# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1857_S286
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

286   Church and Contemporary History.

can be known, there belong accordingly all those men living in inculpable ignorance in the various confessions. The church regards them as her own and even appoints a bishop for them in partibus infidelium. Thus we have bishops whose dioceses lie in Asia, Africa, and the like, in which perhaps not one member of the visible church lives, but certainly very many members of the invisible church.

c) The third class, finally, are those who have fallen away from the faith, who have been torn away, who live in heresy knowingly or unknowingly; the latter belong in any case to the invisible church. The former she reckons among her children in the hope of their return.

These too have their bishops. Thus, for example, Germany is to this day divided into dioceses, each of which has its bishop in partibus infidelium, whose office, however, is administered by an apostolic vicar with episcopal dignity, who in turn is bishop of another diocese.

Dr. Wm. M. Reynolds has, as we learn from the "Olive Branch," edited by Dr. Harkey, been elected president of the so-called Illinois State University at Springfield. In the said paper it is said: "It is well known that he (Reynolds) has always been a General Synod man and stands on its doctrinal basis, on which also our Illinois Synods and our institution have always stood, and on which, as we hold ourselves assured, he will continue to stand." We must confess that if the conviction concerning the standpoint of Dr. Reynolds, which evidently was of decisive influence in his election, is well founded, then the hopes which the orthodox church of America once formed of the said man's activity in her behalf have been empty; for whoever will build on the doctrinal basis of the General Synod can build nothing but Babel upon it.

II. Foreign Lands.

Italy. The ecclesiastical movement in Italy continues and advances, both on the anti-Roman and on the arch-Roman side. This is proved by the following occurrences and facts:

I. One of the three congregations in Sardinia which call themselves Evangelical-Italian, the one at Nice, has built itself a church in the Greek style, which, calculated for 600 hearers, was solemnly dedicated on November 27 of the year last past. Dr. Malon offered a prayer in Italian, and the pastor of the congregation, Pilatte, preached the inaugural sermon on John 4:24, after the Moderator of the Waldensian Synod, Dr. Revel, had previously delivered the address; from which one may conclude that this congregation — probably along with her sisters in Turin and Genoa — has now after all obtained the desired and requested affiliation with the Waldensian congregations, which was not yet the case when Freimund reported on it on March 27 of last year in No. 13 of his paper, pp. 159 and 160.

II. In the Sardinian Parliament a bill is proposed to the following effect:

"1) The Roman Catholic Church hereby declares its independence of Rome, and the King of Sardinia is its supreme protector.

2) The clergy are to be salaried by the state.

3) The canon law and the decrees of the councils are henceforth to have no force of law.

4) Tradition, insofar as it claims to be a source of doctrine, has no validity.

5) The reading of the Holy Scriptures shall be free to everyone, and the interpretation of them shall be left to the conscience of each individual.

6) The Lord's Supper shall be distributed under both kinds.

7) The celibacy of the clergy shall no longer be a commandment.

8) At divine service the Latin language shall no longer be used, and the festival days shall be reduced."

III. Throughout the whole land there exists a secret league which is said not only to be known to, but even favored by, the police and the clergy of several Italian states. The