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which names a certain period of development in modern poetry. In 1775 the two brothers undertook a journey through Germany to Switzerland, making the acquaintance of prominent men, in Frankfort associating with Goethe, and at Geneva meeting Voltaire. In 1776 Friedrich Leopold was appointed ambassador at the Danish court by the prince-bishop of Lubeck and the duke of Oldenburg. The literary productions of Stolberg were at that time in the region of lyrical poetry. At the same time he occupied himself with the study of the Greeks, translating the Iliad, also some portions of Eschylus, and composing several dramas in the Greek form. In 1785 he was sent on a mission to St. Petersburg, where he met Klinger. In 1789 he was appointed Danish ambassador in Berlin, and in 1791 the prince-bishop of Lubeck appointed him president of the government in Eutin, but before he entered his new position, he traveled to Italy, and also visited Munster, where he met the Princess Galitzin, a devoted Roman Catholic. Munster at that time was the seat of a Catholicism in which Biblical Christianity predominated over R.omanism. An interview with the pope later filled Stolberg with admiration. In 1793 he returned to Eutin and entered his new position, but remained in close contact with the circle of Munster while Voss, with whom he had hitherto been in close relations, seemed the representative of superficial rationalism. In 1793 Princess Galitzin returned his visit; in 1794 Stolberg visited in Munster, being powerfully attracted by Fiirstenberg and the princess. The change in his opinions appease in a .letter to F. H. Jacobi, written in February, 1794, in which he says: " T know and love the mysticism of a Plato, one of my first favorites . . . but the kind of revelation that was granted them remains as distinct from that of the Bible as the heaven is above the earth "; while later it was declared of him: " The miserable condition of Protestantism, that leads to deism, atheism, to a rationalism that eats and destroys all mystic roots like cancer, the philosophy of Kant, and the whole Enlightenment repelled him more and more." In 1798 he visited the Brethren in Herrnhut to see whether he could there find peace and rest. On June 1, 1800, Stolberg, together with his family, adopted the Roman Catholic faith in the chapel of Princess Galitzin. By this step he offended most deeply all Protestant North Germany, but especially his older circle of friends, Voss' Jacobi, Gleim, and others. After tendering his resignation to the duke, Stolberg retired into private life and settled near Munster, on the estate of Lutjcnbeck. In 1811 he removed to the estate of Tatenhausen near Bielefeld, and in 1816 to Sondermuhlen. Meanwhile he had published his lyrical poems, together with those of his brother Christian (Leipsic, 1779, new ed., 1831, and separately Yaterhindische Gedichte, again combined with those of his brother, Hamburg, 1815). He was the author also of Zwo Schriften des heiligen Augustin yon der wahren Religion and yon den Sitter der katholischen Kirehe (1803). But the work which filled almost the whole remainder of his life was his Geschichte der Religion Jesu Christi (15 vole., Hamburg, 1806-18). 7t extends only to the year 430, and eves continued by

F. yon Kerz (vols. xvi.-xlv., Mainz, 1825-46) and by J. N. Brischar (vols. xlvi. li., 1849-53). The work shows a lack of critical discernment and system, and a hasty pen. He also .published Leben Alfreds des Grosser (Munster, 1817), with an introduction on Anglo-Saxon history; and Ein Biichlein yon der Liebe (181$; Eng. transl., A Little Book of the Love of God, London, 1849), a coherent representation of the Biblical doctrine of love. His Reise in Deutschland, der Schweiz, ltalien and Sicilien (4 vole., Konigsberg, 1794) was translated into English (2 vols., London, 1796-97;1. (A. FREYBE.)

Brstxooxwray: Biographies. have been written by A. Nicolovius, Mainz, 1848; T. Merge, 2 vole., Goths, 1882; J. Janssen, 3d ed., Freiburg, 1882; and K. Windel, 2d ed.. Potsdam, 1896. Consult further: C. F. A. Schott, Voss and Stotberg, oder der Kampf de,. Zei~alters zwischen Licht and Verdunlcclung, Stuttgart, 1820; w. yon Bippen, Eutiner Skizzen. Zur Kultur- urnd lntteraturgeschichte des 18. Jahrhundert, Weimar, 1859; w. Herbst, Johannes H. Voss, vol. ii., Leipsic, 1874; also J. H. Hennes, F. L. Graf zu SlolberD and Herzog Peter Friedrich Ludwig yon OldenburD aus Arent Briefwechsel, Mainz, 1870.

STOLE. See Vi=sTM1;rrTS AND INSIGNIA, ECCLE slasTlcnl..

STOLE FEES, SURPLICE (FEES: Name applied to fixed contributions to the clergy for certain official services rendered, paid by the person at whose behest such service is rendered. In a History in wider sense the term includes the fees the Roman of such lower clergy as cantors, organCatholic fists, and sacristans. The term first Church. appears in the later Middle Ages, and originated in the fact that the clergy in the Roman Catholic Church, then as now, was obligated to perform those offices clad in the stole. In the Eastern Church these, ::ees are known by the corresponding term for stole, epitrachelium. In the Middle Ages there is mention of justitia, jury presb yteri, and jury parochialia, or the fee is designated according to the particular service performed, as baptisterium, uuptice, or sepulture. In the early Church, the bishops furnished the support of the clergy, but many voluntary gifts were made as evidences of gratitude, as well as for support. But, by authority of Matt. x. 8, the acceptance of a voluntary gift for the performance of a holy act was expressly forbidden. Nevertheless, the desire of the people to retain the good-will of the clergy and prove their own acknowledgment, on the one land, and the cupidity of the latter, on the other, led. not only to offensive practise among the ordinary clergy, but even the bishops came to accept gifts for such transactions as ordination, dedication of c:aurches, and confirmation. Again and again it became necessary for the Church to forbid the practise, excepting, however, voluntary gifts to the support of the clergy (I Cor. ix. 11-14; Matt. x. 10), if not given specifically for services performed. This ;standpoint appears in the ecclesiastical enactments of the twelfth century. Meanwhile an influence among the lover churches and clergy operated to restrict the right of stole fees. This was the Germa:iic system of private temples. In the north,' even in pagan times, the earl or private owner iposed upon those who frequented his temple a toll for the maintenance of the same and the support of his priest, as well as fees