CZERSKI, JOHANN. - Apostate Catholic priest, b. at Warlubien (West Prussia) on 12 May 1813, d. at Schneidemühl on 22 Dec. 1893. He studied at Posnan, where he was ordained a priest in 1842 and was cathedral chaplain for a year and a half. In 1844 he went as a curate to Schneidemühl. Already suspended twice for concubinage, on 22 Aug. 1844 he made public his apostasy from the "Roman court church," and, followed by a small band of adherents, he founded in Schneidemühl on 19 Oct. 1844 the "Christliche-apostolische-katholische Gemeinde."
The doctrine of the new sect was set out in 9 articles in the letter addressed to the government to obtain its public recognition: rejected as human institutions are Communion under one kind, the canonization of saints and blessings, the priestly power of remit-
Cuzco, archdiocese of - Player of the ancient hunting horn of the Incas.
ting sins, indulgences, the precept of fasting and abstinence, the use of the Latin language in the liturgy, the primacy of the Roman Pontiff. Accepted instead are the profession of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, the doctrine of the seven Sacraments and of the Mass, transubstantiation through faith, and prayer for the dead. The new community held its meetings and its services in a private house under the direction of C., who in the meantime had announced his marriage and published two heretical writings (Rechtfertigung meines Abfalls von der römischen Hofkirche, Bromberg 1845; and Offenes Glaubensbekenntnis der Christl.-apost.-kath. Gemeinde, Stuttgart 1844). Therefore on 17 Feb. 1845 the capitular vicar of the archdiocese of Posnan, Gajerowicz, proceeded to his degradation and excommunication. On 21 Feb. C. was solemnly married before the Protestant pastor of Schneidemühl. Following the example of the sect, various other dissident groups were then springing up in Silesia, which increasingly regarded the Breslau man G. Ronge as their leader. Although C.'s religious orientation was of a much more positive and believing character than the rationalist-liberal one of Ronge, the two movements merged in 1845 into the sect of the German Catholics. For some time the contrast between the two orientations remained alive even within the sect, but C.'s influence steadily declined. He, moreover, drew ever closer to Ronge's rationalism. In 1863 he joined with him again in founding the Religiöser Reformverein, an ephemeral institution by then completely marked by free thought and by opposition to every positive Christianity. At the time of his death C. had long since been forgotten.
CZĘSTOCHOWA, diocese of - Sanctuary. The church was consecrated in 1644.
Bibliography2 works
Igino Rogger