Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 10th December 1853, Edition Town of 2, Page 1188, Untitled Article

Page 1188
Page 12
12 of 24

On this page

  • Text (4)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Untitled Article

      town , the Honourable and Reverend B . Liddell , successor of the Reverend W . E . Bennett , of St . Paul ' s , Knightsbridge , the Honourable and Hererend C . A . Harris , and other gentlemen connected with the Church or with estates in the county ,, appeared as speakers and supporters ^ The institution was established at the suggestion of the Church Penitentiary Society , which comprises twelve Bishops . The object of the society is two-fold . It is to supply an . asylum for penitent wanderers of the

      female sex , and to afford occupation or organization for Protestant ladies , who desire to enrol themselves in a religious sisterhood . They will be bound together , says the Bishop of Oxford , " by the rules of their own Church' '—a statement not easily to be understood by those who know the rules . of the Church of England . The Bishop ' s remark , that there are no precedents for such religious ) houses within the Church of England , appears incompatible with , the other statement ; while his discovery , that pure-minded women are not contaminated by intercourse with the fallen , also shows how little the Protestant

      Church had previously learned on some subjects of religious discipline . In separating from the Church of Home , the Protestant Church , with the abuses , repelled many of the excellences of that Church ; and amongst the excellences , not the least , was an opportunity for disappointed minds to seek solace and repose in a religious retirement , where pious exercises should be varied by works of benevolence . That a church must be imperfect which forbids social retirement of this kind is self-evident ; and we believe that the Bishop of Oxford and his friends are supplying a serious defect in their Church . How far they are departing from its essential character , it is for them-, rather than for us , to

      sa - The second department of the institution inrolves an asylum for those women who have broken the great conventional law of this country in regard to women . Another discovery which the Provost of Eton has made , he confesses , since he turned his attention to the subject about four years ago , shows how new its obvious truths are to these gentlemen : lie has found out that " these unfortunate women should not be regarded with disgust ; " that " there are men who loot down with contempt on the victims 01 their own wickedness ; " another inquirer has discovered " that women are misled through abuse of the very

      feeling by which their restoration is to be worked ;" and the Bisho }} of Oxford lias been newly taught that " woman falls more often through weakness of character than obstinate purpose . " How little the dignitaries of the Church Iiavc yet iiwestigated the great curse of the country ! Indeed they are as yet but scratching the surface . They are providing asylums for the Magdalens : when will they ask themselves whether they can help in stopping the supply of Magdalens ? And how P Edward Gibbon Wakefield describes a girl Hitting forlorn before the gates of an institution , at which in her total poverty and lielplessncHS' she had applied for assistance , and had received the answer that she could not have it because she was not qualified : it was a Magdalen institution .

      Untitled Article

      ' IJLTJtAMONTANTSM IN ( GERMANY . . ; ; ( iflKHT AJtTICIJC . ) A . , « UANi ) chain of Roman sacerdotalism , organized lj , ke the Ohaine do Noble / we of the old regime , is Htretehed over the whole of south Germany . This theocratical league receives its wot d ' ordre regularly froiti tho Vatican . It has for its European allies Montalembert the Jesuit , Veuillot the inquisitor , and thu . tspiritual Guy Fawkes , who i . s officially styled Cardinal Wi . senian . This league strives to ru-establish die , good old timoa of Pope liildchrand . It aetH in concert throughout all Germany . It has regular raVitmcatioiiH and important connexions even in Prussia , where ii monarch half mad about the " right divine , "

      : « 4 i ' e < itn certain ecclesiastical vagaries Hojnewhat rescm-, l > h ' fl # , English Puseyimn . 'jhiin ir / f !» vr .-ultramontane party waxen strong through the ' weakness of tho potty ( ieruian governments , do . stit . u'tlu of any moral support from their , peoples , wh () H « ( Ittiuudratic leanings are unmiMtnkeahle , and whom ; ft ) yi »|> H / thu ) H are only lield in check by tint terrorism of tlio H . ibro mid tho police staff . "Any shock to the authority , of the-Church ( exclaims tlie Archbishop of ^ nlj our ' g - to the Government of Baden ) In ; ui equal hHocK to the temporal authority . Kemember the dnyn oPletfoHaud of savage disorder . " ( Declaration of tho AiT-lihrnliap , ' ( tolled Fribourg , November 4 . ) The riyvX'A ' wu . vl' th

      people , whose predilections are Republican ; alienated from the middle classes by successive perjuries ; secretly betrayed by the haute noblesse , which is Austrian at heart . Nevertheless , from sheer hatred of all that smacks of the canaille bourgeoise the Courts swarm exclusively with that noblesse , politically Austrian , and ecclesiastically ultramontane conspirators . In the conflict now raging between the Crown and the Papal Church , the Government of Baden , in spite of its dissensions with the people , might easily have got public opinion to rally to its cause . The people of Baden are , generally speaking , anti-clerical , although two-thirds of the Duchy belong to the Catholic worship . * For the last thirty-four years , since the existence of the Chambers , the Government of

      Baden has always been urged forward in the contest with the hierarchy by the popular pressure . The Roman Church , after . numerous efforts , could only squeeze into the Second Chamber two or three of its partisans . But the dynasty , fearing the power of free thought , was for ever hesitating to take decided measures , paralyzed by vacillation , and occasionally—a Protestant dynasty—protecting ultramontanisin itself . Indeed , but for this protection , not one single representative of the Papacy could have got into the Chamber elected by the citizens . By coquetting with the Jesuits , the djoiasty thought to raise up an ally against the democracy . But it hugged a serpent . Here , again , we find the same imprudence , the same cowardicethe same meanness of policy .

      , The Prince Regent of Baden , a miserable esprit de caserne as he is , dreads the reawakening of liberal ideas . He has not even suffered public opinion to express itself in opposition to the policy of the Crown . By an ordonnance , the Government of Carlsruhe forbids even addresses of approval , which the people were beginning to sign . The subject ought to have no opinions . Even to approve is to revolt . Hence , we observe , in this conflict between the

      State and the Church , the high aristocracy takes sides with the Society of Jesus . The middle classes , finding themselves rebuffed , let things take their course with absolute indifference . The peasant is sometimes disposed to resist the gendarme ; and the Government finds its only support in the bureaucratic section of the bourgeoisie . But the bureaucracy are not a class —they are servants . Is not the weakness of the Government sufficiently explained ?

      No wonder the cassock takes high ground . For the Roman clergy are not only well assured of the weakness and reactionary tendency of the southern dynasties , but they are also sure of the secret acquiescence of the Prussian Throne , that guardian of German Protestantism . Just as , a few years ago , the war-cry of the French ultramontanists was , "Liberty as in Belgium , " so now , the German Jesuits cry , " Liberty as in Prussia . " The Archbishop of Fribourg demands , " that the Prince Regent of Baden decide after the example of his august Majesty the King of Prussia—that the Catholic Church shall administer herself , and regulate her own affairs freely and independently . "

      Such are the fruits of the suppression of the democratic spirit in Germany . The Papal hydra , which , during the Revolution of 1848 and 1849 , drew in its hundred heads , for fear of having thorn chopped oft and burnt , now rears its haughty crests again . The Governments directly attacked , in vain attempt resistance ; and the mystical bigot of Berlin , who cannot . shake from his memory that vision of : in abject king uncovering his sacred head to the corpses of his murdered subjects , would fain assume the part of a new Hercules reversal , and make the old serpent of Home sprout forth with hundred heads renewed .

      Considering the proportions which this struggle between tho spiritual and temporal powers has attained , it may be interesting to rocal briefly tho striking characteristics of the past history of the two antagonists . To every attentive observer , as to every deep thinker , this struggle will scorn all the more significant that , in fact , tho attack was commenced , and systematically pursued , on a grand scale of operations by the clerical party , as noon as tho successful coup d ' etat in France , executed with the aid of the Roman clergy , had appeared to initiate a new era for tho sons of Loyola and MoogHtracten .

      Jn Baden , tin ; interference of the civil power in the internal administration of tho Church begins with the overthrow of the Teutonic constitution of tho Holy Woman Empire . Tho " Holy Roman Empire of the German nation" . found itself , by an abHtract theological conception , bound to the Holy Soy of . Rome . It was thus that the German Empire was prevailed upon to make largo concessions to the pretensions of that Hierarchy Avhieh in all times has insisted on independence of tho laws of any State ; claiming , as now , to be " bound to its own Pontiff by a Holonin oath , which to break would be to commit an act of

      disobedience to tho Superior . " ( These are the words of tin : Archbishop of Kiibourg . ) Germany , besides her thousands pf feudal robbers , wan consequently distributed in

      pieces to ecclesiastics who earned on the secular Government of Germany for the profit of a foreign Sovereign residing beyond the mountains . The influence of the French Revolution shook violently the thrones of these princes , archbishops , bishops , and other sovereigns in red stockings . Bonaparte , invading with his armies the countries of the Rhine , destroyed along his path the ecclesiastical principalities , and delivered Germany from that most terrible of all national calamities , the secular government of priests .

      In the destruction of the temporal power of the Roman Church , Napoleon was guided in Germany by considerations which pertained exclusively to the policy of the hour . Perhaps Napoleon would hardly have considered it bis peculiar mission to scour that cloaca of papal feudalism , if the re-union of the left bank of the Rhine to France , and the imperative necessity of rallying the petty dynasties had not sealed the destinies of the Catholic Church . The miserable Princes of Germany cheerfully surrendered a part of their own

      territory , if they were allowed to appropriate a portion of their neighbours , no matter whose . They had no objection to become valets in the antichamber of the ci-devant sub-lieutenant Bonaparte : their only consideration was to gain in sovereignty , whether against their subjects or rivals . One of these Princes was the Markgraf or Elector of Baden , shortly after , by favour of Napoleon , Grand Duke of Baden . The Grand Duke , among others , gained in sovereignty against the Priace , the Bishop of Constance .

      By the grand secularization of 1803 , decreed by the law of the German empire , the sovereignty of the Prince Bishop of Constance was abolished ; the secular prerogatives of the grand Chapter were incorporated by legal process in the sovereignty of the Elector of Baden . In consequence of an ulterior modification of the diocesan institution Fribourg instead of Constance became the residence of the Archbishop . It is at this Fribourg that the knot of theocratic intrigues has now to be untied .

      The secularization of 1803 was only the first step towards the subordination of the Papal Church to the sceptre of the Baden dynasty . The Church that time at least relinquished its rights without much resistance . The times were little favourable to the pious desires of those maniacs who regret that Luther was not burnt . The philosophy of the eleventh century had carried its torches through the gloomy vaults of cathedrals , and the horrible subterranean recesses of the Holy Office . Even in Germany , through the activity of Freemasonry , and the secret connexion of the Jlluminati

      orders with the clubs of Paris , public opinion had taken so bold a" flight , that the Papacy was incapable of imposing restrictions upon that lust of domination which lurks under the mask of the autonomy of the Catholic Church . Josephinism , too , had penetrated deeply and widely into the bosom of the Church . By not only abolishing the temporal power of the Princes of the Church , but retaining also their spir itual power , the Governments advanced in accord with public opinion , while they turned the current of liberal principles to the profit of their dynastic policy .

      In Baden , as soon as the secularization was legally decreed in 1803 , we shall find that the State l aid its hands upon the internal administration of the Church . This intermeddling in spir itual affairs did not constitute an usurpation in any respect . * It is a mistake to suppose that the measures which the Grand Ducal Government is taking in 1853 are illegal innovations . On the contrary , the clergy were the first to transgress the legal path , traced originally by a synallagmatic treaty between the Crown and the Church . The rights of tho Government of Baden , so tar

      as the participation in tho administration of Iho aflau-H of the Church are concerned , dato from 1804 ; they have a legal basis which no power , laic or canonical can invalidate . Certain journals have fallen into a mistake in fancying that " the Superior Council ( Oberkirehenrath ) , which administers in the name of the Government the affairs of tho Catholic Church , is an extraordinary creation of recent date . This Council has exercised its functions for years . Tho excommunication was launched against the Council because it refused to lend itself to the illegal intrigues of a hand ol

      affiliated conspirators of the Society of Jesus . AVe have before us , in cxtenso , the Treaty of 1 j ' > concluded between , the Elector Charlns Frederick ©/ Jluilen and the Prince Archbishop of Constance , predecessors , the one of the present Prince Kegent ot Baden , the other of the present Archbishop of J < nbourg . By this treaty it is legally recognised and stipulated , «» well for tho present as for . the future , that tho ArelibiHhoprie shall renounce for ever tho rights of I '""™ ; Hte

      i r ,.,....,.,, f il » nt . i'tfii . u . t mid Collatur-Keolice / age and preferment ( Pa tronat and Uollsitur- _ « o «; for all the parishes situated in tho territory of Baden , those rights pass absolutely to tho Government ot Baden By the above-mentioned treaty , which is -lie corner-stone of tho rights of the civil Government , the Itomish Church in Baden became , by her own not , what she now calls " a spiritual bureaucracy J *<»<

      whether she likes or dislikes that position , she Iioh m : - doubtedly bound herself to its conditions byajlonimi

      Untitled Article

      * The tii > i : U , preHH to frighten the diovcrnnu'iiln with the bugboiir of a religious war , and to magnify Hii ' . 'i into elepinuit .-.

      Untitled Article

      * We n . ' . 'd warwly remind our renders Mint w « writo within the ( crniti of »!<< " recognised legality-

      Untitled Article

      1188 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 10, 1853, page 1188, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2016/page/12/