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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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CATHOLICISM IN SILESIA AND GERMANY CENERALLY .
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( 156 )
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We have , on some former occasions , given our readers some information as to the various forms which Catholicism adopts in different countries , that they may judge both how far even Catholic states allow ecclesiastical to trench upon civij institutions , and how much of truth there is in the cry by which Protestants are persuaded that Catholicism is unbending and uncontrollable , and that proscription is necessary to ensure safety of life and limb
to the members of the body politic . We shall not , be suspected of being friends to the state ' s interference with religion or even religious communities , but we must say that it is incumbent on those who have no scruples of this sort , to be quite satisfied that , with a little trouble and good management , they might not provide very peaceable antidotes against any apprehension of mischief , without resorting to the bungling remedy of proscription or extermination .
A good deal of addition to our store of information on the s ' ate of Catholicism in different countries , will be found in the last Number of the Foreign Quarterly Review , in an article entitled " Catholicism in Silesia . " We propose to avail ourselves of this information in putting together a few observations on the subject . Some light on these points is very desirable for English polemics and politicians . We are quite of the writer ' s opinion , that " We English live far too much in a world of our own—we have too high ideas
of the importance of every thing done in England , and are too apt to undervalue the proceedings of other countries . It need not be said that we know almost nothing of the literature of other countries . A few poets , historians , and scientific writers come over to us—but of the mass of writings on the great and important subjects of religion , reformation , and of change in opinions , on the Continent , we absolutely know nothing , however offensive the assertion may be to the reading public , who are persuaded they know every thing . " It would appear , that the Protestant German states have not taken nearly
so much liberty with the Catholic institutions among them , as those governments have done which maintain orthodox relation with the Papal see . There has been found to be but little difficulty in forming arrangements between the Pope and the heads of Catholic states , ( Austria for instance , ) by which the temporal authority of the former has been altogether destroyed ; but perhaps Protestant princes have felt some delicacy in speaking plainly on such subjects , and their' Catholic subjects have more difficulty in submitting to interference , though Count dal Pozzo has laboured hard to shew , that
in temporals it can and ought to make no difference whether their king , as an individual , be Catholic or Protestant . In Silesia the state is of course Protestant , and the population is nearly equally divided . The peace has been pretty fairly kept between the two parties ; and the consequence seems to have followed naturally enough , that the Catholics , not being kept steadfast by persecution , have learned to think a little freely as to some points of discipline , and to be desirous of a certain degree of liberty . The Prussian government , however , has made worse terms than several others have made since the general peace , particularly as to the election and confirmation of the bishops and other church dignitaries . The German Catholics were , and are , striving generally to get rid of Roman subjectidn . The people of the freer states wished to be at least as independent as despotic Austria was : the desire of all wasjto have erected , not a Roman Catholic , but a German Catholic church , under a common primate . This ,
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1828, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2558/page/12/
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