he can follow him. We have as yet no information whether Luther ever answered this letter, but Professor Köstlin in this number of the Studien publishes for the first time some extracts from the archives of the philosophical faculty of the former University of Wittenberg, which show how Staupitz's letter was received in Wittenberg. Under the year 1524 the archives of the philosophical faculty contain the following words relating to the bearer of Staupitz's letter: "Eodem anno MDXXIV ultima Aprilis (id quod antea numquam factum est Uuittembergae) urgentibus hoc D. Joh. Staupicio, cui haec schola suum debebat principium, and D. Martino Luthero, non tam literarum quam Evangelii, (cujus fulgure Deus Opt. Max. sub hoc tempus Germaniam illustraverat,) adsertore, Georgius Führer Salzburgensis Magisterii Tрóσwоv adsequutus est." Evidently George Führer was the bearer of Staupitz's letter. The promotions of Masters took place at Wittenberg on certain fixed days, to which the 30th of April did not belong. According to the annals of the university, promotion on that day was rare exception. The next after the promotion of Führer took place in 1528. Another hand has added to the entry under April 30, 1524: "Non bene de collegio meriti quicunque ista induxerunt." Thus Luther, who was not himself a member of the philosophical faculty, had used his influence to fulfill as soon as possible the wish of his old friend. The words of Staupitz, that Luther might make Führer his pupil, do not exclude that Führer was already acquainted with and attached to Luther's views. It even seems that he was in Wittenberg before, for among the baccalaurei who in 1521 came to Wittenberg is mentioned Georgius Fyerer, Saltzburgenses Bacc. Whether Führer ever returned to Staupitz is not known; the latter died on December 28. French Reviews. REVUE CHRETIENNE, (Christian Review.) June, 1879.-1. LELIEVRE, Marot, a "The Bible in the Sixteenth Century" (La Bible au XVI Siècle) is the title of a new work by Samuel Berger, a young Professor of the Protestant Theological Faculty of Paris, of which the "Christian Review" in its July number gives a full abstract. The subject is one of the highest interest for every one who appreciates the importance of this great reformatory age of the Christian Church, and the author seems to have fully mastered the subject. The main work is preceded by an introduction, in which the author sets forth what the Bible was to the ruling Church at the end of the Middle Ages. He shows that but few copies of the Bible were found among the lower clergy and monks of the fiftteenth century. Indeed, before the invention of the art of printing but few priests were rich enough to buy a copy of the Bible, for even toward the close of the Middle Age, when the price began to be reduced, it still amounted to 1,000 francs. Still, all the students of universities in the convents were required to read or hear the reading of the Bible. It was easy to borrow a copy and to make extracts. Therefore, if the majority of the secular clergy and monks showed but little acquaintance with the Bible, the chief reason was not the scarcity of books in general, but want of interest. This proceeded partly from the shocking condition of medieval exegesis. The Church had gradually developed the theory of the quadruple interpretation, literal, allegorical, topological, and anagogical. According to this exegesis, Jerusalem was historically the suffering capital of Palestine; topologically, the type of the faithful soul, the conscience of which is in peace; allegorically, the figure of the Church militant when peace reigns through charity and benevolence; anagogically, the triumphant Church, which is above all assaults. So general was that theory of construing the Bible that the University of Paris imposed it upon the bibliarii to the exclusion of any other. A few distinguished theologians raised their voice against these fanciful interpresentations, which read in the Bible many things that were not there, and did not read what was there. Among those who opposed the quadruple interpretation was Nicholas de Lyra, of whom a proverb said, "Si Lyra non lyrasset, totus mundus delirasset ;" and later the Lutherans said, "Si Lyra non lyrasset, Martinus non saltasset." The success of men like Lyra was, however, of short duration, and the quadruple interpretation remained in the ascendency until the sixteenth century, until the Reformation. ART. VIII.-FOREIGN RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. THE OLD CATHOLIC CHURCH. THE Old Catholic Church of Germany held its sixth annual Synod at Bonn, on June 4. It has, of course, attracted attention that the statistics which in former years accompanied the annual report of the Bishop were this year not given. Bishop Reinkens, in his opening address, alluded to the present condition of the Church as follows: "In numbers the movement has not increased, but neither has it decreased, and our reformed ideas have penetrated into even wider circles. Though our work is not so apparent outwardly, it is not, therefore, insufficient. The manifold hinderances that opposed us have inwardly strengthened us, and tended more to consolidate us. The eager demand to see great results has ceased to be apparent with us, but our hopes are not weakened, but increased, thereby. I open the present Synod with the exhortation to hope with patience for the assured fruits of our labor." Thus it appears from the words of the Bishop that the movement during the past year has made no progress. The number of priests who have pastoral charges is about fifty. The Synod was attended by only sixteen priests and fortytwo laymen. With the consent of the synodal representation the Bishop appointed his Vicar-general, Professor Knoodt, as Deputy President of the Synod. It was resolved to establish a pension fund for invalided priests. No Synod is to be held next year, but, instead of it, a congress either at Mannheim or Heidelberg. The Synod also adopted a course of religious instruction for common and higher schools, which had been prepared by a special committee for the schools of the Grand Duchy of Baden, and was recommended by the synodal representation. In consequence of the election of several new members, the synodal representation for this time until the next Synod will be composed as follows: Bishop Reinkens, President; Professor Schulte, Vice-President; Professor Knoodt, Rev. Mr. Weidinger, Privy Councilor Meurer, and Councilor Wrede, as ordinary members; and Professor Michelis, Professor Weber, of Breslau, Ex-Mayor Malsch, of Carlsruhe, and Councilor Reuthner, as extraordinary members. It was stated that many offers from excellent priests were received during the past year, but had to be declined on account of lack of means. Two students were reported as preparing at Bonn for the Old Catholic ministry, while another was preparing for orders in the Russo-Greek Church. The Old Catholics of Austria held this year their first Synod at Vienna. The great legal difficulties against which they have had to contend have been referred to in a former number of the Methodist Quarterly Review. (See Jan., 1879, p. 153.) Having been frowned upon for seven years by the State, and then, when legally permitted to organize themselves, having been hindered for another year by the persecution of minor officials, it was only in 1878 that they were able to close their ranks and present FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXXI.—50 a good front to the foe. There are at present only three registered Austrian Old Catholic parishes-in Vienna, Ried, and Warnsdorf. As they possess as yet no Bishop, the Old Catholics of Austria seem to have been exercised in mind respecting their right to call a synod, but their legal adviser, Professor Von Schulte, of Bonn, accorded to them the power of constituting themselves "an extraordinary synod." This met at Vienna, on June 5, and, after service in the Salvator Church, elected Dr. Linder, a member of the Vienna Town Council, President, and Prof. Löger, of Vienna-Neustadt, Secretary. A provisional Synodal Council was elected, consisting of three ordinary members, Dr. Linder, Director Wessely, and Pastor Schwetter, of Vienna, and four extraordinary members, the two priests of Warnsdorf and Ried, and two laymen. Subject to the ratification of a future synod, the council has accepted the reforms in doctrine and practice hitherto introduced by the German or Swiss Old Catholics. These are classified under eight heads: 1. The participation of the laity in the outer government of the Church, popular election of the clergy, etc.; 2. Confession to be voluntary, not compulsory; 3. Freedom of the clergy to marry; 4. Use of the national tongue in the liturgy and all ecclesiastical offices; 5. Fasting and abstinence to be no longer a matter of obligation; 6. Reduction of superfluous festivals; 7. Reforms in the matter of indulgences, the veneration of pictures and relics, religious processions, etc.; 8. Abolition of mass stipends, and all payments for spiritual functions. The Synodal Council was instructed to make application to the Austrian House of Deputies for a grant in the next budget toward the support of the Old Catholic congregations, and, further, to take steps toward the appointment of a Bishop. In Switzerland the Christian Catholics are passing through a severe ordeal. Under the terms of a new Church law in the Canton of Berne, issued after the removal of Bishop Lachat, of Basle, to whose diocese Berne belonged, the Catholic priests of the canton were in future to be elected by popular suffrage, were to be subject to re-election every six years, and were bound to subscribe to the State law. As the Roman priests refused to submit to the law, and the Ultramontane laity declined to vote, Christian Catholic priests were elected by the Liberal minority in about thirty out of forty-two parishes of the canton. The Christian Catholic priests have worked hard to make good their footing, and they have succeeded in some places, but in the majority of the parishes they have only been able to attain a strong minority. Recently the Ultramontane party have resolved to take part in the elections, and as an amnesty granted by the cantonal government allows the Roman priests to take cures without further submission, the Old Catholics have already lost some parishes, and stand fair to lose a great many more in the course of the next years. It is a falling off, not in numbers, but in position. The election by the people carries with it the State endowment, and the loss of that election will be a pecuniary one, while the necessity for the maintenance of the parish priest will remain. In the above description only the Canton of Berne is concerned; but as this Canton contained almost one nalf of all the congregations of the Church, (thirty out of sixty-two,) the entire Christian Catholic Church suffers from the change. The Fifth Synod of the Christian Catholic Church held its session at Solothuru, on June 5. Bishop Herzog was necessarily unable to report much advance, but there had been no considerable retrogression either. He could still tell of fifty-six parishes (against sixty-one in 1878) and seventytwo priests, (against seventy-five in 1878,) of a large number of children . under religious instruction, and admitted last year to the first communion, and of eleven students at Berne preparing for ordination. Since the last Synod five priests had left and two had been ordained. Communion in both kinds is introduced in the Canton of Geneva and at Chaux-de-Fonds, but in the northern parishes the old custom continues to prevail. A lively discussion took place on a revised French missal. It was approved by M. Michaud, but the Bishop condemned the attempt, and only granted that the manual was not un-Catholic, and recommended the Synod to refer it back to the Genevese for better consideration. Meanwhile a temporary use of the book was permitted. A series of resolutions was passed, by the terms of which the Synod declares that it stands in essential matters "on the same Christian and Catholic ground" as the Anglican Church, defines the idea of the approximation of Churches, and thanks the Anglo-American Church for its marks of substantial sympathy. The Synod charged Bishop Herzog officially to communicate these resolutions to "those Bishops of the Anglo-American Church who have been the means of intercourse between the Churches." In France Father Hyacinthe has at last succeeded in organizing an Old Catholic congregation at Paris. As long as the French Old Catholics have no Bishop of their own the Primus of the Scotch Episcopal Church will exercise episcopal jurisdiction. In July, 1879, Bishop Herzog, of the Christian Catholic Church of Switzerland, acting as delegate for the Primus of Scotland, who was detained by sickness, confirmed seven persons in Father Hyacinthe's Church. MOHAMMEDANISM. In a former number of the Methodist Quarterly Review (April, 1878, pp. 347-351) we published a brief account of the present condition of Mohammedanism in the Russian and British Empires, taken from an article of the distinguished German traveler and ethnological writer, E. von Schlagintweit. In the following lines we supplement that account by some extracts from an address delivered by Dr. von Döllinger on March 29, 1879, before the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Döllinger is well known as one of the most learned Church historians of the present age, and has given special attention to the history of Mohammedanism, on which he published, forty-one years ago, an elaborate essay, entitled, Mohammed's Religion, (Ratisbon, 1838.) The Queen of England and Empress of India, says Dr. Döllinger, rules over the largest number of Mohammedans. No Moslem prince has an approximately large number of Mohammedan subjects, not even the Sul |