onfession. The following month, August, 1845, the Prussian
cabinet-order appeared, prohibiting all convocations of the Friends of
Light. Protests appeared against Wislicenus and his followers, which
were followed by counter-protests signed indiscriminately by all
classes.

Another popular development of Rationalism occurred in Koenigsberg, in
1845. Pastor Rupp attacked the Athanasian symbol in his own pulpit,
whereupon he was ejected by the consistory. He collected an independent
congregation; and thus arose those Free Congregations, which contributed
equally to the Rationalistic and revolutionary movements. Appearing in
other parts of Germany, they became a formidable opponent of the church.
While they held that the Scriptures were their rule of faith in the
unity of God, they threw off their authority and that of all symbols.
They adopted baptism and the Lord's Supper, and professed allegiance to
the civil power. But their influence was against the government, and
their two sacraments were odious corruptions. Their form of baptism is
enough to determine their religious sentiment: "I baptize thee after
the manner of the old apostolic baptism, that Jesus is the Christ; I
anoint thy head with water as a sign that thy soul remains pure, pure as
the water that runs down the mountain side; and as the water rises to
heaven and then returns to the earth, so may you be continually mindful
of your heavenly home." Their convocations were finally restricted by
the civil authority. The supreme church council issued an
excommunicatory order against them; the police broke up their meetings;
and forty of the Free Congregations were closed in Prussia alone.

The leaders of the Revolution of 1848 were the organizers of these
popular independent movements. When the people had gained the upper hand
of their rulers, their very first action was to select the destroyers of
their faith as their political champions and representatives. It was,
therefore, a great triumph for those fanatical humanists to find
themselves seated in the national parliaments of Frankfort and Berlin,
and, wherever the revolution extended, to be the leaders of the excited
masses.

What could be expected from a revolution conducted by such men as
Wislicenus, Blum, Uhlich, Baltzer, Carl Schwartz and their adherents? It
was a total failure. And when the restoration was completed in 1849, the
reaction against Rationalism became so decided that the leaders had
reason t