THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
features, and more capable of resisting the influences of social environment.
The fundamental principles of political philosophy which were to regulate the relations of Church and State among the American people had been well defined and generally accepted while the nation was still confined to the original states along the Atlantic coast; and successive expansions of the national domain have not resulted in any radical changes of poUcy. The same principles have been applied by the Federal government in Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands. Nowhere has the civil power failed in its function of affording legal protection and procedure for religious organizations, and nowhere have the churches exceeded these legal powers and infringed upon civil rights. The alien peoples who have come under American political training give evidence of appreciating the altered relation of Church and State. After more than one hundred years of test imder all conditions, it is now as true as at the beginning of American national life that the full and free right to entertain any religious belief, to practise any religious principle, and to teach any religious doctrine which does not violate the laws of morality, and which does not infringe personal rights, is conceded to all. The law knows no heresy, is committed to the support of no dogma and to the establishment of no sect. George James Bayles.
Bibliography: W. E. Gladstone, The State in its Relations with the Church, 2 vols., London, 1841; S. T. Coleridge, On the Constitution of Church and State, ib. 1852;' T. R. Birks, Church and State, ib. 1869; J. W. Joyce, The Civil Power in its Relation to the Church, ib. 1869; E. de Pressens^. Church and French Revolution, ib. 1869; J. Rtlttiman, Kirche und Staat in Nordamerika, Basel, 1871; E. Friedberg, Die Grenzen zwischen Staat und Kirche und die Garantien gegen deren Verletzung, Tiibingen, 1872; J. P. Thompson, Church and State in the United States, Boston, 1873; J. S. Mill, State Interference with Church Property, in his Dissertations, 4 vols., London, 1873-75; J. Hergenrother. The Catholic Church and the Christian State, London, 1876; H. GefFcken, Church and State, their Relations historically Considered, 2 vols., London, 1877; M. Minghetti, Staat und Kirche, Gotha, 1881; F. Nippold, Die Theorie der Trennung von Kirche und Staat, Bern, 1881; P. Hinschius, Allgemeine Darstellung der Verhaltnisse von Staat und Kirche, Freiburg, 1883; A. P. Stanley, Essays chiefly on Questions of Church and State, London, 1884; De Gabriac, L'Eglise et I'etat, Paris, 1886; W. Armitage, Sketches of Church and State in the First Eight Centuries, London, 1888; P. Schaff, Church and State in the United Slates, New York, 1888; U. Balzani, The Popes and the Hohenstaufen, New York, 1889; A. T. Innes, Church and State, Edinburgh, 1890; C. Benoist, L'ttat et I'eglise, Paris, 1892; P. E. Lauer, Church and State in New England, Baltimore, 1892 (Johns Hopkins University Studies, 10 ser., nos. 2-3); K. Rieker, Die rechtliche Stellung der evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung, Leipsic, 1893; W. Kahl, Lehrsystem des Kirchenrechts und der Kirchenpolitik, i. 246 sqq., Freiburg, 1894; D. A. Wirgmann, The Church and the Civil Power, London, 1894; F. SatoUi, Loyalty to Church and State, Baltimore, 1895; W. D. and J. B. Johnston, Relations between Church and State, Ann Arbor, 1896-97; T. Mommsen, Romisches Strafrecht, Leipsic, 1899; T. Kaftan, Vier Kapitel von der Landeskirche, Sleswick, 1903; W. D. Abraham, Church and State in England, London, 1905; M. Lecomte, Rapport au scvnl sur le projet de loi concernant la separation des eglises et de I'etat, Paris, 1905; E. Troeltsch, in P. Hinneberg, Die Kultur der Gegenwart, I. iv., Leipsic, 1905; P Sabatier, A propos de la separation des eglises et de I'etat, Paris, 1906, Eng. transl.. Disestablishment in France, New York,
1906; W. Birney, France and the Pope; the Separation of the Churches and the French Republic, New York, 1907; A. Eitel, Der Kirchenstaat unter Klemens V., Berlin, 1907.
CHURCH TRIUMPHANT: 1. A church founded by a Mrs. Beekman (d. 1883), who claimed to be the " spiritual mother of Christ in the second coming " and declared George Jacob Schweinfurth the " Messiah of the New Dispensation." Mr. Schweinfurth left the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, became a follower of Mrs. Beekman, and subsequently the leader of her followers. Headquarters of the body were established at the Weldon Farm, six miles from Rockford, 111. The Church accepted the Bible as the word of God, but denied the essential divinity of Christ, holding that he received the spirit of God, became free from sin and its curse and so divine. Schweinfurth claimed equality with Jesus in this respect and was accepted as the " Christ of the second coming." The Church is now extinct, and when most flourishing numbered only twelve congregations with 384 communicants.
Bibliography: H. K. Carroll, Religious Forces of the United States, pp. 105-106, New York, 1896.
2. A religious and communistic society, having headquarters at Estero, Fla., foimded by Cyras F. Teed, and also known as the Koreshan Ecclesia. See Communism, II., 4.
CHURCH VISITATIONS: A method of ecclesiastical supervision of churches and church work. This institution has for its purpose the oversight of church government, and is a means of securing insight into, and of promoting, church life. As early as the fourth century it was the custom of the Eastern Church for the bishops or their deputies to visit the churches of the diocese. In the West also this visitation by the bishop dates from an early time. This institution was especially cultivated in the Frankish Church. There visitations took place when the bishop traversed his diocese to perform the lite of confirmation. Under Charlemagne the bishop was aided and controlled by the coimt or his mayor. They jointly held the synodal court (Sendgericht) , pimishing not only eccle- Early siastical offenses, but also sins like
Practise theft, perjury, sorcery, etc. The and Its decay of visitations in the following Decay, period was due to two causes : (1) the bishops were more and more estranged from their spiritual calling by becoming secular princes; (2) the custom of redemption — that is, exemption from penalties on payment of a sum of money — was introduced into the synodal courts, making them an important source of revenue. The Council of Trent ameliorated these conditions, and made it the duty of the bishops to visit their diocese either every year or every second year, according to its size.
Visitations became important again at the time of the Reformation. They were the means of carrying out the Reformation in individual territories. That in electoral Saxony became the model and basis of the others. The first impulse in this direction came not from Luther, but from Jacob Strauss in Eisenach (1625) and from Nicolaus