RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Liberty, Religious Lichtenberg-er, Frederic
In France Protestantism was again recognized by Louis XVI. in Nov., 1787, and two years later the French Revolution declared for entire liberty of worship, a position retained under Napoleon. As a result of the extension of this legislation to the German territories west of the Rhine which had come into the possession of France in exchange for districts east of the same river, religious toleration was granted to the Protestants in the archdiocese of Cologne and the dioceses of Minister and Paderborn. A like course was followed by Bavaria (Aug. 21, 1801), and by Cleve-Berg, the grand duchy of Frankfort, and the kingdom of Westphalia. But while the German Act of Confederation (Jan. 8, 1815) granted toleration to Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformed, it referred everything regarding the development, administration, and organic life of the Churches to special legislation. Accordingly, in the legislation of both Bavaria (May 26, 1818) and Baden (Aug. 22, 1818) the right of private worship was extended to others than members of the three great ecclesiastical bodies. The only further step now possible was the extension of this privilege to public worship; and this was granted by laws of Baden (Feb. 17, 1849) and Prussia (Jan. 31, 1850), these and similar laws following the Frankfort statutes of 1848. The last vestige of religious discrimination was removed by the law of the German Confederation of July 3, 1869, which granted complete civil equality to the various confessions.
Since the beginning of the nineteenth century the
German theory of the legal status of the Church
passed through the entire revolution possible from
the stage after bare existence. Begin-
5. Present ning with the exclusion of adherents
Legal of unfavored religious bodies from full
Status of civil rigiats, it advanced to the per-
Churches. mission of private worship, either without clergy (" simple ") or with them ("qualified"). The next step was the right to hold public worship, which was "private" when the religious community in question was not essentially privileged, and "public" when it was so privileged by the State. This later came to be construed as the granting of corporation-rights to a Church, which, in such States as Oldenburg, Waldeck, and Prussia, can be done only by the passage of a law, as was done in Prussia in 1874 and 1875, for example, for the Baptists and Mennonites. Religious communities can secure the rights of a corporation, unless objected to by the State, by being entered in the register kept by the local authorities; though where a special law is necessary for the acquisition of such rights, the need of such laws is not thereby abrogated. The Imperial Criminal Code (§ 166) grants any religious body with corporation-rights within the empire special protection against public insults to its institutions and usages; and special privileges are also accorded the clergy of such bodies. Since the Peace of Westphalia, therefore, toleration has been extended from the Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformed to all religions, so that the minimum accorded to any religious body is now " private " public worship.
The Roman Catholic Church maintains her pre- VI.— 31
Reformation attitude toward toleration by the State, as protested against both by the papal nuncio Chigi (Oct. 26, 1648) and the 6. Roman bull Zelo domus Dei (Nov. 20, 1648), Catholic on the ground that the State has no Attitude, authority to issue such regulations. Similar protests have repeatedly been made by the Curia, as by the briefs of Pius VII. against the toleration of Protestants in Bavaria (Feb. 13 and Nov. 19, 1803), the encyclicals Mirari vos of Gregory XVI. (Aug. 15, 1832), Pius IX. (Dec. 8, 1864), and Leo XIII. (Nov. 1, 1885). Nevertheless, this church does not condemn those who, for the promotion of great good or the avoidance of grave scandal, tolerate the existence of various cults in the State. At the same time she insists that no one may be forced to accept the faith against his will, although this is construed as applying to non-Christians, and not to baptized Protestants, the latter being regarded as heretics, and hence subject to compulsory conversion by the secular arm. Leo XIII., while maintaining this position, declared that a State tolerating heretics should not be incontinently condemned, but should be temporized with as circumstances should demand. The official Roman Catholic rejection of the principle of toleration accordingly remains unchanged in essence, and it is, therefore, her endeavor and hope that the State may some time be convinced of the justness of her attitude, and again adopt the policy of non-toleration.
(E. Friedberg.)
Bibliography: A large number of documents dealing with the progress of the idea in England are contained in Gee and Hardy, Documents. Consult: J. Locke, Three Letters on Toleration, reprint, London, 1S76 (on the act of 1689); J. Milton, Essay on Toleration, in his Works, 8 vols., London, 1867, etc.; J. L. Balmes, European Civilization; Protestantism and Catholicism, chaps, xxxiv.xxxvii., London, 1855 (Roman Catholic); A. Hess, Ueber religiose und sittliche Toleranz, St. Gall, 1884; P. Brooks, Tolerance, New York, 1887; E. Lefevre, La Liberie religieuse, Verviers, 1888; P. Schaff, Progress of Religious Freedom as Shown in the Hist, of Toleration Acts, New York, 1889; F. Hement, Entretiens sur la liberte de conscience, Paris, 1890; L. Marillier, La Liberte de conscience, ib. 1890; F. Pollock, Religious Equality, in Oxford Lectures, London, 1890; G. Canet, La Liberte de conscience, sa nature, son histoire, Lyon, 1891; H. Fiirstenau, Das Grundrecht der Religionsfreiheit, Leipsic, 1891; J. J. I. von Dollinger, in his Essays on Historical and Literary Subjects, London, 1894; M. Creighton, Persecution and Tolerance, ib. 1895; A. D. White, Hist, of the Warfare of Science and Theology, 2 vols., New York, 1896; F. M. Holland, Liberty in the 19th Century, ib. 1899; G. Bonet- Maury, Hist, de la liberte de conscience en France depuis I'edit di Nantes jusgu'au 1870, Paris, 1900; H. Hello, Les Libertes modernes d'apres les encycliques, ib. 1900; F. Ruffini, La liberta religiosa, Turin, 1900; R. Oertel, Entwickelung des Grundsatzes Gliiubigerbefriedigung, Leipsic, 1901; S. H. Cobb, Rise of Religious Liberty in America, New York, 1902; H. M. King, Religious Liberty, Providence, 1903; E. S. P. Haynes, Religious Persecution, London, 1904; A. Matagrin, Hist, de la tolerance religieuse, Paris, 1905; J. Mackinnon, A Hist, of Modern Liberty, vols, i.-iii., New York, 1906 sqq. (to be in 8 vols.); E. Rousse, La Liberte religieuse en France 1880-1894, Paris, 1904; Cambridge Modern History, v. 324 sqq.. New York, 1908; and the literature under the articles referred to in the text.
LICHTENBERGER, liH'ten-barg"er, FREDERIC AUGUSTE: French Protestant theologian; b. at Strasburg Mar. 21, 1832; d. at Paris Jan. 1, 1899.
Lichtenberg'er Liebner