The purport of this law was plainly perceived by the Catholic people. De Lutz, who with Prince Hohenlohe of Bavaria, a Catholic in a Catholic State, had elaborated the law, confessed openly, that "this was the first buttress in the defence of the State against the Catholic Church, and that still others would yet be erected." He admitted even more, that the law's intent was to protect apostasy, the rebellion of disloyal theologians against the dogmas and discipline of the Church. Hence he declared: "The law is framed to give courage to 'good priests,' who might suffer from the tyranny of the infalliblist bishops, who might force them to acts which we would punish." In reply to this declaration Herr Windthorst remarked: "Thus this law is an agreement between the new Empire and the Protestantism of Doellinger."
On the 8th of the following February, 1872, another law was proposed, giving to the Government all rights over the schools. It had been suggested by Muhler, and was sustained by his worthy successor, Falk, aided by Bismarck. To oppose it more than 500 petitions were placed before the Landtag; those from Silesia alone contained more than 80,000 signatures.
In the discussions, Bismarck brought to sustain his cause the most influential members of the ministerial group, such as Gneist, a Freemason, Lasker, a hostile Jew, the apostate pastor, Richter-Mariendorf, and the materialist professor, Virchow. He himself met with his usual brutal cynicism the protests of Windthorst, and Malincrodt, and all the Polish and Guelph orators who dared to take the stand for justice and honor. The law was finally voted and passed with a majority of 42. Thus the Government had the right to supervise all institutes of education both public and private, the right to appoint the inspectors of schools, or to deprive those exercising such posts of their office. It was a law in fact which placed Catholic pastors under the direct and unreasoning surveillance of the State in a matter most closely connected with religion.
The tyrannical character of the law was recognized not by Catholics alone, but by all fair-minded men. The Kreutzeitung, and the Germania, differing in faith and thought, were in accord in this matter and complained bitterly of a law which meant only "the loss of that which had hitherto been the good fortune of Prussia, since it was clear that the Government and the National Liberals desired only the extinction of religion." The bishops protested with one voice, declaring the law "offensive to the essential and inalienable rights of the Church, and that grave perils and dangers were hovering over Church and State." Then as their protests and petitions remained unheard, they sent forth, on April 11, 1872, a collective letter informing their priests of their resolution never to yield except to violence: "Since no power on earth can dispense us from the obligation of watching over the Christian education of the little children who have been confided to us by the divine Savior, we are firmly resolved to continue to fulfil faithfully the duties of our pastoral charge in that which touches the popular schools which the law takes away, in principle, from the maternal action of the Church, and that duty we shall fulfil to the end, as long as it is not made absolutely impossible."
The Government, however, which at first pretended to respect the rights of the Church, little by little removed many priests from the schools, took away as far as possible the priestly supervision, and favored mixed schools of Catholics and Protestants. The crucifix was then removed from the school rooms, together with all biblical pictures and the statues of the saints.
The Bishop of Ermland, who in July, 1871, had excommunicated the apostate Wollmann, received from the Minister of Public Worship, Falk, a notification to the effect that: "as the excommunication was not a merely spiritual penalty, but had also a civil signification, so it could not be admitted that it should be inflicted only by an ecclesiastical superior, and that the latter in using it would violate the prerogatives of citizens placed under the protection of the State, and would commit an assault against the rights of the State, which can and ought to oppose it; hence in his action against the two excommunicated persons, he had gone beyond the limits of his ecclesiastical powers; this act was therefore annulled, and the Government would refuse any longer to recognize him who had so acted, as the Bishop of Ermland."
Bishop Krementz answered, on March 30, exposing the absurdity of Falk's doctrine, the justice of his own action in regard to Wollmann and Michelis, and dissipating the many sophisms and garbled citations contained in the letter of March 11. The Bishop declared, moreover, that he could not and would not obey, and spurned the malicious action he was commanded to do despite all right and all laws. The words of the courageous Bishop only served to fan the flame of hatred, but had no effect in lessening the injustice and violence of the Government.
When the bureaucrats of Berlin perceived that the bishops of the country were holding firm to their principles, they again had recourse to the dishonest methods of strategy. There was at the time a cardinal in Germany, the brother of that Prince Hohenlohe who had been instrumental in Bavaria in stirring up an agitation against the Papal authority. Cardinal Hohenlohe was one of those ecclesiastics who at the Council of the Vatican had held out most strongly against the definition of infallibility, and though he had finally acquiesced with the other bishops, he harbored in his heart something not at all in harmony with the Catholic position of his native land. He was therefore looked upon by the Government at Berlin as a most favorable subject to act as an intermediary between Berlin and Rome to force the hands of the unwilling bishops. Accordingly in the beginning of 1872, Bismarck caused it to be reported abroad that the Cardinal was to be sent to Rome as the German ambassador to the Holy See. A strange feature of this appointment was that the Pope had received no official intimation of the Government's intention, contrary to all diplomatic usages. The Cardinal accepted the mission without having asked the consent of the Holy See. In fact, the Papal Secretary, Cardinal Antonelli, soon received a laconic dispatch from the Chancellor informing him of the approaching arrival of the new ambassador. The plan of Bismarck was clearly to effect through the offices of Cardinal Hohenlohe the suppression of the Centre party, knowing well that in case the Holy See refused to accept the embassy, it would arouse in Germany a storm of animosity which must prove invaluable in aiding the anti-Catholic movement.
The Pope naturally refused to receive Cardinal Hohenlohe as an ambassador. As a result the anti-Catholic press began at once to print its most violent invectives against the Catholic Church. In the Reichstag, the deputy Bennigsen, boiling with fury, demanded the final suppression of the embassy to the Holy See. The embassy was, nevertheless, continued, for Bismarck could not think of thus closing up an avenue, which, he fondly thought, would finally lead to the extinction of that Centre party which he hated as he hated the Catholic Church itself. Moreover, official documents are existent which betray the fact that Bismarck even at that early date was seriously considering the project of directing the future Conclave towards a choice which would favor the political ends he had in view.
On May 28, 1872, Von Roon, Minister of War, suspended Bishop Namszanowski, the high military chaplain, from his office, because the latter had refused to officiate in a place desecrated by the services of the Old Catholics. It was an act of Caesarism which tended to reduce the whole episcopate to the entire will of the State. It was remonstrated that there were no laws to authorize the action of Von Roon; accordingly it was proposed to make such laws.