From Goethe M. Laemmer learned to appreciate, in some measure, the Sacraments of the Church, and to think kindly of the Church itself. But what solid advantage could he gain from the man who wrote to Lavater of the chief gospel miracles that "he held them for blasphemies against the great God and His revelation in nature"?
The reader will have observed that this course of reading made several important additions to M. Laemmer's religious views. And yet the books among which his reading lay were either not at all, or not directly religious. We are now to inquire how far his ideas were modified by any directly religious training. The answer to this question opens up such a view of the condition of Protestantism in the country of its birth, as well deserves our careful study. Let M. Laemmer tell us what fruits it has produced at Koenigsberg. First of all, in the various schools where he resided during his stay in that town, there was no common practice of religion: the religious exercises of the gymnasium were limited to the singing of a few stereotyped chants. The religious instruction of the students was attended to by an aged professor, who was one of the leaders of the Freemasons, and whose religion was the religion of pure reason. He was assisted in the religious training of the students by a younger man, whose doctrines were kindred with his own, and whose lectures, though erudite, were arid. Fortunately for himself, M. Laemmer had learned from his mother the habit of night and morning prayer. This habit he retained, although for want of fixed principles it became a work of mere routine. Such was the state of religion in the gymnasium. In the city itself things were still worse. From the orthodox Lutheranism of Superintendent Sartorius, down to the absolute Rationalism of Rupp, every intermediate stage of error had its exponents and followers in the city of Kant. In the eyes of Sartorius, Catholicism, which he knew only from Luther's caricatures, stood on the same level with Rationalism; he assigned to the Confession of Augsburg almost the same authority which Catholics claim for tradition, and together with Baur, Nitsch, and Winer, made an unsuccessful attempt to refute Moehler's Symbolism. Rupp, on the other hand, denounced all symbols, even that of St. Athanasius, which he declared to be incompatible with Christian doctrine; his system was based on Indifferentism of the lowest kind, and conceded to women as well as to men the right of deliberating and of teaching in religious matters. And yet, these two men, so diametrically opposed to each other in doctrine, preached for a time in the same church and from the same pulpit. And, whilst Sartorius, who revered Luther as a man of God, preached to empty benches, Rupp found assembled around him a crowded audience, composed of the highest as well as the lowest in the land. The different churches at Koenigsberg had preachers of every shade of doctrine. During the course of his studies M. Laemmer made trial of them all, but found not satisfaction in any. At length, in the midst of this Babel, he became acquainted with the man who was destined to exercise a most salutary influence on his life. That man was Lehnerdt, Superintendent-General of the province of Saxony. Born in Brandenburg, and educated at Berlin, in the school of Schleiermacher and Hegel, he escaped the pernicious influence of his masters by a profound course of historical studies. On the one hand, he combated the rationalistic exegesis of Paulus, and on the other, devoted himself with all his might to the study of the Fathers. He was a man of great piety; and in preparing M. Laemmer for confirmation, spoke with such unction of God and the world, man and sin, Christ and salvation, that his words wrought in the young student's soul a blessed reaction. An intimate and affectionate relationship sprang up between the two, which was interrupted in the middle of 1851 by Lehnerdt's departure for Berlin, where he succeeded Neander as professor of history, but was resumed again at a later period in that city.
M. Laemmer passed from the gymnasium to the university of Koenigsberg at Easter, 1852. He remained there but one year, during which time he acted as secretary to Voigt, whose able History of Gregory VII. was the beginning of a new epoch for ecclesiastical history in Germany. One of the professors of philosophy was Rosenkranz, the pupil and biographer of Hegel. This able man was an eloquent partisan of Hegelianism, and by the poetic colouring he contrived to throw around its doctrines, exercised an extraordinary influence over the youth of the university. M. Laemmer tells us that during a fever which at this time brought him to death's door, one of his keenest regrets was his inability to attend Rosenkranz's lectures. He made up for his absence from lecture by a careful study of his professor's writings, and completely adopted the views expressed therein. It was long before he was able to shake off the yoke of Hegelianism which he then assumed. In the university, Biblical literature was treated altogether from the rationalistic point of view. One of the fruits of this method is the isolated and independent study of various parts of Sacred Scripture. "It was reserved for Protestantism", says M. Laemmer, "to cultivate in minute detail what is called Biblical Theology, and to write volumes upon the doctrine of such and such an apostle in particular.... This anatomical process, this study of atoms, has led many to apply those fine theories to various periods of Church history, and, like certain heretics of the middle ages, to speak of the Christianity of St. Peter, and of the Christianity of St. Paul, not excluding by any means that of St. John" (pp. 47, 48).
At the Easter of 1853 M. Laemmer passed from the university of Koenigsberg to that of Leipsic, on a burse founded in the old Catholic times by a Catholic priest of his native town. His departure from Koenigsberg marks the close of the first period of his university career, and it will be interesting to stop and take a comprehensive view of the phases of thought through which he passed during that time. As far as religious opinions are concerned, this first stage of his life may be subdivided into two periods: one of demolition, the other of reconstruction. In the former he lost his belief in Lutheranism and its central doctrine of the Bible and nothing but the Bible; that is to say, he lost hold of the only dogmatic principle he held. Being thus deprived of a fixed belief, he was more open to the action of Lessing's principles of universal tolerance, which amounted to the coldest indifferentism and doubt. These principles he made his own for a season. The spectacle of division and discord which was exhibited daily under his eyes at Koenigsberg, helped to complete the work of destruction. Even his very prayer became a dry form, lacking all influence for good. The period of reconstruction commenced with the friendship that bound him to Lehnerdt, by whose influence were sown in his mind the seeds of a reaction, which, by the play of intellectual as well as moral causes, was afterwards developed into the fulness of Catholic belief. The intellectual cause that led to this happy result was, as we said before, the spirit of historical inquiry; the moral cause, under God's grace, was the deep religious sentiment which formed part of his original character, and which, once aroused by Lehnerdt's words about justice and the judgment to come, never allowed any antagonism of feeling to stand long in the way of his acceptance of the truth. Not that the action of these causes was at all times unimpeded. The Hegelianism which he imbibed from Rosenkranz far a long time seriously crippled his mind in its exertions after truth.
In these dispositions M. Laemmer came to the University of Leipsic.
Among the professors at Leipsic Winer was beyond doubt the most remarkable. His labours on the idioms of the New Testament Greek, his lexicological and bibliographical works, and even his reply to Moehler's Symbolism, with all their defects, give proof of solid study. But he permitted himself in his lectures to launch sarcasms against the rites of the Catholic Church. Indirectly he was the occasion of much good to M. Laemmer, who read Moehler's and other Catholics' works in order to test the statements advanced by Winer. It was Winer too who first suggested to him the idea of devoting himself to teaching in the university. Tischendorf, so famous for his studies on the Bible texts, and Wachsmuth, who has rendered immense services to truth by his Roman history, written in refutation of Niebuhr, were among the professors whose courses he followed at Leipsic. Two resolutions taken at this period by M. Laemmer reveal the gradual change which was taking place in his convictions, owing to the action of the causes mentioned above. First, he determined to assist no longer at the lectures of Theile, on account of his grossly rationalistic treatment of the doctrine of the Word in the Epistles of St. John. Theile died shortly after. "He was a man of rectitude", says M. Laemmer, "and conscientious: I cannot think of him without a feeling of deep sorrow. You might read on his brow the painful and fruitless efforts he had made to attain to the fulness of truth and to that peace which the world cannot give" (p. 65). Daily more and more disgusted with rationalism, and wearied with ineffectual efforts to reconcile the contradictions which everywhere appeared in theology, he now began to entertain serious thoughts of confining himself exclusively to philosophical studies. But these thoughts were put to flight on occasion of his first sermon, which he preached in a suburban village where one of his friends was pastor. The subject of the sermon was charity, as described by St. Paul; and its treatment had the effect of reviving in the preacher's heart his old love for religious questions. He was now approaching the crisis of his life. While he was bewildered by the endless variations of Protestantism, and endeavouring to form out of them a religious system such as would satisfy his reason and conscience, the first rays of the grace of faith began to dawn more nearly upon his soul. In what manner this came to pass we shall allow himself to tell:
"I said before that during my stay at Leipsic, the study of a question proposed for concursus exercised a powerful influence on my religious views, and that to it is to be attributed my first step towards Catholicism. The subject chosen for the concursus of 1854, by the Leipsic Faculty of Theology, was the exposition of the doctrine of Clement of Alexandria on the Word. This theme made upon me a most vivid impression. At once, and with great joy, I resolved to become a candidate. I will now state the motives of this resolve. The conflicting theological systems which I had observed, both in books and in oral instructions, occasioned me extreme torture. I was too independent to follow the example of so many others by attaching myself blindly to a party; I wished to examine for myself the successive phases undergone by the Protestant principle, and with full knowledge of the subject to make my own selection. All those systems, whether confessional or non-confessional, could not satisfy me long; on the other hand, the distraction caused by philological and philosophical studies could not give peace to my heart, which only in God could find an end to its unrest. Inquietum est cor nostrum, donec requiescat in te. I felt I must escape from the chaos of modern theology, and I most eagerly availed myself of this opportunity to draw from the spring of Christian antiquity. I procured a copy of Klotz's portable edition, and set myself to the study of my author. Pen in hand, I began my task by reading him through and through before I took any account of what others had written about him.
"A new world opened on my sight as I read the earliest master of the Alexandrian Catechetical School—the teacher of Origen. What treasures lie hid in these three works, the Exhortatio ad Graecos, the Paedagogus, and the Stromata! The Exhortatio ad Graecos is a masterpiece of Christian controversy against Paganism, considered in its popular mythology, its poetry, and its philosophy. The Paedagogus, written for catechumens, sets before them a magnificent portrait of the true and only Master—the eternal Word of the Father—who has created man to His own image; who alone can provide a fitting remedy for fallen and guilty humanity; who, though man had become of the earth, earthly, yet enables him to attain to his heavenly destiny; who, in fine, confides him to the maternal yet virginal love of the Church. Then came the eight books of the Stromata, an unpretending mosaic, in which the loftiest problems of philosophy and theology are treated with great learning and rare penetration. These three works were, without doubt, connected together in the author's mind. The idea of the Word is the central point of Clement's entire demonstration; and in that idea we must seek the essential unity of his system. It is the Word which tenderly invites man; which instructs him; which guides him to his end by leading him to see the things of God in their profundity; and thus the idea of the Word embraces in one same circle all philosophy, dogmatic as well as moral" (pp. 85, 88).
The monograph on Clement of Alexandria was prefaced by prolegomena, containing a sketch of Clement's life, an analysis of his doctrine, and an inquiry into the historical sources of his doctrine on the Word. For this the author had to examine the relation in which Clement stood in philosophy and theology towards classical antiquity, Alexandrine Judaeism, the Apostolic Fathers, and the first Christian apologists. The subject proper of the essay was divided into two parts: the first treated of the relations of the Word with God; the second considered the Word as the Revealer. The work was well received by the faculty of theology, and its author was declared the successful candidate, 31st of October, 1854. By the advice of Winer and others, and by the kindness of Tischendorf, it was published in March, 1855. Wachsmuth, dean of the faculty of philosophy, advised M. Laemmer to stand his examination for the doctorship in philosophy, and backed his advice by the offer of a burse to enable him to meet the expenses. The young student obtained this degree after having presented a dissertation on the religious philosophy of Clement of Alexandria, and having passed a successful examination.