CHAPTER XIV

THE POLISH OLD CATHOLIC MOVEMENT

D

"Co-workers with Christ"

URING my Episcopate, working for union within our own body and also with all baptized Christians, especially with those belonging to Apostolic Churches, I became interested in the Old Catholic Movement. This movement had extended in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, Belgium, France. It is under the jurisdiction of the Old Catholic Bishops in Holland and the three Bishops of Germany and Switzerland. Some time since it was reported to have in Holland twenty-three parishes, with a Theological Seminary at Ammersfoort; in Germany some ninety parishes and associations; in Switzerland fifty parishes and a third Theological Seminary; in Austria some twenty-three parishes and fifteen thousand adherents.

In America there were one Bishop, twentyone priests, thirty-two congregations, twenty-two churches and chapels. In connection with the Bishop's church in Chicago there is a large yet uncompleted hospital, and there are seven sisters. Between the years 1898 and 1901 the Bishop confirmed sixty-two hundred and ninety-nine persons.

I had inherited from my predecessor two or three congregations composed chiefly of Belgians, who had

His

broken with Rome and placed themselves under our jurisdiction. These were, of course, of French descent and spoke that language. Later there arose in America a considerable anti-Roman movement among the Poles. The principal leader among them, and one recognized by the Old Catholic Bishops in Europe, was the Right Reverend Anthony Kozlowski. He was educated in Bulgaria, among the Slavic people, and on account of the eminence of his family was regarded as one likely to be a prelate. As an only son he ranked as a baron and bore the title. family, for generations, had been Polish patriots. He studied theology in Bulgaria. Here he began to acquire the many languages which he spoke. He made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, sojourning in Constantinople and Greece. He did away with some of his early prejudices as an anti-Russian, seeing the Orthodox Church now under its religious aspect and other than as an ally to the Russian Government. Having a deep spiritual nature, he determined to leave the world and to enter the Trappist Monastery, to devote his life to religion. The discipline, however, was so severe that he became seriously ill, causing the doctors to order him to leave the monastery to preserve his life. Upon this he was appointed rector of the Theological College in Taranto, Italy, from which he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity and where he served some years. He became personally acquainted with many of the theologians of the Roman Church, including the late Pope Leo XIII. He became interested in the work of his

fellow-Slav, Bishop Strosmeyer, of Croatia, who struggled so courageously against the Vatican decrees of 1870, secured a restoration of the vernacular liturgy for his own people, and who never published the decrees of the Vatican Council in his own diocese. Strosmeyer's noble protest against papacy undoubtedly sowed seeds in the mind of Kozlowski. He became acquainted with those old Catholic leaders Döllinger and Reinkens, and while not then prepared to follow, he sympathized with them.

He was sent to America and became assistant of St. Hedwig's Polish church, Chicago. It was here that the conditions of the Polish people and their relation to the Roman Catholic hierarchy moved him to the final step that separated him from the Roman Communion. "The Polish people," we quote from a letter of the Rev. E. M. Frank, his chaplain, "needed a leader." For years many of the Polish laity had been restive under the Romish yoke, but they lacked a leader and priests to supply their spiritual wants. In 1895 Dr. Kozlowski was elected Bishop by All Saints' Polish Congregation, Chicago, and a few other congregations. He was consecrated by Bishop Herzog of Berne, Bishop Weber of Bonn, and Archbishop Gul of Utrecht at a Council held at Berne, Switzerland, November 13, 1896, and has been a resident in Chicago ever since his return.

During the ten years of his Episcopate, by personal effort, he organized twenty-three parishes: in New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Canada. He erected, but never com

pleted, St. Anthony's Hospital, Orphanage, and Home for the Aged, a large stone and brick building, upon which he expended one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars.

Few men had more missionary zeal and a better knowledge of Catholic affairs than had Bishop Kozlowski. He attended all the Old Catholic synods in Europe, and always spoke of his brethren in the Episcopal Church in America in the highest manner.

My acquaintance with Bishop Kozlowski had begun early in my Episcopate. He had acquired a number of languages, was a ripe theological scholar, of marked intellectual ability, a leader of men, and, above all, a devoted Christian. He lived in most humble quarters, as poverty like as those of any day laborer. A marked characteristic of his piety was his deep humility. He had a great love for his own people, and nothing was more dear to him than their deliverance from Roman oppression and the advancement of the Catholic Faith. He was broad and generous in his sympathies and action. Let me give an incident confirming this.

When Dr. Weller was about to be consecrated as our Coadjutor Bishop of Fond du Lac, Bishop Kozlowski was ready, he said, to join in the laying on of hands at his consecration. He agreed to do so and came to our cathedral with that intent. It would have been a great blessing to the cause of Christian unity. It would have been a complete answer to Romans, who said no other religious body recognized our orders. It would have been what a number of

our most devoted Bishops have desired. I humbly thanked God for bringing this great blessing to our communion. But it was not to be. On the day of consecration a Bishop appointed to be a co-consecrator remonstrated with me. He said that if Bishop Kozlowski was going to take part and lay on hands with the other Bishops present, he would withdraw from the Church. He said he protested against it, and if done would present me for trial to the House of Bishops. Rather than have any scandal on so important and serious an occasion, I yielded to his protest. He was a high churchman, and I have sorrowfully to say that the opposition to union with the Old Catholics has come largely from members of this school.

In October, 1901, the General Convention met at San Francisco. Bishop Kozlowski addressed a Memorial to the House of Bishops, accepting the terms of the so-called Quadrilateral, as put forth at Lambeth and Chicago, and asking recognition. It was an honest and straightforward acceptance of the terms of union which our Church had proposed. It was made by one who had a large number of clergy and churches under him. He gave a full list of the clergy and of the churches. At my request Dr. Potter, the Bishop of New York, presented the Memorial. It was from this broad, statesmanlike Bishop that I received the most encouragement in my endeavors for the union of these two bodies.

The Committee (Bishop Whitehead being chair