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ON THE

RISE, PROGRESS, AND PROSPECTS

OF THE

Schism from the Church of Rome,

CALLED THE

GERMAN-CATHOLIC CHURCH,

INSTITUTED BY

JOHANNES RONGE AND I. CZERZKI,

IN OCTOBER 1844,

ON OCCASION OF THE PILGRIMAGE TO THE
HOLY COAT AT TREVES.

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A TRAVELLER," A TRANSLATION OF "THE HEIMSKRINGLA," ETC.

SECOND EDITION.

LONDON:

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

LONDON:

Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE, New-Street-Square.

PREFACE.

THE establishment, and endowment by the State, of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland is the great question of the nineteenth century. Religious feeling, raised by principle or prejudice, is already agitating the great mass of the Protestant population. The educational endowments of Maynooth as a seminary for priests, and of four colleges for the lay community of the Roman Catholic Faith, are considered, whether justly or not, as indications that these are but preliminary steps to a great organic change in the social state and policy of Great Britain-to the formal acknowledgment and endowed establishment of a new body in her social structure, the clergy of the Church of Rome. The breeze which precedes the storm is already ruffling the public mind.

Political expediency, the necessity of conciliating five millions of the population of Ireland, stands on one side of this great question. The weight of the deliberate judgment of many of our

most prudent and cautious statesmen, including, it is supposed, the present ministry as well as the most eminent of their political opponents, is thrown into the scale of the expediency, the instant urgent necessity, of Catholic endowment; and but for the approach of the term when representatives in Parliament must account to their constituents, and might endanger their seats in the next Parliament by a decided opposition to public opinion, or prejudice, on this momentous question, the endowment of the Catholic Church in Ireland might probably have been carried this session with the same, or nearly the same majorities in both Houses, as the endowment of the Catholic colleges. The two measures are, however, to every unbiassed mind, essentially distinct. Sir Robert Peel and Lord Stanley justly argued that the educational measures they proposed stood upon their own ground, on the fulfilment of one of the great duties of modern governments, the education of the people, whether priests or laity, by the means the people prefer and will alone use. No reasonable unprejudiced man, of any sect or denomination of Christians, will deny that to educate the people is the first step to civilise, enlighten, and even convert the people; that it is the duty of a Christian govern

ment; and that, however exaggerated the importance may be which it is the fashion of the day to attribute to national establishments of schools and colleges, if these are to be of any use or influence at all, they must be suited to the social and intellectual state of the people or classes for whom they are established. The wise or rather wary ministry are entitled to say, with perfect good faith, either that they consider the educational endowments final measures, or preliminary measures; either distinct and unconnected with any intention to establish and endow the Catholic Church, or as initiative, preparatory, and necessarily leading to that end-just as they find public opinion favourable or adverse. This is not the position of a high-minded ministry; but it is safe, very safe; and what is done is in itself good.

On the other side of this great question stand the religious principles, feelings, and prejudices of the great mass of the Protestant population of the United Kingdoms. It may with the many be ignorance worked upon by zealots at public meetings, and by the press, until it becomes a blind and dangerous fanaticism; but with the great body of the middle and upper classes, it unquestionably is the sober, sincere, religious conviction of men of every Protestant sect, and of men not uninstructed

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