Old Catholicism -- By: Frank Hugh Foster
Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 38:151 (Jul 1881)
Article: Old Catholicism
Author: Frank Hugh Foster
BSac 38:151 (July 1881) p. 401
Old Catholicism1
It is our purpose in the following Article to give a short abstract of this work, with especial regard to those topics of most interest to the American church. The Essay was prepared originally for the contest of 1878 before the Society for the Defence of the Christian Religion at the Hague. Having been accepted and awarded the prize by them, it was subjected to a careful revision by the author, and enlarged. As it now lies before us, it brings the history down to the Spring of 1880, and incorporates a body of references to an exceedingly rich and comprehensive literature, thus forming a most valuable guide for any who may wish to pursue more special studies in this field. If blemished by some abruptness of style and by occasional repetitions, it is as a whole well done, and the author — a Protestant pastor in Bremgarten, Canton Aargau, Switzerland — deserves our hearty thanks for his labor.
In the first of the three main divisions of the work our author treats of the Rise, Development, and Character of the present Old-catholic Movement.
BSac 38:151 (July 1881) p. 402
Old Catholicism has its rise in resistance to that movement within the church of Rome which culminated in the Vatican decrees of 1870. There had long been two parties in the church — that of which Jesuitism made itself easily the master, and that characterized by a more deeply religious spirit, striking its roots into the distant past of the early church, but bringing forth flower and fruit for the wants of the men of the present. During the reign of Pius IX the former party continually gained in power. It manifested this in the proclamation of the immaculate conception of Mary (Dec. 8, 1854), and in the Encyclical and Syllabus (Dec. 8, 1864), which set themselves against the science and the State as well as the Church of our modern civilization, and were yet accepted without contradiction in the Roman church. Emboldened by this, the Ultramontanes advanced to the last step, and summoned an “Ecumenical” Council to, Rome at which, above all, the doctrine of papal infallibility was to be promulgated.
For many years the spirit of free and scientific activity within the church had seemed to be extinguished, but this last measure of the Ultramontanes called it into life. First came Döllinger’s book: “Considerations for the Bishops of the Council on the Question of Infallibility,” then the famous “Janus,” a series of articles first appearing in the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, and then a long series of protests upon various grounds from professors of theology, bishops, priests and laymen. Yet the pope and the Jesuits prevailed, and the Coun...
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