Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/625

 OLD CATHOLICS 611 Protestants, in cases where the Protestant refuses to consent to the education of the children in the Catholic religion, was abolished. Action on the proposed abolition of priestly celibacy was postponed. Committees were appointed for preparing a new ritual and a catechism. Six synodal examiners were elect- ed, four of whom were priests and two lay- men, and a " synodal representation " (stand- ing committee) to represent the church until the meeting of the next synod. From a report made to this synod on the progress of the Old Catholic movement, it appears that at this time the Old Catholic church had in Prussia 31 congregations, 16 organized parishes, and a total population of about 15,000 ; in Bavaria, 54 societies and 5,000 people ; and in Baden, 31 societies and 3,500 people. The number of Old Catholic priests in Germany was 41, and of students of theology 12. The original claim of the Old Catholics to be recognized by the state governments as the sole representatives of the Catholic church as it existed before 1870 had been abandoned; and the fourth Old Catholic congress, which was held on Sept. 6 and 7, 1874, at Freiburg in Baden, only de- manded that wherever a formal separation be- tween the adherents of the Vatican council and the Old Catholics should take place, the latter should receive a proportionate share of the church property. The legislature of Baden had already adopted this view by passing a law guaraD teeing to the Old Catholics a share in the church property of every parish of the grand duchy, in proportion to their number. In the other German states the legal status of the Old Catholics was undefined by legislative action at the beginning of 1875 ; but it was ex- pected that the principles adopted in Baden would prevail. A union conference of Old Catholic, eastern, and Anglican theologians met under the presidency of Dr. Dollinger at Bonn, Sept. 14-16, 1874. The members of the con- ference generally agreed that no insuperable dif- ference of opinion on doctrinal questions exist- ed. The Old Catholics as well as the Anglicans agreed with the orientals in the declaration that the manner in which the words Filioque were added to the Mcene creed was illegal, and that, with a view to future peace and unity, it is very desirable that the entire church should decide the question whether the creed can be restored to its original form without sacrificing a doctrine expressed in its present form in the occidental churches. The adop- tion of several theses on doctrinal questions indicated that the difference between Old Catholics and the Roman Catholic church,, so far as the latter has given in its adhesion to the Vatican council, is no longer limited to papal infallibility. The most important points of difference, according to these theses, are the following : The apocryphal books of the Old Testament are declared to be not ca- nonical in the same sense as the books con- tained in the Hebrew canon ; no translation of holy writ can claim a higher authority than the original text ; divine service should be cel- ebrated in a language understood by the peo- ple ; the doctrine that superabundant merits of the saints can be transferred to others, either by the heads of the church or by the authors of the good works, is untenable ; the number of sacraments was for the first time fixed at seven in the 12th century, and this became a doctrine of the church, not as a tradition re- ceived from the apostles or earliest times, but as the result of theological speculation; the new Roman doctrine of the immaculate con- ception of the Virgin is at variance with the tradition of the first 13 centuries ; indulgences can only refer to penances which have really been imposed by the church herself. The spe- cial committees appointed by the Old Catholic congress were expected to continue the nego- tiations with the oriental and Anglican com- munions. Outside of Germany, the Old Cath- olic movement has gained a firm footing only in Switzerland. The number of priests who joined it was small, but the support received from the governments of the Protestant and liberal cantons was much more vigorous than in Germany. Not only were those priests who joined the Old Catholic church with their congregations protected in their places against the bishops who excommunicated and deposed them, but some cantons, as Bern and Geneva, passed new laws regulating the affairs of the Catholic church ; and where bishops and parish priests refused to recognize the new laws, they appointed Old Catholic priests. Thus all the Catholic churches of the canton of Bern were placed in the hands of the Old Catholics, al- though the immense majority of the people protested against this transfer. The same can- ton established in 1874, in connection with the university of Bern, a faculty of Old Catholic theology, which was opened in October. The movement in Switzerland has had in general more the character of an opposition to the in- fluence of Rome than that of a religious reform. At the close of 1874 the church was still with- out a bishop, and grave dissensions had broken out between a more conservative and a more radical wing of the party, the latter of which had the ascendancy in the canton of Geneva. At a general assembly of the Old Catholic societies which was held at Olten in Septem- ber, 1874, the main points of the church con- stitution, including the election of a bishop, were agreed upon. The convention rejected the name of Old Catholics, and preferred that of Christian Catholics (ChristlcatJioUlcen). In Austria several congregations were formed, es- pecially in the German districts of Bohemia ; but although supported by the liberal parties in the parliament, they were up to the end of 1874 unable to obtain recognition by the state government. In France, Father Hyacinthe and the abbe" Michaud took an active interest in the movement, but were unable to secure the forma- tion of any large congregations. Spain, Italy,