396 



GERMANY. 



siastical posts. 2. That disciplinary authority 

 over priests should be exercised solely by Ger- 

 mans. 3. That education in a German school 

 and university and a state examination were 

 essential to qualify a person for the discharge 

 of clerical functions. A note from Cardinal 

 Jacobini to Herr von Schlozer, Prussian envoy 

 to the Vatican, explained the position taken 

 by the Curia. The Prussian Government in 

 reply, May 5th, expressed willingness to agree 

 to the appointment of vicars without notifica- 

 tion, while requiring it for the priests who are 

 appointed to a parish connected with a bene- 

 fice, so that the Church would be enabled to 

 provide for the reading of the mass and the 

 administration of the sacraments independently 

 of the Government, the only requirements be- 

 ing that the officiating priests should be native 

 Germans who have received the legally pre- 

 scribed education. The Government promised 

 a revision of the May laws, and agreed to re- 

 nounce the right to forbid the appointment of 

 priests, but insisted that the Pontiff should first 

 concede the right of notification, deeming it a 

 point of honor that he should grant the right 

 which is conceded to other governments. The 

 only answer made to the demand of the Pope 

 to have the education of young priests placed 

 under the direction of the bishops was that 

 the Government had already shown much com- 

 pliance with regard to state examinations of 

 candidates and the opening of priests' semina- 

 ries. The Vatican returned an unfavorable 

 answer. The Government, instead of pursu- 

 ing the negotiations in which it continually 

 lost ground, seized the opportunity to execute 

 one of the sudden strokes for which Prince 

 Bismarck is famous, interrupting the negotia- 

 tions by the proposal in the Diet of the new 

 ecclesiastical law, and thus endeavoring to cov- 

 er its retreat by an assumption of independence. 

 The bill embodied larger concessions than were 

 offered in the note of May 5th. The parishes 

 of which the patronage was in the hands of the 

 Government were already provided with priests 

 under the laws of July 14, 1880, and May 31, 

 1882. The present act removed all responsi- 

 bility from the Government for the lack of spir- 

 itual ministrations in the remaining parishes 

 of which the bishops have the patronage. The 

 bill consisted of six clauses : 



The first and most important clause enacts that the 

 bishops shall no longer be required to notify to the 

 Government authorities the names of those candidates 

 for the priestly office whose appointments can uncon- 

 ditionally be canceled, or who are only appointed as 

 substitutes or delegates. The bishops will thus be 

 enabled at once to provide the vacant parishes with 

 chaplains, vicars, adjuncts, etc., without any previous 

 notification to the Government. By clause 2, how- 

 ever, this concession is not to extend to the cases of 

 those priests who are intrusted with the administra- 

 tion of parishes. 



Clause 3 declares that the Ecclesiastical Court is no 

 longer the highest tribunal of appeal for the clergy 

 against the decisions of the Government authorities in 

 matters regarding the appointment of candidates, the 

 discipline in clerical seminaries, or episcopal rights in 

 vacant dioceses. 



Clause 4 provides that the Government authorities 

 shall continue to be entitled to oppose the appoint- 

 ment of any candidate who shall appear to be unfit 

 for an ecclesiastical office on account of his civil or 

 political position, or whose education has not been 

 completed according to the prescribed laws. . The 

 reasons for opposing the appointment of a candidate 

 are always to be given, and the Church authorities 

 will be allowed to appeal against this decision to the 

 Minister of Public ^V orship, who represents the high- 

 est Court of Appeal. 



Clause 5 enacts that the holy sacraments can be ad- 

 ministered by missionary priests in all vacant parishes, 

 as well as in those where the priests have been forbid- 

 den to conduct religious services, under the May laws. 



And clause 6 repeals all former legislation which is 

 contrary to the above five clauses. 



The bill was passed with the exception of 

 the fourth clause. The ecclesiastical courts 

 which administered the veto power over eccle- 

 siastical appointments had been the subject of 

 continual reproaches from the Clericals. The 

 transfer of its jurisdiction to the Ministry of 

 Worship was not, however, looked upon in the 

 light of a concession by the adherents of the 

 Vatican, though satisfaction was expressed 

 with regard to the main provisions of the act. 

 The Pork Question. The prohibition of Amer- 

 ican pork products raised a subject of dissatis- 

 faction and controversy between Germany and 

 the United States. (See PORK, PROHIBITION <>* 

 AMERICAN.) In April the Chancellor chose to 

 take offense at a dispatch from Minister Sar- 

 gent to the Government at Washington, in 

 which the motive for the interdict was stated 

 to be, not fear of trichinosis, but the protec- 

 tion of German hog-growers. Reflections were 

 made also on the lack of harmony between Ger- 

 man public opinion and the Government. This 

 confidential dispatch was reprqduced from a 

 New York paper in the " North-German Ga- 

 zette," and the American minister was angrily 

 attacked. An apology was afterward offered, 

 with comments on the indiscretion of the Amer- 

 ican Government in publishing confidential dis- 

 patches. 



Spanish Treaty. In the latter part of August 

 the members of the Reichstag were startled by 

 a summons to an extraordinary session. When 

 they assembled on August 29th, it was ex- 

 plained to be for the purpose of ratifying the 

 treaty of commerce with Spain. The Emperor 

 had signed it provisionally, expecting to ask 

 from Parliament, when it met regularly, an act 

 of indemnity for this divergence from consti- 

 tutional forms. But organs of the press called 

 in question the right of the Government to 

 act as it had done, and the applicability of the 

 principle of indemnity recognized in other 

 states to the Imperial Constitution. The Pro- 

 gressists assailed the Government for the viola- 

 tion of the Constitution, but the majority sim- 

 ply approved the treaty and the fisheries con- 

 vention, and the Reichstag was then prorogued. 

 The treaty rims until June 30, 1887. 



The most important concession made by Ger- 

 many is the reduction of her dock dues from 

 forty to ten marks, and of her customs duties 

 on southern fruits, fresh grapes, olive-oil, choc- 



