THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
German Catholic council and the third synod of the
free Protestant congregations met in Leipsic for
negotiations with each other. There
4. Absorp- were here represented about 100 Gertion by the man Catholic congregations and about Free Prot- thirty free Protestant ones. The reestant Con- suit was the formation of the " Regregations. ligious Society of Free Congregations "
(Religionsgesellschaft freier Gemeinden), which means that the German Catholic congregations gave up their Roman Catholic character and their creed and melted away in the Protestant free religious movement. This union was the end of German Catholicism as an independent party building upon Catholic foundations; the confessional element, which had hitherto still persisted in it though in a weakened form, was sacrified in the interests of the more highly valued element of freedom.
This union was not adopted without objections in the meeting, and not all the congregations accepted it. There still exist to-day in the Kingdom of Saxony several German Catholic congregations comprising more than three thousand persons; that at Leipsic shows a vigorous increase (1866, 407 persons, 1903 almost 1,400). It can not be determined how many of the free congregations outside Saxony may still be counted as German Catholic; their names are too indefinite. In general it may be said that the title of " German Catholic " is used at present by the congregations of Western and Southern Germany belonging to the League of Free Religious Congregations. In isolated instances there occur titles like " Christian Catholic " (Christkatholisch), " Free Christian " (Frei-christlich) , and even the name " Free Evangelical Catholic " (Frei evangelisch-katholisch) is found in Konigsberg, as an attempt to express absolute superiority to confessionalism. According to a list of the League of Free Religious Congregations (Bund freireligioser Gemeinden) of 1896, fifty-nine congregations belonged at that time, fourteen of them mentioning in their self-chosen title their relationship to Catholicism.
Within German Catholicism Czerski tried at the start to maintain connection with churchly Christianity, but he was not able to make his influence felt alongside that of Ronge. From objecting to
compulsory dogmas they went on
5. Reasons apace to thrusting all dogmas aside,
for and so to a breach with the Christian
Failure, faith, both Roman Catholic and Protestant. Many who had joined the movement at the start because they hoped from it a purification and reformation of the Roman Church, now withdrew; such were Anton Theiner, professor of Catholic theology, and M. E. Regenbrecht, professor of canon law, both in Breslau. Very soon it became evident that Ronge merely had the ability to summon to the first attack on the Roman Church and to stir up the masses as an agitator, but that he did not have the power of founding a new Church. His lack of capacity was soon recognized even by those of his own party; he died in Vienna Oct. 26, 1887, a forgotten man. Czerski had long been of no public significance when death reached him Dec. 22, 1893.
At the start German Catholicism was not without certain prospects, for it voiced demands and represented ideas which corresponded to the mood of the times and contained much that was good. But that which Ronge and Czerski lacked was that wherein the entire movement was deficient, viz., the power to proceed from negative criticism of the faults of the Roman Church to the formation of a purer Catholic Church. This impotence was rooted in the lack of religious productivity. The German Catholic movement brought forth not a single personality able to lead others as a prophet. Though it may also be granted that persecution by the civil power was not without influence on the decline of the movement, nevertheless in the last analysis, the decisive reasons for failure lie in its own make-up. For but a few years it was a danger to the Roman Church; after it had amalgamated with the free Protestant congregations, it needed no longer to be feared. Carl Mirbt.
Bibliography: F. Kampe, Geschichle der religiosen Bewegung der neuern Zeit, 4 vols., Leipsic, 1852-60; idem. Das Wesen des Deutschkatholicismus, Tubingen, 1850; H. Schmid, Geschichte der katholischen Kirche Deutschlands von der Mitte des 18. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1874; H. Bruck, Geschichte der katholischen Kirche im 19. Jahrhundert, ii. 525 sqq., Miinster, 1903; G. Tschirn, Zur 60-jdhrigen Geschichte der freireligiosen Bewegung, Bamberg, 1904. For review of literature consult Jenaische allgemeine Litteraturzeitung, 1846-47; T. Bruns in C. Hafner, Neues Repertorium fur die theologische Litteratur und kirchliche Statistik, vol. v., 1846.