The German publicist, Wolfgang Menzel, in the number of his Literary Leaves for last October, thus writes:
"We are far from wishing to blame a reunion of all good Christians, even though the same authority in Protestants who are truly Christian is not sufficiently recognized. Every tentative of reunion, however restricted it may be, must be hailed with joy."
Reinhold Baumstark, in a pamphlet upon the pontifical letter, says:
"It is the Catholic Church which has directed and accomplished the education of humanity during the whole middle age. Since the Reformation, it has sustained without succumbing three centuries of violent struggles, and, if the eternal truth of God lives in it, we shall see the realization of the word of its founder, that "there shall be one fold and one shepherd."
In quite a different spirit writes Prof. Schenkel, of Heidelberg:
"It is impossible to deny that the Protestant church of Germany is at present running a very great danger. The different confessions are becoming daily more opposed to each other. Theological parties engage in mortal combats; the liberal party is combated by the servile party. The bond of peace is with deliberate purpose torn and broken and a large portion of the German people, witnesses of these disputes, fall into discouragement, distrust, and indifference. The ancient and malign enemy laughs at our folly, that, after having bitten one another, we shall finish by eating one another up. … Let us say it, to our shame, we have no remedy to oppose to this evil. Interiorly divided, absorbed in party disputes, deprived of autonomy, the sport of political calculations, and politico-ecclesiastical experiments which are perpetually changing, torn by theological hatred, abandoned by the populations, thrust aside by all classes of citizens, our church resembles only too much a shipwrecked vessel which lets in water on every side. How can we face the violent tempest which is brewing, when we lack unity of direction, when we lack a head, are destitute of any solid interior or exterior organization, when we are consuming our forces in the continual wars of one confession against another?"
We are sorry, Professor Schenkel, that we really cannot tell you how you can do it. Perhaps Dr. Bellows, the American and Foreign Christian Union, or the New York Observer might suggest something a little consoling or encouraging to the unfortunate gentleman.
The official replies made by various Protestant bodies in Europe are, as we might expect, a reiteration of their old protests against the Roman Church, and a declaration of their contentment with their present state. The most courteous and well-reasoned of these papers which we have seen is that of the Unitarian pastors who sit in the seat of Calvin at Geneva. It makes the issue between rationalism, liberalism, and humanitarian progress, on one side, and the supernatural revelation of doctrine and law, on the other, very distinctly—imputing, in the usual style, servility, formalism, tyranny, and obscurantism to the Catholic Church, and claiming for Protestantism the merit of protecting and promoting true liberty, intelligence, and happiness. There is more of the same kind in the number of the Liberal Christian (February 6th) in which we have read this address. As statements of the position and opinions of the parties issuing them, these documents may pass. We are to expect that those who are challenged in the way they have been will reply in just such a manner. These are only the preliminaries of an earnest controversy which must be carried on for a long time before any result can be looked for.
Dr. Hedge, of Harvard University, has rendered himself supremely ridiculous by denying that St. Peter was bishop of Rome, or even visited Rome at any time; from which he concludes that the pope has no right to issue encyclicals as his successor. [Footnote 83]