Ems, Punctuation of

EMS, Punctuation of. - This is the name given to the declaration made by the Rhenish episcopate on the occasion of the erection of the apostolic nunciature of Munich.

In this city, in fact, at the request of the Prince Elector of Bavaria, Pius VI erected an apostolic nunciature in 1785, subjecting to its jurisdiction certain territories until then subject to the nunciature of Cologne. Against this measure the Rhenish bishops rose up, supported by Emperor Joseph II, who was backing his brother Maximilian Francis, at that time Archbishop of Cologne. The bishops of Cologne, Trier, Mainz and Salzburg, assembled at Aschaffenburg, decided to send representatives to Ems: indeed there convened there (Aug. 1786) Heinrich von Tautphäus for Maximilian of Habsburg, Joseph Louis Beck for Clement Wenceslaus Archbishop of Trier, John Michael Bönicke for the Prince of Colloredo, Archbishop of Salzburg, and the better known Justin Hontein, called Febronius, for Frederick Charles von Erthal Archbishop of Mainz.

After a brief series of meetings, the delegates of the four archbishops signed a declaration in twenty-three articles, known precisely by the name of "Punctuation of Ems," in which the claims of the Rhenish episcopate were set out: the right to subject pontifical documents to prior approval before promulgating them in the respective dioceses, the abolition of the apostolic nunciature in Germany, the prohibition on the regular clergy from electing superiors who were not of German nationality, the prohibition on the clergy loyal to them from appealing directly to Rome, the faculty to confer ecclesiastical benefices of every rank, etc. The Punctuation of Ems, signed on 25 Aug., was ratified by the archbishops, which provoked — as was natural — the protests of the Apostolic See, first in the form of a circular from the servant Pacca, the future cardinal, and then of a brief of the pope: Responzio super Nuntiaturis Apostolicis (14 Nov. 1790). The question had long repercussions and was also brought before the Imperial Diet of Regensburg of 1788, throwing the whole German episcopate into an uproar: the majority of the bishops, especially those of the Austrian dioceses, ranged themselves resolutely on the side of the Roman Church, measuring the danger of a schism; the Archbishop of Mainz ended by retracting, while the other Brontani persisted obstinately in their rebellion until the French occupation of the Rhineland and the secularization of the ecclesiastical electorates put an end to the whole affair.

Renzo U. Montini