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SWITZERLAND. 



TAPPAN, LEWIS. 



was not authorized to perform in any of the 

 cantons which did not recognize his jurisdic- 

 tion. (& KOMAH CATHOLIC CHCBCII.) 



The conflict between the cantonal Govern- 

 ment of Geneva and the Catholic Church en- 

 tered into a new phase, when a papal brief .4' 

 January 16, 1878, appointed Abbe Mermillod 

 Vi.-ar Apostolic of Geneva, with the rights of 

 a diocesan bishop. The State Council of Geneva 

 resolved to deprive ull priests who had read the 

 papal brief from the pulpits, of their salaries 

 for three months. The Federal Council, in a 

 reply to the papal brief, dated February llth, 

 declared that the authorities of Switzerland, 

 at all times, had adhered to the principle that 

 questions relating to the organization of bish- 

 oprics, could only be decided with their con- 

 sent; thnt especially all measure* of the Holy 

 See, which had for their'object the creation of 

 new bishoprics or changes in the territorial 

 limits of those now in existence, were of a po- 

 litical as well as religious nature, and required 

 the consent of the Federal authorities, and 

 that accordingly the Federal Council must de- 

 clare as null and void any change which the 

 Holy See would undertake to make without 

 its consent. As regards the Catholics of Ge- 

 neva, the Confederacy could only recognize 

 the Diocese of Lausanne, as it had been in ex- 

 istence since 1829, it could, therefore, not rec- 

 ognize the new office of an Apostolical Vicar of 

 Geneva, and would, if necessary, prevent Abb6 

 Mermillod from exercising the functions of this 

 office. The Government of Geneva received a 

 copy of this reply, and was invited to present 

 it to Abb6 Mermillod, and to ask the latter for 

 a declaration whether, in view of the Federal 

 protest against the unlawful division of the 

 Diocese of Lausanne and Geneva, he intended 

 to exercise the functions of an Apostolical 

 Vicur of Geneva. As Abbe Mermillod replied 

 that ho could not, and would nut. abstain from 

 the exercise of functions which were of a mere- 

 ly ecclesiastical character, the Federal Coun- 

 cil, on February 17th, resolved to exile him 

 from Swiss territory. The order was trans- 

 mitted to the State Council of Geneva by tele- 

 graph, and executed by the latter on the same 

 day. On March 23d a new law on Catholic 

 worship, providing that the parish priests be 

 elected by a majority of the Catholic voters, 

 was adopted in <;. nova by 9.081 against 151 

 votes, the ' '..rty ret'iisim: tu take part 



in the vote. Other laws providing for the 

 regulation of the affairs of the Catholic Church 

 and creating a Supreme Ecclesiastical B'.ard 

 of twenty-five members, twenty laymen and 



five clergymen, followed. They were sanc- 

 : l>y the Grand Council of the can- 

 ton on August 28th, and recu^ni/.cd as valid 

 laws of Geneva by the Federal Council and 

 the Assembly. On October 12th three Cath- 

 olic priests were, for the first time, elected in 

 the city of Geneva, in accordance with the 

 new law. As the opponents of the law again 

 abstained from voting. Father Hyacinthe and 

 two other Old Catholic priests of France (liar- 

 tand and Chavard) were elected. 



Although the contlicts between the Church 

 and state were nowhere so severe as in the 

 cantons constituting the Diocese of l!asel. and 

 in the Canton of Geneva, they still existed in 

 most of the other cantons. In the new election 

 held in May for the renewal of the Grand 

 Council in the Cantons of Grisons and St. (Jail, 

 the Liberal party, which was in outspoken 

 sympathy with the policy of the Federal Coun- 

 cil on Church questions, was successful. A 

 number of severe measures, favoring the same 

 policy, were passed in the entirely Catholic 

 Canton of Ticino. 



As the Pope, in his encyclical of November 

 21, 1873, severely condemned the measures 

 adopted against the Catholic Church, the Fed- 

 eral Council, on December 12th, informed the 

 papal nuncio, Agnozzi, thnt in consequence of 

 the conduct of the Pope toward Switzerland, 

 the Confederacy could no longer recognize a 

 papal diplomatic agent. 



As the majority both of the National and 

 State Councils were in favor of a revision of 

 the Federal Constitution, the Federal Council 

 during the summer months prepared a new 

 draft, which was submitted to the Assembly 

 when its session was opened on November 3, 

 1873. While the draft had made some conces- 

 sions to the opponents of on extension of the 

 Federal authority at the expense of cantonal 

 rights, it was more emphatic than the amend- 

 ments, which had been rejected by the popu- 

 lar vote of 1872. in indorsing the ecclesiastical 

 policy of the Liberal majority of the Council 

 and the Assembly. 



A Protestant Church conflict arose in the 

 Canton of Neufchatel, when the Grand Council 

 in May adopted a new Church law, which en- 

 larges the rights claimed by the state in the 

 administration of the Church, and provided 

 for a periodical election of all clergymen of 

 the state Church. A considerable number of 

 ministers of the Reformed Church declared 

 their intention not to submit to the law, but 

 to secede from the state Church and form a 

 free Evangelical Church. 



TAPPAN, LEWIS, a merchant and reformer, 



Wn in Northampton, Mass., May 23, 17*8; 



died in Brooklyn. N. Y.. June 81, IH;:;. II- 



thorough Km;li.-ih education in 



his native town, and at the age of sixteen was 



an articled clerk in a dry-goods importing-housc 

 in Boston. He proved so faithful and valuable 

 to his employers, that they placed tin : 

 confidence in him, and gave him facilities lor 

 establishing himself in business when he came 



