The Crisis In Germany

The position assumed by the Emperor is different frora that of Henry VIII. of England, in that the latter uot only broke loose trom the Pope, but meddled to some extent with doctrine, while the E.nperor merely constitutes hiinselí the protector of the clergy against their owu bishops. The bishops, who weie at one time largely restrained by common law, have gradually been aecuring to themseives absolute power over the clergy by appointing curates at pleasure and not permanently, thusdepriving them of the rights whioh attached properly to their position as parish priests. This form of aggression on the rights of the clergy as a class hasgone, we believe, much further in Europe than in Canada, and h-is been the cause of the more rapid working of reform movements within the Church of Rome there than here. Of course the men appointed by the Germán bishops to the parishes of their diocescs are those vhom they think least likely to rebel against episcopal power. The Emperor has sitnply declared that all priests who are found in ch&rge of jjarishes on the lst of May next will bo regarded as permanently appointed, and will be maiutained in sueh position so long as they fulill their duties properly. This is not an encroachment on the Ro'man Catholic Church ; it is a preservation of it.s old established constitution. It is not an encroachment even on the bishops, but on the contrary, a resistance of their encroachments upon the minor clergy, on the people, and on the state. As the Papacy has made as many encroachments on the bishops as they have done on the clergy, and is the chief aggroasor, it is natur.tl that PiusIX. should regard all this as an attack on himself.