OLD CATHOLICS. 



523 



of them. In 1878 he affected to despise the dec- 

 oration of the Legion of Honor, but ten years 

 later accepted it. In 1891 he sought to become 

 a member of the SocietS des Gens de Lettres, and 

 was elected by acclamation and chosen its presi- 

 dent, which office he held until 1895. He had 

 early shown opposition to the French Academy, 

 but in 1888 began to seek admission, and he pre- 

 sented himself as a candidate nineteen times, up 

 to 1898, being always defeated by the more con- 

 servative members. In 1894 Zola began a trilogy 

 on three cities: Lourdes, symbolizing the middle 

 ages; Rome, standing for modern evolution; and 

 Paris, the city of the future. Later he undertook 

 another series, which he planned in England dur- 

 ing a semivoluntary exile imposed by his advo- 

 cacy of the cause of Capt. Dreyfus. Convinced 

 of the condemned officer's innocence of the crime 

 of treason, Zola took up his defense with his usual 

 vigor and persistence. In an open letter to the 

 President of the republic, published in the Aurore, 

 Jan. 13, 1898, under the title J'Accuse, he boldly 

 demanded a revision of the Dreyfus trial. The 

 popular hatred against Zola was only second to 

 that shown for Dreyfus himself. The Minister of 

 War instituted proceedings, and Zola was sen- 

 tenced to one year's imprisonment and a fine of 

 $600. The verdict was quashed on technical 

 grounds, but on a new trial Zola was condemned 

 as before. He allowed judgment to go by default, 

 and fled to England. Afterward Esterhazy con- 

 fessed to the authorship of the incriminating doc- 

 uments, Dreyfus was pardoned, and Zola returned 

 to France. The Four Gospels, as he called his 

 latest series, were entitled Fecondite, Travail, Jus- 

 tice, and Verite, the last not being completed at 

 the time of his death. He had spent the summer 

 at Medan, and returned with his wife on Sept. 28 

 to his hotel in the Rue de Bruxelles, where he had 

 been living since 1889, to prepare for a trip to 

 Italy. The weather was cold, and he had 

 a fire in a stove in his bedroom. The next 

 morning M. and Mme. Zola were found asphyx- 

 iated by fumes from a defective chimney. Mme. 

 Zola was revived, but all efforts to resuscitate the 

 novelist failed. His body was embalmed and 

 buried in the Montmartre Cemetery on Oct. 5. Of 

 his principal novels there were published 2,332,000 

 copies, Zola receiving an average sum of 20 cents 

 a volume, making a total of $466,400. Rights 

 on innumerable translations and collaborations 

 brought his earnings up to about $1,000,000. He 

 was never extravagant, and at the time of his 

 death had about $400,000, all of which he be- 

 queathed to his wife. The couple never had any 

 children; but, as the result of a liaison, he left a 

 son and daughter in whom Mme. Zola, with re- 

 markable generosity, interested herself in spite of 

 their illegitimacy. 



OHIO. (See under UNITED STATES.) 

 OKLAHOMA. (See under UNITED STATES.) 

 OLD CATHOLICS. The fifth International 

 and eleventh German Old Catholic Congress was 

 held at Bonn, Aug. 5-8, Privy-Councilor Prof, 

 von Schulte presiding. The four previous inter- 

 national congresses were held at Cologne in 1891, 

 Lucerne in 1892, Rotterdam in 1894, and Vienna 

 in 1897. In the present meeting the purpose of 

 bringing various churches together was more em- 

 phasized than that of holding a formally ecclesi- 

 astical meeting. It was attended by Bishop 

 Weber, of Bonn; the Bishop-elect of Austria (Dr. 

 Cech) ; the Bishop of Salisbury; Archbishop Gul, 

 of Utrecht; Principal Van Thiel, of Amersfoort 

 Theological Seminary, Holland; and Bishop Koz- 

 lowski, of the Polish Catholic Church in the 

 United States. No Oriental bishop was present. 



The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 

 States was represented by Bishop Potter, of New 

 York, on the first day of the meeting; and after- 

 ward, Bishop Potter being obliged to leave to 

 meet other engagements, by the Rev. Dr. R. J. 

 Nevin, of the American Episcopal Church in 

 Rome. Of the members of the Reunion Confer- 

 ence held at Bonn in 1875, Bishop Potter, Dr. 

 Nevin, Prof. Lias, of England, and Col. Kireef, of 

 Russia, only were present. At a general recep- 

 tion given the members previous to the opening 

 of the congress an address of welcome was de- 

 livered by Dr. von Schulte, in the name of the 

 Old Catholic Congregation of Bonn. Bishop 

 Weber spoke in response, and said that he was 

 glad to see among them representatives of the 

 German Evangelical Church. " All these differ- 

 ent churches represented," he said, " are not yet 

 outwardly one, but they have all come out of 

 sympathy and interest in the spirit of peace, 

 which is a symptom of the universal inward wish 

 and striving after a uniform organization of 

 Christendom." The congress sermon was 

 preached by Bishop Weber, who also insisted 

 upon the value, and even necessity, of the Old 

 Catholic platform, in that it maintains the de- 

 crees of the first seven councils of the undivided 

 Church. At a meeting of the bishops a detailed 

 report of the present condition of the Old Cath- 

 olic movement in America among emigrants from 

 the Roman Catholic nations of Europe is under- 

 stood to have been discussed. At the first gen- 

 eral meeting of the congress greetings were read 

 by Col. Kireef from the Metropolitan of St. Pe- 

 tersburg, the Proto-Presbyter Jenischew, a num- 

 ber of eminent scholars and archimandrites, and 

 the Patriarch of Constantinople. At an evening 

 meeting addresses were made by the heads of the 

 several Old Catholic churches. Archbishop Gul 

 gave a historical sketch of the condition of the 

 Jansenist Church in Holland during the past two 

 centuries ; Bishop Kozlowski spoke of the growth 

 of his diocese in Chicago, representing that his 

 jurisdiction was accepted by more than 100,000 

 Polish souls; the Bishop-elect of Austria (whose 

 consecration is delayed till a foundation can be 

 raised for the episcopal salary, as is required by 

 the Government) described the progress of Old 

 Catholicism in Bohemia, to which about 7,000 

 souls had been added by the movement called 

 " Los von Rom." The Protestant propaganda 

 was richly provided with money, but the Old 

 Catholics were hindered by the want of it. The 

 Bishop of Salisbury spoke of the insular char- 

 acter of the Church of England, and the lesson it 

 had to learn from the international character of 

 the Old Catholic movement, and urged that ad- 

 vantage be taken of the openings for extension 

 offered it in Austria and among the Poles in 

 America. At the second day's session the Rev. 

 Dr. Nevin, in behalf of Bishop Potter, of New 

 York, presented the greetings and good-will of 

 the House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal 

 Church in the United States. A number of reso- 

 lutions touching practical work were adopted; 

 one dealing with the need of a union for mutual 

 help among the Old Catholic churches (with 

 special reference to the " Los von Rom " move- 

 ment in Austria) ; one advising religious unions 

 for the training of the young in the principles of 

 Old Catholicism; and one affirming the need of 

 a reconciliation between religion and science. A 

 resolution offered by Bishop Weber and passed 

 almost unanimously was to the effect that a re- 

 form of the Roman Catholic Church in a genuine 

 Christian spirit working from within outward is, 

 since July, 1870 (the date of the decree of papal 



