The Old Catholic movement in Switzerland is more radical and political than the German, and bears a similar relation to it as the Zwinglian Reformation does to the Lutheran. Edward Herzog, an able and worthy priest of Olten, was elected first bishop by the Swiss Synod, and consecrated by Bishop Reinkens at Rheinfelden, Sept. 18, 1876.
[362] Dr. John Jos. Ignat. von Döllinger, of Munich (born 1799), the Nestor of Old Catholicism, is the author of an unfinished Church History (Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, Regensburg, second edition, 1843, to Leo X.), a polemic work against the Reformation (Die Reformation, ihre innere Entwickelung und ihre Wirkungen, 1846-48, 3 vols.), a Sketch of Luther (1851), Judaism and Heathenism in Relation to Christianity (1857), The Church and the Churches (1860), Fables of Popes and Prophecies of the Middle Ages (1863; English translation, with a Preface by Prof. Henry B. Smith, New York, 1872), and a number of essays and pamphlets. He also edited the miscellaneous writings of Möhler, after whose death he was regarded as the foremost Roman Catholic Church historian. Since his excommunication he delivered, in the great hall of the Museum at Munich, seven interesting lectures On the Reunion of the Churches (English translation, with Preface by H. N. Oxenham, of Oxford; republished, New York, 1872). He was Rector of the University of Munich during its Jubilee year, 1871-72, and at the celebration of the Jubilee, in July, 1872, he acquitted himself with marked ability and scholarly dignity, and received from the University, the King of Bavaria, and foreign scholars, the highest honors.
[Döllinger, d. 1890, unreconciled to the papal government. For his later judgment on Luther and the Prot. Reformation, see his Akad. Vortr. I., 76, and Schaff: Our Fathers' Faith and Ours, pp. 108, 635. Works not given above: Beiträge zur Sektengesch. des M. A., 1890, Akad. Vorträge, 3 vols., pp. 188-91, and, in connection with Prof. Reusch, Selbstbiographie des Kard. Bellarmin, 1887.--Ed.]
[363] Formerly Catholic Professor of Church History in the University of Breslau, now Bishop of the Old Catholic Church in Germany. He resides at Bonn, and is a gentleman of great popular eloquence and winning manners.
[364] Professor of Church History in Munich, editor of the Documenta ad illustrandum Conc. Vaticanum (2 vols.), and of the Diary (Tagebuch während des Vatic. Concils), which gives an inside view of the Council from his intimate connection with members.
[365] Professor of Philosophy at Munich, and author of works on the Philosophy of the Fathers, on Jesuitism, and against the last book of Strauss on The Old and New Faith.
[366] Formerly professor at Braunsberg, and once Catholic member of the Prussian Chamber of Deputies, now pastor of the Old Catholic congregation at Zurich, an elderly gentleman of much learning and eloquence.
[367] Professor of Theology in Bonn, editor of the literary organ of the Old Catholics, and Acting Secretary of Bishop Reinkens.
[368] Likewise Professor of Theology in Bonn, and author of a learned work on the Vatican decrees examined in the light of Catholic tradition (1873).
[369] The first canonist of Europe, the lay leader of Old Catholicism, and able president of its Congresses, formerly Professor of Canon Law in Prague, now in the University of Bonn. Before the Council he received many letters and tokens of respect from Pope Pius IX.
[370] Born at Orleans, 1827, priest and monk of the order of the Carmelites, formerly esteemed the most eloquent preacher in France. He broke with his order and with Rome in 1869, and is now settled at Geneva as pastor of an Old Catholic congregation. His marriage to an American widow (1872) created almost as much sensation as Luther's marriage to a nun. He has recently withdrawn from state control, and established an independent Church (1874).
[371] The German origin of the movement operates against it in France, which, with all its Gallican traditions, has, for political reasons, since the war of 1870, become more Romish than it ever was before. When Völk, at the Old Catholic Congress in Constance, alluded to the uprising of the Deutschthum versus the Welschthum, and the intrigues of French Jesuits, Hyacinthe and Pressensé left the hall. Yet the Old Catholic priests, who were elected pastors of Geneva by the Catholic part of the population in October, 1873--Loyson, Hurtault, and Charard--are all Frenchmen. Once more Geneva seems to become the centre and starting-point of a new reformation, which sooner or later will react upon France. Abbé Michaud, formerly of the Madeleine in Paris, so far is the only prominent Old Catholic in France. Among the Irish Catholics there is not the least indication of sympathy with Old Catholicism, not even in free America. Spain and Italy ought to sympathize with it, for the Pope is the implacable enemy of Italian unity and the Spanish republic; but they have kept aloof so far from any progressive religious movement; and Spain has once more surrendered herself to the rule of a Bourbon and the Pope (1875). In England, the famous pamphlet of Gladstone on the Vatican Decrees (1874) has brought to light the Old Catholic sympathies of Lord Acton and other prominent English Catholics.
[372] When in Cologne, July, 1873, I asked a domestic of one of the first hotels where the Old Catholics worshiped. He promptly replied, 'You mean the New Protestants. I have nothing to do with sects; I am a true Catholic, and mean to die one.' This seemed to me characteristic of the popular feeling in Cologne. The Dome was well filled with worshipers all Sunday, while the Old Catholics had a small though intelligent and respectable congregation in the Garrison Church, and in the small chapel at the City Hall. Dr. Tangermann read Latin mass like a Romish priest, but preached an evangelical sermon in German which would do credit to any Protestant pastor.
[373] The following is the memorable protest of this aged divine, which reminds one of Luther's more bold and defiant refusal at Worms to recant his writings unless convicted of error from Scripture and reason: 'Als Christ, als Theologe, als Geschichtskundiger, als Bürger kann ich diese Lehre nicht annehmen. Nicht als Christ: denn sie ist unverträglich mit dem Geiste des Evangeliums and mit den klaren Aussprüchen Christi und der Apostel; sie will gerade das Imperium dieser Welt aufrichten, welches Christus ablehnte, will die Herrschaft über die Gemeinden, welche Petrus allen und sich selbst verbot. Nicht als Theologe: denn die gesammte echte Tradition der Kirche steht ihr unversöhnlich entgegen. Nicht als Geschichtskenner kann ich sie annehmen, denn als solcher weiss ich, dass das beharrliche Streben, diese Theorie der Weltherrschaft zu verwirklichen, Europa Ströme van Blut gekostet, ganze Länder vewirrt und heruntergebracht, den schönen organischen Verfassungsbau der älteren Kirche zerrüttet und die ärgsten Missbräuche in der Kirche erzeugt, genährt und festgehalten hat. Als Bürger endlich muss ich sie von mir weisen, well sie mit ihren Ansprüchen auf Unterwerfung der Staaten und Monarchen und der ganzen politischen Ordnung unter die päpstliche Gewalt und durch die eximirte Stellung, welche sie für den Klerus fordert, den Grund legt zu endloser verderblicher Zwietracht zwischen Staat und Kirche, zwischen Geistlichen und Laien. Denn das kann ich mir nicht verbergen, dass diese Lehre, an deren Folgen das alte deutsche Reich zu Grunde gegangen ist, falls sie bei dem katholischen Theil der deutschen Nation herrschend würde, sofort auch den Keim eines unheilbaren Siechthums in das eben erbaute neue 'Reich verpflanzen würde.'--J. von Döllinger's Erklärung an den Erzbishof von München-Freising, München, 1871, p. 17 sq.
[374] 'Crimen hæreseos externæ et formalis.'
[375] In his Pastoral Letter, Bishop Reinkens disclaims all hierarchical ambition, vain show, and display, and promises to exercise his office in the spirit of apostolic simplicity as a pastor of the flock. He lays great stress on the primitive Catholic mode of his election by the clergy and the people, as contrasted with the modern election by the Pope. He claims to stand in the rank of Cyprian, Hilary, Ambrose, Augustine, and those thousands of Bishops who never were elected by the Pope, or were even known to the Pope, and yet are recognized as truly Catholic Bishops. Consecration by one Bishop is canonically valid, though two or more assistant Bishops are usually present. The late Archbishop Loos of Utrecht would have performed the act, had he not died a few months before. Rome, of course, considers this election and consecration by excommunicated priests as a mere farce and a damnable rebellion. See the Pope's Encyclical of Nov. 21, 1872, quoted below.
[376] See the Entwurf einer Synodal- und Gemeinde-Ordnung, Sect. III. §§ 13 and 14: 'In der Leitung des altkatholischen Gemeinwesens steht dem Bischof eine von der Synode gewählte Synodal-Repräsentanz zur Seite. Die Synodal-Repräsentanz besteht aus vier Geistlichen und fünf Laien.'
[377] Their original programme, adopted at the first Congress at Munich, September 21, 1871, probably drawn up by Döllinger, was very conservative, and included the following articles:
1. We hold fast to the Catholic faith as certified by Scriptures and tradition, and also to the Old Catholic worship. We reject from this stand-point the new dogmas enacted under the pontificate of Pius IX., especially that regarding the infallibility and supreme ordinary and immediate jurisdiction of the Pope.
2. We hold fast to the old constitution of the Church, and reject every attempt to deprive the Bishops of their diocesan independence. We acknowledge the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, on the ground of the Fathers and Councils of the undivided Church of antiquity; but we deny the right of the Pope to define any article of faith, except in agreement with the holy Scriptures and the ancient and unanimous tradition of the Church.
3. We aim at a reformation of various abuses of the Church, and a restoration of the rights of the laity in ecclesiastical affairs.
4. We hope for a reunion with the Greek and Orthodox Russian Church, and for an ultimate fraternal understanding with the other Christian confessions, especially the Episcopal churches of England and America.
[378] I give a few extracts from this address, which was delivered in the famous Council Hall of Constance, and received with great applause by the crowded assembly: 'The holy Scripture is the reflection of the sun of righteousness which appeared in Jesus Christ our Lord. I say, therefore, Read the holy Scriptures. I say more: For the Old Catholics who intrust themselves to my episcopal direction, there exists no prohibition of the reading of the Bible. . . . Let nothing hinder you from approaching the Gospel, that you may hear the voice of the Bridegroom (John iii. 29). Listen to his voice, and remember that, as the flower turns to the light, and never unfolds all its splendor and beauty except by constantly turning to the light of the sun, thus also the Christian's soul can not represent the full beauty and glory of its divine likeness except by constantly turning to this Gospel, in the rays of which its own fire is kindled. . . . Do not read the Scriptures from curiosity, to find things which are not to be revealed in this world; nor presumptuously, to brood over things which can not be explained by men; nor for the sake of controversy, to refute others; but read the Scriptures to enter into the most intimate communion with God, so that you may be able to say, Nothing shall separate me from the love of Christ. . . . It is not sufficient to have the Bible in every house, and to read it at certain hours in a formal and fragmentary manner, but it ought to be the light of the soul, to which it turns again and again. I repeat it once more: For the Old Catholics, no injunction exists against reading the Bible. On the contrary, I admonish you most earnestly: Read again and again in this holy book, sitting down in humility and joy at the feet of the Lord, for He alone has words of eternal life.'