to be Primate, only the chief executive officer of the great council of the church; and, what is most important, not entitled to interfere in the dioceses of other bishops. But this deposition of the Popes was not confined to words, for the House of Austria, in good earnest, took away all the privileges of the See of Rome within its dominions, as for example, the annats, the alternative of months, &c.—the establishment of any new feasts or exercises of piety-the jurisdiction of the Nuncios in Austria-the power of exempting convents from episcopal jurisdiction-of collating to benefices of granting dispensations as to marriages-and of commuting pious foundations. All concessions respecting indulgences must now be submitted to the Placet Royal. The emperor appoints all the bishops, except the Archbishop of Olmutz, who is elected, and nominates to several canonries. No excommunication can be pronounced without leave of the civil power, nor any public penance enjoined without permission from the provincial government.

The severe lesson given by Austria on matters of jurisdiction has not been lost. The ecclesiastical law of that country says, that the House of Austria does not condescend to solicit from the Pope rights which never belonged to him; and the Pope, in fear of the same uncivil remark from other quarters, has made haste to resign them. Thus, the convention between Pius VII. and the late king of Bavaria, for the arrangement of ecclesiastical matters, after a new arrangement of the dioceses, + chapters, revenues of the bishops, seminaries, &c., states in the 9th article, that his Holiness gives up for ever to the king the right of naming to the vacant archbishoprics and bishoprics, and settles that there shall be a new valuation of the annats, &c. The pope is to name to one dignity (the Præpositura,) in each cathedral; the king to the deaneries; to the king the pope resigns also

• His power is defined; he is to be the organ of communication between different parts of the church-to convene and preside at councils (whose decrees, however, do not borrow their authority from his sanction)—to represent the church out of any council, but his decrees may be revoked by the college of bishops-to correct faults of bishops -in indispensable cases to pass provisional decrees about points of doctrine-and to make similar decrees to judge bishops and general laws of discipline, subject to be annulled by the general council, and refused by each bishop in particular.

That is, the right which the Pope claimed of presenting to such benefices as became vacant every alternate month.

The dioceses of Bavaria, settled by the convention, are Munich, (an archbishopric, with 20,000 florins,) Bamberg, (also an archbishopric, with 15,000 florins,) Augsburg, Ratisbon, and Herbstadt, (bishoprics, with 10,000 florins each,) Passau, Eichstadt, and Spires, (bishoprics, with 8000 florins each.) The dean at Munich bas 4000, at Bamberg, 3500, in the first set of bishoprics, 3000, and in the second 2500 florins a year, and the dignitaries called præpositi, who rank between the bishop and dean, have the same as the dean. The canons' incomes vary from 1400 to 2000 florins. These salaries are paid by government.

the nominations in the alternate months; the archbishops and bishops are to give all the benefices in their patronage to persons agreeable to the king; and they are to take an oath of strict fidelity to him, containing a promise that they will hold no communication, and be present at no counsel, &c., which can hurt the public peace. By thus yielding to the storm, the church in Bavaria has retained some privileges which it has lost in Austria. The Bavarian bishops have the right of instituting public prayers, and other pious works, (this, of course, means pilgrimages and festivals,) of holding free communication with Rome on spiritual and ecclesiastical affairs, of punishing clergy according to the decrees of the Council of Trent; and inflicting censures on any trangressors of the ecclesiastical laws and sacred canons. In the Prussian territories a change in the episcopal seats has taken place, but, strange to say, it seems to us that the pope, although he has lost much, has retained more there than in countries where the sovereigns are Catholics, and certainly more than he has in Hanover, as will presently appear. The bull of July 24, 1821, provides, that the chapters shall have the right of administering their own affairs-that the pope shall always nomi

N. B.-Some of these bishoprics have jurisdiction over other parishes out of the Prussian dominions.

nate to the dignity called Præpositura, and to the stalls vacant in the alternate months, in all the cathedrals-the bishops having the right of patronage in the other months. The chapters of Cologne, Treves, Breslau, Paderborn, and Munster elect each their bishop by virtue of this bull, which seems to have been previously the case in the other chapters. In all cases the election is to be confirmed by the Holy See, and the civil power, as far as we perceive, has no veto whatever. There is to be an episcopal seminary attached to every episcopal seat; and coadjutor-bishops are to be allowed. The revenues of the bishops are to come from taxes on the woods and forests after the present mortgages are paid off on them, which by law is to be the case in 1833. Now in a convention between the pope and the king of the Netherlands, signed June 18, of this year, the pope gives a veto on the election of the bishops to the king. The list of candidates is to be presented by the chapters who elect, and the king is to strike out any not acceptable to him.* The pope then confirms if he approves the person, and the election is regular. There is to be a chapter and seminary to each cathedral. The bishops take the same oath as in Bavaria; and the king undertakes in this convention to provide them with sufficient revenues.†

So again, in a bull for Hanover, (of March 24, 1824,) the pope says expressly that the rigour of the sacred canons must be much abated, and much consideration bestowed on times and circumstances. The chapters of the bishoprics are to present a

The papers have since stated that there is a secret treaty in which it is settled that the chapters shall always elect the person recommended by the king. See the Courier of Thursday, Oct. 18, 1817.

The Sees are, Malines, (archbishopric,) Liege, Namur, Tournay, Ghent, Bruges, Amsterdam, and Bois le Duc. The parishes belonging to each are not yet arranged. We wish very much to know more of this convention. There was certainly an archiepiscopal see at Utrecht, but the archbishop of Utrecht and the suffragans showed a disposition to break off their connection with Rome. The reader may find something on this subject in Ricci's Life, tom. ii. p. 305, and 346; and it is mentioned in the work before us. We are unable at this moment to gain any information on the actual existence of a Roman Catholic bishopric at Utrecht, or its suppression.

In the case of Osnaburg, the arrangement is only prospective, as the government

list of candidates to the king, who, as in the Netherlands, is to strike out any not acceptable to him; then the chapter elects, and the pope confirms, if he approves the choice and the election has been regular; if not, the pope allows a second choice. The bishops must be 33; the dignitaries 30; and both here, and in the other cases we have noticed, it is most creditable to the Catholic church, that there is an express regulation, that no one shall have a stall unless remarkable for his learning, for his zeal as a parish priest, or in assisting the bishop in the affairs of the diocese.*

We would also beg to turn our readers' attention to the proceedings in Saxe Weimar, where the duke has published a law relating to the state of the Roman Catholic religion in his dominions. For this purpose we would refer them to a book by Alexander Müller, called, "Beiträge zum künftigen DeutschKatholischen Kirchenrechte."

In Spain, again, as appears from Bourgoing,† the jurisdiction of the pope has suffered very considerably for the last 70 years. By two concordats, one signed in 1753, the other in 1771, it has been arranged that the king shall present to all consistorial benefices, and that the pope shall have a certain limited number of benefices at his disposal. He gives up his old rights of making the persons presented pay a large sum, of disposing of the property of deceased prelates, and the revenues of vacant benefices. The privileges of Nuncios were diminished; strong measures taken as to the reception of papal bulls obnoxious to the government; and arrangements made for compelling the prelates to take an oath of fidelity to the king.

Even at Naples the king claimed the right of nominating to the bishoprics in his dominions; and a kind of compromise was made by a concordat, (in the year 1791, if we are not mistaken,) which gave the pope the right of presenting three candidates for the king's choice. There were other points in dispute; as, for example, the homage of the haquenée due from the king of Naples to the Court of Rome, which was refused; and a correspondent of Ricci's mentions that he heard the pope protest against this. It was reported in 1824 and 1825, that the dispute as to this homage was renewed on the election of Leo XII.

cannot yet afford to endow the see. A bishop, in partibus, is at present to govern the diocese of Osnaburg, and after his death the Bishop of Hildesheim, who, with the dean, have an increase of revenue till the see is fully constituted.

These concordats, &c. will be found in an Appendix to Wies's Jus Ecclesiasticum, Göttingen, 1826.

+ See Bourgoing, vol. i. p. 333, and following, (ed. 1808.)

Life of Ricci, vol. ii. p. 308.

This brief history of some remarkable abridgements of papal jurisdiction will not, we trust, be unacceptable to our readers; and at some future opportunity we may, perhaps, recur to a subject full of interest to the politician, the historian, and the divine. We shall indeed, perhaps, feel ourselves under the necessity of doing so, as we have learned, since this article went to press, that several answers to the book we have been reviewing are announced. If we find that they contain any refutation of the statements we have given on its authority, a sense of what is due to the Roman Catholic party will induce us to lay that refutation before our readers.

ART. XII.-Ahasver. Trauerspiel, in fünf Aufzügen, von August Klingemann. Braunschweig, bey G. C. E. Meyer, 1827, 8vo. (Ahasuerus. A Tragedy, in five Acts, by Augustus Klingemann. Brunswick. 1827.)

On the laws of theatrical composition, much has been already written, especially with reference to disputes between French critics, and the more modern authors of all countries, (France for the last ten years not excepted,) where people began to grow tired of mere servile imitation;-and yet, up to the present day, we know not that the question has been on either side very fairly stated. The Unities, indeed, have been discussed; but there are other and more important points of difference; and this reminds us of the controversy that has often been renewed on the merits of Pope as a poet, for though he was no dramatic author, the subject is yet closely analogous to that of which we now treat. From such controversy, however, but little information can be derived; for if either party possessed clear views and principles, these, as if for the argument's sake, seem to have been suppressed. The truth is that the French dramatists, though fettered by national prejudices and pedantic rules, had yet achieved much that was highly commendable. They " had their day," and were deservedly looked up to as praiseworthy models. The error lay with their narrow-minded followers and partizans, who maintained that, as these authors had already attained the ne plus ultra of dramatic excellence, any attempt to produce effects more powerful and striking than had been already accomplished, must of necessity turn out vain and abortive. In order to combat this inept conclusion, the desideratum was to find writers powerful enough to meet the French worthies on their own ground,—to equal all that had been already achieved, and at the same time, looking on the past only as a commencement or foundation, to prove their command of a far wider intellectual range, and of a