Munich, the Jesuits
attacked his teaching of ecclesiastical history, and the celebrated J.
A. Mohler (q.v.) who afterwards became his friend, on being appealed to,
pronounced on the whole in his favour. He also entered into relations
with the well-known French Liberal Catholic Lamennais, whose views on
the reconciliation of the Roman Catholic Church with the principles of
modern society had aroused much suspicion in Ultramontane circles. In
1832 Lamennais, with his friends Lacordaire and Montalembert, visited
Germany, and obtained considerable sympathy in their attempts to bring
about a modification of the Roman Catholic attitude to modern problems.
Dollinger seems to have regarded favourably the removal, by the Bavarian
government, in 1841, of Professor Kaiser from his chair, because he had
taught the infallibility of the pope. On the other hand, he published a
treatise in 1838 against mixed marriages, and in 1843 wrote strongly in
favour of requiring Protestant soldiers to kneel at the consecration of
the Host when compelled officially to be present at Mass. Moreover, in
his works on _The Reformation_ (3 vols. Regensburg, 1846-1848) and on
_Luther_ (1851, Eng, tr., 1853) he is very severe on the Protestant
leaders, and he also accepts, in his earlier works, the Ultramontane
view then current on the practical condition of the Church of England, a
view which in later days he found reason to change. Meanwhile he had
visited England, where he was well received; and he afterwards travelled
in Holland, Belgium and France, acquainting himself with the condition
and prospects of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1842 he entered into
correspondence with the leaders of the Tractarian movement in England,
and some interesting letters have been preserved which were exchanged
between him and Pusey, Gladstone and Hope Scott. When the last-named
joined the Church of Rome he was warmly congratulated by Dollinger on
the step he had taken. He, however, much regretted the gradual and very
natural trend of his new English allies towards extreme Ultramontane
views, of which Archdeacon, afterwards Cardinal, Manning ultimately
became an enthusiastic advocate. In 1845 Dollinger was made
representative of his university in the second chamber of the Bavarian
legislature. In 1847, in consequence of the fall from power of the Abel
ministry in Bavaria, with which he had been in close relations, he was
removed from his professorship at Munich, but in 18