BASLE-LUGANO
340
BASLE-LUGANO
jurisdiction of the bishops. The prince-bishopric
was occupied bj- French troops in 1792 and Bishop
John Sigmnnd von Roggenbach (17S2-94) fled to
Constance. His territory was turned into the Rau-
racian Republic which after four months was in-
corporated, 1793, in the French Republic. Besides
the loss of secular jurisdiction the bishop had also to
forego a large part of his ecclesiastical diocese, for,
according to the Concordat made in ISOl between
Pius VII and Napoleon, a large part of the Bishopric
of Basle was given to the Diocese of Strasburg.
The next bishop, Francis Xavier von Neveu (1794-
1S2S), resided first at Constance and then at Offen-
burg; he ruled only a small territory in the present
Cantons of Solothurn, Aargau, and Bern. It was
not until 1814 that the bishop obtained again the
right to ecclesiastical supervision over the larger part
of the former prince-bishopric; bvit his eitorts to
bring about the restoration of the secular power were
unavailing. In 1S15 the Congress of Vienna gave the
territorj' of the diocese to the Cantons of Bern and
Basle, with the exception of the portion already be-
longing to Germany. Not long after this, however,
the Diocese of Basle was enlarged. After the disor-
ders of the Napoleonic era the Swiss confederation
had been reorganized; in order to make it equally
independent in Church matters the Swiss part of the
Diocese of Constance was separated in 1814 from
that bishopric and placed provisionally under a vicar
Apostolic. Long negotiations were entered into
between the cantons in the territory of which these
portions of the diocese lay. and it was finally resolved
to carrj' out the plan that had been steadily urged
by the Canton of Solothurn; this was, to revive the
Bishopric of Basle and to define anew its boundaries.
The negotiations with Rome were concluded in 1828;
the Bull of Leo XII, "Inter pra-cipua Nostri Aposto-
latus munera", issued 7 May, 1828, settled the bound-
aries of the new Diocese of Basle, and the Bull of
13 July, 1828, was solemnly read at Solothurn in
the collegiate church of Sts. Ursus and Victor which
had been elevated to a cathedral. Bishop Francis
Xavier von Neveu died a few- days later. The new
cathedral chapter, which had been appointed, in
order to bring it into existence by the pope, nomi-
nated as bishop the dean of the cathedral who had
formerly been the administrator Apostolic, Anthony
Salzmann (1828-54). The new Diocese of Basle,
which is directly dependent on the Apostolic See,
embraced at first the Cantons of Lucerne, Bern,
Solothurn, and Zug; in 1829 Aargau and Thurgau
were added; somewhat later Basle, for the Catholic
district of Birseck; in 1841 Schaffhausen, first pro-
visionally, and then, in 1858, definitely although
■without confirmation from Rome.
The germs of many conflicts lay hid in this merely provisional new arrangement and in the uncertainty as to the legal relations of the new see. However, during the episcopate of Bishop Salzmann and that of his immediate successor Charles Arnold (1854-62), the founder of a seminary for priests at Solothurn, peace was fairly well preserved. During the epis- copate of Eugene Lachat (1863-85) a struggle broke out, caused by the Old-Catholic movement which won many adherents in Switzerland. The liberal cantons of the Diocese of Basle (all except Lucerne and Zug) clo.scd the seminarj- for priests in April, 1870, and forbade the promulgation of the decrees of the Council of the Vatican. When in 1871 the bishop, nevertheless, proclaimed the.se decrees, the majority of the cantons belonging to the diocese voted his deposition, 29 January, 1873, and dissolved the cathedral chapter. 21 December, 1874, which had refused to elect a new bishop. The bishop, being forced to leave his residence, went to Lucerne w hich, like the canton of Zug, had protested against the action of the other cantons and had remained faith-
ful to the bishop. Here in Lucerne he continued to
administer the diocese. His appeals to the federal
authorities of Switzerland were rejected and the Cath-
olic community was forbidden to have communica-
tion with him. It was not until the pontificate of
Leo XIII that this unfortunate state of affairs was
brought to an end and peace re-established. Bishop
Lachat resigned his office in 1885 and was made titu-
lar Archbishop of Damietta and Administrator Apos-
tolic of the newly formed Bisliopric of Lugano (see
below). He died' in 1886. On 19 January, 1885, the
Holy See appointed Frederick Fiala Bishop of Basle
(1885-88). The new bishop sought to efface the
traces of the late struggle and re-establish the cathe-
dral chapter; he died 4 May, 1888. Leonard Haas
(1888-1906) was appointed to the see 11 July, 1888.
Bishop Haas was an eloquent preacher; he encour-
aged the use of congregational singing and held a
diocesan synod in 1896. He was followed in 1906
by Dr. Jacob Stamniler, born 2 January, 1840, and
ordained to the priesthood in 1863.
St.\ti.stics. — The present Diocese of Basle (ex- cluding Lugano) embraces the Cantons of Basle, Bern, Lucerne, Solothurn, Aargau, Thurgau, and Schaffhausen; in 1900 it contained 444,471 Catholics and 903,400 Protestants. The majority of the in- habitants are Germans, although in the Canton of Bern some 6,000 Catholics speak French. For the spiritual direction of the Catholic community the diocese is divided into 8 deaneries, 14 rural chapters, 406 parishes, and 149 curacies and chaplaincies. The parishes in the Cantons of Zug and Schaffhausen are not united in a rural chapter. The secular priests number 660; the regular clergy (O.S.B. and O.M.C.) 85. The cathedral senate, which has the right to elect the bishop, consists of five resident canons {catwnici resideniiales) and six non-resident canons {cayumici jorenses); besides these there are seven cathedral capitulars, who do not belong to the cathedral senate. In 1907 the office of capitular was vacant. There is a collegiate church at Lucerne having an independ- ent provost and 9 canons (in 1907 the canonries were not filled), and a collegiate church at Beromiinster with 1 provost and 20 regular canons (the number of canons in 1907 was 17).
The schools for the education of the clergy are: a cantonal theological school at Lucerne with a semi- narj' for priests, and at Zug St. Michael's boarding- school for boys. The private seminarj' for teacher.s at Zug is entirely Catholic in character. In accord- ance with the Swiss constitution the public schools are open to members of all denominations, conse- quentlj- there are no genuine Catholic parish schools. In the Cantons of Lucerne and Zug, which are almost entirelj- Catholic, instruction is given in many of the schools bj' Catholic teaching-sisters, who are obliged to pass a state examination. The male orders and their houses in the Diocese of Basle are as follows: Capuchins, 7 houses with 73 priests, 19 clerics, and 24 laj- brothers; the Hermit-Brothers of Luthern, 1 house; the Benedictines of Mariastein, who were included in the Swiss congregation of the Benedic- tines, were driven in 1874 from Mariastein and have gone to Dilrrenberg near Salzburg; the Benedictines of Muri have gone for the same reason to Gries near Bozen, and the Cistercians of Wittengen to Meherau near Bregenz. The female orders and congregations are more largelj' represented in the diocese than the male orders. These institutes and their houses are as follows: Benedictine nuns, 1 house; I'rsulines, 4 houses; Capuchin nuns, 4; Franciscan Sisters. 1; Cistercians, 2; Clares, 1; Sisters of St. Francis de Sales, 1 house with a boarding-school for girls attached; Sisters of Cliaritj-, 5; Sisters of the Divine Provi- dence, 1. There are large numbers of the Sisters of the Cross of Ingenbohl, who have charge chieflj- of orphan asylums and hospitals and who act as attend-
