THE RELIGIOUS STRUGGLE IN GERMANY.

Evening Star, Issue 3444, 6 March 1874, Page 3

THE RELIGIOUS STRUGGLE IN GERMANY.

(from the Argus.) „ . * Berlin, December 23 Ibe contest between this Government and the Papacy has reached such a height that things cannot go much further. Before long one of the contending parties will be obliged to gve m. I have no doubt in my own mind that the Pope will succumb, and that he will soon reahze the necessity of making his peace.” Ihese remarkable words were uttered the other day by a hberal member in the Prussian Lower House. They convey an accurate idea of the present state of things, though they, perhaps, are less reliable m what they pretend to foreshadow m the future. That the crisis is coming qn is apparent from the daily occurrence of the gravest events; that the Government, being by the vast majority of the nation, Will be victorious in the end, is very likely too, but there is as yet nothing to show that the Vatican thinks of abandoning the proud position assumed some years ago, and submitting its divine wisdom ” to the decrees of a mere secular power. Whether we look at the confidence displayed by the Pope up to the latest hour, or whether we consider the reluctance an infallible agent must necessarily exporience to withdraw his words, we are uniformly driven to the conclusion that Rome has nailed her colors to the mast, and will hardly haul them down while the present captain governs W B° od . jhip. The last few weeks W® fresh evidence of unshaken Msqlve in the ecclesiastical camp. Following up his recent letters to the German Emperor, hia Holiness has issued an encyclical, denouncing the Government of this country as Sagan, maliciously wicked, and bent upon the estruction pf the Church of God. Of course b? adds, the. Church has nothing to fear from 9.f the heAtheh.'’ The German W tb tyranny of the ftlar ariTh apd topir flocks, though sorriy icted, Piously side with those providentially appointed to show, them the way to heaven. Now this certainly does not savor of submission. On the contrary, it encourages the bishops to set aside the law of the land, on the ? round that that Jaw is not approved by the pjje, and it all but directly incites the people to iipitate the bishops, and rebel. , In strict keeping with these strenuous admonitions is the attitude of the Pope’s servants throughout |b }®Wth tad bjeadih of the country. •••iN’dt a nugle' Dikho'p Will" allow the' Government’" to Kok after the literary education of the priests. Hot a single clergyman will admit that the Government which salaries him is entitled to gparfl against the appointment pf notorious ppfitical agitators to the cure of souls. Not a. monk put will protest against exclusion from the ranks of the working clergy, for whose duties be was never educated. Accordingly, fresh precautions are daily ordered by the authorities. Already the fines incurred by clerical recusants cannot amount to loss than 200,000 thalers or so. This is certainly not a large sum to raise for so rich and giwerful a Church as the Roman Catholic, owever, as its representatives do not acknowledge the justice of the sentence passed, executions have to be put in, and sheriffs sent out with orders to geize sell, Tfli now lb toeehi in no - particular Jj'jry.'to : toovo. for distraining, or a.couple of whops’would have had their mansions entirely cleared out, their horses gone, and their carnages handed over to the highest bidder era Hr?! Blit eycn with ’this forbearance, someof f netu will‘soon find* thnieselves - stripped"' of all Ihem valuables, ‘’ when imprisonment will have to : bp-substituted fprthe fine that cahpot be PW<h apd the right reverend fathers will be Ipdged in gapl. Ip the case of some of the lower clergy things have already got so far that they nave gone 'to prison without their ?whopS T bolping them tp nay the trifle of same L2O oy L3Q m which- they r bad been mulcted. Unless the bishops are Jess carfpl of their dependents’ liberty than of their own, we must expect, to see - them exhibit the like firmness Where their personal freedom is endangered- a policy which fa pretty sure to locate them all in prison before months are over, If such fa the determination evinced by one in the quarrel, the other, it cannot be denied, is gradually serewing up its courage to a similar pitch of resolve. Steps of supreme impprtance have been taken by the Government to the course e f the last few daya. A royal decree has been, issued, declaring that no bishop will henceforth be allowed tq officiate vmlesa he swears absolute ajlegianpe to the king and the law of the land. Simultaneously with the promulgation of this decree, the candidates for the-vacated see of Fulda have been given to understand that they need not trouble themselves to apply for confirmation by the King, unless they are prepared to take the new fiatk Again a Bill na ß he p hj introduced into'the Lqwgr Hquse, prgyidihg 'that the regfatraftftn of births, death's, and' marriages be P?npefprih placed tbe hands' of the pl Y il authorities, and, that the cjepgy of the various recognised denominations, so long exclusively entrusted with this task, need not he applied to to the future at all- Besides this, there is another Bill looming in the background, and likely to be brought forward soon after Christmas, enabling the courts of law to inflict per* Bonal imprisonment instead of fines upon re* calcitrant clergymen. It fa difficult to say Which is the most important of these innovations. Bishops having hitherto taken an oath W allegiance tp the Eraperpr and'the Pope, equates fpr the episcopal office are sure to refuse to engage that they will henceforth have po other master than the law of the land. If this auticlpation,iß correct, it follows that sees faffing,empty will notbofiUed up again. Add e3datin » laws * on ® bishop, wffi be deposed* few weeks hence, and probably, follow su t. before the advent of spring, and we. find ourselves face to faceto a state of things which bodes the entire . th ? episcopal function at no very .distant future. Such acts being thatthe Government Should; wish, to he:able to shut up the men. whom they will cause to be dismissed, lest thev. gP# l We the duties taken frpm them. ftVaett td'-hh W§tripatroaPy deprived Qf those of its higher qignitanes who will not conform to- the law' while-the lower clergy are threatened with iml prißomnent each time they defy the law in their humbler sphere, another and even more powerful means-of coercion fa resorted to, by emancipating society. at a single blow, from the clerical supervision under which it has hitherto •tood. under the present statutes, which have existed for something like 200 years, no man be haarried or buried in Germany except withthe'eonsentof his parish clergyman; no man dan have the birth of his children registerea, unlest he has had them previously baptizea. by the pastor of his church; and no boy or girl can enter upon the active duties of Jifo, 91 to.j Pto take put a marriage license, unless S?®¥ ld g d Hjth a iesiamoi^af' WpaLS 8 * 1 * .^ e B .a m e spiritual guide, In fr ue « these rogular»nHa«+d not people particularly dethe, The latter being * > eir “"ties in all ordinary wm to -°J courße > the only trouble Bu ? Xt was ' otherwise in Cathohc 0f keaven, vouchsafed the only on their own terms. If a Y attend church or confesOiWi’U W «dnbt joifl a jeJigtovw broWerhbod,

or send his children to the evening class of some famous monk, he must expect to encounter difficulties on requesting the services of the priest. If a woman married a Protestant, if she was remiss in her contribution of Peter’s pence, or allowed a rich aunt to die without a legacy for the reverend fathers close by, she would certainly have to repents her shortcomings before death, or may be, give her relatives posthumous trouble about her burial. Without adducing any more details of this painful description, I think I shall be credited when I say that a very considerable portion of the influence possessed by the Catholic clergy in this country was based upon the secular power thus vested in their offices. Though they might refrain frsxn rendering themselves obnoxious to the rich and the cultivated, who would have raised an outcry, which it was always better to avoid, they certainly found it easy enough to govern the the poor, and render them amenable to their iniuiictions. By the new Registration Bill, which will be law in a few weeks hence, all is changed at once. The clergy are stripped of their power to influence the worldly interests of their flocks. The laity are emancipated from the dictates of the priest interfering with family life, and both are placed in relations in which none but religious motives can influence the parishioner to do the pastor’s bidding What this means in a country like this need hardly be explained. Were Prussia orthodox, the priest might hope to retain his influence, even after the loss of his secular position among the constituted authorities of the State. As it is, nine-teuths of all educated Catholics siding with the Government in the present ecclesiastical quarrel, thereby prove they have ceased to believe in the Pope, were such proof needed at all in the case of people who never go to church. The humbler classes are less independently inclined, and in some parts may be regarded as earnestly adhering to the ancient as well as the modern tenets inculcated hy the vicars and chaplains of their villages. But will this always remain so \ With the elementary schools lately withdrawn from clerical supervision, with civil life freed from the doxninaJ 11 ?? 1 j. Church, and a sceptical and latitudmarian spirit rife in every province of this rapidly changing land, it is hardly to be expected that the Pope will hold his own now that he has provoked such radical measures being taken against him. The very fact of the Government resorting to such extreme proceedings sufficiently demonstrates the confidence they have in the support of the people at, large. If the Prussian Catholics displayed anything like the zeal attributed to them by Pope and bishops in their pastosals, Government would not dare to aim at bringing on contingencies calculated to shake the very foundations of the Church. But they were well aware that they risk nothing at a time when educated Catholics cannot be prevailed upon, to sign an address in favor of the Pope, and when the priests dare not get up petitions among the lower orders, lea* it should become manifest whence their adherents are all but exclusively recruited. I must not dismissjthe subject without adding a word on the probable consequences of the registration law, as it affects the Protestant Church. It being altogether impossible to legislate for the- Catholic Church alone in a country in which the two denominations have long been on a footing of absolute equality, the new bill extends to the Protestants, and indeed Dissenters also. Such being the case, it is easy to foresee that its influence will be more directly felt in Protestant than’in Catholic quarters. There is no denying the fact that the latitudinanamsm which makes educated Catholics hereabout mdiferept to anything the Pope ?ay B ay pr do, - is aq ‘riiippani among thereformed portidn of society as among the Popish. .Nay, mpre, whereas with the Catholics it is principally confined fo the upper and middle classes, it infects a krge seoflpa mechanics and jigrmulturists with the Protestants. lam only Uttfrmg a notorious truth when I affirm that the vast majority of the whole people, no matter what denomination they belong to, have for years past never set foot in a church except when they were married or confirmed, or had their children baptized as prescribed by law. Iho new Registration Bill severs the last tie which bound them to the religion of their forefathers. .Independently of the Catholic ques“,o*V 4 he A sfc ep therefore is a most serious one to the Protestant portion of the community, and for this latter reason alone would have been eschewed by the could they * wydJthef way out of the difficulty. But'they believe theyhave reason to suspect that the Pope would not have aspired to spiritual omnipotence in Germany were he not intent upon Undermining the fguudatious upon whichjhe'ne;y taitod has been erected; ImpeDed-by this exciting qphviction. Government feel justified in adopting the most effective moans _of defence, even though the sc long pursued with regard to both Churches should have to be sacrificed in the process. (To be continued )