History of the Christian church (Volume 5) online

the greatest degree to the liberty and prosperity of
the Church."

**N. B. — Besides these Errors, explicitly noted,
many others are impliedly rebuked by the proposed
and asserted doctrine, which all Catholics are bound
most firmly to hold, touching the temporal sover-
eignty of the Roman pontiff. These doctrines are

clearly stated in ". There follows a list of

papal utterances from 1849 to 1862. This is the only



The Papacy. 433

doctrine affirmatively stated, though in an appended
note. All else was designed as a bulwark of this.

The last chapter treats of modern Liberalism ; the
essence of the policy of Reaction in Church and State
is here. Notice the papal condemnation of the doc-
trine of religious toleration, which is the mark of a
modern State, and without which the Roman Catholic
Church never would have made its gains in Great
Britain, her Colonies, and the United States.

Condemning Errors :

77. " In the present day, it is no longer expedient
that the Catholic religion shall be held as the only
religion of the State, to the exclusion of all other
modes of worship."

78. " Whence it has been wisely provided by law,
in some countries called Catholic, that persons com-
ing to reside therein shall enjoy the public exercise of
their own worship."

79. " Morever, it is false that the civil liberty of
every mode of worship, and the full power given to
all of overtly and publicly manifesting their opinions
and their ideas, of all kinds whatsoever, conduce more
easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people,
and to the propagation of the pest of indifferentism."

Here belongs 55, which makes the American rub
his eyes. The papal condemnation falls upon the
statement: 55. ''The Church ought to be separated
from the State, and the State from the Church."

Clear-thinking men of every creed, with Leo XIII
at their head, join in the statement of what is desig-
nated as "Error 80," rather than with the condemna-
tion of Pius IX, which was to crown the whole. The
Syllabus says, condemning Error 80: "The Roman
28



434 History of the Christian Church.

pontiff can and ought to reconcile himself to, and
agree with, progress, liberalism, and civilization as
lately introduced."

Many of the Errors here condemned have been so
accepted as to be beyond the reach of practicable de-
bate, but the utterances against divorce and the com-
mon schools have present importance. The latter is
potent in the United States. What effect it will have
upon the Roman Catholic Church and upon the na-
tion it will take more than one generation to disclose.
That it was a part of the program of war against the
modern State and society is clear. That the final
issue may be for good is the prayer of all Christians.

The preparations now went on to reduce the con-
demnation of the Syllabus to articles of faith by the
enactment of the dogma of papal infalli-
'^^Counclr" ^^^ity by ^^ Ecumenical Council. There
was no general demand for the assemblage
of such a body or the definition of such a doctrine.
The strongest intellectual forces, and the Roman
Catholic governments, deprecated it. The German
Episcopate declared against it. But the Jesuits were
powerful and persistent. All plans were carefully laid.
There was to be no chance of failure so far as the
Council was concerned. It met for its first session,
December 8, 1869. There were present at that session
719 members, and a week later 764. Of the whole
Episcopate, nearly three-quarters were present. There
were 13 present from Australia, 14 from Africa, 83
from Asia, 113 from America, aud 540 from Europe.
Of these last, 276 were Italians, 84 French, 48 Aus-
trians, 41 from Spain, 35 from Great Britain, and 19
from Germany. There were in the membership of



The Papacy. 435

the Council 50 cardinals, 10 patriarchs, 130 arch-
bishops, 522 bishops, and 30 generals of orders.

On November 27th, the pope, in a Brief, promul-
gated the order of business. It so arranged the mat-
ter that if there had been a strong and effective oppo-
sition it would have been powerless. But the opposi-
tion was neither strong nor united. The only fear of
the Curia was the interference of some of the Powers.
Many of the members were missionary bishops or
bishops without Sees. Most of them had been ap-
pointed during the pontificate of Pius IX. Three
hundred of them were entertained by him at his
expense at the Vatican, and 425 were dependent upon
him. The fear of the Roman Catholic Powers was a
very genuine one. Lord Odo Russell, a British am-
bassador to the pope, though an English Churchman,
rendered great service to the majority by keeping
them informed of the intentions of the Powers. All
Christians ought to rejoice that there was no interfer-
ence by the civil power.

April 24, 1870, the first decrees were passed. They
are in four chapters, and concerned " God the Creator,
Revelation, Faith, and Reason." To these were ap-
pended eighteen canons. The most of these doc-
trinal definitions express the common belief of Chris-
tians, but the third canon of the fourth chapter as-
serts: "If any one shall assert it to be possible that
sometimes, according to the progress of science, a
sense is to be given to doctrines propounded by the
Church different from that which the Church has un-
derstood and understands, let him be anathema." In
the light of this teaching Roman Catholic theology
can scarcely be called a progressive science. But the



436 History of the Christian Church.

history of the decrees of the Council itself were to
furnish the strangest comment on this statement.

July 13, 1870, the further dogmatic definitions of
the infallibility of the pope were voted upon; of 671
present, 451 voted for the decree, 88 against it, 62 for
it somewhat modified, and 70 refrained from voting.
Before the public session of July 18, 1870, the minor-
ity, all but two, left Rome; then a bishop from Corsica
and one from the United States voted against it.

We will now consider the contents and signifi-
cance of the decrees then made obligatory upon
the Roman Catholic world. It is entitled.
Decree" '"^^^ ^^^^^ Dogmatic Constitution of the
Church of Christ." It consists of four
chapters. Attention is usually concentrated upon the
last chapter, but the practical importance in the gov-
ernment of the Roman Catholic Church of the first
three chapters much exceeds the famous close of this
Constitution.

The first chapter afiirms that "The primacy of
jurisdiction over the universal Church of God was
immediately and directly promised and given to
blessed Peter the Apostle, by Christ the Lord." " If
any one, therefore, shall say that blessed Peter the
Apostle was not appointed the prince of all the apos-
tles and visible head of the whole Church militant ; or
that the same directly and immediately received from
our Lord Jesus Christ a primacy of honor only, and
not of true and proper jurisdiction : let him be anath-
ema."

Chapter II treats of the perpetuity of this primacy
of Peter. " For none can doubt, and it is known to
all ages, that the holy and blessed Peter, the prince



The Papacy.



437



and chief of the apostles, the pillar of the faith, and
the foundation of the Catholic Church, received the
keys of the kingdom from our lyord Jesus Christ, the
Savior and Redeemer of mankind, and lives, presides,
and judges, to this day and always, in his successors
the bishops of the Holy See of Rome, which was
founded by him, and consecrated by his blood.
Whence, whosoever succeeds to Peter in this See
does, by the institution of Christ himself, obtain the
primacy of Peter over the whole Church." " If, then,
any should deny that it is by the institution of Christ
the lyord, or by divine right, that blessed Peter should
have a perpetual line of successors in the primacy
over the universal Church, or that the Roman pontiflf
is the successor of the blessed Peter in this primacy :
let him be anathema."

The third chapter develops the nature of this
primacy. In Rome it was said that the bishops came
to the Council shepherds, and departed from it un-
fleeced sheep. It is in the third chapter that the
shearing process is evident. Thus we read : " Hence
we teach and declare that, by the appointment of our
Lord, the Roman Church possesses a superiority of
ordinary power over all other Churches, and that this
power of jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, which is
truly episcopal, is immediate ; to which all, of what-
ever rite and dignity, both pastors and faithful, both
individually and collectively, are bound, by their duty
and hierarchical subordination and true obedience, to
submit, not only in matters w^hich belong to faith
and morals, but also in those which appertain to the
discipline and government of the Church throughout
the world, so that the Church of Christ may be one



438 History of the Christian Church,

flock under one supreme pastor through preservation
of unity, both of communion and of profession of
the same faith with the Roman pontiff."

This is the teaching of Catholic truth, " from
which no one can deviate without loss of faith and of
salvation."

" If, then, any shall say that the Roman pontiff
has the ofiice merely of inspection or direction, and
not full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the
universal Church spread throughout the world ; or as-
sert that he possesses merely the principal part, and
not all the fullness of the supreme power; or that
this power which he enjoys is not ordinary and im-
mediate, both over each and all the Churches and
over each and all the pastors and the faithful : let him
be anathema."

It is here, and not in the succeeding chapter, that
the real grip of Roman discipline passed into papal
hands and made a new Roman Catholic Church.

The fourth chapter speaks of the infallible teach-
ing of the Roman pontiff. All that is important is in
the last paragraph : " Therefore, faithfully adhering
to the traditions received from the beginning of the
Christian faith, for the glory of God our Savior, the
exaltation of the Catholic religion, and the salvation
of Christian people, the sacred Council approving, we
teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed :
that the Roman pontiff, when he speaks ex-cathedra —
that is, when in the discharge of the office of pastor
and doctor of all the Christians, by virtue of his
supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine re-
garding faith or morals to be held by the universal
Church, by the divine assistance promised to him in



The Papacy. 439

blessed Peter — is possessed of that infallibility with
which the Divine Redeemer willed that his Church
should be endowed for defining doctrine regarding
faith or morals; and that, therefore, such definitions
of the Roman pontiff are irreformable of themselves,
and not from consent of the Church."

" But if any one, which may God avert, . . .
presume to contradict this, our definition : let him be
anathema."

Before the reading in the public session ended, a
terrible thunderstorm broke over Rome, and the
cupola of St. Peter's was struck by lightning. A
storm more terrible broke over Europe, and the
armies of France and Prussia were hurled against
each other. The French Empire went down in blood,
and the new German Empire came to dominate Con-
tinental Europe. The fathers of the Council never
again assembled after the adjourning of the day.
October 20, 1870, it was indefinitely postponed.

The Jesuits saw the consummation of their policy
for fifty years; but the object of so much solicitude,
the dear possession which, when all other means failed,
the Council was to preserve, the temporal power of
the pope, was gone forever. September 20, 1870, the
Italian troops entered Rome, and Victor Emmanuel
took possession of the Quirinal palace. There was a
new Rome as well as a new Roman Catholic Church.
The finest street in the new capital bears the name of
Via Nazionale, the Street of the Nation ; while that
before the Quirinal palace is called Via Venti Setteni-
bre, the Street of the Twentieth of September.

Such were the immediate events, if not results,
succeeding the Vatican Council. Those closely fol-



440 History of the Christian Church.

lowing were the rejection of the Vatican decrees by the
most learned Church historian in Europe, Professor
Ignaz Bollinger, of Munich, the formation of the Old
Catholic Church, and the Kulturkampf in Germany.
John Joseph Ignaz Bollinger (i 799-1 890) was
born at Bamberg, February 28, 1799. His father and
his grandfather were professors in the Med-

Dollinger.

ical Faculty. When quite young, his father
removed from Bamberg to Wiirzburg, where he was
Professor of Anatomy. Before Ignaz was ten years
old he had read, in French, Racine, and Moliere, and
at sixteen he had read more French than German
books. Before entering the university at seventeen,
he had an easy mastery of French, Italian, and Kng-
glish, and during his university course he acquired
Spanish. He studied at the Wiirzburg University,
1 8 16-1820, giving especial attention to botany, miner-
alogy, and entomology, as well as to the classics and
philosophy. While there he read Baronius, Petavius,
and Paolo Sarpi. He chose the priesthood, his father
yielding his consent upon physiological grounds.
Bollinger himself chose this calling as a means to his
great end, which was the study and mastery of the-
ology, or of science grounded on theology.

He spent three years, 1 820-1 822, at the episcopal
seminary at Bamberg, and was ordained priest in
March, 1822. He began his work as a teacher as
Professor of Church History and Law at Aschafifen-
burg, 1 823-1 826. In the latter year he published
"The Eucharist in the First Three Centuries," which
gained him a name as well as a Boctor's degree, from
the qualities which marked all his works, learning,
and judgment. In the same year he was called to



The Papacy. 441

Munich as Professor of Church History and Church
Law, 1 826-1 890. Between 1830 and 1840 he pub-
lished a "Handbook," and also a "Textbook," of
Church History. In 1836 he traveled in England, and
three years later in Holland, Belgium, and France.
In 1845 he was chosen to represent the University of
Munich in the Bavarian Landtag. He sat in the Frank-
fort Parliament, May, 1848, to May, 1849. There he
agreed with General Radowitz that there was no use
for the Jesuits in Germany. In 1 846-1 848 appeared,
in three volumes, his "Die Reformation," and in 1851
his article on " Luther." At this time he had read
only some single works of Luther. His "Reformation"
is learned and able, and demands the attention of any
student of the subject ; but it is a series of sketches
instead of a history, and leaves out of the account
some of the weightiest factors.

Up to this time he had the reputation of a most
learned, able, and devout Roman CathoHc historian.
He was considered devoted to the Roman See, and de-
fended the order requiring Evangelical Christians in
military service to kneel at the elevation of the host, —
an order which the government had to withdraw.
Late in the forties, as a result of his studies, he took
his position as opposing the doctrine of the Immacu-
late Conception of the Virgin, and of Papal Infallibil-
ity, and in favor of a German National Roman Catho-
lic Church. In 1853 appeared his learned work
" Hippolytus and Callistus," and, in 1857, "Heathen-
ism and Judaism," or, as translated, " The Jew and
Gentile in the Court of the Temple of Christ," a work
without equal as giving a collective view of the relig-
ious life and teachings with which Christianity came



442 History of the Christian Church,

in contact. In some points further research has
brought new facts to light ; but this is a work which,
in many respects, will never be out of date.

In 1857, Dollinger took a journey through North-
ern and Central Italy, and lived some time in Rome.
He used his eyes and ears, and returned " extraordi-
narily sobered." He had not been in accord with the
policy of Pius IX since his return from Gaeta in 1850,
but Dollinger's reputation as the most learned and
the ablest of Roman Catholic Church historians gave
him at Rome a most honorable reception.

In i860 he published " Christianity and the Church
in the Time of its Founding," and the next year,
*' Churches and the Church : The Papacy and States
of the Church." In 1863 he gave his famous address
at a Roman Catholic assembly of leading theologians
and representative men on *' The Past and Present of
Catholic Theology," in which he showed the lack of
foundation of much of the Jesuit teaching. In the
same year appeared his " Pope-fables of the Middle
Ages." From 1866 on, he opposed unceasingly the
dogma of Papal Infallibility. In this he had the Ger-
man Episcopate with him, as was proved by the
Declaration of Fulda in 1869.

Correspondence published in the Civita Catholica
in February, 1869, showed that the Jesuit program for
the Vatican Council was the definition of the dogma
of Papal Infallibility, and of the bodily ascent of the
Virgin Mary into heaven ; also the change of the neg-
ative statements of the Syllabus into positive affirma-
tion as articles of belief All this Dollinger opposed
in his "Janus, or Pope and Council," 1869. It ap-
peared without his name, and made an immense im-



The Papacy. 44^

pression. During the progress of its session, his
" Letters from the Council " were almost the only-
arguments that affected public opinion. They had
also great effect in the Council itself. When the vote
was taken, eleven out of fifteen German bishops and
twenty-six out of thirty-five Austrian prelates went
with the minority against the dogmatic constitution
of the Council defining Papal Infallibility.

Then came the stress of what was to Dollinger a
question of conscience. The Franco-German war
rendered impossible a coalition of the Roman Catholic
Powers against the Vatican Decrees. Every sort of
pressure was brought to bear upon the German Epis-
copate to cause submission to the new dogma. The
ablest of them, Hefele, submitted at last, in April,
187 1. On the 1 8th of that month the Archbishop of
Munich from the pulpit declared Dollinger to be ex-
communicated.

On Whitsunday, 1871, a great assembly of German
Roman Catholics published a declaration against the
Decrees. Dollinger and his friends held that an un-
just excommunication was invalid. Dollinger wished
those who did not accept the new teaching to remain
a part of the Roman Catholic Church, and in all their
old relations to it ; he did not wish a new organiza-
tion, nor did he ever join the Old Catholics, however
much he sympathized with them. In 1872 he put
forth his "Union of the Churches;" in the same year,
as the head of the University of Munich, he presided
at the four hundredth jubilee celebration.

Dollinger's position was not at all comparable with
Cardinal Newman's. Newman opposed the definition
of the dogma as inopportune, but did not deny that it



444 History of the Christian Church.

might be true ; if so declared, he was ready to submit
to it, and did. This was the attitude taken by many
of the former opponents of the new teaching, espe-
ciall}^ those occup3ang Episcopal Sees. With Bollin-
ger, it was different. This dogma included in its in-
fallibility all the popes who had ever taught or
reigned. For Bollinger it was a question of fact, of
historic truth. When a lady wrote to him and re-
quested him, in the Jesuit phrase, to "immolate his
intellect," and accept the decree, he replied that he
could just as easily deny the existence of Napoleon
Bonaparte.

Bollinger's great reputation and influence at Mu-
nich was second to that of no man of learning in the
century. His work also w^ent on ; with his co-opera-
tion, in 1887, appeared *'The Autobiography of Bel-
larmine." In 1889 he published, in two volumes, his
" History of Moral Controversies in the Roman Cath-
olic Church since the Sixteenth Century with Respect
to the History and Characteristics of the Jesuit Order."
In 1890 came his last great work, one of long-contin-
ued and fundamental research, on the " History of the
Sects of the Middle Ages." Three volumes of his
academic lectures of great value were published, the
last after his death.

Ranke, Bollinger, and George Bancroft lived to be
over ninety years of age, and the two former did most
excellent work until the last. As an historian Bollin-
ger occupied a unique position; his profound erudi-
tion, his breadth of view, his solidity of judgment and
grasp of the historical situation, tendencies, and re-
sults,- make his work valuable for all time. After
1870 he read carefully Luther's works, and came to a



The Papacy.



445



different estimate of him. He came to see how lyUther
and his work wrought out God's providential ends.

Nippold says that "The history of the nineteenth
century knows the name of no other theologian
whose world historical position can compare with
Bollinger's. He was no party leader, but, in charac-
ter and influence, no German theologian since lyUther
has equal enduring fame. No one who has studied
at the University of Munich, where Dollinger's re-
markable library is a part of that of the university,
and where his name is always mentioned with the
greatest respect, or who has seen the students of the
Collegium Germanicum at Rome eagerly bidding at
the sale of his works, but realizes that he is, like
lyUther, a real and potent force in the life of the
religious world, and not least in that of the Roman
Catholic Church. This came from his adherence to
his convictions of intellect and conscience at all costs.
He acknowledged his change of view; in his last year
he wrote: "The compulsory unity of the Papal
Church assures many advantages, but these are far
outweighed by the many evil consequences. The ad-
vancing formation of ,new Church organizations in
the Protestant world is no sign of weakness, but of
living motive force."

Of course, many efforts were made to have him
become reconciled to the Papal Church. To such an
effort he replied in 1886 to the Archbishop of Mu-
nich, ** Shall I, with the burden of a double perjury
upon my conscience, appear before the Eternal
Judge?" To the papal nuncio the last year of his
life he wrote, " What I have written will sufficiently
express my opinions in order to make plain to you



446 History of the Christian Church.

that one with such convictions can be in a condition
of inner peace and spiritual rest on the threshold of
eternity."

January lo, 1890, a great scholar, a humble Chris-
tian, a man whose character and love of truth out-
weighs all his works, great as their influence will
ever be, went from the strife of tongues and warring
party cries to God's eternal peace.

The Whitsunday Declaration was followed by the
assembling of the first Old Catholic Congress at Hei-

^^g delberg, August 5, 1871; a second suc-
oid Catholic ceeded at Munich in September ; the third
Movement. ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Cologne in September, 1872;
at the same place in June, 1873, the fourth gathered.
On June 4th, Joseph Hubert Reinkens was chosen
bishop by twenty-two clergy and fifty-five lay dele-
gates. Bishop Reinkens was consecrated, August 11,
1873, by the Jansenist bishop of Deventer, in Hol-
land. Bishop Reinkens was acknowledged by the
King of Prussia, the Grand Duke of Baden, and the
Grand Duke of Hesse. He was the first Roman Cath-
olic bishop without papal confirmation, to be so ac-
knowledged, on German soil for six hundred years.

In May, 1874, a regular Synodical Constitution for
the new Church was adopted. The Sjmods met annu-
ally at Bonn, the seat of the bishops, until 1879; since
then, biennially. Since 1878 the proceedings are taken
down by stenographers, and then printed. In 1878
compulsory celibacy was abolished, and though many
were at first offended, after twenty years trial the re-
sults are said to justify the change. The mass in
German was allowed in 1879, and is now in use in most
places. An Episcopal seminary was founded at Bonn



The Papacy. 447

in 1894. Union Church Congresses were held at Bonn
in 1874 and 1875, attended by Greek, English, and
American prelates. Also at Cologne in 1890; Lu-
zerne, 1892; and Rotterdam in 1894. Bishop Rein-
kens died in January of the latter year.

In March, 1896, Professor Theodore Webber was
chosen bishop in his place. In 1895 there were re-
ported 120 congregations, with 49 clergy. The work
has been carried on amid the greatest difficulties. The
chief of these has been to raise up a clergy, learned