ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



691 



ment that the bishops, in consequence of the Vati- 

 can enactments, have become Papal employe's with- 

 out personal responsibility, and we beg to observe 

 that it is not the Catholic Church which acknowl- 

 edges the immoral and despotic principle that the 

 command of a superior officer relieves the subordi- 

 nate from personal responsibility. As to the opinion 

 that the Pope, by means of infallibility, has become 

 an absolute sovereign, it is based upon an entirely 

 erroneous conception of the dogma of infallibility ; 

 as the Vatican Council has clearly and unmistakably- 

 pronounced papal infallibility, in accordance with 

 the nature of things, confined to the field belonging 

 to the doctrinal authority of the Church, and is re- 

 stricted by Holy Writ, tradition, and previous deci- 

 sions of the Church. The action of the Pope in 

 governing the Church has in no way been altered by 

 the enactment of papal infallibility. The opinion 

 that the relations of the Pope to the Episcopacy 

 have been changed by the Vatican Council being en- 

 tirely indefensible, so the conclusion drawn from 

 these premises that the Pope has assumed a novel 

 position toward the governments is equally ground- 

 less. We cannot restrain ourselves from expressing 

 the deepest regret that in the above circular dispatch 

 the German Imperial Chancellery should have ad- 

 vanced opinions founded upon the assertions and 

 conjectures of Protestant scholars and some former 

 Catholics rebelling against the whole legitimate 

 episcopal authority vested in the Holy See. These 

 assertions and conjectures have been repeatedly and 

 emphatically contradicted and refuted by the Pope, 

 the bishops, and Catholic theologians and canonists, 

 as the legitimate representatives of the Catholic 

 Church. In our respective dioceses we have the 

 right to demand that, if the principles and doctrines 

 01 our Church are to be discussed in this wise, our 

 opinion be taken too, and that, so long as we regu- 

 late our conduct by these principles and doctrines, 

 our words be credited. In thus correcting the erro- 

 eous version of the Catholic doctrine contained in 

 the circular dispatch of the Prince-Chancellor, we 

 have no wish to enter upon what is foreshadowed in 

 that dispatch concerning the election of the next 

 Pope. Still, we feel it our duty to protest solemnly 

 against the attempt made to interfere with the inde- 

 pendent election of the chief of the Catholic Church, 

 and we declare that the validity of any Papal elec- 

 tion can be decided only by the Church, to whose 

 authority every Catholic will unconditionally submit, 

 in Germany as anywhere else. Dated January and 

 February, 1875. 

 Here follow the signatures of the German bishops. 



The Pope, in his Allocution of March 15th, 

 noticed this attempt at Government inter- 

 ference with the election of his successor, and 

 praised the course of the German bishops. 



Finding that the Catholic episcopate and 

 clergy did not yield, the German Government, 

 on March 4th, introduced a law to deprive the 

 bishops and priests of the allowance paid them 

 by the state in consideration of the church 

 property assumed by the state in 1803. The 

 Catholic bishops, on the 2d of April, addressed 

 a petition to the Emperor, remonstrating against 

 the law. The ministry replied April 9th, 

 charging the bishops repeatedly with false- 

 hood. To this the bishops rejoined on the 

 30th, defending their course. 



The action of the Government, severe in it- 

 self, was, as Catholics complained, increased by 

 the wanton insolence and oppression of petty 

 officers, acting without authority, as in seizing 

 the chalice from the altar during mass at 

 Dreihauseo, and in insulting conduct at a con- 



vent at Cologne. The prohibition of pilgrim- 

 ages and processions tended still more to em- 

 bitter the feelings of Catholics. 



A Catholic Congress of Germany met at 

 Freiburg, September 1st, to which the Pope 

 addressed a brief, dated August 14th, encour- 

 aging them to fortitude. 



In Switzerland, the same policy prevailed. 

 The state recognized the Old Catholics and 

 expelled the Catholic clergy and religious. 

 The Cathedra] of Berne was taken from the 

 Catholics January 28th, the Church of Notre- 

 Dame, Geneva, June 4th, and both given to the 

 Old Catholics. Priests were exiled, and on 

 September 24th the last of the Sisters of 

 Charity were expelled from Geneva. On the 

 23d of March the Pope addressed an encyclical 

 to the Swiss bishops : 



To our Venerable Brothers and Bishops, and to our 

 dear Sons the Priests, and the Faithful of Switzer- 

 -"---- -' J7 JT ' tolicSee. 



VENERABLE BROTHERS AND DEAR SONS, HEALTH 

 AND APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION: The serious and pro- 

 longed efforts and snares which the new heretics, 

 who call themselves Old Catholics, continue daily 

 to multiply in Switzerland, in order to deceive the 

 faithful people, and to tear them away from the faith 

 of their ancestors, demand from us, according to the 

 extent of our Apostolic charge ? particular solicitude 

 and care to preserve the spiritual interests of our 

 sons. We know well, venerable brothers, and we 

 deplore in the bitterness of our hearts, how these 

 schismatics and heretics, profiting by the schismatic 

 laws which keep under public oppression the reli- 

 gious liberty of Catholics in the Diocese of Basle and 

 in other parts of the country, exercise, under the 

 protection of the civil authority, the ministry of their 

 condemned sect, cause forcible possession of parishes 

 and churches to be taken by apostate priests, and 

 spare neither frauds nor artifices to draw away mis- 

 erably into schism the children of the Catholic 

 Church. But, as deceit and trickery have always 

 been the characteristics of heresy and schism, we 

 must include these sous of darkness with those to 

 whom the prophet has said, u Woe to the traitor 

 sons who put their confidence in the darkness of 

 Egypt; you have rejected the word and put your 

 confidence in calumny and tumult." 



They have no other desire but to deceive and to 

 lead away into error, by their hypocrisy and dissim- 

 ulation, those who are without distrust ; and they 

 say openly that they are far from rejecting the 

 Catholic Church and its visible' chief. They even 

 affirm that they hold to the purity of the Catholic 

 doctrine ; that they are the inheritors of the faith 

 and the only true Catholics, even while in reality 

 they refuse to recognize all the Divine prerogatives 

 of the Vicar of Jesus Christ upon earth, and to obey 

 his supreme jurisdiction. We even know that, in 

 order to spread more widely their heretical doc- 

 trines, many of them have undertaken to give in- 

 struction on sacred theology in the University of 

 Berne, in the hope of gaining by this means some 

 of the Catholic youth to their condemned faction. 

 Already we have reproved and denounced this de- 

 plorable sect who have taken from the arsenal of 

 ancient heresies so many errors contradicting the 

 chief principles of the Catholic faith; they attack 

 the very foundations of the Catholic religion ; they 

 audaciously reject the dogmatic definitions of the 

 Council of the Vatican, and in every way they work 

 for the ruin of souls. 



By our letters of the 21st November, 1873, we have 

 published and declared that these miserable sectaries, 

 as well as their partisans and supporters, are sepa- 



