608 



OLD CATHOLICS. 



A Legislature was elected at the same time, 

 -with the following result : 



OLD CATHOLICS. In Germany, the Old 

 Catholic Church held its second Synod from 

 May 18th to 22d, under the presidency of 

 Bishop Reinkens. Prof. Langen, of Bonn, 

 submitted reports on a " Manual of Christian 

 Doctrines " and a " Catechism," which have 

 been prepared for general introduction into the 

 Old Catholic congregations. The draft of a Ger- 

 man liturgy which had been prepared was rec- 

 ommended to the congregations, and the Synod 

 of 1876 will take action on its definite and 

 obligatory introduction. The Synod declined 

 to pass resolutions in favor of abolishing priest- 

 ly celibacy, but postponed the question to a fu- 

 ture Synod. Of the members of the standing 

 committee, Profs. Knoodt, Schulte, Michelis, 

 Friedrich, and Cornelius, were reflected ; among 

 the new members is the Mayor of Carlsruhe. 

 A resolution was passed to publish an address, 

 drawn up by Bishop Reinkens, to all priests 

 sympathizing with the Old Catholic move- 

 ment, urging them to give in their public ad- 

 hesion. The statistical report, drawn up by 

 Prof. Schulte, gave the following account of 

 the condition of the Church in Germany : 



The report stated that these figures did not 

 exhibit the full strength of the Old Catholics. 

 Several lists of Old Catholic congregations 

 were received after the report had been 

 closed. In Prussia only those places have 

 been registered where congregations have been 

 fully organized ; in Baden, only the communi- 

 ties which have been fully recognized by Bish- 

 op Reinkens (besides which there are some 

 twenty places with Old Catholic societies), and 

 in Bavaria only those places which had sent in 

 lists of members. Moreover, quite a number 

 of the lists were defective* Compared with 

 1874, the report showed an increase in mem- 

 bership of 4,151, and in total population of 

 9,803. In Prussia, eleven parishes are organ- 

 ized, and twenty-two priests at work. In Ba- 

 den, twenty Old Catholic communities have 

 been recognized by the state, and in several 

 places the Old Catholics, constituting a ma- 

 jority of all the Catholic voters, have been put 

 in possession of the parochial church property, 

 according to the law of Baden. The number 



of priests at work was sixteen. The total 

 number of Old Catholic priests in Germany 

 was fifty-three, against forty-one in 1874 ; and 

 the number of Old Catholic students of theol- 

 ogy at the University of Bonn was eleven. 



The absence of Dr. Dollinger from this, as 

 well as from the first Old Catholic Synod, held 

 in 1874, was noted. The report that he had 

 ceased to sympathize with the movement was, 

 however, contradicted by himself, and he was 

 >resided, at the new union 



conference between Old Catholic, Oriental, and 

 Anglican theologians, held at Bonn from Au- 

 gust 12th to 16th. It was chiefly ascribed to 

 his influence that an understanding with the 

 Greek Church on the doctrine of the proces- 

 sion of the Holy Ghost was reached. (See 

 GREEK CHURCH.) 



The usual Old Catholic Congress, which was 

 to be held at Breslau, did not take place. The 

 reasons assigned for this by the local commit- 

 tee were chiefly the inability of most of the 

 prominent lay-members of the Church to be 

 present. 



The Old Catholic congregation in Switzer- 

 land made some further progress in shaping 

 the national constitution of their Church, for 

 which they preferred the name of Christian 

 Catholic, but, at the close of the year, no bish- 

 op had been elected. In the cantons of Berne 

 and Geneva, nearly the entire property of the 

 Catholic Church has, in virtue of the new ec- 

 clesiastical laws of those cantons, passed into 

 the hands of the Old Catholics, although the 

 majority of the Catholic population shows it- 

 self decidedly opposed to it. In the canton of 

 Berne, an Old Catholic faculty of theology has 

 been established in connection with the Uni- 

 versity of Berne. Even the Government of one 

 of the Catholic cantons, Soleure, continues to 

 favor the movement. The progress of the 

 movement was considerably damaged by a 

 split between the moderate and the radical 

 parties in the Church, the latter obtaining con- 

 trol of church affairs in Geneva. 



In Austria, the Lower House of the Reichs- 

 rath showed its appreciation of and sympathy 

 with the movement, by adopting a bill, regu- 

 lating the legal condition of the Old Catholics 

 without requiring a formal secession from the 

 Catholic Church. The Upper House refused 

 to concur in the adoption of the bill; but the 

 Government promised that it would remove 

 all former obstacles to the formation and rec- 

 ognition of the Old Catholic congregations. 

 Relying on this promise, the leaders of the 

 movement convoked an assembly of all the 

 Old Catholic congregations of the empire to 

 meet at Vienna in February, 1876. 



The Old Catholics of Italy, effected a nation- 

 al organization on May 1st, when they met in 

 general assembly at Naples. The assembly 

 elected by 2,739 votes, mostly cast by proxy, 

 Monsignor Dominico Panelli, Archbishop of 

 Lydda, in partibiis infidelium, as first bishop 

 of the Old Catholic Church of Italy. Among 



