THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
churches might be dissolved, or that the State might annul the distinction between the acknowledged churches and the sects, and yet there might be communities which would have to be considered sects from the standpoint of the Church. The Evangelical Church of Germany claims privileges against the sects not so much by reason of its acknowledgment by the State as by being the national Church which for centuries has fostered and developed the religious and ethical ideals of the people. A church community might perhaps be designated most aptly by the name of sect where the exclusive or Donatistic conception of the Church forms the leading idea; where the demand to represent the communion of saints puts into the background the catholicity of the Church; where the national Church is considered more or less as a Babel from ■which one must separate himself; and where the historical development of the Church is treated with little consideration.
The communities which exist in Germany beside the Evangelical state churches or have existed there temporarily fall into very different groups. First must be mentioned those which were received into Germany because of persecution in other countries and subsequently were al- 2. Different lowed to establish their own forms of Classes of worship. To this category belong, Non-estab- among others, the Walloons and French lished from the territory of Calvinism, the Bo- Churches, hemian Brethren, the Waldenses, and especially the Mennonites. Communities of this kind have been gradually brought into friendly relations with the state churches. From the standpoint of church feeling and sentiment even the Mennonites, who remained isolated, can hardly be considered sects, because their communities are not separations from the German Evangelical Churches and they have never attempted to proselyte from those Churches. In like manner the congregations of foreigners, such as English and Americans in Berlin and other cities, can not be considered sects. Separations from a state church constitute a second group. Such separations have originated because a minority did not approve of changes in the constitution and rites of a particular State Church (e.g., the Old Lutherans or Separated Lutherans in Prussia; see Lutherans; Prussia). Such separations concern an entire church body. But there are also separations of a local and ephemeral character, as when a clergyman falls into conflict with his church authorities and carries a part of his congregation with him in the organization of a new church. It is a disputable question in how far such separations come under the conception of " sect." It is to be considered whether the separatists were justified in their opposition, which may have been against progress in the Church ; whether their conception of the Church has experienced a change in the direction of Donatism; whether after separation they are still able to take part in the spiritual development of Evangelical theology or isolate themselves theologically and thus become sectarian.
A third group of separate congregations, which are undoubtedly " sects," has originated in Ger-
many by the invasion of Anglo-American Christianity. Here we have to do not with separations based on the internal history of the churches of the German Reformation, but with representatives of another conception of churchdom, of other views concerning the way of salvation, and other ideals of piety. They have come over to Germany considering the German churches as a missionary field. Herein lies the real danger of sectarianism for the German churches — a danger of a twofold kind, because, in the first place, the German churches are deprived of zealous and active members; in the second place, the invasion of foreign ideas produces a foreign spirit in the national churches and exercises a disintegrating effect upon them.
The reasons for the estrangement of Germans from their mother church must not be sought primarily in sectarian teachings themselves. The attraction of sectarianism lies deeper. There is a wide variance between the religious ideal of the church and the actual condition of the congregations. The sect allures above all the active, working members by proposing to them a community of none but living Christians. Herein, in the compact spiritual community which it offers, lies the chief power of attraction exercised by a sect. Other reasons for separation are the craze for religious fads; spiritual haughtiness, which feels itself elevated above the duly appointed authorities; ambition; impatience and dislike of the dependence of the Church upon the State or of the " scientific theology " taught to the clergy by the universities.
The constitutional law of the State in regard to
sects has undergone various changes since the
Religious Peace of Augsburg and the
3. Attitude Peace of Westphalia. By the former
of the State only Roman Catholics and adherents
Toward of the Augsburg Confession received Sects. recognition by the State; in 1648 the Reformed were also recognized. These three churches still enjoy special privileges. The State supports them, considers their spiritual offices as public offices, and provides theological faculties for the education of their clergy. Of other communities only the Jews were to be tolerated, but exceptions have been made. The Bohemian Brethren were received in Brandenburg, Prussia, in 1548, and the Mennonites in 1722. The French Reformed were granted privileges in 1639, 1685, and 1694. Frederick II. tolerated Moravians, Schwenkfelders, and even Socinians. In 1847 a law was passed empowering local courts to attest births, marriages, and deaths of " tolerated " communities that previously had been required to report them to the preachers of the parishes in which they lived for entry in the parish registers. A constitutional document of 1848 (revised 1850) made the enjoyment of civil and political rights independent of religious confession, but with the proviso that religious communities without corporative rights could obtain them only by special laws. Such rights were obtained by the Mennonites in 1874, and by the Baptists in 1875. The legal status of sects has been further alleviated by the introduction of civil register-offices and obligatory civil marriage (1874 for Prussia, 1875 for the empire).