even when the state merely interferes to maintain the national institutions and the public peace; alters, does violence to, our admirable religion, gives exigencies to her not her own, and doctrines of which she had never dreamt, and exposes her to become irreconcilable to the independence of the people, and to all legitimate liberty. Mr. Rouland also gave the history of the syllabus, a copy of which had been in his hands for three years. It had been prepared by Bishop Gerbet, of Perpig nan, and carried to Rome to be used at the nick of time against modern civilization, and to upset this small but estimable party of liberal Catholics. The time proved to be convenient, soon after the Franco-Italian Convention of Sep tember 15, 1864. No less dissatisfied than with the Minister of Public Worship, the Roman Catholics are with the Minister of Public Instruction, who has made to the emperor an elaborate report on the condition of primary education in France, as compared with the leading Protestant countries. It appears from this report that there still are 881,800 childrer between seven and thirteen who are not taught to read; there are still forty per cent. who leave school in ignorance. In 1862, one third of the men of twenty years of age, when called to sign their names on the conscription list, were unable to do so. And twenty-eight per cent. of married men, and forty-three per cent. of married women, were not able to sign the wedding register. the temporal power, if necessary, by French bayonets. He contended that the temporal sovereignty of the Pope is absolutely necessary to the existence of the Roman Catholic religion, and that therefore the people of the pontifical states must be refused the right to change their form of government. Mr. Thiers has thus cut himself loose from the entire progressive party of Europe, who are unanimous in demanding the abolition of the temporal power. He has gained on the other hand, for the first time in his life, the applause of the Ultramontanes, though by no means their confidence; for while they pronounce his political views to be correct, they are by no means satisfied that his theology has become orthodox. The amendment proposed by Thiers received eighty-four votes, a little less than one third of the total vote. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ENGLAND. As no religious census is taken in England, it is impossible to state the exact membership of those religious denominations which do not provide themselves at their stated meetings for a return of the statistics of their Churches. As the Roman Catholic Church does not officially ascertain the number of her members, her numerical strength in England is a matter of controversy. The accession to the Roman Church of many men of high social position has made many, both Catholics and Protestants, believe that she has of late made considerable progress. This opinion, however, is not born out by facts. If we examine, for instance, the official statistics of marriages, we find that the following number of marriages were registered in Catholic Churches in 1859, 1860, 1861: In 1859, 7,756; in 1860, 7,800; in 1861, 7,782. Com The Ultramontane party found some consolation for the hostile attitude of the government in a speech made by Mr. Thiers on the Roman Question. Before the revolution of 1848 Thiers was regarded by the Ultramontane party as one of their most dangerous enemies. In his works he seemed to be a decided Voltairean; as a statesman he demand-pared ed, in 1846, that the Jesuits should be expelled from France. Since 1848, Thiers, like Guizot and most of the statesmen devoted to the interests of the family of Louis Philippe, have deemed it necessary to form an alliance with the Ultramontane party. Thiers, in his speech, undertook to censure the attitude of the French government as not favorable enough to the temporal power of the Pope, and proposed an amendment to the address to the crown, recognizing the necessity of maintaining with the number registered in other Churches, these figures indicate a Catholic population of somewhat more than one million, a figure which is also in harmony with other statistics. If it is in the main correct, and of this we believe there can be no doubt, the Catholie population has increased in a less proportion than the aggregate population of the kingdom. In one respect only the Catholics stand at the head of the religious denominations of England: in the number of convicts furnished to the prisons. It appears, from official about one twenty-fifth of the total popu lation, one fifth of all the prisoners are Catholic. documents laid before the English Par- | Thus while the Catholics constitute liament, that on January 1, 1864, the total prisons in England contained 27,307 prisoners, and that of this number no less than 5,538 were Catholics. ART. IX.-FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. GERMANY. Dr. Spiegel has made another valuable contribution to the literature on the Eastern Religions by a commentary on the Zendavesta. (Commentar über das Avesta, vol. 1. Der Vendidad. Leipsic, 1865.) Dr. Spiegel some years ago published a translation of the Vendidad, and in the prosecution of his study of the sacred books of the Parsees deemed it necessary to learn the Guzerati language, and to study the version of the Vendidad executed in that idiom by the Parsee Aspendiarjee Framjee. In his new commentary on the Vendidad he gives many corrections of his former views, derived from the study of the Guzerati version. A very interesting phenomenon of the present age is the appearance of reformatory schools among the Mohammedans as well as the Hindoos. On the former an interesting essay has been published by H. Sherner, (Die Mutaziliten oder die Freidenker in Islam. Leipsic, 1865,) who believes that this youngest school of Mohammedan freethinkers bids fair to be more successful than their prede cessors. The important work on the History of the Greek Church by Dr. Pichler, lecturer on Roman Catholic Theology at the University of Munich, has been completed by the appearance of the second volume. (Geschichte der Kirchli chen Trennung zwischen dem Orient und Occident. Munich, 1865.) This volume treats, in separate chapters, of the Russian Church, the Hellenic Church, the Nestorians, the Armenians, the Jacobites, the Copts and Abyssinians, the Maronites, and the Modern Protestant Missions in the Levant. Then follows a Historico-Dogmatic Treatise of the Papacy in its antagonistic relation to the Eastern Church, consisting of three chapters: 1. The Primacy and the Church. 2. The Primacy and the Patriarchs. 3. The Primacy and the Dogma. In the last part of the volume are the different theories as to the extent of the papal power prevailing in the Roman Catholic Church since the beginning of the sixteenth century. The work of Dr. Pichler is pronounced by the most competent critics a work of superior excellence. A Greek journal, the "Klio." published at Trieste, says that Dr. Pichler is the first Roman Catholic theologian who, although firmly adhering to the Roman Catholic dogma, has impartially written the history of the great schism. Professor A. Ritschl, of Göttingen, the author of the work on the old Catholic Church, the New Evangelical Church of Berlin, the "Literarische Centralblatt," of Dr. Zarncke, and many other Protestant critics, regard the book as one of the Catholic literature. The conciliatory most important productions of recent spirit of the book toward the Greek Church has caused it to be put in the Roman Index of Prohibited Books, and the author has been summoned by Rome to submit to this sentence of condemnation. Several Ultramontane theologians of Germany, as Professor Hergenrother of Würtzburg, Professor Mittermüller, and others, have, at the same time, severely attacked him. To these Dr. Pichler has replied in a pamphlet entitled Au meine Kritiker, (To my Critics,) in which he defends his work. The eleventh volume of the Ecclesiastical Year Book of Matthes (Kirchliche Chronik, Altona, 1865) presents a brief outline of the Church history of the year 1864. The work is valuable, as far as the history of Germany and some other European countries is concerned, as it is the only periodical covering the ground; but as far as America is con cerned it is more than worthless. On | the religious condition of the United States it gives twenty lines, one half of which consists of the ecclesiastical statistics of Cincinnati, and the other half stating the re-election of Lincoln, the "liberation of the fugitive slaves" by the House of Representatives, and the abolition of slavery in Maryland. Professor Hundeshagen, of Heidelberg, has published the first volume of an important work on the History of the Constitution of the Protestant Churches, principally those of Germany and Switzerland. (Beiträge zur Kirchenverfassungsgeschichte und Kirchenpolitik, insbesondere des Protestantismus. Wiesbaden, vol. 1, 1865.) The first volume contains three essays, treating, 1. Of "the religious and the moral element of Christian piety," and their "influence upon the development of the doctrine and the Church constitution of the earlier Protestantism." 2. Of the Reformation of Zuinglius and the Theocracy at Zurich. 3. Of the distinctive religious peculiarities of Lutheran and Reformed Protestantism, and their influence on Church constitution. Together these three essays present a history of Church Constitution until the end of the sixteenth century. Simultaneously with the celebrated Codex Sinaiticus, Professor Tischendorf discovered, on his last literary journey, a complete copy of the Epistle of Barnabas, of which hitherto a considerable portion was unknown. The publication of the entire epistle has called forth a valuable monograph by Professor Weizsäcker, of Tubingen, entitled, Zur kritik des Barnabasbriefes aur dem Codex Sinaiticus. (Tubingen, 1864.) The author tries to prove that the Epistle was written shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem and after the Epistle to the Hebrews, and not, as has been recently asserted, under the Emperor Hadrian, to a congregation leaning toward Judaism. The apologetic literature has received valuable contributions by a work from Professor Luthardt, of Leipsic, entitled 46 Apologetic Lectures on the Fundamental Truths of Christianity." (Apologetische Vorträge über die Grundwahrheiten des Christenthums. Leipsic, 1864.) In ten popular lectures the author refutes the views of modern infidelity concerning the Personal God, the Creation, Man, Religion, Revelation, the History of Revelation, Paganism and Judaism, the Person of Christ. Of a more speculative character is a work from Professor Auberlen, of Basel, Offenbarung, vol. 2, 1864.) The first on Divine Revelation. (Die Göttliche volume of this work appeared in 1861; the second, published last year, treats of man as a religious being. The death of the author, which occurred at Basel on May 2, 1864, leaves this work incomplete. A biographical sketch of Auberlen, who was highly esteemed as a theological author, is added to the second volume of the above work. A new work on the Constitution and Present Condition of all the Oriental Churches, has been published by Dr. Silbernagle, (Roman Catholic,) Professor of Ecclesiastical Law at the University in Munich. (Verfassung und gegenwärti ger Bestand Sämmtlicher Kirchen des Orients. Landshut, 1865.) The work seems to be more complete than any previous work, and at the same time commendable for accuracy. Among the various editions of the celebrated Encyclical, of December 8, 1864, the one published at Cologne is especially valuable. (Die Encyclica Sr. Heiligkeit des Papstes Pius IX.) It contains the original text, printed after the official edition of Rome, a German translation, as well as the most import ant of the documents referred to in the Encyclical, namely, the Encyclical of November 9, 1846, the Allocutions of December 9, 1854, and of June 9, 1862. An introduction, which is said to have been written by a prominent Catholic theologian, attempts to refute the attacks which have been made upon the Encyclical from the stand-point of political liberty and modern civilization. FRANCE. The French Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques proposed some time ago, as one of its periodical prize essays, "The Philosophy of St. Augustine, its Origin and Character, its Merits and Defects." The prize was won by Mr. Nourrisson, already well known to the literary world by monographs on Leibnitz, Bossuet, and Berulle. In his new work (La Philosophie de Saint Augustin, Paris, 1865, 2 vols.) Mr. Nourrison con tends that St. Augustine's influence was due not so much to his ecclesiastical character as to his metaphysical acumen, and that by maintaining the rights of liberty against the Manicheans while he upheld the claims of divine grace in opposition to the Pelagians, he proved himself the champion of philosophy The first volume of Mr. Nourrisson's work contains a memoir of the bishop and a detailed exposition of his views on certainty, God, the soul, the world, and liberty. In the second we have an account of the principal sources from which Augustine borrowed his ideas, then comes an estimate of the influence which the Augustinian theories exercised, especially during the seventeenth century, and the last chapter is devoted to a critical discussion of these theories themselves. Mr. Nourrisson concludes by saying that cotemporary philosophy may still derive much profit from the writings of Augustine; for while many of the views they embody have been rejected as obsolete or erroneous, the Christian spirit which it is desirable to infuse into the speculations of the present day has nowhere been better exemplified than in the voluminous writings of the Bishop of Hippo. A prominent writer of the "Liberal" (Rationalistic) school of French Protestantism, Th. Bost, contributes a new volume (Le Protestantisme Liberal, Paris, 1865) to the Bibliothèque Philosophique, in which he repudiates as a calumny the epithet négateurs given to his friends and to himself by the orthodox party. Every false idea, he remarks, is a negation, and therefore those who advocate such ideas are the true "deniers," not those who combat them. Mr. Bost maintains that the orthodox clergy of the French Protestant Churches differ widely in their views from the Protestant Church of the sixteenth century, and that if the primitive Huguenots were to reappear they would certainly be excommunicated. The difference between the liberal and the conservative sections of the present Church he regards as only a difference of more or less. Mr. Bost begins by pointing out the errors of Romanism; he then argues that the attempt to fix for ever the dogmatic boundaries of the Church is, on the part of orthodox Protestants, illogical and impossible; and he concludes by examining the principal religious questions of the day, interpret ing them from the point of view of the Philosophique, entitled La Science de It would seem that, in the eyes of all A most important pamphlet on the Roman question has just been published by M. de Persigny, the intimate friend of the French emperor. The pamphlet is in the form of a letter to M. Troflong, President of the French Senate. M. de Persigny begins with stating that he has long had the presentiment that there was some grave secret at Rome, and that he resolved to go there and worm it out. He thinks he has wormed it out, and he gives the result to the world in the present pamphlet. He found, however, that the "great secret was no secret after all, for "it was open as day" at Rome, and appeared to all eyes as clear as the light of the sun. It was simply the existence at Rome, long or ganized, of the enemies of France, and even now holding sway over all-popes, cardinals, religious orders, and govern ments. This party hates the civil legis lation of France, and would, out of hatred of what it calls the revolutionary tendencies of France, imperil the secur ity of twenty popes. It has tried to bend to its yoke the clergy of France, and to overthrow the great work, nearly one hundred years old, of the French Revo lution: Fancy, my dear President, by the side of the cardinals, a whole world of deacons, sub-deacons, monsignori, priests, monks, princes, nobles, advocates, and so forth, spread among scores of religious orders-those orders forming in some sort as many sections of a vast Council of State who study, judge, and decide in all the affairs of Catholicity-congregations of the holy office, the consistory, immunities, propaganda, the index, rites, etc. Fancy this administration of the spiritual government of the universe with a staff of three or four thousand employés, ecclesiastics or laymen, at Rome, and fifteen thousand agents or correspondents abroad; and if you bear in mind that all this hierarchy, all this vast organization, is moved by the same idea, you will not be astonished at the powerlessness of a pope, though he be the best and the most holy of men, to control such a mass. When a party which personifies the interests and the prejudices of another period fills every post and all the approaches of power, and holds dominion over all the public bodies, there is no sovereign in the world capable of turning back the tide of their passions. A prince may doubtless, like Pius IX., by his ineffable goodness, and the touching virtues with which he adorns the pontifical throne, lessen the friction of the violent machine which carries him on, but he cannot change its direction. M. de Persigny conversed at Rome with Cardinal Antonelli and other eminent men, and expressed his opinions to them very freely. His opinion undoubtedly expresses, to a large extent, the views of the French emperor, and it may therefore foreshadow an attempt of solving the Roman question in accordance with these views. The passage recounting these conversations is, there fore, worth extracting. Persigny said to them: tered the head of man. If you are in- I fear much that you are cherishing strange delusions. You probably think that by doing nothing, proposing nothing, and consenting to nothing, you will greatly embarrass us; that, frightened at the prospect of the pope's departure from Rome, we shall end by renouncing the execution of the Convention. Perhaps you imagine, as many of you do not fear to say publicly, that the trouble caused by his departure may weaken public authority in France. Undeceive yourselves; never has a greater illusion enFOURTH SERIES, VOL. XVII.—29 |