century, which thus far have not been known. Among these letters are five from Luther, sixteen from Melanchthon, and several addressed to Luther and Melanchthon by their friends. In the second article a biographical sketch is given of one of the most prominent Italians who in the sixteenth century labored for the success of the Reformation. As many of the letters of Curio Secundus, who was professor at the University of Basel, still remain unprinted in the archives of Berne, Zurich, and Basel, which are supposed to shed new light on his reformatory labors, the author promises a second article on the subject after he shall have found time to study these letters.

ART. VIII.-FOREIGN RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

GERMANY.

ROMAN CATHOLICISM.

THE Old Catholic Church movement in Germany and Austria has for some time failed to make any notable progress, and many papers which at first expected that it might deal a fatal blow to the papal and ultramontane system, acknowledge that they have been disappointed. The submission of Bishop Strossmyer, of Sirmium in Croatia, to the decrees of the Vatican Council is announced, and thus the Pope has the satisfaction of having coerced all the Bishops of Germany, Austria, and Hungary, of whom originally a large majority were opposed to the dogmatization of papal infallibility, into submission. The attitude of the Governments of Prussia, Austria, Bavaria, and the other States, with regard to the movement, continues to be undecided. None of them sympathize with the theories which have been sanctioned by the Vatican Council, and which now all the Bishops try to enforce; they appear, however, to be afraid of placing the Old Catholics on an entirely equal footing before the law. Among the leaders of the Catholic movement there are far-going differences of opinion. Dr. Döllinger, who on March 20 closed an interesting series of lectures on the reunion of the Catholic, Eastern, and Protestant Churches, is much more conservative than any of the other prominent Old Catholics, and in the efforts for consolidating and perpetuating the Old Catholic Church he takes no active part. He rejects every secession from the Catholic Church; as for himself, he declares that he will ever remain a member of this Church. In his opinion there can be only one Catholic Church, and the State Governments can never recognize two. The reformation can only be carried through within the Church. If the Church refuses to the Old Catholics the consolations of religion and the sacraments, temporary missions may be established for their religious needs; but the final triumph of their principles they must expect from new Ecumenical Councils. If the

advice of Dr. Döllinger would be generally followed, the Old Catholic movement would soon become extinct. But he stands almost alone, and all other leading Old Catholics are active in the extension and consolidation of the new Church. Attention is chiefly directed to the organization of those who are known to sympathize with the movement into regular congregations, which have their own ministers and regular celebration of divine worship. In this respect it appears that considerable progress continues to be made. Every month makes a number of additions to the list of Old Catholic congregations, some of which have a large membership. From the facts which are recorded in the "Rheinische Mercur," of Cologne, the principal organ of the Church, we see that there are quite a number of congregations which have upward of four hundred active members. In several towns the Old Catholic congregations are much larger than the Catholic. Sympathizers with the movement still appear to be found in every Catholic town and village; but it requires a special impulse to prevail upon them to take the decisive step of uniting into separate congregations. Frequently the proceedings of fanatical priests against Old Catholics provoke the separation. Thus, when in Boppard, a town on the Rhine, a fanatical priest ordered two excommunicated Old Catholic professors of the University of Bonn out of the Church, a number of the most influential inhabitants of the town, with the mayor at their head, immediately concluded to establish an Old Catholic congregation. This latent sympathy with the Old Catholic cause, which is believed to exist more or less in every Catholic congregation of Germany, constitutes the chief hope of the leaders of the movement that it will yet become a grand success. Some interesting facts of the last month are cited which appear indeed to confirm this hope. A General Assembly of the Old Catholics of the Grand Duchy of Baden, held at Offenburg on April 14, was attended by delegates from Heidelberg, Mannheim, Carlsruhe, Freiburg, Bruchsal, Pforzheim, Rastatt, Durlach, and nearly every town of the Grand Duchy, and, in general, embraced more than two thousand persons. In several dioceses, and especially in that of Rottenburg, (embracing the whole kingdom of Wurtemburg,) of which the learned Dr. Hefele is Bishop, no action has been taken against the professors and priests who are known to refuse submission to the decrees of the Vatican Council. The "Rheinische Mercur," which we have already quoted, states the remarkable fact that all the theological professors of the University of Tübingen, and several professors of the Episcopal Seminary of Rottenburg, remain steadfast in refusing the recognition of papal infallibility. At the University of Freiburg, in the Grand Duchy of Baden, fully one half of the theological professors are said to be determined opponents of the papal infallibility, while the remainder base their readiness to submit solely on the desire not to disturb the unity of the Church. In September the second General Old Catholic Congress will be held in Cologne. Its success or failure may to a large extent decide the progress of the movement in Germany and Austria.

Of the other countries of Europe comparatively little has been reported during the last three months. The canon of Paris, to whom we referred

in our last number, ("Methodist Quarterly Review," April, p. 334,) Abbé Michaud, is very active in behalf of Old Catholicism in the province of literature. He has, since February, 1872, published four pamphlets. In the fourth he develops at length his ideas of reform. He goes farther than most of the German Old Catholics, demanding an entire separation from the Church of Rome, a rejection of all that has been added to the Catholic doctrine since the ninth century, and a reunion with the Eastern Catholic Church. Besides Abbé Michaud, two canons of Bordeaux, Abbé Juncqua and Abbé Mouls, are the leaders of the movement in France. The former has been sentenced to six months' imprisonment for refusing to lay aside the ecclesiastical habit; the latter has gone to Brussels to inaugurate the movement in Belgium.

The most important event which during the last three months has occurred in the history of the Old Catholic Church is the progress which has been made in its relation to other ecclesiastical bodies. As none of the Roman Catholic bishops has yet dared to identify himself with the movement, the new Church is as yet without those heads which, according to its own doctrines, are indispensable for its continued existence. In view of this difficulty the Old Catholic parish priest, Renftle, of Mehring, in Bavaria, as early as May, 1871, applied to the Jansenist Church at Utrecht requesting that the Archbishop of Utrecht administer the sacrament of confirmation to the children of his congregation. The Archbishop, in reply, desired before acceding to the request to receive undoubted testimony of the orthodoxy of the Bavarian Old Catholics. As the Old Catholic Congress which was held in Munich in September was attended by delegates of the Jansenists, who expressed their full concurrence in the sentiments of the Old Catholics, the parish priest of Mehring in October directly addressed the Archbishop, asking him to come as soon as possible. In his reply, which was written in Latin, the Archbishop expressed a readiness to accede to the request, provided the Government of Bavaria would not put any obstacles in his way. Mr. Renftle, at his request, asked the Bavarian Government to give permission to the Archbishop of Utrecht to administer the sacrament. The reply of the Government, that it regarded itself as incompetent to meddle in matters purely spiritual, still did not disperse all the doubts of the Archbishop, who (February, 1872) desired to know whether, by performing episcopal functions in a Bavarian diocese, he did not violate any Bavarian law. This last doubt was also removed by a letter from the Old Catholic Central Committee, and when the canons of the Church of Utrecht, at a meeting held in May, approved of an episcopal visit of the Archbishop to Bavaria, the latter resolved to undertake the journey in July. The appearance of an archbishop among the German Old Catholics cannot fail to produce a sensation. The priests and the people who have joined the movement will for the first time feel that they are in the communion of a Church which retains all that they had regarded as essential elements of their religion, and has, on the other hand, been freed from all that had weighed them down as a burden. The first decisive step having been

taken, it may be expected that others, such as the organization of new dioceses and the appointment of bishops, will follow. This will probably be the occasion for many thousands who openly sympathize with the movement, but have not yet severed their connection with the Papal Church, to join the Old Catholic Church. Under these circumstances, friends and foes look forward with intense interest to the second Old Catholic Congress, which in September next will be held at Cologne. Preparations for this congress are even now made on a large scale, and, according to present appearances, it promises to be a great success.

ART. IX.-FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.
GERMANY.

AMONG the recent German commentaries to the Old Testament, one, by A. Merx, on the book of Job (Das Gedicht von Hiob. Jena, 1871) is commended for the keenness of its investigations on the history of the text, and on the metrical form. The author is already known by several exegetical works, and is the editor of a periodical specially devoted to the study of the Old Testament.

Professor Hitzig, of Heidelberg, the learned Orientalist and exegetical writer, has published a very learned essay on the languages of Assyria, (Sprache und Sprachen Assyricus. Leipzig, 1871.) Hitzig highly commends the labors of Rawlinson, Hincks, and Morris, while his opinion of the works of Oppert are less favorable.

The History of the Times of the New Testament, (Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte. Heidelberg, vol. ii, 1872,) by Professor Hausrath, of Heidelberg, is one of the most important works which have of late been published from the stand-point of the Tübingen school. The first volume, which treated of the times of Christ, appeared in 1868. The second volume, which completes the work, and has just appeared, is devoted to the times of the apostles. The first three sections describe the religious and political condition of the Roman empire with special reference to the Jews; the two following sections treat of the first growth of Christianity, and the last four of the Apostle Paul.

ITALY.

One of the most prominent writers of the order of Jesuits, Father Matteo Liberatore, published some time ago a series of articles on the relation between Church and State in the Civilta Cattolica. These articles attracted great attention, for the paper which published them is regarded as the semi-official organ of the Pope, who repeatedly has recognized the zeal of the editors for the defense of sound principles, and given to the theories which they advocate his infallible indorsement. Thus the articles of Father Liberatore, which have recently been republished in book form at Naples, (La Chiesa e lo Stato. 1871,) are of great interest for all

who desire to know the views at present entertained by the papal court concerning its relations to the secular governments. We quote a few passages from this book; they are an interesting addition to the valuable collection of similar documents which several years ago was published in Dr. M'Clintock's work on "The Temporal Power." They must make it clear to every American citizen what would become of the Constitution and the laws of our country if ever the Catholic bishops should succeed in obtaining a controlling influence upon the majority of our people.

The supreme principle from which Liberatore starts, and which he repeats on almost every page of his book, is that of the superiority of the Church to the State. "The true Catholicism," he says, "maintains the necessity of a harmony between the State and the Church, but of a harmony which proceeds from the subordination of the State to the Church," (pp. 17, 33, 79.) In consequence of this subordination the State has to put the civil laws into agreement with the canonical, and to make the former serviceable to the execution of the latter, (p. 81.) Only in those things which directly refer to the mere well-being of the terrestrial life, as finances, army, commerce, peace among the citizens, relations to other nations, the State acts independently and as a sovereign power. In all things which directly concern piety, justice, and morals, the State must adopt the rules which have been dictated by the Church. Even in those things which we have designated as belonging within the province of the State, the State has the duty to do nothing that might be injurious to the morality of the subjects, or to the obedience due to God, or that in any way may be contrary to the spiritual welfare of the nations, (p. 119.) Should the contrary take place, the Church has the right to correct and annul every thing unjust or immoral that has been ordered by the secular power. The State has no indirect power over the Church, but the Church has an indirect power over the State with regard to every thing belonging to the purely secular province. Therefore the Church can correct and annul the civil laws, and the sentences of the secular courts, whenever they are contrary to the spiritual welfare. It has also the right to check the abuse of the executive power and of arms, or order them to be used when the defense of the Christian religion demands it, (pp. 43, 296.) Thus all the Popes have acted down to Pius IX., who repeatedly has censured and annulled laws passed by the modern parliaments of Europe, (p. 120.) Without doubt, the relation of every Christian to the Pope is one more intimate than that to the secular governments, (pp. 34-37.) The individual and the family have, in an absolute sense, no moral duty to enter into a civil community, and to remain in it; on the contrary, every man, every family, every people, has the imperative duty to enter into the communion of the Catholic Church, and to remain in it, and to submit to the authority of the head of the Church, upon penalty of eternal damnation, (p. 278.) The Christian peoples, to whatever nation they may belong, be they Italians, Germans, or Frenchmen, if they are subjects of the king or emperor with regard to temporal affairs, are subjects of the Pope with regard to spiritual affairs; yea, subjects of the Pope to a higher degree than subjects of the