The Italian government.  The Italian troops met with but little resistance.  They occupied Rome on September 20, 1870.  A manifesto was issued, setting forth the details of a plebiscitum, the vote to be by ballot, the question, “the unification of Italy.”  Its result showed how completely the popular mind in Italy is emancipated from theology.  In the Roman provinces the number of votes on the lists was 167,548; the number who voted, 135,291; the number who voted for annexation, 133,681; the number who voted against it, 1,507; votes annulled, 103.  The Parliament of Italy ratified the vote of the Roman people for annexation by a vote of 239 to 20.  A royal decree now announced the annexation of the Papal States to the kingdom of Italy, and a manifesto was issued indicating the details of the arrangement.  It declared that “by these concessions the Italian Government seeks to prove to Europe that Italy respects the sovereignty of the pope in conformity with the principle of a free Church in a free state.”

Affairs in Prussia.  In the Prusso-Austrian War it had been the hope of the papacy, to restore the German Empire under Austria, and make Germany a Catholic nation.  In the Franco- German War the French expected ultramontane sympathies in Germany.  No means were spared to excite Catholic sentiment against the Protestants.  No vilification was spared.  They were spoken of as atheists; they were declared incapable of being honest men; their sects were pointed out as indicating that their secession was in a state of dissolution.  “The followers of Luther are the most abandoned men in all Europe.”  Even the pope himself, presuming that the whole world had forgotten all history, did not hesitate to say, “Let the German people understand that no other Church but that of Rome is the Church of freedom and progress.”

Meantime, among the clergy of Germany a party was organized to remonstrate against, and even resist, the papal usurpation.  It protested against “a man being placed on the throne of God,” against a vice-God of any kind, nor would it yield its scientific convictions to ecclesiastical authority.  Some did not hesitate to accuse the pope himself of being a heretic.  Against these insubordinates excommunications began to be fulminated, and at length it was demanded that certain professors and teachers should be removed from their offices, and infallibilists substituted.  With this demand the Prussian Government declined to comply.

The Prussian Government had earnestly desired to remain on amicable terms with the papacy; it had no wish to enter on a theological quarrel; but gradually the conviction was forced upon it that the question was not a religious but a political one—­whether the power of the state should be used against the state.  A teacher in a gymnasium had been excommunicated; the government, on being required to dismiss him, refused.  The Church authorities denounced this