The New International Encyclopædia/Old Catholics
OLD CATHOLICS. A religious communion,
found principally in Germany and Switzerland,
which owed its origin to certain Roman Catholics
who refused to accept the dogma of infallibility
passed by the  (q.v.), July 18,
1870. Before the Council assembled it was known
that such a dogma would be discussed, and a
determined opposition to it developed. Foremost
among the opponents was the Munich professor
 (q.v.), and after the
dogma was promulgated he headed a gathering
at Nuremberg, August 27, 1870, of professors
from Bonn, Breslau, Braunsberg, Munich,
Münster, Prague, Würzburg, and elsewhere,
who sent forth a protest. The chief signers
of the protest were deposed or excommunicated.
Nevertheless, they persisted in the advocacy of
their belief and found sympathizers. On September
22-24, 1871, the first Old Catholic Congress
met at Munich, attended by about 300 delegates
from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, and
friends from Holland, France, Russia, England,
and other countries. In the resolutions adopted
the congress defined its theological status.
Döllinger was not in favor of forming an ecclesiastical
organization, but the majority determined
upon it. A large number of Old Catholic
congregations sprang up in many places in Germany.
The second congress met at Cologne, September
20-22, 1872; provision was made for the election
of a bishop, intercommunion with the Eastern
and Anglican churches was sought, and a claim
to recognition by the State, with a share of the
Church property, was asserted.  (q.v.),
professor of theology in the
University of Breslau, was elected bishop in
the following June and consecrated in August
at Rotterdam by Heycamp, Jansenist Bishop of
Deventer. He continued to serve till his death,
January 4, 1896, when he was succeeded by
Theodor Weber, who had been consecrated
co-adjutor bishop the preceding year. Old Catholic
bishops have been recognized by the governments
of Baden, Hesse, and Prussia, and the latter
has granted them a share in the ecclesiastical
property. The third congress, held at Constance,
September, 1873, further perfected the organization,
and in the following year the Church was
able to report 132 parishes and societies in
Germany, with about 25,000 members, 41 priests, and
12 theological students. After the fourth
congress (at Baden, 1874), a conference aiming at
Church unity was held at Bonn. Dr. Döllinger

presided, and representatives of the Eastern and
Anglican churches partioipated.

The bishops of the Old Catholic Church in
Germany are chosen by the clergy and people
together. Its synods are representative bodies having
the initiative in legislation. It rejects the
doctrines of infallibility and the immaculate
conception, the obligation to confess, and priestly
absolution. Indulgences and the veneration of
saints are modified. Many ecclesiastical taxes are
abolished, and the mass is recited in the vernacular.
The priests are allowed to marry. Unions
for church improvement and charitable work have
been formed. Between 1887 and 1900, 800,000
marks were spent in church building. The
Altkatholischer Press- und Schriftenverein had, in
1900, 1476 members in about 200 places. The
Altkatholischer Schwesternverein in Bonn maintains
a deaconess work. The Amalie von Lasaulx
Haus is a training institute for nurses at Essen.
The Charitas mutual benevolent or burial society
had 1742 members in 1900. An orphans' home
was founded at Bonn in 1897. In 1901 there were
59 Old Catholic priests in Germany, and from
50,000 to 60,000 adherents.

The movement early took root in Switzerland,
especially in Geneva, and resulted in 1873 in the
formation of the Christian Catholic Church of
Switzerland.  (q.v.) was chosen
bishop in 1870. In 1901 there were 41 congregations,
56 priests, with Dr. Thürlings as theological professor
in the University of Bern, and 50,000 adherents.

In Austria the Old Catholic Church has 24
parishes and upward of 16,000 members. Dr.
Amandus Czech of Warnsdorf has been chosen
bishop, but not consecrated, the Government
withholding its consent until adequate provision
for an episcopal fund shall have been made. The
Old Catliolic Union of Austria has been
organized to promote the work of the Church, and
has local branches in some of the larger towns.
A sisters' home was established at Warnsdorf
in 1899. The progress of the Old Catholic Church
in the Austrian Empire has been assisted in
late years, particularly in Bohemia and Styria,
by a popular movement whose battle-cry is ‘Los
von Rom.’ It began with the publication in 1898
of a tract by an Old Catholic priest, Anton Nittel
of Warnsdorf. At first political motives influenced
the movement, but it has assumed more of a
religious character as it has gone on. At the
international Old Catholic congress in 1902
Bishop-elect Czech said that 7000 members had
been added to the Church through the ‘Los von
Rom’ movement. A report published in 1902
gave the entire number of new members in the
Old Catholic churches in Bohemia, Moravia,
Styria, Upper Austria, and Vienna as 8114, as
compared with 18,082 who had joined the
Lutheran and Reformed churches.

In Holland the Jansenist Church (see
), which is affiliated with the movement,
has 3 bishops, 8000 adherents, and 30 priests.
In Italy there are 8 congregations and 10 priests;
in Spain, 3000 adherents and 11 priests. In
France the ‘Gallican Church’ at Paris, founded
by Père Hyacinthe (see ), now
under the charge of the Bishop of Utrecht, is
in sympathy with the movement. There are
also a few of the communion in Portugal and
Mexico. The so-called 
in the United States (q.v.), founded by
the Rev. Anthony Koszlowski among the Polish

immigrants in Chicago, has been generally
regarded as representing the movement in America.
There have also been a few congregations
in Wisconsin. They have a bishop, René Vilatte.
International Old Catholic congresses have been
held at Cologne (in 1890), Lucerne (1892),
Rotterdam (1894), Vienna (1897), and Bonn (1902).

A number of Old Catholic periodicals are
published: the Internationale theologische
Zeitschrift (Revue Internationale de théologie),
quarterly, Bern; Amtliches altkatholisches
Kirchenblatt, occasional, Bonn; Deutscher
Merkur, weekly, ib.; Altkatholisches Volksblatt,
weekly, ib.; Der Katholik, weekly, Bern; Le
Catholique National, weekly, ib.; De Oud Katholick,
monthly, Rotterdam; Le Catholique
Français, monthly, Paris; Il Labaro, monthly, San
Remo; Girolamo Savonarola, weekly, Piacenza;
La Luz, Madrid.

The literature is voluminous. The reports of
the congresses, synods, etc., the pastoral letters,
addresses, and other publications of the bishops
and leaders, and the periodicals, particularly the
Deutscher Merkur, give detailed information of
the progress of the work. For its origin, consult
Friedberg, Sammlung der Aktenstücke zum
ersten vatikanischen Konzil (Tübingen, 1872),
and Aktenstücke, die altkatholische Bewegung
betreffend, mit einem Grundriss der Geschichte
derselben (ib., 1876). Consult, also, Herzog,
Beiträge zur Vorgeschichte der christkatholischen
Kirche der Schweiz (Bern, 1896); Nippold, Die
Anfänge der christkatholischen Bewegung in der
Schweiz und der Los-von-Rom Bewegung in
Oesterreich (Bern, 1901). For the history of the
movement, consult von Schulte, Der Altkatholizismus
(Giessen, 1887), and the article
“Altkatholizismus” by the same author in the Hauck-Herzog
Realencyclopädie, which is complete and
authoritative for Germany to 1896. Hergenröther,
Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengeschichte,
vol. ii. (3d ed., Freiburg, 1884), treats the movement
from the Roman Catholic standpoint. A
popular account in English may be found in an
article by Beyschlag, “The Origin and Development
of the Old Catholic Movement,” in the
American Journal of Theology, vol. ii. (1898).