German Catholics (sect)

In the 15 October 1844 issue of the Sächsische Vaterlandsblätter, Johannes Ronge, a Roman Catholic priest in Silesia, published a vigorous attack upon Wilhelm Arnoldi, bishop of Trier since 1842, for having ordered (for the first time since 1810) the exposition of the alleged seamless robe of Jesus, an event that drew countless pilgrims to the cathedral.

[1] Bishop Arnoldi had proclaimed that the artifact had healing powers, and accompanied the exhibition of the holy coat by a promise of plenary indulgence to whoever should make a pilgrimage to Trier to honor it.

Even before the beginning of the agitation led by Ronge, another movement fundamentally distinct, though in some respects similar, had been originated at Schneidemuhl, Posen, under the guidance of Johannes Czerski, also a priest, who had come into collision with the church authorities on the then much discussed question of mixed marriages, and also on that of the celibacy of the clergy.

The result had been his suspension from office in March 1844; his public withdrawal, along with twenty-four adherents, from the Roman communion in August; his excommunication; and the formation, in October, of a "Christian Catholic" congregation which, while rejecting clerical celibacy, the use of Latin in public worship, and the doctrines of purgatory and transubstantiation, retained the Nicene theology and the doctrine of the seven sacraments.

[2] Together Ronge and Czerski appealed to the lower grades of the clergy to unite in founding a National German Church independent of the Pope and governed by councils and synods.

[2] The council proceeded under the presidency of Professor Wigard to arrange a system of doctrine and practice which was to form the basis of union for the whole Church.

The confession of sins, indulgences, canonization and invocation of saints, use of the Latin language in divine service, prohibition of mixed marriages, the hierarchy of the clergy and the celibacy of the priests were abolished.

Czerski was at some of the sittings of the council of Leipzig, but when a formula somewhat similar to that of Breslau had been adopted, he refused his signature because the divinity of Christ had been ignored, and he and his congregation continued to retain by preference the name of "Christian Catholics", which they had originally assumed.

[2] In Austria, and ultimately also in Bavaria, the use of the name "German Catholic" was officially prohibited, with that of "dissidents" being substituted, while in Prussia, Baden and Saxony the adherents of the new creed were put under various disabilities, being suspected of both undermining religion and encouraging the revolutionary tendencies of the age.

While some of the members receding further and further from orthodoxy proclaimed simple design as their religion and abolished baptism and the Lord's Supper, others on the contrary lost themselves in an exaggerated mysticism.