANY. 
 
 " To the Editor of the Record. 
 ** Sir,— Your readers are aware of the lamentable direction 
 which this movement has generally assumed. Yet there was 
 a hope that a different character might have been, by God's 
 blessing, gradually given to it, through the agency of the 
 Schneidemiihl feeders and the flocks, professing the Apos- 
 tolical faith, who are dependent upon Czerski. This hope is, 
 
458 APPENDIX. 
 
 alas, lost to us. I have before me a letter from one of the 
 deputies, present at what is called a synod, which was held 
 in Schneidemiihl at the end of last month. It appears that 
 he and the Kev. Dr. Jettmar, the pastor of the Apostolical 
 flock in Berlin, were the only individuals who raised a pro- 
 test, condemning the declaration of the meeting against the 
 confession of the ever-blessed Trinity, the divinity of Jesus 
 Christ, and the personality of the Holy Ghost ! When, at the 
 opening of the session, the Berlin deputy alluded to the god- 
 head of Christ, the president, the Eev. Mr. Post, of Posen, 
 asked him, in a tone of sarcastic irony, " What ! do you really 
 believe that Christ was the Son of God?" And upon his 
 replying that he knew it, and had a living experience of the 
 truth, the president answered by a look of contempt, and a 
 shrug of his shoulders. And again, when the assembly 
 rejected the " Apostles' Creed," when the Rev. Dr. Jettmar 
 and his coadjutor earnestly implored them to retain it in an 
 unmutilated form, Mr. Post observed to them, that it " con- 
 tains arrant nonsense!" (Es enthultet grohen UnsinnJ. 
 Czerski was then called upon by the Berlin elder to recollect 
 the sacred character of the cause, in behalf of which the 
 meeting had come together, and to discountenance such 
 offensive remarks, as well as support Apostolical doctrine ; 
 but he answered, that he saw nothing objectionable in the 
 president's observations, and, for his own part, was averse to 
 all symbols, and should vote for the rejection of any — making 
 Scripture the normal rule. 
 
 ** Such are the fruits of the convention concluded between 
 Ronge and Czerski, at Rawich, in February last ; and the 
 Berlin congregation of seceders, under Dr. Jettmar, is the 
 only body of them which, by God's grace, has held, and 
 continues to hold fast " to the doctrine once delivered to the 
 saints." He and their elder left the Schneidemiihl meeting 
 in disgust, before its sittings were concluded ; but not before 
 entering a protest against the protocol of its proceedings, as 
 being unfaithfuUy and untruthfully drawn up. In vain did 
 
APPENDIX. 459 
 
 they essay, by every argument which faith and love could 
 use, to direct the meeting from its unholy course. I remain, 
 Sir, your very faithful servant, 
 
 " Anglicanus. 
 *' bth August, 1846." 
 
 A letter also appeared in the " Record" of the same date, 
 from the Rev. M. J. Mayers, of Norfolk, alleging that the 
 " whole movement" had " taken a decidedly rationalistic 
 tendency and direction," and that from that tendency Czerski 
 himself was not exempt. In reply, Messrs. Czerski and Post 
 addressed a letter to the editor of the " Times," denying the 
 allegations of the correspondents of the " Record," and 
 quoting the confession recently adopted at Schneidemiihl, 
 wherein the following passage occurs, in reference to the 
 Apostles' Creed : — 
 
 " We consider every one of its articles in complete harmony 
 with Holy Scripture, and therefore we use it in our worship 
 and in the instruction of the young." (Art. 4.) 
 
 They further stated, that so far from Post having declared 
 that the Apostles' Creed " contains arrant nonsense," he had 
 in that very synod defended it, declaring expressly, " ' that 
 the Apostolic confession was a brief extract from Holy Writ, 
 and was in accordance with his own views and that of 
 his community' (see the minutes of the synod) ; Art. 5," the 
 writers further remarked, " maintains the Scriptural views 
 of the Trinity ; Art. 7, the depravity of human nature. In 
 regard to what is said of Messrs. Zettman and Beir, who 
 attended the synod as deputies from Berlin, it will appear 
 from the minutes of the synod to be perfectly untrue, that this 
 conflict with the synod arose from their defence of orthodox 
 doctrines, since, with the exception above-mentioned, these 
 were never called in question ; but it arose from the circum- 
 stance of their wishing to alter the formula of baptism, and 
 to introduce episcopal government as exclusively of divine 
 institution. We have firmly resisted every attempt to impose 
 
 x2 
 
460 APPENDIX. 
 
 human institutions upon us ; and, by die grace of God, shall 
 continue to do so, committing our cause to Him who judgeth 
 righteously." 
 
 Messrs. Czerski and Post also addressed the following 
 letter to the Eev. R. H. Herschell, beneath whose roof the 
 former resided during his stay in England : — 
 
 "Dear Sir, — A.s there have been such strange reports 
 spread in this country concerning our views of Christian 
 doctrine and our efforts in Germany, you express a wish to 
 receive, from our own lips, our opinions in regard to the 
 fundamental doctrines of Christianity. We feel the more 
 bound to give you, in a few words, our Christian convictions, 
 because, at our coming to London as strangers, you received us 
 with true Christian love, and have given us many proofs of your 
 sincere Christian sympathy. These chief principles are • — 
 
 " First. We believe that God has revealed himself to man 
 in a supernatural manner. This revelation is contained in 
 the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament ; and we 
 find therein all that is necessary to our salvation. Every man 
 is bound to read the Holy Scriptures, to search diligently 
 therein, and daily to appreciate more of its inexhaustible 
 stores himself. The Holy Scriptures are the only acknow- 
 ledged source of divine truth, and the only infallible judge 
 in all Christian confessions ; which, therefore, we are only 
 bound to receive in so far as they agree with the Holy 
 Scriptures. 
 
 " Second. The fundamental doctrine of Christianity is the 
 belief in one God, who has revealed Himself to us as three 
 persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; as the Creator, the 
 Redeemer, and the Sanctiiier. When the fulness of time was 
 come, God sent, out of fatherly love to us, Jesus Christ, his 
 only - begotten Son, in whom the fulness of the godhead 
 dwells bodily, for our redemption and salvation. All that the 
 Holy Scriptures teach of God the Father, of the divine 
 nature and excellence of Jesus Christ his Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost, we also acknowledge and teach. 
 
APPENDIX. 46J 
 
 * ' Third. God had created man in his own image, in holiness, 
 righteousness, and eternal blessedness. 
 
 " Fourth. Man did not remain in the circumstances of in- 
 nocence and purity in which God created him. Since the fall 
 of Adam, sin has entered into the human race ; and since 
 then, every man is in sin, and is exposed to its consequences. 
 However, we also believe, that through Adam's fall, and 
 through natural corruption, the image* of God in man is not 
 wholly annihilated ; and the freedom of will to choose between 
 good and evil is not so wholly destroyed, but that sin, as the 
 act of the free-wiU, is charged to man. 
 
 "Fifth. We acknowledge the comfortable doctrine, that 
 Jesus Christ, in whose name alone salvation and blessedness 
 are given to man, has, through his incarnation, his life, his 
 innocent sufferings, and death, through his resurrection and 
 ascension into heaven, and his exaltation to the right hand of 
 the Father, wrought out everlasting redemption. 
 
 " Sixth. Through a living faith in Jesus Christ, through 
 union with him in his Spirit, we, by the help of divine grace 
 of the Holy Ghost, become partakers of this redemption, and, 
 receiving forgiveness of sins, are considered as righteous 
 before God. The true and living faith works by love, and 
 reveals itself in us, and around us, through a life consecrated 
 to God. 
 
 " These fundamental doctrines of our confession are suffi- 
 cient to indicate the convictions of the heart ; to show you, 
 honoured Sir, that we seek no other truth, no other holiness 
 nor righteousness, no other aim, or eternal life, than that 
 which is, by God's grace, given us in Jesus Christ. This, we 
 ourselves, and all who belong to us, ever strive to appropriate 
 to ourselves more and more ; this is, and ever shall be, our 
 sole endeavour. And we care very little for the opposition 
 of those who prefer themselves and their human theories, to 
 
 * By the image of God, we here design to designate the natural and 
 not the moral image ; for the latter, we believe, is wholly annihilated. 
 
462 APPENDIX. 
 
 Jesus Christ and his grace, and make these the chief point of 
 their strivings, and the symbols of their Christian profession. 
 With sincere esteem, and in brotherly love, 
 " Yours, most devoted, 
 
 (Signed) "J; Czerski. 
 
 "A. Post. 
 " Edgeware Road, Aug, 20, 1846.*' 
 
 Czerski addressed a British audience, for the first time, on 
 Sunday, August 23, when he gAve some account of his reli- 
 gious experience in Trinity Chapel, Edgeware Road. The 
 minister of this chapel (the Rev. R. H. Herschell) subse- 
 quently addressed the following letters to "The Patriot :" — 
 
 "Sir, — I feel it right to correct a misconception, which I 
 find prevails very generally — namely, that Czerski had been 
 nominated a member of the Evangelical Alliance, and had been 
 rejected in consequence of reports spread to his disadvantage. 
 This is a mistake. An individual member of the Alliance 
 wished to propose him to the Nomination Committee ; when 
 this was mentioned to me, as being a member of that com- 
 mittee, I decidedly objected to it ; thinking, as I still do, 
 that, in the present stage of the movement in Germany, 
 Czerski's connexion with the Alliance might not be bene- 
 ficial to the progress of the work. It is, therefore, untrue, 
 that he has in any way been rejected by the Evangelical 
 Alliance. 
 
 " In regard to the charges that have been publicly, as well 
 as those which have been privately circulated, I rejoice to say, 
 that, after a most searching investigation, during the after- 
 noons of Monday and Tuesday, at the house of Sir C. Eardley 
 Smith, Bart., and in the presence of several ministers and 
 gentlemen, the Rev. E. Bickersteth, at the conclusion, ad- 
 dressed Czerski in an affectionate and touching manner, stating 
 that though on one occasion there appeared to have been some 
 indecision and vacillation in his manner of dealing with Ronge, 
 yet that he had distinctly asserted, in trying circumstances, 
 
APPENDIX. 463 
 
 his cordial belief in the doctrine of the Trinity. The charges 
 against him appeared greatly relieved and cleared up by the 
 investigation, and it was heartily trusted that his visit to this 
 country would be much blessed to his increase of knowledge 
 and greater stability, and consequently to his wider usefulness 
 among his countrymen. 
 
 " I feel it right to state distinctly, that the charges against 
 Czerski's moral character have been most satisfactorily dis- 
 proved ; and it will also be gratifying to the Christian public 
 to learn, from a statement made by the Rev. M. Bonnet, from 
 Frankfort-on-the-Maine, at the time when the investigations 
 were made, that he had always found Czerski bear a decided 
 testimony against infidelity and popery, by distinctly confess- 
 ing his faith in the Divinity of Christ, &c. ; and M. Bonnet 
 stated, moreover, that Dr. Pinkerton visited Schneidemiihl, 
 and found a number of truly converted persons who were 
 studying the Scriptures, and who were ready to give up their 
 lives for Czerski. This they said to Dr. Pinkerton, although 
 Czerski was from home at the time. 
 
 *' This morning an interesting meeting was held at Con- 
 naught-place, in the house of Captain Trotter, of Dyrham 
 Park, for the purpose of giving Czerski the right hand of 
 fellowship, and of offering up earnest prayer on his behalf. 
 It was attended by about seventy persons ; among whom were 
 the Hon. Arthur Kinnaird, Captain Trotter, J. D. Paul, Esq.j 
 Wilbraham Taylor, Esq., Captain Caldwell, the Rev. G. Fisch, 
 the Rev. E. Frossard, the Rev. Dr. Steane, and the Rev. 
 Mr. Ewbank. 
 
 " Yours respectfully, 
 
 '* R. H. Herschell. 
 ''Edgware Road, Aug, 26, 1846." 
 
464 APPENDIX. 
 
 " Sir, — It will be gratifying to the Christian public to 
 learn, from J. Czerski's own words, his positive adherence to 
 the doctrine of the Trinity ; I therefore forward the enclosed 
 letter, which you will kindly insert in your journal. 
 " I am, Sir, yours respectfully, 
 
 " R. H. Herschell. 
 *^Newnham Street, Edgeware Road, Aug. 31, 1846." 
 
 COPY OF THE LETTER SENT BY THE REV. J. CZERSKI, 
 TO THE REV. RICH. ASPDEN, MOSLEY STREET, MAN- 
 CHESTER. 
 
 "Dear Sir, — From your letter of the 25th inst., it is 
 evident that you confound the rationalistic views of Ronge 
 and his partisans with the positive Christianity, to which, by 
 the grace of God, I adhere. 
 
 " I have no part with Ronge, who denies the Trinity in 
 unity ; and must therefore humbly entreat you not to put me 
 in one category with him. 
 
 " Your humble servant, 
 (Signed) " J. Czerski." 
 
 Messrs. Czerski and Post re-embarked for their native 
 land on Saturday, August the 29th. On the day preceding 
 their departure, they were entertained at a public breakfast 
 ^t the Guildhall Coffee-house, London, by a number of minis- 
 ters and gentlemen, chiefly connected with the congregational 
 denomination. The Rev. Dr. Henderson, President of 
 Highbury College, was in the chair ; and among the party 
 assembled, were the Rev. Drs. Burder, Archer, Campbell, 
 Jenkyn, and Carlile ; Robson, of Glasgow ; and Urwick of 
 Dublin ; Rev. Messrs. Binney, Burnet, Tidman, Freeman, 
 Blackburn, Redpath, Josias Wilson, Wells, Philip, Rose, 
 James, Mannering, Hunt, Littler, Stoughton, Ainslie, 
 Richardson, of London ; J. A. James, Birmingham ; Pringle, 
 Newcastle ; Luke, Chester ; Fletcher, Manchester ; J. Watts 
 
APPENDIX. 465 
 
 and J. T. Barker, of Springhill College ; Backhouse, Rod- 
 borough. ; Kennedy, Aberdeen ; and Smith and King, of 
 Ireland ; Thomas Thompson, Esq. : Joshua Wilson, Esq. ; 
 S. Morley, Esq. ; F. Wills, Esq., of Bristol; Josiah Conder, 
 Esq. ; Edward Swaine, Esq. 
 
 The two reverend strangers were accompanied by the Rev. 
 Ridley Herschell, their kind host, who introduced them to 
 the meeting, and acted as their interpreter. After breakfast, 
 Mr. Herschell gave a brief account of the circumstances 
 under which they had visited this country. Very injurious 
 representations had been circulated to the prejudice, more 
 especially of Czerski, which had been brought over to this 
 country; and on Czerski*s arrival, Mr. Herschell hospitably 
 received him into his house as a stranger in a strange land ; 
 but felt that he could not recognise him as a Christian brother, 
 until the truth or falsehood of these allegations had been 
 cleared up. Mr. Herschell briefly explained the nature of 
 the charges, which had been fully investigated at a private 
 meeting of noblemen and gentlemen convened for that purpose, 
 and most satisfactorily cleared up. The imputation of having 
 appropriated money contributed for building a church, was 
 disproved, by the receipted accounts having been submitted 
 to the government authorities ; and it was shown, that 
 Czerski had himself made pecuniary sacrifices for the object. 
 The calumnious charges of the Roman Catholics, founded 
 upon his marriage, were readily accounted for; and the 
 charge of having coalesced with Ronge and the Rationalists, 
 was shown to have no foundation. After a fortnight's close 
 and intimate intercourse, Mr. Herschell felt able to speak 
 very confidently as to his guest's uprightness of motive, 
 humility, and tenderness of spirit, evangelical views, and 
 godly sincerity ; and he was prepared, therefore, to recom- 
 mend him, as well as his companion, M. Post, to their 
 Christian fellowship. 
 
 Czerski then addressed the meeting in German, Mr. Her- 
 schell interpreting. He expressed, with much simplicity, 
 
466 APPENDIX. 
 
 his feelings, at being for the first time brought into contact 
 with true and sympathizing Christians, and his earnest 
 entreaty that he might be borne upon their hearts before the 
 Lord, seeing that he had to return to a field of fierce conflict, 
 where he had to engage against infidelity on the one hand, 
 and popery on the other. M. Post subsequently addressed 
 the meeting in a similar strain. The Rev. F. Watts, of 
 Spring-hill College, and the Rev. Dr. Henderson, then briefly 
 conveyed to the interesting strangers, in the German tongue, 
 the feelings of fraternal regard and Christian sympathy enter- 
 tained towards them by the friends present. 
 
 The Revs. Dr. Henderson, John Blackburn, and George 
 Rose, afterwards took the opportunity to present to Czerski 
 an address from the congregational pastors of London, which 
 will be found in a previous page. 
 
 A public meeting was also held on the evening of the same 
 day, at the Hanover-square Rooms, at which the Hon. W. F. 
 Cowper, M.P., took the chair. 
 
 The Rev. R. H. Herschell introduced Messrs. Czerski and 
 Post to a respectable and numerous audience. 
 
 Czerski was well received. His remarks were interpreted 
 by the Rev. R. H. Herschell. After a few prefatory obser- 
 vations, he proceeded to give his reasons for leaving the 
 Roman Catholic church. This part of his address simply 
 consisted of a renunciation of the Roman Catholic creed, and 
 of Scriptural reasons for adopting the Protestant faith. He 
 then proceeded to say, that in the Catholic church in Posen, 
 he had been ordained a Roman Catholic priest. After some 
 years officiating in that capacity, he left that communion, 
 carrying with him ten of his congregation. About four 
 weeks after his secession. Rouge's letter came out against 
 the holy coat. The Romish authorities then made attempts 
 to recover him to the Roman Catholic church ; and even 
 made an effort to carry him off at night privately from 
 his house at Schneidemiihl. Failing in this attempt, they 
 denounced him in all their churches, and adopted other 
 
APPENDIX. 467 
 
 descriptions of persecution. The movement progressed. So 
 many persons had left Rome, that it was found necessary 
 to hold a synodical convention at Leipsic. He attended at 
 that convention ; but found that they did not act up to their 
 original professions, but that they formed a new creed, called 
 the Leipsic confession. Those who follow Ronge, called 
 themselves the German Catholics, while he (Czerski) formed 
 a new body under the title of Christian Catholics. After a 
 few more observations, the reverend gentleman concluded 
 by expressions of gratitude for the kindness with which 
 he had everywhere been received since his arrival in this 
 country. 
 
 The chairman observed, that he understood Czerski had 
 expressed his concurrence in the new Prussian statement of 
 faith. It was accordingly read aloud, as follows : — 
 
 DECLARATION, TO BE INSERTED IN THE FORM OF ORDINA- 
 TION OF CANDIDATES OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH 
 OF PRUSSIA. PROPOSED AND VOTED BY THE GENERAL 
 SYNOD AT BERLIN, AUGUST, 1846. 
 
 " He who is lawfully called to the office of teaching in the 
 Evangelical Church, and is to be consecrated thereto by prayer 
 and the imposition of hands, must publicly declare that he 
 stands in the common faith of the church, and therefore, in 
 the first place, 
 
 " That he will neither take his own opinions, nor any 
 commandments of men whatsoever, but the Word of God in 
 the prophetical and apostolical writings, for the rule of his 
 teaching. 
 
 " Next, that, under God's assistance, he will continue faith- 
 fully and diligently in that interpretation of Holy Scripture, 
 which is carried on according to the laws of language by 
 the Holy Spirit, in unison with the confessions of the 
 Universal Church, and with the confessional books of the 
 
468 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Evangelical church, as testimonies of the fundamental facts 
 and fundamental truths of our salvation, and as types of sound 
 doctrine. 
 
 [" Here follows the answer of him who is to be ordered to 
 the question for his assent.] 
 
 "And since these fundamental facts and truths consist 
 chiefly in the following, I ask you, whether you, with the 
 Universal Church upon earth, confess God the Father, the Son, 
 and the Holy Ghost ? 
 
 " Next, whether, with the whole Evangelical Church, you df>, 
 in the first place,, confess Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son 
 of God, who emptied himseK, and took upon him the form of 
 a servant, as the only Mediator, seeing that, as a prophet sent 
 by God, mighty in words and works, he has proclaimed peace, 
 and as our eternal High-priest has, by his death, reconciled us 
 to God, being delivered for our offences, and raised again for our 
 justification, whereupon he sat down at the right hand of the 
 Majesty on high, and reigns for ever as the Head of the 
 Church, which he gathers and preserves by means of his word 
 and sacraments, through the Holy Ghost, who, being sent by 
 him into our hearts, teaches us to call Jesus our Lord, and to 
 know the grace which is given to us in him ? 
 
 " Secondly, whether you, through faith in these glad tidings 
 of the free grace of God in his beloved Son, will acknowledge 
 and confess that we are all sinners, but become children of 
 God through faith in Christ, in whom we, being justified before 
 God through grace, without merit of works, have the pledge 
 of an imperishable inheritance, which is laid up in heaven ; 
 and that we, through the same faith, which worketh by 
 love, and bringeth forth the fruits of the Spirit, are prepared, 
 by the daily renewing of our hearts, for the day of Jesus 
 Christ ? 
 
 ["Here follows the second 'Yes' of him who is to be 
 ordered."] 
 
 This having been read, 
 
 Czerski rose and said, " I testify before you that this Con- 
 
APPENBIX. 469 
 
 fession of Faith is also my Confession of Faith, and that of the 
 communities connected with me." 
 
 Professor Tholuck, and Pastor Martin (of the French 
 Protestant Church) having briefly expressed their satisfaction 
 with what had been said, especially on the Divinity of our 
 Saviour, 
 
 The meeting was addressed by Professor Tholuck, and by 
 Herr Post, the companion of Czerski, and also a reformed 
 Roman Catholic priest, and separated after a prayer from the 
 Rev. J. Herschell. 
 
 A collection was made at the door solely for the purpose of 
 defraying the expenses of the room; it being declared that, 
 although sums of money had been offered to Czerski te aid 
 him in his cause, that he had refused to accept of any money, 
 saying, that he had only come to England to open the eyes of 
 the people of England to the true state of the case. 
 
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