{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_37706/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_37706","id":"gutenberg_37706","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37706","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - European","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Dom (Trier, Germany)","German Catholicism","Holy Coat"],"text":"Produced by David Widger\n\n\n\n\n\n\nJOHN RONGE\n\nTHE HOLY COAT OF TREVES\n\nNew German-Catholic Chruch\n\n\n\"How has the Devil dressed up dead bones, garments, and vessels, into\nthe holy bones, garments, and vessels! How confidently have people\nbelieved all impudent liars! how have they crowded on the pilgrimages!\nAll this the Pope, the Bishops, the Priests, and the Monks, have\nconfirmed--or, at all events, they have been silent,--and quietly\nreceive the money and the offerings, whilst the people go astray 'What\nresults have been brought about by this parading at Treves of the Coat\nof Christ.\"\n\nLuther's Warning, in reference to this very Coat of 1814.\n\nTHOMAS NELSON EDINBURGH:\n\nAND PATERNOSTER ROW,\n\nLONDON.\n\nSOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. MDCCCXLV.\n\n\n\n\nJOHN RONGE AND THE HOLY COAT OF TREVES\n\n\n\n\nTHE HOLY COAT.\n\nWe believe that the best way to introduce our subject is to quote some\nfew passages from the authorized document published at Treves, with\nspecial reference to the ceremonial which took place in that Cathedral,\ngiving an account of the history of the Holy Goat, and explaining and\ndefending the step which the Church was about to take in the matter. The\nfollowing are a few extracts:--\n\n\"Thirty-four years have now elapsed since our city found within its\nwalls 200,000 strangers, all actuated by a pious longing after this holy\nrelic, before which they might present their adoration, and, in lively\nfeelings of devotion, strengthen themselves in the faith and the love\nof the Lord. The order which prevailed during the whole ceremony, though\nnightly between twenty and thirty thousand persons were quartered in\nthe city--the universal devotion and edification manifested by the\npilgrims--still live in the recollection of all those who witnessed\nthe ceremony from its beginning to its close. * * Meanwhile, since\nthis period, the youth of our city have grown to ripe manhood; and,\naccordingly, they have expressed the wish that the venerable relic\nshould be once more exhibited. These pious wishes could not remain\nunknown to our worthy Bishop, who, indeed, had previously resolved\nto meet them. Before his consecration in 1842, when he met Prince\nMetternich in Coblentz--who is, from reasons known only to few, in\npossession of one of the holy nails, and who then promised to restore\nthat which was the rightful property of the Cathedral of Treves--the\nBishop had determined to signalize the event of the restoration of the\nHoly Nail, by exhibiting both the Nail and the Coat to the religious\nworship of the people. But the promised return of the nail has not yet\ntaken place, although the confidence placed on the promise of the Prince\nstill allows us to cherish this hope. Notwithstanding, as this could\nnot be the case, in the present year, the Bishop resolved to satisfy the\ngeneral desire expressed for the exhibition of the holy coat.\"\n\nFrom the historical inquiry it appears, according to the author, that\nthis said relic was brought by Helena, the mother of Constantine, from\nthe Holy Land, in the fourth century, and deposited in the Cathedral\nof Treves, which was then the residence of the emperors, and the most\nfamous city in the empire, after Rome itself. It lay in concealment till\nthe 9th century. To Frederick I. is attributed the honour of reviving\nthe attention of the Church and people to the great treasure of their\ncathedral and city. After being again 300 years concealed, Maximilian\nI., to give pomp and distinction to a _diet_ held in the city, caused\nit to be exposed to the adoration of the inhabitants. In the three\nfollowing centuries, (16th, 17th, and 18th,) the occasion of its\nexhibition was the holding of the German Diet, when the city was filled\nwith princes and princesses, as well as crowds of devout pilgrims. In\nthe period of the French Revolution, it fared ill with the holy coat.\nIt was, according as danger threatened, carried to the fortress\nof Ehrenbreitstein. On the new political organization of the Rhine\nprovinces, it was made the subject of earnest diplomatic transactions\nbetween Nassau, France, and Bavaria--the last Elector of Treves, and\nthe Bishop, Carl Maunay; and the Church of Treves has to thank its\nBishop--whose requests Napoleon did not generally refuse--for the\nrecovery of much of their possessions, and for the restoration of this\nrelic, the most valuable of them all.\n\nAfter being concealed for centuries, the first public representation\ntook place in 1196. In 1514, Leo X. issued a bull, proclaiming _complete\nabsolution of sin to all who, in the proper spirit, made a pilgrimage to\nTreves, and contributed to the expenses of the spectacle_.\n\nAfter a great deal about the history of the coat with its various\nexhibitions, and a defence of the worship of relics, the Address closes\nas follows:--\n\n\"The believing sight of this pre-eminently sacred relic, with\nwhich stand connected, in a manner so immediate and impressive, the\nassociations with the whole life and sufferings of the Saviour, must at\nonce cause many overpowering thoughts and feelings to be awakened in the\nsoul, so that one must feel himself involuntarily torn asunder by them,\nand believe that he is placed in the immediate presence of the body of\nour Lord. * * In all these lively associations, the Christian believes\nthat he hears the voice of Him who wore this raiment, proclaiming the\nwords of eternal truth, and exhorting sinners to repentance; he believes\nthe holy garment encompassed with that brilliancy of light which on\nMount Tabor made Peter exclaim, 'It is good to be here;' he believes\nthat it is covered with that sweat which bedewed his face on the Mount\nof Olives. Hence the phenomenon that often hardhearted men were led,\nby the sight of the holy coat, and the feelings of devotion thereby\nawakened, to turn into themselves; their heart has melted like ice\nbefore the heat of the sun, and thus have they been brought back to God\nand his means of grace in the Church. O! may many such miracles take\nplace in these days, which are now approaching. May God bless the\nresolutions of the faithful, who come on a pilgrimage to our venerable\ncathedral, guide their steps on the road to the august sanctuary, and\ninfuse devotion and love into their souls!\"\n\nSuch is the spirit of the authorized document, issued under the\nauspices of the ecclesiastical authorities at Treves; and it may well\nbe questioned, whether, in the most gloomy periods of Catholic\nsuperstition, anything has appeared which savoured more of all that is\ndegrading and blasphemous in the system. On the 6th of July 1844,\nthe general announcement of what was to take place was made, with the\nregulations to be observed by the different processions of pilgrims.\nAfter stating their joy at the proposed spectacle, the chief\nannouncement is made as follows:--\"This holy relic will accordingly be\nexhibited for a period of six weeks, beginning with the 18th August, in\norder to satisfy the desires of those who may have the pious intention\nof proceeding to Treves, to worship the holy garment of our divine\nSaviour by immediate view, each of whom will, according to the bull of\nPope Leo X., dated 26th January 1514, receive _complete absolution_. * *\nAccordingly, we intimate to all within the bishopric, what we believe\nto be called for, that there should not be a too numerous streaming\ntogether of the faithful on the same day, causing disorder and\nconfusion; and also that no neighbourhood may be deprived to too great\nan extent of its inhabitants. Accordingly, it is required that two\nseparate days be allocated for each part of the bishopric, so as to\ndivide the number of those who intend to come to Treves; and also that\nthe localities for particular days be so arranged as to prevent the\ncrowding together of too many pilgrims on the same line of road.\" Then\nfollow fourteen regulations to carry out these views, the whole signed\nby the Vicar-General.\n\nThe long-looked for day at length arrived. The whole country was in\ncommotion, and from many hundred places at once the pilgrimages began.\nEvery possible arrangement had been made by the authorities of Treves\nfor the reception of, and maintenance of order among the vast and\nmotley assemblage that streamed hither and thither, to take part in\nthe ceremonial. It was a period when devotion was worked up into a wild\nenthusiasm, and all for the time, whatever their age, or sex, or land,\nor character might be, were hurried along by the same frenzied zeal, and\nfelt the ordinary differences of life and society to vanish before the\naugust ceremony that for the time had assimilated all classes of the\nfaithful. On the morning of the 18th August, all the bells in the\nchurches were made to announce that the ceremony had actually begun. The\nsteamers on the Moselle were crowded with passengers, who disembarked\namid the discharge of cannon. All kinds of vehicles, in addition to the\nregular post-conveyances, were called into requisition, and the romantic\nappearance and interest of the whole was enlivened and enhanced by the\nmotley groups of pilgrims, in all varieties of costume, who had made\nthe journey on foot. Pontifical High Mass was performed by Dr. William\nArnoldi. An oration by Dr. Braun followed, bearing upon the great event\nof the day. Then came the elevation and exhibition of the holy\nrelic; and at ten o'clock the procession of the pilgrims commenced.\nGens-d'armes were stationed without, the clergy of the cathedral\nwithin,--whilst, in the immediate neighbourhood of the relic, was a\nguard of honour, composed of the most respectable of the citizens, and\nrecognised by their silk sashes over the shoulder, in the yellow and red\ncolours of the city. Benches were placed from the portal on the right\nside of the cathedral, to the choir, and between these the procession\nmoved. Each of the pilgrims was allowed to stand a short time before the\nrelic, yet so vast was the concourse, that between one and two thousand\nare reported to have passed in the short space of an hour.\n\nThe relic itself was placed near the altar in a gold frame, with a glass\nfront at a considerable distance from it; its shape resembling a French\nblouse,--the colour somewhat brown--though the poor peasantry were\ntaught to believe that to every eye it presented a combination of\ncolours entirely distinct. An opening was made on each side of the\nframe, to allow the hand to come in contact with the relic; and whatever\ndid touch it, was believed to acquire a peculiar sanctity. A deep basin\nwas placed in front, to receive the offerings of the pilgrims, which\nwere to be given to the Cathedrals at Treves and Cologne, and to a\nCatholic seminary in the former city.\n\nNo certificate of creed was required, so that the crowds of Protestants,\nwho were drawn from mere curiosity, had the fullest opportunity of\nseeing what was to be seen. The ceremony continued daily, during the\nwhole six weeks, for twelve hours, and was opened and closed by the\nchime of the cathedral bells. At the commencement the weather was fine,\nbut in a few days it became quite unsettled and stormy; yet nothing\ncould damp the long-cherished ardour of the pilgrims. Band after\nband advanced, and, like the crusaders of old, all the sufferings and\nhardships of the journey were forgotten as they approached the Holy\nCity. The fatigues of long travelling were so far relieved by addresses\nfrom the clergy who marched with their parishioners, and still more by\nthe sacred music which, ever and anon, filled the air. Vast bodies of\nclergy, from distant parts, arrived to take part in the ceremonial with\nthe general body of the faithful, and, afterwards, share in the heavy\nduties of the Mass and the Confessional, as required for such an\nextraordinary occasion. At last, to complete the arrangements, on the\nevening of the 23d, an immense banner, with a red cross on a white\nground, was elevated to the top of the cathedral, to direct the weary\nsteps of the pilgrims, and to cheer their hearts as they approached the\naugust city. So vast occasionally was the concourse, that on some days\nnot fewer than about 20,000 were quartered within the walls. Fortunately\nsuch arrangements had been made with regard to the supplies of\nprovisions, that but a small rise of price in the necessaries of life\nwas perceptible, which is certainly remarkable, when it is stated that\nin one week, at least 150,000 strangers visited the city, and in the\nwhole time about 1,200,000. Truth also requires the remark--that, taken\nas a whole, matters were conducted with general decorum and regularity,\nthough it requires but little knowledge of human nature to see that\nwhere there was such a miscellaneous concourse of people, often ill\nfed and ill lodged, the ordinary regulations and observances of society\nwould be disregarded, and a strong encouragement and temptation be given\nto immorality and crime. Although it was officially stated that there\nwas accommodation in the city and neighbourhood for 20,000 persons,\nstill all the powers of military police, and clergy combined, could not\nprevent many mournful scenes of misery and vice. It is, by the way, a\nmost significant fact that, along with the announcement now mentioned\nthere was added, under equally official authority, the urgent request\nthat \"_all citizens and strangers should avoid all criticism on\nreligious matters or opinions_.\" If anything were required to convince\none that the high authorities of Treves were afraid of the effects of\nfree discussion, or even doubtful allusion to what might well make the\nmost bigoted inquisitive, this significant sentence is sufficient.\nSuch were the scenes which, with every variety of incident, were being\nenacted at Treves--a melancholy exhibition of priestly power to give\ncurrency and strength to superstition and blind idolatry, as well as of\nthe state of passive submission on the part of the people, to all that\nthe Church, in the arrogance of its blasphemies, may command. The voice\nof politics was, for a time, hushed--the busy commerce of the city, and\neven the harvest labours of the field were silent--everything like this\nworld's occupations and concerns were all alike neglected, to give pomp\nand emphasis to the sad spectacle of men's faith deceived and led astray\nby a piece of an old garment. Not merely from the poor villages in the\nvicinity, but from the enlightened towns on the Rhine, from Coblentz,\nand Bonn, and Cologne, the processions of pilgrims came. Take one\nspecimen:--On the evening of the 22d September, a most numerous\nprocession, which had left Cologne nine days before for Treves,\nreturned. This procession was composed chiefly of the lowest classes,\nwith a vast proportion of women of every age. A body of white-dressed\ngirls had advanced a long way to meet the procession, bearing all kinds\nof church emblems in their hands--crucifixes, flowers, anchors, hearts,\n&c. The pilgrims were all supplied with medals and engravings of the\nHoly Coat, as well as with small books containing an account of its\nhistory and miracles. These were people who looked poor and miserable,\nand who evidently had not the means to undertake such a journey, and\nyet, such was the passion for visiting Treves, that the pawnbrokers\nreaped a rich harvest from the desperate attempts made to collect money\nenough to supply their bare wants during their absence from home, and to\ngive their votive offerings to be applied as before mentioned. Cases the\nmost heart-rending have been published of poor people parting with their\nlast possessions to obtain means for the journey, from which they looked\nfor such marvellous results. The sick even were carried thither, with\nthe firm belief that they would be healed; and the debased devotion of\nthe pilgrims broke out in such expressions--\"Holy Coat, we pray to thee.\nHoly Coat, pray for us,\" and the like. The higher classes, of course,\nconsulted their own convenience in their modes of travelling, employing\nthe Rhine and Moselle steamers or their private conveyances; but it is\nmelancholy to think, that such vast bodies of the respectable classes\ndid lend their influence to these unholy exhibitions.\n\nBut without entering into farther details let us hasten to the closing\nscene on the 7th October. At 2 p.m. the doors of the Cathedral were\nclosed, and the ceremony of removing the holy relic from public view\nproceeded with in presence of the whole body of the clergy. At four the\ndoors were re-opened, and Bishop Arnoldi delivered a discourse, to a\nvast audience, on the \"_Unity of the Church._\" At its close, began\nthe procession of the civil officials, of teachers of all grades, of\nmerchants and artisans, and of the guard of honour, dressed in black,\nwith wax torches, through the transept into the choir, to join in the\n_Te Deum_. After the hymn of St. Ambrose had been sung, accompanied by\nthe thunder of the cannon and the pealing of all the bells in the city\nand neighbourhood, the general procession advanced through the chief\nstreets of the city. The committee were in front, followed by the guard\nof honour; they were succeeded by the different fraternities, all with\nwax candles--a strong choir of singers, then vast crowds of the people,\nwith the various trades, each with their peculiar flags and emblems.\nThey proceeded through the chief parts of the city to the palace of the\nBishop, which was brilliantly illuminated. He, accompanied by the head\nBishop of Verdun and the dignitaries of the Cathedral, dispensed\nthe benediction. Then advanced from the arch-diocese of Cologne\na torch-procession, accompanied by instrumental music. The whole\nproceedings were closed by the chorus,--\"Lord God! we praise thee,\" in\nthe Cathedral. The chief streets of the city were illuminated in the\nevening, and the grand organ continued pealing. In the middle window of\nthe Cathedral where, in former times, the exhibition of the relic had\ntaken place, was a transparency of the Cross, with splendid emblematic\ndevices.\n\nWhile all this was going on within the Cathedral, outside there was\neverything to call the mind of the devotee from the scene in which\nhe had taken part; for, in addition to the jostling and bustle of\nthe crowded city, there was everything in the way of the ordinary and\nextraordinary sights of a fair, to make him forget the feelings\nand object of his pilgrimage. Menageries, panoramas, plays, &c, all\nsolicited the attention and money of those assembled, equally with the\nmusic and services of the Cathedral.\n\nThe bishops who had officiated during the ceremonial from first to\nlast, were those of Metz, Nancy, Verdun, Luxembourg, Spires, Limburg,\nOsnabrueck, Muenster, Cologne, with several from Holland. Each bishop\nentered the city amid the ringing of the church bells. The pilgrims from\nFrance did not enter the city in processional order, but their clergy\nwere numerously represented. During the whole period, processions to the\ncity were not uncommon. Controversies between several of the journals,\nas to many occurrences connected with the proceedings, have taken place.\nCharges have been advanced, and as flatly contradicted, so that we do\nnot feel called on to detail either the nature of the charges or the\ndefence. It is easy enough admitting exaggeration on both sides.\n\nIt only remains to notice the inseparable adjuncts of such\nproceedings--the _miracles_ which are said to have been effected. To a\nProtestant, who has not spent some time in a Catholic country, it must\nseem in the highest degree strange to hear of solemn statements,\nby opposite newspapers in support of, or in opposition to, certain\npretended miracles; nay, not only so, but to have counter-medical\ncertificates pitted against each other on the issue. Yet all this has\nlately been done. It would be worse than useless to recite the floating\nstories which one hears in the neighbourhood, about Protestant clergymen\ndying suddenly in the full possession of health, for having denounced\nthe whole thing as a piece of imposture to a body of passing pilgrims,\nor of the many miraculous cures of sight, lameness, and the like. Yet,\nthat all this is fact, any intelligent and inquiring tourist of the\nRhine can testify. One case, in particular, created great interest,\nthat of the Countess Droste-Vischering, a relation of the Archbishop of\nCologne, who has been for many years unable to walk without the use of\ncrutches, but who, after beholding the Holy Coat, was enabled, to the\nwonderment of all, to walk home unassisted. The plain truth comes out\nfrom her medical adviser,--that she had been long suffering from a\ndiseased knee-joint, that she resolved at all hazards to go to Treves,\nand that, while in a fit of ecstasy before the relic, she had excited a\ndegree of energy, in stretching or bending the diseased limb, which had\ngiven the temporary relief, by relaxing the long rigid muscles. Since\nthis period she has had relapses, and is, we believe, now using the\ncrutches, which had been too hastily hung up in the Cathedral as a\nthank-offering for her marvellous restoration. Yet this simple story\nis paraded about and magnified into a miracle, to give still greater\n_eclat_ to the Holy Coat and the church ceremonies connected with it.\nIt would be useless to enter into other details, when all are equally\nbarefaced. The above case may be selected as a rather better than\naverage specimen of the popish miracles of the continent.\n\nAnd now, in finishing this part of the subject, we may be allowed\nto quote the opinion of one of the great organs of German\nCatholicism:--\"Who can deny that this exhibition of the Holy Coat has\nbeen an event for the Rhine provinces and the West of Europe, which,\nin its consequences, must be of the greatest moment, whilst, for its\ngrandeur, in church history it is unprecedented? Proceeding from a small\ncircle, it has already embraced a wide circumference in its influence.\"\nAfter enumerating the quarters from which the crowds of pilgrims\nflocked, he proceeds:--\"Who shall name those, principally from the\nhigher classes, who came as single pilgrims from distant cities and\nlands, and what language do all these bands speak? They proclaim the\ntriumph of faith over a system of false enlightenment; the victory\nof the newly-awakened elements of the day over all overthrowing\ntendencies--in a word, they proclaim the power of the Church, which\nhas brought together such vast bodies of men, separated among so many\nprinces by language and habits, yet made to act as the members of one\nand the same body.\"\n\nWe now turn to the more pleasing part of the subject, the statement of\nthe more striking particulars connected with the late re-action against\nthis God-dishonouring spectacle. It was impossible that a movement so\nsingular and extensive should escape being made the subject of general\nnewspaper remark and criticism. And, as the fact has proved, it has\nbeen argued and re-argued in a hundred ways by Catholic and Protestant\njournals, so that the whole bearings of the case, and the positions\nof all the different political and religious parties in the country in\nrelation to it, have been brought and kept steadily before the public\nmind. This, it is clear, can be but seldom realized where the State\nputs its _imprimatur_ upon the full freedom of the press, and where,\nin consequence, _public opinion_ is but struggling for existence and\ndefinite expression, instead of being, as in Britain, the one element\nwhich overrules and directs the movements of the whole social system.\n_We_ can appreciate the effects of _free inquiry_;--and when we know\nthat this is now being unsparingly applied to the workings of that\nsystem, which \"loves the darkness rather than the light,\" we may,\nunder God's guidance and blessing, be allowed to look for new and large\nresults, in the way of the exposure of errors, which have the sanction\nof long centuries of ignorance, and of great preparatory movements at\nleast, for the reception of the truth as it is in Jesus. This is one\ngreat point gained; and if the spirit of inquiry, which has now been\nexcited, could be but well directed, we might already rejoice in the\nProtestant prospects of Germany. That men feel unsatisfied with _what\nis_, is manifest--that feelings long kept under, are now obtaining clear\nand full expression--that men are being undeceived in having so long\nbelieved a lie, and often in agony of spirit are seeking for the simple\ntruth to bring peace to their souls--all this, and much more is evident,\nand calls loudly for our active sympathies and prayers.\n\nA few points call for especial notice:--\n\nVery many of the _Catholic_ journals have taken their stand against the\nlate scenes at Treves. It is true, that several of those Journals may\nhave been actuated by secondary motives in so doing, or what is the\nnotorious fact, that some, at least of such Journals, want almost\nentirely a religious character; and though Catholic in name, are infidel\nin fact. Still it is equally notorious, that several of the Catholic\nJournals, whose orthodoxy is above suspicion, have lifted up their\nvoice against what has taken place, as scandalous to Christianity, and\neminently perilous to the Church.\n\nIn addition to the discussions which have appeared in the public\nprints, a vast mass of pamphlets has been issued on both sides. The\nmost remarkable of these is, one issued by two professors in Bonn,\n_Gildermeister and Sybel_ (the latter a Catholic,) entering into a\ngrave and learned historical inquiry as to the genuineness of the relic,\nexposing in the most triumphant manner the various defences which have\nappeared on the Catholic side,--and all characterized by the most severe\nsarcasm, in holding up the trumpery of the system of relic-worship to\ncontempt. The title of the book is \"_The Holy Coat of Treves, and the\ntwenty other Holy Coats_.\" A second edition was soon called for, in\nwhich four other such relics were stated as discovered. It is generally\nknown, that among these numerous claimants for genuineness, the great\nbody of the French clergy have bid hard to prove that the Coat of\nArgenteuil is the genuine one; and this view has been warmly defended by\none of the Catholic clergy of Einsiedeln in Switzerland--notoriously\none of the most celebrated places of pilgrimage in the world. More than\nthis, writings have appeared stating the events connected with the other\nrelics of the same name, and treasured with equal sanctity in numerous\nCathedrals; also giving an account of the separate and independent\nseries of miracles wrought by each as the true Coat of the Lord. It\nwould be tedious to detain the reader with more of such details. We\ndesire merely to notice the various workings of the movement in and out\nof the Catholic Church. It may accordingly suffice to state in addition,\nthat poetry as well as prose has been called into requisition, and\nthat satirical ballads and lyrics have been numerously circulated,\nand eagerly read by all parties. Many of them are filled with the most\nstinging remarks on the general position and moral character of the\nclergy.\n\nBut by far the most important element in the movement, and, in fact,\nthat which has determined its subsequent direction, has been the\nfollowing letter of John Ronge, priest in Silesia, dated Laurahuette, 1st\nOctober 1844, and entitled, \"Opinion of the Catholic Priest John Ronge,\non the Holy Coat of Treves:\"\n\nLaurahuette, October 1st.\n\nOpinion of a Catholic Priest in regard to the Holy Tunic at Treves.\n\n\"Christians of the nineteenth century,--you have heard--you know it--men\nof Germany--you know it--spiritual and temporal teachers of the German\npeople, that what would once upon a time have sounded in our ears as a\nfable or a fiction--is neither a fiction nor a fable, but real truth\nand verity. Bishop Arnoldi of Treves has exhibited for the adoration and\nreverence of Christians, a garment called the Tunic of our Lord!\n\n\"According to the last account, five hundred thousand persons have\nalready made a pilgrimage to see this relic, and every day fresh\nthousands flock to it, especially since the garment in question is found\ncapable of curing diseases and working miracles.\n\n\"The news has spread among the people of all lands, while certain\npriests in France maintain that they alone possess the real tunic of\nChrist, and that the one at Treves is an imposture. Truly the saying\nhere applies,--'He who can occupy his mind about such things without\nlosing his reason, has none to lose.' Five hundred thousand men--five\nhundred thousand intelligent Germans have--already hastened to see or to\nadore a piece of dress at Treves! The greater number of these thousands\nare from the lower orders of the people, and, besides, in deepest\npoverty,--oppressed, uneducated, stupid, superstitious, and in part\ndemoralized. They leave the cultivation of their fields, the labour of\ntheir workshops, the care of their households, the education of their\nchildren, to take part in a Heathen festival at Treves--a disgraceful\nspectacle, which the Romish Church displays before their eyes. Yes, it\nis a Heathen festival, for many thousands of the credulous multitude to\nrender to a piece of dress,--the work of human hands,--that regard and\nadoration which are due to God alone. And what pernicious consequences\nmust follow from these pilgrimages! Thousands of the pilgrims deprive\nthemselves of the necessaries of life to raise the money for their\njourney, and the offering which they make to the Holy Tunic--that is,\nto the clergy. They purchase it by sacrifices of their comfort, or by\nbegging--only to starve on their return; to suffer want, or to fall sick\nin consequence of the fatigues of the journey. If these external results\nare sufficiently melancholy, the moral consequences are far more so.\nWill not many of them, reduced to want by the expenses of their journey,\nendeavour to relieve themselves by unlawful means?\n\n\"Many wives and virgins sacrifice their purity of heart, their\nreputation, and their chastity, destroying thus the peace, the\nhappiness, and comfort of their families.\n\n\"In fine, this most unchristian exhibition but creates an inlet for\nsuperstition, hypocrisy, and fanaticism, with all the vice that follows\nin their train. Such is the blessing spread abroad by the exhibition\nof the Holy Tunic, and it is a matter but of small moment whether it be\ngenuine or false.\n\n\"And the man who publicly displays this piece of dress--the work\nof human hands--for reverent regard--who leads astray the religious\nfeelings of the credulous, ignorant, or suffering people--giving thereby\nan impulse to vice and superstition--who wrings their substance from\nthe poor and starving multitude--who entails on Germany the ridicule of\nother lands, and who draws more close together the heavy clouds which\nfloat already dark and dismally above our heads--this man is a bishop, a\nGerman bishop. It is Arnoldi, Bishop of Treves!\n\n\"Arnoldi, Bishop of Treves, I therefore turn to you, and demand, by\nauthority of my office and calling as a priest and teacher of the German\npeople--in the name of Christendom, in the name of the German nation,\nand in the name of its instructors--that you put an end to the\nunchristian spectacle of the exhibition of the Holy Tunic--and withdraw\nthis garment, that the offence which it has given may not be still\nincreased! For, do you not know--as bishop you ought to know--that\nthe Founder of the Christian religion left to his disciples and his\nfollowers not his coat but his spirit?--his coat, Bishop Arnoldi of\nTreves, belongs to his _executioners!_ Do you not know--as bishop you\nought to know--that Jesus taught--'God is a Spirit, and they who worship\nhim must worship him in spirit and in truth?' and He may be worshipped\neverywhere, not only in the temple at Jerusalem, on the Mount Gerizim,\nor at Treves, in presence of the holy tunic; do you not know--as bishop\nyou ought to know--that the Gospel expressly forbids the adoration of\nevery image and of every relic? that Christians in the Apostolic age,\nand in the three first centuries, suffered neither images nor relics\nin their churches (and _they_ might have had plenty of them)? that the\nworship of images and relics is a Heathen custom, and that the Fathers\nin the first three centuries abused the Heathens on account of it? We\nread, for instance, (Div. inst. 11., c. 2,) 'Neither do these besotted\nmen understand that if the images possessed life and motion, they would\nrather worship the man by whom they had been formed.' Lastly, do you\nnot know--as bishop you ought to know this also--that the vigorous and\nhealthy mind of the German people was first degraded to the worship of\nrelics by the Crusades in the 13th and 14th centuries? when the exalted\nconception of the Godhead which Christianity inculcates, had been\nobscured by all the lying marvels brought from eastern lands? Hark ye!\nBishop Arnoldi of Treves, you know all this, and better probably than I\ncan tell it to you. You also know the effects which superstition and\nthe idolatrous adoration of relics have worked among us, namely, the\nreligious and political bondage of Germany; and yet, you can display\nyour relics to the admiration of the multitude. And were it even\npossible you should be ignorant of all that I have told you,--that the\nsalvation of souls was your sole aim in the exhibition of this Holy\nTunic,--you would, notwithstanding, have two sins upon your conscience.\nIn the first place, it is unpardonable, if the garment in question\nactually possess saving power, that you have withhold its benefits from\nsuffering men until the present time. And, secondly, it is unpardonable\nthat you accept the offerings of these countless multitudes. And is it\nnot unpardonable that you, as bishop, should accept of money from our\npoor and starving people, especially when you have seen, not many weeks\nago, that hundreds have been driven by necessity to mutiny, despair, and\ndeath? Do not allow yourself to be deceived by the influx of thousands\nupon thousands, but, believe me, that while hundreds of thousands of the\nGerman people hasten with holy fervour (?) to Treves, _millions_,\nlike myself, are filled with horror and the deepest indignation by the\ndisgraceful spectacle. And this indignation prevails not in individual\nranks and parties, but among all classes--even in the Catholic\npriesthood. Judgment will overtake you, therefore, sooner than you think.\nArnoldi! the historian is already seizing his pen, to submit your name\nto the contempt of your contemporaries and of posterity, and stigmatizes\nyou as the Tetzel of the nineteenth century!\n\n\"And you, fellow-citizens of Germany, whether near or at a distance from\nTreves, unite your efforts to prevent the continuance of such an insult\nto the German name. You have various means of working, take courage and\nemploy them; endeavour each and all, with resolute determination, to\nencounter and restrain the tyrannous despotism of the Romish Church.\nFor it is not in Treves alone that the modern traffic in indulgences\nis carried on; you are aware that in the east and west, the north and\nsouth, rosary, mass, indulgence, burial moneys, and the like, are still\nincreasing, and with them spiritual darkness. Forward, then! Catholics\nand Protestants, together to the work! Our happiness, our honour, our\nfreedom are at stake. Do not the manes of your fathers, who stormed the\nCapitol, frown to see you suffer patiently the Castle of St. Angelo to\nlord it over Germany. Dishonour not the laurels of a Huss, a Huetten, and\na Luther. Give words to their ideas, and convert their will into deed.\n\n\"Finally, my colleagues, whose sole endeavours and desires are centred\nin the welfare of your congregations, the honour, the freedom, and the\nhappiness of your German countrymen, keep no longer silence! You sin\nagainst your reputation, your religion, and your fatherland, if you\nlonger hesitate to follow out your improved convictions. I have already,\nelsewhere, briefly addressed you, and shall therefore now conclude.\nProve yourselves the true disciples of Him who gave up all for truth,\nand light, and liberty. Show that you have inherited, not his garment,\nbut his spirit.\n\n\"Johannes Ronge, _Catholic Priest_.\"\n\n\nIt may be at once seen that this letter is the production of no ordinary\nman; and, at a glance, it cannot but remind us of him \"whose words were\nhalf battles.\" Few living Germans have such mastery over their language\nin all its native strength. It was just such a production,--short,\nnervous, and earnest,--that was required to give utterance to the\nslumbering thoughts and sympathies of thousands. Appearing in a distant\nand comparatively unknown part of Germany, it soon found its way\nwherever the German language was spoken, and, wherever it has found its\nway, there it has called forth a deep and hearty response. It has now\nbeen translated into various languages, and, despite all the preventive\nmeasures of police and clergy, it may now be found by the thousand all\nover Germany. It is not our present purpose to state in what points the\nviews of the author seem defective. Our immediate object is simply\nto lay before the reader some facts illustrative of the anti-Catholic\nmovement which has taken place, and is now advancing steadily. But first\na word about the course pursued with regard to the author. From events\nwhich had previously taken place in the Cathedral of Breslau, to\nwhich diocese he was attached, the suspicions of the ecclesiastical\nauthorities were not long in fixing upon Ronge as the author of\nthe above letter, which appeared anonymously in the _Saechsische\nVaterlands-blaetter_. His manly love of truth disdained equivocation\nor subterfuge, and, as the result of all, he was deposed and\nexcommunicated. A complete host of pamphlets were called suddenly into\nexistence by the daring letter of one who, calling himself a Catholic\npriest, had still the hardihood to asperse the character and cause of\nthe one all-holy Church, by attacking one of its most imposing rites,\nand treating with scorn and shame one of its consecrated bishops. Every\npossible charge, affecting his character as a student, as a clergyman,\nas a teacher, and as a man, was raked up against him. Those who had\nnot a tithe of his power of fierce and indignant invective, when truth\ncalled for the vindication of its claims, made up for the defect by\npersonal scurrility and the most vulgar abuse. His former associates in\nthe priesthood openly denounced him, to exculpate themselves from\nany supposed sympathy with the sentiments or with the man. A friend\ngenerously undertook his defence--who declares, that at the Catholic\nseminary he was distinguished by great diligence in his studies, as well\nas by the purity of his moral life; so much so, that the superintendents\nstated that they had seldom under their care a young man who sought to\nbecome acquainted with the truths of the Catholic faith with such a deep\nand holy earnestness. After a slight sketch of his doings in Breslau and\nGrottkau, he states, \"that every friend of his must feel persuaded that\nthe above letter proceeded from his inmost convictions. He is utterly\nincapable of falsehood, in word or deed; and, as regards moral\ncharacter, that he is, perhaps, too stringent towards himself, but mild\nand considerate to others. It was only the public wild proceedings of\nthe ultra-Montanists and Jesuits that filled him with holy indignation.\"\n\nRonge himself soon felt and saw the importance of the step which he had\ntaken. He was now beyond the pale of the Catholic Church, obliged to\nrelinquish all in defence of the truth, and exposed, from all quarters,\nto attacks which his conscience told him to be groundless. The cause of\ntruth, for which he had already suffered, again demanded that his voice\nshould be upraised; and this he does in the following _Justification_,\nwhich cannot but interest the reader as the autobiography of a\nremarkable man, but especially from the fearful disclosures which it\nmakes of the present state and actual workings of Romanism. All the\nfacts adduced with regard to his anguish of mind--his deep sense of\nthe spiritual bondage under which he lay--his inward and outward\nstruggles--his determined opposition to what he believed to be wrong\nand unjust--his plain but triumphant vindication of his conduct\nthroughout--all give a character of _truthfulness_ to the document,\nwhich is its best guarantee, and makes it emphatically _speak for\nitself_. It may enhance the interest of the following document to know\nthat it was soon prohibited by the censor of the press, notwithstanding\nthat the press of Leipsic is one of the freest in Germany:--\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\nIn the following pages are submitted to the unbiassed judgment and\nconsideration of my fellow-citizens and the Christian public, the\nvarious documents connected with my deposition and excommunication.\nIt is not therein my aim to vindicate my conduct in the eyes of the\n_so-called_ national teachers, or priests, or of the _so-called_\nCatholic Christians who are notoriously hypocrites, and who only\nfollow religion for a livelihood, or as a means of attaining power\nand eminence: to attempt my vindication before such as these would be\ndegrading to myself and to the nation. I desire a verdict of acquittal\nfrom those alone, who either have, or long to have, religion dwelling\nin their souls, and who are earnestly striving after light and truth,\nChristian love, and moral freedom. All such will acknowledge that I have\nfought a good fight, and not for myself alone; they will grant me their\nconfidence, that we may devote our united strength to the accomplishment\nof that great and desirable end, to the achievement of which we are\ncalled, as well by our holy profession, and our sense of duty, as by\nour care for the moral and temporal well-being of existing and of future\ngenerations. The Author.\n\n\n\n\nCHILDHOOD, SCHOOL DAYS, AND COLLEGE LIFE.\n\nI was born on the 16th October 1813, in Bischofswald, a village in the\ncircle of Neisse, and near the Giant Mountains. I was the third child of\nmy parents, who had ten others, of whom two died young. We were set to\nwork at an early age, and while my elder brother was employed in the\ncultivation of the farm, my father's little flock of sheep was placed\nunder my care and keeping, as the second surviving member of the family.\nSuch was my chief occupation between the ages of six and twelve, during\nspring, summer, and autumn, the winter being spent in the performance of\nother species of rural labour. My father was serious, fearless, of sound\njudgment, and devoid of superstition. He died in March 1842. My mother\nwas entirely devoted to the care of her family. She died in October\n1831. My earliest instruction was obtained in the village school of\nBischofswald, where the only branches taught, even in the highest class,\nwere reading, writing, arithmetic, and the learning by rote of the\nCatechism and Bible history. It was only during my last year at school\nthat I was instructed in geography and the history of Silesia. In\nmy lonely shepherd life my mind dwelt often on religious subjects (I\nstudied my Catechism and Bible history for the most part when in the\nfield with my flock) on the future life, on time and the eternity\nbeyond; and from such thoughts it acquired at times a melancholy tone.\nOne of my teachers persuaded my father to send me to the High School,\nwhich, owing to his numerous family, he would not otherwise have done.\n\nIn 1827, I entered the High School at Neisse, and left it in 1836. I had\nbut little taste for foreign languages, and could not form a friendship\nfor Horace or the other Romans; but, on the other hand, I delighted\nin history and German literature. Rotteck enchanted me. It was with\ninexpressible joy that I entered the University of Breslau. I felt and\nknew that I was free, and would indeed have been ashamed to waste my\ntime and freedom in idleness and sloth. Associated with a company of\nnoble-minded youths, it was our earnest endeavour to cultivate our\nminds,* and strengthen our bodies.\n\n     * After a somewhat different fashion, perchance, than that\n     prescribed by Rome.\n\nI chose theology as my profession, because I felt a strong leaning\ntowards teaching, for the gratification of which the holy calling\nappeared to me peculiarly suited. I somewhat feared its formalism,\nbut was not then acquainted, as I now am, with the compulsory and\nhypocritical system of the Romish hierarchy. Although several of my\nfriends endeavoured to dissuade me from the choice, I fancied myself\npossessed of such strength of character as would enable me not only to\nmeet the danger, but to turn it to account. My father, who made me so\nample an allowance, that beyond a small bursary, I needed no further\nassistance, left me free to choose. As I perceived, however, that his\nmeans of providing for my brothers and sisters were straitened by his\nliberality to me, and feeling desirous, also, not to diminish their\nfortune, I deemed it my duty to relieve my father, as soon as possible,\nfrom the sacrifice which I knew he made on my account. This was an\nexternal reason, and one, I do not blush to own, for determining to\nenter the Roman Catholic priesthood. And how many of the clergy are\nthere who can say, that in their choice of a profession, they have not\nbeen influenced by similar motives? While I was at the University I\nalso fulfilled my period of military service at Breslau, in the corps of\nsharpshooters, under Major von Firk.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SEMINARY.\n\nIn the month of December 1839, I was received into the Seminary, and\nentered on a period of mournful and painful conflict. The confidence I\nhad hitherto reposed in our spiritual teachers was soon expelled from\nmy breast by a nearer survey of their mode of life, and replaced by the\ndeepest horror and loathing, which seized me when I became aware how\nshamefully they abused religion, for the purpose of degrading and\nsubjecting the people to their will; when I saw by what a fearful veil\nof hypocrisy deceitful Rome surrounds us from our cradles to our graves;\nwhen I saw how the holiest ordinances are insultingly misused, to crush\nthe dignity of human nature. The disgraceful fetters galled me, which,\ntill now, I had not felt, and I perceived what many of my fellow\nsufferers endured, and all the more severely, the less they dared _avow_\nthe causes of their suffering. For the policy of Rome knows how to\nentwine in bonds from which there is no escape, all Christians who\nprofess its creed, and more skilfully than Moses, who once drew water\nfrom the barren rock, can conjure money from the impoverished people;\nbut their principal care and most consummate skill are constantly\ndirected towards their servants, that is to say, to the inferior clergy\nand _their_ education. The inferior clergy are so securely bound in\nspiritual and external fetters, that for the greater number it is almost\nimpossible to escape. The peculiar and appropriate armoury for these\ndegrading bonds is the College or Seminary for priests. It is there that\nthe youth, who wishes to devote himself to the teaching of the people,\nhas the brand of slavery stamped deep and painfully upon him; it is\nthere that he is condemned to holy idleness; it is there that his spirit\nis fettered, and bowed to blind obedience by superstitious dread and\nsacred statutes; it is there that he is inoculated in heart and soul\nwith hypocrisy and selfish egotism; it is there that man is degraded\nto the condition of a slave, and becomes a passive tool. The pain, the\ntorment of this sacrifice is fearful, and nature instinctively revolts\nwhen she is robbed of her holiest rights, of the most valued gifts of\nthe Creator. And yet the slave is silent, and all the more so, as the\ngrave is deeper where his freedom and his dignity lie buried. It is but\nseldom that a despairing cry escapes from his inmost soul, and dies away\nin utterance, amid the empty sounds of simulated prayer.\n\nI cannot think, without a trembling in my every nerve, on all the\nignominy which was heaped upon us, and on the disgraceful treatment\nwhich we _must_ endure; and I could wish the pen I write with were a\nblazing torch, to illuminate the deep abyss wherein hearts are stifled,\nand spirits overwhelmed amid hymns of praise! I need, however, only to\ndepict in quiet, softer colours, what I have seen and felt, to rouse\nwith certainty the wrathful horror, and the deepest sympathy of the\ngreater part of my fellow citizens, who may still be unacquainted with\nthe fearful strategy of the Church of Rome.\n\n\n\n\nTHE EARLIER PERIOD OF MY STAY IN THE SEMINARY.\n\nDuring the first few days after entering the seminary, I saw depicted\nin the countenances of my companions in misfortune, consternation,\nor timidity, the deepest grief, or a sort of desperate resignation,\naccording to their several dispositions; the first evening, for example,\nof six acquaintances and friends, who were consigned to the same cell,\nnone uttered a single word--all the six were so amazed, that they strove\nto forget their speechless misery in sleep. Forty young men, in the\nbloom and strength of manhood, glided silently about like mummies. We\nlooked on one another in gloomy, speechless sorrow, and each one sought\nin the countenance of his friend, to ascertain the state of feeling in\nhis heart. We all endeavoured to attain that heroism, which can resolve\nat once to sacrifice the heavenly dreams of youth, its hopes, its\nwishes, and its freedom,--in order, as they told us, that we might the\nmore successfully promote the temporal and eternal well-being of\nour fellow-men;--as if it were possible for _him_ to raise men to\nindependence and to self-respect, who cannot boast of their existence\nin his own bosom. That, however, which most excited my indignation and\nhorror, was the ghastly stagnation, which seen from one side exhibited\ndepression,--from the other, levity, discontent, or cowardice. The young\nman of four and twenty had closed accounts with himself and all mankind,\nthe dearest ties were broken which bound him to his fellow-men. The\nglowing and joyful fire of youth, which seeks to achieve for itself\na bright futurity, was extinguished; and egotism poured the freezing\npoison of suspicion, envy, and self-interest, into the warm and\nyouthful veins. We felt as if we were all enveloped for eternity in one\nimpenetrable shroud, and as if doleful spirits were singing to us burial\nsongs throughout the gloomy night. The despotism of the Roman hierarchy\nglared at me like an awful monster--a monster which digs graves for\nthe burial of living youth--graves which engulf the freedom and the\nhappiness of nations. The young man who wishes to become a teacher of\nthe people, must witness his open and upright manliness ruined; he must\nblindly obey, and submit himself to the most degrading oppression, for\nthe _first_ injunction laid on him is _unconditional obedience_. He sees\nthat the arrangements and decrees of the hierarchy are contrived\nfor the degradation, not the improvement of his country, and that he\nhimself, as the servant of a foreign power, is expected to assist in the\noppression of the land which gave him birth. He is also doomed to bear\nthe weight of infamy which accompanies every state of slavery, and\nthe disgrace which now attaches to the entire priesthood, from the\nimmorality of many among them, whose celibacy is a false profession.\n\nCan glittering coin, wrung from starving poverty and pious fanaticism,\nor wines and dainty viands, make amends? Yes, if he prefer the life of\na gluttonous animal to that of a man. What _can_ sustain him? The hope\nalone that he may one day aid in breaking the chains which, bind his\nnative country! That thought it was which animated _me_, and kept me\nupright under the pressure of my fearful servitude. But must not the\nnature and the disposition suffer from the depression, and will the\nmoral vigour take no scathe? Ah! What if one were to give way to the\npressure--to settle down into a hypocrite--to become an object of\ncontempt to one's self and the rest of mankind. All these doubts and\napprehensions forced themselves _even at the first_ before my mind,\nand filled my spirit with ineffable sadness,--and they were and are\njustified--but too well justified.\n\nThen the time was skilfully divided between attendance at ceremonies,\nand the repetition of lip-prayers, for from five to six hours daily\n(including the breviary prayers.*) Five hours of prayer daily, and such\nprayer! for young men of twenty-four years, designed to be the salt of\nthe earth! Rome uses devotion as a means of enslaving men. I tried by\nevery means to escape from the debasing feeling, from the reproach of\nconscience _that I had done nothing._** After the breviary prayers were\nconcluded, there were only about three hours left daily for private\nstudy; and the spiritual work was to be performed in the midst of twenty\nyouths who had no farther examination for office to undergo, and\nwho besides were otherwise _finished!_ It was with horror that I\ncontemplated the possibility that my moral strength might be weakened by\nthe influence of idleness and dissimulation. My case was therefore often\ndesperate, and many a time in fever heat have I outwatched the night,\nand prayed in spirit \"If it be possible, let the bitter cup pass from\nme.\" I was forced to drink it; but a gleam of prophetic brightness\nlighted me through the night, and showed me in my dreams the day of my\nemancipation. Miserably diseased in mind and disposition, I left the\nseminary in 1840.\n\n     * The time was divided in the following manner:--Morning,--\n     From 5 1/2 to 6, matins; from 6 to 7, breviary; 7 to 7 1/2,\n     mass; from 7 1/2 to 8, breakfast; from 8 to 10, lectures;\n     from 10 to 10 3/4, free; from 10 3/4 to 11 1/2, study;\n     from 11 1/2 to 12, breviary. Afternoon,--Before and after\n     dinner, prayers in the chapel--altogether about 3/4 of an\n     hour; then 1/4 or 1/2 an hour breviary; from 2 to 4,\n     lectures; from 4 to 4 3/4, free; from 4 3/4 to 7, study.\n     After supper, about 1/2 an hour of prayer in the chapel and\n     an hour breviary. The prayers are Latin, and always the same;\n     a larger number on Sundays and feast days. It is the duty\n     of every ecclesiastic to pray through the breviary once each\n     day; the vicars go through these prayers for the canons as\n     a sort of feudal service. The pupils are allowed, twice a\n     week, to cross the threshold of the institution for a few\n     hours only. No speaking is allowed during meals. The\n     treatment is degrading. Two rooms for study are allotted to\n     each twenty individuals. The sleeping places, without\n     stoves, are arranged for three, six, eight, and fifteen.\n     The largest was called _The Menagerie_.\n\n     ** One of the Prebendaries themselves, at the time of our\n     departure, called the Seminary \"a little hell.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE WARNING.\n\nI entreat you, German parents, permit not one of your sons to enter\nthis grave of moral freedom and independence; you draw upon yourselves\na heavier weight of blame than if you took their lives--for the moral\ndeath is worse and more painful than that of the body! German mothers\npreferred in former times to put their children to death, rather than\nthat they should be Roman slaves; while now-a-days it is esteemed the\nhighest honour which can be conferred upon a German youth, that he\nshould become the slave--the consecrated slave, forsooth--of the Roman\nbishop! But the yoke is not acknowledged, for it is imposed under the\nholy name of religion.\n\nAnd you, my youthful friends, who choose for yourselves the profession\nof teachers, let me conjure you to retire from this grave of moral\nstrength, and independence--from the seminary! You will be losers there\nin mind and body, were you even giants in both! You will become slaves!\nYou will become hypocrites! Attractive though the office of a teacher\nbe, and enlarged his sphere of working, it is rendered a dangerous one\nfor manly dignity--for truth and freedom, by the disgraceful ignominious\nfetters imposed on it by Rome. Choose, therefore, rather a hard\ncouch and a laborious life than the degrading indolence of a polluted\nexistence.\n\n\n\n\nMY DEPARTURE FROM THE SEMINARY.\n\nThe gates of the Institution, which we were only permitted twice in the\nweek to pass, to visit our fellow-men, at length were opened--the\ngates of that martyr-seminary for soul and body, that grave of\nindependence--the proscribed threshold was crossed, and I beheld once\nmore before me the free and lovely world; I inhaled long draughts of the\nfresh air, as I gazed on the free blue sky in all the brightness of the\nglorious sun. But the sun and the heavens were changed to me--the world\nitself seemed narrow and contracted, for my soul and spirit were in\nbonds, disgraceful bonds! I hastened to my native place--there, I\nfondly hoped, to lose my burden--there, where I dreamed the dreams of\nyouth--there, in my mountain home! The kindly eyes of my brethren, said\nI to myself, will revive and warm this heart, which has been frozen by\nthe hypocritical and piety-feigning glances of the domineering creatures\nof Rome.\n\nAnd the kindly eyes of my brethren _did_ revive me, and the joy of\nmeeting again _did_ scare away the inworn pain of servitude; but before\nlong the feeling returned with redoubled force. Dishonouring marks of\nreverence awoke me from my short-lived dream. An aged man approached,\nwell-known to me, and dear from boyish years. I extended my hand to\nhim--he fain would kiss it, the aged man! Is it not sufficient, I\nexclaimed within myself, that _I_ should be a slave? Must I also be a\ntool to work the degradation of my fellow-men! O Rome, thou hast\nmixed poison in thy consecrated oil, to kill the dignity of man. I\nwas regarded by all with timidity and reserve, as if I had all at once\nbecome a higher, a superhuman being! And how? By the fiat of the Pope?\nOh, not a more exalted being; but a slave, who, by the practice of holy\nhypocritical pretence, was intended to deceive his fellow-citizens! So\npassed the first period, in dead stupefaction of soul, while I, adorned\nlike a victim, was installed in the ceremonial service of the Romish\nChurch. The thought of my father and my family, the prejudices of\nthe Catholic world, which must believe, and for the most part _does_\nbelieve, in the eternal duration of the Roman bondage (called a Church,)\nparalzyed my spirit and my character. And yet, amid my fetters, there\nsurvived still _somewhat_ to uphold me; a presentiment that my chains\nwould break; a feeble ray of light illumining the dreary, and seemingly\neternal darkness of my prison. But _when and how_ should they be broken?\nI was now to be occupied in the cure of souls, the pulpit and the school\nattracted me--through them will I labour, thought I, my position may\nperhaps improve. So I went to Grottkau, whither I was called in March\n1841.\n\n\n\n\nMY OFFICE.\n\nFirmly resolved to be a teacher of the people, in the true sense of the\nexpression, not in that assigned to it by the Church--resolved to speak\nthe truth, without respect of persons, and to become no hypocrite, I\nentered on my office at Grottkau. Being unacquainted in my sphere of\nlabour, some time elapsed before I came to know my field of action, or\nwas enabled efficiently to discharge the practical duties of my station.\nI found my school to be the field best adapted to the measure of my\ncapacity. Independently of the natural love I have for children. I was\nalways happiest in this holy garden of the Lord, where youthful minds\nexpand, which is brightened by thoughts as swift and radiant as the\nlightning, and where the lovely innocence of childhood exhales its\nsweetest fragrance. In school I was free from the espionage by which I\nknew my pulpit to be surrounded--which oppressed my heart, and nearly\nstopped my utterance; free from the humiliating feeling which the\nConfessional aroused within me, where I seemed to be an idol, or a\njudge set over the thoughts and consciences of my fellow-men. When the\npressure of the priestly yoke at times became too much for me, I have\nfled for refuge to the youth and innocence of the school, and have never\nfailed to leave it with my strength renewed. These children little knew\nthe infinite service which they rendered me! Notwithstanding that I\nlaboured with all my might, as well in the school and the confessional,\nas in the pulpit, most resolutely to oppose and counteract the\nsuperstition, the hypocrisy, and all the consequences of priestly\noppression and dissembling, the result could be but small, on account\nof the mighty barriers interposed by the hierarchy to every step in the\ndirection of spirituality.\n\nWithin these fearful barriers, and under such restraint, and fettered\nthus in mind and body, with watchful care to sow and plant, what, after\nall, might be doomed to suffocation in the choke-damp of superstition,\nbecame from week to week less bearable; and all the less so, the more\nclearly I perceived the terrible effects of Popish despotism on the\npeople, and the depth of moral degradation to which many of my brethren\nhad sunk, bringing the danger all the nearer to myself. I saw it now to\nbe my duty, openly to declare against the abuses and the soul-killing\ntenets of the Church of Rome,--rather to die a bodily than a spiritual\ndeath.\n\n\n\n\nMOTIVES FOR STANDING FORTH\nAGAINST THE CONSTRAINT EXERCISED BY THE POPE IN MATTERS OF RELIGION.\n\nThe inducements which gradually brought my determination to maturity,\nand imposed the carrying out of it upon me as a duty, I here submit to\nthe consideration of all men:\n\n_I stand forth against the Romish hierarchy, because it is the means of\ncrushing my dignity as a man, and reducing me to a state of disgraceful\nservitude._ The dignity of man is acknowledged to consist in his reason\nand his will, and in the unrestrained use of both, for the attainment of\nmoral freedom,--\"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is\nin heaven is perfect.\" As Romish priest I dare not freely exercise my\nreason and my will. As such I only dare to think, and speak, and write,\nwhat the Church decrees, or what my superiors may allow. If I think, or\nspeak, or write, more or otherwise, I am declared to be a _heretic_,\ni.e. a most grievous criminal. God himself must only be conceived of and\nadored, according to dictation of the Romish Church; and even He dares\nto accept no other adoration at my hands, than that prescribed by the\nRomish Church, in which, forsooth, salvation only can be found. As\nRomish priest I have no freedom, either of thought or conscience.\nNeither can I boast, as such, of any of the other rights of man, in\nopposition to my superior,--him I must blindly obey. The Romish priest\nis not regarded as a being personally free, but as an automaton,\nemployed to spread abroad the mist of superstition. To cast off this\nbondage, and become a free moral agent, is a holy duty and injunction of\nthe Christian religion, which demands freedom in the exercise of virtue.\nIn order, however, to convince all men more clearly of the urgent nature\nof this duty, I shall attempt a feeble portraiture of the paralyzing\ninfluence exerted on myself, by priestly oppression, while I held an\noffice in the Church--a portraiture in which the chief features in\nthe case of hundreds among my colleagues may, at the same time, be\nrecognized.\n\nI felt a morbid irritability in contemplating the consecrated barriers\nwhich cut me off from my fellow-men; my spirit, sympathy, and active\nimpulse died away, and in their place, in spite of my endeavours, cold\nindifference, and emotions even of hatred crept upon me. I likewise felt\na suspicion of my colleagues, inexplicable in its earlier stages, and,\nin particular, I shunned those friends in whose society I had passed\nthe unfettered years of college life, in order that I might not\nunnecessarily open the wounds which the loss of my freedom had inflicted\non my heart.*\n\n     * I have often heard the complaint made, that the younger\n     members of the Catholic priesthood keep aloof from former\n     friends; a moving cause is given above, which may lead us\n     rather to compassionate than to condemn them.\n\nBut most crushing of all was, the performance of certain ceremonies at\nthe altar, by which, as I knew and could perceive, many of the community\nwere misguided into superstition and hypocrisy. Was I not forced to be\na party to dissimulation, in the performance of such ceremonies? Could\nI help feeling myself lowered in my own opinion? When I knelt at the\naltar, with the credulous people behind me, and cast a look within,\nI shuddered in my inmost soul, an unspeakable woe tormented me, and\nI uttered the despairing cry, \"And hast thou so long suffered this\nhumiliation?\" Each morning I was awakened, as with a piercing shriek,\nby the thought that I was a slave, and that my life was not only useless\nbut fraught with degradation to my fellow-men--that I had been robbed\nof a bright career of useful labour, and that not even time itself might\nput an end to all my ignominy! My fetters were indeed consecrated, and,\naccording to the prejudices of the world, they seemed to be unremovable.\nThe world appeared determined to bear patiently the hideous yoke--its\ncourse was still the same!\n\nI saw before me the abyss of falsehood or an early grave! Should I\nsuccumb? Unworthy cowardice! My courage gradually rose; courage for the\ncontest of life and death within me. I determined to burst my fetters,\nand to leave the enchanted circle,--a circle drawn amid the incantations\nand the curses of Romish tyranny in the middle ages; I resolved to\nassist in tearing off the mask of holiness from the hypocrisy of a\nthousand years. This my resolve was only strengthened by contemplating\nthe fate of my colleagues, some of whom were greater sufferers than even\nI. A few were snatched away by early death; they sank mute, and cheated\nof their lives, into the grave. He cannot surely have a drop of blood\nwithin his veins, who would not feel it boil with indignation to witness\nsuch a sight. And yet their fate was envied by the others, who glided\nthrough the world like mummies, in the springtime of their days, and\nhourly, slowly faded into death. Some rush, to deaden feeling, into\ndrunkenness and other vices, or sink into insensibility, and passively\nvegetate from one day to the next. Others still, of livelier character,\nseek to lose themselves in the hierarchical spirit of the middle ages,\nand because ours are other days, and they, although they know it not,\nbelong to _them_, have originated that modern species of bigotry which\nrises ofttimes into madness. Such heroes then surround themselves with\nhalos borrowed from the early Fathers, and affect the startling voice of\nthe preacher of repentance.\n\nAt last I sought, in order quite to fix my resolution, the countenance\nof those among the priests esteemed of noblest character; but found\nlittle real manliness, good and amiable (?) as several of them might\nbe,---or from a certain vacuity of mind, effeminate inertness, or\nwell-concealed ambition, might _appear_ to be.\n\n_I stand forth against the tyrannical dominion of the Romish Hierarchy,\nbecause it prevents me from faithfully pursuing my avocation as teacher\nof the people_.\n\nI am bound, as teacher of the people, and as teacher of religion, at all\nhazards to guard, not only my own freedom and independence, but those\nalso of my fellow-men. In accordance with the language of the New\nTestament,---\"we are all the children of one father, we are brethren,\"\nit is my duty, as teacher of the people and of religion, not only to\nproclaim freedom to _all mankind_, but to endeavour to realize the\nlesson, because it is the freeman who alone is virtuous. It is, in fact,\nmy duty as a teacher, not only to strive after intellectual perfection\nfor myself, and to keep pace with the gradual development of mind,\nbut to carry before my parishioners, the banner of civilization and\nhumanity. I am not only impeded by the tyrannical oppression of the\nRomish Hierarchy in the discharge of all these duties, but am even\ncommanded to proclaim bondage for freedom, darkness for light, and for\nprogress--intellectual stagnation! I must thereby call down upon myself\nthe deserved hatred of the present age, and the curses of posterity.\n\n_I stand forth against the tyrannical dominion of the Romish Hierarchy,\nbecause I am convinced that what the Hierarchs call the Catholic\nreligion is not the true Catholic doctrine,--is not a doctrine\ncalculated to promote the happiness of nations; that the Romish,\nHierarchy does not teach and act in accordance with the leading\nand fundamental doctrines of the religion of which Christ was the\nauthor,--but that it has introduced abuses, and framed ordinances which\nare calculated to undermine the intellectual and physical welfare of\nnations, and only to increase the power and riches of a privileged\npriesthood, of whom the Roman Bishop is the head._\n\nIt were superfluous here to attempt the proof of this position by a\nlong-winded, learned treatise. The fruits of the Romish Hierarchy have\nbeen proving it for centuries, and it is in the power of every man\nto convince himself, who wishes to be convinced. Or is it perhaps in\nconsequence of the _blessings_ emanating from Rome, that a portion, and\nnot a small one, of our people, languish in the most abject poverty?!\nwhile another portion, and within it many preachers of religion,\nespecially the higher prelates, are rolling in superfluous wealth? Are\nthese the fruits of a Church in which alone is salvation, that some\nshould be kept by spiritual oppression and ignorance in superstition and\ninsensibility, and even degraded to a level with the brutes, in order\nthat others, and among them many consecrated servants of the Pope,\nmay be the lords and drivers of the dishonoured horde! How then can the\ninjunction of love to our neighbour find a place in such a Christian\nChurch, in such a society of Christians? Where then is the succour of\nalone-saving Rome, amid so deep spiritual degradation, amid so great\nbodily want among our people? Where is the practical working of\nbrotherly-love! where does she labour for the elevation and improvement\nof the people! Where is the right understanding of the Lord's Supper,\nthe feet-washing! and where the living exemplification of so many\nothers of the essential doctrines of the New Testament? Has it not all\ndegenerated into form and pretence! Has not religion been degraded to\na system of usury and hypocrisy, which aims alone at the enriching\nand aggrandizement of the Church of Rome! The Church, as the Romish\nHierarchy exhibits and teaches, is but a phantom of falsehood and\ndissimulation, which floats unseen above the nations, keeping them in\nconstant dread and blind obedience. Hence comes the alienation from the\npriests, the horror and bitterness of feeling unanimously entertained\nby the considerate and right-thinking portion of mankind, towards the\nso-called Romish Church! And the animosity is well deserved; for\nwhat efforts do the priesthood make for the temporal and spiritual\namelioration of the suffering people? The greater number of them pass\ncoldly by, as the priests and Levites passed by the poor Samaritan of\nold. We grant that hundreds of the priests are not aware, or are careful\nto avoid the knowledge of the game they play, and the Power they\nserve as blinded instruments. They speak, His true, of the spirit of\n_reconciliation_ and the _Church_, but they halt by the dead letter.\nThey know not, and they do not desire to know, that _the Church means\nall mankind, and mankind here on earth!_ That the need of reconciliation\nis indeed most pressing, for mankind in its present condition--I mean\na reconciliation and approximation of the educated and uneducated,\nthe moral and immoral, portions of mankind. Yea, more, I mean a\nreconciliation between the rich and the needy portions of humanity. This\nreconciliation and approximation must be brought about preeminently by\nthe teachers of the people; it must result, not in empty words--with\nthem we have been surfeited--but in actual deeds. This is a vineyard of\nthe Lord, where the ears are ripe for harvest, and where labourers\nare required. These labourers need no authority from Rome, no outward\nconsecration--it must be in their spirits--they must have consecrated\nhearts! When they appear, the people will acknowledge them, although\nthey bear no Roman symbols. But seeing that the Romish Hierarchy love no\nsuch labourers--the people's truest friends and guides,--seeing that\nshe resolutely opposes the moral elevation of mankind, it is a duty to\ncontend against her and her false system--and such is the duty I shall\nnow endeavour to fulfil.\n\n_Lastly, I stand forth against the tyrannical dominion of the Romish\nHierarchy\\ because its statutes tend directly to the sundering and\noppression of my native land_.\n\nThe Roman Catholic priest is debarred by celibacy from the family tie,\nbound by his vow of blind obedience, by the tenets of his faith, as well\nas by external interest, to the Bishop of Rome, and thus withdrawn and\nestranged from the interests of his fatherland. Instead of awakening and\nstrengthening patriotism and community of feeling, the Catholic priest,\nas teacher of the people, is engaged, by the statutes of his Church,\n_to stifle both_. History abounds with proofs of the truth of this\nassertion, with instances in which their fatherland, and the most sacred\ninterests of their country have been betrayed, by bishops and priests,\nto the Roman Pontiff. But we dare not stop to consider the past; every\nday bears striking testimony that the priesthood strives with might and\nmain, again to bring the German nation under the tyranny of the Pope and\nof the Jesuits. Hundreds, truly, of the priests are not aware of this;\nbut what a load of guilt should _I_ incur, were I to lend myself to the\nwork of degrading and subjecting my fellow-countrymen,--of delivering my\nfatherland over to the Jesuits and the Pope! On the contrary, it is my\nbounden duty to contend against the despotism of Rome, and to lend a\nhand in working out the emancipation of my native country. These are\nthe arguments which render it incumbent upon me--on all of us--to fight\nagainst the Hierarchy, and strive to bring about such an improvement\nand a reformation in the Church, as shall satisfy the requirement of the\ntimes.\n\nA thorough reformation of the Church, it appeared to me, could only be\nbrought about by General Councils,* in which laymen should bear their\nlegitimate part; and I determined to lay down my views in writing on\nthis subject, together with a sketch of the Romish abuses, which I\nexpected to have ready by the autumn of 1843. The necessity for such a\nstep was the more impressed upon my mind, the more I saw increasing\nthe violence and lordliness of the High-Church and Jesuitical party\nthroughout Germany, and particularly in Silesia, under Dr. Bitter, who\nwas at that time Vicar of the Bishopric. Dr. Bitter disposed and managed\nall things to his own heart's content. Such curates and chaplains as\ndid not please him were most unceremoniously deposed, translated,\nimprisoned, admonished in letters couched in Russian terms, and dealt\nwith as suited his humour. Thus was Mr. Beer, the curate of Brieg,\ntranslated in defiance of his people's wish to retain him; Mr. Schotte\nwas degraded to the lower office of chaplain, and Mr. Weiser,\nthe chaplain, on a mere calumnious charge, without examination or\nopportunity of defence, ordered to the Seminary for punishment. These\nwere men of unblemished reputation, their only fault being that they\nwere not sufficiently abject and Romish. But Dr. Bitter rained and\nhailed on right and wrong, and enacted the part of Providence in the\ndiocese of Breslau.\n\n     * Even in the Seminary I spoke to several of my quondam\n     friends, of the necessity of General Councils. Some of them\n     have probably forgotten now, what then they acknowledged to\n     be needed.\n\nThe inferior clergy, who besides had few or no privileges in comparison\nwith their superiors, were really most arbitrarily dealt with. A feeling\ncame over us at that time, as if the days of club-law were at hand. In\nsome places, as in Brieg and Ziegenhals, it really came to violence. But\nRitter's creatures _rose_, and managed in the spirit of their master.\nHe, in the fulness of his power, issued an interdict against mixed\nmarriages, at once dishonouring to us, and injurious to chastity; he\ncommanded that the old Silesian ritual, which probably dates from the\ntime of trials for witchcraft,* (it contains at least much of the same\nstuff,) should again be brought into universal use, because he learned\nthat some curates no longer employed it.** Neither did the Seminary\nescape him; he ordered the pupils never to mix with their fellow-men\nexcept in clerical costume, (probably for the sake of exemplifying\nneighbourly and brotherly love,) and enjoined it with suitable\nearnestness. Bigotry and fanaticism increased still more and more\namong the young and newly-appointed chaplains, and the old experienced\nministers saw themselves all at once outdone in piety.\n\n     * This expression is not too severe; for according to the\n     Silesian ritual, in baptism, for instance, the Devil is\n     three times driven ont of the innocent little child. At the\n     consecrating of Holy Water, and at other consecrations, in\n     like manner, a number of exorcisms are employed.\n\n     ** At the same time, indeed, he promised a new one, which,\n     however, after a lapse of three years, has not yet appeared.\n\nNumerous rosary associations and prayer-meetings were established.\nSchneeweiss, the professor of divinity, instituted such meetings in\nNeisse, and introduced rosary-books from Bavaria, which, pandering\nto the grossest materialism and sensuous worship, manifest the most\nhorrible Jesuitism. The members paid weekly two silver groschen, which\nmoney, with that realized by the books, was reported to find its\nway into the coffers of the Jesuits in Bavaria. Herr Schneeweiss is\ngenerally considered in Neisse to be a Jesuit. The pupils at the High\nSchool were compelled to join these associations.\n\nSimilar reunions were established in other places, among which\nthat under pastor Schaffraneck, at Beuthen, in Upper Silesia, was\ndistinguished. Thus were we placed by Dr. Hitter, the _quondam_\nHermesian,* quite on the ecclesiastical war establishment of the middle\nages. Nothing now was wanting to Dr. Ritter, except monasteries and\nconvents, for which pious mites were already beginning to be collected,\nand the bishop's mitre of Breslau. He lost his point, however; for Mr.\nKnauer, a mild and humane priest, was chosen. Now commenced a general\nintrigue among the High Church party. Mr. Knauer was complained of at\nRome as incapable; Rome, therefore, hesitated for a year to confirm\nthe appointment, during which time the agitation and disturbance in\nthe diocese increased. Citizens and honest Churchmen in the province\ncomplained loudly of this bad state of matters; but neither the\nincorporation of burgesses, (who, to be sure, have no voice in matters\naffecting the good of their souls, or regarding their clergy,) nor\na single pastor, deemed it incumbent on them to oppose the tide of\ndisorder and of bigotry. Aroused by the disgrace of our increasingly\ngloomy prospects, and excited by the shamelessness of the creatures of\nRome, as well as by the intrigues in regard to the bishopric of Breslau,\nwhich were daily coming to our ears, I resolved, although I had never\nyet written for publication, to attack the scandals which issued from\nthe chapter of Breslau, and wrote the paper entitled, 'Rome and the\nChapter of Breslau signed 'A Chaplain.'\n\n     * Disciples of Professor Hermes, formerly of Bonn.\n\n\n[This article appeared in No; 135 of the \"Vaterlands-blatter,\" of the\nyear 1842, and runs thus:--\n\n\"ROME AND THE CHAPTER OF BRESLAU.\n\n\"Although a year has already elapsed since Prebend Knauer was chosen\nBishop by the Chapter of Breslau, the appointment has not yet been\nconfirmed at Rome, notwithstanding that the diocese has been two years\nwithout a bishop, and that other bishops, much more lately chosen, have\nbeen confirmed long ago. The circumstance excites, however, no surprise;\nfor Knauer is a moderate, and humane, perhaps even a liberal-minded man.\nAnd yet it is somewhat strange that the Chapter of Breslau should submit\nso patiently to see its own and Knauer's honour so abused by Rome, and\nthe rights of the diocese so disregarded! To object to this, that the\nPope considers Knauer unfit for his office, were absurd. How should\nthe Pope know aught about it, unless from informers, (his divine\nqualifications being now no longer admitted,) since the Chapter, by its\nchoice, has declared him to be fit, and since it cannot be supposed that\na college of venerable men would elect as bishop an unsuitable person,\nmerely for the sake of appearances--not to advert to the influence of\nthe Holy Spirit, whose efficacy would thus have been unrecognized in the\nelection! But how can the Pope have more faith and confidence in a few\npitiful informers, than in a whole college of men upon oath? How can he\nplace these men in such an equivocal light before the eyes of the world,\nand so impede their usefulness in the diocese! Should this, however,\nhappen, will not the Chapter incur a moral obligation, to vindicate\nits own and Knauer's honour, as well as to preserve the rights of the\ndiocese? Hitherto the Chapter of Breslau has been silent. Is this\nfrom meekness? No one recognises in this silence an act of Christian\nforbearance, but somewhat very different! Of course, the people have\nlearnt in the catechism, 'The Church is the community of all Christians,\nnot the Pope.' People have strange notions in our day, especially about\nChurch and State, freedom and the rights of man! All would fain have\nfreedom and their rights, and, as they say, their warrant is in the\nBible!\n\n\"It will here be objected, however, that the Pope, having the right of\nconfirming, has, consequently, also the right to refuse confirmation.\nLet us cast all else aside, even reason and honour, and consider the\nmatter from the point of view of historical right, acquired by force.\nThe Pope, then, has the right to confirm the bishop, consequently also\nto refuse confirmation; but the Chapter, in like manner, has the right\nof choosing, and, consequently, of not choosing--perhaps even the right\nof refusing admission to a bishop not elected by themselves. It is not\ndifficult to determine whether Rome or the Chapter of Breslau would fare\nthe worst in such a contest.\n\n\"Or may not the informers, who throw suspicion on the sentiments and\nfitness of Knauer, perhaps be members of the Chapter; and the Italians,\npresuming on their want of unity, venture to enact in Germany a part\nthey have not dared for long? The silence of the Chapter and the\nimpudence of Rome are scarcely capable of any other explanation. Should\nit indeed be so, and should individual members of the Chapter have\nsacrificed the welfare, the rights and privileges of the diocese, to\ntheir private ambition, their jealousy, or to other interests, and thus\nhave made a level road for the Italians again to enter Germany, then\nwould we call upon these men, who bear rule in the diocese, and whose\npart it is to promote our welfare, and to protect our rights and\nliberties, to vindicate their trust, if they do not wish to incur the\nreproach of want of principle, and dereliction of their duty.\n\n\"Are those days to return, in which it was necessary to send gold-laden\ncavalcades to Rome, in order to become a bishop? If so, the Canons of\nBreslau would have but faint chance of a mitre. It is very remarkable\nwhat the Italians have of late demanded of us Germans. We are commanded\nto pray that the Spaniards may return to their old ecclesiastical\nbondage! Who have been the leaders of this bloody drama? Perhaps the\ndisobedient people? Espartero, and such like! We know in Germany, and\nalmost every school-boy knows it, that, next to the tyranny of royalty,\nthe bloody slaughtering of this fine people has been for the most part\noccasioned by the licentious, lazy, Rome-subjected priesthood! We also\nknow that the French Revolution was not occasioned by Danton, Camille\nDesmoulins, and others of their stamp; but by the tyranny of Louis XIV.,\nthe profligacy of Louis XV., aided by the shameless excesses of the\ncourt nobility, lay and clerical. No less are we aware that the Thirty\nYears' War was not caused by Luther and Melancthon, but had been\nhatching for centuries by Rome and the lay and clerical nobility of\nGermany. It is, indeed, most necessary that we pray for ourselves and\nfor the Spaniards, but it shall be for the freedom and independence\nof ourselves and them--in union with which alone can true religion and\nmorality exist--and not for slavery and dependence, which can at best\nengender dissimulation and hypocrisy.\n\n\"A Chaplain.\"]\n\n\nWell did I know that I was subscribing my own sentence; and yet, on\ncloser consideration, I could not believe that the Hierarchy, or Church\nas it is called, would treat both truth and justice with such open\nscorn as I found that it could, through Dr. Ritter and the vicar-ship of\nBreslau.\n\nAbout six weeks after the appearance of the article, I received a note\nfrom Dr. Ritter,* in which he called upon me to tell him, on my priestly\nword of honour, whether I were the author of the article, \"Rome and\nthe Chapter of Breslau,\" or had taken any part in the drawing up or\ndespatching of it. Dr. Ritter, the vicar of the bishopric, a priest,\nnearly sixty years of age, with grey hair, dared to call me to account\nfor speaking the truth!--me, who, as a priest and proclaimer of the\ntruth, had lately been sent into the world with the commission, \"to\nspeak the truth without fear of man,\"--Dr. Ritter, who himself had sent\nme forth, ventured to call me to account for doing so! And is religion\nthus to be turned to mockery and reproach! Should I not speak the\ntruth? or had I not spoken the truth? I had written down that the Romish\npriesthood were preeminently the cause of the German Thirty Years'\nWar, and of the Revolutions in France and Spain. Are these not facts of\nhistorical notoriety, contained in every manual, and should I not\ndare to write them? I had also asserted that the calumnies and want\nof unanimity among the candidates for the bishopric, were probably the\nreasons for the Pope daring so long to delay the confirmation of Bishop\nKnauer, and keeping the diocese in confusion. The divisions and quarrels\nof the candidates for the bishop's mitre were known to all the diocese,\nand also _who_ had principally contributed to the retiring of the humane\nBishop Sedlinitzky--much indignation was felt at the discord occasioned\nby clerical ambition; and I, forsooth, should not give utterance to the\nopinions of my fellow-citizens and colleagues! Dr. Ritter, then, placed\nfalsehood and hypocrisy on the altar, and desired that I should honour\nthem, in calling me to a reckoning for my truthfulness.\n\n     * DR. RITTER'S DECREE.\n\n     \"Public opinion points to you as the author of the article\n     entitled \"Rome and the Chapter of Breslau,\" and signed \"A\n     Chaplain,\" in No. 135 of the Saxon Vaterlands-blatter. I\n     hereby require you, on your word of honour as a priest,\n     distinctly to declare, by return of post, whether you are\n     the author of the above-named article, or the sender of it,\n     or, in fact, whether you had any share in the drawing up or\n     despatching of the same.\n\n     \"Ritter,\n\n     \"Canonical Vicar and General Administrator of the\n     Diocese,\n\n     \"Breslau, December 20, 1842.\"\n\nHad I given vent in words to my first angry feelings,--had I not allowed\nsome weight to the existing relations between the higher and inferior\nclergy,--had I not, in short, considered the situation of my orphan\nsisters--Dr. Ritter would indeed have received a very different reply\nfrom that, which, after the exercise of much self-control, I sent him.\nAfter calm reflection and consultation with a man of experience, I\ncame to the resolution, that as I had written in the name of my\nfellow-citizens and colleagues, I ought not to make any concession\nprejudicial to their rights, and must rely for protection on the laws.\n\nAccording to the laws of Prussia, the name of an author can only be\nrequired, and that by the courts of law, when his writings contain\nmatter of a libellous or seditious nature. If this law be not applicable\nto one of the inferior clergy, it follows that he dares not give\nutterance to any assertion or opinion which may be distasteful to his\nsuperiors (were it the most undeniable truth,) without being deprived of\nhis situation. But who would willingly at once give up his place? Were\ngovernments to proceed after the fashion of Dr. Ritter, or the Church,\nno commissioned-officer would dare to notice an abuse, without running\nthe risk of being examined and cashiered by his superiors.\n\nDr. Ritter had no right to take me to task, since by so doing, he\ninterfered with the privileges and the duties of the whole body\nof inferior clergy, in calling me to account, by his inquisitorial\nquestions, for a simple expression of opinion. I dared not accede to\nhis demands without injuring religion and my colleagues. Or has the\nso-called inferior priest, perhaps, no right to tell the truth? or to\ntell it without placing his situation in jeopardy! Is the so-called\ninferior priest not under the protection of the laws of his native\ncountry? and are the superior clergy perhaps the only, and the\ninfallible pillars of the truth? With a due regard to my good cause, and\nmy defenceless condition, compared with that of an unfettered opponent,\nI gave the short reply--\"that my conscience forbade me to satisfy such\nqueries.\" The Papists and priestlike blockheads always turn the darkest\nside, and so they did in my case. Dr. Ritter and his Popish allies\nwould gladly have attributed to me falsehood and cowardice, and pointed\ntriumphantly to these words, as well as to other disconnected passages,\nin order thereby to lower me in the eyes of my fellow-citizens, but in\nvain. That I desired to save my place, as was asserted, by cowardice and\nfalsehood, I have practically refuted, by demitting my office, braving\npoverty and want, although it would have been very easy for me, by\nfalsehood or retractation, to have escaped from the suspension.*\n\n     * See the Vicarial document of February 184 3. The letters\n     of Mr. Schneeweiss, and the conference with the Prebend F.\n     at the Episcopal audience.\n\n\n\n\nOBJECTIONS.\n\nOn the other hand, I have heard the objection made, that though I only\nwrote the truth, it was still unbecoming in me to write it as I did\n(?) Those good folks who so degrade the truth, and whose knees tremble\nbefore every tribunal, are informed, that it was not only my privilege,\nbut my sacred duty so to write. The paper in question was written with\nthe feeling of a _German_, who was ashamed and irritated, by seeing\nthe despotic sway of Rome ever extending, wider and more boldly, and\nconstantly employing for its extension (an extension which brings\nall vices in its train,) Germans--men whose paramount duty it is, as\nteachers of the people, to lead them to freedom and independence--since\nwithout _these_ no virtue is conceivable. I wrote that article as a\nteacher of the people, and as a teacher of religion, who holds it as his\nmost sacred duty to oppose all injustice, and to call it by its proper\nname, should it even be perpetrated under the shelter of the altar, and\nthe hypocrisy of the more than millennial supremacy of Rome. There\nwas besides somewhat peculiarly novel in Dr. Ritter's distinctive\ncharacterizing of the peculiar word of honour. He puts questions to me\nwhich I am called upon to answer on my _priestly_ word of honour.\nDoes Dr. Ritter always rate the quality of honour by the office of the\nindividual? If so, are those who have no office also without honour!\nMy honour is one and indivisible--that which God has implanted within\nme--the honour of being a man. This honour I esteem more highly than\nthat priestly conceit with which, instead of love, Rome seeks by\nconsecration to inoculate her slaves, and which generally sinks them far\nbelow the level of their fellow-men, though they may dream that they are\nhigh above them. My honour and my manly dignity are of greater value in\nmy eyes than all your livings, prelacies, and mitres; and I am ready to\ndefend my honour against every one, even against Dr. Ritter. Dr. Ritter\nwill perceive from this that I was not lying bound, as he supposed, by\nthat hierarchic spell which extinguishes reason, and de grades man's\nwill to the condition of a limping slave. No, I had seen the Church\nbeneath the screen of her hypocrisy--I had seen her in all her\ndeformity, and I felt myself called on, at once by my manly dignity, and\nmy love to my neighbour, to assist in tearing off her curse-laden mask.\n\n\n\n\nFARTHER EXPEDIENTS OF DR. RITTER.\n\nAs his Jesuitical plan of terrifying had not the effect which he\nprobably desired, he tried other means to entrap me; and behold! a\ndenunciation appeared to him likely to achieve his purpose. About a\nyear before, it had been observed by a burgess nearly related to the\npriesthood, that I wore a shorter coat, and longer whiskers, than\naccorded with his orthodoxy, and he denounced me in consequence. Dr.\nRitter had not delayed, from his giddy height of holiness, to set me\nright, in the genuine style of ecclesiastical dictation. I had replied\nto his communication in something like the following terms:--It would\ngrieve me, by my external appearance, to give offence to any pious\nChristians, and I should gladly (though my present dress is exactly what\nI wore while in the Seminary) avoid it. I would indeed even relinquish\nmy vocation were I considered unfit for it. I added at the close, that I\nmight be able to exonerate myself in some particulars, but that I would\nnot occupy, with such insignificant matters, his valuable time,\nwhich was doubtless demanded for the consideration of things of more\nimportance.*\n\nProceeding upon this, Dr. Ritter applied to Kaspar Hoffmann, clerical\nsuperintendent at Grottkau, and called upon him to report concerning\nme.**\n\nI had never interfered with this Kaspar Hoffmann. In money matters,\nusually an apple of discord between vicars and curates, I had allowed\nhim to do as he pleased. He paid me only 32 dollars annually (16 were\nadded by the town,) and derived handsome profits from offices, which\nI, perhaps, discharged for him,*** Still he would gladly have seen me\nremoved, because we held opposite opinions, and I enjoyed the good-will\nof the community, which he seemed to grudge me. He truly reported the\n_crimina_, which he had perceived in me, and added, that he spoke the\nsentiments of _all_ the citizens, although, as it afterwards appeared,\nhe had _two_ only on his side.\n\n     * Dr. Ritter says In his lecture, when alluding to this\n     occurrence, that he does not know whether I have vindicated\n     myself.    Very satisfactory!\n\n     **  Kaspar Hoffmann showed me this application before my\n     departure.\n\n     *** Curate Pech, a learned, accomplished, and distinguished\n     man, wearied with the long-protracted contest, had taken a\n     curate and retired.\n\n     **** From one dollar, which I received for reading the\n     burial service, he deducted 10 silver groschen. May I ask\n     whether an usurer takes so large a percentage, as such a\n     curate from his chaplain?\n\nThese said crimes, as contained in the Decree of Deposition, are as\nfollow:--1st, That I wore too short a coat, and unsuitably long hair. I\ncould only treat this silliness with derision, gave therefore no reply\nto it, and direct my readers to the answer of my honoured defender, and\nto the testimony of the citizens and magistrates of Grottkau. I must,\nhowever, observe, that this accusation was only made as a pretence, the\nreal ground of complaint being my conduct in the school and the church,\nas the following occurrence will disclose.* In the schools of which I\nwas the director, I ordered the teaching of German history, caused the\npupils to write exercises for the improvement of their style, commenced\nthe formation of a juvenile library, and conducted the religious\ninstruction not altogether according to the authorized Catechism,\nbecause I perceived that _it_ tended rather to prejudice the minds\nof the pupils against religion than to implant it in their hearts.\nI visited, besides, the Sabbath-schools, and strove to rid them of\nsuperstition and hypocrisy. Kaspar Hoffmann, like many other suchlike\n_faithful_ ministers, had instituted a regular system of espionage, and\nwatched my doings. In his priestly zeal he slipped privately into one\nof my schools, put several bullying questions to the children, and when\nthey, in terror, could not answer him a word, he beat the religion of\nlove into them with a birch-rod. When I, enraged at his ill-treatment of\nthe pupils, called him to account, he replied, that well-grounded doubts\nwere entertained of my orthodoxy, that I did not proceed according to\nthe accredited Catechism, _taught German history_, &c.! This betrayed\nthe quarter whence his inspiration had descended. My answer had,\nhowever, this effect, that Mr. Hoffmann discontinued his visits to my\nschools.\n\n     * My dress was quite black, and was far outshone in elegance\n     by that of the clergy of Breslau. Besides, I know full well,\n     that Catholic priests may deck themselves most gaily, and\n     yet retain their offices.\n\nIn the second place, Kaspar Hoffmann had reported that I conducted the\nordinances of worship in an indecorous and undignified manner. This,\nin the sense in which he meant it, is a shameless lie; for, although I\nheld, and still hold, many Church forms to be contrary to the exalted\nconception revealed to us of the Godhead in the Christian religion, (can\nit, for instance, be supposed, that God is honoured or the community\nedified, by unintelligible mumbling of Latin and hypocritical up-turning\nof the eyes?) I have still too great respect for all religious\nconviction, in whatever form it may be manifested, to insult it, or\nendeavour to bring about a change, in such a manner as I am represented\nto have done. I submitted to the forms prescribed, without, indeed,\nhypocritical up-turning of the eyes, whining, or the like, by which it\nis easy to acquire extravagant metage,* and a character for sanctity (I\nsaw this shameless game played almost daily.)\n\n     * The fee paid for the performance of masses.--Trans.\n\nIt was, besides, a moral impossibility that I should have given offence\nby my remarkable behaviour, being so constantly galled and worn down\nby my bondage, and by my grief at being compelled to assist in\ndisseminating superstition and hypocrisy, that I stood generally quite\nexhausted by the altar. Yes, the mental agony which I have endured on\nthat spot, and which was manifested in my exterior, must have produced\nan exactly opposite impression than that for which he blamed me--and it\ndid produce it. If Kaspar Hoffmann's piety took offence at this, then\nmust it be equivalent to none, since he considered hypocrisy alone to be\ntrue decency and dignity. (What remains to be said on this subject will\nbe found in my Defence before the Council.)\n\nLastly, It had been reported that no one would take me for a Catholic\nClergyman who did not know me to be one. This, I must confess, sounded\nto me very like the language of praise, as I have endeavoured never to\nmake any distinction between myself and my fellow-citizens, seeing that\nI desired to be neither more nor less than a man and a citizen. Does the\nnarrow blue stripe constitute the pastor and teacher? We know that lying\nand feigned words are uttered in spite of the clerical stripe, and that\nthe glittering vestments of the priest cannot shut out dissimulation,\nbut, on the contrary, that they promote it.\n\n\n\n\nLETTERS OF PERSUASION.\n\n\n\nDESIRES OF MY OFFICIAL COLLEAGUES.\n\nIn addition to this charge to Kaspar Hoffmann, Dr. Ritter had\ncommissioned a zealous divine of the younger school,* to persuade me to\nretract. On the 1st and 15th of January 1843, I received letters from\nhim, and from a narrow-minded priest in the College at Neisse, in\nwhich, under cover of the most high-flown expressions of Christian\nbrotherly-love, I am required to become a contemptible liar. As these\nletters are written in ecclesiastical style, and reveal the character of\nDr. Ritter--his artifices, and those of the men who permit themselves\nto be made his tools, I consider myself called upon to publish them:\nbesides, the writer is no friend of mine, as the Decree of Suspension\nfalsely intimates, but merely an acquaintance.\n\nI had at first almost believed that the assurances of friendship\ncontained in the letters of Schneeweiss were true, in spite of their\nsuspicious highflying; and although I had already, in like manner, been\ndeceived by others of my colleagues, I was almost tempted to believe\nin their honesty. But after the epistle of the narrow-minded priest had\nbetrayed to me that Dr. Ritter was in the game, I was forced to despise\nthe letter-writer as a hypocrite. Schneeweiss feigned friendship, but\nhe could have no respect, and therefore no friendship, for me, when\nhe recommended me to commit an act of baseness, namely, the denial\nof well-known facts--the shameful recall of that which I had lately\nasserted--and a cowardly and degrading submission to the despotism of\nDr. Ritter. I suppose, also, that Schneeweiss had imagined that I was\nquite imbued with hierarchic views. He might in that case represent the\nblind and cowardly submission as an act of virtue on my part; but he\ncould not expect that I should retract the blame I attributed to the\nquarrels and _informings_* of the candidates for the episcopate, and\neven my censure of the long delay on the part of the Pope--for they\nwere injurious to the Church. Had he considered my station as a Catholic\npriest, as a teacher of the people, and of religion in the sense of\nChrist's teaching, and desired to be accounted such himself, he could\nnot have advised me to a disgraceful retractation and denial of a truth\nwhich I had dared to avow. No; he would have encouraged me to bear\nunflinching testimony to the truth, and in the face of greater danger\nthan the loss of office.\n\n     * Compare the Decree of Suspension of January 30th, 1843.\n\nFor that _is_ true, which I have written; the quarrels and intrigues of\nthe candidates for the bishop's mitre, I repeat it, have been proved,\nand they were (I myself have heard it,) the theme of scandal and censure\nat once to priests and laymen. It was disgrace enough to the clergy,\nthat no one of the elder ministers dared openly avow his censure--that\nthey loved their livings more than truth and their fair name. But\nSchneeweiss does not seem to have thought of these things. It may\nbe gathered from the mixture of assertions and contradictions in\nhis letters, that he was not quite clear of the propriety of what he\nrequired of me, at the same time that he does not seem very well to know\nwhat he would be at. However, so it also happens with many others of\nmy colleagues. They become inconsistent in their opinions; for, being\ncalled to fight in the front rank for truth and freedom, they, on the\ncontrary, act in opposition to them, as the conscious or unconscious\nslaves and servants of the hierarchy. I fancied, when I knew Schneeweiss\nin earlier days, that he had a more enlightened zeal, but Gibbon's\nwords, alas! are true--\"The spirit of bigotry, at once so credulous and\ninsinuating, when it has once taken root in a noble mind, overturns by\ndegrees the living principles of virtue and of truth.\"\n\n     * I have received the most precise information in regard to\n     them from trustworthy men, well acquainted with the\n     episcopal candidates.\n\n\n\n\nLETTERS OF SCHNEEWEISS AND GLOCKNER.\n\n\"My Dearly Beloved Brother,--You will be surprised to receive a letter\nfrom me, but do not let your surprise induce you to forget that it is\nsincere affection which prompts me to address you.\n\n\"I have just learned in Neisse that a heavy storm is gathering over\nyou. You are said to be the author of an article in the Saxon\nVaterlands-blatter, in which language is employed very unlike what one\nwould expect from any Catholic, not to speak of a Catholic priest. It is\nalso said, as I am assured by an otherwise trustworthy and respectable\nman, that you have been questioned in regard to it by the right reverend\nAdministrator of the Bishopric, and that you have returned a very\nevasive, answer. If it be really so, Oh, let me entreat that you will\nnot neglect to say at once Pater, _peccavi!_ (Father, I have sinned!)\nWrite immediately to the right reverend Vicar, and assure him, with a\nself-denial which would be highly honourable (?) to you, that you wrote\nin well-meant (?) precipitation. If you do not follow my brotherly\ncounsel, you may expect, from the determined character of the right\nreverend Vicar, soon to be suspended (deposed), as I have also learned\nfrom respectable authority. And to what would this suspension lead! Oh,\nbelieve me, my dear brother, it would then be no longer in the power of\nyour former friends to help you. So long as we are Catholics, Rome must\nalways be to us the centre point of the visible Church; and so long as\nwe wish to be Catholic Christians, and particularly priests--servants\nof the Catholic Church, we dare not speak and write of Rome in such a\nslighting manner,--I might say, with the hatred and contempt exhibited\nin the article, which I have also read. I assure you, that not even\nProtestants would take you under their protection, if you are really the\nauthor of that article. I will not speak of Catholics. In so far as I\nam concerned, I marvelled at the author's deficiency in historical and\ntheological knowledge, who had subscribed himself 'A Chaplain.'\n\n\"Be not offended at my openness. A well-meaning brother must not\nhesitate to speak the truth even at the risk of the momentary loss of\na brothers affection. I entreat you once again to do immediately what\nI advise. I know you to be an otherwise well-disposed person (_what\nhonour!_); it would grieve me to see you brought into a position which\ncannot, now-a-days, be honourable (_do I not understand?_). It is\ngreat-minded to make amends for faults and for offence which one\nmay have given! and little-minded to have the courage only to impugn\ntime-honoured truths, without acknowledging the fact as soon as\nquestioned by those who, in virtue of their station, have a right to\ndemand the acknowledgment;* and so, dear friend, behave wisely and well,\nand turn away all evil from yourself. Make my respects to your Vicar.\n\n     * Great is the absurdity of this sentence; small the man\n     and priest who can desire to see truth degraded to the\n     condition of a venal slave.\n\n\"Now, dear friend, seek counsel of your God, and I know you will take\ndecided steps in consequence. May peace be with us throughout the new\nyear. With this invocation I conclude these hasty lines, which sincere\nbrotherly love has dictated. Your true Brother,\n\n\"Schneeweiss.\"\n\n\nThe letter of the narrow-minded priest referred to above is as\nfollows:--\n\n\"Neisse, January 12th 1843.\n\n\"Honoured Brother,--You will not surely take it ill that I speak my mind\nto you in regard to a matter which must be causing you embarrassment\nat present--I mean the article in the Vaterlands-blatter. The paper had\nlain here unnoticed for several weeks, when it accidentally fell into\nmy hands at the house of Baumgarten the merchant; and on account of its\nbitter, passionate tone, not only in regard to the Pope himself, but the\nextent of his authority--on account of certain hints in regard to the\nnarrowing of the power of the bishops and the want of the proper conduct\nof the cure of souls, which the people have a right to expect, as the\ngrace of the Church, from the apostolic vicars and curates--in short,\non account of all these circumstances, I hastened to submit it to\nSchneeweiss for inspection. But besides the Number which contained this\narticle, there was another, and indeed the preceding one, which at the\nend gave a list of the contents of the letter box, and also mentioned a\ncontribution from Grottkau. This it was which led to the suspicion that\nyou were the author. Full scope was now given for violent discussion at\nthe parsonage, and they wished at once to inform you of the suspicion\nunder which you lay. An opportunity was found in candidate N., who,\nat the suggestion of Schneeweiss, was enjoined to call upon you on\nhis homeward journey to Breslau, and disclose all to you,--but nothing\nfarther. No application to Ritter was made from hence, and, according to\nthe declaration of Schneeweiss, N., who is at present in the Seminary,\nmust have blabbed there. Since your embarrassment is now known, that is\nto say, Ritter's threat in case you should not confess--Schneeweiss has\nwritten to you at once, Ritter having expressed a wish that your friends\nand brethren in this quarter should come to an understanding with you,\nand try to move you to a retractation of the article. Schneeweiss, much\npuzzled at not hearing from you, has again applied to Ritter, through\nPeschke in Breslau, to endeavour to stave off the execution of the\nthreat, and successfully, as we yesterday learned. Peschke advises him\nstrongly to persuade you to confess, in which case nothing more would\nbe demanded of you than that you should insert a modified article in the\nsame paper, without signature, and adds, 'If you had not entreated for\nhim, Ronge would already have been proceeded against--he would have been\nsuspended.' I have already told a long tale, but not yet come plainly to\nthe point which so much annoys me. It is this,--through _me_ it was\nthat the article first became known to the clergy, and I should bitterly\nreproach myself were you to be brought into trouble on account of it.\nYou may judge from this what comfort it would afford me were you to\nrelieve me from my unpleasant situation by a settlement of the affair.\nDo it for my sake, (?) regard my peace of mind, should it cost ever\nso great a sacrifice! It involves no sacrifice of conscience--such a\nsacrifice no one has a right, _ex abrupto_, to demand. The Catholic\nCreed is not involved--otherwise, I apprehend, from your straightforward\ncharacter, you would no longer be holding office in the Church. I\nbeseech you, therefore, to relieve me from my painful situation, where\nI am tortured now, and may be incurably tortured at a future day, should\nyou be overpowered. S. would gladly talk over with you this unpleasant\naffair, if it were agreeable to you to come here; and, if that be\ninconvenient, he will employ his acquaintance with Ritter to facilitate\nan adjustment. Ask N. also, who knows me,--and I think you will\nentertain no suspicion of my sincerity. Perhaps he may even accompany\nyou, which would delight me. He also is among the shipwrecked ones. With\nall brotherly love, your friend,\n\n\"GLOCKNER.\"\n\n\nOn the 15th of January I received a second letter from Schneeweiss,\nwhich differs essentially from the former one. If the tone of the first\nis lordly and dictatorial, that of the second is gentle, more prudent,\nis addressed to me as an individual, and calls in my nationality to his\nassistance:--\n\n\"My Dear Brother,--Once more I write you a short letter, although I\nfeel nearly persuaded that you will not thank me for it. My former hasty\nlines have remained quite unnoticed. Were I actuated by any other motive\nthan affection, I might feel myself somewhat slighted, but love bears\nall, hopes all, and does all, that can promote the welfare of a brother\n(?!). Once more I beg of you to bring this unhappy affair in Breslau to\na conclusion. I assure you that your character, supposing you to be\nthe author of the article in question, shall not be compromised (_how\nforbearing is our mother Church!_), as I know from an authentic source.\nBelieve me, you have injured yourself by your evasive answer,--it will\nnot bring you out of your scrape.\n\n\"Act resolutely! If you be the author of the article, answer, like a\nman, 'Yes I am,' and submit to reproof (_indeed!_). If you be not the\nauthor, answer also in that case like a German man (_even this chord\nthe Church does not disdain to strike!_)--'No, I am not.' If your time\npermits, pray visit me for a few hours. Things are more easily explained\nwhen face to face. You have no time to lose, as I learn from a sincere\nand honest friend in Breslau.\n\n\"Only believe that I love you sincerely while giving you this advice.\nShould you consider me mistaken or shortsighted, I cannot help it. You\nmay, in time, be convinced that these lines are dictated by the purest\nand most anxious affection. God be with you, and with your sincere\nfriend.\n\n\"SCHNEEWEISS.\n\n\"Neisse, January 12th, 1843.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE SEVENTY CURATES\n\nAbout the same time seventy Silesian curates inserted a most pathetic\narticle in \"The Sion,\" and, in an address to Dr. Ritter, implored him\nto call me to account, and, if I made any difficulty, to depose me. As I\nafterwards learned, this address was not peculiarly well received at the\nChapter, but Dr. Ritter issued a letter of thanks.*\n\n     * \"I thank you for the Declaration you have sent to me from\n     seventy clergymen, in regard to the affair of Ronge, and\n     request you hereby to express to them my acknowledgments and\n     thanks. The diocese of Breslau may rejoice (if Ritter\n     compose the diocese) that it possesses such a company (why\n     not flock!) of worthy young men in the vineyard of the Lord.\n     Chaplain Ronge is already suspended, and has been summoned\n     to the Seminary at Breslau.   Should he offer any\n     resistance, I shall commission the Right Reverend Vicarial\n     Board to dismiss him, without further delay, from the\n     service of the Church.--Ritter.\n\n     \"Breslau, Feb. 8, 1843.\n\n     \"It is requested that the foregoing be forwarded to the\n     dear colleagues and subscribers of the Declaration against\n     Ronge.--Strzynby.\n\n     \"Ratibor, Feb. 16, 1843.\"\n\nI have not replied to these seventy brethren, because I heard that the\ngreater number had signed it from fear of Ritter; but I consider that\nI have atoned for the neglect, seeing that whilst they, according to\npromise, were probably praying for me, I worked industriously for them.\n\n\n\n\nTHE DEPOSITION.\n\nAfter Dr. Ritter had also asked my friends in vain, whether I had hinted\nto them anything about their article, the Decree of Suspension was sent\nto me. Dr. Ritter had, at the same time, issued an order to a portion of\nthe Silesian curates, to refuse me the administration of all religious\nordinances. They, on their part, had issued the like order to their\nbell-ringers and sacristans, so that, owing to the zeal of many of\nthose individuals, I could visit no church, without running the risk of\ncausing a disturbance, or being turned out.\n\n\n\n\nDECREE OF SUSPENSION.\n\nThe right reverend Board of Administration made known to us, on the 11th\nof this month, that, as public opinion had pointed you out as the author\nof the well-known article, \"Rome and the Chapter of Breslau,\" you had\nbeen asked, on the 20th December last, whether you really were so. You\nreplied to this question, on the 24th of the same month, that you could\nnot reconcile it to your conscience to answer the question put to you\nby the right reverend Board. Time was allowed to you after this, and a\nvicar, a private friend * of your own, was commissioned to encourage\nyou to make a distinct declaration and acknowledgment, in which case\nyou would still have been treated with indulgence.** Up to this time,\nhowever, you have sent no reply to the right reverend Board, wherefore\nwe have been charged by the same to bring you to an investigation, ***\neventually, however, to suspend you, and to summon you, _ad exercitia_,\nto the Seminary in this place. It has been further shewn to us, by Mr.\nRector Hoffmann of Grottkau,**** that so early as the 29th of October\n1841 you had been seriously rebuked by the right reverend Board, on\naccount of your peculiar dress and unsuitably long hair; and although\nHoffmann, and several others of your colleagues, kindly warned you of\nthe impropriety of your dress, all has produced no effect, so that they\nwho did not personally know you, would never take you for a clergyman.\nIn addition to this, it has been said that you performed the priestly\nfunctions without decorum or dignity, (_in plain German, without\nhypocrisy and grimaces_,) whereby you have occasioned manifold offence,\n(_unfortunately, the community has accused the right reverend Board\nof falsehood_,) and impeded the efficacy of your ministry.(v) Since,\nunder these circumstances you cannot be appointed to the cure of souls,\nas you yourself, on calm reflection, (_how liberal!_) on your sentiments\nand your efficacy, (_why were not these two important items earlier\nintroduced?_) must perceive.\n\n     * I leave the reader to frame his own opinion of this\n     procedure, and of the friend who allows himself to perform\n     the office of a spy.\n\n     ** Why did Dr. Hitter make so great a work about the matter,\n     if he wished to appear indulgent?\n\n     *** What the right reverend Board understand by an\n     investigation, is shown at the end of this Decree.   I shall\n     also give my idea on the subject.\n\n     ****  Why does the right reverend Board conceal the fact,\n     that Kaspar Hoffmann was required to report! He himself\n     showed me the requisition; and we know full well that my\n     Lords are accustomed to have even the slightest indications\n     of a wish on their part most carefully attended to by their\n     obedient servants. Hoffmann naturally strove to please Dr.\n     Ritter, and prepared his information accordingly.\n\n     (v) It is scarcely credible that an entire Chapter should\n     wander so wide of the truth. The town of Grottkau professes\n     to have found in me \"zealous energy in the improvement of\n     youth.\"\n\n\nSince we forbid you the exercise of priestly functions, you are\nhereby-charged to leave your present situation immediately on receipt\nof this--to resort to the Seminary in this place, there to undergo\n_exercitia spiritualia_, to submit yourself entirely to the orders of\nthe master of the Seminary, i. e., the Pro-Rector, Dr. Sawer, to whom\nyou are required to announce your arrival in this place, and await our\nfurther commands.*\n\n     * \"What of the investigation? The right reverend Board must\n     entertain an odd idea of the meaning of the word; it\n     imposes a twofold punishment upon me, and I am left to\n     picture to myself an investigation behind it!\n\n     \"(Signed) Latussek, v. Ploto, Elsleb, Freis. Breslau,\n     Jan. 30, 1843.\"\n\n\n\n\nDECLARATION ON THE PART OF THE TOWN OF GROTTKAU.\n\nOn the very day on which my deposition was made known, (without any\nprompting on my part,) I received a Declaration, to be forwarded to\nthe right reverend Council, from the undersigned individuals (all\nCatholics.)**\n\n     ** DECLARATION BY THE TOWN OF GROTTKAU.\n\n     \"It affords the undersigned individuals the greatest\n     pleasure to be enabled, in all truth and duty, to assure\n     their vicar, Mr. Ronge, that he has never given occasion of\n     offence to the public, either by his dress, his behaviour,\n     or otherwise; nor has there been anything unbecoming in his\n     everyday life and conversation; or in the manner of his\n     performing the functions of his priestly office.\n\n     \"On the contrary, Mr. Ronge has justly acquired the\n     universal love and esteem which he so richly enjoys, by his\n     modest and highly decorous conduct, by the exemplary\n     morality of his life--which even the foulest calumny has\n     never ventured to assail--and, further, by his zealous\n     energy in the improvement of youth, as well as by his\n     friendly and winning carriage towards all men.\"\n\n[Illustration: List of signatures]\n\n\nThis Declaration, and my own Defence, I forwarded without delay to\nthe Reverend Council, with the observation, that I should also send a\ntestimonial from the magistracy of Grottkau, so soon as I should receive\nit. After the Declaration had been despatched, several other citizens\ndesired to sign it, and complained that it had not been sent to them. It\nwill not be a difficult matter for my fellow-believers and townsmen to\nmake comparisons of the Decree of Suspension and the Declaration of the\ntown of Grottkau, and to draw their own conclusions as to which party\nwere in the right. Without further remark, therefore, I shall merely put\nthe following questions:--\n\nI. Why was I suspended, and condemned to degrading imprisonment? and\n\nII. How was I treated?\n\nI was suspended, and condemned to degrading imprisonment--\n\nI. Because, in fulfilment of my vocation as pastor and teacher, I had\nreminded the episcopal candidates of their duty. Had I, perhaps, no\nright to do so? Yes, it was my privilege and duty,--because I was,\nand _still am_, a teacher of religion, and dare not as such betray the\ntruth, even to obtain thereby a rich living for my treachery. Or, are\nthe prebends of Breslau infallible? They are as little so as I or any\nother man. If Dr. Ritter, and the other members of the Chapter, desire\nto represent the Christian religion--that religion of which truth and\nlove are essential conditions--they must take courage to hear the truth\nitself. If I spoke the truth, why was I smitten on the face? Was I,\nperhaps, as chaplain, considered too insignificant an individual to\ndeserve such notice? I dare not suppose this of those whose duty it is\nto teach and exemplify the doctrine--\"We are all the children of one\nfather, we are all equal in the sight of God,\"--and with whom, in\nrespect of ordination, I was on an equality. If, however, they have not\nunderstood these words of the gospel, I shall shew that I at least have\ncomprehended them--for I shall not intermit my endeavours to arouse the\ninferior clergy, oppressed and trampled on as they are, from their moral\nwretchedness, ignominy, and bondage--because I know what they suffer and\nhow their hearts bleed, having bled and suffered with them.\n\nI was besides deposed, because I had offended by my dress and the\ncutting of ray hair, and because I had set dignity and decorum at\ndefiance in my performance of the priestly functions.\n\nThese accusations have been sufficiently exposed as untrue by the\nDeclaration of the town of Grottkau. Were they, however, in fact, not\naltogether unfounded, (which they have been shown to be,) let them for\na moment be compared with the vicious practices of a no small portion\nof the right reverend servants of the Pope, who, notwithstanding the\nunanimous condemnation of public opinion, are left in quiet possession\nof their offices!---- However painful it may be for me, and presuming\nthough it may seem to others, I cannot refrain from opposing my moral\ncharacter to the high station of those men, who are accustomed to refer\neverything to mere sensuality, and to drag down all things into the\nmire; and I demand, why was I not accused of drinking, gambling, or\nof some particular crime!! Why am I not accused by the right reverend\nCouncil of some negligence in the discharge of my duty? Did they ever\nhear even one equivocal report in regard to my moral character!\n\nII. How was I proceeded against!\n\nI was suspended, and condemned to dishonouring imprisonment, without\na hearing--without an opportunity of defence, or proof adduced of my\nculpability.\n\nIt is unlawful that any German or Prussian citizen should be imprisoned\nfor a crime, by any other than the civil executive power. It is only the\nCatholic priest that is liable to be coerced without appeal to his civil\nrights, or the ceremony of a trial. The Apostle Paul laid claim to the\nprivileges of a Roman citizen; while the Roman Church herself denies to\nher followers the exercise of the most ordinary civil rights. I did not,\ntherefore, submit to the sentence!\n\n\n\n\nREASONS FOR NOT SUBMITTING TO THE ORDERS OF THE RIGHT REVEREND BOARD.\n\nTo this finding of the Vicarial Council, dictated by ecclesiastical\ncaprice, without regard to the law of the land, or even to the statutes\nof the Church, it was impossible for me to submit--and I did not\nsubmit to it; because I should have thereby degraded, _first_, my moral\ndignity; _secondly_, the honour of the nation; and, _thirdly_, the\nrights of the whole body of inferior clergy, by a cowardly submission to\nthe unjust and disgraceful punishment.\n\nIn the first place, my moral dignity was slighted. If I am bound _as\na man_ to resist all violent infringement of my freedom and individual\nprivileges, and rather to hide a free and virtuous heart beneath the\npoorest clothing, than to strut about as a slave in rich attire,--I\nam still more solemnly engaged to such a course, as _teacher of\nthe people_. As such also, in order to bear vigorous and successful\ntestimony to the truth, I must maintain an unblemished reputation among\nmy fellow-citizens. The right reverend Board, however, have at once\nassailed my freedom and my honour.\n\nAs the citizen of a civilized state, and belonging to a civilized\nnation, where the law and not caprice is paramount, I should have\ncompromised the national honour, had I, the subject of such privileges,\nsubmitted in a cowardly and passive manner to the despotical dictation\nof a foreign power.\n\n_Lastly_, seeing that it is at once the duty and the privilege of\nevery teacher of the people (as also of each vicar,) to speak the\ntruth without respect of persons, I should have incurred the guilt of\nsacrificing the privilege and duty of the whole body of inferior clergy,\nby tame submission to the power of those who thus dispute the one, and\nhinder us in the performance of the other.\n\nAs regards the latter, the inferior clergy have certainly renounced\ntheir duty, when, in opposition to their superiors, they have submitted\nto be robbed of this--and many other of their rights as men--and to see\nthemselves reduced to the condition of blind slaves; but the cowardice\nof many in the past and present time, cannot relieve me or any other\nman, from the duty of guarding intact the possession of our civil\nrights. I am only the more solemnly bound most vigorously to contend\nfor all our rights,--as men and citizens, and to free myself from\nslavery,--the more clearly I perceive, that by the slavery of the\npopular teachers, the moral and physical suffering of the people is\nensured. Does a man cease to be a citizen when he becomes a priest?\n\n\n\n\nMY DEFENCE.\n\nOn receipt of the Decree of Suspension, I took the _legitimate_ course\n(if such a term applies,) and sent in a Defence to the right reverend\nBoard, along with the Declaration of the town of Grottkau, and\ntestimonials from the authorities. But I was so excited by the calumnies\nwhich I found in the Decree of Suspension, that I was but ill fitted\nto write a calm defence. I felt myself therefore laid under great\nobligations, which I embrace this opportunity of again and publicly\nacknowledging, to a Catholic lawyer, who offered, in the noblest and\nmost friendly manner, to take the necessary steps. I did not, indeed,\nconceal from this my honoured defender, my determination at once to\ndemit my office, should they proceed to execute the threatened and\ndishonouring sentence,--but left him otherwise at liberty,--in order\nto shew to my fellow-citizens, that even the most modest proposals and\nrequests on my part, and the sufficiently distinct expression of feeling\non the part of the town of Grottkau, as well as of the rector and the\nprincipal inhabitants, were alike unavailing to effect the rescinding of\nthe unjust sentence.\n\n\nRight Reverend Canons,\n\nI have been deeply moved by hearing the sentence of your right reverend\nCouncil, held on the 30th of last month, which orders my suspension from\noffice; in the _first_ place, because I am convinced that worthless men\nhave shamefully traduced my character; and, farther, because I have been\npublicly branded, and deprived of honour and office, on the strength\nof a current report, and on the credit of a private informer, without\ncommunication of the charge, or awaiting my vindication. The cause of\nmy answering, as I did, the question whether I were the author of the\narticle entitled, \"Rome and the Chapter of Breslau,\" was this: that I\nfelt exceedingly annoyed at being asked,--and vexed, that I, who\nlive here in the most perfect retirement,--serving all men as I have\nopportunity,--should be called on to defend myself from empty rumours,\nand be subjected to the necessity of allowing persons, with whom I am\nnot on a friendly footing, to use the most impertinent language towards\nme, under the guise of brotherly affection, as my colleague Schneeweiss\nhas done. If the right reverend Board believe that I am the author of\nthe article, and consider it offensive, I expect that, agreeably to the\nlaws of Prussia, the authorship shall be-brought home to me by proof;\nuntil then, I do not consider myself called upon to render account\nregarding it to any one. I might otherwise, with equal propriety, be\nheld to be the author of any anonymous production, and should have time\nfor nothing else than constantly assuring and bringing proof, that\nI lead a retired life, and trouble myself neither about worldly nor\nclerical affairs.\n\nThe denunciation by Hoffmann, I here declare to be a contemptible\nfalsehood. My hair is not an inch longer than that of Hoffmann. That it\ncurls naturally, while his is smooth, is no fault of mine. Besides, I\nmay observe, that on account of headache, I never allow my hair to\nbe cut quite short. My dress is of a dark colour, like that of other\nrespectable citizens; and the reason that my coat is some inches\nshorter than that of Hoffmann, is, that it is of newer fashion. I\nam young, healthy, vigorous, and, it is said; spirited; hypocritical\nbigotry is foreign to my nature, and hateful to me. I assume no other\nmanner in the performance of my priestly functions than that of ordinary\nlife. It may be that Mr. Hoffmann makes lower bows, beats his breast\nwith deeper groans; it may be that this imposes upon uneducated people,\nbut, to my thinking, it bears no proof of piety, nor does it elevate the\nfeelings of educated men. I would even say that my unvarying behaviour\nmust tend to convince the congregation that I am sincere,--that that\nwhich I preach is my own conviction,--that my words proceed not merely\nfrom my lips, but from my inmost heart.\n\nDignity and decorum are relative ideas, and the answer to the\nquestion--who possesses them? depends upon the view entertained by\nthe individual who is appealed to. It is well if Hoffmann and my\nother secret accusers can comfort themselves with the consciousness of\npossessing dignity and decorum. I hope the contrary may never be proved\nof them.\n\nIf I am devoid of these two fancied qualities, they have been denied to\nme by nature, and I am therefore not to blame; I do not repress decorum\nand dignity; I do not purposely neglect them, and I expect a proof\nto the contrary--for it is only when the intentions are evil that our\nactions can be blamed. That I had given great cause of offence to the\ncongregation was unknown to me until now.\n\nFor the clergyman of this place, where a portion of the congregation is\nhighly educated, another portion tolerably, while a third is altogether\nuneducated, it is peculiarly difficult to satisfy all parties. I\nthought, therefore, that the most prudent course for me to pursue, would\nbe to vary my sermons, and address myself by turns to either class.\nIf my point has not been gained, and all parties have not been\nequally satisfied, it has arisen from a fallacy in the plan, not from\npremeditated carelessness on my part, which alone would be culpable.\n\nWithout egotism, I may say that the annexed testimonial* from the\nCatholic gentry, the most respectable citizens, and regular church-goers\nof this town, appears to me to prove that my labours have not been\nfruitless, and that at least I have given no public cause of offence.\n\n     * I have printed this testimonial with its signatures, for\n     the sake of contrast, immediately after the Decree of\n     Suspension, and give here the testimony of the authorities.\n\nAlthough I consider that, by this testimonial, the secret and shameful\naccusations against me have been sufficiently refuted, still, for my\nmore perfect exculpation, I shall also produce the testimony of the\nmagistrates and sheriffs of this place, which will not, certainly,\nbe found less favourable. I cannot possibly believe that your right\nreverend Council, after I have proved a portion of the accusation to\nbe untrue, will carry out in full severity the sentence of the 30th\nJanuary.\n\nI beg, therefore, humbly to request, should the sentence be so far\nmodified as to leave me in possession of my office, that I may be\ntranslated as soon as possible, seeing that even in the exercise of all\nChristian forbearance, it must still be disagreeable for me to live so\nnear my false accuser, and to eat at his table.\n\nIn the lively hope that your right reverend Board will not publicly\ncondemn me on false accusation, marring my earthly prospects, and\nrobbing me of my credit as a citizen; but, on the contrary, that it will\nremove my Suspension, I shall await here the arrival of a very different\ndecision, especially as the production of the necessary witnesses, and\nthe arrangement of my affairs, require my presence here for some days\nlonger.\n\nAs for the rest, I have announced my suspension to Mr. Hoffmann, and\nshall not venture on the performance of any priestly functions until the\narrival of the longed-for reversal, which must most clearly show, that\nmy non-appearance in the Seminary does not proceed from contumacy.*\n\nBesides my own Defence, and the voluntary Declaration by which the town\nof Grottkau nobly and honourably annihilated the accusations heaped\nupon me, I sent to the right reverend Council (about six days later) the\ntestimonials from the authorities of Grottkau, which I applied for to\nassist in my vindication. They run thus:--\n\n     * THE TESTIMONIALS OF THE AUTHORITIES OF GROTTKAU.\n\n     \"Of the Rev. Vicar Ronge, it is hereby certified, at his own\n     special request, that during his stay here he has always\n     conducted himself in a moral manner, that he has not worn\n     unsuitably long hair, nor dressed ur an improper, or\n     remarkable manner.--von Ohlen, Member of Administration,\n\n     \"Grottkau, February 6th, 1843.\"\n\n     \"Testimonial.--That the Rev. Vicar Ronge, during the period\n     of his appointment in this place, has at all times\n     conducted himself with decorum and propriety, and in all\n     respects irreproachably; and that his dress has never been\n     unsuitable, nor indeed at all remarkable, is hereby truly\n     certified, at the request of Mr. Ronge.--Adam, Muller, Sahm,\n     Reisewitz, Magistrates.\n\n     \"Grottkau, February 9th, 1843.\"\n\n     \"At the request of the Rev. Mr. Ronge, the undersigned\n     delegates of the city hereby truly attest,--That during the\n     period of his stay here as vicar, he has always led a\n     morally correct life, and, in so far as we know, has always\n     conducted himself towards the inhabitants in an affectionate\n     and friendly manner. In regard to his dress, it was not at\n     all indecorous nor unsuitable.\n\n     \"The delegates of the city have granted this certificate\n     from individual conviction, and with a good conscience.--\n     Ebel, President..   von Donat, Stephan, Fleischer,\n     Ratschbr, Kahlert, Stadler, Zibold, Anders, Olbrich,\n     Friedrich, Fleischer, Schmidt, Thaum, Tannkrt, Registrar.\n\n     \"Grottkau, February 9, 1843.\"\n\n     \"In justification of my signature, in favour of the Rev. Mr.\n     Ronge, of this place,--I certify, as an upright and\n     conscientious man, that since the 24th March 1841, on which\n     day Mr. Ronge presented to me the notice of his appointment\n     as vicar, I have perceived nothing in him that could\n     compromise him as a Catholic clergyman. Neither have I heard\n     that he has performed his spiritual functions without\n     reverence or dignity, or that there has been anything\n     offensive in his dress, or the cutting of his hair. Every\n     individual has his failings and peculiarities, of which even\n     accusers are not free, and it is generally easy enough to\n     injure a man, and bring him under suspicion* although no\n     charge can be preferred against him in a moral point of\n     view.\n\n     \"Grottkau, February 5,1843.\n\n     \"Pech, Rector.\"\n\n\n\n\nDEPARTURE FROM GROTTKAU.\n\nSoon after receipt of the Decree of Suspension, I discontinued my\nofficial duties, but remained a few days longer in Grottkau, to take the\nnecessary steps for clearing my character from the calumnies of\nKaspar Hoffmann, and Ebel the apothecary and president of the body of\ndelegates,* who had brought their silly accusations against me under\ncover of the Church. By the other inhabitants of the town I was most\nkindly treated, and the partially evasive testimonies which were\nafterwards given in by a _soi-disant_ Church community of Grottkau, are\nonly to be accounted for by the employment of Chapter influence. Various\nreports were, of course, in circulation, for but few were aware of the\nactual cause of my suspension, or of the manner in which I had been\ntreated; and I was obliged to keep silence--to allow every report to\ncirculate unchecked--deeply though I felt the altered looks of those I\nhad accounted friends. But it would have been unreasonable in me to have\nexpected of them a more thorough appreciation of the circumstances of my\ncase, for no one knew how the slave-yoke of Rome had galled me, nor\nhow my indignation was aroused to see my native land distracted\nand enthralled by a set of knavish Roman priests and their German\nassistants. I felt it as a joy and pride to suffer undeserved reproaches\nfor my fellow-citizens, even for those who persecuted me, as they\nfancied, to the credit and in the name of the Church. I felt an assured\nconfidence that the day of light would come, the day of emancipation\nfrom the tyranny of Rome, when my conduct should be made public, and my\nexculpation be complete; and I gave expression to these feelings in a\nfew farewell words to the inhabitants of Grottkau, which I caused to be\ninserted in the weekly newspaper.\n\n     * Mr. Witke, the former superior of the Seminary, named Ebel\n     (the brother-in-law of a canon, and a converted proselyte,)\n     as my calumniator, and I can prove him to have been so. Such\n     persons, who can consciously assume religion as a cloak for\n     their false-heartedness, should be denounced by name to all\n     the world. Our Saviour tells us that hypocrisy is the most\n     heinous crime, and that murderers and adulterers may be\n     saved, but not hypocrites!\n\nFrom Grottkau I travelled to Valtorf, near Neisse, where my friend the\nCount von Reichenbach offered me the shelter of his roof. Although I\nhad relinquished certain competence, which the office of a Catholic\nclergyman secures, and knew not how long I might be a wanderer, yet the\nfeeling that at length I had escaped from the cursed and ignominious\nyoke of Rome, under which I had groaned for three years, was\nindescribably delightful, and confiding in my righteous cause, and in\nmy youthful strength, it seemed as if I had but just emerged from some\ndark, dismal prison, into the lovely light of heaven. New energy glowed\nin my veins; a new and beauteous world bloomed before me, in which I was\nto labour and to live as the free teacher, and the pastor of my own, the\nGerman people!\n\n\n\n\nMY SISTERS.\n\nMy joy was damped, however, and turned to sadness, when I thought upon\nthe annoyances which my family, especially my four sisters, (our parents\nwere dead) endured, owing to the numerous and often ill-natured reports\nthat were spread regarding me. Homely country people, reared in the\nCatholic religion, young and inexperienced, they did not think the\nmotives were sufficient, which led me to throw up my office. Although\nthey placed unbounded confidence in me, it was doubtless somewhat\nshaken, when they found themselves disappointed in the prospect they\nhad very properly indulged of future aid from me. They endeavoured, time\nafter time, to prevail on me to resume my office, in consideration\nof the calumnies they had to bear. This has caused me hours of bitter\nsorrow.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ANSWER OF THE COUNCIL.\n\nAbout three weeks after the despatch of my Defence, and the testimonials\nfrom the magistrates, I received a negative reply from the right\nreverend Board.* In this reply no farther weight is given to the\ntestimony of the magistrates of Grottkau, and the declaration of the\ninhabitants, than that they silenced the false accusations of Kaspar\nHoffmann; and the representatives of Christian love and justice in\nthe diocese of Breslau do not condescend to offer satisfaction for the\nannoyances to which I and mine had thereby been subjected. Although they\nmight not consider themselves called upon to pay me a just debt, yet\nsurely the united voice of an entire town was worthy of some little\ndeference. But here we touch upon the second curse by which the\nhierarchy overlays the people. Even as the thraldom of the inferior\nclergy, in regard to their superiors, annihilates their manliness of\ncharacter and self-respect, so the thraldom of the congregation in their\nrelation to the clergy, keeps the great mass of the Catholic people\nin darkness and insensibility. That neither the congregations nor the\ninferior clergy have always been in this state of thraldom, is well\nknown. It has been induced by their torpidity and ignorance. But had\nthey never before enjoyed a state of greater freedom, the present times\nimperiously demand it.\n\n     * \"In reply to your remonstrances of the 5th and 10th of the\n     month, you are hereby informed, that as you do not\n     distinctly deny the authorship of the the article 'Rome and\n     the Chapter of Breslau,' our judgment of the 30th of January\n     remains unaltered.--Latussek, v. Ploto, Elsler, Freis,\n     Canons.\n\n     \"Breslau, February 18th, 1843.\"\n\nWith my convictions, to have remained one moment longer in my office,\nafter receiving the answer of the right reverend Board, would have\ndishonoured me. How could I have met my fellow-citizens, and spoken\nto them of the unfettered moral dignity of man, while I myself had\nsacrificed religious conviction in a pitiful and cowardly manner, for a\nbit of bread, secured to me by my condition as a Romish priest? This\nwas my fixed determination:--rather the grave than dishonouring\npunishment--rather starvation than self-degradation, and injury of the\nrights of my fellow-citizens and colleagues! In order, however, that\nI might leave no method untried of obtaining justice, I wrote to the\nCouncil, stating that 1 should appeal to the still unappointed bishop.\n\n\n\n\nAUDIENCE OF THE BISHOP.\n\nThe confirmation of Bishop Knauer's appointment did at last take place;\nhe was to enter Breslau in April 1843. I had gone to that town,\npartly to attend to my affairs, and partly to seek the means of future\nsubsistence. After the the arrival of Bishop Knauer, I went to a Canon,\nwhose name is appended to my Decree of Deposition, to ascertain at what\ntime I might speak with the Bishop. This right reverend gentleman told\nme quite naively that I should have answered--\"No, I am not the author\nof the article--bring it home to me!\" with this addition, if I \"desired\nto remain at my _clerical trade_.\" He further informed me, that although\n_he had not read the article in question_, it was said to contain\nterrible things.\n\nWhat say the younger clergy to the expression, _clerical trade!_ and\nwhat shall one think of the justice and indepedence of a spiritual\ntribunal, whose members are not even aware of the nature of the crime\nfor which they condemn their fellow-men! Justice! how, indeed, could I\nexpect it at the hands of those who were at once my judges and accusers!\n\nI found the Bishop himself, when I preferred my complaint to him,\nessentially different from the greater number of the Catholic clergy.\nHe received me in that winning manner, with which youth is easily\nfascinated by age. There was no trace in him of that _quasi_ lowly\nspiritual pride, and vulgar affectation of pious condescension, so\ncommon in prelates. When I had made my request to him in few words, he\nreplied, that the affair was not unknown to him, and that I only needed\nto apply to Dr. Ritter for a removal of the Suspension, to have the\nmatter satisfactorily arranged. On my objecting, that I was of excitable\ntemper, and that, under existing circumstances, I feared myself\nincapable of dealing calmly with that individual--he offered to hold a\nprevious conference with Dr. Ritter. He then asked if I were the author\nof the article. I answered in the affirmative. \"But why,\" continued he,\n\"did you _invite_ all this persecution?\"--\"Because,\" I answered, \"it was\nmy duty to give utterance to the unanimous feeling of the citizens and\nthe clergy, seeing that no other priest considered himself called\nupon to do so.\" He said no more on this subject, but, speaking of the\nsituation as tutor which I had accepted, he said that he needed my\nassistance in the diocese, and appointed that I should return to him\nin the afternoon. When I returned to the Bishop, he was embarrassed\nand reserved, in consequence of the conference with Dr. Ritter, who had\ninveighed against me in coarse language,* and asserted that I had been\ninvited to appear before him and had not come (a falsehood! for surely\ncondemnation is not invitation!). I proved, indeed, that Dr. Ritter had\nasserted an untruth; but Bishop Knauer, already eighty years of age,\nfound it very inconvenient to quarrel with his canons, and excused\nhimself by saying, that he had not so fully entered on the duties of\nhis office as to qualify him as a competent judge. (This was on the day\nbefore his Inauguration.) Replying only by my looks, I took my leave,\nand set out for my new destination, Laurahuette, to engage in the\nteaching of the children of the functionaries of the place.\n\n     * Among other things, Dr. Ritter asserted, as I was informed\n     by Bishop Knauer, that I had been idling about for some time\n     in Breslau without making my appearance at the Cathedral. A\n     speaking instance of the noble nature of the right reverend\n     gentleman! I had been staying all the time in the house of\n     Mr. Wittig, a highly respected citizen, who had hospitably\n     received me, and I had scarcely quitted it for an hour.\n\n\n\n\nLAURAHUeTTE\n\nLies near Beuthen in Upper Silesia, about half a mile from the Russian\nfrontier. It is the most extensive foundry in Upper Silesia, and was\nonly erected in 1839. It may easily be imagined that my spirits were\nnot a little affected by the difficult circumstances in which I had been\nplaced; for, besides seeing all my past labours brought to a fruitless\ntermination, I had been compelled to submit in silence to all the\nattacks which had been made upon my character. Several of my Catholic\nfriends had slighted me, or treated me unkindly; and the greater number\nof my Catholic fellow-citizens did not appear sufficiently to feel the\noppressive yoke of Romish superstition.--The time had not yet come! My\nconfidence had been severely tried by all these causes. I only clung\nthe more closely, however, to my pupils at Laurahuette, and I often\nfelt inclined to beg of them that they would not treat me so unkindly as\nother friends had done. I trembled if they left me for even half a day.\nI tried to find a resting place within their hearts, by building on\ntheir love. And truly, the brightest hours of my life have been passed\nin the school-room, cheered by their innocent and youthful hearts.\nMy mind was gradually strengthened and refreshed, to which result the\ntender kindness of my friends at Laurahuette mightily conduced.\n\nI employed my hours of leisure in work connected with my avocation, and\nseveral performances were already completed, when the day of my release\narrived, which I had been long expecting, and with increased impatience\nand assurance the nearer it approached. Our feelings oftentimes outrun\nall reason, and my confidence of ultimate release had been rising ever\nsince I left the Seminary. The day at length arrived!--the 1st day of\nOctober 1844. From the moment when I saw my article in print (I trembled\nlest it should be interdicted) I felt as if the month of May were come,\nand spring were budding in my Fatherland.\n\n\n\n\nTHE LETTER TO THE BISHOP OP TREVES, AND THE CHAPTER OF BRESLAU.\n\nThe hope of ultimate emancipation from the yoke of Rome, to which I now\nlook forward with confident assurance, was excited by the slaves and\nblinded servants of the Roman Hierarchy and of the Jesuits, on seeing\nthe extremes to which they carried their mockery of religion and trial\nof the patience of the German people.\n\nA Tunic, of which they cannot even prove that it really was the tunic of\nJesus Christ, is exhibited by these Baal-priests of avarice and greed,\nfor public adoration; and the credulous multitude are not only allowed\nto offer homage to this garment, but are taught to hail it in these\nwords:--\"Holy garment, pray for us!\" \"Holy garment, I bow down before\nthee,\" &c. For such mockery of religion, such frenzy, assumed as piety,\nat the bidding of the Church, language is inadequate to the expression\nof our indignation; and my letter to Bishop Arnoldi, condemned as all\ntoo strong, is childlike in comparison of the sacrilegious offence\ncommitted by the Church upon religion and the human understanding.\n\nIt was, therefore, with unfeigned surprise that, in the beginning of\nNovember, after leaving Laurahuette (where a public school had been\nerected, and furnished, in the month of August, with two teachers) I\nreceived two written communications from the Chapter at Breslau, calling\non me to retract what I had written, as offensive to that reverend body.\nI was less surprised when, after my refusal, I received the Decree of\nExcommunication.\n\nI wondered less that Dr. Ritter should demand a recantation of my\narticle--\"Rome and the Chapter of Breslau,\" it being far less dangerous\nto him to place a lie upon the altar, in regard to circumstances which\n_immediately after_ Silesia alone, as the carrying out of his designs\nwere likely, therefore, to attract but limited observation. But that an\nentire Chapter should venture, in the face of Europe, and even of the\nworld, to countenance such undisguised abuse as that of the _adorable\nrelic_ at Treves--such an unheard-of money-trafficking in the most\nsacred matters--such an insane mockery of reason and the Gospel, was not\nonly ecclesiastically impolitic, but revolting to all Christendom.*\n\n     *  DECREE OF EXCOMMUNICATION, &C.\n\n     \"Breslau, Oct. 29th 1844.\n\n     \"On the 30th of January of last year, the sentence of the\n     Canonical Council was forwarded to you, whereby, in\n     consequence of your failing satisfactorily to disprove the\n     authorship of the Article 'Rome and the Chapter of Breslau,'\n     and conducting yourself otherwise in a manner unbecoming a\n     Catholic clergyman, you were deposed from the Curacy of\n     Grottkau, and, having been interdicted from the performance\n     of spiritual functions, were charged to submit yourself _ad\n     exercitia spiritualia_ in the Seminary here, under the\n     orders of the Superior, and await the farther pleasure of\n     the Council. You have hitherto paid no attention to this\n     judgment, especially in regard to its later requirements,\n     but have obstinately persisted in disobedience to your\n     superiors.\n\n     \"There has lately appeared in No. 164 of the Vaterlands-\n     blatter, another Article, dated Laurahuette, Oct. 1st, and\n     bearing your signature, in regard to the exhibition of the\n     Holy Tunic of Jesus Christ at Treves--an Article most\n     offensive to all orthodox Catholics, and calculated\n     seriously to injure the character of one of the most worthy\n     bishops of the Catholic Church, and which, besides, contains\n     an invitation to rebellion against all existing and\n     universally recognized principles in the government of the\n     said Church.\n\n     \"This calls for the strictest investigation, and excites\n     well-deserved suspicion,--I therefore require of you, seeing\n     that you subscribe yourself 'A Catholic Priest,' and call\n     yourself a member of the Catholic Church in this diocese, to\n     declare _within fourteen days_,\n\n     \"1st, Whether you acknowledge yourself the author of the\n     above named Article;\n\n     \"2d, Whether, in case you do, you are inclined to atone for\n     your offence, and the grief occasioned to the most reverend\n     Bishop Arnoldi of Treves, by a solemn retractation in the\n     same paper, and in other much-read Journals, to be named by\n     me;\n\n     \"3d, Should you have had no part in the drawing out or\n     despatching of said Article, and should your signature and\n     address have been used without authority,--are you willing\n     and able to prove it, and to free yourself from the\n     suspicion which rests upon you, and in consequence of which\n     you are hereby enjoined to present yourself without delay!\n\n     \"If the required explanation be not furnished within the\n     time specified, and should you not show yourself ready to\n     satisfy the questions put, I am reluctantly compelled, in\n     addition to the Decree of Suspension, which has already been\n     put in force, hereby to suspend over you the ecclesiastical\n     punishment of degradation and excommunication.\"\n\n     \"--Latussrk, Suffragan Bishop and Vicar-General of the\n     Diocese.\"\n\n\"To the late Curate Ronge, at Laurahuette.\"\n\n\n\"To the Right Reverend the Suffragan Bishop and-Vicar-General of the\nDiocese.\n\n\"On the 18th and 19th of this month I received two letters of identical\nimport; one addressed to me as a 'Catholic Priest,' the other as 'the\nlate Curate,' in which I am required, before the lapse of fourteen days,\nto answer questions upon various points. To this requisition I reply in\nthe following terms:--\n\n\"As to the Article 'Rome and the Chapter of Breslau,' your Lordship\nobserves, that I did not satisfactorily vindicate my conduct in regard\nto it. My reply to the inquisitorial queries of Dr. Ritter, must have\nbeen misunderstood, if it was considered in the light of a vindication.\nI have never endeavoured to vindicate myself in regard to that Article,\nnor have I ever denied its authorship;--but, on the other hand, I have\nnever recognized the authority of Dr. Ritter, and the members of the\nright reverend Board, as at once my judges and my accusers in the\nmatter. The inquisitorial questions which were then put to me, and\nthe decision of the right reverend Board, by which, without citation,\nhearing, or defence, (accorded to the lowest criminal,) I was deposed,\nand condemned to dishonouring punishment in the Seminary, are, besides,\nan insult to the rights of the whole body of the inferior clergy. Shall\nnot the lower clergy (like their fellow-citizens,) have the right to\nexpress an opinion opposed to that of their superiors, without perilling\ntheir existence? Are the truths of our religion so powerless, as to\nrender necessary compulsion and coercion? Did Jesus found our Church\nupon such principles! Or, are the higher clergy the sole and infallible\npillars of the truth?\n\n\"The assertion, that I endeavoured to save my living by a falsehood,--by\nwhich it was attempted to bring upon me the contempt of my\nfellow-believers and fellow-citizens, I have practically\ndisproved--having relinquished my office in the face of beggary and\nwant--although I might easily have escaped Suspension by submission.\nHonour, truth, and justice, are of higher value in my eyes than the\ncrumb of bread that nourishes my body.\n\n\"I acknowledged to Bishop Knauer, my lawful superior, that I am the\nauthor of the Article alluded to; upon which his Grace asked me,--< But\nwhy did you thus court persecution?'--< Because,' I said,' I considered\nit a duty to give public expression to the universal discontent\nprevailing in the diocese, on account of the delay of Rome.' Besides,\n1 shall not hesitate to vindicate my conduct in the eyes of my\nfellow-believers and my fellow-citizens.\n\n\"It is farther asserted by your Lordship, that I conducted myself in\nGrottkau in an unbecoming manner. The offences included in this\ncharge have been sufficiently refuted, as calumnious and false, by the\nmagistrates and citizens of Grottkau; and I shall claim the protection\nof the State and of the public against such accusations. Or have\nour spiritual rulers, perhaps, the arbitrary privilege to blast my\nreputation at discretion?\n\n\"As to the Article in regard to the exhibition of the so-called Holy\nTunic at Treves, my name was plainly and distinctly affixed to it, and\nthere has been no misuse in the matter. I only spoke the truth, and\nshall continue to do so without fear of men. I shall not hesitate to\ndenounce abuses? even when they seek to hide themselves behind the\naltars of a thousand years. I have but done my duty in lending words to\nthe almost universal indignation of my countrymen at the adoration of\na piece of dress. It is truly marvellous that a high ecclesiastical\nauthority should endeavour to defend so shameless an abuse. Is the abuse\nless blameable, because consecrated by a Bishop? What would have been\nsaid, had inferior members of the priesthood, or other Christians,\nsought to win fifty thousand dollars by the exhibition of that Holy\nTunic 1 Did Christ, or the Apostles, do such things? Christ fed those\nwho came to him--but did not rob them of their money; and He indignantly\nexclaimed in the Temple--'My father's house is a house of prayer--ye\nhave made it a den of thieves.'\n\n\"I have spoken the truth, and shall never retract it, as is required of\nme. If, on this account, your Lordship should consider it your duty to\ndegrade and excommunicate me--let it be so. I, for my part, am firmly\nconvinced that the exalted Head of our religion numbers me among his\ndisciples, notwithstanding; and I feel assured that my fellow-believers\nand my fellow-citizens will not exclude me from communion with them. For\nmillions of men have heard my simple word, and they have gladly received\nit because convinced that it proceeded from an honest heart. Millions\nhave loved me on account of it, and their love has not allowed itself to\nbe deceived by the disgusting calumnies of embittered opponents. Their\nlove will still support me. I can give no other reply.--I am, my Lord\nBishop,\n\n\"Johannes Ronge, Catholic Priest.\n\n\"Breslau, November 30, 1844.\"\n\n\n\"Breslau, 4th Dec. 1844.\n\n\"In consequence of your reply, dated November 30, and received on the\nfirst day of this month, wherein you admit that you subscribed the\nArticle 'On the Holy Tunic at Treves,' acknowledge it as your own\ncomposition, and refuse to recall it,--I find myself reduced to\nthe highly painful necessity, in pursuance of my Decree of the 29th\nOctober, and on account of the gross offence against the Church,\ncontained in the said Article, to issue the sentence of your degradation\nand excommunication, in accordance with, and by authority of, the\ncanonical statutes and decrees.\n\n\"I therefore charge you to return to me, without delay, your letters of\nholy ordination. As you have not complied with my injunction to appear\nbefore me in person,* and have thereby deprived me of the wished-for\nopportunity of convincing you, by fatherly admonition and friendly\nconference, of your false and heterodox views generally, and, in\nparticular, regarding the worship of relics--as the adoration of the\nHoly Tunic,--I can only add to the sentence, which I most reluctantly\npronounce, my fervent prayer, that by God's grace you may be led to a\nright understanding of the Catholic faith, and to a discrimination of\nthat worship of relics, which is permitted and approved by the Church,\nfrom the abuse of it, of which alone you seem to think.--\n\n\"D. Latussek, Suffragan Bishop, and Vicar-General of the Diocese.\n\n\"To the late Curate, Rev. Johannes Ronge.\"\n\n     * My Lord Bishop only called me before him in case I should\n     be inclined to retract, or, if I were not the author of the\n     letter alluded to; otherwise, as is shewn by the document of\n     the 29th of October, I was only called upon for an\n     explanation. Why this perversion of the truth?'\n\n\n\n\nTHE CONCLUSION.\n\nThe history of my life is now before my countrymen, and they may judge\nbetween me and my opponents and traducers. I have given documentary\nproof, that, on account of the Article entitled \"Rome and the Chapter of\nBreslau,\" I have been deposed, and sentenced to disgraceful punishment,\nby the Board of Canons, without citation, hearing, or defence, which are\naccorded to the most ordinary criminal. I have further proved, that, on\naccount of the well-known letter to the Bishop of Treves, I have been\nexcommunicated by the same right reverend Board--that is to say, I have\nbeen placed without the pale of the Church, as an irreclaimable sinner.\n\nAs, however, I have conducted myself, in speech and action, in\naccordance with my calling and my duty as a teacher, as also in\nagreement with the Gospel; and have, in defiance of law and justice, by\nunrighteous and despotic fiats of the Romish Church, been deposed and\nexcommunicated--I appeal to the justice of my countrymen against the\nHierarchy and its slaves, and demand that the members of the Canonical\nBoard at Breslau be forced to rescind their sentence. I do not prefer\nthis accusation in my own behalf alone, but stand forth in vindication\nof the rights of the whole body of inferior clergy, which are trampled\nupon by their superiors--in vindication of the rights of congregations,\nwhich are trampled upon by the entire priesthood! Lastly, I stand forth\nfor Christendom, and, in the name of all Christendom, arraign the Romish\nHierarchy, which falsely calls itself the \"Universal Church,\" _because\nit does not fulfil, but directly opposes the Gospel call--the call to\npromote the perfect reconciliation of the family of man._\n\nThe Romish Hierarchy has reduced the Gospel teaching to a system of\nusury, compulsion, and oppression, profanely--prostituted religion to a\nrevolting Jesuitism,--and, instead of promoting the improvement and\nthe reconciliation of mankind, maintains in all their bitterness the\nantipathies of nations, and, kindling civil war, (look to Switzerland\nand other countries!) debases human nature by hypocrisy and vice.\n\nIt is the Roman Church which has to rend so wide asunder the yawning\ngulf which separates the higher from the lower classes, the ignorant\nfrom the educated, the poorer from the richer portions of all European\nnations; and it is she who is daily making that gulf still wider, by\ndint of Jesuitism and priestcraft. In order to escape from utter ruin,\nthe overwhelming evil must be vigorously, resolutely met,--in compact\nphalanx. The nations--and above all the German nation--ought to call a\nfree ecclesiastical convention, composed of laymen freely chosen, and of\nhonest priests, to sweep away for ever all Jesuitism and priestcraft--to\nestablish freedom of conscience on the ruins of hypocrisy--to purify\nreligion, and to show the Church her actual calling, imposed upon her by\nthe spirit of the times, and the exigencies of our people--namely,\nthe reconcilement of the higher and the lower classes of humanity--the\nreconcilement of the nations and the peoples of the earth, by improving\nand ennobling them--by universal love and freedom. By our regard to our\nneighbour, we shew forth our love to God; for we are told by John, that\n\"If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar.\"\n\nArise, then, men of Germany and of France; men of Great Britain, Italy,\nand Spain, arise! Men of Europe and America! let us unite with our\ngovernments in the noble enterprise! To the work, like men--the work of\npeace and freedom! The hour is come! let us break the yoke of faith and\nconscience--drag down lying priesthood and the Hierarchy--annihilate\ndisdainful Jesuitism, insulting God and man--and usher in the glorious\nreign of truth, and light, and righteousness--of virtue, of freedom, and\nof love! Let us usher in the true reign of Christ upon the earth!\n\n[This closes Ronge's Self-defence, which, in all probability, would\nnever have seen the light, had it not been for the subsequent excitement\ncaused by the affair of the Holy Coat. For however triumphant has been\nhis exposure of the authorities with whom he has had to do, still such\ncases of arbitrary tyranny are far too common to excite more than a\nmere passing, or, at best, local interest. It required such a fact as\nthat of Treves first to awaken a general interest, and thereby to secure\na proportionate degree of attention to the details of such a personal\nnarrative as we have now given. People desired to know about the history\nof the man who had brought home to their hearts and experience the\nabuses of the system which had hitherto ruled them as with a rod of\niron. But especially as charges the most base and unfounded had been\ndirected against Ronge, with regard to the real cause of his suspension,\nit became his duty to lay the whole facts before the public, and\nmanfully to appeal to their sentence against that of the Church\nauthorities of Breslau. We have inserted this Justification before\nnoticing the movements which have taken place in consequence of the\nfirst letter, which, instead of appearing as a documentary part of the\nJustification, was inserted at a previous part of the narrative,\nand which gave its real personal and historical interest to his\nSelf-defence.]\n\n\n\n\nOPINIONS, ADDRESSES, &c. &c.\n\nWe must now return to the first letter, and notice the excitement\ncreated by it over the whole of Germany, Protestant and Catholic. The\nfollowing appeared in the _Mannheim_ Journal:--\"The greatest attention\nhas been lately directed to the admirable and pithy statement of\na Catholic priest concerning the Holy Coat. It is peculiarly the\ncitizen-class who have been electrified thereby. Not to have read it,\n(and it is impossible to escape the question)--is declared to be as bad\nas never having read anything. It is published in all the papers; and\ntruly the spreading of truth and light in religious matters--and both\nit contains in rich measure--is not merely a matter of honour but of the\nheart!\"\n\n_Weimar_.--\"There prevails here a complete frenzy to read the production\nof Ronge. A number of the citizens have caused it to be circulated\n_gratis_ among the poorer inhabitants. For a very long period no\nproduction has created more sensation in the world,--and it is beyond\ndoubt that Ronge's name will ever be distinguished in the history of the\nworld and of the Church.\"\n\n_Westphalia_.--\"The excitement which Ronge's letter has made among\nfriend and foe becomes daily more conspicuous from the public press.\nIn Magdeburg the whole middle class is against the ultra-montanist\nmovement, and even the majority of the clergy,--as this movement throws\nall power into the hands of the bishops.\"\n\n_West Prussia_.--\"While the Jesuits are interdicting, by Church censures\nand prohibitions, the 'wandering Jew' of Eugene Sue, Ronge's letter is\nbeing circulated by the thousand.\"\n\n_Kazbach_.--\"John Ronge--a true German man--a true Christian minister,\nhas openly shewn that the spirit of Christ is not yet dead in the\nCatholic Church of Silesia. His letter is quite invaluable. Each\ncommunity has treasured it as a true legacy to posterity, to preserve\nChristianity from being perverted by the Hierarchy, and to shew that a\nSilesian priest had courage thus openly to proclaim the truth. And has\nnot the whole of Germany welcomed the earnest words of the worthy man\nwith hearty joy! In a short space, they have travelled through every\nGerman province, from the Oder to the Rhine. Thousands of Germans feel\ninspired by his name, and declare him one of the most valiant combatants\nagainst the dark powers of hierarchical tyranny.\"\n\n_Ulm_.--\"The Germans of the south are determined not to be behind their\nbrethren in other parts of Germany.\"\n\n\nSuch are ordinary specimens of the extracts with which the German\njournals are filled, up to the present date. It is in truth impossible\nto take up any journal, Catholic or Protestant, which does not contain\nsome announcement on the subject. Ronge's name is in every one's\nlips--his portrait is to be found in every print-shop, along with\nengravings, in all styles of art, of the Holy Coat. Addresses have\nbeen poured upon him from all quarters, expressive of gratitude, and\nsympathy, and admiration. Take the following specimen from the city of\n\n_Dantzic_:--\"Highly Honoured Sir,--when more than 300 years ago the monk\nLuther declared war upon the Hierarchy, and introduced a new epoch into\nthe history of the world, it could not but be that the man who declared\n'I cannot do otherwise,' should be opposed, declared heretic, and\npersecuted. So shall it also be with you for your exposure of the\nSpectacle of the Holy Coat; in that letter which, through the press, has\nnow been made the property of all. The enemies of the light shall not\ncease to calumniate and persecute you. As, moreover, the hearts of all\nlovers of the truth attached themselves to the monk Luther, and, as\nto-day, millions thank him for the light which surrounds them, so does\nthe present generation with joy congratulate you, and future generations\nwill preserve your memory in their thankful hearts, as of a man who,\nwithout human fear, declared the holy truth of God. Permit us, though\nwe live far from you, to express to you, in name of all friends of the\nlight, their most hearty thanks for the service which you have done by\nyour open and noble opposition to the hierarchical spectacle of Treves.\nMay the Almighty take you into his protection, and may his hand rest on\nyou and bless you.\n\n\"Dantzic, 16th November, 1844.\"\n\n\nThis Address, and many of a similar nature, have been signed by\nProtestants and Catholics alike. Individual addresses also have been\nsent, signed exclusively by Catholics, and others signed exclusively by\nProtestants, as those from Leipsic and Berlin. Accounts from all parts\nof Germany are of a similar nature; even Bohemia, where the voice\nof Huss has long been silent, has come under the influence of the\nexcitement,--Ronge's letter having crossed the frontier, and been\ncirculated, no one could tell well how, by the thousand. It has now been\ntranslated into several of the languages of Europe, and it cannot admit\nof doubt, that on all hands the eyes of many are being opened by it, to\nsee the awful bondage in which they and their fathers have so long been\nheld.\n\nWhile all this was going on, it was not to be expected that the Catholic\nparty should remain silent. Accordingly, they have been striving\n_per fas et nefas_, to arrest the movement, by calumniations of the\nauthor--by defences of their conduct--by appeals to the evils of the\nReformation, and occasional significant references to the \"powers that\nbe\" in the Vatican. It ought to be stated, that several of the Catholic\nclergy, before the appearance of Ronge's letter, had denounced the\nintended pilgrimage, manfully declaring, in opposition to all the\nsayings and doings of Arnoldi, and even the Bull of Leo X., that this\nwas no matter of Catholic doctrine, and that it remained open for each\nindividual Catholic to treat the evidence for or against the genuineness\nof the relic, as his private judgment and free inquiry might lead him.\nFrom such quarters, the movement of Ronge could not well be opposed; and\nit is striking, that wherever a priest has so expressed his opinion, but\nfew, indeed, of his people went to Treves. Whether many of this class\nmay join the movement remains to be seen, but it certainly seems highly\nprobable.\n\nThe ultra-Catholic party have expressed their opinions in two remarkable\ndocuments,--the one, An Address from the Clergy of Treves, and the\nother, from the Clergy of Breslau, with whom Ronge was connected, to\nBishop Arnoldi. A few sentences will show the spirit of each. In the\nformer it is stated, \"that such scandalous Articles (as the publication\nof Ronge) must produce among all Catholics in Germany the greatest\nindignation, and shake to its foundation the peaceful relation of the\ntwo confessions; and this all the more, as before the ceremony alluded\nto, nothing had taken place to calumniate or asperse Protestant\nChristians. When, however, such a publication, by its tone and contents,\nalike unworthy of refutation, and calculated only to bring Catholics\ninto contempt, is allowed to appear, by permission of the German Union\nor Prussia individually--this is a matter of deep sorrow to Catholics.\"\nAfter noticing the Constitution of Germany, in reference to religious\nmatters, it proceeds,--\"In so far as such calumnies are unattended\nto, is the rightfully guaranteed position of the German Catholics\noverthrown, and they are all the more called on to demand a guarantee,\nas many late events have shown but too clearly, that a section of the\nProtestants is disposed to maintain a hostile and intolerant position\ntowards the Catholic Church, We, the Chapter of the Cathedral,\naccordingly pray that communications may be sent to his Majesty the\nKing, and the German confederate States, to support the existing laws in\nopposition to what has taken place, to maintain the guaranteed rights of\nthe Catholic Church, and to request the interference of the law against\nsuch abuses of the German press.\"\n\n(Signed) \"The Clergy of the City of Treves.\"\n\n\nNothing could be more artful or cowardly than this document, as if\nthe great settlement at the Reformation had been infringed by the open\nexpression of opinion on what has excited the disgust and ridicule of\nall intelligent Catholics. It is not difficult to trace in the above\nletter the very spirit which, in a former age, would have found no\nobstruction in executing, after its own fashion, that law, to which now\nthey are obliged to make a respectful and almost degrading appeal. Most\nfortunate is it that Ronge is the subject of a Protestant Government,\nwhich has it now in its power so materially to advance the cause of the\nReformation.\n\nLet us now quote a portion of the address of the clergy of the Cathedral\nof Breslau. \"Most worthy Lord Bishop! 'Troubles must come.' This saying\nof our Lord and Master has been confirmed so often in all ages, and\nespecially in our times, that we need scarcely question that an Article\nin the _Saechsische Vaterlands-blaetter_, from a Catholic priest, on\nthe Holy Coat of Treves, should appear unexpected, amid the manifold\nexperiences of your Grace. Nor do we believe that this scandal in\nGermany will at all affect the veneration in which your Grace is held,\nor cast the slightest shadow on your high and holy office. Taught and\naccustomed to suffer shame for the cause of the Lord, and comforted by\nthe promise, 'Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute\nyou, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake,'\nwe would have passed by this calumny in silence, as a drop of the\nteeming ocean of blasphemies with which the Lord honours his Church, to\nsee them dashed on its Eternal Bock,--if it had not come from the midst\nof us--from one who calls himself a Catholic priest. * * * The name\nof the blasphemer is _Ronge_, who was consecrated to the priesthood in\nBreslau. The spirit by which he has lately been actuated was not long in\nmanifesting itself in him. An Article of similar stamp, calumniating his\necclesiastical superiors, and the supremacy of the Church, subjected him\nto an examination. Not being in a position to defend himself, and too\nhaughty and hardened to seek forgiveness, by repentance and penance, he\nwas obliged to give up his office, after the suspension of the Church\nhad been pronounced against him. Since this period, Ronge has had\nnothing to do with the care of souls. What could be more welcome for\nthe enemies of the Church, who looked with indignation on the crowds\nof pious pilgrims proceeding to the Cathedral of Treves, than that a\npretended member of the Church--aye, a priest--should take the Holy\nCoat into his unclean hands, and tear it with logical power into pieces,\nwhile even his executioners left it from pious awe undivided. The holy\nceremony is now at an end--the sacred shrine is closed--the holy\nrelic, by the contemplation of which hundreds of thousands have been\nencouraged, and strengthened, and elevated, lies treasured up for future\nages. The calumnies will be silenced--the blessings will remain, and\nwhen the holy treasure is again exposed to the worship of the believing\nmultitudes, another race shall live and think in the pious prayers of\nthose pilgrims who have completed their pilgrimage, and have attained\nfrom faith to sight. May this new race see better days--days of outward\nand inward peace--days of peace, which the world cannot give! May the\npious bands who may then go on pilgrimage to Treves, attain the end\nof their undertaking, not amid the sneers of the scoffer, but amid the\nfriendly congratulations of all, even of those who are connected with\nit! May the German people be then truly a people of brothers--one in\nthat one thing which is needful--one in will, and deed, and faith, and\nstruggles; and may the German fatherland, like the holy garment itself,\nbe undivided! God grant you grace and strength for this great end!\n\n\"(Signed) \"The Cathedral Clergy of Breslau.\n\n\"31st October 1844.\"\n\n\nThis document, like the preceding, is its own commentary. We leave\nour readers to weigh it along with the exposure made in Ronge's\n\"Justification.\" It is not difficult now to see what influences have\nbeen at work in procuring its suppression, and it is deeply to be\nlamented, that a government so liberal as the Saxon, should have\ninterfered in keeping back a statement so important, in the defence of\ntruth and justice.\n\nWe do not deem it necessary to make long quotations from the ordinary\nCatholic journals on this part of the subject. They breathe the same\nspirit. Many of them are filled with appeals, of which a single sentence\nmay suffice as a specimen:--\"Laity and priesthood! have you already\nforgotten whither such proceedings lead? Know you not the causes and\nconsequences of the Reformation? Will you lead the way to a second\nbreach in the Church, as if the first had not been deplorable enough,\nboth for the Church and country?\" &c. All of such extracts are proofs\nstrong enough, how sensible all parties of Catholics are of the danger\nto be apprehended from Ronge's movement.\n\n\n\n\nTHE NEW CHURCH.\n\nIt is now our duty to turn shortly to the positive results of this\nmovement, _in the formation of a New Church, independent of all Papal\nconnexion, and as such, calling itself not the Roman but German Catholic\nChurch_. We have seen how Ronge had been excommunicated, and in what\nterms his former ecclesiastical superiors now spoke of him. Having been\ndiscarded by the Church, and no longer admitted to its ordinances,\nhe set himself, without reserve, to the formation of a new Christian\ncommunity. The first step towards this end was the publication of his\nsecond letter, addressed.\n\n\n\n\nTO THE INFERIOR CLERGY.\n\n\"Friends and former Colleagues.--Before writing these words to you,\nI asked myself--shall I be listened to by those to whom I am about to\nspeak? or will my invitations strike in vain upon their ears? No, they\nwill not strike in vain upon your ears--I feel it and I know it, friends\nand former colleagues! You, the so-called inferior clergy, have\nbeen hitherto but little, if at all addressed, because, although you\nconstitute the real ground-work and the strength of the ecclesiastical\nbody, you have been, and you still are held, to be a mass inaccessible\nto moral freedom--in fact, morally dead. But I have been compelled, by\nsense of duty and by love of my country, to address you; and besides,\nI speak to you at a time when the laity themselves--the\ncongregations--think and act, not according to the dead letter, but in\nagreement with the spirit of religion. Can it then be, that you, the\npriests--the teachers of the people, unlike them, can choose supinely\nto remain in circumstances of blind surrender of your judgment? Can you\nalone, and without exception, be so deeply sunk in slavery to Rome and\nthe deadness of the letter, that it is no longer possible for you to\narise and shake your spirits free! This I neither can nor will believe,\nfor this were to believe you had forgotten to be men--it were to doubt\nthe triumph of the kingdom of Christ--the triumph of righteousness,--it\nwere to doubt the improvement and the advancement of society, which you\nare imperatively called on to promote. Oh, I have better thoughts\nof you, for I have suffered, and still suffer with you; I know the\ngiant-yoke you wear, and to wear which is accounted (to you?) as the\nfulfilment of a most sacred duty--as a merit--as _religion_. Many a one\nof you has lamented to me, that the pain of blinded, passive slavery to\nRome burned incurably in his bosom, and I know how many among you writhe\nin desperation, and await with longing the hour that is to set you free.\nIt is, therefore, upon you, and the triumphant strength of a righteous\ncause, that I ground my confidence of an assured result. I know full\nwell that you will not all, of one accord, and at my earliest word,\nstrike off the shameful fetters of the Roman despotism, and stand forth\nas independent German priests--although each one must feel that there\nis inspiration in the very thought--but I entertain the hope that many\na one may be aroused from stupefaction at my call--that many a timid\none may be encouraged, and many a dazzled eye restored to clearer\nvision--that many among you, moved by my example, will dare to cast\na bold and fearless glance within, and having done so, with a cry of\ngrief--a cry of horror, at your condition, to stride forward to the\ncontest, which is to make you once more men! It is to that that I invite\nyou; you must become men--independent men, for the sake of our holy\nreligion, for your own sakes, and for the happiness of our common\nFatherland,--I invoke your manhood! You must become men, filled with a\nsense of your great dignity as such, as well as with the importance\nof your mission--glowing with active zeal for the spiritual and moral\nelevation of the nations of the earth! you must become men full of\nlove to your calling--burning to secure the happiness of your\nfellow-mortals!--men full of holy ardour to establish the rights of all\nyour fellow-citizens without distinction--full of holy ardour for the\nbringing in of the reign of righteousness and brotherly-love among all\nthe children of men; men full of ardour to exhibit your convictions in\nyour actions--to turn your words to truth and actual realization, that\nall men may become brothers--as the children of one Father. In obedience\nto your calling, you must become such men. But you are not so at\npresent--you are the hirelings of the Pope! Yes, you are hirelings,\nwithout a feeling of your dignity as men, or of the importance of\nyour mission, although you call yourselves the chosen, honoured, and\nconsecrated servants of the Lord! You do not glow with zeal for the\nhonour, the moral freedom, the welfare of your fellow-citizens; you even\ngrind down the bourgeoisie and peasantry, who number in their ranks\nyour parents and their families--by whose sweat you are supported,--and\nanathematize them when they raise their heads, impatient of Romish\ninterference with their consciences. You feast, while they are hungry;\nyou riot, while they pine! Is this falsehood? See here a bishop with\n40,000 annual dollars (L6000)--religious institutions with incalculable\nwealth, and not far from them a poor weaver, who can barely earn five\nsilver groschens (6d.) weekly for himself and for his family! You are\nnot filled with holy ardour to spread abroad righteousness, truth, and\nlight--although from desk and pulpit you deceitfully proclaim, 'with us\nalone are truth, peace, civilization, education, and moral freedom; we\nare the trusty friends and guides of the nations; it is to us men must\ncommit their faith, in order after earthly toil to become blessed!' Far\nrather do many of you labour, some consciously, others unconsciously, to\npromulgate superstition, darkness, and spiritual bondage! You will\nsay to me,--'Bring proof, bring proof,' and proof you shall have, an\nhundred-thousand fold:--_the fruits of your words and of your actions!_\nLook to your own consecrated class--what _corruption!_ Look to the\nnations--what _misery!_ 'A good tree cannot bear evil fruit.'' The\ncorruption of your consecrated order is the fruit of your soul-killing\nservitude to your superiors; the misery of the nations is, for the\nmost part, the result of your oppression. The pressure under which\nyou yourselves languish, is fearful and unspeakable, for you have been\nrobbed of freedom in the exercise of reason, will, and affection.\nYou are slaves--and therefore wish your fellow-citizens to share your\nbondage. Your spirit lies enchained by despotic bulls and edicts--the\nunfettered flight of thought is restrained by curses. Your reason is the\nvenal slave of selfishness and terror. The so-called Romish Church--more\nproperly Rome's _despotism_, has placed your faith within such narrow\nbounds that you are forced to tremble at each rising thought, and ask\nif it be 'orthodox?'--for these bounds of faith are beset by fiends who\nthreaten your salvation when your spirit thinks to over-step them. Is it\nnot so? Does not the fear of devils and of hell exert a widely greater\ninfluence than the love of God and of your fellow-men? And what\nabsurdities are you not commanded to believe and teach!\n\n\"You have, further, been deprived of your _free agency_. You must yield\nblind obedience to your superiors, and this requirement of passive,\nblind obedience is the prime injunction of the Roman Church! Without\nthis blind obedience, all your virtues are of no avail--without it you\nare criminals. The Roman Church, that kindly mother, has seized your\nrights as men; you have not, as my example may convince you, even such\nprivileges as are accorded to the worst of criminals in your fatherland.\nAnd of whom is this Church composed? You tremble before her and her\nedicts? Do you know that it is before yourselves you tremble? for you\nno less belong to the Church than those among your colleagues who sit in\nthe chapter-houses or in the episcopal seats--no less than that Italian\nBishop who is called the Pope! Have you forgotten that your colleagues,\nto whom you are now required to offer almost idolatrous regard, neither\nwere, nor wished to be, above yourselves in the early centuries of\nChristianity? Have you forgotten that the bishops and priests of those\ndays were chosen from among the congregations,--that is, the people; and\nthat the people sat in council with them both! The inferior clergy had\ntheir synods even in the gloomy centuries of the middle ages, and, when\nthey acted in concert, could give due weight to their desires. And\nwhat have you now, in the nineteenth century? Lordly Presbyterial\nAssemblies?! Each one among you fears to utter an honest word in\npresence of a right reverend brother. You are mere automata. You have\nno will in opposition to your superiors. _Demand your rights as men!_\n\n\"Your _freedom of affection_ also has been destroyed; your heart is\nstifled and perverted. And how! Shall I hesitate freely to speak out,\nbecause I may subject myself to suspicion--because I expose myself to\nthe attacks of vulgar-minded men? Ah, no! the principle at stake is too\nimportant, too elevated, and too holy,--it involves nature's highest\nordinance, the holiest concerns of man; from it depends the happiness,\nthe welfare of many millions--the virtue, honour, and freedom of\nthe nations; so that I would gladly expose myself on its account to\nsuspicion and attack! It is _love, marriage, and the family-tie_; you\nhave been robbed of these--robbed of them by the Rule of Celibacy! It is\nby this Rule that your affections are stifled and perverted. Yes, your\nhearts are corrupted by the ordinance of celibacy, which has no warrant\nin the Gospel, but has been introduced with blood and murder by an\nimperious Pope. This ordinance deprives you of your claim to the\npossession of a virtuous wife, whose love would render you far happier\nand more honourable; it robs you of the joys, the hopes, the love, which\nbless the family-tie; it impoverishes and desolates your breast. This\nordinance demoralizes your natural instinct, hands you over to those\noutcasts of womankind, through whom so many fall into the deepest mire\nof immorality, and become an offence and mockery to their congregations.\nThis ordinance deprives you of the stamp of open manliness, and makes\nyou _hypocrites!_\n\n\"If the free exercise of reason, will, and affection, has been taken\nfrom you, what have you left worth living for? Can your luxurious tables\ncompensate for the loss of life's best blessings? Compensate! when your\nfeast is interrupted by the needy, wretched cries of thousands of your\nstarving fellow-creatures! or are your revels only seasoned by the\ngroans of your necessitous brethren? You call yourselves the fathers,\nthe teachers of the people; arise, then! conduct yourselves as such,\nand help to extricate them from their depth of spiritual and physical\nmisery! Such is your duty, before all others!--'But how can we help\nthem,' do you ask? Not by the bit of silver, thrown to the poor man with\nan ostentatious air, which, in most instances, but tends to lower or\nextinguish self-respect; and is besides, but as a drop in the\ngreat furnace. Stand forth against the despotism of Rome! abolish\nsuperstition, that barrier to free agency, and the free practice of\nvirtue! break down the dishonouring restrictions upon conscience and\nreligion! contend for the spiritual and physical wellbeing of your\nfellow-citizens, and you will aid the people and yourselves! Yes, arise\nand burst the chains of cowardice and shame; tear asunder the web of\ndissimulation which Rome has woven round you, and become unfettered,\nhonest priests--true teachers of the German people! You will become\neverything! for at present you are _nothing_; become _men!_ attain at\nlast to the conviction, that the priests exist for the people, and not\nthe people for the priests; that Christ established his religion, and\nenjoined brotherly love, that mankind might be rendered holy and happy\neven while on earth; and that it is not his wish that they should pine\nin soul and body here, in order to be saved at last, as Romish despotism\nteaches;--dare to achieve this conviction, and act upon it, as in duty\nbound! Cast off the silly bigotry with which Rome knows how to inoculate\nyou, and live and labour, not for Rome's Bishop and her ambitious\nprelates, but with and for your fellow-citizens!\n\n\"Seek rather to attain an honourable place among your fellow-citizens,\nand their respect and love--by activity, unblemished character, and a\nvirtuous--life, than to way-lay or supplicate an indolent and hateful\nbenefice. Scorn at length that slave-like prejudice, which would rather\nfollow in the worshipful footprint of its right reverend master, than\nlisten to the unbiassed judgment and opinion of a freeman! Venture to\ncontend for your own and the peopled independence and moral freedom--you\nwill be cordially supported by your fellow-citizens! Employ the pulpit,\nthe confessional,* and the teacher's desk, which long have been\nabused for the darkening and degrading of your countrymen--for their\nimprovement and emancipation! With and by the people you may become\nindependent! Assist, therefore, first of all, in emancipating the\nnational schools, and in securing for the community the free choice of\npastors, and keep abreast of the spirit of the people and of the\ntimes. Yes, yes! go hand in hand with your people, and you will be\ninvincible--you will work wonders!\n\n     * It must be borne in mind, that this letter is of prior\n     date to Ronge's Justification, in which he unhesitatingly\n     condemns the use of the Confessional.--Trans.\n\n\"Am I dreaming? Look into the world, and mark the results of temperance\nsocieties! Here, to a certain extent, you have aided in the moral\nimprovement of the people, although many of you have employed means by\nwhich your congregations have been more injured than they could have\nbeen by the most intoxicating drink.\n\n\"Do you fear the Chapters, the Bishops, the Pope? All these are\npowerless without you--in you alone their strength consists; their\ndespotism has been erected on your cowardice and ignorance. Demand\ngeneral councils, and hold them, as they once were held, in union with\nyour congregations. Demand of your spiritual superiors that they rule\naccording to law and privilege, and not after their own caprice; be no\nlonger their tame and passive slaves.\n\n\"Do not allow yourselves to be deceived by the apparent growth of the\nHierarchy; it will, it must fall, for its watchwords are retrogression\nand degradation, while providence has ordained improvement for the\nworld--'Be ye therefore perfect, as my father is perfect.'\n\n\"Do not allow yourselves to be persuaded that the ecclesiastical power\nis increasing, because you hear of numerous conversions to the Romish\ncreed in individual German States! The nation must and shall learn that\nthese conversions are, for the most part, brought about by the intrigues\nand money of the Jesuits--by money which these spiritual and consecrated\nbands of freebooters of the Romish Hierarchy, wring from the poor by\nmeans of Rosary and Prayer-associations, and of which they rob the rich\nby mortmain. When our people shall have learned this--when they shall\nhave discovered how fearfully all that they hold most sacred--their\nreligion--is abused by the Romish Church, they will cast off Rome and\nher hypocrites with inexorable indignation. Still you may object,--'A\ngreat portion of our people is more attached than ever to the formal\nmummeries of Rome--to the doctrine of works; they hasten more than ever\nto places of Pilgrimage and Indulgence, and these processions are not\nconfined to the ignorant populace, but are joined by educated wives and\nmaidens, while the younger clergy are full of fanaticism! Does not\nthis indicate the increase and the triumph of the Romish Creed?' Such\nphenomena there are indeed--phenomena belonging to the sixteenth, not\nthe nineteenth century--but these phenomena are the curse upon your\ncowardice, the consequences of a want of moral courage to contend\nagainst the hirelings of the Pope. You have not dared encounter these\nRoman wolves in German fleeces; you have not dared to honour God and his\ntruth; you have not dared to sacrifice your benefices to your heart's\nconvictions, to the welfare of your congregations--of the nation! The\nslaves of Rome have therefore been enabled to rule at pleasure in the\nCatholic States of Germany, speaking big words--shamelessly insulting\nand intriguing--disseminating darkness and superstition. They have\nbeen free to rage in their congregations, to mislead, unpunished and\nunchecked, the credulous multitude, and to excite them and the younger\nclergy to fanaticism; they have been at liberty to proclaim the grossest\nabuses as the actual substance of Christianity, announcing follies and\nabsurdities as Christian truths--for it is but seldom that any one, now\nand then, has ventured to raise his voice against them, or at least it\nhas been speedily reduced to silence when once raised.\n\n\"Hence the insolence of these creatures of Rome, who dare, with\nunblushing front, here in the midst of Germany, to call the greater part\nof the nation, which refuses to do them homage--_a vulgar mob!_ But, woe\nto them! the day has dawned at length,--the mask of their hypocrisy will\nbe torn aside,--the confidence betrayed of our people and the younger\nclergy will burst forth in flames of merited indignation,--truth will\nshed a purer and a purer light, until at last the lying fabric shall\nfall down, and the rotten timbers of the Hierarchy shall crumble into\ndust! For it cannot be, that the spirit of truth, and justice, and\nbrotherly love, is to be crushed for ever,--the spirit which Christ\npromised to _His Church_, and not to _Romish ambition_: 'The spirit\nremains with you till the end, and the spirit will make you free.' But\nyou must seek for and follow after this spirit; then you shall have\nnought to fear--you shall triumph. This spirit will not greet you on\nyour silken couches of indolence, He will not visit your licentious\npillows--the Spirit discovers Himself now and ever as formerly,\nworking in and through human agents. Strive earnestly and zealously\nfor intellectual advancement and moral freedom, in union with your\nfellow-men,--lend a ready ear to the cries of the needy, enter heartily\ninto the wishes of your fellow-citizens,--and you shall find the Holy\nSpirit, who shall declare Himself to you--you shall hear Him in the\nvoice, in the call of your people, of your native country! The nation\ncalls you now to a great and holy work. 'You must,' such is its call,\n'cast off the degrading and unchristian despotism of the Roman Bishop;\nyou must, in union with your fellow-citizens, the laity, restore,\nwithout fear of men, the Christian-Catholic religion, in all its purity\nand simple elevation; you must establish a German-Catholic (i. e.\nuniversal) Christian Church; you must be no longer Romish, but honest\nGerman priests and teachers. Such is the voice of your people,--the\ncall of your country! Will you obey the call? Will you begin the work\nwithout fear of men? Oh, I entreat you, I conjure you to obey the call;\ngo promptly to the work, now, while there yet is time! I beg of you to\nset to the work, and I am not ashamed to beg,--the boon is so elevated\nand important! I implore you in the name of our religion, for the sake\nof honour, independence, and the peace of Germany,--I implore you, for\nyour own sakes, by your dignity, honour, virtue,--by your happiness as\nmen!\n\n\"Some of you will object--'But then we must cast off the Pope, and that\nwere contrary to the Gospel; for Christ says to Peter,--\"Thou art a\nrock, and upon thee will I build my Church;\" Peter was Bishop of Rome,\nand the Pope is his successor!' What, brethren? Do you interpret the\nsaying of the elevated founder of our religion according to the deadness\nof the letter? Are you not aware that Christ based His Church upon the\nfaith and love of Peter, and of his other disciples and followers, but\nnot upon his person? Do you not know that Rome has spared, and spares,\nno fraud to aggrandize herself, and that as history informs us, her\nprelates and her slaves have availed themselves of any means, however\ninadmissible, for the attainment of the self-same end? Do you not know\nthat power and riches are the chief objects of the Court of Rome! and,\ntherefore, must no Catholic either think or speak freely on religious\nmatters, but blindly, like an animal, embrace and act upon the opinions\nof his priest! Ah! you know all this and more;--you know that you even\nact in direct opposition to the religion of Christ in bringing mankind\nunder the unworthy dominion of the Pope, and in the degrading of your\nfellow-citizens; but you want the moral courage to shake yourselves\nfree, you fear to lose your livelihood, you shrink from want and labour!\nSuch fear is unworthy of the disciples of Christ and of the Truth. As\nsuch, you ought to fear nothing so much as the degradation of yourselves\nand of your fellow-men, to which the Papal yoke constrains you; and it\nis, therefore, your most sacred duty to renounce the Pope, and to become\nthe true priests of your people. Or are you, perhaps, not in a condition\nto promote the welfare and prosperity of your fellow-citizens? Do you\nrequire the aid of a distant Italian Bishop,--of a foreign power? You\nare better able to promote it than a distant Italian Bishop can be! Do\nyou fear that the renunciation of Rome would lead to discord! Certainly\nnot; for we are men, and we will act like men! With manly energy and\ndiscretion, in union with our fellow-citizens, will we call together the\ncommunities, freely to deliberate and determine what steps are needful\nfor us all. In such a work there is no room for discord, for all\nviolence is done away. Discord and violence are occasioned only by the\nRomish despotism, which knows no other law than its own advantage and\naggrandizement. The Romish Hierarchy repels that German maiden from the\naltar, who gives her heart to one who owns a different creed,--profanes\nthe virgin modesty of our sisters by wanton questions under the cloak\nof religion,--takes upon itself, here in the midst of Germany, to refuse\nthe sacraments to mothers, if their children be not nurtured in the\nfaith of Rome,--rages against all attempts at reconciliation between\nGerman Catholics and Protestants,--it is the Romish Church that will not\nhear of peace, however longed for by the people!\n\n\"The Romish Government has likewise brought us under an unchristian\nconstraint, and introduced abuses into our religion, which lead to\nsuperstition and to vice, and which deprive us of the blessings of the\nChristian doctrine. We must first of all sweep away these abuses, we\nmust dismiss, as unintelligible to our people, from all the houses of\nGod in Germany, the Latin language,--that monument of our subserviency\nand spiritual bondage, that unholy constraint which outrages the\nclearest injunctions of the Gospel; for Paul says, (1st Cor. 14, 19,)\n'I had rather speak five words with my understanding, than ten thousand\nwords in an unknown tongue,' and in the 23d verse he justly and directly\ndenounces as madness the use of a foreign and unknown language. We\nmust besides abolish the confessional, that moral torture-chamber, that\ndegrading tribunal of Inquisition,--which stamps men hypocrites and\nblinded slaves to priestcraft,--which expels from the Supper of the\nLord so many thousand Catholics who nevertheless feel themselves\ninvited,--and which without a warrant in the Gospel, was first\nintroduced by one of the most power-loving Popes, twelve hundred years\nafter Jesus Christ. We must abolish all those mischievous contrivances\nof Rome, which are only intended for the extortion of money,--which\nundermine true piety, and degrade the priest to a farmer and a\ntrafficker in salvation! The pure and true and Catholic Christian\nreligion, shall alone remain, and its fundamental law--the law of\nlove,--shall not only be expressed in words, but practically evidenced\nin our dealings with all our fellow-men of every faith and creed.\n\n\"I have been constrained, my friends, to address you in these few words,\nto which I have felt myself called by a sense of the duty imposed on\nme as preacher of religion, as a disciple of the truth,--these words,\ndictated by love to my fellow-citizens, and anxiety for their salvation,\nhonor, and welfare,--and love to yourselves who languish under the yoke\nof Rome! It depends now upon yourselves whether you will obey the\ncall of your religion, and of your fellow-citizens, and your improved\nconvictions. Woe! woe! to you, who hear not this appeal! and rest in\nerror and hypocrisy!--the righteous indignation of your countrymen,\nwho are now awaking to consciousness, will condemn you in a voice of\nthunder, and the sentence will be indelibly engraved upon the page of\nhistory! The work, besides, will be achieved without you.\n\n\"To you, who obey this call, eternal joy and blessing! You, who armed\nwith the moral courage of your calling, shun no labour and no sacrifice!\nYes, eternal joy and blessing to you! Your own consciences will reward\nyou, the love of your countrymen, the enduring gratitude of history,\nshall secure you a millennial fame!\"\n\nIn this letter, as in the former, it is easy to trace the same spirit\nwhich so evidently characterizes the author as an honest and fearless\nassertor of what he believes to be the truth. The event soon shewed\nthat he had not to fight single-handed. Previously, he had received\nassurances of the sympathies of thousands; and now, when the period for\naction came, there were not wanting many to cast in their lot with him,\nas fellow-workers in overturning the great system of idolatrous worship.\nWhen first suspended, his whole flock petitioned that his services might\nstill be continued to them--the best practical reply to the charges\nadvanced against him. Several secessions speedily took place;\ncongregations were formed at _Schneidemuehl_, under pastor _Czerski_,\nand at Breslau, where Ronge now is occupied with the constitution and\nsettlement of the new community. In most cases, the ultra-Catholic party\nhave done what they could to create disturbance in the meetings, and\ngenerally to obstruct the progress of business; but such attempts have\nproved ineffectual. Of course, much in the constitution of the Church\nmust for a long time remain incomplete, but great unity, as well as\nzeal, has hitherto characterized their proceedings.\n\nThe principal places where congregations are being formed are Breslau,\nSchneidemuehl, Leipsic, Dresden, Berlin, Magdeburg, Halberstadt,\nOffenbach, Brunswick, Coblentz, Worms, and even Cologne, where priestly\ninfluence is at its _maximum_. Other places it would be useless to name;\nin fact, accounts have been received from a vast number of quarters; but\ndefinite and final steps have not yet been taken, and, on all hands, it\nis found to be the ease, that great numbers, including clergy as well as\nlaity, desire the formal recognition of the Church by the State, before\nthey openly avow their separation from the Roman See. The documents\nconnected with the origin, constitution, and principles of the Church\nhave now been laid before the Prussian Government; but, while we write,\nno final answer has been returned.\n\nThe following remarks will so far explain the relation of this\nGovernment to the new movement:--Hitherto they have maintained the\nposition of strict neutrality. The law of the land guarantees full\nfreedom of conscience to every Prussian citizen; and as the new\ndoctrines involve no principles of danger to the common safety, their\ndefenders are entitled to demand that no police restrictions be put in\nthe way of their progress. The law draws a distinction between religious\nsocieties merely _tolerated_, and those formally _acknowledged_ by the\nState; the latter only having corporate rights and privileges. The two\nProtestant Churches--the Reformed and Lutheran--have been united into\none Church, generally called the Evangelical, which, with the Catholic,\nhave alike the full sanctions of State protection. It is manifest, that\nwhere such strenuous efforts have been made to bring about this\nsingular union, and where _unity of creed_ is the avowed object of the\nGovernment, the sanctioning a new class of separatists, whether from\nthe Catholic or Protestant Church, might lead to serious political\nconsequences. The party of the _Old Lutherans_, who refused to\nco-operate in the scheme of union, have, strictly speaking, no legal\nstanding in the constitution of Prussia. They are tolerated, but not\nacknowledged by the State. It seems exceedingly probable that such will\nbe the position of the new German Catholic Church, which would at once\nsecure the legally guaranteed rights of conscience, and, at the same\ntime, form no exception to the determination of the Government, as such,\nto have only the two great antagonist Churches and Confessions.\n\nMeanwhile, the King of Saxony, though a Catholic, has more openly avowed\nhis principles in connection with the movement. He was waited on by the\nBishop and Catholic Clergy of Leipsic, for the purpose of impressing\non him the duty of putting down the new sect by law. His reply was as\nfollows:--\"I wonder much at the demand you have made; and all the more,\nas you know that nineteen-twentieths of my subjects are Protestants,\nwhose conduct of late to my Catholic fellow-citizens has greatly\nrejoiced my heart. You know, moreover, that I am King of a\n_constitutional State_, and, as such, have promised and sworn to secure\nfull religious freedom to my subjects, of whatever faith. I shall, then,\nplace no obstruction in the way of what has taken place, but give events\ntheir free course, because _I will not, and dare not_, make any\none swerve from that faith and worship from which alone he expects\nsalvation. This is my firmly-settled resolution.\" And with these\nmemorable words, the Bishop and Clergy were most graciously dismissed.\nThe joy in Leipsic at the answer of the King was unbounded, As an\noff-set to this state of matters in Prussia and Saxony, we have to\nstate, that the papal influence has been brought to bear upon the\nGovernments of Austria and Bavaria--we believe with success--to prevent\n_by law_ the formation of any Church in connection with the new sect,\nthroughout both kingdoms.\n\nIt is, of course, not to be expected that these congregations can as\nyet have had time or opportunity to draw up a full and duly authorized\nConfession of Faith. As matters stand, one congregation has adhered\nto the Apostolical Creed--another to the Nicene Creed (a.d. 325). The\nfollowing is the Confession drawn up, and which has been generally\nadhered to by the congregation of Schneidemuehl:--\n\n\n\n\nCONFESSION OF FAITH.\n\nArt. 1. The foundation of the Christian faith should be solely and\nexclusively the Holy Scriptures and Reason, pervaded and actuated by\ntrue Christian principles in their interpretation--Art. 2. The community\naccepts the Apostolic Creed as its own. It is the problem of the Church,\nas of the individual, to reduce its contents to a living recognition,\ncorresponding with the principles of the age.--Art. 3. In the difference\nof statement and interpretation with regard to the given contents\nof this Confession of Faith, the community finds no ground for\nexcommunication or anathematizing.--Art. 4. With reference to the\nobjective principles of belief, it, is held that there ought to be no\nimpediment to free inquiry, and that no one should be anathematized\non account of the exercise of the right conceded to him of free\ninquiry--because it is impossible to fix a completely definite rule\nof faith for the human mind.--Art. 5. The community consider the chief\nproblem of Christianity to be, not merely the bringing of its principles\nto living recognition among the members of the community, by public\nworship, teaching, and instruction, but also the promoting, according\nto their ability, the spiritual, moral, and physical good of their\nfellow-men, without distinction.--Art. 6. The community acknowledges\nonly two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper; because only\nthese have unquestionably been instituted by Christ, according to the\ntestimony of the Scriptures.--Art. 7. Baptism is the sign of reception\ninto the Christian Society; it is administered to children under the\nreservation of their confirming the Confession of Faith at the years of\nmaturity.--Art. 8. The Lord's Supper serves as a remembrance of Christ,\nand as a sign of a covenant of brotherhood for all men.--Art. 9. The\nSacrament to be received by the community in both kinds, as it was\nappointed by Christ.--Art. 10. Transubstantiation is not acknowledged,\nbecause it cannot be justified from the Gospel.--Art. 11. Marriage is\ndeclared as a holy institution, and the blessing of the Church on the\nsame regarded as necessary.--Art. 12. There are no other restrictions on\nmarriage recognized than those appointed by the laws of the State.--Art.\n13. Celibacy is rejected by the community as an institution not found in\nthe Holy Scripures, as not to be justified before reason, and as devised\nby the Roman Popes for the advancement of their Hierarchy.--Art. 14.\nThe community rejects the supremacy of the Roman Pope.--Art. 15. It\nabolishes auricular confession.--Art. 16. It uses the language of\nthe people in public worship.--Art. 17. It rejects the invocation and\nworshipping of saints, (admitted into the ritual of the Romish Church),\nrelics, and images, which are regarded as unchristian, and as leading\nto gross abuse.--Art. 18. All the previously existing customs of the\nChurch, such as indulgences, fastings, pilgrimages, which could only\nlead to a useless work-holiness, are abolished by the community.--Art.\n19. The outward form of public worship should ever adapt itself to the\nwants of time and place.--Art. 20. The outward demeanour in the Church\ncannot be prescribed, and is left to the religious sense of each\nindividual; that which leads to superstitution is forbidden.--Art. 21.\nOnly those festivals are to be celebrated which are sanctioned according\nto the laws of the land.--Art. 22. The community makes use of its old\nright freely to elect for itself its pastors and office-bearers.--Art.\n23. The community is to be represented by its pastors and the\nchosen elders; the election of the elders to take place yearly at\nWhitsunday.--Art. 24. Each pastor to be introduced to the congregation\nand to his office by a church service, yet herewith avoiding everything\nwhich could be held as sanctioning the sacramental value of the Roman\nconsecration of the priesthood, and serve as the foundation of the\nHierarchy.--Art. 25. The stipend of the pastor to be regulated according\nto the means of the members of the congregation.--Art. 26. All church\ntransactions, such as baptisms, marriages, burials, to be gone about by\nthe pastor, without (surplice) fees, for all members of the community\nalike.--Art. 27. All these findings are not settled for all times,\nbut can be altered according to the belief (lit. consciousness) of a\nparticular period, by the community in agreement therewith.--Art. 28.\nTo make a Christian Church a truly universal (Catholic) one, and not\nto exclude the admission of congregations constituting themselves in\ndifferent places--all these, in every view, merely provisional findings,\nto be submitted to a universal (German) council,--Art. 29. The reception\ninto the Church, after its complete constitution, takes place after\nthe declaration of desire for admission, and the acceptance of the\nConfession of Faith adopted by the community, before the office-bearers,\nby public deed in the congregation.\n\nAnother short document has appeared, which runs as follows:--\"I believe\nin God the Father, who by his Almighty Word created the world, and\ngoverns it in wisdom, justice, and love. I believe in Jesus Christ, one\nSaviour, who by his teaching, his life, and his death, has redeemed us\nfrom the bondage of sin. I believe in the work of the Holy Spirit upon\nearth--a holy universal Christian Church--the forgiveness of sins, and\nthe life everlasting. Amen.\"\n\nThe following is the order of Church-service for the Church in\nBreslau.--1. Introductory Hymn. 2. Confession of sins (Confiteor). Lord\npity us, &c. Glory be to God, &c. 4. The prayers of the Collect. 5. The\nEpistle. 6. The Gospel. 7. The Sermon, with the usual prayers, with a\nverse of a hymn before and after. 8. Instead of the Canon of the Mass, a\npassage from the Passion and the Sacrament. 9. Holy, holy, holy, &c.\nO, Lamb of God, &c. 10. Lord's Prayer. 11. Concluding Hymn. 12.\nBenediction. It has also been resolved that part of the Sabbath\nafternoon be devoted to catechizing, as is now common in many Protestant\nchurches in Germany and Switzerland. The only point of difference, so\nfar as we are aware, among the different communities, is on the doctrine\nof tradition; some proposing to abolish it altogether, while others wish\nto retain it so far as in accordance with the Bible--though to maintain\na subordinate place. An intimation has been published, stating that\nrepresentatives from all the churches--now about 18 in number--are\nto meet in Leipsic at Easter, to make arrangements for the authorized\nconstitution of the new Church. Meanwhile Ronge has prepared the draft\nof a new liturgy.\n\nThe community at _Elberfeld_, in separating from the Church of Rome,\nexpresses itself as follows:--\n\n\"In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen! We,\nthe undersigned citizens of Elber-feld, belonged, up to this period, to\nthe Roman Catholic Church, and had, for a long period, been aware with\nincreasing force, of the errors and abuses which cling to it in its most\ninward principles, and have assumed the ascendancy in its latest phases.\nThe more we have striven to become acquainted with the true doctrine of\nJesus in the Gospel, which is the alone source of revealed truth, the\nmore deeply have we been penetrated with the conviction, that Christ is\nthe only mediator between God and man, and that the doctrine with regard\nto the Pope and the one infallible Church, has no foundation in the\nword of God, and weakens the merits of Christ; that the doctrines of the\nRomish Church of the Holy Sacrament--of the priesthood and its relation\nto the people, is false, and deprives believers of their choicest\nprivileges. The more clear this conviction has gradually grown upon us,\nthe more oppressive do we feel the chains by which we are bound, and the\nmore are we in our consciences hindered from belonging to a Church whose\nmost important doctrines we can no longer reconcile with the Gospel,\nfrom adhering to a faith which we cannot openly avow as becomes the\ndisciples of the Lord. Herewith was connected the pain of having no\nworship of God corresponding with our altered religious views. Then came\nforth from the darkness, whose shadows settled more and more thickly\nover us, a light which, in our extremity, we view as the morning-dawn of\nhope, and as announcing to us the good favour of God. Events, to which\nwe do not require more specially to refer, have given us the joyful\nassurance, that the day is at hand, which brings deliverance and freedom\nto those in bondage! That which was struggling unconsciously within\nourselves has now been brought to full consciousness, and we thank God\nthat we now know what we should do, and that he has given us courage\nopenly to bear testimony to the faith which we acknowledge. In the sight\nof God we separate ourselves from the Pope, and the Hierarchy, and\nfrom the whole anti-evangelical system therewith connected, whatever\nstruggles or shame we may have to encounter. We thus separate\nourselves--not for the sake of carrying on a war against those who hold\na different confession--not even that confession which we abandon--but\nfor the purpose of finding rest for our souls, and of serving and\nthanking our God and Lord in peace. We separate ourselves--not in a\nspirit of vain glory, or from a false desire of freedom, we acknowledge,\nalong with our brethren in Schneidemuhl, Jesus the crucified, whose pure\ndoctrines alone, whose kingdom alone, whose glory and worship alone, we\nseek and desire, Amen!\n\n\"Accordingly, we hereby constitute ourselves into a Christian, Catholic,\nand Apostolic Church. We solemnly declare that we adhere to the\nConfession of Faith, in the sister Church, in all its essential\npoints, as follows,--(here follows a verbal copy of the Schneidemuehl\nConfession.) This true, universal faith, revealed by Christ Jesus,\nwe now acknowledge, freely and truly, and promise, by God's help, to\nmaintain and avow the same with unbroken steadfastness, uncorrupted and\nunperverted; as also to give all possible care that this faith be held,\ntaught, and avowed, by those under us, or by those who have confidence\nin our intention, until our Confession of Faith has received the\nrequisite alterations or enlargements in a future general (German)\ncouncil of the chief members of the entire Christian-Catholic Church.\nMay then God and his divine Gospel assist us! Amen!\n\n\"In this Confession of Faith we have declared our inmost convictions.\nAlthough we are still few in number, yet we feel ourselves strong enough\nin our Christian faith to oppose' all difficulties, obstacles, and\noppositions, and by God's grace, not to wander or waver in the way which\nhas been marked out, but to remain firm in our present intentions and\ndesires unto the end of our days--even though the outward means for\ncarrying these out should be wanting--even though our present limited\nnumber should be still more limited--yet even though only one of us\nshould in this life stand alone in these his convictions. At a later\nperiod we shall hold our public consulting assemblies, and allow,\neven to those who are most undetermined in the matter, free right of\nadmission, and liberty of stating their views, that all may be convinced\nof our upright intentions.\n\n\"The members of the German Christian Catholic Apostolic community in\nElberfeld. In their name. (Signed) C. T. von Knapp, R. Hockelmann, T.\nKorner.\n\n\"Elberfeld, 15th February 1845.\"\n\nIt were of course quite premature to criticize the doctrines, or system\nof government of the new Church, as they themselves have declared\nthat their findings are not to be held as final, until they have been\nexamined and approved of by a general synod or council. Meanwhile we\nhasten to complete this hurried sketch. Since the events that have\ntaken place, Bishop Arnoldi has been honoured with torch-processions\nin Cologne and Bonn and Coblentz, and has been burned in effigy by the\nstudents in Jena. So far from wishing to undo what has been done, he has\ninstituted an annual Church festival, to be called the Festival of the\nHoly Coat, the Nails, and the Lance, and to be held on the Wednesday in\nthe third week after Easter. Nay, not only so, but it has been actually\nreported that he has resolved to establish another Pilgrimage in honour\nof the Holy Nail, which Prince Metternich has, after solemn conference\nand negociation, promised to restore to the Cathedral of Treves.\nThe Bishop has lately given a proof of his tyranny as well as his\nsuperstition, in suspending one of the clergy of his diocese, by name\nLicht, who had dared to doubt--and to express his doubts to his people.\nHe had been promised to be reinstated on retracting his obnoxious\nopinions about the Coat--but has preferred degradation to dishonour.\nOur clergy, says one account, appear to lose in prudence exactly as the\nSeparatists increase. Thus, so far from the more extreme section of them\nexpressing themselves with greater caution than formerly, some of them\nare declared to have taught openly since the event, that not only was\nthis the _bona fide_ Coat of our Lord, but that it was the _only Coat\nwhich he ever wore_--and that it grew with the growth of his body from\nthe cradle to the Cross. To counteract the influence of the movement now\nin progress, Bishop Arnoldi, in conjunction with the Bishop of Cologne,\nhas instituted a new Catholic Society for the Rhine provinces, the\nobject of which is,--by a Monthly Journal, by the circulation of sermons\nand tracts, by the publication of standard Catholic works at a cheap\nrate, by the founding of a new Catholic library and the like, to diffuse\na spirit of stronger Catholicity through this section of the Church. A\nmember of the Theological Seminary is already named as its president,\nand collections are ordered to be made on a general scale in all the\nparishes, and specially by calls made at each individual house. In\naddition, five new journals of the same stamp have been established.\n\nMeanwhile the Protestant evangelical societies have not been asleep.\nThe Gustavus-Adolphus Society (a Society founded for the support of\npoor Protestant congregations in Catholic countries, and one of the\nbest proofs of the reviving spirit in the German Church,) have expressed\ntheir opinion that by the constitution of the Society, they are\nprecluded from assisting the new movement by specific grants of money,\nbut at the same time stating their desire to urge on the spirit that was\nabroad by all means in their power. Collections accordingly have been\nmade in the various large towns, to defray the necessary expenses\nincurred by the support of clergy, the performance of public worship\nand the like. Places of meeting have been granted in most cases by the\nauthorities of the town. So far as we are aware, only one member of the\nnew community has openly gone over to the Protestant Lutheran Church.\n\nIn Breslau the long-vacant and much-disputed episcopal chair still\nremains unoccupied,--von Diepenbrock having expressly refused the offer,\non the alleged ground of the unsettled state of the Church. During the\nlate sittings of the Diet at Breslau, the excitement was altogether of\na religious and not of a political kind. Ronge and the anti-Popish\nmovement were the great subjects of conversation. \"The Separation,\" says\nan account, \"is widening daily, and quarters are now full of agitation\nwhich before were peaceful as the grave. Our ears are once more deafened\nby the No Popery cry. The congregation here now numbers above\n600 families.\" Ronge is busily occupied with the affairs of the\nChurch--delivering the most stirring addresses--and everywhere receiving\nfresh proofs of sympathy and support.\n\nCzerski, the pastor of Schneidemuehl, has followed Luther's example in\nthe matter of marriage, the Protestant clergyman officiating. He has\nsince been formally degraded and excommunicated, previous to which, we\nbelieve that in many places seven masses were offered up daily for his\nreturn to the communion of the Church. In addition, all who adhere to\nhis opinions have been excommunicated _en masse_. A small pamphlet\nhas lately come out in Berlin, which states, that he had been always\ndistinguished by great laboriousness in his parish, and that he had\npreviously excited great attention by a stirring Address which he had\ndelivered in the open air, on the matter of some Indulgence, pointing\nout the true method of repentance and pardon, and advising the people\nto have nothing farther to do with Indulgences, as the greatest of them\ncould not make a man a Christian. He is represented as a person of great\nsimplicity of character, and of deep feeling. He is firm in expressing\nhis determination to adhere to the Bible and not to the Church. He and\nRonge have been both, by letter from high quarters, admonished to be on\ntheir guard, as attempts on their life from some fanatics were dreaded.\nSeveral threatening letters had been also sent to some of the more\nactive lay members in the new Church. At Breslau, on Sabbath, 9th\nMarch, the first public service was celebrated. Dr. Steiner delivered an\nAddress on the momentous step which had been taken, and then requested\nthe community to use the right of _free election of their pastor_, now\nrestored to them. John Ronge was unanimously chosen. Czerski was present\nfrom Schneidemuehl, to take part in the services of the day. Intimation\nwas made that Kerbler, hitherto vicar in Lindenau, was present, and had\njoined the New Church. Then followed the induction of the new pastor\ninto his charge. Twelve girls dressed in white, with garlands of\nflowers, formed a procession,* which was followed by John Ronge,\nCzerski, Kerbler, and the chief members of the congregation. Dr. Steiner\nthen delivered a powerful Address to the new pastor on the duties of his\noffice. Ronge replied to his people, and promised not to forsake them\nin joy or sorrow, after which the ordinary services of public worship\nbegan. After a hymn, he ascended the pulpit, and delivered a discourse\n_on the true character of the Church_, which he said was founded on\nthe two maxims of Christ,--\"Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven is\nperfect;\" and \"Love God, and your neighbour as yourself,\" and not on\nexclusive confessions, forms, and ceremonies. The great matter was to\nmake Christianity inward and spiritual, and then to act accordingly. The\nman who did this was a true Christian, and herein lay the possibility of\nhaving a universal Christian Church, which should be one in knowledge,\nin love, and in deed. After leaving the pulpit, he read the New\nConfession of Faith from the altar, to which those present responded\nwith a hearty \"Amen.\" A selected piece from the Passion was then read,\nwith the words of the institution of the Supper, which was followed by\nthe choral, \"Holy, holy, holy.\" The whole was closed with the Lord's\nprayer, the Hymn \"Great God we praise thee,\" and the Benediction. The\nservice seems to be pretty nearly the same as in the Protestant German\nChurch, at least as it is now celebrated in the Cathedral of Berlin.\n\n     * This must be regarded as a German rather than Popish\n     custom.\n\nBut the matter of controversy is not confined to the humble\nparish-priests of Silesia. While the two Bishops of Treves and Cologne,\nArnoldi and von Geissel, have been issuing their annual pastoral letters\nin Lent, filled with the most extravagant declarations of ultramontane\nopinions, the Bishop of Mayence, von Kaiser, has issued a document\nbreathing a very different spirit. In the former, each of the faithful\nis admonished in opposition to the movements which are at present taking\nplace in the Catholic Church, to hold firmly by Rome and the Pope, as\nthe central-point of the Church--is warned against apostacy and false\ndoctrine, whilst the faith in relics, and what belongs thereto, is\nexpressly inculcated. Bishop Kaiser, again, in a mild and tolerant\nspirit, dwells largely upon the fundamental principle of brotherly love\nand reconciliation, and although he attaches great weight to positive\nbelief, yet, above all things, he gives prominence to the principle\nof the Apostle Paul:--\"If I had all faith, and had not charity, I am\nnothing.\" Without this, he adds, all our works have no value before God.\nThis pastoral letter has, in its whole contents, reference to the Church\nrelations of the present times, and must be regarded as a determined\nprotest against the wild proceedings of the Jesuits. He proves that\nit is neither Catholic nor Christian to make a tool of fanaticism,\nintolerance, and proselytism,--that the principle of toleration is also\na Catholic one, and that both Churches can subsist together in peace, if\nthe authors of disturbance were only powerfully restrained. He moreover\n_acknowledges the claims of Protestantism_,--a fact which, in reference\nto the recent course of events, is of vast importance:--\"It is\npossible,\" says he, \"for men of different creeds, if they have good\nmoral principles, to live together in the same country, and to meet\nin civil life peacefully, friendly, and lovingly, and yet for each to\nremain unchangeably true to his individual belief. This experience has\ntaught; already 300 years have past since in Germany a section of our\nbrethren in the faith separated themselves from us. The division has\ntaken place. Divine Providence has permitted it, and permits it still.\nWhat God permits, man should permit too; or should man not will it\nso--still he _must_. If the mixture of men of different creeds has\nonce become realized as a fact, then has their living together become a\nmatter of necessity. It were, accordingly, foolish and unreasonable,\nif they did not wish, as much as in them lay, honestly and truly, by\nreciprocal toleration and indulgence, to make these differences lighter\nand less felt. It were foolish, hypocritical, and supercilious, at the\nsame time, if they passed judgment upon each other's faith and believing\nlife harshly and uncharitably, rather than to be reserved in their\njudgment, and to consider that each man for himself, and among his own\nfellow-believers, has faults enough to rectify. * * * * God is love, and\nwe prove our love of God by our love of man. In faith we are not at\none, but in love we can and ought to be so--in love, we can and ought\nto strive with one another, and by love can we best show the truth\nand purity of our belief, and place ourselves in the best position\nfor recommending it to others, until it shall please God that we all\ntogether should attain to the unity of the faith.'\"\n\nWe believe it difficult to exaggerate the importance of this document.\nHere is a man holding a high office in the Catholic Church--living in\nthe very midst of the scenes lately enacted, with two bishops on either\nside of his diocese, who seem equally ready personally to take part in,\nor with all the power of their office, to defend the most extravagant\nsuperstitions, or the most insidious policy of Jesuitism, with a people\nwho showed how thoroughly they were given up to idolatry, and with a\nclergy equally capable of misleading or being misled,--still calmly\nlifting up his voice for a purer faith, and for the manifestation of the\ntrue spirit of Christian liberty and love. It seems most probable that\nthis defence of _toleration_ may, ere long, make its author\npersonally feel what _intolerance_ is. He is already denounced by the\nultra-Catholic party in the Rhine provinces, and report says, in the\nVatican itself. If so, we may expect to hear more of Bishop Kaiser of\nMayence. Meanwhile, it is gratifying to state that Addresses have been\nsent to him by his clergy and fellow-citizens, fully participating\nin his spirit, and expressive of their joy that he has all along so\nstrongly discountenanced the doings in the neighbouring diocese\nof Treves; while a Special Address has been presented to him from\nOffenbach, praying that he, as their spiritual guide, would lead the way\nin making them discard the leading errors of Popery. To show that this\nspirit of dissatisfaction is not confined to an individual case, we may\nstate, that at least one other Bishop has, in his annual Address, passed\nover what has taken place without a single allusion or remark; nay, that\neven in Treves itself, which seems destined to become the _Mecca_ of\ncontinental Popery, there were priests whom nothing but the fear of\nconsequences compelled to take part in the degrading scenes referred to.\n\nAnd now, in drawing this hasty sketch to a close, we have left ourselves\nroom for but one or two general remarks.\n\n1. From what has been said, it must be as a matter of fact, plain,\nthat Germany is now the scene of a most remarkable awakening. Catholic\nGermany is again, after a lapse of more than three centuries, the scene\nof an open secession from the Church of Rome; and at the head of the\nmovement stands one, who writes with Luther-like power--who has gone\nthrough many of Luther's experiences, and who has already shown that he\nhas imbibed a vast deal of Luther's spirit, in deed as well as word. The\noccasion too, of the movements, was not unlike--Indulgences in the\none case, and relics, accompanied with Indulgences, in the other, have\nawakened men's minds to see the evils of the whole system, and to shake\noff their connection with it. Congregations have been formed--a new\nChurch is being established, and men on all sides say and show that\nthey identify themselves with the movement. The Pope is busied now with\ngiving new directions for the German Church; and is earnestly setting\nhimself to narrow, as far as policy, or concession, or remonstrance\ncan do, the evils of the schism which has already taken place. The new\nChurch, it is true, still adheres to the name Catholic, and Ronge has\nsaid, that to pure Catholicism he remains true; but we quarrel not with\nnames, if the faith and doings of the men be Protestant in fact. And\nmoreover, it is at once evident, that as regards the immediate progress\nof the movement, it is perhaps well that Ronge should still, if he so\npleases, call himself Catholic, as by so doing, he is not to be viewed\nwith the same jealousy or distrust by his Catholic brethren, which would\nbe the case, if he at once openly avowed that he had become Protestant.\nIn this event he would be treated as a heretic by hundreds, whose eyes,\nlike Luther's, may not at once be opened to see that the Church of Rome\nis not the true and only Church of Christ.\n\n2. As to the _real character_ of the present movement, in a religious\npoint of view, it becomes us, _as yet_, to speak with caution. The\nperiod has not arrived for our forming a proper estimate of it, as we\nhave not yet all the materials for so doing; and still more as great\nallowance must be made for two circumstances--1st, The half-formed\ncondition of the new community in its present transition state; and 2d,\nThat progress in their views of divine truth, which may take place with\nthem as it did with Luther. Meanwhile, taking both circumstances into\nview, it cannot be questioned that much of the present movement may be\ntraced to causes other than those connected with the deeply Evangelical\nprinciples, which characterized the Reformation. It is true, the\nReformation began also with a mere outward abuse; but this was rather\nthe first occasion for the manifestation of the Christian principle,\nthat was the soul of the movement in the sixteenth century, and\ndetermined its whole spiritual character. The great Evangelical doctrine\nof _Justification by Faith_ was, _in principle_, opposed to all such\npractices, of which _Indulgences_ was only one specimen; but this\ndoctrine went a great deal further, namely, in supplying the positive\nand constructive principle of the Reformation throughout. The trade\nin Indulgences might have been opposed upon grounds of mere worldly\npolitics--from an infidel hatred of all systems of religion--from a\nmere moral dislike at hypocrisy or superstition; but it required a true\nspiritual principle, connected with man's relation to God as a sinner,\nto give it its full value as regards the cause of Evangelical truth. The\nReformation proceeded from a living principle within, which was at war\nwith outward practices and systems,--instead of merely opposing these\nfrom principles drawn from a different circle of motives and actions\napart from religion. Popery was overthrown by the French Revolution,\nas well as the Reformation; but no one would think of comparing as\nanalagous the moral causes at work in both cases. And now as to\nRonge's movement, we desiderate the statement of the great evangelical\nprinciples on which he falls back, and which would prove his struggle\nto be freed from priestly thraldom to be the desire of reaching the true\nliberty of the sons of God in Christ. It cannot be concealed that much\nof the spirit of Ronge's letters is explicable from the mere desire\nof independence of priestly tyranny, or from principles of a general\nenlightenment--or of warm patriotism, not necessarily of a religious\ncharacter. Certain it is, that in all his productions there is much to\ndesiderate; nay, we may go farther, and declare that there is much in\nthem which seems to savour of the modern German Liberalism, with all its\nparade of words about the dignity of human nature, and the demands\nof the spirit of the age, and the shadowy future of an ideal\nperfectibility. It is not to be denied, moreover, that many of the\nAddresses sent to Ronge breathe a good deal the same spirit, and are\nsadly wanting in the strong statements of men who have been really made\nto feel that this is a matter affecting the salvation of the soul,\nand man's highest interests as an immortal being. This we are far from\nstating from feelings of suspicion or hypercritical jealousy. Quite the\nreverse. We are merely pointing out a source of danger in passing too\nhurried a decision on a movement which may not yet have had time or\nopportunities enough to bring out or establish its real spiritual\ncharacter.\n\nBut on this point we have said enough, and desire that what we have\nsaid be not construed into an avowed opinion as to the character of this\nmovement as a whole; but rather as indicating the possible direction\nwhich may be given to it, if the principles hinted at be really at the\nbottom of it. We earnestly hope that such is not the fact.\n\n3. What we have now said leads us, in conclusion, to state the\nobligation which lies on the Protestants of this country to give, if\npossible, a proper direction to this movement, and to encourage it, in\nso far as it has this direction, by all means in their power. A voice\nfrom Protestant Britain might do much to strengthen the hands, and\nencourage the hearts, of those who are now occupied in opposing error,\nand, we hope, testifying for the truth, from a true knowledge of it\nas it is in Jeans. Most desirable it is that this movement be guarded\nagainst the influences of Rationalism, of whatever kind, and thus of\nbecoming a scandal to Protestantism, and a new cause for the enemy to\ntriumph. The awakened and evangelical Protestantism of Germany will\nbe ready to co-operate with us and with them, in proportion to their\nincreased purity of creed, and their daily increasing activity and\nefficiency as a branch of the Church of Christ. A noble opportunity\nseems now, in the providence of God, presented, for drawing together\ndifferent parts of the Christian Church, as well as of aiding in a great\neffort to overthrow the system which has so long kept the nations in the\nvery darkness of the shadow of death. We have means of knowing that many\nof the best and wisest men in Germany believe that we are now standing\non the threshold of great events; and meanwhile, when on both sides of\nthe Alps, Popery is reorganizing itself for a new and fierce attack on\nChristendom and Heathenism alike, it is most gratifying to know that\nin the very country of the Reformation--aye, and in the bosom of the\nCatholic Church itself, there should still be found slumbering the\nspirit of Luther and his times. Let us hope that the presence of Him who\nled the spirit of Luther to larger conceptions of Divine Truth, and gave\nhim courage equal to his mighty work, may now be vouchsafed to many\nwho, like him, may still be groping in a kind of twilight knowledge and\nfaith, and be led, as all around and within them brightens, to have\nno longer any fellowship with the works of darkness! May God grant the\nChurches of Christendom light to act as becomes the emergency; and may\nall that has taken place, or that may yet take place, in connection\ntherewith, tend to advance the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus\nChrist. We conclude with the well known words of Luther:--\"If this is\nGod's work it will advance; if it be man's it will come to nought.\"","title":"John Ronge; The Holy Coat of Treves; New German-Catholic Church","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":40826}