Chapter IV: The Counter-Reformation (23)

§ 206.2. =The Catholic Church.=--After the Greeks in the old
West Russian provinces (§ 151, 3), who had been forcibly united
to Rome in 1596, had again in 1772, in consequence of the first
partition of Poland, come under Russian rule, the government
sought to restore them also to the orthodox national church.
This was first accomplished under Nicholas I., when at the synod
of Polosk in 1839 they themselves spontaneously expressed a wish
to be thus reunited with the mother church. Rome thus lost two
million members. But the allocution directed against this robbery
by Gregory XVI. was without effect, and the public opinion
of Europe saw a case of historical justice in this reunion,
though effected not without severe measures against those who
proved obstinate and rebellious. Yet there always remained a
considerable remnant, about one-third of a million, under the
bishop of Chelun, in the Romish communion. But even these in 1875,
after many disturbances with the prelate Popiel at their head,
almost wholly severed their connection with the pope, and were
again received into the bosom of the orthodox national church.
In a memorial addressed to the emperor for this purpose, they
declared they were led to this on the one hand by the continual
endeavour of the curia and its partisans, by Latinizing their old
Greek liturgy and Polandizing the people, to overthrow their old
Russian nationality, and on the other hand, by their aversion to
the new papal dogmas of the immaculate conception of Mary and the
infallibility of the pope.--The insurrection of the Poles against
Russian rule in 1830, which even Pope Gregory XVI. condemned,
bore bitter fruits for the Catholic church of that country.
The organic statute of 1832 indeed secured anew to the Poles
religious liberty, but the bishops were prohibited holding
any direct communication with Rome, the clergy deprived of all
control over the schools, and the Russian law regarding mixed
marriages made applicable to that province. By an understanding
with the curia in 1847 the choice of the bishops was given to the
emperor, their canonical investiture to the pope. The mildness
with which Alexander II. treated the Poles and the political
troubles in the rest of Europe fostered the hope of restoring
the old kingdom of Poland. Reckless demonstrations were made in
the beginning of 1861, pilgrimages to the graves of the martyrs
of freedom were organized, political memorial festivals were
celebrated in churches, a general national mourning was enjoined,
mourning services were held, revolutionary songs were sung
in churches, etc. The Catholic clergy headed the movement and
canonized it as a religious duty. In vain the government sought
to put it down by making liberal concessions, in vain they
applied to Pius IX. to discountenance it. When in October the
country lay in a state of siege, and the military forced their
way into the churches to apprehend the ringleaders of rebellion,
the episcopal administrator, Bialobezeski, denounced that as
church profanation, had all the Catholic churches in Warsaw
closed, and answered the government’s request to reopen them by
making extravagant demands and uttering proud words of defiance.
The military tribunal sentenced him to death, but the emperor
commuted this to one year’s detention in a fortress, with loss
of all his dignities and orders. Meanwhile the eyes of the pope
had at length been opened. He now confirmed the government’s
appointment of Archbishop Felinsky, who entered Warsaw in
February, 1862, and reopened the churches. After the suppression
of the revolt in 1864, almost all cloisters, as nurseries of
revolution, were abolished; in the following year the whole
property of the church was taken in charge by the State, and
the clergy supported by state pay. The pope, enraged at this,
gave violent expression to his feelings to the Russian ambassador
at Rome during the New Year festivities of 1866, whereupon the
government completely broke off all relations with the curia.
Consequently in 1867 all the affairs of the Catholic church
were committed to the clerical college at St. Petersburg, and
intercourse between the clergy and the pope prohibited. Hence
arose many conflicts with Catholic bishops, whose obstinacy was
punished by their being interned in their dioceses. In 1869 the
Russian calendar was introduced, and Russian made the compulsory
language of instruction. But in 1870 greater opposition was
offered to the introduction of Russian in the public services by
means of translations of the common Polish prayer and psalm-books.
Pietrowitsch, dean of Wilna, read from the pulpit the ukase
referring to this matter, but then cast it together with the
Russian translations into the flames, with violent denunciations
of the government, and gave information against himself to the
governor-general. He was agreeably to his own desire imprisoned,
and then transported to Archangel. The same sentence was
pronounced against several other obstinate prelates and clergy,
among them Archbishop Felinsky, and thus further opposition was
stamped out.--Leo XIII. soon after entering on his pontificate
in 1878 took the first step toward reconciliation. His efforts
reached a successful issue first in February, 1883. The deposed
prelates were restored from their places of banishment, with
promise of a liberal pension, and were allowed to choose their
residences as they pleased, only not within their former dioceses.
In their stead the pope consecrated ten new bishops nominated
by the emperor, who amid the jubilation of the people entered
their episcopal residences. With reference to the Roman Catholic
seminaries and clerical academies at Warsaw, the curia granted
to the government the right of control over instruction in
the Russian language, literature and history, but committed
instruction in canonical matters solely to the bishops, who,
after obtaining the approval of the government, appointed the
rector and inspector and canonical teachers. Vacant pastorates
were filled by the bishops, and only in the case of the more
important was the approval of the government required. As to the
language to be used, it was resolved that only where the people
speak Russian were the clergy obliged to employ that language in
preaching and in their pastoral work.

§ 206.3. =The Evangelical Church.=--The Lutheran church in Russia,
comprising two and a half millions of Germans, Letts, Esthonians
and Finns, is strongest in Livonia, Esthonia and Courland, is the
national church in Finland, and is also largely represented in
Poland, in the chief cities of Russia, and in the numerous German
colonies in South Russia. In 1832 it obtained, for the Baltic
provinces and the scattered congregations in central Russia, a
church constitution and service book, the latter on the basis of
the old Swedish service book, the former requiring all religious
teachers in church and school to accept the Formula of Concord.
Annual provincial synods have the initiative in calling in,
when necessary for legislative purposes, the aid of the general
synod.--In Poland the Reformed and Lutheran churches were in 1828
united under one combined consistory. By an imperial ukase of
1849, however, the independent existence of both churches was
restored. Protestants enjoyed all civil rights and had absolute
liberty in the exercise of their religion; but in central Russia
down to recent times, when a more liberal spirit began to prevail,
they were prohibited putting bells in their churches. The old
prohibition of evangelical preaching and the teaching of religion
in the Russian tongue also continued; but the attempt made for
some decades in St. Petersburg and the surrounding district to
preach the gospel to Germans who had lost their mother tongue, in
the Russian language, has been hitherto ungrudgingly allowed by
the government. Quitting the national church or returning from
it to a church that had been left before, is visited by severe
penalties, and children of mixed marriages, where one parent
belongs to the national orthodox church, are claimed by law for
that church. Only Finland counts among her privileges the right
of assigning children of mixed marriages to the church of the
father. The Lutheran church in Livonia, with the island of Oesel,
suffered considerable, and according to the law of the land
irreparable, loss by the secession of sixty or seventy thousand
Letts and Esthonians to the orthodox church under the widespread
delusion that thereby their economic position would be improved.
Disillusions and regret came too late, and the ever increasing
desire for restoration to the church forsaken in a moment
of excitement could only obtain arbitrary and insufficient
satisfaction in Lutheran baptism of infants seemingly near death,
and in permission at irregular intervals and without previous
announcement to sit at the Lord’s Table according to the Lutheran
rite. In 1865, not indeed legislatively but administratively,
the contracting of mixed marriages in the Baltic provinces
was permitted without the enforcement of the legal enactment
requiring that the children should be trained in the Greek
church. In Esthonia, however, in 1883 there was a new outbreak
of conversions in Leal, where five hundred peasants went over to
the orthodox church, declaring their wish to be of the same faith
as the emperor and the whole of the Russian people. By imperial
decree in 1885 the suspension of the law against withdrawing
again from the national church, which had existed for twenty
years, was abolished. At the instigation of Pobedownoszew the
Imperial Council granted an annual subsidy of 100,000 roubles for
furthering orthodoxy in the Baltic provinces. No evangelical
church could be built in these provinces without the approval of
the orthodox bishop of the diocese, and any evangelical pastor
who should dissuade a member of his church from his purpose
of joining the orthodox church, was liable to punishment.--In
order to supply the want of churches and schools, preachers
and teachers in the Lutheran congregations of Russia, a society
was formed in 1858 similar to the _Gustav-Adolfs-Verein_, under
the supervision of the General Consistory of St. Petersburg,
which has laboriously and zealously endeavoured to improve the
condition of the oppressed church.[563]

§ 207. GREECE AND TURKEY.

In the spirited struggle for liberty Greece freed herself from the tyranny of the Turkish Mohammedan rule and obtained complete civil independence. But the same princes representing all the three principal Christian confessions, who in 1830 gave their sanction to this emancipation within lamentably narrow limits, in 1840 conquered again the Holy Land for the Turks out of the hands of a revolting vassal. And so inextricable were, and still are, the political interests of the Christian States of Europe with reference to the East, that in the London parliament of 1854 it could be affirmed that the existence of Turkey in a condition of utter impotence was so necessary, that if it did not exist, it would require to be created. On two occasions has Russia called out her whole military force to emancipate from the Turkish yoke her Slavic brethren of a common race and common faith, without being able to give the finishing blow to the “sick man” who had the protection of European diplomacy.

§ 207.1. =The Orthodox Church of Greece.=--Deceived in their
expectations from the Vienna Congress, the Greeks tried to
deliver themselves from Turkish tyranny. In 1814 a _Hetairia_ was
formed, branches of which spread over the whole land and fostered
among the people ideas of freedom. The war of independence broke
out in 1821. Its first result was a fearful massacre, especially
in Constantinople. The patriarch Gregorius [Gregory] with his
whole synod and about 30,000 Christians were in three months
with horrid cruelty murdered by the Turks. The London Conference
of 1830 at last declared Greece an independent state, and
an assembly of Greek bishops at Nauplia in 1833 freed the
national church of Greece from the authority of the patriarch of
Constantinople, who was under the control of Turkey. Its supreme
direction was committed to a permanent Holy Synod at Athens,
instituted by the king but in all internal matters absolutely
independent. The king must belong to the national church, but
otherwise all religions are on the same footing. Meanwhile the
orthodox church is fully represented, the Roman Catholic being
strongest, especially in the islands. The University of Athens,
opened in 1856 with professors mostly trained in Germany, has not
been unsuccessful in its task even in the domain of theology.

§ 207.2. =Massacre of Syrian Christians, 1860.=--The Russo-Turkish
war ending in the beginning of 1856, in which France and England,
and latterly also Sardinia took the part of the sick man, left
the condition of the Christians practically unchanged. For though
the Hatti Humayun of 1856 granted them equal civil rights with
the Moslems, this, however well meant on the part of the Sultan
of that time, practically made no improvement upon the equally
well meant Hatti Sherif of Gülhane of 1839. The outbreak of 1860
also proved how little effect it had in teaching the Moslems
tolerance towards the Christians. Roused by Jesuit emissaries
and trusting to French support, the Maronites of Lebanon indulged
in several provoking attacks upon their old hereditary foes the
Druses. These, however, aided by the Turkish soldiery were always
victorious, and throughout all Syria a terrible persecution
against Christians of all confessions broke out, characterized by
inhuman cruelties. In Damascus alone 8,000, in all Syria 16,000
Christians were murdered, 3,000 women taken to the harems, and
100 Christian villages destroyed. After the massacre had been
stopped, 120,000 Christians wandered about without food, clothing,
or shelter, and fled hither and thither in fear of death. Fuad
Pasha was sent from Constantinople to punish the guilty, and
seemed at first to proceed to business energetically; but his
zeal soon cooled, and French troops, sent to Syria to protect
the Christians, were obliged, yielding to pressure from England,
where their presence was regarded with suspicion, to withdraw
from the country in June, 1861.

§ 207.3. =The Bulgarian Ecclesiastical Struggle.=--The Bulgarian
church, with somewhere about two and a half million souls, was
from early times subject to the patriarch of Constantinople
(§ 73, 3), who acted toward it like a pasha. He sold the Bulgarian
bishoprics and archbishoprics to the highest bidders among
the Greek clergy, who were quite ignorant of the language of
the country, and had only one end in view, namely to recoup
themselves by extorting the largest possible revenue. No thought
was given to the spiritual needs of the Bulgarians, preaching
was wholly abandoned, the liturgy was read in a language unknown
to the people. It was therefore not to be wondered at that the
Bulgarian church was for years longing for its emancipation and
ecclesiastical independence, and made every effort to obtain this
from the Porte. Turkey, however, sympathized with the patriarch
till the revolt in Crete in 1866-1869 and threatening political
movements in Bulgaria broke out. Then at last in 1870 the sultan
granted the establishment of an independent Slavic ecclesiastical
province under the designation of the Bulgarian Exarchate, with
liberty to attach itself to the other Slavic provinces upon a
two-thirds majority of votes. The patriarch Gregorius [Gregory]
protested, but the Sublime Porte would not thereby be deterred,
and in May, 1872, Anthimos the Exarch elect was installed. The
patriarch and his synod now stigmatized _Phyletism_, the struggle
for a national church establishment, as accursed heresy, and
excommunicated the exarch and the whole Bulgarian church. Only
the patriarch Cyril of Jerusalem dissented, but he was on that
account on his return home treated with indignity and abuse and
was deposed by a synod at Jerusalem.

§ 207.4. =The Armenian Church.=--To the Gregorian-Armenian
patriarch at Constantinople (§ 64, 3), equally with his orthodox
colleague (§ 67, 7), had been assigned by the Sublime Porte
civil jurisdiction as well as the primacy over all members
of his church in the Turkish empire. When now in 1830, at the
instigation of France, an independent patriarchate with equal
rights was granted to the United Armenians (§ 72, 2), the
twofold dependence on the Porte and on the Roman curia created
difficulties, which in the meantime were overcome by giving the
patriarch, who as a Turkish official exercised civil jurisdiction,
a primacy with the title of archbishop as representative of the
pope. The United Armenians, like the other united churches of
the East, had from early times enjoyed the liberty of using their
ancient liturgy, their old ecclesiastical calendar, and their
own church constitution with free election of their bishops and
patriarchs, and these privileges were left untouched down to 1866.
But when in that year the Armenian Catholic patriarch died,
the archbishop Hassun was elected patriarch, and then a fusion
of the two ecclesiastical powers was brought about, which was
expected to lead to absolute and complete subjection under
papal jurisdiction and perfect assimilation with the Romish
constitution and liturgy, at the same time Hassun with a view
to securing a red hat showed himself eager and zealous in this
business. By the bull _Reversurus_ of 1867 Pius IX. claimed the
right of nominating the patriarchs of all united churches of
the East, of confirming bishops chosen by these patriarchs, in
cases of necessity even choosing these himself, and deciding
all appeals regarding church property. But the Mechitarists of
St. Lazzaro (§ 164, 2) had already discovered the intriguing
designs of France and made these known among their countrymen
in Turkey. These now, while Monsignore Hassun was engaged
combating the infallibility dogma at the Vatican Council of
1870, drove out his creatures and constituted themselves into
a church independent of Rome, without however, joining the
Gregorian-Armenians. The influence of France being meanwhile
crippled by the Prussian victory, the Porte acquiesced in
the accomplished fact, confirmed the appointment of the newly
chosen patriarch Kupelian, and refused to yield to the pope’s
remonstrances and allocutions. In 1874, however, it also
recognised the Hassun party as an independent ecclesiastical
community, but assigned the church property to the party of
Kupelian, and banished Hassun as a fomenter of disturbance, from
the capital. The hearty sympathies which on the outbreak of the
Russo-Turkish war the Roman curia expressed so loudly and openly
for the victory of the crescent over the schismatic Russian cross,
made the Sublime Porte again regard the Hassunites with favour,
so that Hassun in September, 1877, returned to Constantinople,
where the churches were given over to his party and a great
number of the Kupelianists were won over to his side. He was
eagerly aided not only by the French but also by the Austrian
ambassador, and the patriarch Kupelian, now sorely persecuted
from every side, at last resigned his position and went in March,
1879, to Rome to kneel as a penitent before the pope. By an irade
of the sultan, Hassun was now formally restored, and in 1880 he
was adorned with a red hat by Leo XIII. Shortly before this the
last of the bishops of the opposing party, with about 30,000
souls, had given in his submission.

§ 207.5. =The Berlin Treaty, 1878.=--Frequent and severe
oppression, refusal to administer justice, and brutal violence
on the part of the Turkish government and people toward the
defenceless vassals drove the Christian states and tribes of
the Balkan peninsula in 1875 into a rebellion of desperation,
which was avenged, especially in Bulgaria in 1876, by
scandalous atrocities upon the Christians. When the half-hearted
interference of European diplomacy called forth instead of actual
reforms only the mocking sham of a pretended free representative
constitution, Russia held herself under obligation in 1877 to
avenge by arms the wrongs of her brethren by race and creed, but
owing to the threats of England and Austria could not fully reap
the fruits of her dearly bought victory as had been agreed upon
in the Treaty of San Stefano. By the =Berlin Conference=, however,
of 1878 the principalities of Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro,
hitherto under the suzerainty of Turkey, were declared
independent, and to them, as well as to Greece, at the cost of
Turkey, a considerable increase of territory was granted, the
portion between the Balkans and the Danube was formed into the
Christian principality of Bulgaria under Turkish suzerainty, but
East Roumelia, south of the Balkans, now separated from Bulgaria,
obtained the rank of an autonomous province with a Christian
governor-general. To Thessaly, Epirus, and Crete were granted
administrative reforms and throughout the European territory
left to the Porte it was stipulated that full religious and
political rights be granted to members of all confessions.
The administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina was given over
to Austria, and that of Cyprus, by means of a separate treaty,
to England. The greater part of Armenia, lying in Asia, belongs
to Russia.

§ 208. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.[564]

The Republic of the United States of America, existing since the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and recognised by England as independent since the conclusion of Peace in 1783, requires of her citizens no other religious test than belief in one God. Since the settlers had often left their early homes on account of religious matters, the greatest variety of religious parties were gathered together here, and owing to their defective theological training and their practical turn of mind, they afforded a fruitful field for religious movements of all sorts, among which the revivals systematically cultivated by many denominations play a conspicuous part. The government does not trouble itself with religious questions, and lets every denomination take care of itself. Preachers are therefore wholly dependent on their congregations, and are frequently liable to dismissal at the year’s end. Yet they form a highly respected class, and nowhere in the Protestant world is the tone of ecclesiastical feeling and piety so prevailingly high. In the public schools, which are supported by the State, religious instruction is on principle omitted. The Lutheran and Catholic churches have therefore founded parochial schools; the other denominations seek to supply the want by Sunday schools. The candidates for the ministry are trained in colleges and in numerous theological seminaries.

§ 208.1. =English Protestant Denominations.=--The numerous
Protestant denominations belong to two great groups, English
and German. Of the first named the following are by far the most
important:

1. =The Congregationalists= are the descendants of the Pilgrim
Fathers who emigrated in 1620 (§ 143, 4). They profess the
doctrines of the Westminster Confession (§ 155, 1).

2. =The Presbyterians=, of Scotch origin, have the same
confession as the Congregationalists, but differ from them
by having a common church government with strict Synodal
and Presbyterial constitution. By rejecting the doctrine of
predestination the Cumberland Presbyterians in 1810 formed
a separate body and have since grown so as to embrace in the
south-western states 120,000 communicants.

3. =The Anglican Episcopal Church= is equally distinguished
by moderate and solid churchliness. Even here, however,
Puseyism has entered in and the Romish church has made
many proselytes. But when at the general conference of the
Evangelical Alliance at New York in 1873, bishop Cummins
of Kentucky took part in the administration of the Lord’s
Supper in the Presbyterian church and was violently attacked
for this by his Puseyite brethren, he laid the foundation
of a “Reformed Episcopal Church,” in which secession other
twenty-five Episcopal ministers joined. They regard the
episcopal constitution as an old and wholesome ordinance
but not a divine institution, also the Anglican liturgy
and _Book of Common Prayer_, though capable of improvement,
while they recognise the ordinations of other evangelical
churches as valid, and reject as Puseyite the doctrine of
a special priesthood of the clergy, of a sacrifice in the
eucharist, the presence of the body and blood of Christ in
the elements, and of the essential and invariable connection
between regeneration and baptism.

4. =The Episcopal Methodists= in America formed since 1784
an independent body (§ 169, 4). Their influence on the
religious life in the United States has been extraordinarily
great. They have had by far the most to do with the revivals
which from the first they have carried to a wonderful
pitch with their protracted meetings, inquiry meetings,
camp meetings, etc. They reached their climax in the camp
meetings which, under the preaching mostly of itinerant
Methodist preachers frequently in the forest under the
canopy of heaven, produced religious awakening among the
multitudes gathered from all around. Day and night without
interruption they continued praying, singing, preaching,
exhorting; all the horrors of hell are depicted, the
excitement increases every moment, penitent wrestlings with
sighs, sobs, groans, convulsions and writhings, occur on
every side; grace comes at last to view; loud hallelujahs,
thanksgivings and ascription of praise by the converted
mix with the moanings of those on “the anxious bench”
pleading for grace, etc. In San Francisco in 1874 there were
“=Baby-Revivals=,” at which children from four to twelve
years of age, who trembled with the fear of hell, sang
penitential hymns, made confession of sin, and wrote their
names on a sheet in order to engage themselves for ever
for Jesus. Since 1847 the Methodist church had been divided
into two hostile camps, a southern and a northern. The
first named tolerated slavery, while the members of the
latter were decided abolitionists and excommunicated all
slave-owners as unworthy of the name of Christian. Another
party, the Protestant Methodists, has blended the episcopal
and congregational constitution.

5. =The Baptists= are split up into many sects. The most
numerous are the Calvinistic Baptists. Their activity in
proselytising is equally great with their zeal for missions
to the heathen. In opposition to them the Free-Will Baptists
are Arminian and the Christian Baptists have adopted
Unitarian views.[565]

§ 208.2. =The German Lutheran Denominations.=--The German
emigration to America began in Penn’s time. In the organization
of church affairs, besides Zinzendorf and the Herrnhut
missionaries, a prominent part was taken by the pastor
Dr. Melchior Mühlenberg (died 1787), a pupil of A. H. Francke,
and the Reformed pastor Schlatter from St. Gall; the former
sent by the Halle Orphanage, the latter by the Dutch church.
The Orphanage sent many earnest preachers till rationalism broke
in upon the society. As at the same time the stream of German
emigration was checked almost completely for several decades,
and so all intercourse with the mother country ceased, crowds
of Germans, impressed by the revivals, went over to the
Anglo-American denominations, and in the German denominations
themselves along with the English language entered also English
Puritanism and Methodism. In 1815 German emigration began again
and grew from year to year. At the synod of 1857 the Lutheran
church with 3,000 pastors divided into three main divisions:

1. The American Lutheran church had become in language,
customs, and doctrine thoroughly Anglicised and Americanized;
Zwinglian in its doctrine of the sacraments, it was Lutheran
in scarcely anything but the name, until in its chief
seminary at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania in 1850 a reaction
set in in favour of genuine Lutheran and German tendencies.

2. A greatly attenuated Lutheranism with unionistic sympathies
and frequent abandonment of the German language also found
expression in the congregations of the Old Pennsylvanian
Synod.

3. On the other hand, the strict Lutheran church held
tenaciously to the exclusive use of the German language
and the genuine Lutheran confession. The Prussian emigration
with Grabau and the Saxon Lutheran settlers with Stephan
constituted its backbone (§ 194, 1). To them a number of
Bavarian Lutherans attached themselves who had emigrated
under the leadership of Löhe, whose missionary institute
at Neuendettelsau supplied them with pastors. The Saxon
Lutherans were meanwhile grouped together in the Missouri
Synod, which Löhe’s missionaries also joined, so that it
soon acquired much larger proportions than the Buffalo Synod
formed previously by the Prussian Lutherans under Grabau.
But very soon the two synods had a violent quarrel over
the idea of office and church which, owing to the reception
by the Missouri Synod of several parties excommunicated
by the Buffalo Synod, led to the formal breach of church
fellowship between the two parties. The Missouri Synod, with
Dr. Walther at its head, attached all importance to sound
doctrine; the clerical office was regarded as a transference
of the right of the congregation and excommunication as
a congregational not a clerical act. The Buffalo Synod,
on the other hand, in consequence of serious conflict with
pietistic elements, had been driven into an overestimation
of external order, of forms of constitution and worship, and
of the clerical office as of immediately divine authority,
and carried this to such a length as led to the dissolution
of the synod in 1877. Löhe’s friends, who had not been able
to agree with either party, formed themselves into the Synod
of Iowa, with their seminary at Wartburg under Fritschel.
On all questions debated between the synods they took
a mediating position. The Missourians, however, would
have nothing to do with them, while those of Buffalo long
maintained tolerably friendly relations with them. But the
historical view of the symbols taken by the Iowans, their
inclination toward the new development of Lutheran theology,
and above all their attitude toward biblical chiliasm, which
they wished to treat as an open question, seemed to those of
Buffalo, as well as to the Missourians, a falling away from
the church confession, and led to their excommunication by
that party also.

In opposition to all this splitting up into sections a General
Council of the Lutheran Church in America was held in 1866, which
sought to combine all Lutheran district synods, of which twelve,
out of fifty-six, with 814 clergymen, joined it, Iowa assuming
a friendly and Missouri a distinctly hostile attitude. The
ninth assembly at Galesburg in Illinois in 1875 laid down as
its fundamental principle, “Lutheran pulpits only for Lutheran
preachers, and Lutheran altars only for Lutheran communicants.”
The native Americans, however, insisted upon exceptions being
allowed, _e.g._ in peril of death, etc. On the question of the
limits of these exceptions, however, subsequent assemblies have
not been able to agree.

§ 208.3. But also in the Synodal Conference founded and
led by the Missouri Synod, embracing five synods, doctrinal
controversies sprang up in 1860. A large number with Dr. Walther
at their head held a strict doctrine of =predestination= which
they regarded as the mark of genuine Lutheranism. God has,
they taught, chosen a definite number of men from eternity to
salvation; these shall and must be saved. Salvation in Christ
is indeed offered to all, but God secures it only for His elect,
so that they are sure of it and cannot lose it again, not indeed
_intuitu fidei_ but only according to His sovereign grace.
Even one of the elect may seem temporarily to fall from grace,
but he cannot die without returning into full possession of it.
Prof. Fritschel protested against this in 1872 as essentially
Calvinistic, and opposition also arose in the Missouri Pastoral
Conference. Prof. Asperheim, of the seminary of the Norwegian
Synod at Madison in Wisconsin, who first pronounced against it
in 1876, was deprived of his office and obliged to withdraw from
the synod. The controversy broke out in a violent form at the
conferences of about 500 pastors held at Chicago in 1880 and
at Milwaukee three months later in 1881, at the former of which
Prof. Stellhorn of Fort Wayne, at the latter Prof. Schmidt
of Madison, offered a vigorous opposition. Walther closed the
conference with the words: “You ask for war, war you shall have.”
The result was that the whole of the Ohio Synod and a large
portion of the Norwegian Wisconsin Synod, broke away from
communion with the Missouri Synod.--Walther and his adherents
went so far in their fanaticism as to pronounce not only their
American opponents but all the most distinguished Lutheran
theologians of Germany, Philippi as well as Hofmann, Luthardt
as well as Kahnis, Vilmar as well as Thomasius, Harms as well
as Zöckler, etc., bastard theologians, semipelagians, synergists
and rationalists, and to refuse church fellowship not only with
all Lutheran national churches in Europe, but also with German
Lutheran Free Churches, which did not unconditionally attach
themselves to them. These Missouri separatist communities, though
everywhere quite unimportant, are in Europe strongest in the
kingdom of Saxony; they have also a few representatives in Nassau,
Baden, Württemberg, Bavaria and Hesse.

§ 208.4. =German-Reformed and other German-Protestant
Denominations.=--The German-Reformed church has its seminary
at Mercersburg in Pennsylvania. Its confession of faith is
the Heidelberg Catechism, its theology an offshoot of German
evangelical union theology, but with a distinctly positive
tendency. Although the union theology there prevailed among the
Reformed as well as the Lutherans, a German Evangelical Church
Union was formed at St. Louis in 1841 which wished to set aside
the names Reformed and Lutheran. It established a seminary at
Marthasville in Missouri. The Herrnhuters are also represented in
America. Several German Methodist sects have recently sprung up:

1. The “United Brethren in Christ,” with 500 preachers, founded
by a Reformed preacher Otternbein (died 1813).

2. The “Evangelical Communion,” commonly called
_Albrechtsleute_, founded by Jac. Albrecht, originally a
Lutheran layman, whom his own followers ordained in 1803,
with 500 or 600 preachers working zealously and carrying
on mission work also in Germany (§ 211, 1).

3. The Weinbrennians or Church of God, founded by an
excommunicated Reformed pastor of that name in 1839. They
carry the Methodist revivalism to the most extravagant
excess and are also fanatical opponents of infant baptism.

§ 208.5. =The Catholic Church.=--A number of English Catholics
under Lord Baltimore settled in Maryland in 1634. The little
community grew and soon filled the land. There alone in the whole
world did the Roman Catholic church though dominant proclaim
the principle of toleration and religious equality. Consequently
Protestants of various denominations crowded thither, outnumbered
the original settlers, and rewarded those who had hospitably
received them with abuse and oppression. The Catholics were
also treated in other states as idolaters and excluded from
public offices and posts of honour. Only after the Declaration
of Independence in 1783 was this changed by the sundering of the
connection of church and state and the proclamation of absolute
religious liberty. The number of Catholics was greatly increased
by numerous emigrations, specially from Ireland and Catholic
Germany. They now claim seven million members, with a cardinal
at New York, 13 archbishops, 64 bishops, about 7,000 churches and
chapels. A beautiful cathedral was erected in New York in 1879,
the immense cost of which, exceeding all expectation, was at last
defrayed by very unspiritual and unecclesiastical methods, _e.g._
lotteries, fairs, dramatic exhibitions, concerts, and even dearly
sold kisses, etc. The Roman Catholics have also a university at
St. Louis, 80 colleges, and 300 cloisters.

§ 209. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC STATES OF SOUTH AMERICA.

To the predominantly Protestant North America the position of the Roman Catholic states of South America forms a very striking contrast. Nowhere else was the influence and power of the clergy so wide-spread and deeply rooted, nowhere else has the depravation of Catholicism reached such a depth of superstition, obscurantism, and fanaticism. During the second and third decades of our century the Spanish states, favoured by the revolutionary movement in the mother country, one after another asserted their independence, and the Portuguese Brazil established herself as an independent empire under the legitimate royal prince of Portugal, Pedro I. in 1822. Although the other new states adopted a republican constitution, they could not throw aside the influence of the Catholic clergy and carry out the principles of religious freedom proclaimed in their constitutions. The Catholicism of the Creoles, half-castes, and mulattoes was of too bigoted a kind and the power of the clergy too great to allow any such thing. Mexico went furthest in the attempt, and Brazil, under Dom Pedro II. from 1831, astonished the world by the vigorous measures of its government in 1874 against the assumptions of the higher clergy.--In spite of all hindrances a not inconsiderable number of small evangelical congregations have been formed in Romish America, partly through emigration and partly by evangelization.

§ 209.1. =Mexico.=--Of all the American states, Mexico, since its
independence in 1823, has been most disturbed by revolutions and
civil wars. The rich and influential clergy, possessing nearly
a half of all landed property, was the factor with which all
pretenders, presidents and rulers had to reckon. After most
of the earlier governments had supported the clergy and been
supported by them, the ultimately victorious liberal party
under president Juarez shook off the yoke in 1859. He proclaimed
absolute religious freedom, introduced civil marriage, abolished
cloisters, pronounced church possessions national property and
exiled the obstinate bishops. The clerical party now sought
and obtained foreign aid. Spain, France and England joined in
a common military convention in 1861 in supporting certain claims
of citizens repudiated by Juarez. Spain and England soon withdrew
their troops, and Napoleon III. openly declared the purpose of
his interference to be the strengthening of the Latin race and
the monarchical principle in America. At his instigation the
Austrian Grand-Duke Maximilian was elected emperor, and that
prince, after receiving the pope’s blessing in Rome, began
his reign in 1864. Distrusted by all parties as a stranger,
in difficulties with the curia and clergy because he opposed
their claims to have their most extravagant privileges restored,
shamefully left in the lurch by Napoleon from fear of the
threatening attitude of the North American Union, and then
sold and betrayed by his own general Bazaine, this noble
but unfortunate prince was at last sentenced by Juarez at a
court-martial to be shot in 1867. Juarez now maintained his
position till the end of his life in 1872, and strictly carried
out his anticlerical reforms. After his death clericalism again
raised her head, and the Jesuits expelled from Guatemala swarmed
over the land. Yet constitutional sanction was given to the
Juarez legislation at the congress of 1873. The Jesuits were
driven across the frontiers, obstinate priests as well as a great
number of nuns, who had gathered again in cloisters and received
novices, were put in prison.--Also =Evangelization= advanced
slowly under sanction of law, though regarded with disfavour
by the people and interfered with often by the mob. It began
in 1865 with the awakening of a Catholic priest Francisco
Aguilar and a Dominican monk Manuel Aguas, through the reading
of the Scriptures. They laid the foundation of the “_Iglesia
de Jesus_” of converted Mexicans, with evangelical doctrine and
apostolic-episcopal constitution, which has now 71 congregations
throughout the whole country with about 10,000 souls. This
movement received a new impulse in 1869, when a Chilian-born
Anglican episcopal minister of a Spanish-speaking congregation
in New York, called Riley, took the control of it and was in 1879
consecrated its bishop. Besides this independent “_Church of
Jesus_” North American missionaries of various denominations
have wrought there since 1872 with slow but steady success.

§ 209.2. =In the Republics of Central and Southern America=, when
the liberal party obtained the helm of government through almost
incessant civil wars, religious freedom was generally proclaimed,
civil marriage introduced, the Jesuits expelled, cloisters shut
up, etc. But in =Ecuador=, president Moreno, aided by the clergy,
concluded in 1862 a concordat with the curia by which throughout
the country only the Catholic worship was tolerated, the bishops
could condemn and confiscate any book, education was under the
Jesuits, and the government undertook to employ the police in
suppressing all errors and compelling all citizens to fulfil all
their religious duties. And further the public resolved in 1873,
although unable to pay the interest of the national debt, to hand
over a tenth of all state revenues to the pope. But Moreno was
murdered in 1875. The Jesuits, who were out of favour, left Quito.
The tithe hitherto paid to the pope was immediately withheld,
and in 1877 the concordat was abrogated. As Ecuador in Moreno,
so =Peru= at the same time in Pierola had a dictator after the
pope’s own heart. The republic had his misgovernment to thank for
one defeat after another in the war with Chili.--=Bolivia=
in 1872 declared that the Roman Catholic religion alone would
be tolerated in the country, and suffered, in common with Peru,
annihilating defeats at the hand of Chili.--When at St. Iago in
Chili, during the festival of the Immaculate Conception in 1863,
the Jesuit church La Compania was burnt and in it more than 2,000
women and children consumed, the clergy pronounced this disaster
an act of grace of the blessed Virgin, who wished to give the
country a vast number of saints and martyrs. But here, too,
the conflicts between church and state continued. In 1874 the
Chilian episcopate pronounced the ban against the president and
the members of the national council and of the Lower House who
had favoured the introduction of a new penal code which secured
liberty of worship, but it remained quite unheeded. When then the
archiepiscopal chair of St. Iago became vacant in 1878, the pope
refused on any condition to confirm the candidate appointed by
the government. After the decisive victory over Peru and Bolivia,
the government again in December, 1881, urgently insisted upon
their presentation. The curia now sent to Chili, avowedly to
obtain more accurate information, an apostolic delegate who
took advantage of his position to stir up strife, so that the
government was obliged to insist upon his recall. As the curia
declined to do so, his passports were sent to the legate in
January, 1883, and a presidential message was addressed to the
next congress which demanded the separation of the church and
state, with the introduction of civil marriage and register of
civil station, as the only remaining means for putting down the
confusion caused by papal tergiversation. The result of the long
and heated debates that followed was the promulgation of a law
by which Catholicism was deprived of the character of the state
religion and the perfect equality of all forms of worship was
proclaimed.--=Guatemala= in 1872 expelled the Jesuits whose power
and wealth had become very great. In 1874 the president Borrias
opened a new campaign against the clergy by forbidding them to
wear the clerical dress except when discharging the duties of
their office, and closing all the nunneries.--In =Venezuela=, in
1872, Archbishop Guevara of Caracas, who had previously come into
collision with the government by favouring the rebels, forbade
his clergy taking part in the national festival, and put the
cathedral in which it was to be celebrated under the interdict.
Deposed and banished on this account, he continued from the
British island of Trinidad his endeavours to stir up a new
rebellion. The president, Guzman Blanco, after long fruitless
negotiations with the papal nuncio, submitted in May, 1876, to
the congress at St. Domingo the draft of a bill, which declared
the national church wholly independent of Rome. The congress
not only homologated his proposals, but carried them further,
by abolishing the episcopal hierarchy and assigning its revenues
to the national exchequer, for education. Now at last the Roman
curia agreed to the deposition of Guevara and confirmed the
nomination of his previously appointed successor. But president
Blanco now asked congress to abolish the law, and this was agreed
to.--In the United States of =Colombia= since 1853, and in the
=Argentine Republic= since 1865, perfect liberty of faith and
worship have been constitutionally secured. From the latter state
the Jesuits had been banished for a long time but had managed
to smuggle themselves in again. When in the beginning of 1875
Archbishop Aneiros of Buenos Ayres addressed to the government
which favoured the clerical party rather than to the congress
which was the only competent court, a request to reinvest the
Jesuits with the churches, cloisters, and properties held by them
before their expulsion, a terrible outbreak took place, which
the archbishop intensified to the utmost by issuing a violent
pastoral. A mob of 30,000 men, convened by the students of the
university, wrecked the palace of the archbishop, then attacked
the Jesuit college, burnt all its furniture and ornaments on
the streets and by means of petroleum soon reduced the building
itself to flames. Only with difficulty did the military succeed
in preventing further mischief. In October, 1884, the papal
nuncio was expelled, because, when the government decidedly
refused his request to prevent the spread of Protestant teaching
and to place Sunday schools under the oversight of the bishops,
he replied in a most violent and passionate manner. About the
same time the republic of =Costa-rica= issued a law forbidding
all religious orders, pronouncing all vows invalid, and
threatening banishment against all who should contravene these
enactments, and also an education act which forbade all public
instruction apart from that provided by the State.

§ 209.3. =Brazil.=--In Brazil down to 1884, the “Catholic
Apostolic Roman Religion” was, according to the constitution,
the religion of the empire. But from 1828 there was a Protestant
congregation in Rio de Janeiro, and through the inland districts,
in consequence of immigration, there were 100 small evangelical
congregations, with twenty-five ordained pastors, whose forms
of worship were of various kinds. In earlier times Protestant
marriage was regarded as concubinage, but in 1851 a law was
passed which gave it civil recognition. But the bishops held
to their previous views and demanded of married converts a
repetition of the ceremony. Since 1870, however, the government
has energetically opposed the claims of the clergy who wished
only to acknowledge the authority of Rome. Protestant marriages
were pronounced equally legitimate with Catholic marriages,
no civil penalties are incurred by excommunication, all papal
bulls are subject to the approval of the government, and it was
insisted that announcement should be made of all clergy nominated.
The clergy considered freemasonry the chief source of all this
liberal current, and against it therefore they directed all their
forces. The pope assisted by his brief of May, 1873, condemning
freemasonry. At the head of the rebel prelates stood Don
Vitalis Gonsalvez de Oliveira, bishop of Olinda and Pernambuco.
He published the papal brief without asking the imperial
permission, pronounced the ban upon all freemasons and suspended
the interdict over all associations which refused to expel
masonic brothers from their membership. In vain the government
demanded its withdrawal. It then accused him of an attack
upon the constitution. The supreme court ordered his detention,
and he was placed in the state prison at Rio de Janeiro in
January, 1874. The trial ended by his being sentenced to four
years’ imprisonment, which the emperor as an act of grace
commuted to detention in a fortress, and set him free in a
year and a half. In consequence of this occurrence the Jesuits
were, in 1874, expelled from the country. The increasing advent
of monks and nuns from Europe led the government, in 1884, to
appoint a commission to carry out the law already passed in 1870,
for the secularization of all monastic property after providing
pensions for those entitled to support. In the same year all
naturalized non-Catholics were pronounced eligible for election
to the imperial parliament and to the provincial assemblies. The
members belonging to the evangelical churches now number about
50,000, of whom 30,000 are Germans.[566]

V. Opponents of Church and of Christianity.

§ 210. SECTARIANS AND ENTHUSIASTS IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
AND ORTHODOX RUSSIAN DOMAINS.

It cannot be denied that since the Tridentine attempt to define the church doctrine far fewer sects condemning the church as such have sprung from Roman Catholicism than from Protestantism. Yet such phenomena are not wanting in the nineteenth century. Their scarcity is abundantly made up for by the numberless degenerations and errors (§ 191) which the Catholic church or its representatives in the higher and lower grades of the clergy not only fell into, but actually provoked and furthered, and thus encouraged an unhealthy love for religious peculiarities. Were the absence of new heretical, sectarian and fanatical developments something to be gloried in for itself alone, the Eastern church, with its absolute stability, would obtain this distinction in a far higher degree. In the Russian church, however, the multitude of sects which amid manifold oppressions and persecutions continue to exist to the present day, in spite of many persistent and even condemnable errors, witnesses to a deep religious need in the Russian people.

§ 210.1. =Sects and Fanatics in the Roman Catholic Domain=
(§ 187, 6-8, § 190).--On the Catholic Irvingites see § 211, 10.

1. =The Order of New Templars= sprang from the Freemasons
(§ 172, 2). Soon after their establishment in France the
Jesuits sought to carry out their own hierarchical ideas.
The fable of an uninterrupted connection between freemasonry
as a “temple of humanity” and the Templars of the Middle
Ages, and the introduction therewith in their secret
ceremonies of exercises, borrowed from the chivalry of
romance, afforded a means toward this end. The idea was
started in the Jesuit college at Claremont and was approved
and accepted by the local lodge. In A.D. 1754 a great
number of their noble members, who were disgusted with the
Jesuit templar farce, withdrew in order as “New Templars”
to continue the old order in the spirit of modern times. In
consequence, however, of the revolution that broke out in
A.D. 1789 they could no longer hold their ground as a band
of nobles. Napoleon favoured the reorganization of the order
freed from those limits. The day of Molay’s death (§ 112, 7)
was publicly celebrated with great pomp in Paris, A.D. 1808
and the order spread among all French populations. On the
Bourbon restoration the grand-master was, at the instigation
of the Jesuits, cast into prison and the order suppressed.
After the July revolution he was liberated and a new temple
was opened in Paris in A.D. 1833. The show-loving Parisians
for a long time took pleasure in the peculiar rites and
costume of the templars. When this interest declined the
order passed out of view. Its religion, which professed
to be a primitive revelation carried down in the Greek and
Egyptian mysteries, from which Moses borrowed, then further
developed by Christ and transmitted in esoteric tradition by
John and his successors the grand-masters of the templars,
taught a divine trinity of being, act and consciousness, the
eternity of the world alongside of God and an indwelling of
God in man. It declared the Roman Catholic church to be the
only true Christianity (_église chrétienne primitive_). Its
sacred book consisted of an apocryphal gospel of John in
accordance with its own notions.

2. On the communistic society of =St. Simonians=, which also
sprang up in France, see § 212, 2.

3. St. Simon’s secretary was =Aug. Comte=, the founder of the
Positivist philosophical school (§ 174, 2) and he maintained
intimate relations with his master all through life. In
his later years he undertook by carrying his philosophical
doctrine into the practical domain to sketch out a “religion
of humanity,” and thus became the founder of a Positivist
religious sect. The men of science indeed who had adopted
his philosophical principles (Littré, Renan, Taine, Lewes,
Leslie Stephens, Tyndall, Huxley, Draper, etc.), repudiate
it; but in the middle and lower ranks some were found
longing for an object of worship, who endeavoured on the
basis of his _Calendrier positiviste_ and _Catechisme
positiviste_ to form a religious society for the worship
of humanity. His festival calendar divides the year into
thirteen months of four weeks each, named after the thirteen
great benefactors of mankind (among whom Christ does not
appear), while the weeks are named after lesser heroes. By
the profound veneration of woman, which savours greatly of
Mariolatry, as well as by the fantastic worship of heroes,
geniuses and scholars, which is a mimicry of the popish
saint worship, and by the adoption of a sacerdotalism like
that of Catholicism, this religion of humanity shows itself
to be an antichristian growth on Roman Catholic soil.

§ 210.2.

4. =Thomas Pöschl=, in the second decade of the century,
presents an instance of a degeneration of originally
pietistic tendencies into mischievous fanaticism. A
Catholic priest at Ampfelwang near Linz, he sought under
the influence of Sailer’s mysticism to awaken in his
congregation a more lively Christianity by means of
prayer meetings and the circulation of tracts, in which
he proclaimed the approaching end of the world. When the
district in which he lived was, in 1814, attached to Austria,
he was committed to prison, and his followers accepted as
their leader the peasant =Jos. Haas=, who led them further
still into fanatical excesses. His fanaticism at length went
so far that on Good Friday of 1817 a young maiden belonging
to their party suffered a voluntary death after the example
of Christ for her brothers and sisters. Pöschl professed the
deepest horror at this cruel deed for which he was blamed.
He died in close monastic confinement in 1837.

5. The Antinomian sect of the =Antonians=, most numerous in
the Canton Bern, had its beginning among the Roman Catholics.
Its founder was Antoni Unternährer, born and reared at
Shüpfheim, near Lucerne, in the Catholic faith. From 1802
he resided at Amfoldingen, near Thun, where he stood in
high repute among the peasants as a quack doctor, gave
himself out as the son of God a second time become man, and
proclaimed by word and writing the perfect redemption from
the curse of the law by the introduction of the true freedom
of the sons of God, which was to show itself first of all
in the absolutely unrestricted intercourse of the sexes.
After two years’ confinement in a house of correction he was
banished from the Canton Bern and transported to his native
place, where, abandoning all pastoral duties, he died in a
police cell in 1814. The sect, which had meanwhile spread
widely, and at Gsteig near Interlaken had obtained a new
leader in the person of Benedict Schori, a third incarnation
of Christ, could not be finally suppressed, notwithstanding
the liberal use of the prison, till the beginning of 1840.
Even at this day scattered remnants of Antonians are to be
found in Canton Bern.