The Old-Catholic experiment in Switzerland has collapsed very suddenly. Father
Hyacinthe, who had accepted the cure of Geneva, has resigned it, finding that the Council of State under which he had to act was, as he says, neither Catholic nor Liberal. That Council desires, in fact, to set up a new Church, very different from that of Rome ; while Pere Hyacinthe is still in Luther's first position, a hopelessly illogical one. If he may judge for himself sufficiently to marry, he may judge for himself on all points ; and if he judges for himself on all points, he must allow others to do the same. A Roman Catholic Church inde- pendent of the Pope, and reformed exactly down to the point Pere Hyacinthe approves, is an impossibility, as much abler men than himself will very speedily find. The Old-Catholic movement must become, under whatever name, a Protestant movement—that is, must admit of the right of private judgment—or it must end in a submission. The principle at issue is not the celibacy of the clergy, but the comparative rights of authority and reason.
