declaration against the abolition of the temporal power of the pope. The Roman Catholic members were, of course, anxious to see this union consummated, and issued an invitation for a second conference in the latter months of 1861. The original participants had not enough courage to accept it; yet cne High Lutheran theologian at least, Dr. Vilmar of Marburg, has expressed his entire concurrence with the resolutions of the conference of Erfurt. Several Old Lutheran papers have charged him, as well as the Volksblatt, an organ of the Prussian Lutherans, and several other papers, with Romanizing tendencies; the charge has been replied to, and the controversy springing out of this discussion has widened the breach between the High Church, or Romanizing Lutherans, on the one hand, and the Old Lutherans, who are unflinch ing opponents of Rome, on the other. FRANCE. THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.-We mentioned in a former number that the Rationalistic party in the Reformed State Church, which for some time has been losing ground, had formed a new society, called the Liberal Protestant Union, which was to rally, if possible, the scattered forces, and to secure, in particular, the election of Rationalists into the presbyteries. In January the renewal of the Presbyterial Council took place; both parties, the Orthodox and the Rationalist, had made great preparations for it, and the result was a total defeat of the the Rationalists. The Presbyterial Council of Paris is composed of twelve members, six of whom are renewed every three years. In 1856 500 electors took part in the vote; in 1859 only 400. This year the aggregate vote was about 1,500. The six retiring mem THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.-Thebers of the Council being eligible for advantages which the Church of Rome seemed, after years of hard struggling, to have secured in a number of German re-election, the Orthodox party determ ined to re-elect them all. The Rational ists asked only that the last three should be displaced; but their candidates obtained no more than from 450 to 496 votes, while the candidates of the Orthodox party had from 1,043 to 1,072. The Lien, of Paris, the organ of the Liberal Union, now finds consolation in the belief that "the relative strength of the two parties at Paris is still, notwithstanding ten years of Orthodox dominion, what is was of old." The progress of Protestantism is so undeniable that it is even admitted by the Society of St. Francis de Sales, an instition expressly founded for the purpose of counteracting the influence of Protestantism. A recent number of the Bulletin of the Society shows that the Protestant schools of Paris contain more than 5,200 scholars, of whom the author calculates 3,000 must be children of Roman Catholic parents. These statistics have suggested to Rev. F. Monod an article in the Archives du Christian states by means of special Concordats, have now all been swept away. In the kingdom of Wurtemberg, even the First Chamber, consisting mostly of the high aristocracy, have voted for the rejection of the Concordat; and the principle may now be regarded as generally adopted, that the relation of the Roman Catholic Church to the State must be regulated, not by negotiation with Rome, but direct legislation. Austria is the only state in which the Concordat is nominally still in force; but, in fact, it has become a dead letter, and it is announced that it will be soon revised with the consent of the Pope. Nowhere seems the ultramontane party to be so well organized as in Prussia, where they form a political party, and now count in the Second Chamber some seventy members. Being in point of numerical strength the third party in the Second Chamber, (the Constitutional ranking first, and the Progressive second,) they offered to the Constitu-isme, contrasting the condition of tional party their votes for the election of the president of the Chamber if the first vice-president were to be taken out of their midst; but when only the second vice-presidentship was offered to them by the Constitutional party, they preferred to cast their votes for the two candidates of their most decided opponents, the Progressives, without securing either of the vice-presidencies. French Protestantism at the present yet any regular pastor. eighty-three sermons weekly, (forty-nine in French, twelve in German, twentytwo in English,) of which fifty-nine are on Sundays, and twenty-four on week day evenings. The first Sunday-school was opened at Paris on September 22, 1822, with from fifteen to twenty scholars; now there are from twenty-five to thirty of these schools, with a number of scholars estimated at from 2,500 to 3,000. In the territory now belonging to France there were in 1807 227 Reformed and 224 Lutheran ministers, together 451. According to the "Protestant Year-Book of 1861," the present numbers are, of the Reformed Church, 653 pastors; of the Lutheran Church, 405; total, 1,058 pastors. The first religious journal was established in 1818, while there are now twenty-one such journals published, not including the French religious journals which come from Switzerland, Belgium, and elsewhere. ITALY. THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.-While in most of the newly annexed districts, such as Lombardy, the Romagna, the Marches, and the Neapolitan provinces, the Protestants continue to enjoy religious toleration, Tuscany stands in a strange abnormal state, as the severe laws of Leopold I., enacted in 1849 and 1852, are still in force. The priests and public prosecutors have found out that the laws affecting the press can be made use of against the Protestants, and a number of suits have consequently been instituted. Gavazzi is under trial at Florence for an attack against the religion of the state, because he denounced confession to the priesthood. Signor Gregory, a student of the Waldensian Seminary, and Del Buono, a colporteur in the island of Elba, have been brought before the tribunal in that island, the one for having written, and the other for having sold, a controversial pamphlet. Their case has been transferred to the Supreme Court of Lucca, and the Professor of Law in the University of Pisa, who was applied to to be counsel for the defense of Gregory, declined, because as the law now stands the judges cannot but pass sentence of condemnation, which involves five years' imprisonment. There is a similar case in the tribunal of Leghorn against Signor Ribetti, the Depository of the Religious | Book Society, and the printer, for having printed a reply to a pamphlet by Padre Romolo di Pistoja, and for having this reply posted on the walls of the city. Notwithstanding these partial and temporary impediments to the preaching of the Gospel, the progress of Italy in a religious point of view has been very great. The Waldensian Seminary, now located at Florence, is attended this year by four ex-priests, who give fair promise. Another institution for the training of evangelists has been opened at Genoa under the direction of Dr. De Sanctis and Professor Mazzarella. A new weekly religious journal has been started at Turin, with the title, Chiesa Libera in Libero State, (A Free Church in a Free State.) It is edited by Signor Manina, a priest and very respectable man, who has succeeded Dr. Camillieri, at Florence, in the attempt to open an Anglican Italian Church there. Finding it unsuccessful, he returned to Turin, and is now become editor of this journal. Mr. Bruce, the Agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society in Italy, estimates the number of Bibles and Testaments sold during 1861 at about 30,000 copies. He has about thirty colporteurs employed in various parts of Italy. The National Bible Society of Scotland has at present sixteen colporteurs employed. The sale of religious and controversial books and pamphlets, to which the Scotch ministers in Tuscany have directed special attention, has been very large, and many new works are on hand for publication during the coming year. A work of special importance for Italy is announced by Dr. De Sanctis, being a weekly serial in the shape of dialogues, which will probably extend over two or three years, and will form a complete course of religious instruction. In order that this and other important works may be carried on with more rapidity and economy than has hitherto been possible, arrangements have been made to have the Claudiana printing press, which belongs to the Waldensian Church, removed to Florence, and set up in the Palazzo, lately bought for the Waldensian Theological College. The London Tract Society has given a grant of £500 to the Scotch ministers for their printing operations, and in order to extend this important field of missionary work a society has been formed, of which Dr. Revel has been appointed president, to be called the Italian Evangelical Publication So SPAIN. ciety. The Geneva Italian Committee to reconcile pope and king, civil and has again brought out this year the religious interests in Italy. almanac Amico di Casa, compiled by Dr. De Sanctis, which has been so successful in years past. Last year 40,000 were published, this year 80,000, and there was a fair prospect of the whole edition being exhausted. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.-The pope has summoned all the bishops of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the world, who can conveniently leave their sees, to be present at a grand assembly, to be held in Rome in May next. The circular states, as the cause of the invitation, that the holy father wishes as many bishops as possible to be present at the canonization of twenty-three Franciscan monks, who some centuries ago suffered martyrdom in Japan; but the Roman Catholic papers themselves do not believe that the circular speaks the plain truth, and expect that the pope will call on the assembly to pronounce, in the name of the entire Roman Catholic Church, upon the necessity of the temporal power of the pope. The government of France has, on that account, intimated its design to forbid the French bishops to take part in the Roman assembly. Although at present but little is heard of any progress of Romanism among the Eastern Churches, and even the much-boasted-of Bulgarian movement, which, according to Roman Catholic papers, either had resulted, or soon would result, in the union of a population of four millions with the Church of Rome, seems to be entirely at an end; the pope is determined to pursue the proselytizing plans with unrelenting vigor. To this end a special congregation has been established, including theologians of Italy, France, and Germany, which is to occupy itself exclusively with the affairs of the Eastern Churches. A number of Roman Catholic priests have come out during the past six months in pamphlet in favor of abolishing the temporal power of the pope. They already seem to form a considerable party, which has several periodicals under its control. The most important and influential organ of the party will be the new bi-monthly journal called the Mediatore, and edited by Passaglia, who has been appointed professor at the University of Turin. It proposes PROTESTANTISM.-Spain is reviving her bloody legislation of former ages. Matamoros and Alhamra, the two imprisoned Protestants, have been sentenced to seven years of the galleys, and another, Irogo, to four years. They had been previously tried and acquitted for alleged political offenses, so that the present sentences are solely for reading the word of God. The Journal des Debats, of Paris, has the following interesting article on the subject, which gives some additional information on the Protestants of Spain: "We have called attention to the persecutions suffered by the few Spaniards who profess the Protestant religion. One of them, Mr. Manuel Matamoros, convicted of having sold Spanish Bibles, has been condemned to the galleys for seven years. He is not the only victim of the intolerant principles inscribed in the Spanish code. From information which he himself has addressed to the Clamor Publico eight persons are still in prison at Malaga on account of their religion, seven at Seville, three at Granada, and many others have also been arrested at Barcelona, Cordova, and Jaen. Some of these are women, and one is a girl of only seventeen years of age. From Malaga, Granada, and Seville about fifty fathers of families have been compelled to emigrate to escape the rigors of the law, and have left their wives and children in a state of destitution. The Spanish authorities feel all the odium of these persecutions, and endeavor to divide public opinion by representing the persons arrested or condemned as guilty of conspiracy against the state, and by giving a political color to those absurd acts of violence which are an outrage on reason and humanity. But they adduce no fact to support these allegations. The truth is, that the police have seized all the papers of Matamoros and his fellow-sufferers, and yet not a single document has been published to prove anything against them. Mr. Matamoros is nothing but a sincere believer; the only faction he serves, at the peril of the galleys, is the Gospel; the only party he consents to follow, at the risk of liberty and life, is Jesus Christ.” SCANDINAVIA. country than had been formerly imagined. It is said to prevail among the members of the medical profession, and to have a great hold on the more educated classes. Also among the clergy it has still a number of representatives. A Mr. Ignell, one of the ministers of Stockholm, has for many years been a zealous disseminator of Rationalistic publications; and a minister in the north, celebrated for his critical scholarship, is well known to be a Rationalist of the most advanced school. THE PROTESTANT CHURCHES.-The Rationalistic controversy has begun to agitate also the State Church of Sweden. In 1860 a clergyman of the name of Hallin, in the diocese of Strengnäs, laid a statement before the Consistorium, in which he denied, and attempted to disprove, the doctrine of the Saviour's divinity, the atonement, and other kindred truths. The Consistorium drew up and placed in his hands a distinct and able answer to his paper; and having in the mean time suspended him from the exercise of his ministerial functions, gave him a period of three months to reconsider his opinions. At the close of this interval of grace he was summoned before the Consistorium, and having intimated that he adhered to the opinions which he had formerly avowed, he was deposed from his office. The case has been largely discussed throughout the country, and a large class of secular newspapers have raised the cry of persecution, and denounced the sentence as an interference with freedom of thought, and a prohibition of free theological inquiry. This is not the only open display of Rationalism which at present interests the Swedish Church. A Mr. Ljunberg, one of the higher teachers at Gothenburg, and a member of the Consistorium, had in the course of last summer read a paper in defense of Rationalism before the Literary and Scientific Society of that city. This has led to a lively discussion, in which the bishop of the diocese has taken the most prominent part, answering and exposing Mr. L.'s arguments. It is quite well understood that there is a much greater amount of Rationalism diffused throughout theisters and friends." A periodical, conducted by the leading members of the High Church party, looks with some alarm on such cases of Rationalism. "Every one," it says, "must see that it is impossible for the Church to continue to be governed or served by persons who publicly declare that to be a lie which the Church holds to be the truth. If such a state of things continue, before long a great and important ecclesiastical crisis is before us. Either those who now reject the Lutheran doctrine must see the dishonesty of their position and go out of the Church, seeking with their advanced views to form a Church such as the enlightenment of the times demand, and such as their allies, the Friends of Light in Germany, have already sketched, or if this is not the case, but, on the side of the rulers and judges, the office-bearers of the Church are tolerated in their denial of the Church's doctrines, and all attempts to subject them to censure are hindered, the crisis will appear in a much more serious disruption. We have then infallibly to expect the same spectacle which Scotland witnessed about twenty years ago, namely, that the National Church shall be deserted by a great multitude of her most faithful min ART. IX.-FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. ENGLAND. Observations on the attempted Application of Pantheistic Principles to the Theory and Historic Criticism of the Gospel is a title of a work by the late Dr. Mill, Hebrew Professor at Cambridge, and is esteemed one of the most valuable publications of the quarter. It is a collection of articles first published by the learned author in a periodical. It is said to be one of the publications of the century, devoted to high theology, which is destined to live. Its interest is increased by the fact that it refutes by anticipation much of the reasoning and many of the assumptions of the " Essays and Reviews." A volume entitled Jehovah the Redeemer: the Scriptural Interpretation of the Divine Name Jehovah, by Thomas Tyler, M.A. Mr. Tyler claims that the theory of "a Mr. M'Whorter" in America, in regard to the divine name, was plagiarized from an article of his in the Journal of Sacred Literature. By a restoration of the true vowel points the divine name becomes Yahveh; the future tense of the Hebrew verb of existence signifies He will be. It thus becomes a prophetic name, indicating the future existence of "God manifest in the flesh." The theory, as presented by Mr. M'Whorter in this country, was not favorably received by the majority of scholars; but the Journal of Sacred Literature thinks that Mr. Tyler "has made out a good case." The veteran Egyptologist, Mr. Samuel Sharpe, has published Egyptian Hieroglyphics: being an attempt to explain their Nature, Origin, and Meaning. It serves an excellent introduction to the knowledge of hieroglyphics. Mr. Sharpe maintains that the long catalogues of kings, which stretch the chronology of Egypt so far back of the Mosaic chronology of creation, are largely parallel pedigrees of cotemporary sovereigns of different kingdoms. He holds that no catalogue reaches back further than the age of Abraham. GERMANY. We receive from Germany several valuable additions to the literature on Rationalism. Of Tholuck's History of the Time preceding the rise of Rationalism, (Vorgeschichte des Rationalismus.) Berlin, 1861,) the first part of the second volume, treating of the religious life in the seventeenth century, has appeared. The object of the work is to trace the germs of Rationalism in an age which was yet directly opposed to it, and to show how it could spring from the strictest orthodoxy. Both the Lutheran and the German Reformed Churches are embraced in the narrative, which draws an interesting picture of the constitution, doctrines, government, and discipline of the German Churches and of the religious and civil life of the people. A thorough treatise on Rationalism itself may be found in the work of Professor Auberlen, of Basel, on Divine Revelation. (See Meth. Quar. Rev., 1861, p. 677.) The author considers a thorough discussion of the character of Rationalism, and a refutation of its fundamental errors, as necessary for reaching his object, an apology of divine revelation. To this end he gives us three elaborate chapters: I. On the Great Spiritual Contest in the Christian World; II. On Ancient Protestantism and Rationalism; and, III. On the Overthrow of Rationalism. A colleague of Auberlen, Professor Riggenbach, has published a treatise on "Modern Rationalism," (Der heutige Rationalismus. Basel, 1861,) especially in Switzerland, the substance of which was read before the Evangelical Alliance at Geneva. A brief, yet comprehensive survey of all the phases of Rationalism from its first rise to the present day, has been given by Prof. Wuttke in a late number of the Evangelical Church Gazette of Hengstenberg. The new work of A. Sprenger on the Life and Doctrines of Mohammed, (Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammed, Berlin, 1861,) which is mostly derived from sources not made use of before, will, when completed, undoubtedly rank among the standard works on the Literature of Mohammedanism. The author, by birth a Tyrolese, is known as one of the best German Orientalists, and was for twelve years the president of Mohammedan schools in India, where he had rare facilities for acquainting himself with the treasures of Mohammedan literature. The work is to be completed in three or four volumes, the first of which, the only one which has as yet appeared, contains seven chapters on the religious movements in Arabia before Mohammed; on the youth of the prophet, on hysterics, visions, and Arabic Paganism; on the public appearance of Mohammed, and his conversions from A. D. 612 to 617; legends of divine judgment; and, finally, Mohammed's threatening announcements of temporal punishments. A new and comprehensive treatise of all the mystic phenomena in human nature has been published by Max Perty. (Die mystischen Erscheinungen der menschlichen Natur. Leipsic, 1861.) The author lays down three fundamental principles: 1. That there are agencies, and phenomena caused by them, and partly perceiv able by the senses, which do not follow the natural and psychological laws as yet known to us, but laws of a higher order. Such agencies, and phenomena have been often designated with the collective name Magic. 2. Numerous phenomena, which former ages ascribed to deities, demons, etc., have been produced by men. 3. All men are endowed with some magic power, which the author calls "geodemonic." |