Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/624

 610 OLD CATHOLICS church ; that they hope for a thorough reform of the constitution and life of the church, in which every civilized Catholic nation should constitute, in accordance with its peculiar character and mission, a free member, in which clergy and laity should harmoniously cooperate for developing the church life, and which by a thoroughly educated episcopacy and primacy should again be placed at the head of civilization. The declaration was signed by 31 prominent Old Catholics. A general Old Catholic congress met at Munich on Sept. 22, composed of about 300 delegates, representing all parts of Germany, the Austro- Hungarian monarchy, and Switzerland, and of friends of the cause from Holland, France, England, Kussia, and other countries. Reso- lutions defining at length the profession of faith of the Old Catholics were adopted. This profession reasserts the claim of the Old Cath- olics to be regarded as members of the Cath- olic church ; it not only rejects the Vatican de- crees, but also claims for oacumenical councils infallibility only if their decisions agree with the original and traditional faith of the church as witnessed by the faith of the people and by theological science. It declares that there is no difference between the church of Utrecht (the so-called Jansenists) and the Old Cath- olics, and expresses a hope for a reunion with the Greek oriental and the Russian church, as the separation was not grounded in any insu- perable dogmatical difference. Dr. Dollinger expressed a wish that the Old Catholics might keep strictly within the bounds of a protest against the obligatory character of the Vati- can council, and that they be not organized into a separate church ; but it was almost unanimously resolved to carry through an or- ganized Catholic movement. As none of the Roman Catholic bishops of Germany had iden- tified themselves with the movement, and the Old Catholics were as yet without a bishop of their own, the congregations of Bavaria in 1872 applied to the archbishop of the Old Catholic church of Holland for the sacrament of confirmation. The request was complied with, and thus the entire identity of the Old Catholic churches of Holland and Germany was estab- lished. At the second Old Catholic congress, held in Cologne in September, 1872, a plan for definitive organization was adopted. It was provided that as long as the Old Catholic church had no bishop of her own, the bishops of the Old Catholic church of Holland, and those bishops of the United Armenian church who occupied a similar position with regard to the pope, should be requested to perform epis- copal functions for them. But at the same time the congress declared that the Old Cath- olics reserved to themselves the right of re- establishing a regular episcopal jurisdiction by the election of bishops, who should be chosen by the priests and the representatives of the congregations, and who were at the beginning to labor like the missionary bishops of the an- cient church. A special committee was ap- pointed, with Dr. Dollinger as chairman, to promote intercommunion with other churches, especially with the Eastern and Anglican, both of which were represented at this congress. The congress also reiterated the claim of the Old Catholics to be recognized by the state governments as the sole representatives of the Catholic church of Germany, and to be put in possession of the church property. This claim the governments of Germany, though strongly sympathizing with the movement, found it im- possible to grant, in view of the comparative- ly small number of Old Catholics; and they adopted the policy of considering the move- ment as a conflict within the church, which did not concern the state. Accordingly they treat- ed both parties as belonging to the Catholic church, and in several towns, especially in the grand duchy of Baden, a vote of the Catholic inhabitants w.as taken to ascertain the strength of each party ; and where the number of Old Catholics was sufficiently large, one of the churches, or the joint use of one church, was given to them. The organization of the Old Catholic church as an independent body was completed by the election of a bishop on June 4, 1873, at Cologne. The choice fell almost unan- imously on Dr. Reinkens, professor of theol- ogy in the university of Breslau, who on Aug. 11 was consecrated at Rotterdam by Bishop Heykamp of Deventer, of the Old Catholic church of Holland. The most important work done by the third Old Catholic congress, held at Constance, Sept. 12 and 13, was the adop- tion of a synodal constitution of the church, which in many points resembles that of the Protestant Episcopal church in the United States. The diocesan, provincial, and general synods of the Old Catholics will consist of the priests and lay delegates of the congregations, each lay delegate representing 200 constituents. The first synod of the church met at Bonn on May 27, 1874, and was attended by 28 priests and 60 lay delegates. The three congresses had declared themselves incompetent to deal with the demands for doctrinal and constitu- tional changes; the same had been done by the bishop ; and the action of priests who, like Father Hyacinthe, had married without waiting for the abolition of celibacy by proper ecclesi- astical authority, had been disapproved. There was a unanimous sentiment that whatever re- forms it might appear desirable to introduce must proceed from the synod of the church. Among the subjects which engaged the at- tention of the first synod were auricular con- fession, fasting and abstinence, the marriage laws, and priestly celibacy. The synod re- solved that the practice of private confession should be retained, but that it should be brought back to the principles of the ancient church, and be freed from the Roman corrup- tions. Similar resolutions were passed with regard to fasting and abstinence. The pro- hibition of marriages between Catholics and