FALK, PAUL LUDWIG ADALBERT, b. Prussia, 1827. He was the son of a Protestant clergyman, attended the Friedrich's gymnasium at Breslau, and studied law at the uni• versity of the same city. In 1847, he entered the state service of Prussia; in 1850, he was appointed state attorney at Breslau, and in 1853 state attorney at Lyk. In 1858, he was elected to the Prussian chamber of deputies, and served as a member of the com mittee on petitions, budget, and military affairs, 1858-61. In 1862, he was appointed councilor of the court of appeals in Glogan, Silesia, and in 1867 was elected to represent that district in the provisional parliament of the North German union. In 1868, he was permanently assigned as privy-councilor to the ministry of justice, and devoted himself zealously to the new codification of laws for the North German union, and afterwards fqr the German empire. In 1871, the emperor appointed Dr. Falk one of the represent atives of Prussia in the federal council, where he acted as chairman of the committee of justice, and rendered important services in the reorganization of the system of legal proceedings. In 1872, Von Mulder, the secretary of state for ecclesiastical, educational, and medical affairs, resigned; and Falk was appointed his successor. In 1872, he intro duced a law, which was passed Mar. 11 of the same year, according to which the supervision of all schools was declared to be the exclusive prerogative of the state. The law was carried against the united efforts of the Roman Catholic and conservative Protestant parties of the Prussian parliament. The bishops of the Roman church made a determined opposition to the new policy, instructing the clergy in a joint pastoral letter not to lay down their offices as school inspectors without previously consulting the diocesan bishop, Id a memorial addressed to the government, they declared that they regarded this law as an encroachment upon the inalienable holy right of the church. Falk, however, continued by a number of measures to assert the exclusive right of the state to legislate in all school affairs. A rescript of June 15, 1872, excluded
members of ecclesiastical orders and congregations from holding positions in the public schools. In May, 1873, an act was passed conferring upon the state the right of super vising Roman Catholic seminaries. It was required also that candidates for the clerical office should undergo a certain amount of secular training at the universities, and that every ecclesiastical appointment should receive the sanction of the secular authorities. A royal tribune for ecclesiastical matters was also set up. This legislation, which the pope denounced as invalid, was disregarded by the Roman Catholic bishops, and prince Bismarck, supported by Dr. Falk, imposed penalty after penalty in order to establish the supremacy of the state. Refractory bishops were imprisoned, deposed, and banished; the contributions of the government were withdrawn from the clergy who incurred its displeasure; religious orders were dissolved; and the administration of church property was taken from the clergy and invested in bodies of laymen. These measures have been famous as the May laws. Dr. Falk lost his seat for Berlin at the general election of mem• bers of the imperial parliament in July, 1878. Puttkamer, the present minister of ecclesiastical affairs, is of a more conciliatory nature, and, acting on instructions from prince Bismarck, he introduced a bill popularly known as the Canossa bill. This new bill is a great modification of the Falk laws, and was adopted July 14, 1880, in the diet, by only 206 against 202 votes. Its period is limited to Jan. 1, 1882. The most import ant concession consists in the permission granted to German clergymen to be educated in institutions of learning over which the Prussian government has no control, and over which the Jesuits preside. The alleged motive was to relieve the distress of the Roman Catholic population, and to fill numerous vacancies created by former removal of refractory priests.