The Roman Catholic Church.Great efforts are made by the Irish Catholics to obtain a charter for the CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY. A deputation, consisting of twenty-six Irish members of Parliament and other influential gentlemen, has waited on the Chancellor of the Exchequer in order to make a formal demand upon him and the government in support of an application which has been made before on two different occasions. Mr. D'Israeli promised them to bring the subject again under the consideration of the Cabinet. A motion made in the House of Commons by J. D. Fitzgerald so to change the form of oath, taken by the ROMAN. CATHOLIC MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT, as to place them on a level with the Protestant members, has been supported by Lord Russell and Lord Palmerston, and adopted by 122 votes against 113. The London Weekly Register publishes a letter from the Hon. Charles Langdale, one of the most active Catholic laymen of England, in which he complains that "in the united counties of Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, and Westmoreland, it is only Protestants who have availed themselves of the PROVISIONS OF THE REFORMATORY ACTS, and that Catholics are quietly looking on while their poor children of this class are being sent to a Reformatory which Protestant charity has provided from their their own private resources, and intended for their own unfortunate children." The Protestant Reformatory, alluded to in this letter, contains about seventy boys, about one half of whom are of Catholic parents.

GERMANY, PRUSSIA, AUSTRIA. The Protestant Churches. THE MINISTRY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP IN PRUSSIA is still in the hands of Herr von Bethmann Hollweg, the president of the German Church Diets, which latter office he has, however, resigned, as incompatible with the functions of a state minister. He has until now succeeded in securing for his reformatory measures the votes of nearly all the Protestant members of the Prussian Parliament who do not belong to the Conservative (High Lutheran) party. The difficult divorce question has been temporarily regulated by a bill which acknowledges the validity of civil marriage, and which has been adopted in the Second Chamber against the united votes of the Conservatives and the Catholics. Other important measures for the development of the constitution of the

Church have been announced, in particular the introduction of the lay element into those boards of the Church in which hitherto it has not been represented. A large portion of the RATIONALISTIC PARTY, however, exerts itself for depriving the Church again of that degree of independence and self-government which in late years had been conferred upon her. Thus also in the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, which has ever since the beginning of the present century been under the control of the Rationalists, the Supreme Consistory has been entirely abolished, and the whole administration of the ecclesiastical affairs transferred to the state ministry. Also, in other German States, as Hesse-Darmstadt and Baden, no party appeals more frequently to the episcopal rights of the princes than the Rationalists. THE LUTHERAN PARTY in the Prussian Church is very desponding, and Professor Hengstenberg intimates, in the first number of the Evangelical Church Gazette for the present year, that the time may now soon come when all the Lutherans in the Established Church will consider it a duty to secede. He advises his friends not to divide their strength, but either to stay together or to go together. The Lutheran Church government of Mecklenburg (Schwerin) has taken great offense at the sympathy which the Evangelical Churches generally have shown to the deposed Professor Baumgarten. It has in particular complained of the declaration of the German Church Diet in this matter, and declined to accept henceforth a copy of its proceedings. In Hesse-Darmstadt about eighty of the prominent Lutherans have petitioned the grandduke to give to the Lutheran, the Reformed, and the Evangelical Confessions a separate organization, in accordance with Art. 75 of the constitution, which recognizes these three denominations as established by law. In the Duchy of Nassau the old Lutherans (seceders from the state Church) have not yet received the permission of meeting for divine service, although the duke has promised their last deputation that their grievances should be removed. In the Grandduchy of Baden the Lutheran seceders have now organized three parishes with about 900 members. In Bavaria the Ministry of Public Worship has induced the Supreme Consistory to suppress the liturgy which W. Löhe, the leader of a High Church party among the Lutherans had introduced in his parish. THE FREE CONGREGATIONS and

German Catholics (Deutschkatholiken) have enjoyed a greater liberty since the Ministry of Public Worship has been given to Bethman Hollweg, and their scattered members therefore collect again. Rupp, of Koenigsberg, has received permission to give to the children of his congregation religious instruction, and Uhlich, of Magdeburg, has reopened divine service before an audience of more than

two thousand persons. In the kingdom of Saxony the government has ratified, though on very restraining conditions, the Church constitution of the German Catholics. THE METHODIST CHURCH has established a mission at Berlin, and their missionaries live with a number of the preachers of the State Church on brotherly terms. They think Methodism is just what they want, provided that the missionaries will not build up a separate Church, but do as the Wesleys did, labor in the Church. Their cause, as well as that of the Baptists, is also greatly benefitted by the catholic spirit of the New Evangelical Church Gazette, which opens to them their columns. THE PROTESTANTS OF AUSTRIA do not yet display the same zeal as their brethren in many other German states. Still it cannot be denied that there is a constant and strong awakening of Protestant feelings. Thus the Protestants of Vienna have subscribed in four weeks one hundred thousand florins for the erection of a large school, and similar instances of liberality are reported from other places. The gov ernment still refuses some of the most just demands of the Protestants, as the petition of the two (Lutheran and Reformed) Consistories of Vienna, to change Art. 63 of the Civil Code so as to permit Catholic priests who have joined one of the Protestant churches to marry. On the other hand, however, there are also many facts which remind us that the relation of the Catholic governments to other Christian denominations materially differs from the prevailing views in the middle ages. Thus the emperor has repeatedly given considerable contributions for the erection of Protestant churches and schools, and the city council of Vienna has granted, without a single dissenting voice, fifty thousand florins for the erection of the new Protestant schools.

The Roman Catholic Church.THE REFORMATION OF THE AUSTRIAN CONVENT is carried through by the bishops in spite of all opposition, and the hard

yoke of the old monastic disciplines again imposed upon thousands of reluctant monks. The Benedictines have endeavored, by sending two of their members to the Pope, to avert the dreaded reform. They have, however, been compelled to submit in all the more important points. At Lambach, one of the richest monasteries, an abbot has been appointed with whom the old monks were so dissatisfied that all of them intended to leave the monastery. Several orders will hold this year, for the first time since the reign of Joseph II., a General Assembly, and on that occasion fulfill the principal demands of Rome. The Jesuits in Austria have to enlarge their colleges and theological schools in several places on account of the large number of pupils which they receive from various countries of Europe. They have recently purchased an old castle in the valley of Lavant in order to establish a new novitiate for one hundred novices.

SWITZERLAND.

The Protestant Churches. In several cantons the RATIONALISTIC PARTY has made of late considerable progress. In a meeting of the Ascetic Society of Zurich, the oldest among the religious societies of the canton, in June, 1858, they attacked foreign missions in general, and in particular the way in which they were undertaken by the missionary societies. At the cantonal Synod of the same canton, held in November, 1858, Dean Loher, who read the annual report, drew a gloomy picture of the religious aspects of the country, and complained in particular that the negative theology of the Tubingen school was now even taught in the three higher classes of the gymnasium (college) of the capital. The correctness of the fact was readily admitted by the accused professor, who, however, supported by numerous friends, claimed for himself and every member of the national Church, the right to teach, without restraint, the doctrines which they found in the Bible. By the departure of Professor Schlotmann, the prominent representative of the evangelical party, the theological faculty of Zurich will be placed still more under the control of the Rationalistic party. The name of the professor of dogmatics, Alexander Schweizer, has appeared, since January, 1859, as assistant editor of the central organ of the Rationalistic party in Germany, the Protestantische Kirchenzeitung of Berlin. In Basil, the exclusion of Mr. Rumpf, the editor of a Rational

istic paper, (Das Freie Wort) from the ranks of the clergy, has given rise to an animated debate in the Grand Council, a friend of Mr. Rumpf making the motion that the vows which clergymen have to take at their ordination be so changed as to secure to the Liberal (Rationalistic) party the undisturbed right of admission to the clerical ranks. The motion was defeated by 72 noes to 27 ayes. In order to effect a closer organization of the party throughout Switzerland, a meeting of liberal clergymen, from the cantons of Aargau, Zurich, Basel Country, aud Bern, was called for March 7, at Olten, where also the establishment of a Rationalistic Church Gazette was to be taken into consideration. Two important motions concerning THE RELATION OF CHURCH AND STATE were discussed on December 2d by the Grand Council of Vaud. The one, made by Mr. Nicville, demanded the abolition of the decree of 1849 against the holding of private religious meetings; the second, made by Mr. Eytel, proposed an entire separation of Church and State. latter was unanimously rejected, and even the former was not accepted, yet it was resolved to charge the State Council with drafting a decree repealing that of 1849, but at the same time obviating the abuses which the Swiss, like other Europeans still fear from full liberty of worship. A singular specimen of European statechurchism is mentioned from the halfcanton of Basel Country, whose government has struck out, in a form of prayer prescribed by the supreme Church-board for a fast-day, such passages as "O Lord the great and dreadful God," (Dan. ix, 4 ;) "God our king," and others, as being at variance with the republican feelings of Basel Country. Similar sentiments have been professed by the Grand Councils of several other cantons.

The

The Roman Catholic Church.THE INFLUENCE OF ROME during the last six months has not been increased. The hope of the Catholic party in the canton of Tessin to carry the election of the new Grand Council on February 12, has been disappointed. The government remains, as it has been for years, in the hands of the Liberal party. In the Grand Council of Bern a motion has been carried to make, on the Federal Council, the demand to see that the independence of the Swiss cantons and the honor of their representatives be guarded against the encroachments and the conduct of the

papal Chargé d'Affaires, who had called the president of the Bernese government a liar. A VICTORY OF THE CATHOLIC PARTY is reported from the canton of St. Gallen, in which the last elections have given to the Catholic party a majority of votes over the Liberals and Protestants united. A change of the constitution and a regulation of public instruction on a strictly denominational basis will be among the first consequences of this election. The number of cantons whose government is in the hands of the Catholic party, amounts now to six (Freyburg, Valais, Uri, Unterwalden, Schwyz, St. Gallen,) of which St. Gallen, with 150,924 inhabitants, is the most populous.

SCANDINAVIA.

The Protestant Churches. — THE NEW CONVENTICLE LAW IN SWEDEN, by which the absolute prohibition of religious meetings of Lutherans in any other place except the parish church is repealed, has commenced to operate most beneficially. It is expected that it will considerably promote the spreading of the revi val, which for many months has been pervading the whole land, and has been participated in by members of every class of society. The rest of this intolerant legislation has not yet been abrogated, but the friends of religious liberty have stronger hopes than ever that the day of a radical change is approaching. The last quarterly report of the Scandinavian missions of the METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH shows the Methodist missions to be in a very prosperous condition. In Copenhagen the first Methodist Episcopal society in Denmark was organized on January 11th. Several persons of high standing were attending the sermons, and the little hall continued to be so crowded that many, for want of room, had to return home without hearing the preaching. In Norway each of the four congregations at Fredericks hald, Sarpsborg, Porsgrund, Enningdalen, reports an increase of membership. Frederickshald had 112, Sarpsborg 170, Porsgrund 30 members.

The Roman Catholic Church.THE JUDGMENT AGAINST THE CATHOLIC PASTOR OF CHRISTIANIA, in Norway, for not having sent in, according to the requirement of the law, a complete list of the members of his congregation, has been confirmed by the Court of Appeals, though the amount of the fine has been diminished on his plea that, being a foreigner, he had misunderstood the law and acted in good

and

of the secular power, it is considered by the Protestant papers, and the advocates of religious liberty in France, as a progress in two respects; first, because from the State Council greater independence of judgment is expected than from the provincial officers, who are too often under the influence of the bishops; and, secondly, because this is the first official document of the present century which mentions the existence of the Free Churches. To what degree the fanaticism of provincial boards often endangers THE LIRERTY OF WORSHIP, has been recently again shown at Colmar, in Alsace, where, on Jan. 20, a Protestant citizen was fined fifty francs, for having sent to one of his neighbors an unstamped pamphlet on the worship of the Virgin Mary. The Court of Appeal, from which a reversion of this judgment was confidently expected, has confirmed the sentence, representing the mere fact of lending a book as a part of a system of proselytism Protestant propaganda. The bishops by their pastoral letters, and the leaders of the Anti-Protestant Associations by their harangues, do their utmost to increase this spirit of intolerance. Thus the Archbishop of Lyons, in his pastoral letter of Feb. 12th, says that the Protestant ministers seek to buy souls, not in order to give to them any positive religion, but only in order to deprive them of the Catholic faith, and to make them victims of indifference, and of immorality. Dominican Friar, Father Lecomte, preached in Lyons, at the establishment of a branch association of S. Francis de Sales, that formerly the laws of the state had been in favor of the Church, and that with their aid the Catholics had succeeded in extirpating heresy from their midst; but that nowadays the laws consecrated the infernal principle of religious liberty and of liberty of conscience. new Society of S. Francis de Sales, is becoming the center for all the intolerant aspirations existing among the French Catholics. It held a general assembly on Jan. 29th, the day of its patron saint, when it was announced that the receipts amounted to 90,000 francs, though several provinces had not yet sent in their contributions; 50,000 books and 260,000 tracts have been circulated, and seventy archbishops and bishops of France have approved the objects of their association.

ITALY.

A

The

The Roman Catholic Church.The dreams of Giaberti and other Italian

patriots in 1848, to make THE POPE PRESIDENT OF AN ITALIAN CONFEDERACY similar to that of Germany, have been revived by a pamphlet, recently published in France under the title "Napoleon III, et l'Italie," which is believed, by both friend and foe, to represent the views of the French Emperor, and therefore to foreshadow the policy which he will pursue with regard to the Italian war. None of the leading Catholic organs of Italy has received this plan favorably, because they fear that its execution would soon bring on the ascendency of the Constitutional party, from whom the Protestants would obtain without difficulty the same rights which they have enjoyed ever since 1848 in Sardinia. For the same reasons, the ultra Catholic party in Italy is the only one which feels little sympathy with the national war against Austria, and which would even prefer the Austrian rule to that of the Constitutional party. Among the FOREIGN MISSIONARY SEMINARIES of Italy, the Seminary for young Negroes, in the City of Naples, attracts a growing attention. Established two years ago by Father Ludovico, a monk, who devotes himself entirely to the redeeming of young negroes from slavery, to their education and instruction, it had its first annual examination, towards the close of 1858, in the presence of the Archbishop, several ministers, and a number of other distinguished personages. The pupils. now over thirty in number, are educated for the priesthood. Among the most important news from the foreign missions of the Roman Catholic Church we count the reception into her communion of the king of Tigreh, in Abyssinia, and of a son of the king of Camboja, in Farther India. The number of NATIONAL COLLEGES AT ROME has been recently increased by one for South America, whose foundation has been the more eagerly encouraged by the Papal Government, as no other Catholic country is more destitute of ecclesiastical seminaries. At the opening of the college, whose direction has been given to the Jesuits, eighteen candidates from South America were present, and thirteen others were soon expected.

The Protestant Churches. In the larger cities of Sardinia THE PRINCIPLES OF RELIGIOUS TOLERATION are rooting themselves more and more firmly. The good example given in this respect in former years by Turin and Genoa, has recently been followed by Pinerolo, a town of 13,000 inhabitants. The town