About three weeks after the despatch of my Defence, and the testimonials
from the magistrates, I received a negative reply from the right
reverend Board.* In this reply no farther weight is given to the
testimony of the magistrates of Grottkau, and the declaration of the
inhabitants, than that they silenced the false accusations of Kaspar
Hoffmann; and the representatives of Christian love and justice in
the diocese of Breslau do not condescend to offer satisfaction for the
annoyances to which I and mine had thereby been subjected. Although they
might not consider themselves called upon to pay me a just debt, yet
surely the united voice of an entire town was worthy of some little
deference. But here we touch upon the second curse by which the
hierarchy overlays the people. Even as the thraldom of the inferior
clergy, in regard to their superiors, annihilates their manliness of
character and self-respect, so the thraldom of the congregation in their
relation to the clergy, keeps the great mass of the Catholic people
in darkness and insensibility. That neither the congregations nor the
inferior clergy have always been in this state of thraldom, is well
known. It has been induced by their torpidity and ignorance. But had
they never before enjoyed a state of greater freedom, the present times
imperiously demand it.
* "In reply to your remonstrances of the 5th and 10th of the
month, you are hereby informed, that as you do not
distinctly deny the authorship of the the article 'Rome and
the Chapter of Breslau,' our judgment of the 30th of January
remains unaltered.--Latussek, v. Ploto, Elsler, Freis,
Canons.
"Breslau, February 18th, 1843."
With my convictions, to have remained one moment longer in my office,
after receiving the answer of the right reverend Board, would have
dishonoured me. How could I have met my fellow-citizens, and spoken
to them of the unfettered moral dignity of man, while I myself had
sacrificed religious conviction in a pitiful and cowardly manner, for a
bit of bread, secured to me by my condition as a Romish priest? This
was my fixed determination:--rather the grave than dishonouring
punishment--rather starvation than self-degradation, and injury of the
rights of my fellow-citizens and colleagues! In order, however, that
I might leave no method untried of obtaining justice, I wrote to the
Council, stating that 1 should appeal to the still unappointed bishop.