I
SAXONY
503
SAXONY
their Church tax theinsehes. In the years succeed-
ing 1870 there was a bitter struggle in most of the
German states between Church and State called the
KuUurkampf (q. v.); during this period a law was
issued in Saxony concerning the exercise of State
supervision. This law contains the greater part of
the ordinances which had been up to then in effect,
and in its measure for putting the law into action
follows the Austrian and Prussian laws of the decade
of 1870-1880, that were inimical to the Church. Pub-
lic church service can only be held in the 57 parishes,
dependent parishes, and chapels ; mission services and
religious instruction can further be held at certain
periods of time in about sixty places. In addition
there are 8 churches and chapels that are private prop-
erty. Very few church processions are permitted.
The approval of the State is necessary for the general
decrees of the Church authorities when these in any
way encroach upon State or municipal affairs; the
State authorities are to decide whether infringement
has taken place. The approval of the ministry is nec-
essary for the founding of new churches and institu-
tions for prie.sts, for .settling or changing the boun-
daries of parishes, for establishing church service at
new stations, in general for new acts of ecclesiastical
administration of any kind, which in any way what-
ever come into contact with national affairs or the
ordinary ones of civil life.
A Catholic ecclesiastical office, whether in public or private .service, permanent or subject to recall, can only be given to a Ciennan who has finisliod the course at a gymnasium, studied three years at a university, and has passed a theological examination for his office. Whoever has been trained at a seminary conducted by the Jesuits or a similar order is excluded. Fur- ther, the national Government can reject anyone who has been chosen for an ecclesiastical office, if it be- lieves that he will use his influence against the State laws or ordinances. The State Government is to be notified at once of every vacancy and of ever}' appoint- ment of a spiritual office. As a rule change of re- ligion is not permitted before the twenty-first year; before change of faith the convert must notify the pastor of the parish of his intention and may have a four weeks' period of reflection a.ssigned to him; after the expiration of this term the convert can demand a certificate of dismi.ssal. The religion of the father is determinative for children of mixed marriages, unless the parents have made a legal agreement otherwise before the child is six years ohl. AU the State schools are denominational; they are not established and maintained by the political communes but by special school communes. In localities where the population is of different faiths the religious minority, if able to do so, can form a new school commune; special religious instruction for the benefit of the religious minority is not given at the expen.se of the school commune of the majority where that alone exists. Up to the twelfth year Protestant religious instruction is legally permissible for Catholic children. At pres- ent a new school law is being prepared, as the School Law of 1873 contains many ordinances that are now out of date; however, the confessional character of the schools and the religious supervision of the schools by the pastor of the respective place is to be retained; but efforts have been and are still made to set aside at least the religious supervision of the schools. As re- gards Catholic schools there is a preparatory gymna- sium in Dresden, a seminary at Bautzen, for train- ing Catholic teachers for the primary schools, that is supported by the cathedral chapter of Bautzen, and 51 Catholic public primary schools. There are about 300 Catholic male teachers and about 20 Catholic female teachers. Special Catholic religious instruction is given at more than one hundred and thirty places where there are onlv Protestant schools. Only about 15,000 of the 24,000 Catholic school
children attend Catholic schools; of the remaining
9000 children about 3500 have no Cathohc religious
instruction. The pressing necessity of new schools
cannot be met on account of the lack of money, as
most of the Cathohcs who have come into the coun-
try are poor factory hands. On account both of this
lack of schools and of the equally great lack of
churches, far more than 10,000 Catholics became
Protestant during the years 1900 and 1910.
IV. The Prussian Province of S.\xony. — The province has an area of 9,746 square miles, and in 1905 had 2,979,221 inhabitants. Of its population 230,860 (7.8 per cent) are Catholic, 2,730,098 (91 per cent) are Protestant; 9981 hold other forms of Christian faith, and 8050 are Jews. During the summer months about 15,000 to 20,000 Catholic labourers, called Sachsengdnger, come into the coun- try; they are Slavs from the Prussian Province of Posen, from Russian Poland, or Galicia. The prov- ince is divided into the three government depart- ments of Magdeburg, Merseburg, and Erfurt. The Prussian Province of Saxony was formed in 1815 from the territories, about 8,100 square miles in extent, ceded by the Kingdom of Saxony, with the addition of some districts already belonging to Prussia, the most important of which are the Alt- mark, from which the State of Prussia sprang; the former immediate principalities of the Arclibishop of Magdeburg and of the Bishop of Halberstadt, which Prussia had received by the Peace of Westphalia (1648) at the close of the Thirty Years' War; and the Eichsfeld, with the city of Erfurt and its surround- ings. Up to 1802 the Eichsfeld and Erfurt had belonged to the principality of the Archbi.shop of Mainz; a large part of the population had, therefore, retained the Catholic Faith during the Reformation. As regards ecclesiastical affairs the Province of Saxony had been assigned to the Diocese of Paderborn by the papal Bull "De salute animarum" of 16 Jul}', 1821. The province contains three ecclesia.s- tical administrative divisions: the episcopal commis- sariat of Magdeburg that einliraces the entire govern- mental department of Magdeburg and consists of four deaneries and 25 parishes; the "ec(!lesiastical Court" of Erfurt, which includes the governmental Department of Merseburg and the eastern half of the governmental Department of Erfurt; and con- sists of 2 deaneries (Halle and Erfurt) and 28 par- ishes; the episcopal commissariat of Heiligenstadt, which embraces the western half of the governmental department of Erfurt, that is called the Upper Eichs- feld, and consists of 16 deaneries and 129 parishes.
In those parts of the governmental Department of Magdeburg which belonged originally to the former Archdiocese of Magdeburg and the Diocese of Hal- berstadt all Catholic life was not entirely destroyed during the Reformation. Besides fourteen monas- teries that continued in existence, there were in Halberstadt a number of benefices in connexion with the cathedral and the collegiate Church of Sts. Peter and Paul. As the entire native population had become Protestant these monasteries were only maintained by the immigration of Catholics who, from the time of the Treaty of Westphalia, though in small numbers, steadily came into the country; thus there arose around the monasteries small Catholic communities. The monasteries wore all suppressed during the great secularization of the beginning of the nineteenth century, and thirteen parishes were formed, for which the State provided a fund from a part of the property of the monasteries. The other parishes in the governmental Department of Magdeburg were created after the middle of the nineteenth century, when, in con.sequence of the development of the manufacture of sugar, increas- ing numbers of Catholics came into the country; the St. Boniface Association gave the money to
