2-798-768 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Second Reformation in Germany - Johannes Ronge, 1845. Portrait of Prussian priest Johannes Ronge, principal founder of the New Catholics. 'Johannes Ronge is the author and head of a schism which has occurred in the Roman Catholic Church in Germany. It originated in the feeling of disapprobation with which many well-educated Catholics regarded the singular spectacle of the exhibition, at the Cathedral of Treves, of a garment, said to be the Tunic of Our Saviour, or the Holy Coat, "without seam," for which the soldiers at the Crucifixion cast lots, it not being divided like the rest of his raiment. It is stated that a million and a half of people went in pilgrimage to see it'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII.