History of the Christian church (Volume 5) online

a temporal ruler once served, it had been an anach-
ronism ever since the French Revolution.

The two great political creations of the nineteenth
century fell in this period— the Empire of Germany
and the Kingdom of Italy. By the first, the rule of
Central Europe came into the hands of a dynasty and
a people of Evangelical faith. By the second, the
papacy saw itself permanently excluded from its most
precious possession, the temporal power.

The decadence in the last fifty years of the former
great Roman Catholic powers, Spain, Austria, and
France, has been as marked as the marvelous growth
of Russia, Great Britain, and the United States. The
century closed with the transfer of Porto Rico and
the Philippines from the kingdom of Philip II to the
control of the American Union.



358 History of the Christian Church,

The spirit which wrought the great reforms of the
century was the spirit of liberty and humanity, the
spirit which regarded manhood as the most
Progres's!' precious Creation of God, and which recog-
nized that manhood amid all divergencies
of race, development, or environment. It was the
spirit that found the expression in Burns's "A man 's
a man for a' that." It regarded the freeing of man-
hood from its servitude and debasements — the be-
stowal of liberty, education, and self-government, of
Christianity, and the conditions of Christian civiliza-
tion — as the chiefest task of the nineteenth century.
That the men of this era had this great faith, and
strove so arduously and, amid many defeats and fail-
ures, with such splendid success for its realization, is
their title to imperishable renown.

The literature of these years was illustrious

through the work of Tennyson and Browning, of

lyongfellow and Lowell and Victor Hugo,

Literature. . ^ ^ ^ . t^. . , ^. ,

m poetry. In fiction, Thackeray and Dick-
ens, Hawthorne and George Kliot, Hugo, Balzac,
TurgenefF, and Tolstoi, did work which the world will
cherish. The great names were carried over from the
preceding era. The rise of the scientific movement
and the prevalence of the scientific spirit, while help-
ing criticism and history, have not been favorable to
poetry and philosophy. The highest gifts of reason
and imagination have not found place in the literature
of the later years of the century.

Great conquests were made, great achievements
wrought ; but the constructive work of civilization —
the mastering of material in science, in archaeology,
in philology and history — has been so long a task



Characteristics of the Period. 359

that there has been but little opportunity for the
vision of the poet and the seer. Yet it is this vision
that gives enduring worth to all the rest. Homer's
world has long been dead; but it lives in Homer's
verse. Dante's world is perhaps even less under-
stood; but its passion and its power, its sin, its
pathos, and its aspiration, live for us through his
matchless lines.

In a word, it may be said that the intellectual life
of the age has been so filled with material things,
their relations, uses, and values, that there has been
small increase in the great ideal treasures of the
race. The realm of the apparent, taken for the real,
is made to include all that is. The might of the
world unseen seldom finds voice for the tones which
inspire and subdue, which thrill and melt the univer-
sal heart of man. There has been a high average
and large production, but absent are the greatest
gifts. We have had analysis, and synthesis, and con-
scious effort in great variety ; but the joy of creation,
the illuminating word, the fiat lux ("Let there be
light") for heart and mind, have been unspoken.

To compensate, no age has so reveled in the afflu-
ence of nature's treasures for the first time unsealed
to men. After the movement for national
union, the scientific movement and its ^Movement!*'
consequences are the most striking phe-
nomena of this period. One result was the searching
criticisms of religious conceptions, religious history,
the Sacred Scriptures, and Christian institutions.
These great factors in the life of this time affected the
influence and course of Christian thought. Christian
activity, and, the resultant of these, Christian history.



Chapter II.

NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.

The first decade of the second half of the century
had scarcely opened before the outbreak of the Cri-
mean War. It was a war that ought never
^^''war*" t^ ^^^'^ ^^^" waged. It is to be hoped that
it is the last war for the preservation of
that rule long ripe for overthrow — the rule of the
Turks, whether in Europe or Asia. The Russians
invaded the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia,
June 2 2, 1853. England and France declared war
against Russia, March 27, 1854. Nicholas I, Emperor
of Russia, died March 2, 1855, and Sebastopol sur-
rendered September 9th of the same year. March 30,
1856, the Treaty of Paris brought final peace. What
brief lines are these, and yet how much they include
of cruel suffering and untimely death !

Two results followed : Russia never again could
make her policy of mediaeval absolutism prevail in
Western Europe. Europe would never become Cos-
sack. The other was that Louis Napoleon and the
French Empire came to the front as the arbiter of
Europe for the next fifteen years, or to the advent of
Bismarck. A further — an unlooked-for and unwel-
come consequence of this war — was the union of
Moldavia and Wallachia in the principality of Rou-
mania in 1859. This union was acknowledged by
the powers in 1862, and four years later these coun-



National Development. 361

tries of the Lower Danube became a kingdom under
a prince of the house of Hohenzollern. Amid these
results we look in vain for a hero. Indeed, it may be
well said that the only hero of the Crimean War was
a woman — Florence Nightingale.

One great element in the Italian problem was the
fatt that lyouis Napoleon, dreamer as he was and
Dutch as he looked, had lived in Italy, and
as a young man had been a member of the ^^'^iJ^"'**" °*
revolutionary society of the Carbonari.
Of this pity and sympathy for Italy Count Cavour
knew how to take advantage. This Italian states-
man was to Victor Emmanuel II all that Hercules
Consalvi had been to Pius VII as an adviser in affairs
of State, and he, more than any other man, is the
author of Italian unity. A Sardinian contingent had
served in the Crimean War. Cavour, to the intense
disgust both of Austria and of the advisers of the
pope, took part in the negotiations of the Treaty of
Paris.

The first direct step toward the union of Italy was
taken when Cavour met Louis Napoleon at Plom-
bieres in July, 1858. Here it was arranged that
France should assist .Victor Emmanuel II, King of
Sardinia, in a w^ar against Austria. In the event of
success, the king w^as to receive Lombardy and
Venetia from Austria, Parma and Modena from their
ducal rulers, and Romagna and the Marches from the
States of the Church, thus forming a kingdom of
Northern Italy. Tuscany and Umbria were to form a
kingdom in Central Italy, while the King of Naples
would remain in possession of the south of the pen-
insula. The pope should retain Rome under the pro-



362 History of the Christian Church.

tection of a French garrison, while Savoy and Nice
should be ceded to France. It was on this basis that
war was declared against Austria, April 29, 1859.
The battle of Magenta was won June 4th, and three
days later the French Emperor entered Milan. June
24th was fought the even more decisive battle of Sol-
ferino. Then, to the consternation and dismay of
every friend of Italy, Louis Napoleon, after an inter-
view with Francis Joseph, signed the armistice of
Villafranca. It was a shameless breach of faith, as
the emperor's ally, Victor Emmanuel, was not con-
sulted. The secret of it was the thinly-veiled menace
of Prussia, who feared that the impulse the French
army was receiving beyond the Alps would carry it
across the Rhine. Francis Joseph showed himself the
stronger character and the abler negotiator at Villa-
franca. According to the terms there agreed upon,
Victor Emmanuel should receive Lombardy and
Parma ; Austria would retain Venetia and the great
fortresses known as the Quadrilateral ; Tuscany and
Modena were to be returned to their dukes ; Romagna
and the Marches were to be given back to the pope,
so that his dominions remained unimpaired. No
wonder that the Italians burned with indignation, and
that, after a stormy interview with his king, Cavour,
in an agony of disgust and defeat, threw up his office.
But it was one thing for the emperors to lay down
the terms of agreement at Villafranca, and another to
enforce them. The inhabitants who had driven out
their rulers in Tuscany, Modena, and the northern
part of the Papal States, had no intention of allowing
their return, or of being cheated out of the dearest
desires of their hearts.



National Development. 363

For a time Napoleon cherished the design of a
kingdom in Central Italy for his cousin, Prince Na-
poleon, who had married Princess Clotilde of Savoy ;
but events moved with a rapidity that soon showed
that this was impossible. January 16, i860, Cavour
returned to office, now confident that the plans which
he thought had fatally miscarried at Villafranca could
be realized. March 24th, by a treaty to be ratified by
a vote of the inhabitants, Savoy and Nice were ceded
to France. Subject to the same ratification, March
31, i860, Romagna and Bologna in the States of the
Church, and Tuscany and Modena, were proclaimed
parts of the Kingdom of Italy.

The first Parliament of the new kingdom opened
at Turin, April 2, i860. The first great dream of the
Italian patriots and statesmen had been realized.
Italy was no longer a geographical expression. An
insurrection broke out near Messina two days after
the assembling of the Italian Parliament. May 11,
i860, Garibaldi landed at Marsala in Sicily with his
famous "Thousand." Palermo, with its large garri-
son, surrendered June 20th, and by the last of July
all the garrisons of the King of the Two Sicilies on
the island were in the power of the invaders, or had
left the country. Garibaldi, having crossed the
Straits, September 7, i860, entered Naples in tri-
umph.

The same month Italian troops from the north
began to enter the central and southern parts of the
States of the Church. Ancona surrendered Septem-
ber 9, i860. Lamoriciere, a French general of noble
birth, of valor, and piety, who commanded the papal
troops, was completely defeated by the Italian army



364 History of the Christian Church.

at Castelfidardo nine days later. This was a crush-
ing blow to the clerical party in France. Finally,
October 26, i860, Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi
met at Teano, and the 9th of the following month to-
gether in triumph they entered Naples. The Bourbon
king prolonged his resistance at Gaeta, but in vain.
Soon there was a united Italy, except Venetia and
Rome, including the old patrimony of St. Peter; that
is, the country within a radius of about twenty miles
from the city. In 1865 the Italian capital was re-
moved to Florence. Cavour did not live to see that
day, as he died June 6, 1861. Henceforth the for-
tunes of the new kingdom were united with Prussia
and the new German Empire.

In April, 1866, a treaty was signed between Prussia
and Italy, which, on September 3d of that year, gave
Venetia to Italy and cleared the peninsula from the
Austrians. This sealed forever the fate of the policy
of Metternich at the Congress of Vienna.

In 1864, Pope Pius IX issued his famous Syllabus
against modern society and civilization. He used
every means to secure the residue of his temporal
power, while for the Italians there could be no capi-
tal but Rome. Their undaunted leader. Garibaldi,
attacked the French troops at Mentana in 1867, but
was driven back. What valor and patriotism could
not do the folly of the French in declaring war
against Prussia, July 14, 1870, accomplished. Gen-
eral Cardona, September 20, 1870, battered down the
gate of Porta Pia, and took possession of Rome.
Henceforth there was a united Italy, with Rome as
its capital.

In spite of many fearful vaticinations, of threats



National Development. 365

and curses not a few ; in spite of the most formidable
opposition encountered by any modern State; in spite
of many failures and miscarriages; in spite of pov-
erty, mismanagement, and not a little rascality, the
Kingdom of Italy has grown stronger each decade,
and at the close of the nineteenth century was more
potent and influential than in any previous year of its
history.

Cavour, Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel II,
wrought together in this great work of increasing
value to their country and the world. No wonder
that their names are borne by the most important
streets in the hundred cities of Italy.

The second great war for national union, and the
costliest and bloodiest of the century, was that in the
United States, 1861-1865. In its results it xheciviiwar
practically put an end to African slavery ; in the
it secured the dominance of the democratic ^"'*®** states.
principle, that is, of popular government; it created
possibly, or even probabl}', the strongest Christian
nation the world has ever seen. The price in blood
and sacrifice, in treasure and in tears, was the costliest
ever paid in the same space of time ; but God did not
forget the reward. The history of the Church, as of
the world, has hope and power in it, has influence and
help that could not have been but for those weary,
painful years, and that oflfering beyond all estimate.
The immigration into the United States of from three
hundred thousand to five hundred thousand each year
for the most of these fifty years is unprecedented in
the records of the race. The growth of the United
States in resources and might has been the most mar-
velous in history. The advance in morals and in re-



366 History of the Christian Church.

ligious life and influence has not been less astounding.
The century closes with this New World power in the
van of Christendom.

In 1862, Alexander II of Russia freed forty mil-
lion serfs from bondage. In the two years following,
the last endeavor of the expiring Polish
Insurrection ^^^ion went out in terror, flame, and blood.
The struggle endured from the beginning
of March, 1863, until the end of the same month into
the next year. High and noble souls, richly dowered
with great gifts, have illuminated the history of the
Polish nation. But the vices of an incapable aristoc-
racy brought on the inevitable ruin. Their care for
the peasants was never strong enough to unite the
lower classes in support of the national cause.

The sad record of German division and weakness,

which marked the national history from the fall of the

The N«w Hohenstaufens, for six hundred years, came

German to an end in this period. William I ruled

"*''''®* as regent from 1856 to January 2, 1861, and
from the death of Frederick William IV, his brother,
on that date, as King of Prussia, until the proclama-
tion of the German Empire at Versailles, January 18,
1 87 1, and from that date as emperor until his death at
the age of ninety-one years, March 9, 1888. Without
being a great man, he probably accomplished a greater
work than any other sovereign of the century. With
nothing of Napoleon's genius he founded an empire
which had the quality which Napoleon's lacked — en-
durance. William I was honest, truthful, reliable,
firm, and God-fearing. He had that invaluable faculty
in a ruler, of knowing how to find and use the fit man.
Such a man was Otto Von Bismarck (18 15-1899).



National Development. 367

Bismarck was from Pomerania, and in thought and
tradition more allied to Eastern than to Western
Europe; that is, to absolutism than to popular gov-
ernment; but this man of autocratic temper and rule
founded the German Empire upon universal suffrage.
This shows both the strength of the democratic cur-
rent and the sagacity of the statesman who so well
read and followed the signs of the times when they
were other than those he would have chosen.

The Convention of Olmiitz in 1850, the year of the
promulgation of the new Constitution, marked the
deepest humiliation of Prussia. The turn progress
came when, in September, 1862, Bismarck of the
took office. In will, ability, and knowledge
of men and affairs, no statesman of the Continent was
his equal. When the Polish insurrection threatened
to break out in February, 1863, Bismarck negotiated
an alliance with Russia which neutralized any benevo-
lent intentions of Louis Napoleon's, and, as did Prus-
sian neutrality in the Crimean war, secured the friend-
ship of Russia in Prussia's hour of need.

He next took a hand in the complicated and inter-
minable Schleswig-Holstein affair, by which these
duchies were, by the Danish power, ceded to Austria
and Prussia, at Vienna, October 30, 1864. In August,
1865, the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Austria
met at Gastein, and an arrangement was made whereby
Schleswig was to be administered by Prussia and Hol-
stein by Austria. The rivalry of Austria and Prussia,
which had been the chief characteristic of German
history since the accession of Frederick the Great,
came now to its culmination.

Prussia, having allied herself with Italy, declared



368 History of the Christian Church.

war against Austria, June 12, 1866; the second of the
next month was fought the decisive battle of Sadowa,
which settled Austrian claims forever. The way was
open to Vienna, but Bismarck had no desire to humil-
iate Austria; his sole object was to make Prussia the
unquestioned head of the German people.

July 22d, preliminaries to a peace were signed at
Nikolsburg, and a definitive treaty at Prague, August
23, 1866. By this treaty, Austria withdrew from all
German affairs ; the Germanic Bund, or Confederation,
ceased to be; Austria lost no territory but Venetia,
and was a few years later compensated with the ces-
sion to her of Herzegovina and Bosnia. On the other
hand, Prussia received both Schleswig and Holstein,
the Kingdom of Hanover, Electoral Hesse, a part of
Hesse Darmstadt, and the ancient Free City of Frank-
fort. Prussia became united in territory and the head
of the North German Confederation, while the Ger-
man States south of the river Main formed the South
German Confederation. Austria was further strength-
ened by the acceptance of the Ausgleich, or Compro-
mise, by which the affairs of Austria and Hungary
were arranged in the spring of 1867. In June of that
year, Francis Joseph was crowned King of Hungary
at Pesth.

Thus, while outside of the circle of German States,
Austria became stronger than before her defeat. Prus-
sia, whose Zollverein, or customs treaties, had paved
the way for her supremacy among the smaller German
States, now, in 1866, concluded mihtary treaties with
Bavaria, Wiirtemberg, and Baden, whereby their mili-
tary forces were reorganized on the Prussian model,
and could be made a part of the Prussian army. So



National Development. 369

ended the first great stage in the advance of the House
of Hohenzollern to the throne of the German Empire.

Meanwhile affairs in another country led to the
breaking out of the war with France, which was to
consummate what was so well begun. The misgov-
ernment and follies of Isabella II, Queen of Spain, the
most sinned against, if not a little sinning, of the sov-
ereigns of her time, led up to the outbreak of a revolt
against her authority, led by General Prim on the
7th of September, 1868. On the last day of the month
the queen left Spain. In order to establish a settled
order of things the crown of Spain was offered to
Prince Leopold, a prince of the house of Hohenzol-
lern, July 4, 1870. On the 12th day of July, 1870, to
satisfy the susceptibilities of the French, Leopold
publicly renounced any candidacy for the crown.
That w^ent to the son of Victor Emmanuel II, of Italy,
1 870-1 873, and, upon his resignation, to Alphonso XII,
son of Queen Isabella, 1874- 1885. On the same day
of Leopold's renunciation the Due De Gramont in-
structed the French ambassador, Benedetti, to demand
of King William at Ems that he would on no future
occasion authorize the renewal of the candidacy of
Prince Leopold. The king considered the proposal
impudent, to say the least, pointedly refused, and
telegraphed the fact to Bismarck, with permission to
publish it.

Bismarck, Von Moltke, and Von Roon were eager
for a war for which they knew themselves fully fur-
nished, and the French, while boasting great things,
utterly unprepared. The king desired peace ; at least
he did not wish to break it ; 3'et his telegram was
the signal for war. Bismarck took it, and while he
24,



370 History of the Christian Church,

did not change a word, he struck out words which
entirely changed its tone, and sent it to the press.
The telegram reached Paris July 14th, and that night,
with a heedlessness equal to her folly, France de-
clared war against Prussia. The 1 6th began the mo-
bilization of the Prussian army, and two days later the
Vatican Council adjourned, never to reassemble. The
first engagement was fought at Saarbriicken, August
2, 1870. August 15th and i6th, was fought the terri-
ble battle of Mars-la-Tour and Gravelotte. September
ist, the Germans gained the great victory of Sedan,
resulting in the capture of Louis Napoleon.

The last French Empire fell September 4, 1870.
Then began the siege of Paris, September 4, 1870 — Jan-
uary 28, 1 87 1, which proved how easy it is to starve a
great capital. The last ray of hope for Paris died when
Bazine treacherously surrendered Metz with one hun-
dred and seventy thousand men, October 27, 1870.
Two days later Russia declared she would be no longer
bound by the provisions of the Treaty of Paris, which
barred her war vessels from the Black Sea.

On the i8th day of January, 1871, in the Hall of
Mirrors at Versailles, William I was declared Emperor
of Germany, and the strongest military State of the
century was founded. The unity longed for dur-
ing ages of oppression and suffering had come at
last. A preliminary treaty of peace was signed at
Paris, February 26, 1871 ; but the terms were perma-
nently settled and signed at Frankfort, May 10, 1871.

The Communist insurrection raged for six weeks
in the presence of the German army, but was finally
put down by the government of M. Thiers. By the
treaty the German Empire acquired from France



National Development, 371

Alsace and Eastern Lorraine, with Metz and Stras-
burg. France also paid the enormous war indemnity
of a billion of dollars. France had shown singular hero-
ism in her desperate struggle against overwhelming
odds. She now astonished the world with the rapidity
with which she paid her immense fine, and cleared her
soil thus from the invaders. The government of M.
Thiers, a man whose services to France in that crisis
were inestimable, endured from 1871 to May 24, 1873,
when he was replaced by Marshal MacMahon, 1873-
1879. The hopeless division of the monarchical party
and the stupidity of the Comte de Chamford made
Thiers, though a monarchist, believe that the Repub-
lic was the sole hope of France. The Republic was
proclaimed February 25, 1875. With all its faults,
probably, the Republic was the most popular and the
best government at the end of the century France had
seen in that changeful one hundred years.

In 1872, Bismarck carried through the Dreibund,
or Alliance of Germany, Austria, and Russia. This
endured until 1890, though the Treaty of Berlin was
its death-blow.

The misgovernment of the Turks was incurable.
In July, 1875, Herzegovina and Bosnia were in insur-
rection against intolerable oppression. In
May, 1876, occurred the Bulgarian massa- Affairs**
ores. Not receiving any redress, Russia de-
clared war against Turkey, April 24, 1877. The main
action was the siege of Plevna, July 16 — December 11,
1877. In this siege the Grand Duke Nicholas ex-
perienced a bloody repulse, September nth. The
siege was then converted into a blockade. The Rus-
sians were successful, and pushed on to Adrianople,



372 History of the Christian Church.

January 20, 1878. The Treaty of San Stefano was
signed March 3, 1878. This erected a great Bulgarian
State, including its present boundaries and most of
Macedonia.

The Congress of Berlin to consider Russo-Turkish
affairs assembled June 13, 1878, and closed just one
month latter. The provisions of the treaty provided