"There has been the devil of a disturbance in Munich; and the King's mistress, Lola Montez, has been forced to fly for her life. She has been the curse of Bavaria, yet the King is still infatuated with her."
Scarcely diplomatic language. Still, not far from the truth.
A rigorous press censorship was exercised. The Munich papers had to print what they were told, and nothing else. As a result, an inspired article appeared in the Allegemeine Zeitung, of Augsburg, declaring that the Ultramontanes were responsible for the émeute. "Herr von Abel," in the opinion of a colleague, Heinrich von Treitsche, "took advantage of the opportunity to espouse a sudden championship of morals, and made les convenances an excuse for resigning what had long been to him a dangerous office."
King of Bavaria. "Ludwig the Lover"
Döllinger himself always declared that he became an Ultramontane against his will, and that he only joined the Ministry at the earnest request of von Abel. This was probably true enough, for he was much happier among his books than among the politicians. With his nose decidedly out of joint, he relieved his feelings in a lengthy epistle to his friend, Madame Rio. Years afterwards this letter came into the hands of Dom Gougaud, O.S.B., who published it in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record. Among the more important passages were the following:
Since you left M[unich] the impudence of L[ola] M[ontez] and the infatuation of her admirers have been constantly increasing. Our Members of Parliament, which have been convocated to an extraordinary session on account of a railway loan, did not dare, or did not deem it expedient, to interfere. The only thing that was done, but without producing any effect in high quarters, was that the Chamber of Deputies unanimously voted a protestation against the deposition of the professors. Then came the change of Ministers. Prince Wallerstein, who is a sort of Bavarian Thiers, selfish and unprincipled, only bent upon maintaining himself in the possession of the portefeuille, which is the glorious end that in his estimation sanctifies the means—this man of unscrupulous memory came in again, together with an obscure individual, a mere creature of L[ola] M[ontez], M. Berks.
... Meanwhile the crisis was brought about by the students of the University. L[ola] M[ontez] had succeeded in seducing a few of these, who, finding themselves immediately shunned and rejected by their fellow-students, formed a separate society or club, calling itself Alemannia, which from its beginning was publicly understood to be distinguished by the King's special favour and protection. In the course of two or three months they rose to the number of nineteen or twenty, easily recognised by the red caps and ribbons they wore. For L[ola] M[ontez] they formed a sort of male harem, and the particulars which have since transpired, and which, of course, I must not pollute your ears with, leave no doubt that she is a second Messalina.
The indignation of the students, who felt all this as a degradation of the University and an affront cast upon their character, was general. The Alemanni were treated as outcasts, whose very presence was pollution.