Rome and Europe | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 22, 1874

Rome and Europe.

ALL through Europe the battle goes against the church. The pope having declared his supremacy over the States, the States are giving in their answers with an emphasis which cannot be misunderstood. In Berlin, Archbishop Ledóchowski has been tried before the highest tribunal for ecclesiastical causes, and has been deprived of his see. Other bishops are in prison, and they also will in time be deprived and possibly banished. They have taken issue on the right of the State to legislate upon the affairs of the church, have set the laws at defiance, and are paying the due penalty. Archbishop Ledóchowski would not, of course, recognize the competency of a civil court to try a bishop; that question has been settled quite conclusively.

In Austria the emperor has replied to the pope’s passionate denunciation of the new ecclesiastical bills. The first of these has already passed the Upper House of the Reichsrath, and only waits the imperial signature to become a law. The archbishops and bishops upon its passage left the legislative chamber; that will not help them; they may have to leave the country before long. The claim of the church to be wholly independent of the State is monstrous. A sovereignty within the State, it has since 1870 become throughout Europe a conspiracy against the State.

The points at issue between the governments and the church are very simple. 1. The sufficiency of civil marriage. 2. The control of the State over education. 3. The control of the State over the education of priests so far as to require their attendance at the national universities prior to their special training. 4. The notification to the State of the nomination of priests for parishes. This claim is grounded on the fact of the State’s contributions to the maintenance of public worship. 5. The control of the State over the property of ecclesiastical corporations. But for the exercise of this power the church would acquire all the real estate of every kingdom in Europe. Long before the Reformation, the statutes of England were framed to check its rapacity. The modern State has again and again found it necessary for its own safety to confiscate the church’s possessions. This will be done as long as the Roman Catholic church is a church. Able to acquire property from its subjects through the force of the terrors of the future world, it can measure its acquisitions only by its demands, and its demands are insatiable.

This, then, is the issue. Rome declares: “I shall do as I please, for by the appointment of God I am supreme over the world.” The State replies: “You shall obey in all things necessary to the State’s welfare. You are to be judged by the State, and not the State by you. While you have liberty within the State, you shall not organize conspiracy against the State.” In making this answer Bismarck and Andrassy, Switzerland and Italy, all concur. The attempt of an Italian priest, who has obtained a quasi-sovereignty, to carry the world back to the Middle Ages, is not going to succeed.—The Methodist.