II. How was I proceeded against!
I was suspended, and condemned to dishonouring imprisonment, without a hearing—without an opportunity of defence, or proof adduced of my culpability.
It is unlawful that any German or Prussian citizen should be imprisoned for a crime, by any other than the civil executive power. It is only the Catholic priest that is liable to be coerced without appeal to his civil rights, or the ceremony of a trial. The Apostle Paul laid claim to the privileges of a Roman citizen; while the Roman Church herself denies to her followers the exercise of the most ordinary civil rights. I did not, therefore, submit to the sentence!
REASONS FOR NOT SUBMITTING TO THE ORDERS OF THE RIGHT REVEREND BOARD.
To this finding of the Vicarial Council, dictated by ecclesiastical caprice, without regard to the law of the land, or even to the statutes of the Church, it was impossible for me to submit—and I did not submit to it; because I should have thereby degraded, first, my moral dignity; secondly, the honour of the nation; and, thirdly, the rights of the whole body of inferior clergy, by a cowardly submission to the unjust and disgraceful punishment.
In the first place, my moral dignity was slighted. If I am bound as a man to resist all violent infringement of my freedom and individual privileges, and rather to hide a free and virtuous heart beneath the poorest clothing, than to strut about as a slave in rich attire,—I am still more solemnly engaged to such a course, as teacher of the people. As such also, in order to bear vigorous and successful testimony to the truth, I must maintain an unblemished reputation among my fellow-citizens. The right reverend Board, however, have at once assailed my freedom and my honour.
As the citizen of a civilized state, and belonging to a civilized nation, where the law and not caprice is paramount, I should have compromised the national honour, had I, the subject of such privileges, submitted in a cowardly and passive manner to the despotical dictation of a foreign power.
Lastly, seeing that it is at once the duty and the privilege of every teacher of the people (as also of each vicar,) to speak the truth without respect of persons, I should have incurred the guilt of sacrificing the privilege and duty of the whole body of inferior clergy, by tame submission to the power of those who thus dispute the one, and hinder us in the performance of the other.
As regards the latter, the inferior clergy have certainly renounced their duty, when, in opposition to their superiors, they have submitted to be robbed of this—and many other of their rights as men—and to see themselves reduced to the condition of blind slaves; but the cowardice of many in the past and present time, cannot relieve me or any other man, from the duty of guarding intact the possession of our civil rights. I am only the more solemnly bound most vigorously to contend for all our rights,—as men and citizens, and to free myself from slavery,—the more clearly I perceive, that by the slavery of the popular teachers, the moral and physical suffering of the people is ensured. Does a man cease to be a citizen when he becomes a priest?