[1] He published in succession a number of pamphlets in which he called on the Roman Catholic laity and the lower clergy to leave the communion of that Church.

These were generally understood to be written from the standpoint of deism; and in subsequent years Ronge pronounced himself more and more unreservedly in favor of deistic doctrines.

He ended the rule of celibacy for priests, excommunication, oral confessions, indulgences and other practices of the Catholic Church, and he married Bertha Meyer, sister of his friend Carl Schurz's wife, Margarethe.

He decried declining spirituality and called for a separation from Rome, the formation of a German national church and an end to oral confession, priestly celibacy, Latin masses etc.

He was obliged to flee to London, where he signed in 1851, with Arnold Ruge, Gustav Struve, Gottfried Kinkel, and others, a democratic manifesto to the German people, and where he became the leader of a free congregation.

While in London, Ronge was subject to surveillance by The Police Union of German States because his wife's sister was married to Carl Schurz, whom they viewed as an emissary of communism.

Ronge sought to interest liberal Jewish congregations in a common free religion, and in the 1870s and 1880s he agitated energetically against spreading antisemitism.

After the failed revolts, many Freireligiöse went to the United States (where they were known as "Freethinkers") or moved to Canada and South Africa where they acted as missionaries.