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118-516: The municipality contains the urban areas Marpingen, Urexweiler, Alsweiler und Berschweiler, which have the status of Ortschaft, and Rheinstraße, which is in the administrative area of Marpingen, and Habenichts, which is in the administrative area of Urexweiler. In 1876, at the height of the Kulturkampf , Marpingen was claimed to be the site of an apparition of the Virgin Mary , leading to

236-482: A wax seal . In Catholic theology, sacred relics must not be worshipped, because only God is worshipped and adored. Instead, the veneration given to them was " dulia ". Saint Jerome declared, "We do not worship, we do not adore, for fear that we should bow down to the creature rather than to the Creator, but we venerate the relics of the martyrs in order the better to adore Him whose martyrs they are." Until 2017,

354-486: A band; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha; and as soon as the man touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. Also cited is the veneration of relics from the martyr and bishop Saint Polycarp of Smyrna recorded in the Martyrdom of Polycarp , written sometime from 150 to 160 AD. With regard to relics that are objects, an often cited passage is Acts 19:11–12, which says that Paul

472-558: A certificate of authentication, signed and sealed by someone in the Congregation for Saints , or by the local Bishop where the saint lived. Without such authentication, relics are not to be used for public veneration. The Congregation for Saints, as part of the Roman Curia , holds the authority to verify relics in which documentation is lost or missing. The documents and reliquaries of authenticated relics are usually affixed with

590-459: A great church built just outside the walls of Tours. When Saint Martin died on November 8, 397, at a village halfway between Tours and Poitiers , the inhabitants of these cities were ready to fight for his body, which the people of Tours managed to secure by stealth. Tours became the chief point of Christian pilgrimage in Gaul, a place for the healing of the sick. Gregory of Tours travelled to

708-622: A letter to the German emperor on the very day of his election, followed by a second letter in a similar vein that same year. Bismarck and the Pope entered into direct negotiations without the participation of the Church or the Reichstag , yet initially without much success. It came to pass that Falk, vehemently resented by Catholics, resigned on 14 July 1879, which could be read as a peace offering to

826-662: A major conflict between the Prussian Government and the believers who flocked to Marpingen as a result. This Saarland location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Kulturkampf In the history of Germany, the Kulturkampf (Cultural Struggle) was the seven-year political conflict (1871–1878) between the Catholic Church in Germany , led by Pope Pius IX ; and

944-522: A major setback for Bismarck although never publicly conceded. Yet, in spite of strong Catholic representation in the Reichstag, the political power and influence of the Church in the public sphere and its political power was greatly reduced. Although Germany and the Vatican were officially at peace after 1878, religious conflicts and tensions continued. At the turn of the century, Pope Pius X announced

1062-437: A new location. Offerings made at a site of pilgrimage were an important source of revenue for the community who received them on behalf of the saint. According to Patrick Geary , "[t]o the communities fortunate enough to have a saint's remains in its church, the benefits in terms of revenue and status were enormous, and competition to acquire relics and to promote the local saint's virtues over those of neighboring communities

1180-569: A ninth-century Italian deacon named Deusdona, with access to the Roman catacombs, as crossing the Alps to visit monastic fairs of northern Europe much like a contemporary art dealer. Canterbury was a popular destination for English pilgrims, who traveled to witness the miracle-working relics of St Thomas Becket , the sainted Archbishop of Canterbury who was assassinated by knights of King Henry II in 1170. After Becket's death, his successor and

1298-440: A particular power derived from the hero, with some exceptions, such as the divine shoulder of Pelops held at Olympia . Miracles and healing were not regularly attributed to them; rather, their presence was meant to serve a tutelary function, as the tomb of Oedipus was said to protect Athens . The bones of Orestes and Theseus were supposed to have been stolen or removed from their original resting place and reburied. On

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1416-755: A priest by his bishop as a means of bestowing faculties upon him (i.e., granting him permission to celebrate the Sacred Mysteries). The antimens is kept on the Holy Table (altar), and it is forbidden to celebrate the Divine Liturgy (Eucharist) without it. Occasionally, in cases of fixed altars, the relics are built in the altar table itself and sealed with a special mixture called wax-mastic . The necessity of provide relics for antimensions in new churches often necessitates continuous division of relics. An account of this process can be found in

1534-574: A ship from. A study in 1870 found that, put together, the claimed relics of the cross at that much later time weighed less than 1.7 kg. By the middle of the 16th century, the number of relics in Christian churches became enormous, and there was practically no possibility to distinguish the authentic from the falsification, since both of them had been in the temples for centuries and were objects for worship. In 1543, John Calvin wrote about fake relics in his Treatise on Relics , in which he described

1652-559: A tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism , Christianity , Islam , shamanism , and many other religions. Relic derives from the Latin reliquiae , meaning "remains", and a form of the Latin verb relinquere , to "leave behind, or abandon". A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics. In ancient Greece , a city or sanctuary might claim to possess, without necessarily displaying,

1770-431: A testament to its authenticity. In Likeness and Presence , Belting argued that the cult of relics helped to stimulate the rise of painting in medieval Europe. Reliquaries are containers used to protect and display relics. While frequently taking the form of caskets, they have many other forms, including simulations of the relic encased within (e.g., a gilded depiction of an arm for a relic consisting of arm bones). Since

1888-689: A treatise of the pre-revolutionary Russian church historian Nikolay Romansky  [ ru ] . According to Romansky, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church operated a special office, located in the Church of Philip the Apostle in the Moscow Kremlin , where bones of numerous saints, authenticated by the church's hierarchs, were stored, and pieces of them were prayerfully separated with hammer and chisel to be sent to

2006-422: Is because the mortal remains of the deceased are associated in some manner with the holiness of their souls which await reunion with their bodies in the resurrection ." Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) pointed out that it was natural that people should treasure what is associated with the dead, much like the personal effects of a relative. In an interview with Catholic News Service , Fr. Mario Conte, executive editor of

2124-544: Is due to God alone. Thus Orthodox teaching warns the faithful against idolatry and at the same time remains true to scriptural teaching (vis. 2 Kings 13:20–21) as understood by Orthodox Sacred Tradition . The examination of the relics is an important step in the glorification (canonization) of new saints. Sometimes, one of the signs of sanctification is the condition of the relics of the saint. Some saints will be incorrupt , meaning that their remains do not decay under conditions when they normally would (natural mummification

2242-408: Is not the same as incorruption) . Sometimes even when the flesh does decay the bones themselves will manifest signs of sanctity. They may be honey-coloured or give off a sweet aroma . Some relics will exude myrrh . The absence of such manifestations is not necessarily a sign that the person is not a Saint. Relics play a major role in the consecration of a church . The consecrating bishop will place

2360-508: Is possible, to remind them that the Buddha was a real person, and to also promote good virtue. One of the earliest sources that purports to show the efficacy of relics is found in 2 Kings 13:20–21: And Elisha died, and they buried him. Now the bands of the Moabites used to invade the land at the coming in of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied

2478-714: Is reserved for the display of the Blessed Sacrament (host or prosphora and Eucharistic wine after consecration in the sacrament of the Eucharist). The importance of relics in the Byzantine world can be seen from the veneration given to the pieces of the True Cross . Many great works of Byzantine enamel are staurothekes , or relics containing fragments of the True Cross. Other significant relics included

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2596-690: Is the question of the Infallibility of the Pope. This pretension once become a dogma, will have a wider scope than the purely spiritual spheres, and will become evidently a political question: for it will raise the power of the Sovereign Pontiff, even in temporal matters, above all the princes and peoples of Christendom." The liberal majorities in the Imperial Diet and the Prussian parliament as well as liberals in general regarded

2714-604: The Kulturkampf , suggests that the liberals wanted to do more than prevent Catholicism from becoming a political force. They wanted victory over Catholicism itself, the long-delayed conclusion of the Reformation. At least since 1847 and in line with the Liberals, Bismarck had also been of the professed opinion, that state and church should be completely separated and "the sphere of the state had to be made secure against

2832-593: The Golden Legend or the works of Caesarius of Heisterbach . These miracle tales made relics much sought-after during the period. By the Late Middle Ages, the collecting of, and dealing in, relics had reached enormous proportions, and had spread from the church to royalty, and then to the nobility and merchant classes. The Council of Trent of 1563 enjoined bishops to instruct their flocks that "the holy bodies of holy martyrs ... are to be venerated by

2950-515: The Concordat of 1855 , and then cancelled the Concordat altogether in 1870. Saxony and Bavaria withheld approval to publish the papal infallibility dogma; Hesse and Baden even denied it any legal validity. France refused to publish the doctrines altogether; Spain forbade publication of Syllabus Errorum in 1864. By the mid-19th century, liberal policies had also come to dominate Germany and

3068-747: The Jesuits . As in many European countries, Jesuits were being banned or heavily restricted in many of the German states e.g. in Saxony (1831) or Württemberg (1862), and even in Catholic ones such as Bavaria (1851) and Baden (1860). Not to be left out, the German areas to the west of the Rhine had already gone through a process of separation of church and state in line with a radical secularization after annexation by revolutionary and Napoleonic France in 1794. After their return to Germany in 1814, many if not most of

3186-583: The Kingdom of Prussia , led by chancellor Otto von Bismarck . The Prussian church-and-state political conflict was about the Church's direct control over both education and ecclesiastical appointments in the Prussian kingdom as a Roman Catholic nation and country. Moreover, when compared to other church-and-state conflicts about political culture , the German Kulturkampf of Prussia also featured anti-Polish sentiment . In modern political usage,

3304-603: The Liberals and the Conservatives representing orthodox Protestants found the Centre Party 's support of the pope highly provocative. Many Catholics shared these sentiments, especially against the pope's declared infallibility and the majority of Catholic German bishops deemed the definition of the dogma as "'unpropitious' in light of the situation in Germany". While most Catholics eventually reconciled themselves to

3422-452: The catacombs of Rome . These places were always outside the walls of the city, but martyriums began to be built over the site of the burial. Since it was considered beneficial to the soul to be buried close to the remains of saints, several large "funerary halls" were built over the sites of martyr's graves, including Old Saint Peter's Basilica . These were initially not regular churches, but "covered cemeteries" crammed with graves, wherein

3540-457: The girdle worn by the Virgin , and pieces of the body or clothing of saints. Such relics (called contact relics , or secondary relics) were, however, scarce and did not provide most believers with ready access to proximity to the holy. The growth in the production and popularity of reproducible contact relics in the fifth and sixth centuries testifies to the need felt for more widespread access to

3658-483: The 1837 Kölner Wirren ( 'Cologne Confusion'  [ de ] ) of legal and policy issues regarding the children of mixed Protestant-Catholic marriages, Prussia's final settlement was considered a defeat for the state as it had given in to demands of the Catholic Church. In 1850, Prussia again had a dispute with the church about civil marriage and primary schools and in 1852, it issued decrees against

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3776-579: The Age of Reason in the 17th and the 18th centuries, the European Kulturkampf principally occurred in the regional and local politics of a society, especially in cities and towns where the educated populations were politically Liberal and practised the politics of anti-clericalism and of anti-Catholicism . The Catholic Church resisted such intellectual progress, which was portrayed as an attack on religion in an effort to maintain and strengthen

3894-575: The Apostle 's handkerchiefs were imbued by God with healing power. In the gospel accounts of Jesus healing the bleeding woman and again in the Gospel of Mark 6:56, those who touched Jesus' garment were healed. The practice of venerating relics seems to have been taken for granted by writers like Augustine , St. Ambrose , Gregory of Nyssa , St. Chrysostom , and St. Gregory Nazianzen . Dom Bernardo Cignitti, O.S.B., wrote, "[T]he remains of certain dead are surrounded with special care and veneration. This

4012-500: The Canterbury chapter quickly used his relics to promote the cult of the as-yet-uncanonized martyr. The motivations included the assertion of the Church's independence against rulers, a desire to have an English (indeed Norman English ) saint of European reputation, and the desire to promote Canterbury as a destination for pilgrimage. In the first years after Becket's death, donations at the shrine accounted for twenty-eight percent of

4130-484: The Catholic Church as a powerful force of reaction and anti-modernity, especially after the proclamation of papal infallibility in 1870 and the tightening control of the Vatican over the local bishops. The renewed vitality of Catholicism in Germany with its mass gatherings also attracted Protestants – even the heir to the Prussian throne, with the king's approval, attended one. Anti-liberalism , anti-clericalism , and anti-Catholicism became powerful intellectual forces of

4248-562: The Catholic Church divided relics into three classes: In 2017, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints abolished the relics of the third degree, introducing a two-stage scale of classification of relics: significant (insigni) and non-significant (non insigni) relics. The first are the bodies or their significant parts, as well as the entire contents of the urn with the ashes preserved after cremation. The second includes small fragments of

4366-403: The Catholic Church had opposed, produced no democratic reforms and attempts to radically disentangle state-church relationships failed. In the revolutionary parliament , many prominent representatives of political Catholicism took the side of the extreme right-wingers. In the years following the revolution, Catholicism became increasingly politicized due to rising liberal ideologies contrasted with

4484-630: The Catholic Church was to lose its good standing which it had enjoyed for centuries in the Catholic-dominated Holy Roman Empire and which it would have continued to enjoy in a German empire united under Austrian auspices. Thus, in 1870, on the eve of unification, the Center Party was explicitly founded to defend the position of the church in the new empire. Bismarck was highly concerned that many major members and supporters of this new party were not in sympathy with

4602-520: The Catholic section in the Ministry of Culture was not reintroduced). The respective opposing parties in the Reichstag harshly criticized the concessions made by the Vatican and the Prussian government. Windthorst and the Centre Party were dismayed at being sidelined and not being consulted about the concessions the pope made, e.g. about the ban on Jesuits or the civil registry of clerics. None of

4720-465: The Centre Party and as far as separation of state and church was concerned, he had achieved more than he wanted. In order to garner support for his Anti-Socialist Laws and protective trade tariffs, Bismarck turned his back on the liberals in search of new alliances. The death of Pius IX on 7 February 1878 opened the door for a settlement with the Catholic Church. The new pope, Leo XIII , was pragmatic and conciliatory. He expressed his wish for peace in

4838-455: The Church as backward, a hotbed for reactionaries , enemies of progress and cast monastic life as the epitome of a backward Catholic medievalism. They were alarmed by the dramatic rise in the numbers of monasteries, convents and clerical religious groups in an era of widespread religious revival. The Diocese of Cologne , for example, saw a tenfold increase of monks and nuns between 1850 and 1872. Prussian authorities were particularly suspicious of

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4956-581: The Church condemned as false some 80 philosophical and political statements, mainly the foundations of the modern nation-state. It rejected outright such concepts as freedom of religion , separation of church and state , civil marriage , sovereignty of the people , liberalism and socialism , reason as the sole base of human action , and in general condemned the idea of conciliation with progress . The announcements included an index of forbidden books. The Church gradually re-organized and began to use mass media expansively to promote its messages. In addition,

5074-411: The Church's strong political role in the affairs of the state and society. With the growing influence of enlightenment and after having lost much of its wealth, power, and influence in the course of the mediatization and secularization of the early 19th century, the Church had been in a state of decline. The papacy was at a weak point in its history, having lost all its territories to Italy , with

5192-521: The Eastern Empire, though still prohibited in the West. The Eastern capital was therefore able to acquire the remains of Saints Timothy , Andrew and Luke , and the division of bodies also began, the 5th century theologian Theodoretus declaring that "Grace remains entire with every part." In the West, a decree of Theodosius only allowed the moving of a whole sarcophagus with its contents, but

5310-516: The German term Kulturkampf describes any conflict (political, ideological, social) between the secular government and the religious authorities of a society. The term also describes the great and small culture wars among political factions who hold deeply opposing values and beliefs within a nation, a community, and a cultural group. The philosophic influences of The Enlightenment , Scientific realism , Positivism , Materialism , nationalism , secularism , and Liberalism impinged upon and ended

5428-469: The Gospel and the Church. The pope's teaching was promoted as absolutely authoritative and binding on all the faithful. Secular politicians wondered whether "Catholicism and allegiance to the modern liberal state were not mutually exclusive". British Prime Minister Gladstone wrote in 1874 that the teaching on papal infallibility compromised the allegiance of faithful English Catholics. For European liberalism,

5546-550: The Messenger of St. Anthony magazine in Padua , Italy , said, "Saints' relics help people overcome the abstract and make a connection with the holy ... Saints do not perform miracles. Only God performs miracles, but saints are intercessors." In the early Church the disturbance of the remains of martyrs and other saints was not practiced. They were allowed to remain in their often unidentified resting places such as in cemeteries and

5664-553: The Protestant church, I have to go via Rome." In August 1871, at Bad Ems , Bismarck revealed his intention to fight against the Centre Party, to separate state and church, to transfer school inspection to laymen, to abolish religious instruction from schools and to transfer religious affairs to the minister of justice. On 22 January 1872, liberal Adalbert Falk replaced conservative Heinrich von Mühler as Prussian minister for religion, education and health. In Bismarck's mind, Falk

5782-407: The Prussian state parliament and the federal legislature ( Reichstag ), both with liberal majorities, enacted 22 laws in the context of the Kulturkampf . They were mainly directed against clerics: bishops, priests and religious orders ( anti-clerical ) and enforced the supremacy of the state over the church. While several laws were specific to the Catholic Church (Jesuits, congregations etc.)

5900-493: The Romano-Christian concepts that gave relics such a powerful draw. He distinguished Gregory's constant usage of sanctus and virtus , the first with its familiar meaning of "sacred" or "holy", and the second as "the mystic potency emanating from the person or thing that is sacred... In a practical way the second word [virtus] ... describes the uncanny, mysterious power emanating from the supernatural and affecting

6018-595: The Vatican. A decisive boost only came in February 1880, when the Vatican unexpectedly agreed to the civic registry of clerics. As the Kulturkampf slowly wound down the talks lead to a number of so-called mitigation and peace laws which were passed until 1887. On 29 September 1885, as another sign of peace, Bismarck proposed the Pope as arbiter in a dispute with Spain about the Caroline Islands and accepted his verdict in favour of Spain. In gratitude but to

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6136-629: The advice of the Delphic Oracle , the Spartans searched for the bones of Orestes and brought them home, without which they had been told they could not expect victory in their war against the neighboring Tegeans . Plutarch says that the Athenians were likewise instructed by the oracle to locate and steal the relics of Theseus from the Dolopians . The body of the legendary Eurystheus

6254-509: The anti-modernist and anti-liberal policies of the Vatican. In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and Franco-Prussian War of 1870 the Catholic Church sided against Prussia and it was an outspoken opponent of German unification under Prussia (as well as of Italy's unification). The Catholic dogmas and doctrines announced in 1854, 1864 and 1870 were perceived in Germany as direct attacks on the modern nation state. Thus, Bismarck,

6372-440: The availability of access to the divine but were not infinitely reproducible (an original relic was required), and still usually required believers to undertake pilgrimage or have contact with somebody who had. The earliest recorded removal, or translation of saintly remains was that of Saint Babylas at Antioch in 354, but, partly perhaps because Constantinople lacked the many saintly graves of Rome, they soon became common in

6490-476: The bodies, as well as objects used by saints and blesseds. The sale or disposal by other means of "sacred relics" (meaning first and second class) without the permission of the Apostolic See is now strictly forbidden by canon 1190 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law . However, the Catholic Church permitted the sale of third-class relics. Relics may not be placed upon the altar for public veneration, as that

6608-456: The cathedral's total revenues. In the absence of real ways of assessing authenticity, relic-collectors became prey to the unscrupulous, and some extremely high prices were paid. Forgeries proliferated from the very beginning. Augustine already denounced impostors who wandered around disguised as monks, making a profit from the sale of spurious relics. In his Admonitio Generalis of 789, Charlemagne ordered that "the false names of martyrs and

6726-510: The changes were kept in place. In the Vormärz period, Catholic publications usually portrayed revolutions as negative and dangerous to the existing order as well as to the interests of the Catholic Church. Most of them considered a viable Catholicism to be necessary for the very health of society and state and to be the only true and effective protection against the scourge of revolution. The unsuccessful German revolutions of 1848–49 , which

6844-442: The church and was of no good to the state is now over". The Mitigation and Peace Laws restored the inner autonomy of the Catholic church while leaving key regulations and the laws concerning separation of church and state in place (civic marriage, civic registry, religious disaffiliation, government school supervision, civic registry of clerics, ban of Jesuits, pulpit law, state supervision of church assets, constitutional amendments and

6962-436: The church's opposition to enlightenment, liberal reforms, and the revolutions of the 18th/19th centuries, these dogmas and the church's expressed insistence on papal primacy angered the liberal-minded across Europe, even among some Catholics. Debates were heated. The dogmas were perceived as threatening the secularized state, as they reaffirmed that the fundamental allegiance of Catholics was not to their nation-state, but to

7080-415: The cremated remains or ringsel of prominent Buddhists. In rare cases, the whole body is conserved, as in the case of Dudjom Rinpoche . A year after his death in 1987, his physical body was moved from France and placed in a stupa in one of his monasteries near Boudhanath , Nepal. Pilgrims may view his body through a glass window in the stupa. The Buddha's relics are used to show people that enlightenment

7198-559: The dioceses that needed to place them into new antimensions. Many churches were built along pilgrimage routes. A number in Europe were either founded or rebuilt specifically to enshrine relics, (such as San Marco in Venice ) and to welcome and awe the large crowds of pilgrims who came to seek their help. Romanesque buildings developed passageways behind the altar to allow for the creation of several smaller chapels designed to house relics. From

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7316-399: The divine. These contact relics usually involved the placing of readily available objects, such as pieces of cloth, clay tablets, or water then bottled for believers, in contact with a relic. Alternatively, such objects could be dipped into water which had been in contact with the relic (such as the bone of a saint). These relics, a firmly embedded part of veneration by this period, increased

7434-720: The doctrine, some founded the small breakaway Old Catholic Church . According to the Bavarian head of government, Hohenlohe , the dogma of infallibility compromised the Catholic's loyalty to the state. He sent a circular to all the diplomatic representatives of the Bavarian Kingdom saying, "The only dogmatic thesis which Rome desires to have decided by the Council, and which the Jesuits in Italy and Germany are now agitating,

7552-441: The dogmas were perceived as a declaration of war against the modern state, science, and spiritual freedom. The pope's handling of dissent from the dogmas, e.g. by excommunication of critics or demanding their removal from schools and universities, was considered as the "epitome of papal authoritarianism". In direct response to the Vatican's announcements, Austria passed the so-called May Laws for Cisleithania in 1868, restricting

7670-593: The eleventh and twelfth centuries, substantial numbers of pilgrims flocked to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, in which the supposed relics of the apostle James, son of Zebedee , discovered c. 830, are housed. Santiago de Compostela remains a significant pilgrimage site, with around 200,000 pilgrims, both secular and Christian, completing the numerous pilgrimage routes to the cathedral in 2012 alone. By venerating relics through visitation, gifts, and providing services, medieval Christians believed that they would acquire

7788-459: The empire, Catholics were the majority in the states of Bavaria , Baden , and Alsace-Lorraine as well as in the four Prussian Provinces of West Prussia , Posen , Rhineland , Westphalia and in the Prussian region of Upper Silesia . Since the Thirty Years' War the population was generally segregated along religious lines and rural areas or towns were overwhelmingly if not entirely of

7906-448: The encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis , mounting new attacks on historical criticism of biblical texts and any accommodation of Catholicism to modern philosophy, sociology or literature. As of 1910, clerics had to take an oath against all forms of modernism, a requirement later extended to teachers of Catholic religion at schools and professors of Catholic theology resulting in intense political and public debates and new conflicts with

8024-404: The exterior, this collection of small rooms is seen as a cluster of delicate, curved roofs at one end of the church, a distinctive feature of many Romanesque churches. Gothic churches featured lofty, recessed porches which provided space for statuary and the display of relics. Historian and philosopher of art Hans Belting observed that in medieval painting, images explained the relic and served as

8142-461: The faithful, for through these [bodies] many benefits are bestowed by God on men". The Council further insisted that "in the invocation of saints, the veneration of relics and the sacred use of images, every superstition shall be removed and all filthy lucre abolished." There are also many relics associated with Jesus . In his introduction to Gregory's History of the Franks , Ernest Brehaut analyzed

8260-590: The federal states and the leading actor of the Kulturkampf was Prussia , Germany's largest state. However, some of the laws were also passed by the Reichstag and applied to all of Germany. In general, the laws did not affect the press and associations including Catholic ones. The Falk Laws , or 'May Laws' ( Maigesetze ), were a set of laws passed by the Prussian parliament in the years 1873, 1874, and 1875. Four laws passed in 1873 were enacted on 11–14 May that year: The last two laws passed in 1876 were of no practical importance: The political situation in Europe

8378-598: The first steps in secularisation well before unification. Predominantly Catholic Baden was at the forefront of curbing the power of the Catholic Church, as in the Baden Church Dispute (1852–1854) and the Kulturkampf Baden  [ de ] (1864–1876). Other examples are Prussia (1830s, 1850, 1859, and 1969), Württemberg (1859/1862), Bavaria ( Bayerischer Kulturkampf  [ de ] , 1867), Hesse-Nassau or Hesse-Darmstadt . In

8496-455: The general laws affected both Catholic and Protestant churches. In an attempt to overcome increasing resistance by the Catholic Church and its defiance of the laws, new regulations increasingly went beyond state matters referring to the purely internal affairs of the church. Even many liberals saw them as an encroachment on civil liberties, compromising their own credo. Constitutionally, education and regulation of religious affairs were vested in

8614-546: The great horror of Catholics, the Pope awarded Bismarck the Supreme Order of Christ , the highest order of chivalry to be granted by the Holy See. Bismarck was the only Protestant ever to receive this award. After further negotiations between Prussia and the Vatican, the Prussian parliament passed 2 additional laws amending some of the Kulturkampf laws. On 23 May 1887, the Pope declared "The struggle which damaged

8732-434: The hierarchy and the Centre Party and the liberals' demands to curb the power of the churches meshed well with Bismarck's main political objective to crush the Centre Party. According to historian Anthony J. Steinhoff: Bismarck's plan to disarm political Catholicism delighted liberal politicians, who provided the parliamentary backing for the crusade. Yet, the phrase the left-liberal Rudolf Virchow coined for this struggle,

8850-496: The increasing popularity of the socialists or more important such as questions of import duties. In these matters, he could either not rely on the support of the liberals to pursue his goals or they were not sufficient to form a majority. Bismarck had not been comfortable with the increasing ferocity of the Kulturkampf . Concerning the rise of the Centre Party, the laws had proven to be greatly ineffective and even counterproductive. He soon realized that they were of no help battling

8968-583: The incursions by the church", although his ideas were not as far-reaching as in the United States or in Great Britain. He had in mind the traditional position of the Protestant church in Prussia and provoked considerable resistance from conservative Protestants. This became clear in a heated debate with Prussian culture minister von Mühler in 1871 when Bismarck said: "Since you stopped my plans in

9086-483: The intellectual and political roles of religion and the Catholic Church, which then was the established church of Europe. By way of the legislated separation of church and state , the Age of Reason reduced society's financial debts to the Church and rendered secular the public sphere of society, and established the state's supremacy concerning the content and administration of public education for all of society. During

9204-399: The interpretation of daily events, was promoted through local and national Catholic newspapers that were prominent in all western European nations. In addition, organized missions and groups were dedicated to producing pious literature. In the 19th century, the popes issued a series of encyclicals (such as Mirari vos (1832) by Pope Gregory XVI ) condemning liberalism and freedom of

9322-462: The liberals for the Kulturkampf was in contrast to Bismarck's pragmatic attitude towards the measures and growing disquiet from the Conservatives. Relic In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as

9440-451: The monks and nuns had left Prussia, a third of the monasteries and convents were closed. Between 1872 and 1878, numerous Catholic newspapers were confiscated, Catholic associations and assemblies were dissolved, and Catholic civil servants were dismissed merely on the pretence of having Ultramontane sympathies. Thousands of laypeople were imprisoned for assisting priests to evade the punitive new laws. The general ideological enthusiasm among

9558-622: The mystical life of the Church, and especially by receiving the Sacred Mysteries ( Sacraments ). In the Orthodox service books , the remains of the departed faithful are referred to as "relics", and are treated with honour and respect. For this reason, the bodies of Orthodox Christians are traditionally not embalmed . The veneration of the relics of the saints is of great importance in Orthodoxy, and very often churches will display

9676-665: The natural... These points of contact and yielding are the miracles we continually hear of." Rome became a major destination for Christian pilgrims as it was easier to access for European pilgrims than the Holy Land . Constantine the Great erected great basilicas over the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul. A distinction of these sites was the presence of holy relics. Over the course of the Middle Ages, other religious structures acquired relics and became destinations for pilgrimage . In

9794-462: The new Centre Party not only as an illegal mixup of politics and religion and the church's "long arm" but also as a unifying force for Catholic Germans and Poles and thus a threat to the consolidation of the empire. He feared that the Centre Party would frustrate his broader political agendas and he accused the Catholic priests of fostering Polish nationalism as had been done openly in the provinces of Posen and Upper Silesia. The Liberals regarded

9912-577: The new empire: the House of Hanover , the ethnic minority of the Poles, the southern German states. In 1871, the predominantly Catholic states of Southern Germany had only reluctantly joined the empire, increasing the overall share of the Catholic population to 36.5%. Among this Catholic share was Germany's largest ethnic minority, well over 2 million Poles in the east of Prussia, who under Prussia and Germany suffered discrimination and oppression. Bismarck regarded

10030-402: The party's major demands were met. Instead, the pope even sided with Bismarck on non-religious issues and pressured the Centre Party to support Bismarck or at least abstain, e.g. in the matter of the hotly debated Septennat 1887 (7-year military budget). Many Liberals, especially Falk, objected to the concessions Bismarck made to the Church. The growth of the Centre Party has been considered

10148-526: The pope a "prisoner" in the Vatican . The Church strove to regain its influence and to hold sway in such matters as marriage, family, and education. It initiated a Catholic revival by founding associations, papers, schools, social establishments and new orders, and encouraging religious practices such as pilgrimages , mass assemblies, devotion to the Virgin Mary or the Sacred Heart of Jesus , and

10266-433: The popes worked to increase their control of the Church. The Church centralized some functions and streamlined its hierarchy, which prompted strong criticism by European governments. The bishops sought direction from the Vatican, and the needs and views of the international church were given priority over the local ones. Opponents of the new hierarchical church organization pejoratively called it ultramontanism . In view of

10384-527: The press . These generated controversy in some quarters. Under the leadership of Gregory's successor, Pope Pius IX , the church proclaimed Mary's Immaculate Conception in 1854. In 1864, Pius published the encyclical Quanta cura with its appended Syllabus Errorum (" Syllabus of Errors "), and in 1870 convened the First Vatican Council . The Council, in turn, proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility . In Syllabus Errorum ,

10502-534: The protection and intercession of the sanctified dead. Relics of local saints drew visitors to sites like Saint Frideswide's in Oxford , and San Nicola Peregrino in Trani . Instead of having to travel to be near to a venerated saint , relics of the saint could be venerated locally. Believers would make pilgrimages to places believed to have been sanctified by the physical presence of Christ or prominent saints, such as

10620-442: The relics of Theseus, the bones are sometimes described in literary sources as gigantic, an indication of the hero's "larger than life" status. On the basis of their reported size, it has been conjectured that such bones were those of prehistoric creatures , the startling discovery of which may have prompted the sanctifying of the site. The head of the poet-prophet Orpheus was supposed to have been transported to Lesbos , where it

10738-548: The relics of saints prominently. In a number of monasteries , particularly those on the semi-autonomous Mount Athos in Greece, all of the relics the monastery possesses are displayed and venerated each evening at Compline . As with the veneration of icons , the veneration ( Greek ; δουλια, dulia ) of relics in the Orthodox Church is clearly distinguished from adoration (λατρεια, latria ); i.e., that worship which

10856-400: The relics on a diskos (paten) in a church near the church that is to be consecrated, they will then be taken in a cross procession to the new church, carried three times around the new structure and then placed in the Holy Table (altar) as part of the consecration service. The relics of saints (traditionally, always those of a martyr) are also sewn into the antimension which is given to

10974-479: The remains of a venerated hero as a part of a hero cult . Other venerable objects associated with the hero were more likely to be on display in sanctuaries, such as spears, shields, or other weaponry; chariots , ships or figureheads ; furniture such as chairs or tripods ; and clothing. The sanctuary of the Leucippides at Sparta claimed to display the egg of Leda . The bones were not regarded as holding

11092-518: The saints reflects a belief that the saints in heaven intercede for those on earth. A number of cures and miracles have been attributed to relics, not because of their own power, but because of the holiness of the saint they represent. Many tales of miracles and other marvels were attributed to relics beginning in the early centuries of the church. These became popular during the Middle Ages . They were collected in books of hagiography such as

11210-467: The same religion. Education was also separate and usually in the hands of the churches. There was little mutual tolerance, interaction or intermarriage. Protestants in general were deeply distrustful of the Catholic Church. Unification had been achieved through many obstacles with strong opponents. These were the European powers of France and Austria, both Catholic nations, and the Catholic Church itself,

11328-424: The separation of church and state became a prominent issue. The Kulturkampf in Prussia is usually bracketed by the years 1871 and 1878 with the Catholic Church officially announcing its end in 1880 but the struggle in Germany had been an ongoing matter without definite beginning and the years 1871 to 1878 only mark its culmination in Prussia. In the wake of other European countries, most German states had taken

11446-620: The shrine when he had contracted a serious illness. Later, as bishop of Tours, Gregory wrote extensively about miracles attributed to the intercession of St Martin. Nestorian Christianity utilized the hanānā –a mixture made with the dust of Thomas the Apostle 's tomb–for healing. Within the Assyrian Church of the East , it is consumed by a couple getting married in the Mystery of Crowning . The Second Council of Nicaea in 787 drew on

11564-516: The sick, to seek intercession for relief from famine or plague, to take solemn oaths, and to pressure warring factions to make peace in the presence of the sacred. Courts held relics since Merovingian times. St Angilbert acquired for Charlemagne one of the most impressive collections in Christendom. An active market developed and relics entered into commerce along the same trade routes followed by other portable commodities. Matthew Brown likens

11682-618: The site of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem . As holy relics attracted pilgrims and these religious tourists needed to be housed, fed, and provided with souvenirs, relics became a source of income not only for the destinations that held them, but for the abbeys, churches, and towns en route. Relics were prized as they were portable. They could be possessed, inventoried, bequeathed, stolen, counterfeited, and smuggled. They could add value to an established site or confer significance on

11800-530: The spread of monastic life among the Polish and French minorities. The Church, in turn, saw the National-Liberals as its worst enemy, accusing them of spearheading the war against Christianity and the Catholic Church. At unification in 1871, the new German Empire included 25.5 million Protestants (62% of the population) and 15 million Catholics (36.5% of the population). Although a minority in

11918-418: The state of affairs with relics in Catholic churches. Calvin says that the saints have two or three or more bodies with arms and legs, and even a few extra limbs and heads. Due to the existence of counterfeit relics, the Church began to regulate the use of relics. Canon Law required the authentication of relics if they were to be publicly venerated . They had to be sealed in a reliquary and accompanied by

12036-564: The state. The abolition of the Catholic section of the Prussian ministry of ecclesiastical and educational affairs deprived Catholics of their voice at the highest level. The system of strict government supervision of schools was applied only in Catholic areas; the Protestant schools were left alone. The school politics also alienated Protestant conservatives and churchmen. The British ambassador Odo Russell reported to London in October 1872 how Bismarck's plans were backfiring by strengthening

12154-408: The success of his laws and was unhappy with his lack of political tact and sensitivity. The differences in their attitudes concerning the Kulturkampf eventually put the two politicians at odds with each other. With this background and the determination of church and state, the Kulturkampf in Germany acquired an additional edge as it gathered in intensity and bitterness. From 1871 to 1876,

12272-460: The teaching of St. John Damascene that homage or respect is not really paid to an inanimate object, but to the holy person, the veneration of a holy person is itself honour paid to God. The Council decreed that every altar should contain a relic, making it clear that this was already the norm, as it remains to the present day in Catholic and Orthodox churches. The veneration of the relics of

12390-418: The three of which Bismarck perceived as "Coalition of Catholic Revenge". For Bismarck, the empire was very fragile and its consolidation was an important issue. Biographer Otto Pflanze notes that "all of these developments, real and imagined, reinforced Bismarck's belief in the existence of a widespread Catholic conspiracy that posed a threat to both his German and European policies." In a Protestant empire,

12508-426: The time and the antagonism between Liberals and Protestants on one side and the Catholic Church on the other was fought out through mud-slinging in the press. A wave of anti-Catholic, anticlerical and anti-monastic pamphleteering in the liberal press was answered by anti-liberal preaching and propaganda in Catholic newspapers and vice versa. For these reasons, the government sought to wean the Catholic masses away from

12626-679: The town of Libretha, whence the people of Dion had transferred the relics to their own keeping. According to the Chronicon Paschale , the bones of the Persian Zoroaster were venerated, but the tradition of Zoroastrianism and its scriptures offer no support of this. In Buddhism , relics of the Buddha and various sages are venerated. After the Buddha's death, his remains were divided into eight portions. Afterward, these relics were enshrined in stupas wherever Buddhism

12744-413: The ultramontane (pro-papal) position inside German Catholicism: Nearly all German bishops, clergy and laymen rejected the legality of the new laws and were defiantly facing the increasingly heavy penalties, trials and imprisonments. As of 1878, only three of eight Prussian dioceses still had bishops, some 1,125 of 4,600 parishes were vacant, and nearly 1,800 priests ended up in jail or in exile, nearly half

12862-422: The uncertain memorials of saints should not be venerated." The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) of the Catholic Church condemned abuses such as counterfeit relics and exaggerated claims. Pieces of the True Cross were one of the most highly sought-after of such relics; many churches claimed to possess a piece of it, so many that John Calvin famously remarked that there were enough pieces of the True Cross to build

12980-515: The upheavals of the barbarian invasions relaxed the rules, as remains needed to be relocated to safer places. The veneration of relics continues to be of importance in the Eastern Orthodox Church . As a natural outgrowth of the concept in Orthodox theology of theosis , the physical bodies of the saints are considered to be transformed by divine grace —indeed, all Orthodox Christians are considered to be sanctified by living

13098-453: The veneration of relics ; the pope himself became an object of devotion. Apart from the growth in religious orders, the 19th century was a time when numerous Catholic associations and organisations were founded, especially in Germany and in France (In the United States, there was a comparable rise in fraternal organizations in the late nineteenth century.). Catholic propaganda , including

13216-437: Was "to re-establish the rights of the state in relation to the church". Yet, unlike Bismarck, whose main motivation for the Kulturkampf was the political power struggle with the Centre Party, Falk, a lawyer, was a strong proponent of state authority having in mind the legal aspects of state-church relationships. Falk became the driving force behind the Kulturkampf laws. Although Bismarck publicly supported Falk, he doubted

13334-525: Was also supposed to protect Athens from enemy attack, and in Thebes , that of the prophet Amphiaraus , whose cult was oracular and healing. Plutarch narrates transferrals similar to that of Theseus for the bodies of the historical Demetrius I of Macedon and Phocion the Good . The bones or ashes of Aesculapius at Epidaurus , and of Perdiccas I at Macedon, were treated with the deepest veneration. As with

13452-504: Was celebrated funerary and memorial services. It may have been thought that when the souls of the martyrs went to heaven on resurrection day they would be accompanied by those interred nearby, who would thus gain favour with God. Some early Christians attributed healing powers to the dust from graves of saints, including Gregory of Tours . The cult of Martin of Tours was very popular in Merovingian Gaul , and centered at

13570-407: Was enshrined and visited as an oracle . The 2nd-century geographer Pausanias reported that the bones of Orpheus were kept in a stone vase displayed on a pillar near Dion , his place of death and a major religious center. These too were regarded as having oracular power, which might be accessed through dreaming in a ritual of incubation . The accidental exposure of the bones brought a disaster upon

13688-415: Was keen." Local clergy promoted their own patron saints in an effort to secure their own market share. On occasion guards had to watch over mortally ill holy men and women to prevent the unauthorized dismemberment of their corpses as soon as they died. Geary also suggests that the danger of someone murdering an aging holy man in order to acquire his relics was a legitimate concern. Relics were used to cure

13806-476: Was spread. Some relics believed to be original remains of the body of the Buddha still survive, including the relic of the tooth of the Buddha in Sri Lanka. A stupa is a building created specifically for the relics. Many Buddhist temples have stupas and historically, the placement of relics in a stupa often became the initial structure around which the whole temple would be based. Today, many stupas also hold

13924-488: Was very volatile. Initially perceived as a possible enemy hostile to German unification under Prussian leadership, Austria and Germany very quickly became friends and formed the Dual Alliance in 1879. The possibility of a war with France or Russia also became more remote. Therefore, social and economic problems moved to the fore and Bismarck's attention gradually turned to other topics he deemed more threatening such as

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