German Catholics

a_ religious sect which sprang up in Germany about the close of 1844, which rapidly increased during the four or five following years and then as rapidly declined. The immediate cause of the formation of this sect was the_exhibition by Arnold i, Bishop of Teves, of the holy coat preserved in the cathedral of that city and said to be the coat of Christ. The Pal accompanied the exhibition of the holy coat by a _ promise of plenary indulgence to whoever should make a pilgrimage to Treves to worship it. The announcement of this proceeding on the part of the Bishop of Treyes produced a feeling of general astonishment in Germany and drew from a Silesian priest called J. Ronge, who had already been suspended from his charge on account of his independent views, a letter protesting against the exhibition of the holy coat and denouncing the pa jected pilgrimage as idolatry. is letter was published in the “ Sachsische Vaterlandsblatter’? on Oct. 16, 1844, and produced an amount of excitement that was quite unanticipated by the writer.