Tolstoi Letter Prosecution in Germany
On July 9, at Leipsic, Germany, a certain theater manager was acquitted of the charge of blasphemy brought against him because of the circulation of Count Leo Tolstoi's letter to the Holy Synod of Russia. The State's attorney has appealed the case to a higher court, on the ground that the prosecution was necessary in order to maintain the creed of the established church. He stated that while Tolstoi's letter was moral and religious, yet it was plain that the letter was an attack on the orthodox church of Russia, and was therefore in principle an attack on the established church of Germany. Hence it could not be overlooked. Thus we have a self-styled Christian nation, whose emperor frequently preaches to his subjects from the Bible, prosecuting persons for the circulating of literature which is admitted to be moral and religious. It is an inconsistency that is bound to be met in every nation with an established religion, a state of things to which all religious legislation tends.