2. Austria

A movement away from Rome which was at first very promising, but in the end proved more or less abortive, was that known as German Catholicism (q.v.). The remains of this movement are associated with the Union of Free Religious Congregations. This promising movement failed for want of a sufficiently vital religious and Evangelical element and from the excessive predominance of the political factor (see Free Congregations In Germany). The German-speaking Roman Catholics, who furnished the greater part of these two movements, have recently given birth to a movement much more important than either of them, the "Loa von Rom" movement in Austria. For 4 long time there has been a considerable alienation of both the German and Slav inhabitants of Austria from the Church of Rome and its services, but whether this would have led to a movement toward Protestantism and what form such a movement might have taken it is difficult to conjecture. The actual initiation of the movement toward Protestantism was due to a combination of racial and political influences which can only be referred to here. The war of 1866 with Prussia had transferred the leadership of the German states to that state, and eventually, after the defeat of France, had led to the formation of the German Empire, from which Austria was excluded. This loos of political position and power was keenly felt by the Austrian Germans, who saw themselves displaced by a new Protestant power from the position they had occupied for ages, and the explanation that forced itself on many minds was that Romanian had sapped the vigor of their race. Their resentment against Rome was intensified by the attitude Rome assumed in the racial struggles between Germans and Slave. Having found France an ineffectual instrument for the promotion of its political aims, the Vatican began to throw its influence on the side of the Slavs against the Germans in order to build up a strong Slav Catholic power on which it could depend. Bitter antiRoman political feeling was excited by this, and at length on Nov. 5, 1898, Schonerer, the leader of the German National Party, made an appeal for a secession from Rome, issuing the watchword by which it has been since known, "Los von Rom," i.e., Away from Rome, or Free from Rome. The movement has been pronounced purely a political maneuver, but this entirely misrepresents its character. The possibility of the political movement arose out of the religious dissatisfaction that existed, and many, even at the beginning, came out under the cover of the political passion of the moment, whose impelling motive was religious. The political element began rapidly to recede into the background, and after two or three years became entirely subordinate, till eventually it almost disappeared. In this transformation from the political to the religious a very deep influence has been exercised by the celebrated novelist Peter Rosegger, who has shown deep interest in the movement, though remaining nominally a Roman Catholic. The secessions have taken place almost entirely from the German-speaking portions of the population. Those who are most familiar with the Czech portions of Bohemia consider that the conditions exist for an important movement from Rome, but for the present the priests have succeeded in utilizing the strong racial hatred to prevent it by teaching their flocks that Protestantism is a German religion and to become Protestants is to be Germanized. The converts have joined one or other of the two Protestant confessions recognized by the government, the Augsburg or the

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Helvetic, mainly the former, or the Old Catholic Church. Up to the end of 1908 over 51,000 had become Protestants and about 16,000 Old Catholics, besides a large cumber that worship in the Protestant churches who are prevented by fear of persecution from publicly enrolling themselves as Protestants. The conversions to Protestantism have during the past few years remained steadily about 4,500 annually, and the movement shows no sign of abating. See Austria.