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Lutheran and Catholic Reunionists in the Age of Bismarck
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
Religious division has determined Germany's destiny. In the Middle Ages, it was the struggle between Emperor and Pope which doomed the Holy Roman Empire. During the Reformation, and the Thirty Years' War, it was Protestantism as well as the anti-Imperial diplomacy of the Pope and the French cardinals, which prevented the emergence of a national state and a centralized government. “From the split of the church dates all our misfortune,” complained in 1846 the Lutheran historian Johann Friedrich Böhmer, editor of a major medieval source collection. “It is a pity that the nation in the heart of Europe was drawn away from its political profession by quarrels with the church, that the development of strong political institutions was interrupted, that they eroded under the acids of religious passion and negation, so that the German people finally got into a stage of the disease where they are either seized by violent fever, or rot in apathy and despair. All our inner ferment which soon will erupt in a revolutionary outburst, all our political impotence and lethargy were, in the final analysis, caused by the split of the church, which tore us apart, and which no one can bridge. Only a new St. Boniface who would restore ecclesiastical unity could help us.”
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- Copyright © American Society of Church History 1932
References
1. Johannes, Janssen, Joh. Fnedench Böhmer's Leben und Anschauungen (Freiburg i. Br., 1869), pp. 262–263.Google Scholar
2. For a bibliography on the Vaticinium Lehninse, see British Museum Catalogue of Printed Books, Vol. 102 (London, 1961), columns 508–511.Google Scholar
3. I have tried to trace the forerunners of 19th century reunionism in my forth-coming book, Kalholische und luthensche Ireniker (Göttingen, 1968), chapters I & II, but my survey is by no means complete.
4. An eye-witness account of the Conference as well as a collection of “all sources which have become known” provided Ludwig Clarus (Wilhelm Volk), Die Zusammenkunft gläubiger Protestanten und Kalholiken zu Erfurt im Herbste 1860 und deren Verlauj (Paderborn, 1867). Faszikel P/a of the Gerlachsches Famihenarchiv in the Seminar für Religions und Geistesgeschichte, Erlangen, Kochstrasse 4, contains pertinent letters, newspaper clippings, and the printed manifesto, most of which material has been published by Professor Hans Joachim Schoeps in the Zetschrtfl für Religions und Geistesgeschichte, Vol. V (1953), 135–159, as well as in the appendices of the 2nd (Honnef/Rhein, 1957) and 3rd editions (Berlin, 1964) of his book Dos aridere Preussen.
5. Because Volk and Schoeps bring only German translations of the Giornale di Roma article of October 2, 1860, the pertinent passages of the original version, which appeared on the first page under the Papal coat-of-arms as Notizie Diversie, may be of interest: “Un gran numero di teologi e di laici protestanti e cattolici sono ruiniti a Erfruth il 21 e 22 de agosto per preparare una coversione in massa al Cattolicismo di que' protestanti, che conversano ancora un filo di fede, e non trovano i principi cristiani che nella religione cattolica romana. Dalla parte de' cattolici si citta tra i convenuti il nome del conte Caio di Stolberg, e dalla pane dei protestanti i celebre professore Leo di Halle, che i nostri lettori conoscono pel bellissimo articolo ch'egli scrisse in favore del Papa. Instanto la stampa protestante, quella che appartiene al protestantismo che dicono positivo, perchè non s' è ancora gettato nello scetticismo e riconosce tuttavia certi principi di fede, continua a sostenere le parti del S. Padre, perchè vede in lui las causa della religione, della libertà, della verità, della guistizia.”
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8. Cf. von Gerlach, Ernst Ludwig, Aujzeichnungen aus seinem Leben (Schwerin, 1903), Vol. II, 177Google Scholar. This is only one of numerous sighs for a truly ecumenical church.
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15. For details of Krafft's career, see the various editions of David, Rosenthal'sKonvertitenbilder aus dem neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Regensburg, 1866 et sqq.). In the Augsburg newspaper Sion, Krafft published “Gedanken eines Convertiten, angeregt durch Clarus' letzte Schrift: Die Zusammenkunft glädubiger Protestanten und Katholiken zu Erfurt” (September 2 & 5, 1868). On September 6, 1868, there appeared his article, “Haben in unserer Zeit irenische Bestrebungen Aussicht auf Erfolg?”, in the Sendbole, another Augsburg newspaper. In Sion of January 20, 1869, Krafft reviewed Baumstark's Gedanken eines Proleslanten über die päpstliche Einladung (to the Vatican Council of 1870), which was also printed as a pamphlet, and translated into Dutch. A detailed plan for peace entitled “Zur Frage der Wiedervereinigung im Glauben” appeared in September 1869 in the Würzburg periodical Die katholische Bewegung in Deutschland. A booklet, Kirchliche Wiedervereinigung (Mainz, 1871), was followed by the pamphlets Zwölf Thesen behufs einer möglichen Wiedervereinigung in Deutschland, Zwölf weitere Thesen zur Herbeiführung einer wirklichen kirchlichen Wiedervereinigung, and Kurzer möglichst gründlicher Unterricht für Nichtkatholiken, welche aus eigenem Antriebe sich mit der katholischen Kirche wieder zu vereinigen wünschen, all of which appeared in Neuburg an der Donau, 1874. In 1872 and 1873 Krafft had published in Der Katholik the articles “Gegenwärtige Disposition des Protestantismus in Bezug auf irenische Hoffnungen,” “Was bleibt für kirchliche Wiedervereinigung auf unserer Seite zu wünschen uübrig?”, and “Möglichkeit einer friedlichen Aussöhnung gläubiger Protestanten mit der katholischen Kirche.” As contributor to Ut omnes unum, Krafft authored exegetical studies as well as an interpretation of the Vaticinium Lehninse. His articles, books, and pamphlets showed a familiarity with all previous irenical literature. Not mentioned in this bibliography, which should only serve as a sample of the public relations work of a reunionist, are the innumerable letters Krafft wrote to the German Catholic bishops and such Protestant lay theologians as Gerlach and Leo.Google Scholar
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17. Cf. Ranft, Franz, Das katholisch-protestantische Problem (Fulda, 1947), pp. 233–234.Google Scholar
18. Ich iverde kathohsch. Wer folgt mir, oder wer hält mich zurück? Bittende Frage im persönhchen wie im Interesse der Völker von einem Evangehschen (Leipzig, 1878).Google Scholar
19. Was zieht uns nach Rom? Beantwortet aus den Excerpten eines Konvertxlen (Leipzig, 1884; 3rd edition, 1886), and Goltes Arbeit am Gewissen. Zugleich Fortsetzung der Schrift: “Was Zieht uns nach Rom?” (Paderborn, 1892).Google Scholar
20. The full title was Ut omnes unum, Auf dass Alle Eins seien. Correspondenzblatt zur Verständigung und Vereinigung unter den getrennten Christen. The only extant copies which cover the years 1880–1886 are in the Erzbischöfliche Akademische Bibliothek, Paderborn, West Germany. I have listed the main contributors as far as they could be identified as well as their major articles in Katholische und lutherische Ireniker (Göttingen, 1968), chapter VI.
21. Unionsversuche zwischen Kalholiken und Protestanten Deutschlands (Frankfurt, 1885). The Frankfurter zeitgemässe Broschüren were a series of booklets edited by a group of Catholic scholars and prelates, among them the bishop of Mainz, Paul Leopold Haffner.Google Scholar
22. Grundlinien chnstlicher Irenik. Aufruf und Beitrag zum Frieden unter den christlichen Confessionen und Nationen (Leipzig, 1882).Google Scholar
23. Ein Wort zum Frieden in dem confessionellen Kampf der Gegenwart (1890, 1894 & 1896).
24. Wider den Kneg, für den Frieden. Urteile zur Überwindung von Vorurteilen (Frankfurt, 1898).Google Scholar
25. Das Bekenntnis eines guten Gewissens, Evangehschen und Kathohken zur Selbstprüfung empfohlen (Leipzig, 1903).Google Scholar
26. Professor Herman Hoffmann, born 1878, ordained 1902, taught religion at the Matthias Gymnasium in Breslau, and edited the Friedensblätter (1906–1909), Heliand (1909–1914), Sobrietas (1920–1927), and Seelsorge (1923). He was a leading member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Katholischer Deutscher Friedensbund, the World Alliance for Peace through Religion, and the Una-Sancta-Brotherhood. At a meeting at Nyborg, Denmark, in 1923, he advocated, together with the French Reformed pastor Marc Bogner, a reconciliation between France and Germany. In recognition of these activities as well as his scholarly publications in the field of church history, Hoffmann was awarded in 1958 an honorary Doctor of Theology degree by the University of Würzburg. Residing today in Leipzig, he is the last living link between the reunion movements of the 19th and 20th centuries. On Bernhard Strehler (1872–1945), see Johannes, Kaps, Vom Leben und Sterben schlesischer Priester (München, 1950–1954), pp. 89–91.Google Scholar
27. Zur Wiedervereinigung der getrennten Christen(Breslau, 1903)Google Scholar, and Kritiken und Neues zur Wiedervereinigung (Breslau, 1906).Google Scholar
28. Alexander, Löwentraut, Eine heilige allgemeine Kirche (Leipzig, 1917).Google Scholar
29. In October 1917, the Lutheran pastor Heinrich Hansen at Kropp near Schleswig published 95 “Spiesse und Nägel, d. i. Streitsätze wider die lrrnisse und Wirrnisse unserer Zeit” in German and Latin, which called the reformation a deformation, and insisted on a return to true catholicity. Hansen's Stimuli et clavi started a high church movement (Hochkirchliche Vereimgung) which led to the first dialogue between Lutherans and Roman Catholics in Berlin, Pentecost 1934. — On the other hand, there appeared on the Reformation Festival of 1917, 95 Leitsätze which pleaded for a Deutschchnstentum auf rein evangehscher Grundlage. In the thought trail of these theses, a series of associations were founded which wanted a united German church seeking God the Germanic way, and venerating Jesus as an Aryan hero. The Deutsche Christen were only one group among many, most of whom were suppressed by National Socialism which would not tolerate any similar ideology.
30. Ludwig von Gerlach in a letter of December 13, 1868, to Adolf von Thadden-Trieglaff, to be found in the Gerlachsches Familienarchiv Faszikel BB/C.