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stitutions, from a man whose whole life was spent in offices. of justice and administration, in which the old German secret and inquisitiorial forms prevailed. In what estimation, then, must not they stand with the inhabitants of the Rhenish provinces? And in the face of these privileges, solemnly if unwillingly guaranteed by the sovereign,-in a time of perfect tranquillity, the minister of clerical affairs in Prussia orders the primate of the country to be arrested by a military detachment, has him forcibly conveyed to a distant fortress without the sanction of the local magistracy (for there are magistrates at Cologne), and confines him there for months without demanding the sentence of any tribunal. We are no admirers of the religious tenets professed by the archbishop; but we fully agree with the speaker in the Stuttgardt chamber of deputies, whose opinion we cited above, that such a violation of the liberty of the subject in a civilized state, provided with tribunals of police and justice, is a scandalous outrage upon society, disgraceful to its authors, and full of ominous matter, threatening the repose and well-being of the state.

It must not, however, be supposed that the harsh proceedings adopted against the archbishop were an ebullition of religious zeal called forth by the attack made by that prelate on the Protestant cause. We should not be reluctant, however we lamented the violation of all forms of justice in this case, to allow full merit to the Prussian monarch's attachment to Protestantism, had he not himself taken sufficient pains to disavow the encomium.

His Prussian majesty labours, in common with other continental rulers, under a mania for originating measures for the good of his people, without allowing them a voice as to the necessity or the due extent of the proposed innovations. Of these the most extraordinary has, perhaps, been the amalgamation of Lutheranism and Calvinism in the new Prussian Protestant liturgy. The wish to unite the Lutheran and Calvinist churches seems to have been entertained by the king as far back as the year 1798, when a commission of three churchmen from each creed was appointed to consult and make proposals for its accomplishment. As nothing was ever heard of the result of their labours, it is probable that these learned divines could not agree upon any feasible plan. The

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misfortunes which came over the court of Frederick William and the Prussian nation in 1807, and which drove that monarch to seek a temporary asylum at St. Petersburg, are said to have had a singular influence upon the project which he continued to entertain. He was delighted with the responses of the choir in the Greek ritual to the priest at the altar, and is said to have borrowed from these rites the plan of the new church service, which was drawn up at his command by some divines after the establishment of peace in 1815.

The Prussian Protestant clergy were, in the year 1822, formally summoned to relinquish all difference of religious tenets, and to unite in the formation of a new evangelical church. A recent writer on the statistics of the kingdom* gravely observes, that the two principal Protestant creeds agreed to an union respecting outward forms, on the expression of the king's wish to that effect, in an order from his cabinet, dated 19th February, 1822. On the authority of this and of other writers who openly support, or prudently evade canvassing, the present measures of the government, we should be justified in assuming, that all opposition to this wide stretch of royal prerogative had now ceased; and that nothing but a cheerful spirit of obedience animated the Prussians, who were thus favoured with a dictation from the throne in matters of faith. How surprising soever such a consummation must appear to all versed in the history of religious controversy, yet to those who know that, in the first instance, all the leading Prussian divines, with the eloquent and philosophical Schleiermacher at their head, formally protested against such a mode of legislation, it must appear still more extraordinary that the acquiescence in the royal will should be so general and unconditional. The. Lutherans were, in this new Agendum, called upon to sacrifice to the Calvinist form of worship no less than the words used in offering the sacrament of the Lord's Supper: 'this is the body and blood of Christ;' the Calvinist form, this represents the body,' &c., being that adopted in the new ritual. Among a number of articles which candidates for the priesthood are required to swear to, the duties of a citizen towards the state, including the denunciation of traitorous designs

* Voigtel, Versuch einer Statistik des Preussichen Staates. 1837.

against the sovereign, are inserted; an addition of undoubted northern origin. These articles are also, by a singular misnomer, termed in the oath, fundamental dogmas of Christianity?'

In vain did Schleiermacher and other popular writers raise their voices against these innovations, and show by the most forcible arguments, that such proceedings must not only prove the greatest encouragement of that indifference in religious. matters with which the age has been taxed; but that the conscientious of the two creeds would infallibly be confirmed in their adherence to their distinguishing tenets by these measures; and thus the union, which by natural means was fast approaching, would be prevented. The government proceeded to employ all the means in their power to influence the clergy throughout the kingdom to accept of the Agendum; and it cannot be wondered at that by degrees a number of pastors, either under the immediate patronage of the crown, or looking for nomination to patrons who were themselves dependent on the government for places and preferment, should adopt the new ritual without much hesitation.

A lapse of twelve years seems to have been considered a sufficient respite for refractory consciences; for, in 1834, we find penal statutes, in the true course of religious zeal, enacted against nonconformists. The history of the early persecutions against such pastors and their flocks as ventured to manifest a desire to evade or to resist the royal will, is touchingly told in a work published by M. Scheibel*. We confine ourselves to the proceedings of the last two years, which would, under the present restraint on the press in Prussia, have probably not been made public, if the dispute respecting the arrest of the archbishop of Cologne had not allowed the barriers which surround it in other states to be a little extended. In the Augsburg Gazette †, a Bavarian publication, we find a most interesting correspondence, dated as late as September 1838;

1834.

Published by Raw, in Nürnberg, in 1832 and 1835, and by Fleischer, Leipzig

†The Algemeine Zeitung or Augsburg Gazette, published at Augsburg, is one of the most important public organs, and perhaps the best conducted newspaper in Europe. But it requires some practice to know how to read it. Those who know Germany will understand this, which the extractors of news from its pages for the use of our journals, evidently do not.

which, after correcting some exaggerated accounts circulated in other papers concerning the administration of the sacrament in cellars and secret places to zealous Lutherans, by orthodox divines, gives the following remarkable intelligence concerning nonconformist pastors and their flocks in Prussia :

"Only last year the provincial authorities at Erfurt caused Pastor Graben of Heiligenstadt to be committed to the house of correction. The upper tribunal of Halberstadt, however, no sooner learned the transaction than it ordered him to be set at liberty; and when the magistrates at Erfurt appealed to their superiors, the tribunal drew up a remonstrance to the King, stating that he ought not to allow his subjects to be imprisoned without a legal trial, which they were with difficulty prevented from sending to Berlin." The penal decrees against nonconformist Lutherans are alluded to in the following terms :—

ans.

"It is a great evil when a state is obliged, by exceptional laws, to decree punishments against actions which are neither criminal nor dangerous in themselves, but it is a still greater evil to resort to exceptional measures against individuals. Both methods have been adopted against the LutherAn order of the cabinet of the year 1834 imposes fines of from one to fifty dollars besides other penalties, punishment in the schools, &c., on their assembling to receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper. Their preachers have been arrested and committed to prison, as it would seem, for an indefinite term, without even the form of a trial. This occurred in the case of the Silesian clergymen, who were committed to close confinement in Marienwerder but three months back, because they would not promise to abstain from performing their clerical functions."

When we read the inevitable results of this singular persecution, we can scarcely believe that such scenes could occur in our own days, in the enlightened kingdom of Prussia, and under a sovereign whom some of our blundering zealots here represent as the head of Protestantism in Europe. Protestantism, indeed! it is fortunate for themselves that they are not in Prussia.-The writer continues

"It is a matter of notoriety that, to keep regularity in the registers of births, it is only necessary to know whether children have been christened or not; the person by whom they are baptized being of no importance; for, according to the principles of the universal church of Christ (from which the consistory of Breslaw has unhappily deviated, by ordering, in some cases, a repetition of the baptism), the validity of baptism is in no way dependent on the person performing the ceremony. Now the Lutherans never refused to declare that their children had been baptized. Inquiries were, however, made after the persons who baptized them, in order that they might be punished under the new penal laws; but this information was withheld from conscientious scruples. A rescript was consequently issued by the mini

sters of the clerical and police departments, dated 12th February, 1838, declaring all who refused to give evidence when required, respecting the person performing a clerical function, whether it be the father or a mere witness of the ceremony, liable to three months' imprisonment."

In consequence of this decree, it is further stated, many fathers of families, especially in Silesia, were committed to prison, and a most demoralizing system of informing introduced, to put a stop to which, the tribunal of Ratibor was obliged, like that of Halberstadt, as before stated, to interfere, and the minister was induced to rescind his decree. What are we to think of this state of things in a country which boasts of the unity and consistency of an administration, secured from the fluctuating nature of popular influence? But it seems that even the road of emigration is not wholly open to those who desire to quit the districts which they cannot inhabit in peace.

"It has been erroneously stated in some journals that Silesian Lutherans had emigrated to Australia, for the sake of freedom of conscience. The truth is, that about 450 Lutherans from the Mark, in the neighbourhood of Tullichau, passed through Berlin in Whitsunweek last, on their way to Australia; and that not long afterwards about 160 others (we cannot be responsible for the numbers) followed them in company with a few from Silesian villages of the vicinity. That Lutherans from one of the villages which have been the most severely visited with fines for the illegal performance of church service, we mean the circle of Trebnitz, applied for permission to emigrate, is true. But the conditions imposed by the government, that every father of a family must prove the possession of two hundred and fifteen dollars, and every other member that of one hundred and ten dollars, prevented these poor people, who had nothing left on which to raise money, from executing their project. It is said, too, that the landed proprietors opposed this step of theirs by remonstrance to the government, fearing to lose, with the Lutherans, their best peasantry, from a neighbourhood which does not stand in the best repute on the score of honesty."

This is, then, a picture of the domestic administration of Prussia in the year 1838! This is the manner in which the liberty of the person and of conscience are treated! This is the head of Protestantism in Europe!

We are enabled to give the winding up of this 'Strange Eventful History,' the following proclamation of the Prussian ministry having appeared shortly after.

"Berlin, 14th June, 1838.

"The circular orders issued by the undersigned ministers, under the date of 12th February, 1837, have not answered the expectations they were in

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