OLBA
235
OLD
that city was captured by the Turks; he transferred it,
however, to his archiepiscopal city of Nagyszombat
and confided it to the Jesuits, whom he invited to
Hungary in 1561. and who, by their preaching and
spiritual ministrations, profoundly influenced the re-
ligious life of the nation. Among the publications in-
itiated by him were the "Brcviarium Ecclesia; Strigo-
niensis" (15.5S), and the "Ordo et Ritus EcclesiiE
Strigoniensis" (1.560). The revival of the custom of
ringing the Angelus was due to him. As chancellor
and confidant of Ferdinand I, Oldh possessed much
political influence, which he exercised in the special in-
terest of the Catholic religion. In 1562 he acted as
royal Stadtholder. He was a diligent writer; his works
("Hungaria et Attila"; "Genesis filiorum Regis Fer-
dinandi"; "Ephemerides". and "Brevis descriptio
vitre Benedict! Zerchsky ") were edited by Kovachich,
in Vol. I of the "Scriptores minores".
Hergenrother, Histoire de Veglise, V, 394 {tr. Belet); For- Gach. De statu reipublicw hungaTica Ferdinando, Johanne, Maxi- miliano Tegibus Commentarii in Mon, Hung, Htstorica: Scriptores, XVI (Pesth, 1866): B^L. Adparatus ad Historiam Hungaria: (Posen, 1735) ; Dank(5 in Kirchenlei., s. v.
A. Aldasy.
Olba, a titular see in Isauria, suffragan of Seleucia. It was a city of Cetis in Cilicia Aspera, later forming part of Isauria; it had a temple of Zeus, whose priests were once kings of the country, and became a Roman colony. Strabo (XIV, 5, 10) and Ptolemy (V, 8, 6) call it Olbasa; a coin of Dioca^sarea, Olbos; Hierocles (Synecdemus, 709), Olbe; Basil of Seleucia (Mirac. S. Theclae, 2, 8) and the Greek " Notitiae episcopatuum ", Olba. The primitive name must have been Ourba or Orba, found in Theophanes the Chronographer, hence Ourbanopohs in "Acta S. Bartholomei". Its ruins, north of Selefkeh in the vilayet of Adana, are called Oura. Le Quien (Oriens christ., II, 1031) gives four bishops between the fourth and seventh centuries; but the "Notitia; episcopat." mentions the see until the thirteenth century.
S.MITH, Did. Greek and Roman Geog, a. v. Obasa: Ramsat. Asia Minor, 22. 336, 364-75. See MOllek'8 notes to Ptolemy, ed. DiDOT, II. 898.
S. PilTRIDfes.
Oldcastle, Sir John. See Lollards.
Old Catholics, the sect organized in German- speaking countries to combat the dogma of Papal In- fallibility. Filled with ideas of ecclesiastical Liberal- ism and rejecting the Christian spirit of submission to the teachings of the Church, nearly 1400 Germans is- sued, in September, 1870, a declaration in which they repudiated the dogma of Infallibility "as an innova- tion contrary to the traditional faith of the Church". They were encouraged by large nuiubers of scholars, politicians, and statesmen, and were acclaimed by the Liberal press of the whole world. The break with the Church began with this declaration, which was put forth notwithstanding the fact that the majority of the German bishops issued, at Fulda on 30 August, a com- mon pastoral letter in support of the dogma. It was not until 10 April, 1871, that Bishop Hefele of Rotten- burg issued a letter concerning the dogma to his clergy. By the end of 1870 all the Austrian and Swiss bishops had done the same.
The movement against the dogma was carried on with such energy that the first Old Catholic Congress was able to meet at Munich, 22-24 September, 1871. Before this, however, tlie Archbishop of Munich had excommunicated DoUinger on 17 April, 1871, and later also Friedrich. The congress was attended by over 300 delegates from Germany, Austria, and Switz- erland, besides friends from Holland, France, Spain, Brazil, Ireland, and representatives of the Anglican Church, with German and American Protestants. The moving spirit in this and all later assemblies for organization was Johann Friedrich von Schulte, the professor of dogma at Prague. Von Schulte summed
up the results of the congress as follows : Adherence to
the ancient Catholic faith ; maintenance of the rights
of Catholics as such; rejection of the new dogmas; ad-
herence to the constitution of the ancient Church with
repudiation of every dogma of faith not in harmony
with the actual consciousness of the Church ; reform of
the Church with constitutional participation of the
laity; preparation of the way for the reunion of the
Christian confessions ; reform of the training and posi-
tion of the clergy; adherence to the State against the
attacks of Ultramontanism; rejection of the Society of
Jesus; solemn assertion of the claims of Catholics as
such to the real property of the Church and to the title
to it. A resolution was also passed on the forming of
parish communities, which DoUinger vehemently op-
posed and voted against. The second congress, held
at Cologne, 20-22 September, 1872, was attended by
350 Old Catholic delegates, besides one Jansenist
and three Anglican bishops, Russian clergy, and Eng-
lish and other Protestant ministers. The election
of a bishop was decided on, and among the most im-
portant resolutions passed were those pertaining to the
organization of the pastorate and parishes. This was
followed by steps to obtain recognition of the Old
Catholics by various governments; the general feeling
of that time made it easy to obtain this recognition
from Prussia, Baden, and Hesse. Professor Reinkens
of Bonn was elected bishop, 4 June, 1873, and was con-
secrated at Rotterdam by the Jansenist Bishop of De-
venter, Heydekamp, 11 August, 1873. Having been
officially recognized as "Cathohc Bishop" by Prussia,
19 September, and having taken the oath of allegiance,
7 October, 1873, he selected Bonn as his place of resi-
dence. The bishop and his diocese were granted by
Prussia an annual sum of 4800 Marks ($1200). Pius
IX excommunicated Reinkens by name, 9 November,
1873; previous to which, in the spring of 1872, the
Archbishop of Cologne had been obliged to excom-
municate Hilgers, Langen, Reusch, and Knoodt, pro-
fessors of theology at Bonn. The same fate had also
overtaken several professors at Braunsberg and Bres-
lau. The fiction brought forward by Friedrich von
Schulte that the Old Catholics are the true Catholics
was accepted by several governments in Germany and
Switzerland, and many Catholic churches were trans-
ferred to the sect. This was done notwithstanding
the fact that a decree of the Inquisition, dated 17 Sep-
tember, 1871, and a Brief of 12 March, 1873, had again
shown that the Old Catholics had no connexion with
the Catholic Church; represented, therefore, a reli-
gious society entirely separate from the Church; and
consequently could assert no legal claims whatever to
the funds or buildings for worship of the Catholic
Church.
The development of the internal organization of the sect occupied the congresses held at Freiburg in the Breisgau, 1874; at Breslau, 1876; Baden-Baden, 1880; and Krefeld, 1884; as well as the ordinary synods. The synodal constitution, adopted at the urgency of von Schulte, seems likely to lead to the ruin of the sect. It has resulted in unlimited arbitrariness and a radical break with all the disciplinary ordinances of Catholicism. Especially far-reaching was the aboU- tion of celibacy, called forth by the lack of priests. After the repeal of this law a number of priests who were tired of celibacy, none of whom were of much in- tellectual importance, took refuge among the Old Catholics. The statute of 14 June, 1878, for the main- tenance of discipline among the Old Catholic clergy has merely theoretical value. A bishop's fund, a pen- sion fund, and a supplementary fund for the incomes of parish priests have been formed, thanks to the aid given by governments and private persons. In the autumn of 1877 Bishop Reinkens founded a residen- tial seminary for theological students, which, on 17 January, 1894, was recognized by royal cabinet order as a juridical person with an endowment of 110,000
