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In Germany the religious formularies, composed with the object of
securing even an appearance of unity or at least of preventing religious
chaos, were not powerful enough to resist the anti-Christian
Enlightenment that swept over Europe in the eighteenth century. At
best these formularies were only the works of men who rejected the
authority of the Church, and as works of men they could not be
regarded as irreformable. With the progress of knowledge and the
development of human society it was thought that they required revision
to bring them more into harmony with the results of science and with the
necessities of the age. The influence of the writings imported from
England and France, backed as it was by the approval and example of
Frederick II of Prussia, could not fail to weaken dogmatic
Christianity among the Lutherans of Germany. The philosophic
teaching of Leibniz (1646-1710), who was himself a strong
upholder of dogmatic Christianity and zealous for a reunion of
Christendom, had a great effect on the whole religious thought of
Germany during the eighteenth century. In his great work,
"Theodicee", written against Bayle to prove that there was no
conflict between the kingdoms of nature and grace, greater stress was
laid upon the natural than on the supernatural elements in
Christianity. His disciples, advancing beyond the limits laid down
by the master, prepared the way for the rise of theological
rationalism.
One of the greatest of the disciples of Leibniz was Christian Wolf
(1679-1754), who was not himself an opponent of supernatural
religion. The whole trend of his arguments, however, went to show
that human reason was the sole judge of the truths of revelation, and
that whatever was not in harmony with the verdict of reason must be
eliminated. Many of his disciples like Remiarus, Mendelssohn, and
Garve developed the principles laid down by Wolf until the very
mention of dogma was scouted openly, and Theism itself was put forward
as only the most likely among many possible hypotheses. In the
revulsion against dogmatic beliefs the party of the Pietists founded by
Spener towards the end of the seventeenth century found much support,
while the Conscientiarians, who maintained that man's own conscience
was the sole rule of faith, and that so long as man acts in accordance
with the dictates of conscience he is leading the life of the just,
gained ground rapidly. Some of its principal leaders were Matthew
Knutzen and Christian Edlemann who rejected the authority of the
Bible. The spread of Rationalism was strengthened very much by the
appearance of the "Allgemeine Deutsche Bibliothek", founded in
1764 by Nicolai in Berlin, through the agency of which books
hostile to Christianity were scattered broadcast amongst a large circle
of readers.
These rationalistic principles, when applied to the Bible and the
interpretation of the Bible, helped to put an end to the very rigid
views regarding the inspiration of the sacred writings entertained by
the early Lutherans. Everything that was supernatural or miraculous
must be explained away. To do so without denying inspiration the
"Accommodation" theory, namely that Christ and His apostles
accommodated themselves to the mistaken views of their contemporaries,
was formulated by Semler (1725-1791). But more extreme
men, as for example, Lessing (1729-1781), who published
the "Wolfenbuttler Fragments" written by Reimarus in which a
violent onslaught was made upon the Biblical miracles more especially
on the Resurrection of Christ, attacked directly the miracles of
Christianity, and wrote strongly in favour of religious indifference.
The rationalistic dogmatism of Wolf when brought face to face with the
objections of Hume did not satisfy Immanuel Kant
(1720-1804), who in his "Critique of Pure Reason"
(1781) denied that it was possible for science or philosophy to
reach a knowledge of the substance or essence of things as distinguished
from the phenomena, and that consequently the arguments used generally
to prove the existence of God were worthless. In his own "Critique
of Practical Reason" (1788), however, he endeavoured to build
up what he had pulled down, by showing that the moral law implanted in
the heart of every human being necessarily implied the existence of a
supreme law-giver. For Kant religion was to be identified with duty
and not with dogmatic definitions. Such a line of defence, attempting
as it did to remove religion from the arena of intellectual discussion,
thereby evading most of the objections put forward by the rationalistic
school, was a dangerous one. It led gradually to the rejection of
external revelation, and to dogmatic indifference. Such a theory in
the hands of Herder and above all of Schleiermacher
(1768-1834) meant an end to Christian revelation as
generally understood. For Schleiermacher religion was nothing more
than the consciousness of dependence upon God. Given this sense of
dependence, variations in creeds were of no importance. Between the
religion of Luther and the religion of Schleiermacher there was an
immense difference, but nevertheless it was Luther who laid down the
principles that led to the disintegration of dogmatic Christianity,
and in doing what he did Schleiermacher was but proving himself the
worthy pupil of such a master.
The unrestrained liberty of thought, claimed by so many Protestant
reformers and theologians and ending as it did in the substitution of a
natural for a supernatural religion, could not fail to have an
influence in Catholic circles. Many Catholic scholars were close
students of the philosophical systems of Wolf and Kant in Germany,
and of the writings of the Encyclopaedists in France. They were
convinced that Scholasticism, however valuable it might have been in
the thirteenth century, was antiquated and out of harmony with modern
progress, that it should be dropped entirely from the curriculum of
studies, and with it should go many of the theological accretions to
which it had given rise. Catholicism, it was thought, if it were to
hold the field as a world-wide religion, must be remodelled so as to
bring it better into line with the conclusions of modern philosophy.
Less attention should be paid to dogma and to polemical discussions,
and more to the ethical and natural principles contained in the
Christian revelation.
The spread of Gallicanism and Febronianism and the adoption of these
views by leading rulers and politicians, thereby weakening the
authority of the Pope and of the bishops, helped to break down the
defences of Catholicity, and to make it more easy to propagate
rationalistic views especially amongst those who frequented the
universities. As a rule it was only the higher and middle classes that
were affected by the "Aufklarung". Everywhere throughout Europe,
in France, in Spain, in Portugal, in Germany, and in Austria
this advanced liberalism made itself felt in the last half of the
eighteenth century, particularly after the suppression of the Jesuits
had removed the only body capable of resisting it successfully at the
time, and had secured for their opponents a much stronger hold in the
centres of education.
It was in Germany and Austria that the "Aufklarung" movement
attracted the greatest attention. The Scholastic system of philosophy
had been abandoned in favour of the teaching of the Leibniz-Wolf
school and of Kant. The entire course of study for ecclesiastical
students underwent a complete reorganisation. Scholasticism,
casuistry, and controversy were eliminated. Their places were taken
by Patrology, Church History, Pastoral Theology, and Biblical
Exegesis of the kind then in vogue in Protestant schools.
The plan of studies drawn up by Abbot Rautenstrauch, rector of the
University of Vienna (1774), for the theological students of
that institution meant nothing less than a complete break with the whole
traditional system of clerical education. In itself it had much to
recommend it, but the principles that underlay its introduction, and
the class of men to whom its administration was entrusted, were enough
to render it suspicious. The director of studies in Austria, Baron
von Swieten, himself in close contact with the Jansenists and the
Encyclopaedists, favoured the introduction of the new plan into all
the Austrian universities and colleges, and took good care, besides,
that only men of liberal views were appointed to the chairs. In the
hands of professors like Jahn and Fischer, Scriptural Exegesis
began to partake more and more of the rationalism of the Protestant
schools; Church History as expounded by Dannenmayr, Royko, and
Gmeiner, became in great part an apology for Gallicanism; the Moral
Theology taught by Danzer and Reyberger was modelled largely on a
purely rational system of ethics, and the Canon Law current in the
higher schools was in complete harmony with the views of Febronius and
Joseph II.
The Prince-bishops of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne spared no pains
to propagate these liberal views amongst those who were to be the future
priests in their territories. In the University of Mainz
Isenbiehl's views on Scripture brought him into conflict with the
Church; Blau, the professor of dogma, denied the infallibility of
the Church and of General Councils; while Dorsch, the professor of
philosophy, was an ardent disciple of Kant. A similar state of
affairs prevailed at the University of Trier, at Bonn which was
established for the express purpose of combatting the ultramontanism and
conservatism of Cologne, and to a more or less degree at Freiburg,
Wurzburg, Ingolstadt, and Munich. By means of the universities
and by the publication of various reviews these liberal theories were
spread throughout Germany. An attempt was made to reform the
discipline and liturgy of the Church so as to bring them into harmony
with the new theology. Many advocated the abolition of popular
devotions, the substitution of German for the Latin language in the
missal and in the ritual, and the abolition of clerical celibacy.
In Bavaria matters reached a crisis when Weishaupt, a professor of
canon law in Ingolstadt, founded a secret society known as the
"Illuminati" for the overthrow of the Church and the civil
authority, to make way for a universal republic in which the only
religion would be the religion of humanity. His speculative views were
borrowed largely from the Encyclopaedists, and his plan of
organisation from the Freemasons. At first the society was confined
to students, but with the accession of the Freiherr von Knigge it was
determined to widen the sphere of its operations. Every effort was
made to secure recruits. The Freemasons gave it strong support, and
Ferdinand of Brunswick became one of its members. It had its
statutes, ritual, and decrees. Fortunately the members quarrelled,
and were foolish enough to carry their controversies into the public
press. In this way the Bavarian government became acquainted with the
dangerous character of the sect of the "Illuminati", and a
determined effort was made to secure its suppression
(1784-1785).
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