outh, in all schools, private as well as public, should be in
accordance with the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. The authority of
the Church extended even to the universities. Some change in this system
was essential; the Liberal party demanded that the government should simply
state that the concordat had ceased to exist. To this, however, the emperor
would not assent, and there was a difficulty in overthrowing an act which
took the form of a treaty. The government wished to come to some agreement
by friendly discussion with Rome, but Pius IX. was not willing to abate
anything of his full claims. The ministry, therefore, proceeded by internal
legislation, and in 1868 introduced three laws: (1) a marriage law
transferred the decisions on all questions of marriage from the
ecclesiastical to the civil courts, abolished the authority of the canon
law, and introduced civil marriage in those cases where the clergy refused
to perform the ceremony; (2) the control of secular education was taken
from the Church, and the management of schools transferred to local
authorities which were to be created by the diets; (3) complete civil
equality between Catholics and non-Catholics was established. These laws
were carried through both Houses in May amid almost unparalleled
excitement, and at once received the imperial sanction, notwithstanding the
protest of all the bishops, led by Joseph Othmar [v.03 p.0029] von Rauscher
(1797-1875), cardinal archbishop of Vienna, who had earned his red hat by
the share he had taken in arranging the concordat of 1855, and now
attempted to use his great personal influence with the emperor (his former
pupil) to defeat the bill.

The ministry had the enthusiastic support of the German population in the
towns. They were also supported by the teaching profession, which desired
emancipation from ecclesiastical control, and hoped that German schools and
German railways were to complete the work which Joseph II. had begun. But
the hostility of the Church was dangerous. The pope, in an allocution of
22nd June 1868, declared that these "damnable and abominable laws" which
were "contrary to the concordat, to the laws of the Church and to the
principles of Christianity," were "absolutely and for ever null and void."
The natural result was that when they were carried into effect the bishops
in many cases refused to obey. They claimed that the laws were inconsistent
with the concordat, that the concordat sti