The Sun. — 1845-09-30 (London, England)

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1845.  The religious movement which is now exciting such deep interest in Germany cannot fail, when understood, to produce a great effect in this country. The contest between Catholicism and Protestantism has been carried on here for more than three hundred years ; it has produced great political revolutions ; cost one Sovereign his head, and ultimately destroyed his dynasty ; it has kept up a never, ceasing war between Great Britain and Ireland, led to the enactment of pains and penalties against a particular race for their principles of belief, and caused seenes of bloodshed and domestic murders, which cast a great stain on Christianity. Even at the present day, in the nineteenth century, these wounds are not healed—religion is still the great source of all the national prfjudices and antipathies which are mutually entertained by the two countries, and anything like a peaceable settlement of this question seems as distant as ever. It is needless to say to which side we incline. The Reformation has been of incalculable benefit to these realms ; in fact, neither prosperity, nor independence, nor the greatest blessing which can fall to the lot of humanity—liberty—was known till that divine light which first appeared in Saxony spread its benign influences on England and Scotland. What has taken place since every child acquainted with British history can tell. The exercise of private judgment broke the chains of ecclesiastical tyranny, the mind became free, and exerted itself in all those great undertakings which have ever distinguished a free people. Colonies were formed, good laws were established in them, as well as in the mother country, and from the time that the power of Rome and the STUART dynasty were expelled from  our shores, this country has taken the lead in progressive movement among all the nations of the earth. We have some reason, therefore, to bless the Reformation, and we have no less reason to rejoice that the spirit which led to it has again manifested itself in that part of Germany to which England is under so many obligations. JOHN RONGE, the new apostle of ecclesiastical reform, is a native of Silesia, which borders on Saxony, the cradle of the Refurmation. He was educated in the Catholic Church, and performed for some years the duties of curate, but ever with the greatest reluctance, from a firm conviction that the sole object of the Roman hierarchy is to enslave the human mind. "I must only worship and honour GOD," says he, "as the POPE directs ; and no other mode of serving GOD is permitted but that which the infallible Church of Rome dictates. As Roman priest, I have neither liberty of thought nor of conscience. To this must be added im plicit obedience to my superior, from whom there lies no appeal. The Roman priest is never looked up to as a free agent ; he is a mere instrument to diffuse the  mist of superstition." We fear that there is too much  truth in the statement, and that these remarks apply to more churches than one. Ignorance and superstition  furnish to the priests the lever by which they raise themselves to the rank of gods, and while profess ing to be the followers, the lineal descendants of the poor and humble Apostles, they are unlike them in every respect. Never was there such an insult to the human understanding as the assumption that the Pope of ROME and the Archbishop of CANTERBURY are the  representatives of PETER and