METHODIST

QUARTERLY REVIEW.

OCTOBER, 1879.

ART. I.— DÖLLINGER.

JOHN JOSEPH IGNATIUS VON DÖLLINGER was born at Würzburg on the twenty-eighth of February, 1799. We have no information concerning his early years, family connections, or worldly circumstances. The von which precedes his name indicates noble birth, but cannot assure us that his family was in a prosperous social condition. He says by chance that his grandfather was once in the service of the Prince-Bishop of Bamburg and Würzburg, but does not tell what the service was. Of his own father or mother we hear not a word. We know nothing of the influences that wrought upon him at home, in school, or at the university. Of his earlier moral and religious development, also, we know nothing.

In 1822 he became a priest, and in 1826 Professor of Theology in the new University of Munich. In one of his later addresses he speaks of himself as having accomplished a professorial career of fifty years. In point of fact, the only interruption of his academic duties occurred between the years 1847 and 1849, when he was dismissed from his chair by ministers whom the infamous Lola Montez had raised to power. It was a noble testimonial to the purity and energy of his character that such people must silence him before they could sin unashamed. His career in authorship began likewise in 1826, with the publication of a work on "The Doctrine of the Eucharist in the First Three Centuries." Two volumes of an elaborate "Church FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXXI.—40

History" appeared between 1833 and 1835. He next published a "Manual of Church History," intended for university classes and private study; of this the first volume appeared in 1836, and the second in 1838; a second edition was issued in 1843, whose title-page describes it as improved. In 1838 he printed in Munich a work on "The Religion of Mohanmed: Its Interior Development and Influence on the Life of Nations." This very valuable work was the first in which he gave distinct token of that vaster range and keener intellectual penetration which make his maturer works so memorable. In the years from 1845 to 1848 he was sending out at Regensburg three stately volumes on "The Reformation: Its Interior Development and Effects within the Sphere of the Lutheran Confession." In 1853, by his "Hippolytus and Calistus; or, The Church of Rome in the First Half of the Third Century," he took an able share in the controversy aroused by the discovery of the "Philosophoumena," at first ascribed to Origen, but afterward, and on more satisfactory grounds, to Hippolytus. In 1857 he sent out a most able and learned discussion of the general historical preparation for Christianity under the title, "Heathenism and Judaism." This was followed in 1860 by Christianity and the Church in the Time of their Foundation;" the next year after that came "The Church and the Churches; or, Papacy and Church State." In 1863 appeared "Fables of the Middle Ages Concerning the Popes;" in 1871 was issued his work on "The Prophetic Spirit and the Prophecies of the Christian Era;" and in 1872 came his "Lectures on the Reunion of the Churches."

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Besides these more extended and elaborate treatises, Döllinger has sent out many occasional publications. In 1828 he printed a short account of "The Reformation," in Hortig's "Ecclesiastical History." "The Religion of Shakspeare;" "The Introduction of Christianity among the Germans;" "A Commentary on Dante's Paradise," furnished with designs by the renowned Cornelius; "Mixed Marriages; " "The English Tractarians; "John Huss;" "The Albigensians;" "The Duty and Law of the Church toward Persons Dying in other Communions;' "Error, Doubt, and Truth;" "The Freedom of the Church;" "Martin Luther, A Sketch;" "The Past and the Present of Catholic Theology;" "Three Speeches in the Bavarian Diet;"

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"Three Speeches in the Unions-Conferenzen;" "The Universities, Formerly and Now "-these are the minor productions of this tireless author.

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Several years ago a great deal of interest was aroused about Dr. Döllinger on account of his sturdy resistance to the definition of the infallibility of the Pope by the Council of the VatiThis was fed by the fact that he was one of the few who braved the horrors of excommunication rather than recognize that Council as a true one, and its dogmatic decisions as binding matter of faith for the members of his own communion. The announcement that he was about to set up, in connection with other like-minded Catholics, an Old Catholic Church, was greeted with surprise, sorrow, and hope, according to the various sympathies of different parties. The development of the new organization, though more rapid and divergent from Rome than Döllinger could have wished, has not answered publie anticipation. We think it fair to hold Döllinger largely responsible for the form matters have assumed; and hence deem it necessary to study him in order to understand that movement. One who had been acquainted with his professional career, his ecclesiastical affinities, and his elaborate treatises, might easily have foretold the extent and reserves of his action as a reformer. If we study his chief works with considerate attention, we shall readily make out why he bore himself as he did toward the Vatican Council, and as a reformer of the Church.

Döllinger's earlier works had given evidence of great acquirements in many fields of theological science, unwearied industry in his vocation, and decided skill in that wise ordering of literary tasks which is one of the rarest of human gifts. He writes from the first in remarkably clear, concise, and wellhandled German; and this in itself is something remarkable for a German theologian. His larger and smaller Church histories might well enough have aroused the expectation among German Catholics that their author would yet perform honorable service for their cause; but there was nothing in them to draw the especial attention of German Protestants, not to speak of those of foreign lands. But when his great work on "The Reformation" came out, in the years from 1845 to 1848, it was no longer possible to make this assertion. The performance was well calculated to make a sensation. It was the most