THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
LOS VON ROM.
Origin of Movement (§ 1).
Austria (§ 2).
Germany and France (§ 3).
Other Countries (§ 4).
Influence of " Modernism " (§ 5).
One of the most interesting features of recent religious life has been the growing movement away from Rome which has taken place during the past half century. In the beginning of the i. Origin of nineteenth century it seemed to be un- Movement. questioned that the bounds of Protestantism and Romanism were finally settled and that a new Reformation was not to be looked for. But the middle of the century saw a great intellectual, political, and religious awakening which was destined to have unexpected results in the ecclesiastical world. It became impossible to maintain the persecuting laws against Protestants which characterized all Roman Catholic countries, and these laws gradually disappeared or were mitigated, and mission work began. These missions have been carried on with varying success, partly by the small native Protestant Churches, partly by missionary societies in England, America, and Germany. But the movement away from Rome has not been due entirely or even mainly to these missionary efforts. It has been due to movements of various kinds inside the Church of Rome itself. The growth of political liberty made men dissatisfied with the despotism of the Vatican; and as the middle of the last century was characterized in the political sphere by a fierce struggle between absolutism and democracy, so in the ecclesiastical world there was a similar struggle between ultramontanism and the desire for greater freedom and elasticity of organization. In the political world democracy triumphed, but in the ecclesiastical ultramontanism won the day, and the result of its victory was the Vatican Council and the decree of papal infallibility (see Vatican Council). Owing to the reluctance of Dollinger (q.v.) to create a schism and to the cowardice of some of the bishops who fought in the council against the decree, but accepted it when it had passed, the Old Catholic Church did not begin its career with numbers at all as large as were expected; but it has continued its course with a hopeful future in Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, and with a few followers in France, Italy, and Mexico. Its friendship for Protestantism has drawn it more and more away from the characteristic doctrines of Romanism, and in some places it serves as a temporary spiritual resting-place for those who are discontented with Rome, but not yet prepared for the decisive step of adopting a thoroughly Evangelical Protestantism. See Old Catholics.
A movement away from Rome which was at first
very promising, but in the end proved more or less
abortive, was that known as German Catholicism
(q.v.). The remains of this move-
2. Austria, ment are associated with the Union of
Free Religious Congregations. This
promising movement failed for want of a sufficiently
vital religious and Evangelical element and from
the excessive predominance of the political factor
(see Free Congregations in Germany). The German-speaking Roman Catholics, who furnished the greater part of these two movements, have recently given birth to a movement much more important than either of them, the " Los von Rom " movement in Austria. For a long time there has been a considerable alienation of both the German and Slav inhabitants of Austria from the Church of Rome and its services, but whether this would have led to a movement toward Protestantism and what form such a movement might have taken it is difficult to conjecture. The actual initiation of the movement toward Protestantism was due to a combination of racial and political influences which can only be referred to here. The war of 1866 with Prussia had transferred the leadership of the German states to that state, and eventually, after the defeat of France, had led to the formation of the German Empire, from which Austria was excluded. This loss of political position and power was keenly felt by the Austrian Germans, who saw themselves displaced by a new Protestant power from the position they had occupied for ages, and the explanation that forced itself on many minds was that Romanism had sapped the vigor of their race. Their resentment against Rome was intensified by the attitude Rome assumed in the racial struggles between Germans and Slavs. Having found France an ineffectual instrument for the promotion of its political aims, the Vatican began to throw its influence on the side of the Slavs against the Germans in order to build up a strong Slav Catholic power on which it could depend. Bitter anti- Roman political feeling was excited by this, and at length on Nov. 5, 1898, Schonerer, the leader of the German National Party, made an appeal for a secession from Rome, issuing the watchword by which it has been since known, " Los von Rom," i.e., Away from Rome, or Free from Rome. The movement has been pronounced purely a political maneuver, but this entirely misrepresents its character. The possibility of the political movement arose out of the religious dissatisfaction that existed, and many, even at the beginning, came out under the cover of the political passion of the moment, whose impelling motive was religious. The political element began rapidly to recede into the background, and after two or three years became entirely subordinate, till eventually it almost disappeared. In this transformation from the political to the religious a very deep influence has been exercised by the celebrated novelist Peter Rosegger, who has shown deep interest in the movement, though remaining nominally a Roman Catholic. The secessions have taken place almost entirely from the German-speaking portions of the population. Those who are most familiar with the Czech portions of Bohemia consider that the conditions exist for an important movement from Rome, but for the present the priests have succeeded in utilizing the strong racial hatred to prevent it by teaching their flocks that Protestantism is a German religion and to become Protestants is to be Germanized. The converts have joined one or other of the two Protestant confessions recognized by the government, the Augsburg or the