The War Upon Religion / Being an Account of the Rise and Progress of Anti-Christianism in Europe

by Francis A. Cunningham

In Germany, in the course of the nineteenth century, until 1870, the Church suffered from a weak-kneed policy of many on whom she thought she could rely. The poison of Frebonianism was never quite eradicated, and made itself manifest from time to time in various wild disorders. Wessenberg and Dalberg strove to supplant the authority of the Holy See with a national church. Efforts were made to abolish clerical celibacy, to establish a new ritual, to inflate Catholic doctrine with a certain heretical mysticism, to destroy Catholic devotion and loyalty by means of Rongeism. These and a hundred similar movements were evidences of the continuing influence of old Frebonianism, suppressed in one place only to break out in another. And yet, if the disorders had merely confined themselves to such wild distortions of Catholic practices, it would have been only a matter of time to cause their ultimate disappearance. But it is a singular quality in such pseudo Catholic movements, that they lead their supporters insensibly to the region of absolute heresy. Indeed, as is the case with the Modernists of today, the votaries of these "advanced" Catholic notions are often actual pantheists and atheists, while proclaiming their loyalty to the Church and her teachings.

The liberal Catholic of Germany will have much to answer for when judged for his part in leading to the persecutions of the Church in that country. In the first part of the century his presence was noted everywhere, in the court, in the schools, and especially in the universities.

LIBERAL CATHOLICS.

About the time that Pope Gregory XVI. condemned the errors of Hermes, a certain ecclesiastic, Anthony Günther, was already creating a reputation because of his philosophical and theological novelties. As it was then a time when many strange systems were constantly appearing, and confusing the Catholic mind, the first writings of Günther, far from exciting suspicion, aroused words of admiration, even from men like Goerres, Moehler, Arnoldi and many other prominent ecclesiastics. Günther had so ingeniously concealed his true sentiments that their presence was not manifest.

GÜNTHER.

After 1850, however, he began to show his real position. Residing then at Cologne, he permitted himself to be drawn into the vortex of unrestrained liberalism, and conceived the project of reconciling the new doctrines of the rationalistic world with the truths of Christianity. In his works he accordingly gave the leading place to philosophy, to which he made theology subservient. His attitude, in fact, was nothing less than a return to the theories of Abelard, so vigorously condemned and exposed by St. Bernard. In this manner Günther approached the Rationalists; he repudiated tradition wherever it seemed in contradiction to his teachings; he passed carelessly over the Holy Fathers and ecclesiastical writers, often changing their form; he created new words for his theology, and attempted every conceit to produce a certain harmony between the faith and the spirit of the age.

In his doctrines, he purposely clouded the revealed truths. In an attempted explanation of the dogmas of the Trinity and of the Incarnation he displayed an ignorance as to their true conception. On such questions as the creation, and the union of the soul and body, he reasoned in a manner not only different from that of St. Thomas, but entirely opposed to that of the Church. The bishops of Germany were aroused to this new danger, all the more that many disciples were beginning to show the influence of the new master, and among them he had already begun to be hailed as a saint, the restorer of true philosophy, the savior of the Church. His doctrines were examined at Rome, and were condemned January 8, 1857.

Thereupon Günther wrote to Pope Pius IX., declaring himself obedient and submissive, and accepting in all humility his condemnation. Some of his disciples imitated his example; others, however, while declaring themselves obedient to the Holy See, continued to defend the condemned doctrines, bolstering their conduct with the sophism, that as the condemnation was given in a general manner, the Holy See had not indicated in any way what precise words or propositions of the works had caused them to be placed on the Index. Hence, they said, that while the system of Günther might be condemned taken as a whole, the separate and individual doctrines of the author might be accepted. It was a new mode of evasion, which rejected the condemnation while pretending to accept it.

Pius IX., accordingly, wrote to Cardinal Geissel, on June 15, 1857, explaining clearly the untenableness of this new pretext. The Sovereign Pontiff, moreover, exhorted the Cardinal to forbid the books in his diocese, and to watch with all vigilance "that the doctrine contained in them, and already condemned, be not taught in any manner by anyone, whether in the schools of philosophy or in those of theology."

The school of Günther was thus suppressed; his teachings, however, continued to influence the minds of Germans far into the next decade, and contributed not a little to excite that craving manifested by the liberals for compromising the Church in favor of the spirit of the age.