The Vienna correspondent of the Times continues to regard the
possibility of a large German secession from the Roman Church as perfectly serious. Six persons, he says, at Linz, in Upper Austria, publicly quitted Catholicism on Thursday, avowing as they did so that their change of faith was made on national grounds. The organ of the Pan-Germanic group thinks it worth while to explain to its readers that there is no legal obstacle to such a change, and declares that a number of intending converts are only waiting the signal of the party leaders. They have been irritated almost beyond bearing by the alliance between Rome and the Slays, and as they have been greatly affected—like their kinsmen in Germany itself—by modern scepticism, the change will put no great strain upon their consciences. Thousands of Englishmen in Elizabeth's reign must have quitted Catho- licism mainly from political motives.
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