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1 History of the Case and Counter Statement of Defendants in Error 1852

handle is hein.trials/adis0001 and id is 1 raw text is: History of the Case and Counter Statement of Defendants in Error. The Church of the Holy Trinity of the German Religious Society of Roman Catholics, in the city of Philadelphia, has ever since its foundation, (in the year 1788) maintained the position of a free church, which, similar to many Catholic churches in Germany and France, has acknowledged the ec- clesiastical authority in spiritual matters, whilst its members have ever scrupulously guarded against the assumption of ec- clesiastical rule in temporal affairs. The place of worship of this congregation was erected long before a separate diocese had been formed, and a Bishop appointed for the district in which it is situated. It was the avowed object of the founders of this church, and the provisions of its charter so express it, that all the property of this corporation should for ever be and remain under the exclusive control and management of the laity. All the difficulties amongst the members of this con- gregation from their incipiency, in the year 1849, up to the time of the election of eight lay trustees, on the 9th day of June, 1851, (and ever since) which became the subject of the present controversy, were owing to a combination formed by some ecclesiastics, together with certain lay-members of this congregation, among which the Plaintiffs in error were the most prominent and zealous actors, to divert the purposes of the charter, and to wrest the management of the church property from the legitimate control of the laity, with a view of placing it into the exclusive custody of the clergy. In 1849, Mr. Over- holtzer, a Jesuit Priest from Switzerland, became the eldest Pastor of the congregation, and by the provisions of the chai ter the President of the Board of Trustees. He and his succes. sors, Villiger, Eck and Polk, all avowedly belonging to the order of Jesuits, used their position and influence to devise means for the alienation of the church property, and made the plain- tiffs in error, as well as some other adherents of their cause, the tools for the attainment of their ends. Various schemes thus devised had signally failed.' Thus a proposition emanat. F. C. B. -1

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