"Render Unto Caesar": German Catholic Clergy and the Civil War Draft

abstract: When draft orders were issued during the Civil War, members of German Catholic religious orders struggled to reconcile the obligations of citizenship with their religious convictions. Although eager to demonstrate their loyalty to their adopted country in time of war, they nevertheless believed that participation in that war as soldiers, as required by the new draft laws, would violate their religious commitments. Catholic officialdom provided no guidelines for resolving this dilemma. This article explores how two German Catholic religious communities of men navigated the issue. When their efforts to secure official exemptions failed, they found other ways to secure liberation from military service, including taking advantage of loopholes in the law such as commutation and substitution, fleeing the country for the duration of the war, or manipulating local situations and connections to their advantage.