GERMANY AND THE CHURCH.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4228, 8 October 1874, Page 3

GERMANY AND THE CHURCH.

(From the Melbourne Argus.) Prince Bismarck's enemies appear to cooperate, bon yri, mat gre, in promoting the success of his policy. The Ultramontane fanatic who attempted to assassinate him has clone more to intensify public opinion in Germany in favor of a vigorous administration of the Falk Laws, than the combined power of Parliament and the Press was able to effect. A cause which has to rely upon the arm of the assassin as its chief ally is already doomed to failure, and alienates from its aide by that very act the support of all moderate and rightthinking men. When the present Pope, in his memorable syllabus, made the astounding declaration that " it -is false to assert that the Koman Pontiff can or ought to reconcile himself with progress, liberalism, and modern civilisation," his language was charitably regarded as the petulant outburst of a venerable gentleman, whose mind had been unhinged by 'the loss of his temporalities." But current events in Germany show that Ultramontanism is just as irreconcilable with the spirit of the age as His Holiness has proclaimed it to be. It will listen to no terms, and will hear of no accommodation; and the spirit which animates it may be judged of by the resolutions adopted at the general meeting of the German Catholic Association, which was held in Mayence at the latter end of June -last. They were as follow: — " 1. The association demands the re-estab-lishment of the political independence of the Holy See. ' "2. It protests against the constitution of the German empire, and its foreign policy more particularly, in so far as it is directed against the Holy See. " "3. The association favors the amelioration of the condition of the working classes by comprehensible legislation initiated by the German Government.

" 4. The ecclesiastical attributes of priest and teacher appertaining to the Pope and the bishops cannot be abrogated or limited by any state law, and the association therefore denies the right of secular courts to depose bishops or to order the administration of their sees by the state. " 5. The association approves the attitude of the German bishops and clergy. " 6. An appeal is made to all Catholics to join the association." The fourth and fifth of these resolutions are directly seditious in their character and tendency, as they encourage and applaud disobedience to the law, and the contumacious conduct of a rebellious . priesthood. Upon these it is apparent that the iron hand of the great German statesman will now fall with its full weight. Recalcitrant prelates will either have to submit to the authority of the state or

go to prison, and when they discover that this sort of pseudo-martyrdom is neither pleasant nor profitable, and that the Government will transfer their episcopal palaces and revenues to churchmen with more pliable consciences, resistance will speedily die out, and ecclesiastics will reconcile themselves to the new order of things with as much alacrity as their brethren in England exhibited at the time of the Reformation.