as it was possible to do without changing the generally accepted liturgical rules of the Latin Church.

Prussia, 22 congregations; 1 congregation in | erally adopted in the Church service, and in Birkenfeld). In these congregations over the administration of the sacraments as far 50,000 members are enrolled. If, despite the difficulties and inconveniences which many suffer from openly joining an Old Catholic congregation, and in spite of the want of churches, etc., such a result has been already reached, we may boldly hope for far greater successes as soon as our Church has been recognized by the State. Over forty priests, of whom six have joined us in the course of this year, attend to parochial duties. They will also have accessions. Six young men next winter will study Old Catholic theology in the University of Bonn. In many places, the friendship of our Evangelical brethren has rendered regular worship possible in Protestant churches; in others, the civil local authorities or the Government have granted us churches. In Austria, in Switzerland, even in France, Italy, and Spain, our move-ical brethren in Germany. A Catholic synod, ment meets with a response.

The inclosed provisional rules, which were adopted in Cologne, June 3, 1873, have already secured to laymen a certain share of authority in the government of the Church -an authority which in all its conditions is thoroughly in keeping with the rules and customs of the ancient Church of the first centuries, and fully satisfies the reasonable desires in our own age. If the proposition for a set of rules for synods and congregations should be accepted, as it doubtless will be by the Congress at Constance and by the first synod, we shall possess a constitution which will probably be for some time a pium desiderium with most of our Evangel

composed of a bishop, priests, and laymen, indicates a reform in the Church which only a few years ago would have appeared impossible. Thus we have realized what appears to us essential in the Constitution of the Church, viz.: the Episcopal office as the leading one; the functions of bishops and priests for the administration of the means of grace and for the proclamation of the Word of God; the full, harmonious co-operation of all believers in a legal and orderly manner.

Thus we hope to have replaced the reign of arbitrary and centralized absolutism by laws coinciding with the spirit of love and unity, by which the communion of believers should be guided.

If we look at the internal results, they are equally encouraging. By the choice of the clergy and the congregations, on June 4, 1873, Joseph Hubert Reinkens, Professor of Theology at Breslau, was elected Old Catholic bishop. His inclosed pastoral letter furnishes an evidence that the episcopal office will be carried out in the true apostolic spirit. He was consecrated on August 11 by the Bishop of Deventer, in the presence of numerous priests of all the three dioceses of the Church of Utrecht. His consecration has strengthened our fellowship with that Church. Steps have been taken to communicate with the Armenian Catholics. Thus we are in intimate communication with that portion of the whole Church, formerly united under Rome, which does not submit itself to papal absolutism, and stands fast by the rights and faith of the ancient Church. Internal reforms have already been begun, such as perhaps are enjoyed by no branch of the Christian Church. We have quietly abandoned the abuses of the adoration of saints, especially the exaggerated devotion to the Virgin Mary, and the indulgences. We have done away with the abuse of scapularies, medals, and such like. The payment of money for the reading of masses and public prayers, etc., has been given up. The national language has practically been gen-be upon your work.

We close with the expression of our wish that your Conference may succeed in bringing about an active, close union between members of the different branches of the Evangelical Church; and with another wish, both for you and for ourselves, that the bond of mutual love may be drawn closer and closer, that we may found institutions fitted to prepare the way for the reconciliation of all Christian creeds, and to lead to that end we all should labor for, when, under one Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ, the members of his holy Church shall form a single flock.

May God grant this, and may his blessing

LETTER FROM PERE HYACINTHE LOYSON.

[Translated from the French.]

now

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE EVANGELICAL | (unité organique et vivante). I believe this ALLIANCE ASSEMBLED IN GENERAL CON- unity to lie in the future destinies of the FERENCE AT NEW YORK : Christian Church, because I discover it in GENTLEMEN, When I accepted its primitive traditions, and, above all, bemore than a year ago-the invitation which cause it is in the will of its divine Foundyour committee did me the honor to send er. If all Christianity were not like that me for the meeting of the Evangelical Alli-weakened Church of the Apocalypse, more ance, I could not conjecture the obstacles or less "fallen from its first love," it would which would check the execution of my not be so difficult for it to realize, or even, promise. While suffering from the sacrifice alas! to conceive the joyous mystery of its which they impose upon me now, I do not unity. regret these obstacles, for they concern a new Time does not permit me, gentlemen, to development of a reform to which is attach- | give you the details of the particular work ed, in my opinion, the salvation of the Cath-in which I am laboring at Geneva, and which olic Church.

In confiding to me a task much beyond my individual powers, but which he will aid me, I trust, to perform, God has imposed upon me duties which take precedence of all others. Will you excuse me, then, gentlemen, if in heart alone I join you? By its warm impulses my whole being goes out to you. For a long time already I have counted friends among your ranks—indeed, I can call you all by that name, for, united by faith in the same Christ, the only Son of God, and the Redeemer of men, you are laboring to bring together on a common ground the different Christian confessions, which have been so sadly, and, until now, so irremediably separated.

My ambition, I confess, is still higher: where you are satisfied with an alliance, I

you wish to honor with your sympathetic interest. Besides, this work is sufficiently known to you through the public press. I venture to count, at need, upon the Rev. Pastor Franck Coulin (who will deliver to you this letter) to speak to you of my plans. Pastor Coulin is not only a friend of my person, but also of my work, and among our brethren of the Protestant churches in Switzerland, we count no one who has for our reform more intelligent and more cordial sympathies.

Will you accept, gentlemen, with the renewed expression of my deeply felt regrets, that also of my most respectful and affectionately devoted regards, in our common Master and Saviour.

HYACINTHE LOYSON.

would desire an organic and vital unity GENEVA, September 9, 1873.

THE VATICAN COUNCIL AND THE OLD CATHOLIC

MOVEMENT.

BY THE REV. W. KRAFFT, D.D.

Professor of Church History in the University of Bonn.
[Born Sept. 8, 1821, at Cologne, Prussia.]

So much has been written in regard to the history of the Vatican Council, that a whole library might be filled with this literature.* I call your special attention to Frommann's excellent representation.t

In treating of the Council and the Old Catholic movement, the former can be considered only in so far as it gave rise to the latter movement, bestowing upon it not only justification in itself, but great importance also.

ago, been designated and defended by them as the last consequence of the principles of their own order.

The principle of the order of Jesuits was, from the very beginning, in direct opposition to the Protestant principle of faith; the founder, Ignatius Loyola, declaring that implicit obedience is the source, and the greatest of all Christian virtues.

In his celebrated letter, De virtute obedientiæ (A.D. 1553), addressed to the Portuguese members of the order, he says:

On the eighteenth day of July, 1870, in presence and with the assent of the major- "The members of the Society of Jesus may ity of the voters of the Vatican Council, at be surpassed by other religious orders in fastmidday—but the sky being dark, undering, vigils, and ascetic mode of living, but in thunder and lightning, and by candle-light-regard to implicit obedience, denial of selfPope Pius the Ninth commanded, in the bull will, and reason they exceed all others. "Pastor æternus," all Roman Catholic Chris- This obedience of the members of the tendom to believe implicitly in the follow-"compania" to their superior was to be exing as a sacred law, warranted by Divine revelation:

"Adhering faithfully to the Tradition delivered unto us from the beginning of the Christian faith, We, with the assent of the Sacred Council, teach and declare, to the honor of God our Saviour, the exaltation of the Catholic Religion, and the salvation of all Christendom, that the Roman Pontiff, when speaking ex cathedra, i. e., when he, in virtue of his highest apostolic authority, and in the exercise of his office of shepherd and teacher of all Christians, proclaims in explicit terms a dogma, to be believed by the whole Church-may it concern either faith or morals-possesses, by right of the Divine assistance promised unto him through St. Peter, that infallibility with which the Divine Saviour wanted his Church to be endowed in all matters of faith and morals; and that, therefore, such dogmas of the Roman Pontiff are in themselves (ex sese), and not through consent of the Church, immutable. Should, however, any one dare to dissent from this our dogma, what God forbid! -let him be anathema!"

ercised in a military manner, as to a general.
The latter was, therefore, invested with the
| highest authority possible: he was to act as
the substitute of God and Christ.
"Who-
soever heareth him, heareth me," i. e., Christ.
"Whosoever despiseth him, despiseth me."

In consequence, the members are bound to consider the general's command as the voice of Christ, according to the word of St. Paul to the Colossians: "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men: knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ."

Ignatius distinguishes three degrees of obedience:

The first degree comprises those persons who fulfill their superior's command as the will of God, even if their own will and judgment be opposed to it: this act does not deserve the name of virtue.

The second degree comprises those who, in enacting the order of the general, make his will their own: this sacrifice of the will is virtue.

The third degree contains those who enWith this decisive sentence of the Pope act the order of the superior, not only in acthe Jesuits have at last reached a long-de-cordance with their own will, but their judgsired aim. Papal infallibility had, years

* A complete list of this literature is to be found in the "Quellensammlung" of Friedberg.

+ Frommann, "History of the Vatican Council, Gotha, 1872."

ment also-thus making the sacrifice of their intelligence. This degree of blind, implicit obedience is the highest, and all individual responsibility of action ceases with it.

In the same spirit, the virtue of obedience

is enjoined in the rules of the order; the subaltern has to so direct all his efforts that his obedience may be perfect in every regard, both according to will and intelligence.

"Let every one be convinced that those who live under obedience must needs be directed and governed by Divine Providence, through the interposition of their superiors, as if they were nothing but a mere cadaver which may be carried in any direction and treated in any manner; or they may be likened to an old man's staff, assisting him who holds it, wheresoever and whensoever he may use it."

The declaration of the immaculate conception (A.D. 1854), which—as is almost needless to say-is in direct contradiction to the Christian fundamental doctrine of original sin, served as an introduction to the two dogmas just mentioned. This secret the Jesuits betrayed themselves. Schrader, in his book, "Pius IX. as Pope and King,” has told us that, at that time, they simply wished to test how far they could go. The votes of the bishops having been cast aside, it was declared that the Pope alone was inspired by the Holy Spirit: this virtually decided already the infallibility of the Pope.

The Jesuits, elated by this success, and certain of final victory, predicted in their papers the sure acceptance of the two abovementioned doctrines regarding the Pope.

In the same manner, as all the members of the order are bound to the will of their superior, thus should, according to the rules of Ignatius, the superior, in his turn, pay implicit obedience, and without any reasoning But as the Jesuits were striving to secure whatsoever, to him whom God placed above the Pope the same position in the whole him, i. e., the Roman Pope, the Vicegerent of Roman Catholic Church which the general God and Christ on earth. He is, therefore, holds in their order, they were obliged to the absolute sovereign of the order, and his increase papal authority to the very utmost. commands must be, at all times and in all The Pope, who had formerly been considered parts of the world, implicitly and uncondi- but the visible representative of the Roman tionally carried out by the members of the Church, and at the highest was looked upon order. This nominal superiority of the Pope as demonstrating the unity of the Church over the general of the order of the Jesuits in a juridical sense, was now declared to be was, however, a mere pretext for the real the principle of the unity of faith and love, superiority of the order over the Pope. Al- and was placed in such close communion ready the founder of the order named Rome with God as is impossible to any other moras the permanent residence of the general, tal being. so that he might live in the Pope's immediate vicinity. The most intelligent members of the order were brought hither from all parts of the world, and thus by seemingly serving the Roman chair, the order assumed in fact the supremacy over the same, and through it over the whole church. Better than at any other period, Roman Jesuitism succeeded in our times in gaining influence over the Pope, Pio Nono, making him entire-ry condition to salvation; "for the Pope is ly subservient to their aims. This has been done to such an extent that at the present day the general of the Jesuits is called "Papa Nero," to distinguish him from "Papa Bianco," Pio Nono.

Making use of their unlimited influence, the Jesuits believed that at last the moment had arrived when they might extend the constitution of their order over the whole Roman Catholic Church. Now at last should blind, implicit obedience, the life-principle of their order, be binding upon the whole Roman Catholic Church, nay, it should thus govern the world. That is to say, the Roman Catholic Church should be changed into one grand order of Jesuits, embracing all nations and all countries.

To this end the two following dogmas were especially defended in the party-press of the Jesuits: 1st. The dogma of the universal papal episcopacy, i. e., his complete, absolute jurisdictional power; and 2d. The dogma of papal infallibility in questions of faith and morals.

Under the eyes of the Pope, the Civiltà Cattolica, the official press at Rome, published this blasphemy: "Si medita il Papa é dio che pensa in lui," i. e., "when the Pope thinks, it is God thinking within him!"

In the book of Faber, the Oratorian, “Of the Devotion to the Pope," the faithful are taught that this devotion is an essential sign of all Christian holiness, and a necessa

the third visible presence of Christ among us.”

This view has been openly defended by the Infallibilists. During the Vatican Council, Mermillod, the pretender of the Genevan episcopacy, preached at Rome on the threefold theophany: "In the manger at Bethlehem, on the altar in the Eucharist, and in the person of the Pope in the Vatican."

In this sense, also, deus has been changed to pius in some hymns originally addressed to God, and the Pope himself rewarded the defenders of these outrages with a "Breve.” By the side of Raphael's pictures in the Vatican, Pius IX. had a picture painted, wherein he announces the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary; he is represented as touching the ground lightly with his feet; a ray of light falling from heaven upon him, while his mouth and the bull testify to his inspiration by the Holy Spirit.

The Pope even attempted to work miracles, but without success; and in order to make up for this failure he prophetically announced some future miraculous doings.

Count Montalembert, formerly a very pillar of the Catholic Church in France, was quite right when he, on his death-bed, thus, with his last words, warned the "Ultramontanes :" "You are erecting an idol in the Vatican!" Yes, an idol indeed, for Romish antiChristianity has never been as strong as in our days!

The Jesuits, however, did not permit themselves to be warned, but went on. The mock council, prepared and arranged by them, was destined to execute their plans.

It is a fearful arrogance of the Romish Church to presume the representation of an Ecumenical Council in our days. The Oriental and Evangelical Churches protested decidedly against such a proceeding. Even in the midst of the Catholic Church some of the bishops opposed it, and during the sessions of the Council frequently declared that they could not recognize it as ecumenical. For who was represented at Rome but the cardinals of the Romish curia, the bishops, and orders? But the hundreds of thousands of priests and the millions of so-called laymen were not represented; and when they, nevertheless, urged their testimony, it was timidly refused by the bishops, as if thereby the work of the Divine Spirit was disturbed within them.

questions which were to come before the house, were not published beforehand, but intentionally kept secret. Very strangely indeed, the decrees of the Pope were brought in only during the sessions of the Council. And this was the worse, as they were in contradiction to Scripture and Tradition, and were shown to be Jesuitic innovations. The only Scriptural proof for papal infallibility, Luke xxii., 32, which appears also in the decree of July 18, 1870, proves the very opposite, although the Jesuits consider it convincing.

Christ in this passage says to Peter, “But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Shortly before the passion of Jesus, Peter had made some rash and presumptive remarks. The Lord now announces to him his fall, but comforts him also by referring to his conversion. But when the apostle continued in his self-confidence, the Lord told him in plain words that he would deny him thrice this night.

No commentator of former times has ever seen in these words any reference whatever to the purity of the faith or to the functions of St. Peter's successors at Rome, or any successor of the apostle; they all justly refer it to Peter himself, who did deny his Lord. These convincing arguments drove the Infallibilists to the bold assertion that the doubtful meaning of the passage referred to had now, by the papal decree of July 18, 1870, been settled for all times; and thus the fundamental doctrine of the Council of Trent, that very pillar of the Catholic Church, "that it is the right of the Church (ecclesia) to judge of the true exposition of Holy Scripture," is destroyed, and the Pope alone has been instituted sole interpreter of the Bible.

The principle of Tradition too, which might be called the corner-stone of Roman Catholicism, has been overturned and trampled under foot by the Vatican decree.

The Council was furthermore not free. The transactions of the Council were tampered with from the very beginning, as the Pope in the most arbitrary manner had himself appointed all the officers, and even before the bishops were assembled administered the oath to every one, from the president down to the last teller-of-votes. The very business transactions of the Council were fixed in the most arbitrary mode, as the Pope enforced a double order of the day. Against this outside pressure, this business mechanism, a very impressive protest was raised by the most intelligent bishops, but without success. Freedom of debate and conference was consequently impossible; the Pope alone, through his president, brought his While the Reformation asserted that only own resolutions before the house; no bishop that which could be proved from Scripture had a right to do so; their resolutions had could be accepted as a doctrine of Christ, the to be laid before a commission outside of Romish Church clung to Tradition, trying to the Council, and their introduction to the establish a criterion for it. If, namely, the Council, nay, the mere knowledge of them, apostolic validity of any church doctrine depended solely upon the Pope's decision. could not be proved directly from Scripture, The speeches were mostly unintelligible, and if such a doctrine was found to have partly on account of the size of the hall, and been taught and believed after the apostolpartly on account of the different pronuncia-ic age-"semper, ubique, et ab omnibus" tion; and an insight into the stenographical then it was taken for granted that such a docreports was strictly prohibited. Publications of the Opposition had to be printed outside of Rome, while the Infallibilists made a grand display of their views by advertisements on the walls. Sudden adjournments would frequently shut the tongues of half a hundred prelates, so that their testimony was silenced.

trine must have originated in the apostolic preaching. The Council of Trent went still further, and taught that Tradition had come down to us, from hand to hand, in uninterrupted succession, through all generations. The Church alone, as the Romish Catechism teaches, can not err in the interpretation of faith and morals, because she is taught by

The order of the day, i. c., the important the Holy Spirit.