1. Conscious of our religious duties, we hold fast to the Old Catholic Faith, as it is laid down in the Scriptures and in tradition. We therefore regard ourselves as full members of the Catholic Church, and do not permit ourselves to be dislodged either from the communion of the Church or from the ecclesiastical and civil rights which we derive from this communion. We regard the ecclesiastical censures which have been pronounced against us on account of our fidelity to our faith as vain and arbitrary, and we are not troubled by them in our consciences, and not prevented by them from the exercise of our ecclesiastical communion. From the stand-point of the Confession of Faith, as it is still contained in the so-called Tridentine Symbol, we reject the doctrines which, in opposition to the doctrines of the Church and to the principles adopted from the times of the Apostolical Council, have been framed during the pontificate of Pius IX., in particular the doctrine of Papal infallibility and of the supreme, ordinary, and immediate jurisdiction of the Pope.

2. We hold fast to the old constitution of the Church. We reject every attempt to force the Bishops out of the immediate and independent administration of the individual Churches. We reject the doctrine contained in the Vatican Decrees, that the Pope is the only divinely instituted bearer of all ecclesiastical authority and jurisdiction, as being in opposition to the Tridentine Canon, according to which there exists a divinely instituted hierarchy of bishops, priests, and deacons. We recognize the primacy of the Roman Bishops, as it was recognized by the Fathers and Councils in the old undivided Christian Church on the basis of the Scriptures. (a) We declare that doctrines of faith are defined, not merely by the decision of an individual Pope and of the Bishops who by an oath are bound to an unconditional obedience to the Pope, but only in harmony with the holy Scriptures and the old ecclesiastical tradition, as it is laid down in the recognized Fathers and Councils. Even a Council which would not lack, like that of the Vatican, essential external conditions of œcumenicity, and which, with a unanimous consent of its members, would break loose from the basis and past of the Church, could promulgate no decrees which would be obligatory for the conscience of the Church members. (b) We emphatically declare that the doctrinal decisions of a Council must show them. selves in the immediate doctrinal consciousness of the Catholic people and in theological science, as agreeing with the original and traditional faith of the Church. We claim for the definition of the rules of faith for the Catholic laity and clergy, as well as for scientific theology, the right of witnessing and of protesting.

On the third paragraph, which speaks of the relation of the Old Catholics to the Jansenists and the Greek Church, a long discussion arose, in which the delegate of the Russian Church, Professor Ossinin, of St. Petersburg, and nearly all the prominent leaders of the Congress took part. After the adoption of several amendments it was finally approved by the Congress in the following shape:

3. We aim, under the co-operation of the theological and canonistical science, at a reformation of the Church, which, in the spirit of the Old

Church, shall remove the present faults and abuses; which in particular shall fulfill the just wishes of the Catholic people for constitutional participation in Church affairs; and at which the national views and wants of the Catholic people shall be taken into consideration as far as it is compatible with the ecclesiastical unity of doctrine. We declare that the reproach of Jansenism has wrongly been made against the Church of Utrecht, and that consequently there exists no difference between her and us. We hope for a reunion with the Greek-Oriental and the Russian Church, the sepa ration of which took place without stringent causes, and is not grounded in any insolvable dogmatical difference. We expect, on the supposition of the aimed-at reformation, and in the way of science and progressive culture, a gradual understanding with the Protestant and the Episcopal Churches.

The discussion of the fourth paragraph showed a considerable difference of opinion with regard to the influence which the State Government may claim upon the education of the Catholic clergy. The Congress finally adopted the paragraph as follows:

4. We regard the cultivation of science as indispensable in the education of the Catholic clergy. We regard the artificial seclusion of the clergy from the intellectual culture of the century in the seminaria puerorum and in higher institutions, under the one-sided control of the bishops, to be dangerous and entirely inappropriate for training and educating a moral, pious, scientifically-educated, and patriotic clergy. We demand for the so-called lower clergy a worthy position, which will protect them from hierarchical arbitrariness. In particular do we reject the arbitrary removability, (amovibilitas ad nutum) of the parish priests, which has been introduced by the French law, and the introduction of which is now more generally aimed at.

The last three paragraphs called forth but little discussion; they are substantially as follows:

5. We adhere to the constitutions of our countries, which guarantee civil liberty and humanitarian culture, and we therefore reject, from considerations of political economy and civilization, the dangerous doctrine of Papal omnipotence; and we declare that we will truly and steadfastly support our governments in the conflict with Ultamontanism, as defined in the Syllabus.

6. Since the present fatal disorder in the Catholic Church has been caused by the so-called Society of Jesus-since this order abuses its power for the purpose of spreading and nourishing anti-national tendencies which are hostile to civilization and dangerous to the State-since it teaches a false and corrupting morality—we express the conviction that peace and prosperity, harmony in the Church, and a correct understanding between her and civil society cannot be expected until an end shall be made to the injurious activity of this order.

7. As members of the Catholic Church which was not yet altered by the Vatican Decrees, and to which the States have guaranteed political recog

nition and public protection, we maintain our claims to all real possessions and titles of the Church.

Besides the adoption of the doctrinal platform, the task of the Congress included the important question of a permanent organization. There was an almost entire unanimity as to the necessity to organize the Old Catholic movement all over the world; and the Congress without debate, and almost unanimously, adopted a resolution moved by Dr. Zirngrell, to appoint a Standing Committee, with the right of unlimited co-operation, for the purpose of carrying through an organized Catholic movement. This Committee consists of the officers of the Congress and the President of the Munich Committee. An important discussion arose on the formation of Old Catholic congregations. On this point Dr. Döllinger, to the great surprise of many, showed himself timid and irresolute. He admonished the Congress to proceed in this direction with the utmost caution. The exceptional condition in which the faithful Catholics at present find themselves gives them certain rights, but they proceed beyond these rights. He therefore desired that a resolution, moved by the President of the Congress, Professor Schulte, which provides for the organization of the Old Catholic Church, be referred to a Special Committee. Döllinger, it seems, wished the Old Catholics to remain strictly within the bounds of a protest against the obligatory character of the Vatican Council, hoping that in due time, under the guidance of Providence, the Church would be delivered from these Papal corruptions. But highly as Dr. Dollinger is esteemed among the Old Catholics, he found hardly any supporters of this view. All the other speakers were very outspoken in advocating the resolution of Professor Schulte. They argued that the religious wants of the Catholics against whom the Papal hierarchy had launched the ecclesiastical censures were so urgent that a provisional re-establishment of the ecclesiastical organization could not be avoided, and that it was their duty to carry out practically what theoretically they had laid down in the programme. The resolution was then almost unanimously adopted by the Congress.

From the adoption of this resolution dates the actual origin of the Old Catholic Church. It has since made sure headway, especially in Bavaria, where there were in November one hundred and fourteen Old Catholic congregations, with church property worth a million of dollars. There are between seventy and eighty Old Catholic congregations in the Prussian provinces of Posen and Silesia, while the number in Westphalia and the Rhine provinces can hardly be less. In Baden twenty-nine Old Catholic congregations are in full operation, and seven are reported in Würtemberg. In Austria, too, including the Tyrol, the movement is active. Four Old Catholic organizations have been organized in Prague, and seven in Vienna. In Hungary the Old Catholics are very numerous, and many of the Bishops are believed to be in sympathy with them. In France and Belgium, owing to the indifference of the higher classes to religion, little is to be heard of the question, although Father Hyacinthe is actively preaching the reform; but quite a number of old Catholic congregations have sprung up in Holland.

An important attitude with regard to the Old Catholic movement has been taken by the Government of Bavaria. In reply to certain demands made by the Bavarian Bishops, the Minister of Public Worship, Herr Von Lutz, (in a letter dated August 27,) announces that the Government will refuse all co-operation for spreading the new doctrines of the Vatican Council, and for executing episcopal decrees; and in reply to an interpellation in the Bavarian Chamber of Deputies, the same Minister declared that the Government will adhere to the principle that the measures which the Bishops may adopt against the Old Catholics must not have any influence upon the political and civil condition of those censured; that the congregations which may be formed by the Old Catholics and their priests shall possess the same rights which they would have had if the congregations had been formed prior to July 18, 1870; and it desires, in the way of legislation, to secure the earliest independence of the State as well as the Church. The Government of Hungary has forbidden the proclamation of the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, and has reprimanded one Bishop who officially had communicated the doctrine to his diocesans. The Government of Prussia also continues to protect the Old Catholic professors and clergymen in the full possession of their rights, and the Emperor has severely rebuked the Bishops of his dominions, who in a joint protest had complained of the neutral attitude of the Government, regarding it as a persecution of the Catholic Church.

In view of the number of congregations which have heen organized, and the favorable attitude of the Governments toward the Old Catholics, it appears a little remarkable that up to December, 1871, no step had been taken toward organizing Old Catholic dioceses and electing Old Catholic Bishops. It is reported that an Old Catholic pastor of Bavaria, who with almost his entire congregation has declared against the Vatican Council, has applied to the (Jansenist) Archbishop of Utrecht, in Holland, for the administration of the sacrament of confirmation in his congregation, and that the Archbishop has made the compliance with the request dependent upon two conditions; first, that the Bavarian congregation must previously apply to its own diocesan Bishop, and, secondly, that it must adhere to all the decrees of the Tridentine Council. On the whole, the leaders of the Old Catholic movement appear as yet to shrink from progressing to the organization of dioceses.

ART. IX.-FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.
GERMANY.

The number of religious periodicals of Germany has received an addition by the establishment of a new monthly, entitled, Deutsche Blaetter, and edited by Dr. G. Füllner, which will discuss, from the stand-point of evangelical Christianity, all the great political, religious, and social questions of our age. The labor question in particular, which raises so great FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXIV.-10

fears for the future of the European states, will receive prominent attention. Its satisfactory solution, says the editor, will be wholly dependent on the Christian spirit of both the employers and the employés. Only if both will be penetrated by the spirit of Christ, in order to act toward each other with love and candor, can the labor question cease to be the greatest danger which threatens our present society.

In view of the importance which the Old Catholic movement is gaining, a work on the life of the late Professor Leopold Schmid, of the University of Giessen, who was elected Bishop of Mentz, but not confirmed by the Pope, gains a special interest. Three Protestant scholars have united for the publication of such a work. (Leopold Schmid's Leben und Denken. 1871.) Professor Nippold, in Heidelberg, gives a brief survey of the Old Catholic movement, of which Schmid was one of the most distinguished forerunners. Schröder gives a biographical sketch, and Schwartz an outline of his views.

The Bible-work of Lange, which the translation by Dr. Schaff has made known in the United States even more widely than it is in its native country, has now been completed, so far as the New Testament is concerned, by the publication of the Commentary on the Apocalypse. (Die Offenbarung des Johannes. Bielefeld, 1871.) This volume has been compiled by Professor Lange himself.

An interesting essay on the relation of the Gnostic system of Valentinian to the New Testament has been published by G. Heinrici. (Die Valentinianische Gnosis und die heil. Schrift. Berlin, 1871.) The question has of late been much discussed. Baur, the head of the Tubingen school, found traces of direct Gnostic influence, and in particular of the system of Valentinian, in the epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians; and Hilgenfeld makes the same assertion with regard to the gospel of John and the minor Pauline epistles. The author undertakes to refute these views, and to prove that where there are points of agreement between parts of the New Testament and the earlier Gnostics they are owing to the circumstance that the latter were acquainted with the books of the New Testament.

The rules which were adopted by the Council of Trent for the management of its deliberations have recently been published for the first time, (Die Geschäftsordnung des Concils von Trient. Vienna, 1871,) from a copy of the Vatican archives. The preface discusses the importance which this publication has for Church history. It maintains that the Papal Court has on purpose prevented the publication of this document, because it must become evident from it that the order of business adopted by the Vatican Council was in direct opposition to the synodal traditions of the Church; that it excluded that liberty of discussion which was still regarded by the Council of Trent as an essential right of every Church Council; and that the so-called Vatican Council altogether lacked those attributes of an œcumenical character which are demanded by the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church.

Among the recent Protestant works on the queston of Papal iinfallibility a lecture by Professor Hinschius, a distinguished writer on Church law,