The remaining incidents of Bismarck's remarkable career may be
briefly given. It consisted largely in a struggle with the
Catholic Church organization, which had attained to great power
in Germany, and was aggressive to an extent that roused the
vigorous opposition of the chancellor of the empire, who was not
willing to acknowledge any power in Germany other than that of
the emperor.
King Frederick William IV, the predecessor of the reigning
monarch, had made active efforts to strengthen the Catholic
Church in Prussia, its clergy gaining greater privileges in that
Protestant state than they possessed in any of the Catholic
states. They had established everywhere in North Germany their
congregations and monasteries, and by their control of public
education seemed in a fair way eventually to make Catholicism
supreme in the empire.
THE PROBLEM OF CHURCH POWER
This state of affairs Bismark set himself energetically to
reform. The minister of religious affairs was forced to resign,
and his place was taken by Falk, an energetic statesman, who
introduced a new school law, bringing the whole educational
system under state control, and carefully regulating the power of
the clergy over religious and moral education. This law met with
such violent opposition that all the personal influence of
Bismarck and Falk was needed to carry it, and it gave such deep
offense to the pope that he refused to receive the German
ambassador.
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