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ART. VII.-FOREIGN RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

PROTESTANTISM.

GREAT BRITAIN.

THE CHURCH CONGRESS OF BRISTOL -The annual Church Congresses of the Church of England may now be regarded as permanent institutions, like the German and Scandinavian Church Diets, and the Catholic Congresses of Germany, Switzerland, and Belgium. Though established only four years ago, they already belong among the most interesting religious meetings of Europe. This year the Church Congress met at Bristol, and it seems to have rivaled the success of the preceding meetings at Cambridge, Oxford, and Manchester. The Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, Dr. Ellicott, was, of course, the president, and among the distinguished members who attended were the Bishops of Chichester, Ely, Bath and Wells, Kilmore, Guyana, the Earl of Harrowby, Lord Lyttleton, Mr. Beresford Hope, Archdeacon Denison, Dr. Pusey, Canon M'Neele. As at the former congresses, all Church parties were again represented, though High Churchism was obviously in the ascendency.

views, as far as monasteries are concerned, were not supported by any other speaker, while the establishment of collegiate churches appeared to have many friends in the assembly.

The other subjects discussed by this Congress were home missions and lay agency, foreign missions, synods of the Church and rural deans and diaconal chapters, church architecture and decorations, the collegiate system in large towns, the mutual relations of the Church in England and Ireland, free and open churches, the social hinderances to the spread of Christianity, the education of the clergy with special reference to the systematic cultivation of English composition, public reading, and speaking; the aiding of the widows and orphans of poor clergy, the general question of education, church music, and a few minor topics. This is a larger budget of topics than any similar religious convention of Europe has ever discussed, and as most of them drew forth some very able addresses, the Church Congress is sure to secure the attention of all other religious denominations. We glean from the proceedings a few items which are of general interest.

In the discussion on foreign missions, Canon Lyttleton suggested the establishment of one or more professors in the universities, who should act as inspectors of missions, their office being to ascertain, by personal inspection on the spot, the actual results in some select area of the mission field, and report them fully an impartially at home. Mr. Knight reed over the step implied in the consecration of a negro bishop, and Canon Trevor strongly urged the im

Quite a sensation was produced at the Congress of Bristol by the unexpected appearance of the founder of the "English Order of St. Benedict," the already famous "Brother Ignatius." According to the reports of most of the English papers, his appearance was the signal for an outburst of hisses, mingled with little applause, though other (High Church) papers say that the applause prevailed. An effort was made by a portion of the audience to prevent him from speaking, but the president, who introduced him! as a member of the congress and a dea-portance of attending to the vast differcon in the Church of England, procured him a hearing. Brother Ignatius, habited in serge, with sandals on his feet, and shaven crown, then addressed the meeting on the question how the Church of England was to reach the untended thousands of their town population. It maintained that the ministers of the Church of England, under the present parochial system, were unable to grap ple with the evil, and recommended the establishment in the large towns of collegiate churches and monasteries. His

ences which separated different heathen tribes and nations, and endeavoring to obtain a specific instead of a mere general preparation for our missionaries.

The Rev. Canon Kennaway read a paper on the increase of the episcopate. Speaking of the onerous duties of the bishops, he said: When the population of England was 1,250,000, twenty-one bishops were not thought too many; when it had risen to 4,000,000 there were twenty-six bishops; but now they had only twenty-eight bishops for over

20,000,000 of people. Nearly all the speakers on the subject were agreed that the number of bishops should be increased, and various propositions were made.

A very important discussion took place on the revival of synodical power, in which the present state of the courts of ecclesiastical appeal came under review. The Rev. Prebendary Trevor insisted that a bishop was as much bound to hold his diocesan synod as to perform any other episcopal offices. Episcopacy without a synod was neither apostolical nor catholic, and the plea of disuse was of no more validity than actual neglect of duty. The Rev. T. Lathbury referred to the position of convocation or general synod historically. Never did Parliament interfere with spiritual questions until they had been decided in convocation, and then only to add to their confirmation. The articles of the Book of Common Prayer were settled by the synod, Parliament merely sanctioning the work of convocation. Dr. Pusey stated the aspect of the question as regarded in the light of all Church history. He said: 1. The synod was from the first the court of appeal for all who thought themselves unjustly condemned by their own bishop. 2. The synod under further appeal in grave matters to the whole Church, was the place where the doctrine of the Church was affirmed against emergent error. In England the synods existed in the ancient British Church, were renewed when their Saxon forefathers were converted, survived the Norman conquest, and all the trouble, until Henry VIII., being merged in the Upper House of Convocation. When the late Dr. Bloomfield (Bishop of London) proposed the substitution of this court as the final court of appeal, his bill, with the whole weight of the then government against him, was only lost by a majority of twenty in the House of Lords. Dr. Pusey understood that another plan would be more favorably received, according to which the facts of the case should be adjudged solely by civil judges, but the doctrine of the Church, whereon any question should arise, should be laid down by the synod.

would not pay their church-rates. He brought them before the magistrates in petty session, and got a conviction against them. Twelve had paid him, but ten others refused, and he had no doubt he should have to enter their houses and take their goods. Let the Church do her duty, and do what she could to bring all into her bosom, and all who would not come let them be guilty of schism. To the honor of the Church Congress it can be said, that the fanaticism of the speaker called forth strong marks of disapprobation.

GERMANY.

THE CHURCH DIET.-The thirteenth meeting of the German Church Diet (Kirchentag) took place this year at Altenburg, the capital of the duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, from the 13th to the 16th of September. The participation in it was again quite numerous, some eight hundred ministers and laymen from all parts of Germany being present. The Duke of Saxe-Altenburg afforded to the assembly likewise a great sympathy. The proceedings of the Church Diet are far from being so varied as those of the English Church congress. They were, in fact, confined, on the first and second days, to a discussion of the question, What gain can the Evangelical Church derive from the recent works on the life of Jesus? and, on the third and fourth, to a report on the German Home Missionary Society, and a discussion of the relation between Christianity and social life.

About the 13th of September, Professor Beyschlag of Halle opened the discussion of the question, What profit can the Evangelical Church derive from the recent works on the life of Jesus? Among the latest representations of the life of Jesus, he said he should only take notice of Rénan's and Strauss's. He attaches little importance to the work of Schenkel, because the notice which this book has received in Germany was, in his opinion, chiefly to be attributed to the incongruity of such a production with the station in the Church which its author occupied. He commenced his exposition by saying, "The object of these books is to undeify Jesus Christ; but if Jesus is no longer very God and a man without sin, then, however finely you may talk about him, the heart of Christianity is taken out of it. Yet the Christian Church might ex

One of the most foolish and objectionable speeches at the Congress was made by a fanatical lay member, Mr. Henry Hoare. He spoke as a churchwarden who had ten men in limbo who FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XVII.-8

tract great profit from these works. We are instructed by Church history that even the most subversive errors are leveled against weak and improvable points in the structure of the Church. Even the books of Rénan and Strauss cannot be explained from conscious hatred of Christ. If the Frenchman does not feel the moral blemishes which he affixes to our Lord, and if he yet stands in admiration before him, ought we to doubt the sincerity of that admiration? If Strauss has never felt what the Saviour is to Christians, and if he yet discerns in Christ an appearance of the highest beauty, ought we to deny that a ray of the sun has shone upon him? And is not the astounding approval which the false representations have met with due in part to the Church's not having succeeded in representing aright the life of Jesus?" The scientific contemplation of the life of Jesus is the most recent of our theological disciplines, and it was forced upon evangelical theology first of all by her adversaries. The Church from the beginning subordinated the interest of the fact and history of the life of Christ to that of the doctrine or dogma, and the dogmatic development of the idea of Christ became, therefore, one-sided. Not taking hold of the vital unity, the Church obtained an arithmetical union of the divine and human nature, but not a human historical person. The works of Rénan and Strauss obtained such an influence, because they appear to afford us a genuine human history, such as we could not possibly get from orthodox principles. This is the point from which the Church has more to learn. The human and historical essence must be recognized in the life of Jesus: then will the image of Christ be present to men with such truth as it has never since the days of the apostles. This is the profit which the Church ought to derive from these works.

existence. But the pre-existing person must not be conceived as a person that from all eternity has been realized, has proceeded from him, and attained to independent existence before his face; but as ideally inhering in God, as the prin ciple and the power of the universal creation, and as a person first in the historical personality of Jesus of Nazareth. That which enters the historical narrative is the perfect material and capacity for representing the image of God in perfect purity. And if humanity is formed in the image of God, then the eternal type in God is the true man; and son of God and son of man are not two factors to be added together, but are congruous and identical.

Another long essay on the life of Christ was read by Professor Kostlin, of Gottingen, who also urged that the human and historical side of the life of Christ be emphasized. He concluded by saying, "In treating of the life of Jesus, let us be cautious of giving offense to the weak, but let us denounce that false delicacy which conceals the difficulties that God would have us to contend with. Let us, above all, place the totality of the person of Jesus before the eyes of

the nation.

Dr. Liebner, of Dresden, one of the veteran evangelical theologians of Germany, returned thanks for the discussion of this subject, in which the Kirchentag, he said, had stepped from the circumference to the center. The problem for the Church now was to compile a life of Jesus, in which full justice would be done to the human character of Jesus.

Other addresses were made by Dr. E. de Pressensé, the editor of the Revue Chretienne of Paris, Dr. Tischendorf, of Leipzig, who pronounced a galling censure on the romantic absurdities and profanities of Rénan's book, Dr. Krummacher, Dr. Dorner, and Dr. Hoffmann.

AUSTRIA.

Professor Beyschlag then dwelt on the scriptural account of the life of PROTESTANT GENERAL SYNOD.-The Jesus, vindicating especially his miracles first General Synods of the Lutheran and his sinless character. Sinlessness, and the Reformed Protestant Churches he said, leads us to divinity, in which we in the German and Slavic provinces of must distinguish the union with God of Austria was opened on the 22d of May, his historical life, the parity with God of 1864. The holding of such a synod is his glorified essence, and his derivation in itself a proof of the great progress from God, and this in such a way that which the principle of religious tolerathe two latter may follow the former. tion has made even in Roman Catholic The historical union with God leads to countries; for never, during the preceda conclusion relative to the prehistoricing three centuries, had the government

The

of Austria been willing to concede to the members of the two great Protestant Churches the right to assemble in general synod, although in the second half of the sixteenth century Protestantism predominated in a considerable portion of the Austrian territory. greater liberty which the Austrian Protestants now enjoy dates from the year 1848, when the establishment of full religious liberty was one of the chief demands of the progressive party, which the government found it necessary to concede even after the suppression of the revolution. An imperial letter of April 8, 1861, and a Church Constitution of April 9, 1861, proclaimed by the government, provisionally regulated the affairs of the two great Protestant Churches, (Lutheran and Reformed.) The Churches of Hungary were to have a constitution of their own, which they, however, refused to accept, claiming the right to retain their former Church constitution intact. The Lutherans and the Reformed of the combined German and

Slavic crownlands were to have each a general synod, which was to revise the draft of Church constitution prepared by the government, and have hereafter the chief control of the ecclesiastical affairs of the two Churches. The convocation of the first General Synod was delayed no less than three years, and did not take place until the 22d of May of the present year. The synods of both the Churches met in Vienna on the same day.. Both synods passed a resolution to discuss such topics as are not of a strictly denominational character in joint session. The provisional draft of a Church constitution was adopted in all its essential points. The synods are resolved to present, conjointly, to the emperor, the following memorial containing the chief demands of the Protestants of the empire:

The General Synod protests: 1. Against the denomination of non-catholic, which is the term used in the decrees and ordinances of the political authorities to designate the adherents of the two Protestant confessions-the Augsburg and the Helvetian; 2. The Synod demands that those obstacles which, in some parts of the monarchy, are still presented to the establishment of Protestant congregations, shall be removed; 3. That booksellers shall be allowed to deal in Protestant books; 4. A community of cemeteries; 5. The admission of Protestant pastors, as of priests, into houses of re

tirement and charitable institutions, to exercise their functions in them; 6. The establishment of the equality of the Protestant and the Catholic festivals, in order that the authorities may be bound to protect the festivals of the Protestants in the localities in which they are the most numerous; 7. The Synod protests against all interference by the subordinate political authorities in the affairs of the schools of the Protestant congregations; 8. It protests against the ordinance which prohibits the children of Jews from frequenting Protestant, if there are Catholic schools in existence in the same locality; as it also protests against the ordinance which forbids Catholic parents placing their children with Protestant foster-parents; 9. The General Synod advances claims on the funds of the normal schools in favor of the Protestant schools; 10. It demands the admission of Protestant teachers in the medial Catholic schools; 11. The institution of Protestant catechists in the schools; 12. The incorporation of the Protestant Theological faculty into the University of Vienna; 13. The representation of the Evangelical Church in the Diet and in the municipal council.

The proceedings in both the General Synods were very harmonious. A union between the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches, as it has been consummated in several German countries, was not resolved upon, but both synods will continue to meet simultaneously, and at the same place, and to deliberate on all subjects not strictly denominational in joint session. The nationality question, which produces so much trouble in the political life of Austria, led, on some questions, to a disagreement between the German majority of the synods and the Slavic minority, as the former did not think it possible to concede all the demands made by the latter. The hostility, however, which prevails among different nationalities in the political assemblies of Austria, seems fortunately to have not yet sprung up in the General Synods.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH,

BELGIUM.

THE CATHOLIC CONGRESS.-The Catholic Congress, held in 1863, at Malines, Belgium, was undoubtedly the greatest success which thus far has been obtained by any Roman Catholic assembly of the kind. A strong recommendation by the pope and the bishops of the several countries which were represented at it would probably have sufficed to

secure for it an equal success in subse- | quent years, and to make it the annual rendezvous of the leading Catholics of all Europe. This approval, however, has not only been withheld from it, but it is admitted by the Roman Catholic papers themselves, that the most remarkable feature of the congress, and which chiefly gained for its proceedings the attention of the world, the great speech of Count Montalembert on religious liberty, has called forth the censure of the pope. In consequence of this censure, Count Montalembert, as well as several other leaders of the liberal school of French Catholicism, did not attend the congress this year, and their absence produced such a palpable difference in the character of the proceedings that even the Roman Catholic press has to admit that the congress of 1864 stands no comparison with that of 1863. The most important speech was this year made by Bishop

Dupanloup of Orleans; but, though not deficient in point of eloquence, it altogether failed to produce upon the world at large anything like the electric influence of the speech of the Count Montalembert. Among the prominent topics of discussion were the following: Education on Catholic Principles; the Benefits Conferred on the World by the Religious Orders; Protest against State Interference in Church Matters; a Better Observance of the Sabbath; the Opening of Popular Circulating Libraries. The Vicomte de Kerchove designated as the most important work for the congress, "to constitute a real and permanent union among Catholics throughout the world, and to create a Catholic popular opinion which, whereever the cause of Christianity is at stake, shall organize a pacific agitation throughout the whole Catholic family."

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ART. VIII.-FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

GERMANY.

Professor Hilgenfeld, of Jena, is the most prolific among the living writers of the Tübingen school. To his numerousformer works he has now added a 'Monograph on Bardesanes," the last of the Gnostics. (Bardesanes, der letzte Gnostikee. Leipsic, 1864.) Bardesanes is especially interesting on two accounts, as an ornament of the Court of Edessa, the first Christian kingdom in the world, and as the father of Syriac poetry. As a poet, his fame rested upon the one hundred and fifty psalms which, in imitation of David, he composed for the edification of his countrymen. The popularity of this work was immense, and when Ephraim Syrus subsequently replaced it by another more agreeable to sound doctrine, he was compelled to associate his orthodoxy with the heretical tunes to which the musical genius of his antagonist had given birth. None of Bardesanes's psalms are preserved, and we only know that his metrical system was entirely of his own invention, and was based upon accent instead of quantity. Nor are any of his prose writings extant; a dialogue under his name, fragments of which have been preserved by Eusebius, being undoubtedly spurious,

and chiefly derived from the recognitions of the pseudo-Clement.

The Life of Jesus by Schenkel, Professor of Theology at Heidelberg, and President of the Ecclesiastical Seminary in the same city, has produced a great commotion among the evangelical clergy of the Grand Duchy of Baden. The Supreme Church Council has been petitioned by over one hundred and seventeen clergymen, to remove the author of the work from the presidency of the seminary, in which every candidate for the ministry in the State Church has to pass at least one year. To this petition the Supreme Council replied, on the 17th of August, that the ministers of Protestant Churches have not only the right, but the duty, to subject the doctrines of their Churches again and again to new investigations; that the work of Schenkel does not attack the fundamental truths of Christianity, and that they can only blame the protest of the one hundred and seventeen clergymen and the manner in which it has been circulated among the people.

Professor Dozy, of Leyden, Holland, one of the most distinguished Orientalists in Europe, has published a very in

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