Old Catholics, a name adopted in 1870 by those members of the Roman Catholic Church who refused to recognise the validity of the decrees of the Vatican Council (q. v.), especially that concerning the infallibil- ity of the pope; and who, when the bishops, by means of excommunication, tried to enforce submission to the Vatican decrees, organized independent congregations, and gradually advanced, by the election of bishops, to the organization of an independent religious denomina- tion.
1. The bishops of (iermany and Austro-Hungary, who during the proceedings of the Vatican Council opposed the proclamation of papal infallibility as inopportune, not only expected such a movement, but expressly warned the majority of the council not to provoke it by a measure which was intensely disliked by a very large number in the Church. The opposition of several bishops of the minority to the doctrine of infallibility
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had been so determined that they were expected to fa- vor and join the secession movement. Tliis expecta- tion was, however, disappointed. After the promulga- tion of tlie doctrine of infallibility all the bishops, one after another, submitted, though some — as bishop Hefele, of Itottenburg, in Germany, and bishop Strossmayer, of Sirmium, in Hungary — with unfeigned reluctance. At length oidy a few bishops of the United Armenian Church, who, even before the convocation of the coun- cil, hail fallen out with the pope on ciuestions relating to the former privileges of the Armenian Church, re- mained in opposition to the Vatican Council. In Ger- many, the centre of the opposition to the Vatican de- crees, the bishops, soon after their return from Italy, had held a meeting at Fulda, and drawn up a joint pas- toral letter to the Catholics of Germany, in which they announced their own submission to the Vatican decrees, and advised all faithful Catholics to follow their example. This advice was, however, in a signal manner disre- garded by a large number of Catholic scholars of Ger- many. Only a few days after July 18, the day when the Vatican Council formally sanctioned the doctrine of infallibility. Prof. F. Michelis, of the Lyceum of Brauns- berg, Eastern Prussia, issued a declaration in which he acjused the pope of being a heretic, and of devastating the Church. At Munich, forty-four professors of the university, under the leadership of Diillinger and Fried- rich, signed a protest against the binding authority of the Vatican Council and the validity of its resolutions. Similar protests were numerously signed by professors of the universities of Bonn, Breslau, Freiburg, and Giessen. In August the theological leaders of the movement met in conference at Nuremberg to concert further action. A joint declaration against the Vatican decrees was agreed upon and signed, among others, by Dollinger and Friedrich, of Munich ; Michelis, of Braimsberg ; Reinkens and Bahzer, of Breslau ; Knoodt, of Bonn ; and Schulte, of Prague — all of whom had thus far been regarded as among the most prominent schol- ars of the Catholic Church. The bishops now de- manded from aU the professors of theology an express declaration that they recognised the oecumenical char- acter of the council. A few, like Prof. Haneberg, of Munich, who was soon after appointed bishop of Spires, and Prof. Dieringer, of Bonn, yielded to the pressure brougiit to bear upon them ; but the majority remained firm in their opposition. The laity appeared, however, at first to take but little interest in the movement. Only a few isolated protests were published, the most noted of them being the so-called " protest of the Old Catholics" of Munich, a name which was subseiiuently adopted by the entire party. The leaders appeared to be at a loss as to the further steps to be taken, and the most prominent among them. Prof. Diillinger, emphat- ically dissuaded the organization of independent Old- Catholic congregations, in order not to make the breach in the Church incurable. For some time only two Cath- olic congregations in all Germany, one in Bavaria and one in Prussia, asstrmed an attitude of open opposition ; but in a number of other towns, especially in Bavaria and on the Khine, the sympathizers with tiie movement kept up a kind of organization by means of •' local com- mittees." A decisive step towards an independent Church organization was taken by the first Olil-Catholic Congress, held at Munich from Sept. 20 to 24, 1871. Notwithstanding the continuing opposition of Dollin- ger, this congress, which was numerously attended by the Old Catholics of Germany, Switzerland, and Aus- tria, resolved to provide for the religious wants of the Old Catholics in all places where it seemed to be needed, and for this purpose to organize congregations and churches. It was also resolved to enter into commun- ion with the "Church of Utrecht," or the so-called Jansenists fsee Jansenmsts], who for about two centu- ries had maintained principles similar to those of the Roman Catholics, and insisted on remaining members of the Catholic Churcii in spite of the continuous anath-