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[austria:. AUSTRIA-: HUN GARY would certainly follow them. Hence the German Liberals Church, and in higher schools only Roman Catholicswere prevented from introducing direct elections to the could be appointed. It had been agreed that the whole Keichsrath, and the functions of the Reichsrath were education of the Roman Catholic youth, in all schools, slightly less extensive than they had hitherto been. private as well as public, should be in accordance with Moreover the Delegation was to be chosen not by the the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. TheHouse as a whole, but by the representatives of the authority of the Church extended even to the universities. separate territories. This is one reason for the compara- Some change in this system was essential; the Liberal tive weakness of Austria as compared with Hungary, party demanded that the Government should simply state where the Delegation is elected by each House as a that the concordat had ceased to exist. To this, howwhole; the Bohemian representatives, e.g., meet and ever, the emperor would not assent, and there was a choose 10 delegates, the Galicians 7, those from Trieste difficulty in overthrowing an act which took the form 1; the Delegation is therefore not representative of the of a treaty. The Government wished to come to some majority of the Chamber of Deputies, but includes agreement by friendly discussion with Rome, but Pius representatives of all the groups which there may be IX. was not willing to abate anything of his full claims. opposing the Government, and they can carry on their The ministry therefore proceeded by internal legislation, opposition even in the Delegation. So it came about in and in 1868 introduced three laws: (1) a marriage law 1869, that on the first occasion when there was a joint transferred the decisions on all questions of marriage sitting of the Delegations to settle a point in the budget, from the ecclesiastical to the civil courts, abolished the which Hungary had accepted and Austria rejected, the authority of the canon law, and introduced civil marriage Poles and Tirolese voted in favour of the Hungarian in those cases where the clergy refused to perform the ceremony; (2) the control of secular education was taken proposal. As soon as these laws had been carried (Dec. 1867), Beust from the Church, and the management of schools transretired from the post of minister-president; and in accord- ferred to local authorities which were to be created by the Landtags; (3) complete civil equality between ance The constitutional practice a parliamentary Burger ministry was appointed entirely from the ranks Catholics and non-Catholics was established. These laws, Minisof the Liberal majority; a ministry generally notwithstanding the protest of all the bishops, led by terium. pnown as the “ Burger Ministerium ” in which Cardinal Rauscher, archbishop of Vienna, who appealed Giskra and Herbst—the leaders of the German party in directly to the emperor, were carried through both Moravia and Bohemia—were the most important members. Houses in May amid almost unparalleled excitement, and Austria now began its new life as a modern constitutional at once received the imperial sanction. The ministry had the enthusiastic support of the German state. From this time the maintenance of the revised constitution of 1867 has been the watchword of what is population in the towns. They were also supported by called the Constitutional party. The first use which the the teaching profession, which desired emancipation from new Government made of their power was to settle the ecclesiastical control, and hoped that German schools and finances, and in this their best work was done. Among German railways were to complete the work which them were nearly all the representatives of trade and Joseph II. had begun. But the hostility of the Church industry, of commercial enterprise and financial specula- was dangerous. The pope, in an allocution of 22nd June tion ; they were the men who hoped to make Austria a 1868, declared that these “damnable and abominable great industrial state, and at this time they were much laws ” which were “ contrary to the concordat, to the occupied with railway enterprise. Convinced free-traders, laws of the Church, and to the principles of Christianity," they hoped by private energy to build up the fortunes of were “absolutely and for ever null and void.” The the country, parliamentary government—which meant for natural result was that when they were carried into them the rule of the educated and well-to-do middle class effect the bishops in many cases refused to obey. They —being one of the means to this end. They accepted claimed that the laws were inconsistent with the conthe great burden of debt which the action of Hungary cordat, that the concordat still was in force, and that the imposed upon the country, and rejected the proposals for laws were consequently invalid. The argument was repudiation, but notwithstanding the protest of foreign forcible, but the courts decided against them. Rudigier, bond-holders they imposed a tax of 16 per cent, on all bishop of Linz, was summoned to a criminal court for interest on the debt. They carried out an extension of disturbing the public peace; he refused, to appear, for by the commercial treaty with Great Britain by which a the concordat bishops were not subject to temporal jurisdiction; and when he was condemned to imprisonfurther advance was made in the direction of free trade. Of equal importance was their work in freeing Austria ment the emperor at once telegraphed his full pardon. from the control of the Church, which checked the in- In the rural districts the clergy had much influence; they tellectual life of the people. The concordat of were supported by the peasants, and the Landtags of The Liberals 1855 had given the Church complete freedom Tirol and Vorarlberg, where there was a clerical majority, and the in the management of all ecclesiastical affairs; refused to carry out the school law. concordat. tkere was full liberty of intercourse with Rome, On the proclamation of papal infallibility in 1870, the took the opportunity of declaring that the concordat the state gave up all control over the appointment of the Government lapsed, on the ground that there was a fundamental change clergy, and in matters of church discipline the civil courts had in the character of the papacy. Nearly all the Austrian prelates had no voice—the clergy being absolutely subject to the had been opposed to the new doctrine ; many of them remained to power of the bishops, who could impose temporal as well as the end of the council and voted against it, and they only declared spiritual penalties. The state had even resigned to the their submission with great reluctance. The New-Catholic movehowever, never made much progress in Austria. Laws Church all authority over some departments of civil life, ment, regulating the position of the Church were carried in 1874. (For and restored the authority of the canon law. This was the concordat see Laveleye, Let Ptussb ct l ylutrichc, laiis, 18/0.) the case as regards marriage; all disputes were to be During 1868 the constitution then was open to attack tried before ecclesiastical courts, and the marriage on two sides, for the nationalist movement was gaining registers were kept by the priests. All the schools were under the control of the Church ; the bishops could forbid ground in Bohemia and Galicia. In Galicia the extreme the use of books prejudicial to religion; in elementary party, headed by Smolka, had always desired to imitate schools all teachers were subject to the inspection of the the Czechs and not attend at Vienna ; they were outvoted,, 18