DOLLINGER
98
DOLLINGER
the Temporal Power; to this he acceded with pleas-
ure, and the discourses given in the royal Odeum were
followed with deep attention by crowded audiences.
His utterances, however, were so imprudent and so
clearly inspired Ijy Liberalism tliat in the midst of one
of them tlie papal nuncio, Monsignor Chigi, arose with
indignation and left the hall. The impression made
by these discourses on the Catholic world was painful
in the extreme. DoUinger was himself deeply troub-
led by the agitation aroused; to justify himself
in some measure, also to strengthen his position, now
seriously compromised, he composed in great haste
and issued during the same year his " Kirche und
Kirchen, Papstthum und Ivirchenstaat ". It seems
incredible that the opinions and judgments one reads
in this work are really DoUinger's own; the reader is
haunted by the suspicion that he has before him a
remarkable mixture of Byzantinism and hj'pocrisy.
The Catholic academic circles of Germany were in the meantime deeply agitated by the discussions in- cident to the renaissance of Scholasticism (see Neo- Scholasticism) in theology and philosophy, and those over the merits of the episcopal seminaries as against the theological faculties of the universities for the education of candidates for the priesthood. There were excesses on both sides that intensified the situa- tion, whereupon it seemed to many that an academical congress would be a helpful measure. An assembly of Catholic scholars met in 1863 at Munich, before which, as already stated, DoUinger delivered (28 September) the discourse " Die Vergangenheit und Gegenwart der katholischen Theologie" (The Past and Present of Cathohc Theology). His views, as expressed on this occasion, were calculated to irritate and embitter his ojiponents, and a reconciliation seemed farther away than before. Shortly afterwards, in the thirteenth thesis of the papal Syllabus of 8 Dec, 1864 (see Quanta Cura), certain opinions of DoUinger were condemned.
It was unfortunate, but not surprising, therefore, that the "Papstfabeln des Mittelalters", medieval fables about the popes (Munich, 1863; 2nd ed., 1890), received no impartial appreciation from his oppo- nents; the pages (131-53) on the Monothelism of Pope Honorius were considered particularly offensive. From this period to the publication of the "Janus" letters, the pen of DoUinger produced mostly anony- mous articles, in which his approaching apostasy was daily more clearly foreshadowed. He gave also much thought to the plan of a universal German biography, the present "Allgemeine deutsche Biographie". Though it was finally von Ranke who induced the Munich Academy to undertake the now practically finished work which, unfortunately, still shows fre- quent traces of partisansliip, it was DoUinger's ardour and insistence that first moved the Academy to con- sider the proposition. There is even yet a very wide- spread conviction, and it was believed by the great Christian arcliEeologist De Rossi, who was quite accu- rately informed on all the details of the Vatican Coun- cil, that DoUinger would scarcely have left the Church if he had been invited to take an honourable share in the preliminary work for the council. Nor does this seem at all improbable to those who understand his character. It is, in any case, very regrettable that on this point the influence of Cardinal Reisach should have outweighed that of Cardinal Schwarzenberg, and availed to exclude the Munich historian.
Scarcely had the first detailed accounts of the council's proceedings appeared, when DoUinger pub- lished in the Augsburg "AUgcmeine Zeitung' his famous "March articles", reprinted anonymously in August of that year under the title: "Janus, der Papst, und das Konzil. " The accurate knowledge of papal history here manifested easily convinced most readers that only DoUinger could have written the work. At this time he provoked the "Ilohenlohe
theses" and followed them up with an anonymous
work, " Erwagungen fur die Bischofe des Konzils ijber
die Frage der Unfehlbarkeit", considerations concern-
ing papal infallibility for the bishops of the council.
This work was translated into French, and a copy sent
to every bishop. In the meantime Cardinal Schwarz-
enberg, in unison with French sympathizers, urged
him to be present at Rome in his private capacity
I luring the council; he preferred, however, to remain at
Munich, where he prepared for the aforesaid "Allge-
meine Zeitung", with materials sent him regularly
from Rome (even by bishops), the well-known Roman
correspondence (Briefe vom KonzU), each letter of
which fell in Rome like a bomb, but whose real author
no one knew. When DoUinger wrote for the same
journal, over his own name, the articles " Einige Worte
iiber die Unfehlbarkeitsaddresse der Konzilsmajor-
itat" (a few words on the address of the majority of
the bishops concerning papal infallibility) and "Die
neue Geschaftsordnung im Konzil" (the council's new
order of business), he was denounzed in Rome as a
heretic. Bishop Ketteler addressed to him an open
letter quite brusque in tone, while other bishops urged
him to keep silent. DoUinger yielded, and on 18 July,
1870, the personal infallibility of the pope and his
universal pastoral office were declared articles of
faith. The foregoing presentation of the actual situa-
tion in that critical time is taken from the life of Dol-
linger by Johann Friedrich, the theologian of Cardinal
Hohenlohe during the council, and to whom, despite
his oath of silence concerning the affairs of the councU,
DoUinger was indebted for the materials of the " Let-
ters". The declaration of papal infallibility meant
naturally for DoUinger a severe internal conflict. The
facts, however, do not justify the statement that he
had long previously determined never to accept the
dogma. The Archbishop of Munich, however, in-
sisted on a pubhc declaration of his attitude, and Dol-
linger weakly yielded to the pressure of those who
were bent on apostasy, and WTote to the archbishop,
29 ilarch, 1871, declaring his refusal to accept the
dogma and stating his reasons in his character as
Christian, theologian, historian, and citizen.
Leo XllI and Pius X have both declared, with all due formality and solemnity, that Church and State, each within its own limits, are mutually independent; the DoUinger portrait of an infallible pope domineer- ing over the State is, therefore, a caricature. For the great scholar it was dies ater when he wrote these words, for the theologian a period of profound mental confusion, for the Christian a succumbing to spiritual arrogance, for the citizen a full confession of the bureaucratic omnipotence of the State, a kind of be- lated resurrection of the memories of his youth.
DoUinger had definitelv severed connexion with the Church. Three weeks later (IS April, 1871) both DoUinger and Friedrich were publicly declared ex- communicate. The action of the archbishop, under the circumstances unavoidable, aroused much feeling; on the one side it was hailed as a decisive step that ended a situation grown scandalous and intolerable, on the other many rejoiced that the world-renowned scholar had not bent his neck under the yoke of Rome. This marked the rise of the sect of the Old Catholics. At Pentecost of the same year (1871) a declaration was published, chiefly the work of DoUinger, setting forth tlie need of an ecclesiastical organization. Ddl- linger also signed a petition to the Government asking for one of the churches of Munich. Hitherto the op- position of this party to the Church had been mostly of a philosophico-historical character, and the domi- nant statesmen of the time could turn it to little prac- tical account. It was now the hour for a nuraljer of inimical canonists whose opportunity lay in the anti- Catluilic tendencies of the governments of the period. Prince Hisniarck's plan of a National German Catholic Church, as independent of Rome as it was possible to
