Religious In modern States there is a decided tendency to make the exercise of political rights entirely independent of religious creed. This is by no means entirely due to religious indifference. When the American Congress of 1789 forbade the passing of any law establishing a dominant religion, it did not mean that it was indifferent to the power of Christianity, nor did it intend to hinder the State in its duty of supporting Christian institutions 12. : The modern principle really has its root in the idea that religious belief is entirely a matter of conscience, and beyond the sphere of compulsion, and that therefore no political disadvantages ought to be attached to deviation from the Christian faith. The Americans made a sharp distinction between Church and State, and were inclined to leave both free and in this spirit they never refused political rights on religious grounds to those who were otherwise capable. But, on the other hand, the adoption of these principles in the French Revolution, as the frequent religious persecutions of the time show, was certainly not due to regard for freedom of conscience, but rather to the negative spirit of the age, which began in frivolity and ended in savage hatred of Christianity 13. In Germany the modern principle found definite expression in 1848, and is now recognised. The Austrian fundamental laws of 1849 (§ 1) and of Dec. 21, 1867, on the general rights of citizens, as well as the Prussian constitution of 1850, agree with the draft of the imperial constitution framed at Frankfort and Berlin in making the enjoyment of civil and political rights independent of religious creed.' They prudently add that religious creed is no ground of excuse from public duties. 6 A law of the North-German Confederation (now of the German Empire), dated July 3, 1869, enacts: All existing limitations of civil and political rights grounded on difference of creed are hereby abolished. In particular, participation in 12 Cf. Story, Comment. on the Constitution of U. S. A., book iii. ch. 44. 13 The new principle appears in the first article of the declaration of the rights of man in 1789: Les hommes naissent et demeurent libres et égaux en droits. Les distinctions sociales ne peuvent être fondeés que sur l'utilité commune.' None of the later constitutions has made citizenship depend on creed. communal and national representation, and tenure of public offices, shall be independent of religious creed.' This has entirely altered the position of the Jews in these countries. In Germany, where they were before almost entirely excluded from political rights, they can no longer be refused them on religious grounds. fully But the principle has not yet been universally accepted. not yet The Papacy has persistently condemned it. But it is not only realised. rejected, in whole or in part, by Catholic States, where the influence of the clergy is dominant: Norway 14 and Sweden still refuse to accept it. In Switzerland political rights were dependent on Christian confession till the constitutional law of 1866. Even in England, though the disabilities of dissenters, Catholics, and Jews have been removed earlier in the century, the modern principle is not yet completely accepted. On the whole the modern State, true to the idea of its human and national basis, tends distinctly toward uniting the followers of different creeds by its common institutions, and gradually abolishing the medieval association of public rights with definite religious conditions or ecclesiastical rules. 14 In Norway non-Lutherans are now only excluded from the higher offices of the State. Law of July 21, 1851, on the admission of Jews; Law of June 15, 1878, with regard to alteration of Art. 92 of the constitution; and law of June 14, 1880. |