KULTURKAMPP
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KULTURKAMPP
tions and the political activity of the Centre (public
meetings, Catholic press) was subjected to close and
inimical supervision, in every way hindered, and the
Catholic population persecuted for their fidelity to the
party. In December, 1873, changes were made in the
oath of loyalty taken by the bishops to the king, every
reference to their oath to the pope was stricken out,
and an unconditional observance of the laws of the
State prescribed. These measures, however, did not
produce the desired results. In the November elec-
tions (1873) the Centre returned to the Landtag 90
members instead of its former 50, and to the Reichstag
91 instead of its former 63. The number of its votes
was doubled, and reached about 1,500,000. The num-
ber of Catholic papers increased in 1873 to about 120.
Falk sought to overcome all this Catholic opposi- tion by fresh ravages on the pastoral ministry. New laws of the Landtag (May, 1874) supplemented his authority and put at his disposal new means of com- pulsion. It was provided that when a bishop was de- posed a representative agreeable to the Government should be appointed ; if none such were to be had, ap- pointments to vacant parishes should lie in the hands of the "patrons" in each parish, or should take place by free election of the parishioners. The Reichstag aided by passing a Priests-Expulsion Law {Priester- ausweisungsgesetz) by which all priests deprived of their offices for violation of the May Laws were turned over to the discretion of the police authorities. Dur- ing the debates on this law the Archbishops of Posen and Cologne and the Bishop of Trier were condemned to imprisonment; later, the Archbishop of Posen (Count Ledochowski) was deposed. Shortly after the promulgation of the new May Laws the Ministry saw to it that all the Prussian sees were vacated. A very great number of parishes were also deprived of their pastors. The ecclesiastical educational institutions were closed. These renewed efforts were no more suc- cessful than the former measures. No cathedral chap- ter chose an administrator, and no parish elected a parish priest. The exiled bishops governed their sees from abroad through secretly delegated priests. The faithful everywhere made it possible to hold Divine Service. The pope declared, 5 Feb., 1875, the May Laws invalid (irritas). On all sides exasperation was well-nigh boundless.
Under these circumstances Bismarck himself took charge of the situation. His main hope still lay in proving that the Centre party was the enemy of the empire, and this stigma he endeavoured by all possi- ble means to fasten upon it ; could he do so, the party would be isolated in the Reichstag, and soon helpless. At KLssingen, 13 July, 1874, the Catholic cooper's ap- prentice, Kullmann attempted to assassinate him. Though the chancellor had no evidence to justify his assertion, he declared in a public session of the Reichs- tag that the murderer "held to the coat-tails of the Centre", and refused to consider any denial of the charge by that party. Bismarck now called to his aid two allies which in the past he had always found serviceable in face of great popular opposition, i. e. hunger and penury. The methods of Bismarck dif- fered considerably from those of Falk. The latter saw in the religious life of the Catholic people their chief fortress, and so attacked it with all earnestness, hoping to meet with victory in the tunniltuary reac- tion Ukely to follow any interference with the spiritual needs of an entire people. In this there was for Bis- marck too much idealism ; he chose rather to appeal to the material needs of his opponents. On 22 April, 1875, he obtained from the Landtag the so-called Sperrgeselz, by which all state payments to the Catholic bishops were withheld until they or their representatives eomiilied with the new laws. An- other law of the Landtag (31 May, 1875) closed all monasteries in Prussia, and expelled from Prussian territory all members of religious orders, with the ex-
ception of those who cared for the sick— and they were
variously restricted. Finally (20 June, 1875), he dealt
the Catholic Church what seemed to him a crushing
blow; on that date was passed in the Landtag a law
which confiscated all the property of the Church, and
turned over its administration to lay trustees to be
elected by the members of each parish. To accom-
plish this he had previously to commit another act of
supreme violence, i. e. the abolition of those para-
graphs of the Prussian Constitution which concerned
the Church. The aforesaid Kanzelparagraf, or ' ' pul-
pit-law", was now amended by the Reichstag (26 Feb.,
1876) so as to enable the Government to prosecute
before the criminal courts any priest who should criti-
cise in the pulpit the laws or the administration of the
Prussian State. In the following years sixteen mil-
lion marks (83,250,000) were withheld by the Govern-
ment from the Church, by virtue of the Sperrgeselz;
two hundred and ninety-six monastic institutions
were closed. By the end of 1880, 1125 parish priests
and 645 assistants had fallen victims to the new
laws (out of 4627 and 3812, respectively). Within
the circle of their operation 646,000 souls were en-
tirely deprived of spiritual assistance. We must add
to this the Falk Ordinance of 18 Feb., 1876, issued
with Bismarck's consent, by which in the future reli-
gious instruction in the primary schools was to be
given only by teachers appointed or accepted by the
State, i. e., all Catholic ecclesiastical control was
suppressed.
The debates on all these measures were the most violent ever heard in the German Parliament ; it was apparent that on both sides the leadership would soon fall to the extremists. On the Catholic side, there- fore, evidences of moderation were soon forthcoming, and tended to prevent further extreme measures on the part of the Government. The bishops felt that the gravest perils had been successfully met and averted. The earliest relief was the result of legisla- tion originally intended to do great damage to the Catholic cause. The Prussian Civil Marriage Law of March, 1874 (extended to the German Empire, 6 Feb., 1875), withdrew from the clergy their former right of keeping the civil registers, and made civil marriage obligatory. It was hoped that in this way the laity at least would be freed from ecclesiastical control, since neither bishops nor clergy were willing to separate from Rome. Under the circumstances, however, the law turned to the advantage of the sorely persecuted Church. Had marriages remained possible only in the presence of civilly recognized priests, the Catholic population, in the end, given the absolute necessity of marriages, would have had to accept one of two issues: either they would tolerate the state clergy, or they would bring pressure to bear on the Catholic clergy in the sense of obedience to the new laws. On the other hand the bishops met successfully Bismarck's seculari- zation of the Church property. They declared that in this respect it was material interests which were chiefly at stake, and in such cases the Church was always in- clined to the most conciliatory measures; confiding therefore, in the ecclesiastical loyalty of the faithful they directed them to obey these laws. In the mean- time by the laws of 7 June, 1876, and 13 Feb., 1878, Bismarck undertook to sequestrate all Church prop- erty; he had already failed, however, in his original purpose. Windthorst, on the other hand, strove earn- estly to check all extremist tendencies among the Catholics and to incline them to ijeaee with the Gov- ernment as soon as the ecclesiastical situation would piermit. In this temper a reconciliation was evidently no longer remote, much less impossible. It was now clear to Bismarck that the popular agitation had reached a height that no material force could over- come, and that the civil authority itself was endan- gered. The chief motive that had originally led him to enter on this grave conflict with German Catholi-
