RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
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ment the desired complete freedom, and gained for it, at the outset, a large increase. New congregations arose in the Province of Saxony, in the Province of Brandenburg, in Brunswick, in the Anhalt duchies, in the kingdom of Saxony, in Silesia, East and West Prussia, in Nassau, Hesse Darmstadt, and elsewhere; all told there were more than seventy new establishments. At their height, the total number of German Catholics and " Free Protestants " in Germany — who are not subject to separate enumeration — amounted to approximately 150,000.
But from 1850 forward, the German governments once again confronted the free religious movement in a hostile spirit. The most pronounced complaints, on the side of the Free Congregations, were proffered against the government in Prussia. A circular of the Minister of the Interior, Sept. 29, 1851, declared that the dissenting associations were not simply religious societies, but rather political unions, furthering the subversion of the civil and social order; and that by reason of insight into the proper nature of these societies, it had grown to be the peremptory duty of the State Government to oppose them with every legitimate agency. It was only when Prince William of Prussia, later King William I., assumed the regency, in Oct., 1858, that the free operation of their principles was finally secured them.
On June 16 and 17, 1859, a large contingent of the German Catholic and Free Protestant congregations united in the Bund freireligioser Gemeinden (" Federation of Free Religious Congregations "). According to the latest revision of 3. The Free the Constitution (1899), the funda- Congrega- mental principle of the Federation is tions Since " free determination of the individual 1858. in all religious affairs according to his own advancing knowledge "; its object: " advancement of religious life independently of dogma." Since 1877, a federate convention has been held biennially. At present the entire Federation comprises probably some 22,000 souls. The largest congregations are in Berlin, Mannheim, Offenbach, and Magdeburg. The contemporary Free Congregations are unanimous in disclaiming all religion cultivated by the churches as being that of a petrified dogma-creed, but unanimous only in this negation. Indeed, a positive expression of what the advocates of free religion understand by religion can hardly be attempted, since by that very process the freedom of independent determination would be invaded, and a relapse into " confessionalism " would come to pass. But the practical problems of religious instruction, preaching, propaganda, etc., tend to press the issue in the direction of set standards of procedure. In the face of this dilemma, a varying attitude is adopted. The East Prussians, the " Konigsbergers," represent the right wing within the Free Congregations; they still maintain remnants of church ideas, and religious instruction is still imparted by them in connection with the Bible. The " Nuremberg tendency " represents the opposite extreme, and stands outright upon the basis of naturalism and atheism. The center is occupied by
the " South German " group, which perceives in Jesus an ethical prototype. Public worship holds only a very subordinate and accessory position. Established and generally valid forms of worship are altogether wanting; in this matter the separate congregations have their hands quite free. The Lord's Supper is still solemnized at a good many places. For baptism there had been substituted even as early as the sixties the so-called Kindesweihe (" infant consecration "). Since then, however, it would appear to have gone out of observance entirely. Confirmation takes place in all congregations; that is, Jugendweihe (" consecration of youth "), which terminates the religious instruction that begins for the most part in the ninth year of age. The movement was only transiently a momentous force in the church life of Germany; nor did it owe even this transient significance at any time to great performances, but essentially to the circumstance that people imputed great things to it, and hoped or feared them.
Carl Miebt.
Bibliography: F. Kampe, Oeschichte der religiosen Bewegung der neueren Zeit, 4 vols., Leipsic, 1852-60; Drews, in Zeitschrift fur Theologie und Kirche, xi. 6 (1901), 484- 527; G. Tschirm, Zur 60jahrigen Geschichte der freireligiosen Bewegung, Bamberg, 1904; F. Nippold, Handbuch derneuesten Kirchengeschichte, v. § 18, Leipsic, 1906.
FREEDOM OF THE WILL. See Will.
FREEMAN, JAMES: Pastor of the first Unitarian Church in America; b. at Charlestown, Mass., Apr. 22, 1759; d. at Newton, Mass., Nov. 14, 1835. He was educated in the public Latin school, Boston, and at Harvard College (B.A., 1777; D.D., 1811). After his graduation from college he went to Cape Cod and drilled a company of recruits for the colonial army. In 1780 he visited Quebec, where he was arrested and held till 1782. He then returned to Boston, became lay reader at King's Chapel in 1782, and pastor in 1783, but with the stipulation that he might omit the Athanasian Creed from the service. Having become a Unitarian in his views, he openly renounced the doctrine of the trinity, and in 1785 induced his church to change its liturgy, thus converting the first Episcopal Church in New England into the first Unitarian Church in America. On being refused ordination by Bishop Provost he was ordained by his own people, Nov. 18, 1787 He remained pastor of the church till 1827, though in 1826 he gave up his pastoral duties to his colleague, Francis W P Greenwood, and retired to a country residence near Boston. He published Sermons and Addresses (Boston, 1832), and made many contributions to periodical literature, and to the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, of which he was one of the founders.
Bibliography: W Ware, American Unitarian Biography, 2 vols., Boston, 1850-51; W. B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, viii. 162, 9 vols., New York, 1865-73; J. H. Allen, in American Church Hist. Series, x. 185-186, ib. 1894.
FREEMASONS : The name of the members of a well-known secret society, derived from those medieval stonemasons who were allowed to migrate
Freemasons Free Spirit