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ment. For the present the Rationalists seem to have completely carried their point in the grandduchy of Baden, where they claim all the lay representatives at the General Synod, and one half of the clerical, as members of their party; and in the United Evangelical Church of the Palatinate, where all congregations, except about ten, have obtained permission from the secular government to retain or to reintroduce the old Rationalistic hymn book. The party organs feel confident that by means of synods, one half of whose members will consist of chosen representatives of the laity, they will get control of the majority of the German Churches.

Among the peculiar institutions of the old Protestant Churches of Germany, which have been of late revived, the parochial visitations have attracted more than common attention. At the time of the Reformation they were frequently held by Luther, Melancthon, Bugenhagen, and the other reformers. For a long time they were entirely discontinued, till the late king of Prussia | called them again into existence. Such a parochial visitation is held by a committee composed of clerical and respect. able temporal members, the former being chosen by the Superior Ecclesiastical Council, which also elect a member as a leader of the committee. The revival of this arrangement has the warm approval of the High Church Lutheran and the Evangelical parties. Under the present king there arose at first a fear that it would he discontinued, but of late an other parochial visitation has been held by the Superintendent-General, Dr. Koffmann, in Silesia. Wherever the committee goes preaching is carried on, (first the pastor of the community visited preaches, then members of the committee,) after which the youth are examined, also partly by their own teacher, partly by a member of the committee. After the examination the pastor and teacher receive suggestions in private from the committee upon points in which advice is needed. After this the fathers of families belonging to the community, and the youth of both sexes, are brought up and questioned. The visitations are said to have hitherto been followed in almost every instance by a perceptible awakening to Christian life, although frequently the opponents of the visitation had succeeded in arousing against it a powerful commotion.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.Gern ny is beginning to furnish a large contingent to the number of Roman Catholic writers who admit that the abolition of the temporal power, whether in itself right or wrong, has become an inevitable necessity. But it has taken both Roman Catholics and Protestants by surprise that even Dr. Döllinger, the greatest Roman Catholic scholar now living, has expressed himself in this way. In a public lecture he has taken the ground that the temporal power had not only become an impossibility, but that its abolition would redound to the greater glory of the Church. The declaration made a deep sensation throughout the Catholic world, and the majority of the ultramontane papers violently assailed it. Somewhat intimidated by the great agitation thus provoked, Dr. Döllinger has since issued another declaration-that he did not mean to justify the insurrection of the papal subjects and the annexation of papal territory to Sardinia; but he has never recanted his main position, that the abolition of the temporal power would be a blessing for the Church, and not as the bishops and most of the Roman Catholic papers have commonly represented it, a great blow to her best interests. There the controversy now rests. Dr. Döllinger has been as violently assailed after his explanatory declaration as before, and the papers are still discussing the good or bad results of the downfall of the temporal power. Three of the most influential Roman Catholic papers of Germany have taken side with Dr. Döllinger.

The Diets of the German States continue to protest against the large concessions which some of the Protestant powers have been prevailed upon to make the pope. The Second Chamber of Wurtemberg has declared its determination to refuse its consent to the levy of taxes unless the government respects the resolutions of the Legislature and the will of the people respecting the nonexecution of the concordat, In the Duchy of Nassau the Second Chamber has also declared itself against a convention which the duke had concluded with the Roman Catholic bishop of the coun try, and in which, likewise, undue concessions had been made to the Roman hierarchy.

FRANCE.

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been a deep religious movement in Paris, similar, although on a smaller scale, to the revivals in the United States and Ireland. Two Englishmen, Mr. Radcliffe and Mr. Henry, held from April 18 to June 3 special meetings for preaching and prayer, and although they understood very little of French and their addresses had to be interpreted, there was an immense crowd of attendants, and more than three hundred conversions have been reported.

The Rationalistic party in the State Churches have lost of late so much ground in the Churches and societies of Protestant France that it has been considered necessary to make another great effort to rally the scattered forces. They have therefore formed a so-called "Liberal Protestant Union," which demands absolute freedom of preaching for every pulpit, and will, in particular, endeavor to secure the election of Rationalists into the Presbyteries. Their manifesto has been felt by the evangelical portion of the Church as a call to renewed energy, and the result of the next election is therefore awaited with unusual interest as a test of the comparative strength of the two parties.

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The evangelical portion of the Reformed Church are becoming more and more unanimous in demanding from the French government the re-establishment of the General Synod as the supreme board of the Church. The question came up for discussion at the late National Conferences at Paris, a gathering of ministers of the Reformed and the Lutheran State Churches, and after a thorough debate the unanimous vote of the assembly was affirmative; of eighty-seven members only one, a leading Rationalist, abstained. A letter to the Minister of Public Worship was voted paragraph by paragraph. A zealous layman, M. de Coninck, who has unceasingly by his pen called attention to the necessity of restoring the National Synod, has brought out a new pamphlet on the subject, which is liberally distributed throughout the Churches. He takes the ground that when once the National Synod is formed and properly constituted it must clearly define the doctrinal basis of the Church; and that if ever the views of the Rationalistic "Protestant Union," referred to above, should be adopted by it, the orthodox should form themselves into a free Church.

Protestants, which after having been long confined to South Africa were last year extended to China and Hayti, are likely now to find another important field in Tahiti. The French protectorate which was imposed on the island under Louis Philippe has not had the expected effect-to gain the islanders for the Roman Catholic Church; but Protestantism, organized throughout the island under native evangelists, is still considered the National Church, and the Tahitian Legislature, in consideration of the now existing political connection with France, has expressed a wish that two Protestant French pastors may be sent to them, offering them at the same time a suitable salary.

ITALY.

THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.-The Waldensian Seminary, whose transfer from the retired valleys of Piedmont to Florence, the Italian Athens, raised in all parts of the Protestant world so great expectations for the future of Italian Protestantism, closed about the middle of July its first session at its new seat. There were ten students on the roll, one of whom had returned to the valleys for ordination, and another was in bad health. All of the eight who presented themselves for examination acquitted themselves with great credit. Five English ministers were present, who declared themselves highly gratified with the result.

By the appointment of Baron Ricasoli as Prime Minister of Italy, the Protestants have received an even more decided advocate of their political and civil rights than Cavour. He checks the intrigues of the Ultramontane party, who, unfortunately, find still too many of the subaltern officers willing to lend the aid of the secular arm for the annoyance and oppression of Protestant congregations. This continuance of toleration has enabled the Protestants to strengthen their establishments in a number of the principal cities of the peninsula. In Leghorn their place of worship, after the most bitter and obstinate opposition on the part of the priests, was opened for public service on June 19, and has since then been crowded with attentive and most respectable audiences without any opposition. One of the most intelligent and devoted Waldensian ministers has been detailed to the city of Milan, where The missionary labors of the French he is making efforts for the establish

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ment of a Bible and tract depot. Bologna, Professor Mazzarella has opened his lectures at the University amid much applause. At Naples the prospects are so bright that it is now regarded as the most hopeful of all Italian stations. Gavazzi has once more returned to England to raise funds for the establishment of Protestant institutions at Naples. At Genoa a new periodical has been started, which bids fair to be carried on with no little literary power united to sound evangelical views.

So far as the protection of civil right is concerned the Protestants have a powerful ally in the Mazzinian or Republican party. The organs of this party plead unanimously the absolute liberty of religious belief, and though they may feel little sympathy with the doctrines of evangelical Protestantism they show no hostility to it. They, on the contrary, agree with it in extolling the sublimity of the Bible, and demanding the overthrow of the spiritual power of the papacy no less than the secular. The editor of the Gazetta del Popolo, the Mazzinian paper at Turin, has written a dramatic piece, "I Valdesi," (The Waldensians,) altogether favorable to the Protestants, which, at Leghorn, has been selected for a theatrical representation, and rapturously applauded by a crowd

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The number of Protestant ministers in Italy has been increased by new arrivals from England and America. The Wesleyans of England have sent out Mr. Green, who will first acquire the language, and afterward devote his life to missionary labor among the natives. is expected that he will be followed by three other missionaries from the same Church. A Protestant exile, Signor Bolognini, who after having fled from Austrian tyranny has been employed for a while in the Protestant college at Malta, and afterward as a newspaper editor at Alexandria in Egypt, has recently returned to his native country. From America, Rev. Mr. Hall, formerly American chaplain at Rome, has been sent out by the American and Foreign Christian Union, with a view of opening another service in English at Florence, and of undertaking evangelistic work.

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.The vast majority of the Italian people bravely and steadfastly continue deny to the Pope and the hierarchy the right of coercing them by spiritual cen

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sures into submission to the political doctrines of the papal court, and in particular into an abandonment of the nation's favorite idea, now at length realized, of an Italian union. The death of Count Cavour has greatly strengthened the patriotic and anti-papal sentiments of the Italians. Until his last moment he has, without wavering, professed the views to whose progress and final victory his whole life has been devoted. At first the Roman Catholic papers busily spread the rumor-as on similar occasions they have often done before-that Count Cavour on his deathbed fully reconciled himself with the Church; that he summoned a confessor to him before the physicians had judged that his death was near; that he received the holy viaticum with great devotion; and that the Pope, greatly edified at this deathbed conversion, offered public prayers for the eternal repose of the illustrious opponent of the papal claim. But as the reports of the eyewitnesses and nearest relatives of Cavour were published, the organs of ultramontanism found it necessary to rectify their first accounts, and the official Journal of Rome spoke once more of the career of the deceased statesman with the same virulence with which it had attacked him during his life. It is true that a priest was present at the deathbed of Cavour; but it was one who fully approved of his policy, and who therefore after the death of Cavour was summoned to Rome and visited with ecclesiastical censures. The indignation of the Italian people at the proceedings of the Roman hierarchy has received new fuel by these events, and the latter cannot fail to see that her influence on Italy is rapidly waning. The new Prime Minister of Italy, Baron Ricasoli, advocates the introduction of religious liberty with even more ardor than Cavour; and in what direction Garibaldi uses his great influence on the Italian people may be best seen by the following resolution, submitted by him for the consideration of the Unitary Italian Society of Palermo, which had elected him president: "Considering that Christ, by consecrating upon earth equality among men and nations, has deserved gratitude and love, we belong to the religion of Christ; considering that the Pope, the cardinals, the sanfedists, all the mercenaries of Italy, and the spies assembled at Rome are the chief obstacles to the unification

indemnification of £1,500 as a settlement of the claims on account of their expul sion from the Spanish island, Fernando Po, in 1858.

of Italy by their provoking and foment-taining from the Spanish government an ing civil war, we do not belong to the religion of the Pope. In consequence of the above considerations, Resolved, That the Pope, the cardinals, etc., shall shut up shop at once, and betake themselves to some country as far away as possible from Italy; thus allowing this unfortunate Italian nation, which they have been torturing for ages, to constitute itself definitively."

Of still greater significance is the spirit of independence which begins to spread among the clergy of Italy. withstanding the prohibition of the Pope and nearly all the bishops, a considerable number of the lower clergy took part this year in the great national festa on the first Sunday in June, which, according to a law of the Italian Parliament, is annually to commemorate the union of all races in Italy in one kingdom. The chapter of the cathedral of Milan unanimously accepted the invitation of the municipal authorities, and had High Mass with Te Deum and Ambrosian hymn celebrated in the Duomo.

SPAIN.

TURKEY.

THE GREEK CHURCH.-The progress of the Bulgarian movement still awakens great interest throughout the Christian world. The excessive hopes of the Roman Catholics have been equally disappointed. After having taken a BulNot-garian priest to Rome and having him consecrated by the Pope himself first bishop of the United Bulgarias, Abbé Boré and the other heads of the Roman Catholic missions at Constantinople expected the bulk of the nation to come rapidly over to the union, especially because the Greek patriarch continued to refuse the wish of the Bulgarians for the introduction of their native language into their churches and schools. But not only has the expected increase not taken place, but Monsignore Sokolski, the new bishop, has himself turned his back on the new movement, and, after excommunicating Boré, has left Constantinople for Russia and returned to the Greek Church. At the same time the journal Bulgaria, which was edited by one of the united Bulgarians, and had worked hard for the cause of the union, has been discontinued for want of subscribers and readers. If we may believe the last accounts of the Roman Catholic papers, it is still hoped to save some fragments of the united Church. One of their organs says: "The new Bulgarian community met immediately after the defection of the bishop to protest against the treason of its pastor. It has made a new act of adhesion to the Pope, and has resolved on immediately asking for another bishop." The jubilant accounts of the Roman Catholic press in America and Europe have turned out to be mere inventions.

PROTESTANTISM.-Sir Robert Peel deserves the thanks of the entire Protestant world for his noble and indefatigable endeavors to arouse in England sympathy with the persecuted and imprisoned Protestants of Spain. It appears from trustworthy information that no less than thirty-four persons have been subjected to imprisonment under no other charge than that of professing Protestant doctrines, and that twelve of them still remain in durance. For every one of these poor prisoners there are thousands upon thousands of inquirers, and there is ample reason to believe that toleration would be followed by the adhesion of large numbers to Protestantism. At one of the meetings held in England to express sympathy with the fate of the prisoners, Gavazzi pointed to Italy in the time of the Madiai, England's interference then, and Italy's altered position now, as an example of the course which should be followed with regard to Spain. He called on England to rise to her position, and bore strong testimony to the effect of her moral support on the nations of Europe. It is not known whether and how far the English ministry have thought it fit to intercede in behalf of the Spanish Protestants. They have succeeded, however, in ob

In the meanwhile the split between the Bulgarian Churches and the patriarch of Constantinople continues. The Turkish government, for a time, seemed to yield to the representations made by and in favor of the Bulgarians. A national assembly was ordered to be held in Constantinople to consider and make known the wishes of the people. But, unfortunately, Greek gold and intrigue again turned the scale. The convention was threatened with punishment

and frightened into resignation. In one day the whole body of them resigned, leaving the bishops and the people to fight their own battles. The Turkish government were prevailed upon to execute the sentence of exile pronounced by him against the Bulgarian bishops. The Archbishop of Philippopolis was seized in his house by night by a company of Turkish soldiers. Some time later the two Bulgarian bishops of Constantinople had to go into exile to Asia Minor, where they were treated, how ever, by the Turkish authorities with great respect. Notwithstanding this forcible measure, the people generally remain firm in their desire and demand for ecclesiastical independence of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the last

accounts from their churches say that every month's delay makes them more prepared to adopt the simple forms of Protestantism. The head teacher of the Bulgarian school in Philippopolis has commenced a preaching service in his school-house on the Sabbath.

While the Bulgarian movement seemed yet to favor the sanguine expectations of the Roman Catholics, their organs announced the beginning of a similar movement in the Herzegovina, which, as they represented, was likely to result in the union of the entire Greek Church of that province with Rome. Since the explosion of the Bulgarian Union scheme no further accounts have been received from its offshoot in the Herzegovina.

ART. IX.-FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

ENGLAND.

M'Millan has issued a Commentary on the Book of Genesis, for the use of the readers of the English version, by Henry Charles Groves. This work is intended as an antidote to the scepticism so industriously propogated at the present day in regard to the Mosaic authorship, the unity, the historical truth and the divine authority of the first of the Old Testament books. It is pronounced by the Journal of Sacred Literature "one of the best expositions of Genesis in our language, if not the very best."

have appeared: History of the Development of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ. By Dr. J. A. Dorner, Professor of Theology in the University of Gottingen. Vol. 1, pp. 460. Translated by Rev. Dr. W. Simon. Theological and Homiletical Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, specially designed for the use of Ministers and Students. From the German of J. P. Lange, Professor of Divinity in the University of Bonn. By Rev. Alfred Eldersheim, Ph. D. Vol. 1, pp. 466.

The Works of Thomas Goodwin, some The first volume of Lives of the Arch-time president of Magdalen College, vol. bishops of Canterbury, by Dr. Walter Farquhar Hook, extending through the Anglo-Saxon period, is published by Bentley. It unfolds details of remarkable interest, showing that the historical remains of the "dark ages" prove the existence in early ages of intelligence, learning, and refinement.

The professor of Modern History in King's College, London, Charles H. Pearson, M. A., has published The Early and Middle Ages of England. He has, as he says, "condensed the history of twelve hundred years in a single volume, with a view to the large class who want time and inclination to peruse English History as an exclusive study."

Two new and valuable additions to "Clarke's Foreign Theological Library" |

1, is the first instalment of the enter-
prise for publishing "Nicholls's Series of
Standard Divines, Puritan Period." The
terms of these publications are thus
stated: "Six volumes demy 8vo., bound
in the most durable manner, and in a
style which will obviate the necessity
of rebinding, shall be supplied for 21s.
The volumes will average
per annum.
from 500 to 600 pages each, according
to the number of subscribers obtained.
The demand for the series will thus de-
termine the minimum or maximum size
of the volumes. The different works
will be distinguished by variety in the
color of cover, or style of ornamentation,
to avoid the unpleasing effect of a large
number of volumes in the library bound
in one uniform pattern."

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