Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/237

This page needs to be proofread.

BADEN


197


BADEN


sovereign. In conformity with the laws of the Church, the archbishop prohibited the celebration of requiem Masses for Protestant princes and ordered other appropriate ser\-ices instead. The authorities, however, persisted in their demand, declared the services ordered by the archbishop inadequate, and attempted to induce pastors to celebrate requiem Masses in defiance of the archiepiscopal mandate. Only about sixty out of the SOO priests complied, whereupon the archbishop decreed that the clergy who had disregarded his command .should, in expia- tion, attend certain exercises of five days conducted by the Jesuit Father Roh, at the theological seminarj' of St. Peter. Although the civil authorities promised their protection to those priests who should resist this sentence, the clergy to a man obeyed the order of the archbishop, ensuring him a victory so complete as to give him the power of resistance in further conflicts.

In response to the second memorial from the bishops of the province of the Upper Rhine, the representatives of the State of Baden refused to make a single concession to the Catholic Church. The archbishop then informed the Ciovernment that he would take steps to secure the rights that were his, but were unjustly -nnthheld by the ci\Tl authorities. He held competitive examinations for parish appoint- ments and for admittance into the theological seminary, without the presence of a government commissioner; he filled parishes to which the Govern- ment could not establish a canonical right of patron- age, demanded from the Oberkirchenrat an adminis- tration of church property strictly in accordance with canon law, threatening excommunication in case of disobedience. Thereupon the Government placed the official actions of the archbishop under police surveillance, banished the Jesuits from Freiburg, and threatened the clergy who submitted to the Church with the loss of their incomes, and with civil punishment. Two priests of Karlsruhe and Freiburg, who had proclaimed the sentence of excommunica- tion pronounced upon the Oberkirchenrat by the archbishop, were actually placed under arrest. On still more unwarrantable interference by the Govern- ment, the archbishop issued a circular letter to be read from the pulpits, ordering an independent ad- ministration of ecclesiastical institutions without re- gard for civil mandates, and prohibiting the clergy from ha\ing any connexion ^ith state officials. The Government, seeing in tliis enactment an in- stigation against civil authority, forbade its pro- mulgation in the churches and attempted to seize all copies of the letter, in some cases succeeding by force. A judicial inquiry was instituted against the archbishop (18 May, 1854), charging him with dis- turbing and endangering the public peace. On 22 May he was placed under arrest, and confined to his room under a guard of gendarmes until 31 May. At the command of the archbishop the diocesan court continued to transact all business, and sent a dispatch to Rome asking the pope to make provisions for the administration of the diocese. All churches were to be draped in momning, church bells were silent, altars were stripped of their adornments, and everywhere the faithful assembled for public prayer. The pope, in a note dated 8 June, addressed to the ci\-il authorities of Baden, took the archbishop under his protection. The Government then proposed to enter into negotiations -nith the Holy See, and a peaceful arrangement was made, which created a tolerable modus vivcndi. The proceedings against the archbishop and clergy were stopped, and gradu- ally the way wa-s opened for amicable relations be- tween the civil authorities and the archbishop.

The lengthy negotiations with Rome were brought to a clo.se by the .signing of the Concordat of S June, 1859, which went far towards meeting the just claims


of the Church and accorded practically all the de- mands of the archbishop, in particular the right of appointment to parishes, the supervision of religious instruction, participation in the management of church property, the right of decision in questions concerning marriage, etc. Thereupon the Liberals and Democrats rose in opposition to the Concordat; everywhere meetings of protest were held, resulting in 1861 in the dismissal of the Conservative and the formation of a Liberal ministry. The latter, on 29 October, without consulting the Holy See, arbi- trarily declared the Concordat null and void and substituted a law quite inimical to the Church, which received the approbation of the Landtag. On 20 November, 1861, the Government and the archbishop came to an agreement concerning the filling of benefices and the administration of church property.

After a short respite, new conflicts arose between the two authorities with reference to the school system (1864). The Government, now entirely under the control of the Liberals, proposed a bill for a school law which almost entirely nullified the in- fluence of the Church on education, conceding to the Church only the supervision of religious instruc- tion. Although Catholic clergy exerted every effort to bring about the failure of this scheme, and the archbishop in a pastoral letter opposed it, the bill in a somewhat aggravated form became a law, and the opposition of the Catholic population expressed in numerous mass-meetings and addresses to the duke was completely disregarded. The Liberals, who were in the majority in the Landtag, and had control of the Government, hesitated at nothing to make still more practically effective their principles of hostility to the Church. In 1867 the Government instituted state examinations for theological stu- dents, to be held before a civil commissioner on the completion of the university course. The Curia protested, and forbade the theological students to submit to this examination. As a result the clergy in the parishes subject to the appointment of the Grand duke received, instead of their stipends and appointments as pastors, only those of parish ad- ministrators. After the death of the archbishop (1.5 .\pril, 1868), the Government, by refusing to consider seven out of eight candidates, made the choice of an archbishop practically impossible, and the see remained vacant for eighteen years. In IS(ii) civil marriage was made obligatory. In 1870 all Catholic institutions not purely ecclesiastical, but devoted to education or to charity, were secularized, withdrawn from the control of the Church, and large endowments left for Catholic purposes were thus alienated from their appointed use. In 1872 the members of re- ligious orders and congregations were forbidden to give elementary instruction, to assist in the work of the ministry, or to conduct missions. In 1873 the Old Catholics were placed on an equal footing with the Catholic Church; several Catholic churches were turned over to them, and their Bishop Reinkens was recognized by the Government as a Catholic national bishop {Landesbischoj). In 1874 admission to any ec- clesiastical office was made to depend on proof of a general scientific training, meaning thereby a three years' course at a German university, excluding all Jesuit institutions. The archiepiscopal seminaries and boarding schools for boys were closed. In 1875 undenominational schools were introduced and made obligatory, the Catholic corporation schools were made unsectarian, and several monastic educational institutions were suppressed. Not until after the retirement of the Liberal minister, Jo"ly, the soul of the anti-Catholic legi.slation, i. e. since 1876, were measures taken for the re-establishment of peace with the Catholic Church. In 1880 state examina- tions for theological students were dispensed with;