"I therefore charge you to return to me, without delay, your letters of holy ordination. As you have not complied with my injunction to appear before me in person,* and have thereby deprived me of the wished-for opportunity of convincing you, by fatherly admonition and friendly conference, of your false and heterodox views generally, and, in particular, regarding the worship of relics—as the adoration of the Holy Tunic,—I can only add to the sentence, which I most reluctantly pronounce, my fervent prayer, that by God's grace you may be led to a right understanding of the Catholic faith, and to a discrimination of that worship of relics, which is permitted and approved by the Church, from the abuse of it, of which alone you seem to think.—
"D. Latussek, Suffragan Bishop, and Vicar-General of the Diocese.
"To the late Curate, Rev. Johannes Ronge."
* My Lord Bishop only called me before him in case I should
be inclined to retract, or, if I were not the author of the
letter alluded to; otherwise, as is shewn by the document of
the 29th of October, I was only called upon for an
explanation. Why this perversion of the truth?'
THE CONCLUSION.
The history of my life is now before my countrymen, and they may judge between me and my opponents and traducers. I have given documentary proof, that, on account of the Article entitled "Rome and the Chapter of Breslau," I have been deposed, and sentenced to disgraceful punishment, by the Board of Canons, without citation, hearing, or defence, which are accorded to the most ordinary criminal. I have further proved, that, on account of the well-known letter to the Bishop of Treves, I have been excommunicated by the same right reverend Board—that is to say, I have been placed without the pale of the Church, as an irreclaimable sinner.
As, however, I have conducted myself, in speech and action, in accordance with my calling and my duty as a teacher, as also in agreement with the Gospel; and have, in defiance of law and justice, by unrighteous and despotic fiats of the Romish Church, been deposed and excommunicated—I appeal to the justice of my countrymen against the Hierarchy and its slaves, and demand that the members of the Canonical Board at Breslau be forced to rescind their sentence. I do not prefer this accusation in my own behalf alone, but stand forth in vindication of the rights of the whole body of inferior clergy, which are trampled upon by their superiors—in vindication of the rights of congregations, which are trampled upon by the entire priesthood! Lastly, I stand forth for Christendom, and, in the name of all Christendom, arraign the Romish Hierarchy, which falsely calls itself the "Universal Church," because it does not fulfil, but directly opposes the Gospel call—the call to promote the perfect reconciliation of the family of man.
The Romish Hierarchy has reduced the Gospel teaching to a system of usury, compulsion, and oppression, profanely—prostituted religion to a revolting Jesuitism,—and, instead of promoting the improvement and the reconciliation of mankind, maintains in all their bitterness the antipathies of nations, and, kindling civil war, (look to Switzerland and other countries!) debases human nature by hypocrisy and vice.
It is the Roman Church which has to rend so wide asunder the yawning gulf which separates the higher from the lower classes, the ignorant from the educated, the poorer from the richer portions of all European nations; and it is she who is daily making that gulf still wider, by dint of Jesuitism and priestcraft. In order to escape from utter ruin, the overwhelming evil must be vigorously, resolutely met,—in compact phalanx. The nations—and above all the German nation—ought to call a free ecclesiastical convention, composed of laymen freely chosen, and of honest priests, to sweep away for ever all Jesuitism and priestcraft—to establish freedom of conscience on the ruins of hypocrisy—to purify religion, and to show the Church her actual calling, imposed upon her by the spirit of the times, and the exigencies of our people—namely, the reconcilement of the higher and the lower classes of humanity—the reconcilement of the nations and the peoples of the earth, by improving and ennobling them—by universal love and freedom. By our regard to our neighbour, we shew forth our love to God; for we are told by John, that "If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar."