Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/155

 COLOGNE

119

COLOGNK

archbishops was not always fortunate. By their alli- ance with France, especially during the Spanish and Austrian Wars of Succession, they furthered the polit- ical dissolution of the old German Empire (begun in the Thirty Years War) and encouraged the anti-Haps- burg policy of France which aimed at the final over- throw of the German imperial power. Similarly, their friendly relations to France favoured the introduction of rationalism into Cologne. This spirit of opposition to the Church and to the authority of the popes had a still stronger hold upon Archbishop Maximilian Freil- erick of Konigseck (1761-84). In 1771 he founded an academy at Bonn in opposition to the loyal Cath- olic University of Cologne, and in 1781 issued in fav- our of the new academy an order according to which attendance at the University of Cologne was punished by inability to hold any office, either ecclesiastical or civil, in the diocese. The last Elector of Cologne, Maximilian Francis of Austria (1785-1801), took part in the anti-papal Congress of Ems (q. v.), nominated Eulogius Schneider as professor in the Academy of Bonn, which he raised to the rank of a University in 1786, and instituted reforms similar to those enacted by his brother, the Emperor Joseph II, in Austria. As brother of Marie Antoinette, he was at first opposed to the French Revolution, but soon adopted a policy of inactivity which ultimately resulted in the loss of independence both by the city and the electorate. At the approach of the victorious French army the elector left his residence at Bopn. never to see it again. The French entered Cologne, 26 October, 1794, and Bonn, 8 November. The conquered territory be- tween the Meuse, the Rhine, and the Moselle was di- vided into four departments governed by a civil com- missioner at Mainz, and incorporated with France by the Peace of Luneville in 1801. In 1796 all the ecclesi- astical property in the part of the archdiocese held by the French was seized by the civil authority; in 1802 all religious orders and congregations were suppressed and their property confiscated. By the Concordat of 1801 between the Apostolic See and Napoleon I, nearly all of the former archdiocese on the left bank of the Rhine was given to the newly founded See of Aachen (q. v.). The old ecclesiastical organization remained imdisturbed in the archdiocesan territory on the right bank of the Rhine. After the death of Maximilian Francis (1801), the cathedral chapter, which had taken refuge in Arnsberg, chose the Aus- trian Archduke Anthony as his successor, but he never occupied his see, owing to Prussian opposition. In 180.3 the remainder of the electorate was secularized, an inglorious end for the ancient Archbishopric of Cologne. The loss to the Catholic Church in Ger- many was great. The archbishopric, i. e. the territory in which the archbishop was also temporal ruler, in- cluded in its Rhenish territory alone (without West^ phalia) 60 square miles and about 199,000 inhabi- tants (in 1797), of whom 180,000 were on the left bank of the Rhine.

In 1750 the archdiocese contained 860 pari.shes with as many parish churches, 300 benefices, 400 chapels, 42 collegiate chapters, 21 abbeys (10 Benedictine, 4 Premonstratensian, 7 Cistercian), 5 Benedictine pro- vostships, 18 Minorite and 24 Franciscan monas- teries, 2 Franciscan houses of the Third Order. There were also 20 Capuchin houses, 6 Dominican, 3 Car- thusian. 11 Augustinian, 8 of Knights of the Cross, 9 Jesuit (suppressed m 1773), 2 Servite, and 2 Alexian. The Brothers of Saint Anthony, the Carmelites, the Zionites, the Brothers of Saint Martin had each one house. There were five establishments of the Teu- tonic Order and nine of the Knights of Malta. The female orders had a total of 146 nunneries (see below, Mooren. II, 426 sqq.). The lo.ss in costly gold and silver church plate, vestments and the treasures of the libraries and archives, is incalculable. When the dis- orders of the Napoleonic regime had passed, the arch-

diocese was re-established by Pius VII. Its territory had previously been made a part of Prussia by the Congress of Vienna, in 1815. On 16 July, 1821, by the Bull "De Salute animarum" the Archdiocese of Aachen was abolished, the church of St. Peter in Co- logne was again made a metropolitan church, and the territories of the Archdiocese of Cologne defined anew, with its present boundaries, except for a few unim- portant changes. It then included 44 deaneries and Ctfir, parishes (5.36 on the left bank of the Rhine and 140 on the right bank). On the 20th of December,

1824, Ferdinand August von Spiegel was named by the pope as the first archbishop of the new see; on 20 May,

1825, he took charge of the ecclesiastical govern- ment, which had been carried on by the vicar capit- ular, Johann Hermann Joseph von Caspars zu Weiss, from 1801 till his death (1822), and after that time by Prothonotary Johann WilhelmSchmitz. Archbishop von Spiegel's administration (1824-35) was in many ways beneficial. He alleviated many evils which had crept in during the previous years and made serious efforts for the education of the clergy and for the re- organization of his diocese; nevertheless, he was too subservient to the Prussian Government, and entered into a secret agreement with it in regard to mixed marriages, contrary to the spirit of the ecclesiastical marriage laws. His successor, Clemens Augustus, Freiherr von Droste zu Vischering, who vigorously opposed the spread of the Hermesian heresy, soon came into conflict with the Prussian Government on the question of mixed marriages, as a result of which he ^.as taken prisoner, 20 November, 1837, and con- fined in the castle of Minden. This event caused great excitement throughout Germany, and helped to revive the religious life and activity of the German Catholics. \\'hen Frederick William IV came to the throne, the archbishop resigned his office in favour of his coadjutor, Johann von GeLssel (q. v.), BLshop of Speyer. As archbishop (1845-64), he displayed a most auspicious acti\'ity and infused fresh religious vigour into his diocese. Great injury was done the Church of Cologne by the Prussian Kulturknmpf. During its course Archbishop Paul Melchers (1866- 85) was imprisoned by the Government in 1874 (till 9 October), and then was forced to leave his diocese. The number of priests fell from 1947 to about 1500, and many parishes remained for years without a priest. After the conclusion of peace between Rome and Prussia, Archbishop Melchers abdicated his see. His successors, Philip Krementz (1885-99; cardinal, 1893), Hubert Simar ( 1899-1902), and Anton Fischer (since 6 November, 1902; cardinal since 22 June, 1903) devoted themselves to repairing the evil done by the Kulturkampj and developing to a prosper- ous state the religious and ecclesiastical life of the diocese.

Statistics. — The Archdiocese of Cologne includes the Prussian administrative districts of Cologne and Aachen, the greater part of the district of Diisseldorf and small portions of the distri(^ts of Coblenz, Trier, and Arnsberg, altogether, 4219 square miles, with about 2,700,000 Catholics (census of 1 December, 1900, 2,522.648). The parishes in 1907 numbered 917, with 51 deaneries; the priests included 1934 secu- lar priests (of whom 214 were stationed in the cathe- dral city), 208 regulars, and about 60 priests from other dioceses. The metropolitan chapter consists of 1 cathedral provost (Domprolnst), 1 cathedral dean {Dnnulechant), 10 residential, and 4 honorary canons. The archbishop is chosen by the cathedral chapter, the Bishops of Trier, Miinster, and Paderborn are his suffragans. Within the city of Cologne there are 39 parishes and 3 military churches grouped in two dean- eries. In addition to the cathedral chapter there is a collegiate chapter at Aachen (q. v.). The educa- tional institutions under ecclesiastical control include the archiepiscopal seminary for priests at Cologne,