The Fall of Romanism in Europe.
THE anti-papal movement in Europe goes on steadily and irresistibly. It moves like a deep river, not with the noise of a “babbling brook.” It now appears that one of the articles of agreement between Austria and Prussia, at Salzburg, binds the two governments to co-operate in repressing the Ultramontanists, or, at least, their hostile treatment of the Anti-Infallibilists. This is all-important news. It is, indeed, a decisive omen. The Bavarian Government has recently made cabinet changes which show that its policy will be concurrent with that of Bismarck and Beust. But perhaps the most important news on the subject is that of the statement made last week in the Bavarian Parliament, by the cabinet. It declared that the doctrine of Infallibility is dangerous to the State, and that those who did not accept it should be protected and regarded as Roman Catholics. It also declared that the King and Council of State favored a complete separation of the religious and political branches of the government. With such political odds as these, the cause of the Vatican would seem to be finally lost in Europe. Both Catholic parties have held their great conventions—the Ultramontanists at Mayence, where the city Archbishop and other partisans behaved very clamorously, and committed themselves to such extreme ideas and measures as must severely react against them in the popular mind, and especially in Parliament, where the violent Archbishop is expected to be foolishly rampant. The Reformers, after several successful preliminary gatherings in Switzerland and elsewhere, have met in Munich, where Dollinger has become chief of the University. Eight thousand enthusiastic adherents crowded the hall. The celebrated canon-law scholar of Prague, Von Schulte, presided; Dollinger made an important speech. Delegations were there from Austria, Prussia, Switzerland, etc. Père Hyacinthe, Professor Ossinini, of St. Petersburg, the Spanish agent, Signor d’Aldro, and many other notabilities, were prominent. The famous prelate, Strossmayer, sent a letter of adhesion, which produced a sensation. We think there can now be no sober doubt of the colossal importance of this Catholic disaffection. It threatens to strike away the chief foundations of Popery among the Teutonic peoples. Meanwhile they are sliding away from beneath the system, among the Latin nations. In Italy, hierarchical Popery seems to be fairly played out. The Pope is powerless and self-imprisoned in the Eternal City, and the people there have just celebrated their recovered possession of the city with an enthusiasm which leaves no doubt that the change is thoroughly a popular one. In Spain, the son of Victor Emmanuel sits upon the throne. The Church party are with his Carlist opponents, and his policy must necessarily be, like his father’s, anti-papal. In France, the Church party has received a significant defeat in the liberal results of the late elections. Thus, men who, whether in Church or State, bind themselves to the dead past, must die with it. In attempting to restore the past, the Church, in the late Roman Council, committed suicide.—The Methodist.