SAINT GEORGE
350
SAINT GEORGE
of his old diocese and look do\\Ti on it. Moreover,
the government of the Canton of St. Gall meddled in-
cessantly in ecclesiastical matters and in the Church's
right of jurisdiction, and demanded for itself the right
of approval (placetum rcgium) in all more important
episcopal ordinances pertaining to discipline. When
therefore the bishop, Karl Rudolf Count von Buol-
Schauenstein (1823-35), died, the governments of
both cantons refused to recognize his successor, and
the Cathohc collegium of the great council of St. Gall
appointed an episcopal administrator. Father Ziircher,
for the Catholics of the canton. Finally Gregory
XVI, at the request of the Canton of St. Gall, sup-
pressed the double diocese and erected in 1836 a
Vicariate Apostolic of St. Gall; the vicar Apostolic
was Johann Peter Mirer of Upper Saxony, parish
priest of Sargans.
Negotiations concerning the erection of a separate Diocese of St. Gall were soon begun with Rome in order to bring this state of affairs to an end. It was, however, only after great difficulties that an agree- ment was made that was satisfactory both to the Holy See and to the Canton of St. Gall. In 1845 the Concordat was signed by the papal nuncio and the au- thorities of the canton; on 12 April, 1847, Pius IX issued the Bull of circumscription, and on 29 June Mirer was consecrated in the cathedral as first Bishop of St. Gall. The new bishopric had soon a hard fight to wage with the Liberal party, which had gained as- cendancy in the canton from 1855, as to the rights and hberties of the Church. The bishop, a highly- talented and very orthodox man, was ably and vigor- ouslv supported in this struggle by Father Greith, Callus Baumgartner (father of the celebrated Jesuit Alexander Baumgartner), the jurist Leonhard Griin (president of the Cathohc administrative council), and the advocate J. J. Muller. Yet, notwithstand- ing all their efforts, they could not prevent the sup- pression of the newly-established Catholic lyccum, the wasting of a part of the diocesan funds, or the combination of the Catholic cantonal school with the Protestant town gj'mnasium to form a school in which both religioas were placed on a parity, to put an end to ecclesiastical influence in education. Th&se ac- tions were the result of the terrorism of the Liberal party (see on these events Greith, "Die Lage der katholLschen Kirche unter der Herrschaft des Staats- kirchentums in Sankt Gallen", St. Gall, 1858). The diocese, however, maintained itself notwithstanding the storms, and Catholic religious life developed and flouri.shed greatly. A large part of the credit for this prosperity was due to Karl Johann Greith, who was elected bi.shop after Mirer's death in 1862. Not long after his consecration Greith was also made pro- visional aflministrator of the Canton of Appenzell, which, after the dissolution of the Diocese of Con- stance, ha^l up to then been administered by Chur. This provisional administration has become in fact, although not legally, a permanent condition.
After a few years of cjuiet new discords broke out in the diocese in connexion with the Old-Catholic move- ment in Switzerland, and Greith was accusfsd of con- travening the concordat and the constitutional oath. It did not, indeed, go as far as the deposition of the bishop, as Liberals demanded, but the epi.scopal sem- inary for boys, which Greith hafl founded and main- tained at a great sacrifice of money and time, was closed in 1874 by the government, and has not so far been nK)pened. Soon after this, civil marriage was introduced by the law of the Swi.ss Confederation, and the religious f<iiHafion of the young was endan- gered bv th<' introdu'tion of irreligious school-books, and by forcibly putting both religions on a parity in the BchoolH. Greith was suceeefied by his vicar-general Augustinus Kgger (1882-1906). A widely-read au- thor anrl a skilful orator, he deserx'es much credit for what he did U) encourage Catholic life, not only in his
own diocese but also in the whole of Switzerland.
During his administration the extreme Radical gov-
ernment of the Canton of St. Gall was replaced by a
moderate one, and the new constitution of 1890 has
brought about a more satisfactory state of affairs be-
tween Church and State. According to Article 24 of
the constitution the ecclesiastical authorities alone
have charge of religious and purely ecclesiastical
matters. The Catholic and Protestant districts of the
canton settle their own denominational organization
subject to the approval of the great council, the
Catholic organization being in harmony with the laws
of the Catholic Church. Authorities chosen by each
denomination have charge of denominational matters
of a mixed nature as well as of the administration of
the money and endowments of the denominations,
subject to the supervision and sanction of the state.
Augustinus Egger was succeeded in 1906 by the pres-
ent bishop, Ferdinand Riiegg, b. 20 Oct., 1847, conse-
crated 10 June, 1906.
Baumgartner, Geschichle des schweizerischen Freislaats und Kantons Sankt Gallen (3 vols., Zurich and Einsiedeln, 1868-90); Zardetti, Reguies Sancti Galli (Einsiedeln, 1881) ; Baumgartner, Gallus Jakoh Baumgartner, Landammann von Sankt Gallen, und die neuere Staatsentwicklung der Schweiz 1797-1869 (Freiburg im Br., 1892) ; Dierauer, Politische Geschichle des Kantons Sankt GaUen 1803-1903 (St. Gall, 1904); Oesch, Dr. Karl Johann Greith, Bischof von Sankt Gallen (St. Gall. 1909); Gschwend. Die Errichtung des Bistums Sankt Gnllen (2 vols., Stans. 1909); Mitieil ungen zur vaterldndischen Geschichle, herausgegeben vomHis- torischen Verein Sankt Gallen (St. Gall. 1862—) ; Fah. Die Kathe- drale in St. Gallen (2 pts.. St. Gall. 1896 and 1900).
Joseph Lins.
Saint George, Orders of. — Knights of St. George appear at different historical periods and in different countries as mutually independent bodies having nothing in common but the veneration of St. George, the patron of knighthood. St. George of Lydda, a martyr of the persecution of Diocletian in the fourth century, is one of those military saints whom Byzantine iconography represented as a horse- man armed cap-a-pie, like the flower of the Roman armies after the military reform of Justinian in the sixth century. The pilgrim knights of Europe, en- countering in the East these representations of St. George, recognized their own accoutrements and at once adopted him as the patron of their noble calling. This popularity of St. George in the West gave rise to numerous associations both secular and religious. Among secular orders of this name which still exist must be mentioned the Engli.sh Order of the Garter, which has always had St. George for its patron. Though Protestantism suppressed his cult, the chapel of St. George at Windsor has remained the official seat of the ord(;r, where its chapters assemble and where each knight is entitled to a stall over which his banner is hung. A second royal order under the double patronage of St. Michael and St. George was founded in lOngland in ISlS to reward services rendered in for- eign or colonial relations. In Bavaria a secular Or- der of St. George has existed since 1729, and owes its foundation to the prince elictor, better known by the title of Charles VII which he bore as emperor for a brief period. The present Russian Order of St. George dates from 1769, having been founded in the reign of Catherine II, as a military distinction.
There formerly existed regular orders of St. George. The Kingdom of Aragon was placed under his pat- ronage, and in gratitude for his assistance to its armies King Pedro II founded (1201) the Order of St. George of Alfama in the district of that name. Never- theless this order received the approbation of the Holy See only in 1363 and had but a brief existence. With the approviU of antipope Benedict XIII it was amalgamated with the Aragonese Order of Montesa, and thereafter known as the Order of Montesa and St. (Jeorge of .\ifama. Equally .short-liveii was the Order of St. George founded in Au.stria by the P^mperor JYedcrick III and approved by Paul II in 1464. This
