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

by Francis A. Cunningham

While these were in preparation the persecution was for a time concentrated upon the Jesuits. For two years, indeed, the more bitter among the Protestants united at Darmstadt had demanded the banishment of the members of this Order. It was a proposition most savory to the Old Catholics, who would find it more easy to banish the Jesuits than to conquer them, and it was through their efforts principally that the question of their persecution was finally brought before the Reichstag.

In the meantime the Government began to be besieged with petitions, some demanding the expulsion of the Jesuits, others defending them by greater numbers and stronger arguments. By April 29, 1872, there were forty-one such petitions against the Order, while its defenders presented as many as four hundred and seventy-six. On May 16, the Reichstag consigned all petitions to the Chancellor, Bismarck, as was proposed by the Councillor, Wagener. Thus was left to the arbitration of one man a matter which interested the whole Empire, to a man, moreover, who that same day was charged with preparing a law regulating the legal conditions of the religious Orders, congregations and associations, and which "should establish penalties for their activity when hurtful to the State."

While hardly ten thousand signatures demanded from the Reichstag the banishment of the Jesuits, more than four hundred thousand more were presented in their favor. On June 12, a law against the Jesuits was proposed; Prince Hohenlohe and three others aggravated its hostile measures by extending its effects to all Congregations bearing a resemblance to the Society of Jesus. Wagener declared openly that its purpose was to combat Rome, and hence that the law which was to strike the Jesuits should be only the beginning of the war upon Catholics. To give some semblance of plausibility to such a far-reaching design, he spread abroad the rumor that there were Jesuits hidden under every kind of habit. Malincrodt responded ably to the sensational clamorings of Wagener, proving that the intentions of the proposed law were violations of the rights of nature, of existing legislation, of the particular Constitutions of the States, of that of the Empire, and of the primary elements of justice and good sense. The battle that ensued called for the loftiest eloquence of the Centre, from Windthorst, Ballestrem, the two Reichenspergers, and from Ketteler. One of the Reichenspergers declared that the enemies of the Jesuits "believe they must break every law to create a new law of proscription in order to protect themselves from two hundred Jesuits. Ah, gentlemen! confess that your law is but the failure of Liberalism!" On June 19, the infamous law was passed.

A few days after Pius IX., addressing on June 25, 1872, some Germans at Rome, gave them such advice as might be expected from the great Father of Christendom. "Pray," he said, for prayer is the most powerful means of restraining the persecutors of the Church. He bade them to oppose their enemies by word and writing, with firmness, and yet with respect. It was God's will that they should obey and respect their superiors, but He wills also that we should speak out the truth and combat error. The discourse of the holy Pontiff aroused evil feelings among the enemies of the Church in Germany, who declared it an exhortation to rebellion, and to civil war, that it was an intolerable usurpation, and that the Pope ought not to meddle with such matters.

Meanwhile the sisters were banished from the public schools, and the communes were ordered to break all contracts made with religious Congregations. The young men in the gymnasiums and high schools were forbidden to be members of Catholic societies, though Protestants were permitted full liberty in such matters. Thus in Bavaria the Government forbade the meetings of the great St. Boniface Association which looked after the spiritual interests of Catholics in Protestant districts, while at the same time it tolerated the Society of Gustavus Adolphus, an association which pretended to care for Protestants in Catholic States. Indeed, Falk boasted that his aim was to restrain the Catholic propaganda.

The law against the Jesuits as printed in the decree of July 5, 1872, reads as follows: "The Order of the Company of Jesus, being excluded from the German Empire, it is no longer lawful for the members of that Order to continue to exercise any office of the Order itself, above all in the church and in the school; nor is it permitted to them to preach missions; within six months at the most the houses of the Company of Jesus must be closed."

Following the issue of this decree the Catholics everywhere were subjected to a most humiliating espionage. Jesuits were discovered everywhere and denounced to the authorities. Not only secular priests, but laymen and officials of the army were accused. The decree gave the Jesuits six months; but in many places their persecution began immediately. Colleges, houses and churches were closed; the Jesuits were forbidden to preach, to hear confessions and even to say Mass.

With the Jesuits were included also the Redemptorists, the Lazarists, and the Brothers and Sisters of the Christian Schools; even the pious congregations directed by these Orders were dispersed as being affiliated with the Jesuits.

The Bishops of Germany assembled at Fulda on September 20, 1872, and protested against the persecutions. They made use of the occasion to defend the noble attitude of Bishop Krementz of Ermland, to reproach the Government for its open favoritism in the case of the Old Catholics, to declare that Bishop Namszanowski had fulfilled his duty. They deplored this new offense against the Church through the persecution of the Company of Jesus and of other Orders. In their summing up they declared that "the principles herein expressed by us will always be the criterion of our actions, and we are ready for that end to make the greatest sacrifices, even that of our lives."

In the meantime the anti-Catholics were busily elaborating their plan of campaign. A certain professor, Emile Friedberg of the University of Leipzig, published a rabid attack upon the Church wherein he outlined the policy to be pursued by his party in dealing with them. Among his suggestions, nearly all of which were ultimately adopted, were the following: The establishment of obligatory civil marriage; suppression of obligatory baptism; separation of Church and State; secularization of charitable works; a penal law against "abuse of the pulpit;" measures to prevent ecclesiastics not in harmony with the Government from using the pulpit; a rigorous surveillance of the education of the clergy; an order forbidding the appointment of ecclesiastics who by their civil or political relations could create difficulties for the Government; suppression of the Order of Jesuits; an interdict striking all Congregations not authorized by the Government; recourse to the State against the decisions of ecclesiastical authority; punishment of "abuse of power" by fines, and by suspension from exercise of jurisdiction; measures compelling the State never to place its powers at the discretion of the Church, never to punish an ecclesiastic resisting his ecclesiastical superiors, never to confirm the penalties ordained by the bishops; measures to abolish the sanctification of the holy days, etc.