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OLDCASTLE OLD CATHOLICS 609 newed ardor, and on March 29, 1807, discov- ered a fourth, Yesta. In March, 1815, he dis- covered near Perseus a comet having no visible nucleus, and in 1828 published a dissertation on the possibility of a collision between a comet and the earth. His library, which con- tained perhaps the most extensive collection in existence of works in regard to comets, was purchased by the Russian government for the observatory of Pulkova. OLDCASTLE, Sir John, Baron Cobham, an Eng- lish reformer, born in the reign of Edward III., executed Dec. 14, 1417. He acquired the title of baron through his wife, the granddaugh- ter and heiress of Lord Cobham, and fought with distinction in France. Having become a convert to the doctrines of Wycliffe, he pro- moted them greatly ; and when the king rea- soned with him, he said : " Next to God I pro- fess obedience to my king ; but as to the spirit- ual dominion of the pope, I can pay him no obedience." Thereupon he was confined in the tower and condemned to the flames, but escaped into Wales. A bill of attainder was passed against him, a reward of 1,000 marks offered for his head, and exemption from taxes promised to any town that should secure him. After four years he was discovered and carried to London, where he was hanged in chains on a gibbet in St. Giles's fields, and roasted to death by a fire kindled under him. He wrote " Twelve Conclusions addressed to the Parlia- ment of England," besides several religious tracts and discourses. See " Chronicles of the Examination and Death of Sir John Oldcastle," by Bishop Bale (London, 1554; reprinted, 1729). OLD CATHOLICS, the name assumed in 1870 (after the precedent of the Jansenists of Hol- land) by members of the Roman Catholic church who denied the oecumenical character of the Vatican council and rejected its decrees, especially that concerning the infallibility of the pope, as contrary to the ancient Catholic faith. Before this council proclaimed papal infalli- bility as a doctrine of the Catholic church (July 18, 1870), the majority of the bishops of Germany and of the Austro-Hungarian mon- archy opposed its promulgation as inoppor- tune ; but after the council's decision nearly all the bishops at once submitted; and at length every bishop of the Catholic church had given in his adhesion, except a few bishops of the United Armenian church, who even before the convocation of this council had fallen out with the pope on questions relating to the adminis- tration of the Armenian church, and had there- fore not attended the council. While the Ger- man bishops submitted, an unflinching opposi- tion manifested itself on the part of several theologians and a portion of the laity of Ger- many. A few days after the proclamation of the doctrine of infallibility, Prof. Michelis, of the lyceum of Braunsberg in East Prussia, issued a manifesto charging the pope with heresy and apostasy from the old Catholic church. Shortly afterward 44 professors of the university of Munich, including Dr. Dollin- ger, joined in a protest against papal infalli- bility and the binding authority of the Vatican council. Many of the Catholic professors at Bonn, Breslau, Freiburg, and other universities and gymnasia soon followed this example. A number of prominent theologians and pro- fessors of the canon law met in August at Nuremberg, and agreed upon a joint protest against the oecumenical character of the Vati- can council and the validity of its decrees. Among the signers were Dollinger and Fried- rich of the university of Munich, Reinkens, Baltzer, and Elvenich of Breslau, Reusch, Knoodt, and Langen of Bonn, Schulte of Prague, Michelis of Braunsberg, and Lutter- beck of Giessen. In view of these indications of an incipient secession, the German bishops deemed it necessary, in a joint pastoral letter dated Sept. 10, to admonish all the faithful to submit to the decrees of the oecumenical coun- cil, as it was impossible for members of the Catholic church to dispute their validity. It was evident that the immense majority of the priests and the people sided with the bishops, for the expressions of dissent on the part of the laity were few. Only two congregations in all Germany (one in Bavaria and one in Si- lesia) joined their parish priests in a refusal to submit to the council. In several other places local committees were formed to prepare the way for an organization of the Old Catholics. The leaders of the movement were by no means agreed as to the course it ought to take. The breach between the Old Catholics and the heads of the church widened when the bishops began to deprive the Old Catholic professors of their ecclesiastical functions, to pronounce against them the greater excommunication, and to prohibit the theological students -from attending their lectures. A few who at first had sympathized with the opposition to papal infallibility now receded from their position ; but the majority remained firm in their resis- tance. By the excommunication of Dollinger (April 17, 1871), who had been the theological instructor of many of the German bishops, a new impulse was given to the efforts to effect a practical organization. Old Catholic societies were formed in nearly all the cities, and itine- rant priests were engaged to preach to them. The municipal councils of several cities, like Munich, tried to promote the movement by removing from the educational institutions placed under their control all religious in- structors avowing a belief in papal infallibility. On May 29 a number of prominent men met at Munich, under the presidency of Dollin- ger, and prepared a declaration of principles, which was ' generally accepted as the provi- sional ecclesiastical standard of the new church. This declaration says that the Old Catholics persist in rejecting papal infallibility and the Vatican doctrines which, notwithstanding the denial of the bishops, concede to the pope per- sonal infallibility and absolute power in the