172 REV. CHANCELLOR J. J. LIAS, M.A., ON THE DECAY OF 
On that very day the Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, who 
had accepted the invitation to Munich to hold a confirmation, 
died, and Dr. Heykamp subsequently took his place. Three 
years later Dr. Eduard Herzog, formerly Professor of Theology 
at the University of Berne, was consecrated Old Catholic 
Bishop for Switzerland. In Austria, where there were several 
congregations, Dr. Cech was elected Bishop, but the Austrian 
Government refused to allow him to be consecrated, and to this 
day he remains still Bishop elect, though the recent changes in 
the Austrian Constitution make it not improbable that the 
objections to his consecration may be withdrawn. 
Everything that money, influence and numbers could do, was 
done by the Koman Church to crush the infant community. If 
the Old Catholic leaders are to be trusted — and I for one 
believe them and have reason for believing them — Roman 
ecclesiastics stooped to slanders of the vilest kind against men 
who were giving up all for conscience sake. Protestantism was 
scarcely less hostile. The German and Swiss Protestants could 
not understand — cannot yet understand — why these men did not 
become Protestants. And the German Government — govern- 
ments on the Continent interfere more in religious matters than 
we do — was irritated when a third religious body came into 
existence and demanded State recognition. That recognition was 
not denied, but it was grudgingly accorded, and so the State, the 
Roman Catholic and the Protestant Churches united to stifle the 
infant communion in its cradle. As the Lutheran Professor 
Beyschlag, who up to his death warmly championed the move- 
ment, once said, there was no form of persecution, short of death or 
imprisonment, which had not been employed to break up the Old 
Catholic Church. And the Koman system which had for centuries 
been strong enough to bear down all opposition within its pale, 
had created a timid and helpless laity, a still more timid and 
helpless priesthood, and a most timid and helpless Episcopate — 
all of whom were hopelessly ill-adapted for resistance of any 
kind. Well did Lamennais prophesy that any attempt at 
organised resistance to the Papacy would be found almost an 
impossibility. But the “ little flock ” went bravely on its way 
and defied all the combined attempts to put it down. 
Meanwhile the struggle over the infallibility question excited 
the keenest interest in this country. In the earlier stages of 
the struggle the columns of the Guardian were full, week by 
week, of news from Germany, and especially from Munich. But 
with the submission or inaction of all the Bishops present at 
the Council the interest of the Tractarian leaders in the conflict 
