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well known as leaders of the Rationalistic party, although some, like Rothe and Baumgarten, have always been looked upon as prominent representatives of the evangelical school. They all agree, however, upon leaving to every particular congregation the right of choosing its own pastor, no matter what his theological views may be. The congregations are to hold their provincial and national synods, the powers of which are, however, not to interfere with the rights of the individ. ual congregations. Some particulars of the plan are yet involved in considerable obscurity, but in the main it seems to aim at introducing a kind of mixed Congregational and Presbyterian Church Constitution, with a great latitude as to creed, so as to embrace all shades of orthodox as well as Unitarian Churches.

The chief importance of this "Protestant Diet" lies in the fact that it represents the first national organization among the State Churches of Germany, which is sincerely in favor of emancipation of the Churches from the State, and of introducing the era of ecclesiastical Church government. Its design to put an end to the present isolation of the Churches in every particular German state, and to substitute for it a national organization, may likewise lead to important results.

ROMAN CATHOLICISM.

ITALY.

THE NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN ITALY AND THE POPE.-The progressive party of Italy, and the friends of civil and religious liberty all over the world who sympathize with it, have viewed with considerable alarm the opening of negotiations between the government of Victor Emmanuel and the Pope. It was feared that the hope of restoring peace between Church and State might induce the Italian government to make compromises respecting the remainder of the temporal power of the Pope, which would destroy the nation's hope of the ultimate annexation of Rome.

These fears have fortunately proved groundless. The Italian government, it is true, was very anxious to establish peace with the head of the Roman Catholic Church. Its special envoy, Signor Vejezzi, was instructed to show the most conciliatory spirit, and only to

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guard against making any concessions which would imply the negation de facto of the existence of the kingdom of Italy. The government was of opinion that the court of Rome, if it really wanted the establishment of amicable relations, could at least not refuse to grant to Italy the minimum of the rights and powers conceded to all the other Catholic governments of the world. It demanded, therefore, in particular the submission of all the papal bulls to the royal exequatur, and the oath of allegiance from the bishops. When the Papal court persisted in refusing these demands, the negotiations were broken off, and the envoy recalled from Rome.

The issue of the negotiations between Italy and Rome has dispelled many fears and raised great hopes for the future. The Italian government has hastened to lay before the world, in the form of a report, addressed by the Minister La Marmora, to the king, a full and official narrative of the whole of the negotiations. At the close of this report the minister says-and the government, by publishing the report, indorses the sentiment-that the day is perhaps not far distant "when the so much desired separation of Church and State will bring with it the complete separation of religious and spiritual from civil interests, to the common benefit of both Church and State." Hitherto none of the larger governments of Europe have yet dared to adopt the principle of separation between Church and State. The example of a powerful state like Italy would prohasten the complete triumph of one of duce a profound sensation, and greatly the fundamental principles of American democracy.

SPAIN.

LIBERAL REFORMS.-The government of Spain has for many years been regarded by the ultramontane party as a true model. This reputation it owed chiefly to its loud professions of devotion to the Roman Catholic Church in general, and to the Pope's temporal power in particular. The fact that even this most Catholic of all the gov ernments did not grant to the monastic orders that liberty which they enjoy in the United States and most of the Protestant countries, and that even associations which extend throughout the whole Catholic world, as the Society for

the Propagation of Faith, were barely tolerated in Spain, and therefore unable to strike root, was readily ignored in view of the rigid legislation adopted against Protestantism. It is, therefore, easy to comprehend the disappointment and mortification felt at Rome, and by the ultramontane party throughout the world, at the great change which has recently taken place in Spain. The ultra-conservative ministry has been dismissed, and a new ministry, under the presidency of General O'Donnell, has been appointed, one of the first acts of which has been the recognition of the kingdom of Italy. The Catholic party made the most strenuous efforts to prevent this. In the Cortes the ultramontane members most vehemently protested against it. All the bishops addressed letters to the Queen strongly denouncing such a policy, and some of them in their letters used language which will make them liable to be summoned before the courts. It is gratifying to know that the ministry has resisted all these attempts. The recognition of Italy is already an accomplished fact. The confessor of the Queen, Bishop Claret, one of the most fanatical priests of Spain, and an equally fanatical nun, who was one of the chief advisers of the Queen, have been removed from the court, and the Archbishop of Burgos has been relieved from his position as instructor of the Prince Asturias. The Anglican Bishop of Gibraltar has received permission to visit the resident Englishmen in several of the large cities, to hold religious service for them, and to consecrate Protestant cemeteries.

ENGLAND.

the right nor to the left in prosecuting the objects they have in view, while Roman Catholic ladies "laugh those to scorn" who would induce them to take active parts in furthering acts of charity and works of educational advancement for the benefit of their poorer and more ignorant fellow-men, women, and children. Dr. Goss deplored the religious destitution that existed in different parts of England, and declared that the churches and chapels of his faith were for the most part deeply encumbered with debt, from the startling sum of £10,000 downward. He also stated, as a proof of the decline of his Church, that in one street in Liverpool, in which were one thousand Roman Catholics, there was only one man who went to church, and only four children who went to school.

SOUTH AMERICA.

PROGRESS OF RELIGIOUS TOLERATION AND OF THE PROTESTANT MISSIONS.-In

Spanish America one country after another is removing from its constitution that odious provision which prohibits the public exercise of any other form of religion than the Roman Catholic. In July the Congress of Chili was occupied with a consideration of Art. 5 of the

Constitution, which is as follows: "The religion of the Republic of Chili is the Roman Catholic, to the exclusion of the public exercise of any other." The debates were lengthy and most animated. The reform side was advocated by the ablest and best men in Congress, and violently opposed by the priests, especially the Jesuits. At length a proposi tion of the government to allow Protestants to exercise their religion in chapels and private edifices, and also to have schools for the education of their children, was adopted by both houses, with the omission, however, of the word "chapel" in the first proposition.

ROMAN CATHOLICISM NOT INCREASING. -A curious testimony that the Church of Rome is not making as great progress in England as has sometimes been reported was recently given by one of The number of Protestants in many the Roman Catholic bishops, Dr. Goss, of of the South American countries, espeLiverpool. In an address to one of the cially in Chili, the Argentine Republic, Catholic congregations of Liverpool he and Brazil, is rapidly increasing in consoundly rated his flock, especially the sequence of immigration. By far the female portion of it, for their apathy, majority of the Protestant immigrants neglect, and indifference in carrying out are Germans; and already each of the works of charity and education. He above three states has flourishing colotold them in pretty plain terms that nies, and even large towns, exclusively Protestant ladies are zealous, hearty, inhabited by Germans. The Churches and indefatigable in carrying out their and missionary societies of Germany philanthropy; that they turn neither to take, on the whole, but little notice of

FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XVII.—38

them, and churches and schools are therefore sadly wanting. Of late, however, some improvements have been noticeable, especially in Brazil. Reports from the Brazilian province of Rio Grande do Sul state that the total German population (Protestant and Catholic) of this province already amounts to fifty thousand, or nearly one third of the aggregate population of the province. The centers of colonization are St. Leopoldo, Porto Alegre, and St. Cruz. largest of these colonies is St. Leopoldo, which in a total population of twentyfive thousand has twenty thousand Germans. They received in 1864, from the supreme ecclesiastical council of Berlin, a pastor. Churches have also been built at St. Cruz, Donna Josepha, and Porto Alegre, all of which congregations have applied to the Supreme Ecclesi

The

astical Council of Berlin for resident pastors.

Fully as good are the prospects of Protestantism in the Argentine Republic, where the Methodist Episcopal Church has highly flourishing missions. The city of Buenos Ayres has no less than four Protestant churches. The Methodist preachers have the nucleus of a congregation and regular preaching at six places in the province of Buenos Ayres, (besides the capital,) at two in the province of Santa Fé, and at one in the province of Entre Rios. The annual number of immigrants into the Argentine Republic amounts to about twelve thousand, and it is thought that nearly twelve thousand of them are Protestants. Religious toleration is fully secured, and the prospects of Protestantism are therefore brilliant.

ART. VIII.-FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

GERMANY.

AMONG the more important works which Rénan's Life of Jesus have call

ed forth, and the new works on the same subject by Dr. D. F. Strauss, in Germany, belongs one by Professor Sepp, (Roman Catholic,) Professor of History at the University of Munich, and author of a very comprehensive Life of Jesus, in seven volumes. His new work treats of the proofs to be found in the world's history for the truth of the deeds and the doctrines of Jesus, (Thaten und Lehren Jesu mit ihrer weltgeschichtlichen Beglaubigung. Schaffhausen, 1865.)

The Commentary on the Psalms, by Dr. Hitzig, Professor at Heidelberg, (Die Psalmen. Heidelberg, vol. 2, 1865,) has been completed by the publication of

the second volume.

the evangelical Church of Germany, and called forth from the evangelical party a demand for his removal from the posi tion as President of the Preachers' Seminary, has published in defense of his opinions, and of the rights of his party in the evangelical Church, a work entitled "Protestant Freedom, in its Combat with the Ecclesiastical Reaction," (Die Protestantische Freiheit in ihrem gegenwärtigem Kampfe mit der Kirchlichen Reaction. Wiesbaden, 1865.) The work treats fully of the recent Church history of the Grand Duchy of Baden, and may be regarded as an apology of the new, chiefly Rationalistic, organization in Protestant Germany, called the "Protestant Association," on the first General Assembly of which we report more fully in our department of "Religious Intelligence."

Of the first complete edition of the The proceedings of this General Asworks of John Calvin which has been sembly (Verhandlungen des Deutschen begun by Professors Baum, Cunitz, and Protestantenvereins auf dem Ersten ProtesReuss of Strasburg, the third volume tantentage, Elberfeld, 1865) contain a has recently been issued: Corpus Refor-number of important addresses: for exmatorum. Series Altera. Jo. Calvini Opera. Vol. iii. Brunswick, 1865.

Dr. Schenkel, whose Life of Christ has produced so great an excitement in

ample one by Dr. Rothe, on the best means by which members alienated from the Church may be regained to her; and another by Dr. C. Schwarz, (the author of the work on modern

theology,) on "Freedom of Teaching in the Protestant Church, and its Limits."

A new "Life of Jesus," which will attract considerable attention, has recently been announced in Germany, being a posthumous work by the late Chevalier Bunsen, and constituting the ninth work of his Bibel-werk. The standpoint of this work will be similar to that of Schenkel, and will be, like the what Strauss calls the "half" men. latter, a representative publication of

The literary controversy in Germany on the "Life of Jesus" continues to call forth a number of works from both parties. The posthumous work on the subject by Schleiermacher was replied to by Dr. F. Strauss, in a pamphlet called The Christ of Faith and the Jesus of History," ("Der Christus des Glaubens und der Jesus der Geschichte." Tübingen, 1865,) in which he strongly denounces the attempt of Schleiermacher of mediating between the old Christian Churches and the new school as impossible, while in an appendix he passes a similarly severe sentence against the work of Schenkel. Against the latter Strauss has since written a new work entitled "The Half and the Whole," ("Die Halben und die Ganzen." Tübingen, 1865,)|hung. Berlin, 1865.) meaning those that in his opinion are wholly and consistently, and those that are only half and inconsistently combating the old views of the Christian Church concerning the Scriptures and concerning the Life of Jesus. Strauss, of course, regards himself as one of the "whole" men, and Schenkel as a representative of the "half." The party of Schenkel replies bitterly to Strauss in the eighth number of its organ, the Allgemeine Kirchliche Zeitschrift. mutual animosity between the "half" and the "whole" men belongs among the worst specimens of the odium theologicum which the history of theology records. We learn from the above number of the Kirchliche Zeitschrift, tuat a letter written by Strauss in 1839, or four years after he had written his

"The Prophecies of the Prophet Isaiah," (Die Weissagugen des Propheten Jesaia. Berlin, 1865,) is the title of a work by Dr. Hosse. It is to serve as the introduction to a new commentary on the prophet.

Dr. L. Wiese, one of the prominent German writers on educational matters, has issued a new volume on the education of woman. (Ueber weibliche Erzie

The

"Life of Jesus," when he had been elected Professor of Dogmatic Theology in Zurich, has recently been published, and in this letter still speaks of Christ as "really the son of man, and also the son of God," whose death is "the guarantee of our pardon and salvation, as well as of the bliss and joy which awaits us in the future life." Schenkel calls that rather strange language from a man who four years before had published such radical views on the Life of Jesus, and who now so loudly boasts of his radicalism and his contempt of all the "half" men. Strauss explains the language of his Zurich letter by the fact that at that time he was an adherent of the Hegelian School, and that as such he could use the terms above quoted.

FRANCE.

Positivism has found a new champion in M. Alph Leblais, who has published a work on "Materialism and Spiritualism," (Matérialisme et Spiritualisme. Etude de Philosophie Positive. Paris, 1865.) The work is introduced to the public by the present chief of the Positivists, M. Littré, who sharply attacks Professor Janet for his articles against the Positivist school. M. Leblais begins by remarking that two great principles have from the earliest times divided the camp of metaphysicians-the one being represented by Aristotle, the other by Plato. The latter, of course, is thoroughly condemned, while Aristotle is represented as one of the fore

most instructors of mankind. M. Le

blais applies Positivism to the fine arts
and classics, and places Shakspeare
school, while Racine and Dante are set
among the celebrities of the modern
aside as untrue and radically imperfect.
The author is particularly bitter against
religion. "The ideas, so-called relig-
ious," he says, "under whatever form
they are manifested, are permanent
of disorder in the state."
causes of dissension in the family and

Professor Janet has published in book form his able articles in the Revue des Deux Mondes on the chief French representatives of Positivism and of Pantheism-Taine, Rénan, Littré, and Vacherot, (La Crise Philosophique. Paris,

1865.) We have given an account of these articles in our notice of the Revue des Deux Mondes, in a former number of the METHODIST QUARTERLY REVIEW.

Mr. Emile Saisset had proposed to himself as the great work of his life to write a history of Skepticism. He charged, it seems, both theology and science "The Science of the Invisible." (La losophy by denying its ability to estabwith undervaluing the power of phiScience de l'Invisible, Etudes de Psycho-lish the great truths of natural theology, logie et de Theodicie. Paris. 1865,) is the the existence of a personal God, and the title of a new work by Charles Lévêque, Professor at the College de France. The immortality of the soul, and on that account he pronounced both of them guilty of skepticism. The above work contains those portions of the proposed work

volume consists of a lecture on "Lib

erty and Fatalism," two essays originally published in the Revue des Deux Mondes, on the "present condition of the science of the soul," and "Proclus and his God;" and two articles on Dameron and Saisset. In the preface the author states that he desires to serve that philosophy which, for the last sixty years, has been teaching in France the existence of a personal God, the immateriality of the soul, liberty, right, and duty.

Another posthumous work of the late Emile Saisset, on Skepticism, (Sur le Skepticisme. Paris, 1865,) has been published by his brother, Amedéo Saisset. Professor of Philosophy at the Sorbonne,

which the late author had been able to finish. Some of them had appeared before; others are now published for the first time. Among the latter class belongs an article on Enesidemus, the greatest skeptic of antiquity. The most important articles in this volume are one on Pascal and the other on Kant, the latter of which had already appeared in the Revue des Deux Mondes, while the other appears now for the first time. Two other volumes of Emile Saisset have been recently published by his brother in the Bibliothèque de Philosophic Contemporaine, the one entitled l'Ame et la Vie, and the other Fragment et Discours.

ART. IX.-SYNOPSIS OF THE QUARTERLIES, AND OTHERS OF THE HIGHER PERIODICALS.

American Quarterly Reviews.

BIBLICAL REPERTORY AND PRINCETON REVIEW, July, 1865. (Philadelphia.) 1. Early History of Heathenism. 2. Arabia. 3. The Revised Webster. 4. The First Miracle of Christ. 5. President Lincoln. 6. The General Assembly.

BOSTON REVIEW, July, 1865. (Boston.) 1. Congregational Polity, Usages, and Law. 2. The Sin against the Holy Ghost. 3. Mendelssohn's Letters, and Life. 4. "The Christian Unity Society. 5. Short Sermons. EVANGELICAL QUARTERLY REVIEW, July, 1865. (Gettysburg.) 1. The Lutheran Doctrine of Ordination. 2. Lutheran Hymnology. 3. The Sabbath a Delight. 4. The Ministers of the Gospel the Moral Watchmen of Nations. 5. "Know Thyself:" Personally and Nationally Considered. 6. Abraham Lincoln. 7. Addresses delivered at the Installation of the Professors of the Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, October 4, 1864.

NEW ENGLANDER, July, 1865. (New Haven.) 1. The Revival of Letters in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. Part II. To the End of Century XV, and Beyond it to the Close of the Papacy of Leo X. 2. The Portuguese in India: A Historic Episode. 3. Personal Perils of the Preacher. 4. The Definitions of the new Webster's Dictionary. 5. The

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