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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Letters From Rome on the Council by Johann
+Joseph Ignaz von Doellinger
+
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no
+restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under
+the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or
+online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license
+
+
+
+Title: Letters From Rome on the Council
+
+Author: Johann Joseph Ignaz von Doellinger
+
+Release Date: November 23, 2011 [Ebook #38116]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: US-ASCII
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LETTERS FROM ROME ON THE COUNCIL***
+
+
+
+
+
+                     Letters From Rome on the Council
+
+                              By "Quirinus"
+
+                   (Johann Joseph Ignaz von Doellinger)
+
+                 Reprinted from the _Allgemeine Zeiting_.
+
+                         Authorized Translation.
+
+                                Rivingtons
+
+                      London, Oxford, and Cambridge
+
+                                   1870
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+Preface.
+Views of the Council. (Allgemeine Zeitung, May 20, 1869.)
+The Future Council. (Allg. Zeit., June 11, 1869.)
+Prince Hohenlohe and the Council. (Allg. Zeit., June 20 and 21, 1869.)
+The Council. (Allg. Zeit., Aug. 19, 1869.)
+The Fulda Pastoral. (Allg. Zeit., Sept. 25, 1869.)
+The Bishops and the Council. (Allg. Zeit., Nov. 19 and 20, 1869.)
+First Letter.
+Second Letter.
+Third Letter.
+Fourth Letter.
+Fifth Letter.
+Sixth Letter.
+Seventh Letter.
+Eighth Letter.
+Ninth Letter.
+Tenth Letter.
+Eleventh Letter.
+Twelfth Letter.
+Thirteenth Letter.
+Fourteenth Letter.
+Fifteenth Letter.
+Sixteenth Letter.
+Seventeenth Letter.
+Eighteenth Letter.
+Nineteenth Letter.
+Twentieth Letter.
+Twenty-First Letter.
+Twenty-Second Letter.
+Twenty-Third Letter.
+Twenty-Fourth Letter.
+Twenty-Fifth Letter.
+Twenty-Sixth Letter.
+Twenty-Seventh Letter.
+Twenty-Eighth Letter.
+Twenty-Ninth Letter.
+Thirtieth Letter.
+Thirty-First Letter.
+Thirty-Second Letter.
+Thirty-Third Letter.
+Thirty-Fourth Letter.
+Thirty-Fifth Letter.
+Thirty-Sixth Letter.
+Thirty-Seventh Letter.
+Thirty-Eighth Letter.
+Thirty-Ninth Letter.
+Fortieth Letter.
+Forty-First Letter.
+Forty-Second Letter.
+Forty-Third Letter.
+Forty-Fourth Letter.
+Forty-Fifth Letter.
+Forty-Sixth Letter.
+Forty-Seventh Letter.
+Forty-Eighth Letter.
+Forty-Ninth Letter.
+Fiftieth Letter.
+Fifty-First Letter.
+Fifty-Second Letter.
+Fifty-Third Letter.
+Fifty-Fourth Letter.
+Fifty-Fifth Letter.
+Fifty-Sixty Letter.
+Fifty-Seventh Letter.
+Fifty-Eighth Letter.
+Fifty-Ninth Letter.
+Sixtieth Letter.
+Sixty-First Letter.
+Sixty-Second Letter.
+Sixty-Third Letter.
+Sixty-Fourth Letter.
+Sixty-Fifth Letter.
+Sixty-Sixth Letter.
+Sixty-Seventh Letter.
+Sixty-Eighth Letter.
+Sixty-Ninth Letter.
+Appendix I.
+Appendix II.
+Appendix III.
+Appendix IV.
+Appendix V.
+Advertisement.
+Footnotes
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+These Letters of the Council originated in the following way. Three
+friends in Rome were in the habit of communicating to one another what
+they heard from persons intimately acquainted with the proceedings of the
+Council. Belonging as they did to different stations and different classes
+of life, and having already become familiar, before the opening of the
+Council, through long residence in Rome, with the state of things and with
+persons there, and being in free and daily intercourse with some members
+of the Council, they were very favourably situated for giving a true
+report as well of the proceedings as of the views of those who took part
+in it. Their letters were addressed to a friend in Germany, who added now
+and then historical explanations to elucidate the course of events, and
+then forwarded them to the _Allgemeine Zeitung_.
+
+Much the authors of these Letters could only communicate, because the
+Bishops themselves, from whose mouth or hand they obtained their
+materials, were desirous of securing publicity for them in this way, That
+there should be occasional inaccuracies of detail in matters of
+subordinate importance was inevitable in drawing up reports which had to
+be composed as the events occurred, and not seldom had only rumours or
+conjectures to rest upon. But on the whole we can safely affirm that no
+substantial error has crept in, and that these reports supply as faithful
+a portrait as can be given of this Council, so eventful in its bearings on
+the future history of the Catholic Church, and not only conscientiously
+exhibit its outward course, but in some degree unveil those more secret
+and hidden movements whereby the definition of the new dogma of
+infallibility was brought about. If it were necessary here to adduce
+testimonies for the truth of these reports, we might appeal to the actual
+sequence of events, which has so often and so clearly confirmed our
+predictions and our estimate of the persons concerned and their motives,
+as well as to the Letters and other works of the Bishops, whether
+published with or without their names.
+
+This collection of Letters then is the best authority for the history of
+the Vatican Council. No later historian of the Council will be able to
+dispense with them, and the Liberal Catholic Opposition, whose
+ecclesiastical conscience protests against the imposition of dogmas
+effected by all kinds of crooked arts and appliances of force, will find
+here the most serviceable weapons for combating the legitimacy of the
+Council.
+
+In order to preserve the original character of the Letters, as a chronicle
+accurately reflecting the opinions and feelings of the Bishops of the
+minority, they are published now in a complete collection without any
+change, with the exception of a few corrections here and there in a
+foot-note. Some articles from the _Allgemeine Zeitung_ are prefixed to the
+Letters, which have an important bearing on the previous history of the
+Council;(1) and an appendix is subjoined containing documents partly
+serving to throw a further light on the history of the Council and partly
+to corroborate our statements.
+
+_September 1870._
+
+
+
+
+
+VIEWS OF THE COUNCIL. (ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG, MAY 20, 1869.)
+
+
+Cardinal Antonelli is said on good authority to have replied very lately
+to the question of the ambassador of a Northern Government, that it is
+certainly intended to have the dogma of Papal Infallibility proclaimed at
+the ensuing Council; and, moreover, as this has long been the belief of
+all good Catholics, that there would be no difficulty about the
+definition. It by no means follows, if this report is correct, that the
+importance of the new principle of faith to be created is not well
+understood at Rome. The _Civilta Cattolica_ leaves no room for doubt that
+one of its principal effects is already distinctly kept in view, and that
+a further principle, which again must involve an indefinite series of
+consequences, is being deliberately aimed at.(2) In the number for April
+3, it has spoken with full approval, with reference to the approaching
+Council, of the famous Bull of Boniface VIII., _Unam Sanctam_, doubly
+confirmed by Papal authority, and addressed as a supreme decision on faith
+to the whole ecclesiastical world, and treats it as self-evident that all
+the contents of the Bull, with other doctrinal decrees issued throughout
+the Church, will come into full force after the Council, and thenceforth
+form the basis of Catholic doctrine on the relations of Church and State.
+The maxims that will have to be adopted, as well by the learned as in
+popular instruction, when once Papal Infallibility has been defined, are
+these:--
+
+The two powers, the temporal and spiritual, are in the hands of the
+Church, _i.e._ the Pope, who permits the former to be administered by
+kings and others, but only under his guidance and during his good pleasure
+(_ad nutum et potentiam sacerdotis_). It belongs to the spiritual power,
+according to the Divine commission and plenary jurisdiction bestowed on
+Peter, to appoint, and, if cause arise, to judge the temporal; and whoever
+opposes its regulations rebels against the ordinance of God.
+
+In a word, the absolute dominion of the Church over the State will next
+year come into force as a principle of Catholic faith, and become a factor
+to be reckoned with by every Commonwealth or State that has Catholic
+inhabitants; and by "Church" in this system must always be understood the
+Pope, and the Bishops who act under absolute control of the Pope.
+
+From the moment therefore when Papal Infallibility is proclaimed by the
+Council, the relations of all Governments to the Church are fundamentally
+changed. The Roman See is brought into the same position towards other
+States which it now occupies towards Italy in regard to the provinces
+formerly belonging to the States of the Church. All States find
+themselves, strictly speaking, in an attitude of permanent revolt against
+their lawful and divinely ordained suzerain, the Pope. He indeed on his
+side can and will tolerate much which properly ought not to be--for it has
+long been recognised in Rome that right, even though divine, by no means
+implies the duty of always exercising it. In numberless cases silence will
+be observed, or some such formula adopted as that of the Austrian
+Concordat, art. 14: "Temporum ratione habita Sua Sanctitas haud impedit,"
+etc. But that must only be understood "during good behaviour," or so long
+as the times do not change or it seems expedient. In conscience every
+Catholic is bound to be guided, in the first instance, in political and
+social questions, by the directions or known will of his supreme lord and
+master the Pope, and of course, in the event of a conflict between his own
+Government and the Papal, to side with the latter. No Government therefore
+can hereafter count on the loyalty and obedience of its Catholic subjects,
+unless its measures and acts are such as to secure the sanction, or
+agreement of the Pope. As to non-Catholic Governments, moreover, the
+former declarations of Popes against heretical princes, which receive
+fresh life from the dogma of Infallibility, come into full force. If it is
+already a common complaint that in countries where the Government or the
+majority are Protestant, Catholics are treated with suspicion when they
+take any part in the service of the State, and are purposely excluded from
+the higher and more important posts, how will this be after the Council?
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FUTURE COUNCIL. (ALLG. ZEIT., JUNE 11, 1869.)
+
+
+We have received the following interesting information from a trustworthy
+person, who is returned to Germany after a long sojourn in Rome, where he
+was in a position, among other things, to get to know the projects for the
+Council. The relations of Pius IX. to the _Civilta_ may be fully
+understood from the fact--attested by the officials of the Chancery--that
+the editors are regularly admitted to an audience with the Holy Father,
+like the prime minister, usually once a week, never less often than every
+fortnight. At these audiences the manuscripts prepared for the next number
+are laid before the Pope, who reads them, and, according to his interest
+in the contents, comments on them or returns them unaltered to the
+Chancery. The ideas of the _Civilta_ are therefore not only not unknown to
+the Pope, but are published with his express and personal approval. The
+chosen model of Pius IX. is Gregory VII., and his favourite notion is to
+discharge that _role_ in the present Church which Gregory did in the
+middle ages. He is therefore thoroughly given up to theocratic tendencies
+in the contest against the modern State, and the attacks of the _Civilta_
+upon it and the whole system of modern civilisation express his innermost
+thoughts. Even the General of the Jesuits is said often to be uneasy about
+the language used by members of his Order in their journal, and unable to
+avoid the apprehension that it may seriously prejudice the Order
+hereafter.
+
+In the Chancery, where Antonelli's confidant Mgr. Marini revises the
+_Civilta_, it very seldom happens that any alterations are made in the
+articles, partly because the Cardinal Secretary of State would at no price
+get into bad odour with the Jesuits. Only the record of contemporary
+events (_Cronaca Contemporanea_) is submitted _pro forma_ to the Dominican
+Spada, the Master of the Palace, for inspection. But although there can be
+no shadow of doubt that in all its utterances about the approaching
+Council the _Civilta_, is simply the organ of the Holy Father himself,
+Antonelli does not cease to give the most reassuring answers to questions
+addressed to him on the subject by the various diplomatic agents. Rome, he
+assures them, will not take the initiative in making either the
+propositions of the Syllabus or Papal Infallibility into dogmas. Many
+representatives of foreign Governments have been deceived by these
+declarations, and have written home in that sense, the immediate
+consequence of which was seen in the reception accorded in some Courts to
+the despatch of the Bavarian Government. But they will not allow at Rome
+that they mean themselves to give the first impulse for these solemn
+dogmatic decisions. That only proves the confidence felt in the Vatican
+that a considerable number of the Bishops will come forward to demand it.
+It is a secret already pretty well published in Rome, how the play is to
+be put on the stage, and who is to be the protagonist. Nor does any one
+there venture seriously to deny the fact that a version of the Syllabus,
+composed by Father Schrader, at the wish of the Pope himself, changing its
+negative theses into positive, is already drawn up.
+
+Archbishop Manning and Cardinal Reisach are the leading persons in all
+these designs. Reisach,(3) who is accounted in Rome a man of eminent
+learning and wisdom, and who always manifests the most unbounded devotion
+to the Pope, takes an unfavourable view of German affairs. It was through
+him that Dr. Mast, well known through what occurred at Rottenburg, was
+placed on two of the preparatory Commissions (_Politico-Ecclesiastica_ and
+_De Disciplina Ecclesiae_) as consultor. So again, he has sought out
+Moufang of Mayence and Molitor of Spires, for his own Congregation,
+because he presumes them to be like-minded with himself. The general rule
+in selecting persons for the preliminary work has been to consider their
+devotion to the cause, not their scientific capabilities. First among
+them, in the directing Congregation of Cardinals, must be named Bilio, who
+never loses an opportunity in conversation of eloquently extolling Papal
+Infallibility. To the same class belongs Panebianco, a zealous friend of
+the extremest claims of the Bourbons. Neither of them is known for learned
+labours of any note, as neither are Barnabo and the aged Patrizzi, who is
+named President of this Congregation merely on account of his name and
+age. Among the domestic consultors of the Commission on dogma, known in
+literature, and as its very soul, sits the Jesuit Perrone, who is become
+indispensable to the Pope; then comes Spada, the Dominican, Master of the
+Palace, who gained his theological reputation by a controversial treatise
+in defence of eternal punishment; Cardoni, who exhibited his strong views
+in a work advocating the obligation of religious when named to bishoprics
+still to live according to the rules of their Order; and finally,
+Bartolini, who has vindicated the identity of the Holy House of Loretto
+with the house of the Blessed Virgin at Nazareth--all simply men of the
+most rigid type. Among those employed in these preliminary labours,
+Professor Biondo, of St. Apollinare, excels all the rest, if in nothing
+else, in his conviction that true devotion to the Church can only be found
+in Italy. We may take as a significant illustration of the method of
+choosing foreign consultors, the appointment of Mgr. Talbot for England,
+who, when appointed, was out of his mind, and has now been for four months
+in a lunatic asylum. Among the French who are invited the Abbe Freppel
+appears to be the most moderate. But even in Rome there are many
+clergymen, and even Cardinals, who do not conceal their opinion that with
+such designs the Council will be an embarrassment for Rome, and a danger
+for the Church. But nothing of this comes to the ear of the supreme
+authority, nor would information of it directly conveyed to the Pope be
+likely to effect any change. Even the _Curia_ measures the sentiment of
+the Catholic world by the homage paid to the Pope, and therefore the
+solemnity can only encourage them in their designs about the Council. It
+is sometimes feared that the French Bishops may give trouble; any
+opposition on the part of secular governments is not taken into account,
+for the _Curia_ has completely broken with the modern State, and has
+systematically ignored it both in the project and the proclamation of the
+Council, while according to the precedent of nearly all former OEcumenical
+Synods, an understanding should have been come to with the Catholic States
+as to the time and place of holding it, and the subjects to be discussed.
+The separation of Church and State in this last procedure is the act of
+Rome, although the opposite theory is sanctioned in the Syllabus. Anything
+like a literary and scientific opposition, or a movement among the laity,
+such as has here and there begun to show itself, is regarded in the
+Vatican as a mere tempest in a tea-cup.
+
+
+
+
+
+PRINCE HOHENLOHE AND THE COUNCIL. (ALLG. ZEIT., JUNE 20 AND 21, 1869.)
+
+
+In former times, the assembling of an OEcumenical Council was caused by a
+general sense throughout the Catholic world of some religious need,
+whether the definition of an article of faith or the abolition of grave
+evils and abuses--in short, a reformation--was felt to be necessary. It was
+universally known what questions the Council was to treat of. The
+sovereigns communicated, for this end, with the heads of the Church and
+the Pope, and brought forward their own wishes and requirements, as at the
+last OEcumenical Council of Trent, which had at least to be taken into
+consideration. But how entirely different is this Council under Pius IX.!
+Already, in 1854, an episcopal assembly, at Rome, raised to the dignity of
+a dogma the thesis of a theological school of the middle ages, combated
+even by Thomas Aquinas, but which happens to have become a favourite
+opinion of the Pope, although no ground had been discovered for this new
+article of faith in any want of the religious life which the Church has to
+cultivate. And this was done against the judgment of a considerable number
+of the prelates who were consulted, without any basis for the doctrine
+being able to be found in Scripture and Tradition, by the acclamations of
+the assembled bishops--after a fashion, that is, in which no dogma had ever
+been defined before. The Abbe Laborde, who craved permission to lay his
+objections before the assembly, received for answer his banishment from
+Rome, and the name of another priest was subscribed to the Bull
+proclaiming the dogma without his knowledge or consent, so that he found
+himself compelled to protest publicly against it. In view of these facts,
+and under the just anticipation that at the approaching Council the
+dominant party in Rome will be equally tyrannical in their treatment of
+dissentients,--it is already reported that three members of the present
+Commission, who are opposed to Jesuit tendencies and practices, have been
+suffered to retire--several distinguished heads of the Church have
+renounced the idea of delivering their testimony there. And how is this
+Council the outcome of any urgent requirements of the Church's life, and
+does Catholic Christendom know what end it is designed to serve, and what
+is to be expected of it? Nothing of the sort. The necessity of the
+Council, if it will not put its hand to a reformation of the Church, in
+accordance with the needs of modern civilisation, is not everywhere
+understood by the clergy themselves. Only this winter wishes were loudly
+expressed by some of them that its assembling might be dispensed with,
+considering the position of the Church in Austria and Spain; but in the
+Holy Father's state of exaltation on the subject these wishes could have
+no effect. Then again,--what is perhaps without precedent in all Church
+history--the the matters to be treated of in the Council have been
+carefully kept secret; the Bull of Indiction confines itself to vague
+generalities, and the theologians employed in the preliminary labours were
+bound to silence by the oath of the Holy Office,--_i.e._, the
+Inquisition--imposed under pain of excommunication to be incurred _ipso
+facto_. It seems not to be necessary, therefore, at least for the present,
+that Christendom should have even any inkling of the doctrines on the
+acceptance or rejection of which salvation or damnation is to be made
+dependent.
+
+It is not the satisfaction of real religious needs that is
+contemplated--there would be no need to shun publicity in that case--but
+chartering dogmas which have no root in the common convictions of the
+Catholic world. Leibnitz used to call even the Council of Trent a "concile
+de contrabande;" the way in which this last Council is to be brought on
+the stage would make the designation for the first time fully applicable.
+
+If these circumstances alone are enough to make Governments that have
+Catholic subjects suspicious of the designs of the _Curia_, there are also
+further proofs that their designs are not confined to strictly
+ecclesiastical affairs, but involve direct encroachment on the life of the
+modern State. Not to dwell here on the too open-hearted confidences of the
+_Civilta_, which, although published with the approval of the Holy Father
+himself, have been characterized by him as an "imprudenza,"(4) we will
+pass to other facts which sufficiently indicate the projected decrees of
+the Council.
+
+To the inquiries of ambassadors about the reasons for summoning a General
+Council, Antonelli could only reply by referring to the great revolution
+and fundamental change in civil and political relations. It may be
+inferred from this declaration that the Council is intended to discharge a
+political office also, and in what sense, Rome has told us in the Syllabus
+and the condemnation of the Austrian Constitution. For this object an
+ecclesiastico-political consulting committee has been formed, subordinate
+to the Commission intrusted with the supreme control of the Council, with
+Cardinal Reisach at its head, and whose Italian members are as conspicuous
+for their want of scientific culture as for their opposition to any
+concession to the requirements of the age, and their hostility to all
+foreign countries, and especially to the non-Roman portions of Italy. The
+Syllabus will be put into shape in its affirmative form by this Section,
+in order thus to be submitted for sanction to the Council. One of its
+members lately expressed himself in the following terms, with the applause
+of his colleagues and of the Holy Father himself:--"The Syllabus is good,
+but raw meat, and must be carefully dressed to make it palatable." This
+skilful dressing, which is to make it everywhere acceptable, it is hoped
+to effect by publishing the propositions in the form of exhortations,
+instead of commands, which, however, will come to the same thing, as the
+exhortations emanate from the head of the Church.
+
+It is with good reason that Prince Hohenlohe, in his despatch, expresses
+the fear that the Council, according to the programme of the _Curia_, will
+publish decrees on political rather than ecclesiastical questions, and he
+rightly states that the projected dogma of Papal Infallibility is also an
+eminently political question. For when once that is defined, the mediaeval
+pretension of the Pope to dominion over kings and nations, even in secular
+matters, which has never been abandoned, is thereby also raised to the
+rank of an article of divine faith. Thiers lately made the remarkable
+observation that the temporal power alone holds the Pope in check;--a monk,
+who was Pope, would think himself omnipotent. Certainly, without the
+temporal power, the maintenance of which depends on the goodwill of the
+French Government, and the administration of which keeps the Pope within a
+political area, he would give freer rein, when it was possible, to his
+views of the corruption of the modern State. Once seat a monk on the Papal
+throne, as many have already sat there, unacquainted with the actual
+world, and in heart alienated from it, and arm him with the prerogative of
+infallibility,--his decrees in the present condition of society are sure to
+evoke the most deplorable conflicts.
+
+The ultramontane press in Germany, which is itself beginning to find the
+decisions sketched out by the _Civilta_ intolerable, now adopts the
+tactics of denying the official character of the Jesuit journal, and
+clings to the straw of hope that neither Papal Infallibility nor the
+Syllabus will be made dogmas. But it is no secret in Rome that those
+alarming communications of the _Civilta_ were letters written by French
+Jesuits, prepared and published with the sanction of the Holy Father
+himself, and cannot therefore be treated as mere chance contributions of
+private correspondents.
+
+For several years past the Court of Rome, with the aid of its
+indefatigable allies the Jesuits, has been preparing the way for securing
+beforehand the votes of the Bishops on Papal Infallibility. Thus some
+years ago the Bishops of different countries received, quite unexpectedly,
+an urgent admonition from Rome to hold Provincial Synods, and frame
+decrees at them. These decrees had to be sent to Rome, to the Congregation
+exclusively charged with the revision of such ordinances, and were then
+returned, after correction and enlargement by the Cardinals and Committees
+of the Congregation. When they came to be printed, it was found that all
+these Synods had shown a wonderful unanimity in adopting Papal
+Infallibility as a self-evident principle into their exposition of
+universally known Catholic doctrine. The Jesuit organs have not failed to
+point triumphantly to these decisions of so many Bishops and Synods.
+
+It is a fact that Antonelli publicly declared there could be no difficulty
+about the promulgation of Papal Infallibility, because it was a doctrine
+already held by all good Catholics. And this is the watchword of the whole
+ultramontane party at Rome. It is also a fact that the question was
+brought before the directing Commission in order to be put into shape, and
+then submitted for confirmation to the Council. And although it is certain
+that the discussion of it by the Commission is finished, the decision will
+be carefully kept secret for a time, because as yet courage fails them for
+a straightforward course of procedure, and they hope to gain their end by
+a sort of _coup d'etat_, viz., carrying the dogma by spontaneous
+acclamation, to be evoked by a foreign prelate.(5) And thus Governments
+will be deprived of the opportunity of gaining any influence over the
+decisions of the Council, and protecting themselves against threatening
+eventualities.
+
+Well-informed persons, who do not deny the intention of making
+Infallibility into a dogma, think that some innocuous formula will at last
+be discovered, such as prefixing a "quasi" to "infallibilis," so that all
+the trouble expended in gratifying this darling wish of Pius IX. will be
+almost labour lost. But so long as the decision rests with the Jesuits,
+who have an overwhelming majority in the preparatory Congregation, there
+is no ground for this hope. They foresee the possibility of being again
+driven from the helm a few days after the death of the Pope, and therefore
+press for an unqualified definition, that they may make capital out of the
+infallible Pope for conquering a new position of influence for themselves
+in civilized Catholic countries. And if they could not reckon without some
+regard to other factors also, still their calculations had a good prospect
+of success, for Pius IX. is completely in the hands of the Jesuits,
+especially of Father Piccirillo, the chief person on the _Civilta_ staff,
+who will act as _spiritus rector_ of the Council. The Pope is seldom left
+alone, lest he should fall under the influence of others who judge more
+correctly of the situation of the modern world and the real wants of the
+Catholic Church; he lives in an artificial atmosphere of homage poured
+forth by the ultramontane journals. He is so possessed with a sense of his
+own power that he believes he ought not to regard or fear any possible
+opposition of the French Government to the decisions of the Council.
+
+Meanwhile there are growing signs that at least a portion of the French
+episcopate are not willing to degrade themselves to the humiliating _role_
+of mere acclaimers to the propositions of the _Curia_. In two articles of
+the _Francais_ (for March 18 and 19) Dupanloup has already decisively
+disclaimed sympathy with the tendencies and insinuations loudly expressed
+in the notorious correspondence of the _Civilta_. He gives a specimen of
+the hopes and wishes about the Council intimated by the French Bishops in
+their pastorals, where he shows that they are all far from expecting it to
+assail political and social liberty and freedom of conscience, to condemn
+modern civilisation and widen the breach between the Catholic Church and
+other Christian bodies, by proclaiming new dogmas; but, on the contrary,
+that they look for a reformation of Church discipline adapted to the age,
+and a work of general reconciliation with the great ideas of cultivation,
+freedom, and the common weal. These declarations of the French episcopate
+excited great surprise and deep disgust at Rome, without, however, to all
+appearance, having disturbed the _Curia_ in their plans, as they know from
+the statistics that they can count on an imposing majority in the Council.
+
+Seats are prepared for 850 Bishops at the Council, but the question
+whether Bishops _in partibus_ are to have decisive votes is not yet
+decided. Since, however, their admission will not materially affect the
+relative position of the two parties, they may be left out of the account.
+To these voting members of the Council must be added 57 Cardinals, and the
+number might be raised before its opening to 72, by the bestowal of the 15
+hats vacant at present. There are thus about 920 decisive votes, including
+40 Italian Cardinals, 294 Italian Bishops, 66 Spanish, 22 Portuguese, 90
+French,--in all 512 prelates of the Romance race in Europe, to whom must be
+added 77 Brazilian, Mexican, and South American Bishops, raising the whole
+Romance representation to 600 votes. From this number about 60 must be
+deducted for vacant Italian Sees, and some 140 who may presumably be
+unable to attend. And so about 400 are left, whose votes, with the
+exception of a number of French Bishops, are counted upon by the _Curia_.
+The Court also reckons on the votes of 48 from England and Ireland, 52
+from North America, 20 from Greece and Turkey, 6 from Belgium, 5 from
+Holland, and 16 from Canada. If the Polish and Russian Bishops are allowed
+to come, they too will swell the majority; and so, it is believed, will
+the Armenian and Uniate Bishops in Austria, Russia, and Bulgaria,
+numbering about 40. Of the 65 German and Austrian Bishops scarcely half
+will side with the Opposition. And so, if matters are to be settled by
+majorities, the _Curia_ is fully assured of its victory. Cardinal
+Antonelli counts on from 500 to 600 votes of those actually present.
+
+Under these circumstances the Governments of countries with Catholic
+populations should be urgently pressed to devote their serious attention
+to what is already going on in Rome, and not to let themselves be taken by
+surprise by the decrees of the Council, which, when once promulgated, will
+place their subjects in a painful dilemma between their duties towards the
+State and their obedience to the Church; will everywhere create disquiet
+and conflicts; and must, above all, involve their Bishops in
+contradictions with the Constitutions they have sworn to observe. In the
+present difficulties of the general political and social situation in
+Europe, a conflict in the highest degree fatal might ensue with the
+Church, whose mission of culture is not yet diminished even for the time,
+and whose co-operation for its own purposes the State cannot dispense
+with. In this contest the Church cannot conquer, because the spirit of the
+age is against her; but the very crash of so mighty an edifice would cover
+and destroy with its ruins the institutions of the State itself, perplex
+consciences, and entail universal mischief by for the first time fully
+confirming the spirit of absolute negation of the ethical and ideal
+conception of life. The proceedings of Prince Hohenlohe may have sprung
+from this statesmanlike consideration; they are inspired by a friendly
+spirit towards the Church herself, and are of a thoroughly loyal
+character. He wishes the Governments openly to communicate with their
+Bishops, in order to point out to them the deplorable consequences which
+must follow from so premeditated and systematic a revolution of the
+existing relations between Church and State, and also, while there is
+still time, to take precautions against the event of conciliar decrees
+encroaching on the political domain. He challenges the learned
+corporations of the State most directly competent, to give their opinion
+publicly as to the practical results involved in making the Syllabus and
+Papal Infallibility into dogmas. This proceeding is far from being
+premature, for it is the business of a statesman not only to legislate in
+view of accomplished facts, but to provide for menacing dangers, nor will
+his conduct be blamed by any true friend of Church and State, whose
+faculty of judgment is not utterly blinded by hatred. The repressive
+measures which Governments would be compelled to employ after the
+promulgation of the contemplated dogmas would not be at all in the
+interest of the Church. Suppose, for instance, freedom of conscience,
+already condemned in the Syllabus, were anathematized by the Council, and
+the doctrine of religious compulsion sanctioned, the Bavarian Bishops who
+had assented to this decree, or wished to obey it, would have broken their
+oath to the Constitution, the Constitution which guarantees freedom of
+conscience would be under the ban of Rome, and the Government would have
+to answer by publishing the Concordat.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE COUNCIL. (ALLG. ZEIT., AUG. 19, 1869.)
+
+
+If the present situation in regard to the Council is considered, the
+triumph of the Jesuit ultramontane party there appears highly probable.
+The demonstration of the Rhenish Catholics has as yet assumed no larger
+dimensions, and will evidently gain nothing by the projected Catholic
+meeting at Duesseldorf; for not only is red-hot ultramontanism a decisive
+obstacle, but the widely growing and deepening religious indifference
+hinders men from taking any part in movements based on a spirit of loyalty
+to the Church. In Rome, accordingly, little notice is taken of the
+movement, and satisfaction is felt at the prospect of expelling this
+mischievous liberal element from the Church, because then it is hoped the
+kernel which remains true may be more boldly dealt with. Our German
+ultramontane press, which lost no time in making a bitter and contemptuous
+attack on the address of the Rhenish Catholics, is therein only the
+exponent of the mind of the _Curia_. Meanwhile the German Bishops are
+preparing themselves to commit an act of doctrinal and ecclesiastical
+suicide, by renouncing for ever their long obscured but not as yet
+surrendered rank and authority as supreme judges of faith.(6) Two of them,
+Bishops Ketteler of Mayence and Fessler of St. Poelten, have already
+pronounced in separate works for the infallibility of the Pope.
+
+The diplomatic action of Prince Hohenlohe in regard to the Council has
+indeed created for the time a sensation, which still continues among the
+States interested in the matter, and which eventually culminated in the
+desire to obtain further information about the propositions to be
+submitted for the acceptance of the assembled Bishops, but even the
+representative of France has been baffled by the arts of the _Curia_.
+When, in June, M. Banneville put the decisive question whether they were
+not prepared to deny the alarming rumours as to the propositions to be
+laid before the Council, and to take immediate steps for facilitating the
+representation of Catholic States in the Council through ambassadors of
+their own, Antonelli replied that he had no knowledge of what was going on
+in the Commissions, but as to the second point, the Church in her present
+changed relations with Catholic States, which sometimes persecute her and
+sometimes put her on an equality with other religious bodies, could not
+take the initiative. M. Banneville, who had simply spoken of the presence
+of an ambassador at the Council, but had said nothing of his rights,
+stated that this conversation had "profoundly humiliated him." Thenceforth
+the Court of Rome was the more confirmed in its resolve to keep out
+diplomatists from the Council. To an indirect question as to the admission
+of an ambassador from non-Catholic States, which have a large Catholic
+population, an instant negative was returned. The quarrel of the Austrian
+Government with the Bishop of Linz has given a further impulse in the same
+direction, for then Antonelli began to declare more openly that it was
+indeed possible, but not likely, that any ambassadors would be admitted,
+till now at last he makes no secret of its being out of the question for
+Rome, under existing circumstances, to think of allowing Governments to be
+represented. It would not be feasible, he opines, to admit France alone,
+and what other Catholic States are there that have not already
+disqualified themselves for taking part in the Council? Thus by degrees
+France too is gently thrust aside with her inquiries and demands, and the
+only question is whether Napoleon's Government will be content with this.
+Unless the clerical party in France itself causes the Emperor to assume an
+attitude of opposition to the Jesuit ultramontane programme of the
+Council, there is not much to be expected from him, since in view of the
+internal difficulties his Government at present has to contend with, he is
+obliged to take that party into account as an important factor in his
+calculations.
+
+The Jesuits work assiduously in France, as well as Germany, to form a
+propaganda for the projected dogmas, and to familiarize men's minds with
+the idea that absolute certainty and inerrancy are only to be found with
+one man, viz., the Pope. Bouix in Paris, and Christophe at Lyons, have,
+with the _Monde_, and _Univers,_ already most urgently inculcated on the
+Bishops what "good Catholics" expect of them in regard to the acclamation.
+But, with the exception of the Bishop of Nimes, none of them have openly
+adhered to the Jesuit programme of the Council; on the contrary, the
+attitude of the French episcopate is perhaps at this hour the only black
+speck on the horizon of the _Curia_. And in fact with them rests the
+decision in the present ecclesiastical crisis. To the French episcopate it
+belongs to show that they still preserve the great traditions of internal
+freedom in the Church, newly brought to light since the mediaeval reforming
+Councils by French theologians, and thenceforth always conspicuously
+represented among them, and that they are filled with the spirit of
+Bossuet, who did not confound loyalty to the Church with blind devotion to
+unfounded claims of the Pope, but understood it to mean, above all things,
+loyalty to the ancient spirit and original institution of the Church.
+
+But there are good grounds for hoping that at least a majority of the
+French Bishops will constitute a free-spoken opposition at the Council;
+the two French theologians Freppel and Trullet, as well as Cardinal
+Bonnechose, are said to have exercised a most powerful influence in this
+direction.(7) The latter openly complains that words of moderation are not
+listened to in Rome, and that, up to this time, giving any definite
+declarations of a reassuring nature has been avoided. He is understood to
+have said plainly that the great majority of the French episcopate wished
+to keep peace with the State, and would lend no hand to the sanctioning of
+extreme tendencies. It is even rumoured that a collective remonstrance of
+the French Bishops on the notions prevalent at Rome is already
+contemplated, but has not yet been able to be carried out on account of
+some hesitation about the mode of action. Much may be hoped from
+Dupanloup's attitude at the Council; in him freedom of discussion and
+voting is sure to find a representative equally bold and eloquent.
+
+But even the opposition of the French Bishops will produce no results, if
+the decisions of the Council are to depend on majorities, for there can be
+no doubt that Rome may safely count on the great majority upholding her
+designs. We should have a repetition of what occurred in the Doctrinal
+Commission, when the question of Infallibility came before it, and a
+Monsignore and titular Bishop, residing in Rome, produced a memorial
+intended to prove that this high prerogative of the Pope had been the
+abiding faith of the Church all along, and arguing from this belief for
+the opportuneness of promulgating the new dogma, on the ground especially,
+among others, that at no period had the Bishops been so devoted to the
+Holy See as now. It is natural to expect of men so submissive, and so
+ready to follow every hint of the Papal will, that they should joyfully
+seize the occasion for offering this grand homage also to the Pope. This
+was so conclusive to the Committee that they all decided at once, without
+any discussion, for the promulgation of the new dogma. Only one of the two
+German theologians, Alzog of Freiburg, opposed it; Schwetz of Vienna, on
+the other hand, fully agreed. For Rome, therefore, the question is
+settled, and whoever is otherwise minded at once forfeits his character
+for Catholic orthodoxy.
+
+Nor is there any more doubt about making the Syllabus dogmatic, for Roman
+prelates, who wish to have the character of being very enlightened, openly
+affirm that the propositions contained in it might already be regarded as
+dogmas. And it is stated on the best authority, even by high dignitaries
+themselves, that the whole of the seventeen questions laid before the
+assembled episcopate by Cardinal Caterini at the time of the Centenary,
+are to come before the Council for discussion, on the basis of the
+opinions then transmitted by the Bishops to Rome. And as a considerable
+number of these questions concern the relations of Church and
+State--_e.g._, civil marriage, the relations of Bishops to the civil power,
+etc.,--it is clear enough what credit is to be given to the assurances that
+the Council will not deal with any matter that could involve the Church in
+conflict with the State. It was found almost necessary, after public
+opinion had been alarmed by the _Civilta_, to change the method of
+procedure. It was either expressly denied that the Council would deal with
+such matters as the _Civilta_ had indicated, or it was said that even in
+Rome what subjects would come on for discussion and decision was unknown,
+since the intentions of the Bishops, at present scattered over all parts
+of the world, were not known, and on the general ground that the decisions
+of a Council acting under Divine guidance cannot be conjectured
+beforehand. As if the recent Provincial Synods, and the answers of the
+Bishops to the questions laid before them by Caterini, had not supplied
+Rome with a perfectly clear understanding of their views! As if it was not
+notorious that the work the Council was desired to accomplish had been
+already cut out for it in detail in the preparatory Congregations!
+
+Now, at length, if we may trust a communication dated from Rome in the
+_Donau Zeitung_, the authorities seem inclined to abandon this system of
+playing at hide-and-seek with the public, and find it necessary, in some
+measure at least, to lift the mask from their designs for the Council.
+Pius IX. himself is said no longer to make any secret of his intention to
+bring forward the question of Infallibility; but he declares that the
+Council will be left entirely free in discussing and deciding on it, and
+that it will only be raised to a dogma if a large majority pronounce for
+it. And with this agrees a recent statement of Antonelli, made in the
+teeth of his earlier declarations, that the Holy Father will meet the
+Council with positive proposals of his own, and that no doubt can be
+allowed as to the acceptance of his authority. This last clause shows what
+is meant in Rome by the so-called freedom to be enjoyed by the Council. If
+then that freedom is all of a sudden pointedly dwelt on, this is only one
+of the devices of the _Curia_ for hoodwinking public opinion, just as
+eminent theologians of liberal tendencies were summoned to the previous
+Commissions, which were none the less occupied with duties of a precisely
+opposite kind.
+
+It may be conceived that loyal but far-sighted Catholics, like
+Montalembert, are profoundly afflicted at the course things are taking in
+questions of decisive interest for the authority and the whole future of
+the Church, The religious indifference of the age will prevent any open
+schism in the Catholic Church, but the internal apostasy will be all the
+more extensive. All modern culture will separate itself in spirit from the
+Church, which has nothing but anathemas for the development of the human
+mind. And when an OEcumenical Council, which is the highest teaching
+authority in the Church, degenerates into the instrument of an extreme
+party, and sanctions doctrines in glaring contradiction to the teaching
+and history of the Church, the very foundation on which the confidence of
+faith has hitherto reposed is undermined and destroyed. And thus the ever
+growing rejection of Christianity will be powerfully strengthened, so that
+even believing Protestants watch with sorrow an OEcumenical Council
+preparing to compromise its authority. Very different, of course, is the
+view of men like Manning and Ward, who fancy the definition of Papal
+Infallibility will be a short and easy way for restoring their countrymen
+to the bosom of the Catholic Church. Pius IX. himself is indeed convinced
+that he is only building up the Church and crowning her work in placing
+the dogma of Infallibility on it as a cupola.
+
+It has been thought fit by statesmen to exercise no constraint on the
+designs of the _Curia_, but to await its decisions, and afterwards, if
+they should be menacing to political interests, to employ measures of
+repression. This conduct cannot, of course, accord with the mind of
+believing Catholics who are not ultramontanes, as it leaves their
+obligations towards those articles of faith untouched, and cannot annul
+the definitions for their consciences. But the question arises, whether
+from a political point of view this expedient must not be pronounced a
+mistake. Consider the dangerous influence conciliar decrees provoking
+hostility against the modern State and its civilisation may exert on those
+numerous classes, which are always in the hands of the clergy, and form an
+important factor in the life of the State. Consider, again, what is to be
+expected in this respect of a clergy who, as everything serves to
+indicate, will hereafter more than ever before be alienated from all
+modern culture, on the express ground of the decrees of the approaching
+Council, educated in a spirit of hostility to the State, and made into a
+mere passive instrument of Rome. It is difficult to exaggerate the
+conflicts between Church and State that may be expected to follow.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE FULDA PASTORAL. (ALLG. ZEIT., SEPT. 25, 1869.)
+
+
+The Pastoral which the Bishops assembled at Fulda ordered to be read in
+all the Churches under their jurisdiction is an important document. It
+reflects the excited and abnormal state of feeling prevalent among
+Catholics, since the Jesuits, and some Prelates allied with them, have
+announced the design of using the Council for proclaiming new dogmas,
+especially that of Papal Infallibility. "Even among loyal and zealous
+members of the Church," say the Bishops, "anxieties calculated to weaken
+confidence are being excited." The object and main substance of their
+Pastoral is directed to allaying those anxieties, and assuring German
+Catholics that their Bishops at least will not assent to the projected
+dogmas. They have solemnly pledged their word, before the whole nation,
+that they will avouch at the Council the three following
+principles--_first_, "That the Council can establish no new dogmas, or any
+others than are written by faith and conscience on all your (German
+Catholics') hearts;" _secondly_, "That a General Council never will or can
+proclaim a new doctrine not contained in Holy Scripture or Apostolic
+Tradition;" _thirdly_, That only "the old and original truth will be set
+in clearer light."
+
+This indeed is very re-assuring. The Jesuits have proclaimed that the
+bodily Assumption of the Holy Virgin and the Infallibility of the Pope are
+to be made dogmas at the Council. The Bishops are aware that the two
+Jesuit organs, the _Civilta_, and _Rheinischen Stimmen_, from the
+Monastery of Laach, as well as the Archbishop of Mechlin (Deschamps), and
+Bishop Plantier of Nimes, have put forward the erection of Papal
+Infallibility into a dogma of the Universal Church. Moreover, the assembly
+at Fulda knew well enough that the preliminary materials for this
+definition were already prepared at Rome. Now nobody will seriously
+maintain that these two opinions are written by faith and conscience on
+the heart of every Catholic, or are doctrines contained in Scripture and
+Tradition, and ancient and original truths. The Pastoral therefore
+contains a promise, worded with all the distinctness that could be
+desired, that, so far as it depends on the votes of the German Bishops,
+the yoke of the new articles of faith shall not be laid on the German
+nation.
+
+The German Bishops cannot of course pledge themselves beforehand for the
+whole Council, for they will have at most only about 25 votes at their
+disposal--a small number in an assembly of 400 or 500 bishops. But if these
+25 votes, which represent nearly eighteen million Catholics, and the whole
+of a great nation, remain united and firm, they are a guarantee that the
+new dogmas will not be decreed. For it is not majorities or minorities
+that decide on dogmas, but the Church requires the actual or approximate
+unanimity of the whole assembly. And it may be assumed as probable that
+the Austrian Bishops will not separate themselves from their German
+colleagues in these weighty questions, except, of course, the Bishop of
+St. Poelten, who already openly declares himself for the principal new
+dogma, and will therefore no doubt vote for it. It may, moreover, be
+confidently asserted that a considerable portion of the French Bishops
+will unite with the German Opposition against the new dogmas. And an
+Opposition so numerous and so compact will make it impossible for the
+Latin Prelates to carry through their pet doctrines, powerful as they may
+appear, if their votes are counted and not weighed.
+
+From another point of view, too, the Pastoral is noteworthy and
+gratifying. It markedly discountenances that pessimism which for some
+thirty years past has characterized Papal documents, and which gave
+occasion to the observation that Pius IX. and his predecessor whine
+whenever they talk Latin. Occurrences in Italy, Spain, and Germany, and
+the history of the Austrian Concordat, with many other things, have led
+most of the clerical organs to take a gloomy view of the state of the
+world; and we frequently find them maintaining that a universal overthrow
+of the whole order of society in the Christian world, a universal deluge,
+is inevitable, but that the ship of the Church, the one asylum of safety,
+will float, like the ark, upon the waves, and then will begin a new order
+of things, and new period of history corresponding to the ultramontane
+ideal. In sharp antithesis to these gloomy pictures and predictions, the
+Bishops declare, _first_, that throughout the world the kingdom of God
+increases with fresh vigour, and brings forth fruit; _secondly_, that all
+attacks on the Church, and sufferings brought upon her, work for her good;
+and _thirdly_, that religious and ecclesiastical life is strengthened.
+Such a view as this is better calculated to arouse and sustain attachment
+to the Church and confidence in her indestructible powers of life and
+providential guidance than the opposite view, which exhibits to Catholics
+everywhere nothing but the humiliation of their Church and the triumph of
+her enemies.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BISHOPS AND THE COUNCIL. (ALLG. ZEIT., NOV. 19 AND 20, 1869.)
+
+
+As the moment for the opening of the Council approaches, the excitement
+and disquiet, not only of Catholics but of all who concern themselves with
+the movements of the day, increases in view of so important an event. For
+the notion that the Council is merely an internal affair of the Catholic
+Church, and that its decrees will be confined to the sphere of the
+religious conscience, will be accepted by nobody who has heard of the
+projects entertained by the _Curia_, and who is not ignorant of the close
+connection of the Church with the culture of modern life, and the powerful
+position this gives her in the State and in the social order generally.
+
+We may safely state that the Fathers of the Council are already divided
+into two camps, and that anxiety and painful uncertainty prevail in both
+of them. The occurrences of the last few weeks have brought out their
+opposite views and designs into sharp contrast. It is now known in Rome
+that a considerable number of Northern Bishops are not disposed to accept
+the _role_ assigned to them of simple assent to ready-made decrees, and
+that the German Bishops, except those trained by the Jesuits, most
+decisively object to making new articles of faith. Many Bishops also dread
+the far-reaching consequences of Papal Infallibility, and the
+retrospective effects of the new dogma, and they know that the
+establishment of such doctrines would drive the educated classes of the
+country, if not into open schism, to an internal and lamentable breach
+with the Church. Accordingly, remonstrances have been forwarded to the
+Pope from three quarters--from the Prelates of Hungary, Bohemia, and
+Germany,--expressing the most emphatic desire that the Council should not
+be forced to any decision on Papal Infallibility, or on matters affecting
+the relations of Church and State, in the sense of the Syllabus. What
+reception this document met with in Rome may readily be divined from the
+great astonishment the Fulda Pastoral is known to have excited there, when
+a translation of it was laid before the Pope. It is now thought politic in
+Rome to deny the existence of these letters of remonstrance, but they have
+taken such effect that the highest authorities begin to hesitate, and ask
+themselves the question whether they have not gone too far in their
+confident assurance of victory. The idea of being able to carry the
+Infallibility dogma off-hand by acclamation seems at least to have been
+abandoned. It is understood that some less summary method of gaining their
+object must be resorted to, if it is to be gained at all. And hence at the
+last moment they have begun to look out for some Council Chamber where the
+Bishops may discuss the matters to be decided upon, for the chapels
+appropriated to the Council in St. Peter's are only designed for solemn
+sessions.(8) It is said in Rome that the pungent remark of a Cardinal to
+the Holy Father has had something to do with the change of the original
+scheme of an acclamation. Pius IX. had asked his opinion as to the most
+effective way of carrying the decrees, and he replied, that obviously the
+_theatrical_ effect would be greater if there was no debating, but simply
+decision by acclamation, as though by inspiration of the Holy Ghost. And
+thus the hope of getting the Council over in three weeks is also given up,
+and it is now expected to last to the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul.
+
+The drawing up of the letter of remonstrance at Fulda is said not to have
+been such plain sailing. The Pastoral originally sketched out by Heinrich,
+Canon of Mayence, but to which important additions were made subsequently,
+was subscribed by all the Bishops, even those who had been pupils of the
+Jesuits, who consoled themselves with the belief that the dogma of
+Infallibility did exactly combine the conditions specified there as
+requisite for a dogmatic decree, and was really scriptural, primitive, and
+written on the hearts of all good Catholics. So their Jesuit masters had
+taught and assured them. But the secret document sent to the Pope had
+necessarily to be more explicit, and though it was limited to pointing out
+how inopportune the definition of new dogmas, especially of Papal
+Infallibility, would be, that was precisely opposite to what the
+Jesuitizers among the Bishops were convinced of. The Jesuits themselves
+lose no opportunity of proclaiming that nothing can be more opportune than
+this dogma, and from their own point of view they may be right enough, for
+the rich and ripe fruits of the dogma would fall into their own laps, and
+would help the Society to absolute dominion over science, literature, and
+education within the Catholic Church. The proposed dogma would give
+canonical authority to the Jesuit theology, and identify it with the
+doctrine of the Church, and the Order, or the spirit of the Order, would
+always be required for teaching and vindicating the new system. The
+Bishops of Paderborn and Wuerzburg therefore refused to sign, and the
+representative of the Bishop of Spires followed their example.
+
+The scruples of these Northern Bishops were so utterly unexpected that
+they must have created great surprise at Rome. Their informant in the
+matter of the Infallibility dogma had assured the authorities, in the
+teeth of the Northern Prelates, and with the full concurrence of all the
+members of the Commission, that no fitter or more favourable time could be
+found for establishing the new dogma, for at no former period could the
+Court of Rome reckon so securely on the unconditional devotion of the
+Bishops, nor was there ever a time when they were so ready as at this
+moment to surrender before the Pope all exercise of their own judgment or
+independent examination. The remonstrances of the Hungarian, Bohemian, and
+German Bishops have of course poured water into this wine, to the no small
+astonishment and indignation of the Roman Prelates, with whom it is an
+axiom that nobody is a good Christian who does not believe the
+infallibility of the Pope as firmly as the divine mission and truthfulness
+of Christ. Accordingly, the _Correspondance de Rome_ cast in the teeth of
+Prince Hohenlohe, that since all true Catholics already hold the
+infallibility of the Pope when speaking _ex cathedra_, a decree of the
+Council will only confirm what is universally known and believed.(9) Let
+those good souls who flatter themselves that the _Civilta_, with its
+expectations and demands, stands alone, weigh well the utterances of so
+well-known a journal.
+
+The Austrian Bishops have not thought it well to follow the example of
+their Hungarian, Bohemian, and German colleagues. One of them, Dr.
+Fessler, is notoriously the most determined advocate of the whole
+ultramontane system, and was the first Bishop to declare the definition of
+the new dogma to be at once a natural and suitable work for the Council.
+His services were promptly rewarded; he is already named chief secretary
+of the Council, and his hand will press heavily on its decrees. The
+_Curia_ may congratulate itself on its choice. The silence of the Austrian
+Bishops is further explained by the differences of opinion among them
+about the questions coming before the Council.
+
+In their secret letters the Northern Bishops have opposed the new
+definition only as being inopportune, and it is known that the French
+Opposition Bishops mean to take the same ground. But it deserves careful
+consideration whether this line of action can be really tenable or
+effective at the Council. Surely it may be certainly foreseen that the far
+more numerous, and, from its determined attitude, stronger party on the
+other side will answer, "If your only objection to the dogma is that it is
+unsuited for the times, you thereby admit its truth; for if you thought it
+doubtful or erroneous, you must have opposed the definition on that
+ground. By not venturing to assail its truth, you deprive your objection
+to its opportuneness of all weight, for when was ever a religious truth,
+on which eternal salvation depends, suppressed on such a ground as this?
+Does this holding back, inspired merely by fear of men, correspond to the
+ancient spirit and lofty mission of the Church? How many of her doctrines
+would she have dared to proclaim if she had chosen to wait on the approval
+of the age? Rather, for that very reason, must religious truths be loudly
+and emphatically proclaimed, when a contrary opinion is growing among men,
+because thereby an insidious heresy is marked out and judged by the
+supreme authority in the Church. Your plea of inopportuneness is therefore
+a fresh and urgent ground for adhering firmly to the solemn definition of
+Infallibility by the Council."
+
+How far better then would it be if these Prelates were to declare simply
+and directly, what the German Bishops have indeed said in their Pastoral,
+but, of course, in general terms only, and without express mention of the
+Infallibilist hypothesis; "This doctrine possesses none of the requisite
+conditions of an article of faith; it has no guarantee either of Scripture
+or Tradition, and no roots in the conscience and religious mind of the
+Christian world." Such a line would be incomparably worthier of the
+Bishops, and would make their position far stronger and more unassailable.
+Instead of letting themselves, as is intended, be yoked, like willing
+prisoners, to the triumphal chariot of the sole infallible and sole
+defining Pope and lord, they would be making a beginning for the
+revendication of their ancient apostolical rights, which the Papacy has
+sequestered or robbed them of. They would be asserting, by implication,
+that the Papacy and the Church are not identical, and therefore that the
+Church cannot be made responsible for all decrees and actions of the
+Popes. Half-and-half courses, and false piety, in the tremendous crisis
+the Catholic Church is now entering upon, are not only powerless but
+fatal. And this half-heartedness, which looks only too like fear, will
+make the Ultramontane and Jesuit party all the bolder and stronger in
+their plans. And they continue still as firm as the rock of Peter. In the
+number for Oct. 2, p. 64, the Civilta maintains, against a new French
+paper, the _Avenir Catholique_, that the relation of the Bishops assembled
+in Council to the Pope is simply one of most absolute subjection and
+obedience to Papal commands, and declares, on the authority of Ferraris,
+who is a classical authority at Rome, what is meant by _praesidentia
+auctoritativa_, viz., the Pope's right, not only to decide on everything,
+but to coerce all opponents, by ecclesiastical censures--excommunication,
+suspension, and deposition--and other judicial means.(10) If the Pope
+strikes down every contradiction or refusal of a Bishop at once, with the
+thunderbolt of his anathemas, according to the _Civilta_ he no more
+violates the freedom belonging to the Fathers of the Council, than a man
+who keeps within his own rights in his dealings violates his neighbour's
+rights of property. We must remember, as to this definition of freedom,
+that the logic of the Jesuits has always gone its own way without
+troubling itself with the logic of the rest of mankind.
+
+It deserves notice, however, that two months before the opening of the
+Council the Jesuits had traced out for the Bishops the extent and nature
+of the freedom they are to enjoy there. They do their part frankly enough
+in dispelling any illusion on the subject. If any complaint from the
+Bishops should be heard in Rome, such as was made by the Spanish and
+French Bishops at Trent, the _Curia_ can reply that they were told all
+this beforehand. The _Civilta_ has the most direct sources of information,
+and may therefore be safely trusted when it says, in a recent number, "We
+are not the authors of the Papal thoughts, nor does Pius IX. speak and act
+under our inspiration, but _we are certainly the faithful echo of the Holy
+See_." And, as an echo of the Pope, the _Civilta,_ in its last number, p.
+182, gives a more precise explanation or statement of the infallibility of
+_ex cathedra_ decisions, as extending, not only to all dogmas, but to "all
+truths and doctrines connected with the various kinds of revealed dogmas,
+and so to all sentences and decrees concerning the common weal of the
+Church, her rights and discipline." In truth, if the Bishops don't even
+yet see the precipice to the edge of which they have been led step by step
+for years, and which they are just going to spring into, that is no fault
+of the Roman Jesuits, who have honestly done what they could to open their
+eyes. It is therefore to be earnestly wished that the _Civilta_ may be
+read and well weighed as widely as possible, for then one may hope they
+will be "forewarned, forearmed." They have certainly had no lack of signs
+and warning voices, who are expected and are willing to subscribe the
+intended decrees of the Council. "The true echo of the Holy See" proclaims
+to the world that every Pope is, ever has been, and ever will be
+infallible, _first_, when he teaches or maintains anything in any way
+connected with revealed truths of faith or morals; _secondly_, when he
+decrees anything affecting the welfare, rights, or discipline of the
+Church. Clearly therefore, henceforth the question will be, not in what
+cases the Pope is infallible, but what are the few cases where he is not
+infallible. He, as being infallible, will have the first and only right to
+determine what is the welfare of the Church, and what it requires. And
+since, in the whole range of public life, of politics and science, there
+is scarcely anything not permanently or incidentally connected with the
+weal of the Church, and with its real or assumed rights and discipline, he
+will have it in his power to make every secular question a Church
+question. For it must certainly be anathematized as an error, as the
+Syllabus says, to affirm that the Pope has exceeded the limits of his
+power. How can he possibly do so on this theory? He is infallible alike in
+the definition of doctrine and in its application to concrete cases. He is
+therefore always right in every claim and every decision, and whoever
+opposes him, or does not at once unconditionally submit, is always wrong.
+Whatever demand he makes of any State or Sovereign, whatever law or
+constitution he abrogates, he must at once be obeyed, for he acts for the
+good of the Church, and he, as being infallible, can alone judge and
+settle what that is. The episcopate and clergy must blindly submit to his
+infallible guidance and serve dutifully under his banner, when he
+proclaims war against a State, or an institution.
+
+Need we explain in detail what painful conflicts with their Governments
+and the Constitutions they have sworn to, Bishops and clergy, nay all
+Catholics, might be precipitated into on this system? What caused that
+lamentable persecution and oppression of Catholics in Great Britain, and
+their loss of civil privileges for centuries, but Paul V.'s prohibiting
+their taking the oath of allegiance to their Sovereigns? Although the oath
+contained nothing against the religious conscience of Catholics, the Pope
+condemned it because, identifying his own pretensions with the interests
+of the Church, he thought it intolerable that it denied the power of Popes
+to depose kings, absolve subjects from their allegiance, and excite revolt
+and treason against the Sovereign and the State. It is a maxim of the
+Decretals that no oath against the interests of the Church is binding.(11)
+But what is for the benefit of the Church the infallible Pope determines.
+How often have Popes identified their own political interests with the
+good of the Church, and required and occasioned the breach of oaths and
+treaties! Thus Innocent III. absolved John from his oath to observe Magna
+Charta, on his consenting to receive back his crown as a gift from him.
+When, in the fifteenth century, Eugenius IV. was at war with Francis
+Sforza, and the general Piccinino had promised not to attack him, the Pope
+absolved him from his promise, because it was prejudicial to the interests
+of the Papacy, and "a treaty prejudicial to the Church is not binding."
+Charles V. and Francis I., in their treaty of Madrid, had stipulated that
+neither should have his oath dispensed without the consent of the other;
+but Pope Clement VII. was the first to seduce the King to commit perjury,
+in order that he might form an alliance with him against the Emperor. So
+again did Paul IV. release Henry II. from his five years' truce with
+Charles V., confirmed by oath, in order to gain the King of France as an
+ally against Spain.
+
+The Jesuit theory of the infallible Pope and the extent of his powers is
+in no way less extravagant than that which deluded Agostino Trionfo into
+his deification of the Pope under John XXII.(12) Once admit the maxim of
+the Syllabus, that the Popes have never exceeded the just limits of their
+power, and it must obviously be their right to dispose of crowns and
+peoples, property and freedom, since they have in fact claimed and
+exercised the right. Thus, for instance, Nicolas V. did not at all violate
+the common rights of men, but only made a proper use of his own absolute
+authority, when he gave full power to King Alfonso of Portugal, and his
+successors, to subjugate unbelieving nations, appropriate their
+territories and all their possessions, and reduce their persons to
+perpetual slavery. Nor was Alexander VI. less justified in conferring on
+Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain and their successors the newly discovered
+countries of America, and then drawing the famous line from north to south
+through the New World, and dividing it between Spain and Portugal. It was
+to the authority of the Pope, as the lord of all mankind, to whom all men
+are subject, wherever born, and of whatever religion, since God has
+subjected the whole earth to his jurisdiction, and made him master of it,
+that the Spanish conquerors appealed against the natives. On this plea
+they treated all refusal to submit as rebellion, for which they meant to
+take vengeance on the natives--as in fact they did in the most horrible
+manner--by cruel wars, confiscation of property, and slavery. Their lust of
+conquest, with all the abominations they perpetrated, could always be
+excused and justified by the remembrance that they were only acting with
+the sanction of God's earthly representative, and punishing the refusal to
+recognise his legitimate dominion over the world.
+
+In the article we have cited, the _Civilta_ affirmed anew, on the
+authority of the Minorite, Bonaventure of S. Bernardino (_Trattato della
+Chiesa_), that the Pope can dispose of the whole "Temporali" of kings and
+princes, their authority and possessions, whenever, in his judgment, the
+good of the Church requires it. The work of a French writer, Maupied,
+gives the Fathers of the Society of Jesus the desired opportunity of again
+commending their _Magna Charta_--their favourite Bull, _Unam Sanctam_--as
+the completest exposition of the relations of Church and State (p. 213):
+"Fall down on your faces, and adore your lord and master in Rome, who can
+after his pleasure depose you, deprive you of your rights and bishoprics,
+and bid you draw or sheathe the sword." This is a compendium of the
+teaching the _Civilta_ addresses to princes and magistrates. If Papal
+Infallibility is defined by the Council as an article of faith, the whole
+system is sanctioned, down to its extremest consequences, and the Jesuits
+will not fail to point to it as proving that their political doctrines
+also are now approved.
+
+Under such auspices does the Council open, when the Bishops, according to
+the _Civilta_--"the faithful echo of the Holy See,"--have only to say Yea
+and Amen to the teachings and commands of their master. Never in her whole
+history has the Church had a severer task imposed upon her, or passed
+through a more perilous and decisive crisis than the present. It is not
+only a question of internal freedom; it is, above all, the question
+whether she is to be involved in an endless war with the political order
+and civilisation of the modern world, or by keeping to the really
+religious sphere, and thus guarding her rightful independence, is for the
+future too to fulfil throughout the widest area her blessed mission
+towards mankind. The Council, which has to decide on this alternative,
+acquires a weight and significance such as none had before it.
+
+
+
+
+
+FIRST LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, December 1869._--The Council is opened. It is, we may say, in full
+swing, and the situation has to a certain degree revealed itself. Two
+great questions are in every mind and on every tongue--_first_, "Wherein
+will the freedom promised to the Council consist, and how far will it
+extend?" and _secondly_, "Will Papal Infallibility be erected into a
+dogma?"
+
+As regards the freedom of the Council, the position of the episcopate is
+in some respects better and in others worse than at Trent three centuries
+ago. Then the Italians had the most complete and undeniable preponderance
+over the Spanish and French Prelates, who were the only others that came
+into the reckoning at all. The opposition of the latter could at best only
+stop the passing of some particular decrees, but, generally speaking,
+whatever the legates and their devoted troop of Italian Prelates desired
+was carried, and as they desired it. The numerical relations are entirely
+changed now, and there is a far more comprehensive representation of
+National Churches. The Italian Bishops, even if unanimous among
+themselves, do not form a third of the whole Synod. But what they have
+lost in numbers is abundantly made up by the lion's share the Papal Court
+seizes beforehand for itself, and thereby for the Italian _prelatura_.
+
+The first step taken, and the regulations already made by Pius IX. for the
+present Council, prove that it is not to follow the precedents of the
+ancient free Councils, or even of the Tridentine. At Trent all decrees
+still ran in the name of the Council. "The OEcumenical Tridentine Synod,
+lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost, ordains and decrees, etc.," is the
+heading of every session and its decrees. Very different is to be the
+arrangement at Rome. There has already been distributed to the Bishops a
+_Methodus in prima Sessione Concilii observanda_, which prescribes thus:
+"The Pope will hand over the decrees to the Secretary or another Bishop to
+read, who reads them with the heading, 'Pius, Episcopus, servus servorum
+Dei, _sacro approbante Concilio_, ad perpetuam rei memoriam.' " After
+reading them he asks the Cardinals and Bishops whether they assent. If all
+say _Placet_, the Pope declares the decrees carried "nemine dissentiente."
+If some answer, _Non placet_, he mentions the number, and adds, "Nosque,
+sacro approbante Concilio, illa ita decernimus, statuimus atque sancimus
+ut lecta sunt." This is the formula first introduced after Gregory VII.'s
+time, when the Papacy had climbed to its mediaeval eminence. The first to
+use it was Alexander III., at the Roman Synod of 1079.(13) It stands in
+glaring contrast to the practice of the ancient Synods for the first
+thousand years of Church history, which drew up and promulgated all their
+decisions freely, independently, and in their own name. Here the Pope
+appears as the author of the decrees, the one authoritative legislator,
+who out of courtesy allows the Bishops to express their opinions, but
+finally decides himself, in the plenitude of his sovereign power, as seems
+good to him. In another Papal document communicated to the Bishops it is
+said still more emphatically, "Nos deinde supremam nostram sententiam
+edicemus eamque nunciari et promulgari mandabimus, hac adhibita solemni
+formula, Decreta modo lecta, etc." Meanwhile one concession has been made,
+which might possibly have some value: the Pope has declared that, though
+the right of initiating measures belongs entirely to himself, he is
+willing to allow the Bishops to exercise it. This would give them the
+opportunity of at least bringing forward for discussion some of the worst
+evils--such as, _e.g._, what many of them feel to be the hateful nuisance
+of the Index--and preparing remedies. But then it must be borne in mind
+that on every question the _Curia_ has at its disposal a majority of
+Prelates, who are its own creatures, and many of them in its pay. With the
+help of this troop of devoted followers it can get rid of every
+disagreeable proposal before it is even submitted to discussion.
+
+The Sessions of the Council are solemnities only held for the formal
+promulgation of decrees already discussed and passed; the real business is
+done in the previous Congregations. Every Bishop who wants to speak there
+is to give notice the day before, but those who wish to speak without
+having given notice are not to be prevented. A congregation of twenty-four
+members is to be chosen by the Bishops from among themselves, for the
+purpose of specially investigating subjects on which differences of
+opinion have been expressed, and reporting on them. At least nine-tenths
+of the Prelates are condemned to silence simply from being unable to speak
+Latin readily and coherently through want of regular practice. And to this
+must be added the diversities of pronunciation. It is impossible, _e.g._,
+that Frenchmen or Italians should understand an Englishman's Latin even
+for a minute.(14)
+
+There will no doubt be some subjects on which the Bishops may really speak
+and determine freely. But the moment a question in any way affects the
+interests and rights of the Roman _Curia_, there is an end of their
+freedom. For every Bishop has sworn not only to maintain but constantly to
+increase all the rights of the Pope, and it is notorious that at Rome, and
+in regular intercourse with the Papal Congregations, one can take no step
+without being reminded, directly or indirectly--by courtly insinuation, or
+rudely and openly,--of this oath, and the enormous extent of the
+obligations incurred by it, which embrace the whole range of
+ecclesiastical life. The Bishops then are so far free in Council, that no
+Bishop who expresses an opinion unpalatable to the _Curia_ is threatened
+with imprisonment or bodily injury.(15) Those Bishops enjoy a larger
+freedom who have the moral courage to incur the reproach of perjury and
+the threat of Papal displeasure and its consequences; who, knowing well
+that they can only carry out the most indispensable rights and duties of
+their office by virtue of Papal privileges and delegations--quinquennial
+faculties and the like,--yet vote simply according to their
+convictions.(16) The only question is how many Bishops will act thus.
+
+The members of the Court of Rome vie with one another in assurances that
+perfect freedom will be left to the Bishops in the grand question of the
+proclamation of the new dogma of Papal Infallibility. This is confidently
+asserted by those Germans who are more deeply initiated into the views of
+the _Curia_, such as the Jesuits Franzelin, Schrader, and Kleutgen. And
+above all, Bishop Fessler, the Secretary of the Council and favourite of
+the _Curia_, who was the first among the Bishops to declare that it was
+the main business of the Council to formulate and proclaim the new dogma,
+takes especial pains to convince the Bishops that the Pope has no
+intention of bringing the subject before them himself. He admits that the
+preparatory Commission has discussed this most important and comprehensive
+of all doctrines, and has almost unanimously decided it to be both true
+and opportune; and that their reporter has shown conclusively, that
+considering the boundless devotion to Rome of the present episcopate (at
+least the majority of them), no more favourable moment could be chosen for
+enriching the Church with this new and fundamental article of faith.
+
+This is now their watchword. All the initiated repeat it, and some
+episcopal optimists try to persuade themselves and others that the danger
+is really past, and the scheme abandoned for this time. But the truth is
+this: the authorities know well enough that the absolutists among the
+Bishops--all those who hope to strengthen their dominion and extend it over
+secular matters by means of Papal Infallibility--are both numerous and
+organized, and only await the intimation that the right moment has arrived
+to come forward themselves with a motion powerfully supported. To begin
+with the Germans, there is the Bishop of Paderborn, whose Jesuit
+theologian, Roh, says that, precisely because Papal Infallibility is
+called in question by Bishops like Dupanloup and Maret, the Council must
+define it, to make any repetition of this atrocity impossible for the
+future. Then there are the Bishops of Regensburg, Wuerzburg, St. Poelten,
+and Gratz, the Belgian and English Prelates, and those of French
+Switzerland, among whom Mermillod rivals Manning in his fanatical zeal for
+the new dogma; the Spanish Prelates--men selected for promotion by Queen
+Isabella and the nuncio at Madrid, simply for their thorough-paced
+ultramontanism--pure absolutists in Church and State, who would gladly see
+the new dogma ready-made at once, but have to be restrained for a while.
+To these must be added such French Prelates as Plantier of Nimes, Pie of
+Poitiers, the Bishops of Laval and Montauban, and others. One knows least
+of the votes of the Italian and United States Bishops, who, like the
+Irish, will probably be divided. In any case the Court party can count on
+a considerable majority in favour of the new dogma.
+
+Of course the opposite party, who wish to stave it off, is strong and
+numerous. To it belong the majority of the German and Austrian, as well as
+the Bohemian and Hungarian Prelates, and among the French, the Archbishops
+of Paris, Rheims, and Avignon, the Bishops of Marseilles, Grenoble,
+Orleans, Chalons, and many more. And on the point of the time being
+inopportune for defining the Infallibilist dogma, a portion of the "old
+Papal guard,"--viz., the Italian Bishops--will join them, not to speak of
+American and Irish Prelates.
+
+But--and in this lies their weakness--they are only held together by a very
+loose bond. The one point they are agreed upon is that the promulgation of
+the new dogma will cause great embarrassments to the Church and to
+themselves personally, and involve them in all sorts of conflicts. On the
+main question, whether this substitution of an infallible man for an
+infallible Church is true, and attested by Scripture and Tradition, they
+are themselves divided. If the confidants of the _Curia_ understand how to
+insert the wedge into this split, and drive it home, they may perhaps
+contrive to break up the whole Opposition, and carry through, by an
+imposing and apparently almost unanimous vote, this Alpha and Omega of
+ultramontanism, in which all their wishes and hopes are concentrated.
+Meanwhile no stone will be left unturned, and very various methods will be
+applied, and arguments used, in working upon different Bishops. The
+earnest desire of the Holy Father will be urged on some soft-hearted
+Prelates; they will be told that the only way the Council can rejoice his
+heart amid his bitter trials, and brighten the evening of his life, is by
+freely offering him that crown of personal infallibility which former
+Popes have striven for, but never obtained. To others it will be intimated
+that the Council itself must look like a play with the chief figure left
+out, or an abortion, if the Syllabus and Infallibility are not made into
+dogmas, for there is no other question important enough to justify
+collecting 500 Bishops from five quarters of the world. Those who agree
+with the doctrine, but shrink for the present from the unpleasant
+consequences it might entail upon them, will be told, "Now, or perhaps
+never." With freedom of the press established everywhere, it will be
+impossible much longer to keep the poison of historical criticism, so
+especially rife in Germany, out of the theological schools and seminaries,
+and so perhaps the next generation of clergy will not believe so
+absolutely in Papal Infallibility as the clergy in many countries do now,
+and then the new dogma will come at an unseasonable time, and encounter
+powerful opposition. Besides, it is best to lose no time in putting the
+iron bar of the new dogma across the way, for then all historical facts
+that witness against Infallibility, all results of criticism and
+investigation, all appeals to the forgeries and fictions which helped to
+build up the edifice, are once for all got rid of and destroyed, at least
+within the Church. No Catholic will any longer venture to appeal to them,
+and if he is an historical student, he will only be able to console
+himself by saying, _Credo, quia absurdum_. The dogma has triumphed over
+history, as Manning has so admirably explained in his last Pastoral.
+
+Their favourite argument is the common one about increasing the strength
+and security of the coercive power of the Church. The Bishops are told
+that the personal infallibility of the Pope will make not only him but
+them, his delegates and plenipotentiaries, much more powerful, and that
+under its shadow they will rule with a stronger hand, for resistance will,
+in most cases, be blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, speaking through the
+Pope and his chosen instruments. Who, for instance, would any longer dare
+to defend a book condemned by the Congregation of the Index, after it had
+become infallible? On the other hand, the Bishops have their scruples, and
+some of them may be heard saying that this would be a poor consolation for
+losing half their episcopal authority, and that it is hard to ask them to
+degrade themselves, and renounce their former dignity as the supreme
+tribunal of faith, by making the Pope infallible. It might not be pleasant
+to return home from the Council with the consciousness of having
+themselves abdicated at Rome the best, and what has hitherto been held in
+the Church the highest, part of their authority, and burned it as a
+holocaust on the altar of Papal autocracy. The _role_ of a Papal courtier,
+however convenient at Rome, has its dark side north of the Alps.
+
+Already many symptoms of uneasiness betray themselves. Pius IX. said the
+other day to a German Prince of the Church, who formerly gave his opinion
+against the Immaculate Conception, and has now again pronounced openly
+against the Infallibilist dogma, _Ce dogme de l'infaillibilite passera,
+comme l'autre, malgre vous_. On the other hand, the _Regolamento_ has
+excited great discontent, for it unmistakeably indicates the design of
+giving the Pope the decision, and making the Bishops only consultors. Had
+the assembly been in some degree prepared for it, and had time allowed
+them for coming to an understanding, there would certainly have been
+opposition to it. But the heads of the French episcopate have only just
+come together, and no attempt even has been made to bring the German and
+French Bishops into communication with each other. And a feature of Roman
+policy about the Council, now first introduced, is not exactly calculated
+to promote confidence and a happy expectation of the prosperous results of
+the Synod. I mean the rigid secrecy. According to the last directions,
+all, bishops and theologians, are to maintain the strictest secrecy about
+everything, and the preliminary labours, as is well known, had to be
+carried on under the seal of secrecy of the Holy Office (the Inquisition).
+Nothing was communicated to the Bishops themselves, who came to Rome in
+complete ignorance of what they were to vote about--a procedure without any
+precedent in Church history. It really seems sometimes as if the object
+was to turn the Church topsy-turvy, and take pleasure in doing exactly the
+contrary to what the Church of earlier ages did when nearer her original
+foundation. Formerly the idea of a Council was associated with the notion
+of the fullest publicity, and the common participation of all the
+faithful; the deliberations were conducted with open doors, and all were
+admitted who wished to hear them,--for from the beginning all secrecy was
+strange and unnatural to the Church, which was distinguished from
+heathenism in the very point of neither having nor tolerating any esoteric
+doctrine or secret compact. But the Roman _prelatura_ too shares the
+Italian predilection for making mysteries,--as evidenced in the number of
+secret societies in the Peninsula,--and then the Jesuits of the _Civilta_,
+and their French and German copyists, had so solemnly promised that the
+Council would provide in its decrees a sure and effective remedy for
+humanity, sorely diseased as it is, and threatened with destruction. As
+yet we have waited in vain for any intelligible intimation of what this
+panacea is to be. Beyond Papal Infallibility and the Syllabus, nothing has
+transpired. Were the curtain to be drawn back at the beginning, and the
+secret betrayed,--that the much lauded panacea is only moonshine, and that
+the Council is not in a position to prescribe any other medicine to the
+patient named mankind than the usual and well-known remedies of faith,
+hope, and charity--the discord, already growing, would be still further
+increased. It is well therefore to lay the finger on the lips.
+
+Meantime the Pope has united the most thorough-paced Infallibilists,
+Manning, Plantier of Nimes, Pie of Poitiers, Mermillod of Geneva, and
+Deschamps of Mechlin, on a Committee said to be intrusted with the
+discussion of very important questions. Manning appears to be recognised
+as their leader by all the adherents of the new dogma, and Mermillod
+strongly supports him. Cardinal Pitra, the French Benedictine formerly
+intrusted with a mission, which proved unsuccessful, to the Archbishop of
+Rouen, Cardinal Bonnechose, has lately tried the same plan with the German
+Bishops. He began by describing the Bishop of Orleans as a mischievous
+teacher of error, and was obliged to hear, much to his surprise, that
+these German Bishops quite agreed with Dupanloup, and the Hungarians with
+the Germans. Thus all have taken their side, or will do so in the next few
+days. All the Spanish, Belgian, and English(17) Bishops, the majority of
+the Italians, and a considerable number of the French, have ranged
+themselves under the banner of the new dogma. They all declare that it
+must now be decreed that every one, without exception, must inwardly
+believe and outwardly confess Papal Infallibility on pain of damnation;
+and all the more so, since Pius himself has now abandoned the reserved
+attitude he had maintained up to this time in presence of the
+diplomatists, and openly proclaims, that, being himself profoundly
+convinced of his own infallibility, he neither can nor will tolerate any
+further doubt about it in others. And thus the influence of this party is
+very powerful, and already preponderates; the whole mechanism of the
+Council, the order of business, the _personnel_ of its officers, in short
+everything, is substantially in their hands, or will be placed at their
+disposal. All preparations were made in their interest, and all
+alternatives were foreseen. That great ecclesiastical polypus, with its
+thousand feelers and arms, the Jesuit Order, works for it under the earth
+and on the earth; _Mea res agitur_ is its watchword.
+
+On the other side, ready for the contest, and resolved at least to show
+fight, stand the German, Bohemian, and Hungarian Bishops,--with the
+exception, of course, of Martin, Senestrey, Fessler, and some others--and
+all among the French, American, and Irish Bishops who possess any culture
+and knowledge. These men still hope to see a portion of the Oriental
+Bishops--the real ones, not the mere Italian so-called
+Vicars-Apostolic--join their side, and there is indeed a very general
+anxiety as to what position the Orientals, especially the Armenians, will
+take up in reference to the great questions at issue. They would all like
+to keep the Church free from the millstone of the new dogma intended to be
+hung about her neck, though very few even among them have a clear
+perception of the momentous consequences it would entail, in science and
+literature, in politics, and in the relations of the Catholic Church to
+other Churches. But the whole party has wind and sun against it, and has
+to join battle in the most unfavourable position, on slippery soil, and
+confined to acting on the defensive under the greatest difficulties. The
+Infallibilists, from the nature of the case, are far clearer and better
+agreed, both as to end and means, than their adversaries, many of whom do
+not conceal their predilection for the dogma, though they tremble at the
+consequences of it. Moreover, many of them will allow themselves to be
+gained over before long, whether through devotion to Pius IX., or by the
+threats and enticements the _Curia_ knows so well how to apply, and for
+which it possesses an inexhaustible treasury to choose from. There is, for
+instance, the honorary title granted by Rome to about 250 Bishops, _solio
+Pontificio assistens_, which seems to the short-sighted only fit for
+lackeys, but is in fact greatly sought after, and will be most graciously
+accorded to those who unconditionally surrender themselves. And then there
+are those manifold concessions out of the rich store of Papal reserved
+rights, special benedictions, and the like, so that there are always nine
+out of every ten Bishops who want one at least of these privileges.
+
+We may readily conceive the excitement in the Jesuit camp. After the
+patient, indefatigable toil of years of seed-time, the harvest-time seems
+to them to be come at last. Up to 1773, their Order, from its numbers, the
+cultivation of its members, the influence of its schools and educational
+establishments, and its compact organization, was unquestionably the most
+powerful religious corporation, but at the same time was limited and held
+in check by the influence and powerful position of the other Orders.
+Augustinians, Carmelites, Minorites, and, above all, Dominicans, were
+likewise strong, and, moreover, leagued together for harmonious action
+through their common hatred of the Jesuits, or through the natural desire
+to escape being mastered by them. Dominicans and Augustinians possessed by
+long prescription the most influential offices in Rome, so much so indeed
+that the two Congregations of the Index and the Holy Office were entirely
+in the hands of the Order of Preachers, to the exclusion of the Jesuits.
+Since the restoration of the Jesuits this is completely changed, and
+entirely in their interest. All the ancient Orders are now in decline,
+above all, in theological importance and influence; they do but vegetate
+now. Moreover, the Dominicans have been saddled with a General thoroughly
+devoted to the Jesuits, Jandel, a Frenchman, who is exerting himself to
+root out in his Order the Thomist doctrines, so unpalatable to the
+Jesuits. The youngest of the great Orders, the Redemptorists or
+Liguorians, act--sometimes willingly, sometimes unwillingly--as the serving
+brothers, road-makers, and labourers for the Jesuits. And hence, now that
+they enjoy the special favour of the Pope, they have come to acquire a
+power in Rome which may be called quite unexampled. They have, in fact,
+become already the legislators and trusted counsellors of the Pope, who
+sees with their eyes and hears with their ears. To those familiar with the
+state of things at Rome, it is enough to name Piccirillo. For years past
+they have implanted and fostered in the mind of Pius IX. the views he now
+wants to have consecrated into dogmas, and have managed to set aside, and
+at last reduce to impotence, the influence of wise men, who take a sober
+view of the condition of the times. When the Dominican Cardinal Guidi, who
+was then the most distinguished theologian in Rome, freely expressed to
+the Pope his views about the projected Council and the measures to be
+brought before it, from that hour he was not only allowed no audience of
+Pius IX., but was excluded from all share in the preparatory labours of
+the Council, so that he remained in entire ignorance of the matters to be
+laid before it. But the Jesuits are also the oracles of many Cardinals,
+whose votes and opinions are very often ready-made for them in the Gesu.
+The Congregation of the Index, which they used formerly so often to
+attack, blame, and accuse of partiality, when their own works were
+censured by it, is now becoming more and more their own domain, though the
+chief places are still in the hands of the Dominicans; and this may
+gradually take place with most of the Congregations in whose hands is
+centralized the guidance and administration of Church affairs in all
+countries.
+
+And thus, if Papal Infallibility becomes a dogma, what inevitably awaits
+us is, that this Infallibility will not merely be worked in certain cases
+by the counsel and direction of the Jesuits; much more than that. The
+Jesuits will for the future be the regular stewards of this treasure, and
+architects of the new dogmas we have to expect. They will stamp the
+dogmatic coinage and put it into circulation. It is enough to know the
+earlier history of the Society to know what this means, and what an
+immense capital of power and influence it will place at their command.
+"Rulers and subjects"--that will henceforth be the relation between the
+Jesuits and the theologians of other Orders. Worst of all will be the
+position of theologians and teachers who belong to no Order. At the mercy
+of the most contradictory judgments, as is already, _e.g._, the case in
+France, constantly exposed to the displeasure of the Jesuits, of the
+_Curia_, and of their Bishop or his adviser, and daily threatened in their
+very existence, how are they to get spirit, perseverance, or zeal for
+earnest studies, deep researches, and literary activity? Every Jesuit,
+looking down from the impregnable height of his privileged position, will
+be able to cry out to the theologians of the secular clergy, "Tu longe
+sequere et vestigia prorsus adora;" for now is that fulfilled which the
+Belgian Jesuits demanded 230 years ago in their _Imago Societatis Jesu_.
+Their Order is now really, and in the fullest sense, the Urim and Thummim
+and breastplate of the High Priest--the Pope--who can only then issue an
+oracular utterance when he has consulted his breastplate, the Jesuit
+Order.(18) Only one thing was still wanting for the salvation of a world
+redeemed and regenerated once again: the Jesuits must again become the
+confessors of monarchs restored to absolute power.
+
+It is one of the notes of an age so rich in contradictions that the
+present General of the Order, Father Beckx, is not in harmony with the
+proceedings of his spiritual militia. Here, in Rome, he is reported to
+have said, "In order to recover two fractions of the States of the Church,
+they are pricking on to a war against the world--but they will lose all."
+But for that reason, as is known, he possesses only the outward semblance
+of Government, while it is really in the hands of a conference. With this
+the fact seems to be connected that he has appointed for his theologian at
+the Council the most learned and liberal-minded man of his Order, Father
+de Buck--a man whose views stand in much the same relation to those of his
+fellow-Jesuits Perrone, Schrader, and Curli, as the Bishop of Orleans's
+views to those of the Archbishop of Westminster.
+
+
+
+
+
+SECOND LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Dec. 18, 1869._--After the solemn receptions, and the formal opening
+of the Council, visits, audiences, and homages, the time for serious
+business has arrived, and the Fathers have emerged from the dim twilight
+of early synodical dawn into the clear daylight. People have begun to get
+mutually acquainted, and to question one another. The first chaotic
+condition of an exceedingly mixed assemblage, some of whose members
+scarcely understand one another, or not at all, has been succeeded by a
+sort of division, through the _rapprochement_ and closer combination of
+men of similar views. As we related before, two great parties of very
+unequal strength have organized themselves, and the shibboleth which
+caused this division is the question of Papal Infallibility, which is
+universally and consistently taken to imply that whoever is resolved to
+vote for this dogma is also ready to give his vote for all the articles of
+the Syllabus, and generally for every dogmatic proposition emanating from
+the Pope.
+
+The Synod is unquestionably the most numerous ever held; never in the
+early or mediaeval Church have 767 persons entitled to vote by their
+episcopal rank been assembled. It is also the most various in its national
+representation. Men look with wonder at the number of missionary Bishops
+from Asia, Africa, and Australia. If one considers the constant complaints
+of want of funds in the missionary journals, the great distance, the
+difficulty and expense of the journey, and how much these men are wanted
+in the ill-organized state of their dioceses, with so few priests, the
+question occurs, Who bears the cost, and what means were employed to rob
+so many millions for a long time of their spiritual guides? Meanwhile most
+of the Bishops are pupils of the Roman Propaganda, and obedient to every
+hint of its will. And the more the new dogma is combated, the more
+necessary is the imposing _consensus_ of five quarters of the world--of
+Negroes, Malays, Chinese, and Hottentots, as well as Italians and
+Spaniards.
+
+More than two-thirds of the Council are either completely agreed, or at
+least won over to the necessity of making the personal infallibility of
+the last 256 Popes, and their future successors, an article of faith now.
+Since the original design of carrying it by simple acclamation has been
+given up, Manning has renounced the _role_ assigned to him of initiating
+it. But the Bishops of the Spanish tongue on both sides the ocean--in South
+America and the Philippine Isles--have declared, in a meeting held in the
+apartments of their Cardinal, Moreno, that they are ready to propose the
+dogma. A Roman Cardinal said lately of Bishops of this sort, "If the Pope
+ordered them to believe and teach four instead of three Persons in the
+Trinity, they would obey."
+
+The other party, opposed to the dogma, includes towards 200 Bishops, and
+this is more than even the most sanguine ventured to hope at first. To it
+belong the majority of the German, Austrian, and Hungarian Bishops, half
+the French, all the Portuguese, some Irish, at least half the North
+American and Canadian, and a considerable number of the Oriental. If the
+votes were not only counted, but weighed according to the intellectual
+standard of the voters, the 200 would be far the majority. Among the
+German Bishops, besides those already named, the two Tyrolese, Gasser and
+Riccabona, Leonrod Bishop of Eichstadt, and the Vicar of Luxembourg,
+belong to the Infallibilists. Ketteler of Mayence, half won over by his
+hosts--he lives in the German College(19)--half succumbing himself, is said
+to purpose deserting to the same camp. He, as well as Stahl, Leonrod, and
+Martin are hampered awkwardly by the Fulda Pastoral, which they
+subscribed, but when once the knot is loosened or cut, they have only to
+bring their assent to the new dogma.
+
+It is said in the ruling circles that an opposition of 40 Bishops and
+under is so small and insignificant in so large a Council that no account
+need be taken of it. This would be to give up the principle always
+hitherto maintained, even at Trent, that no decision in points of faith
+could be issued without the physical or moral unanimity of the Council.
+But as the dogma in question is one which for the future will make all
+majorities and minorities of episcopal votes superfluous and valueless, it
+may very well be that by anticipation, or by virtue of an exception which
+is now to be made into a rule, the minority should in this case be
+pronounced non-existent and undeserving of any notice. I hear other
+curialists say that, as soon as the Opposition is reduced to 40, they,
+under a sense of their impotence, will give up all resistance, and either
+quit the field, or come over to the conquering side. And so the present
+strength of the Opposition must be greatly diminished, and this is being
+strenuously laboured at. There are plenty of means for the purpose, and as
+long as there are Bishops who think themselves fortunate if they gain the
+title of "Domestic Prelate to the Pope," a gentle pressure or insinuation,
+the prospect of a privilege, or a robe of distinguished colour, will
+produce the desired effect on many. Such things act like those insects
+which bore through the hardest wood. The episcopate of course has still
+many men to show who are inaccessible to threats or seduction. But we
+should like to count up at the end of the Council how many have passed
+unscathed through the fiery ordeal. Meanwhile a confident certainty of
+victory prevails among the majority. Manning said the other day to an
+acquaintance of mine, "So sure as I stand here, the dogma of Infallibility
+will be proclaimed," and on the other hand, one of the leading Bishops of
+the Opposition said lately, "I came here with small hopes, and with a
+feeling of oppression, but I have found everything worse than I expected."
+A German priest had been summoned to Rome as theologian of his Order by
+the General, a Spaniard. At first greeting him the General said that the
+great end they were all bound to work for was to come to an understanding
+on the dogma of Papal Infallibility. And when the German professed an
+opposite opinion, and handed him a work he had written in that sense, the
+conclusion was soon arrived at: he was sent home at once as useless, and
+even mischievous. When he was taking leave of certain Bishops, one of them
+said to him, "I should rejoice if any one recalled me or sent me home; we
+Bishops have been ordered here to the Council, without being told what we
+are to deliberate upon, and now that I know it I would gladly turn my back
+on the Council and on Rome."
+
+The 500 Infallibilists have good ground for their confidence. It is but
+natural, to begin with, that they should trust the magical power of those
+resources of the _Curia_ they have themselves had experience of. And,
+next, they are well aware of their excellent organization, which has
+hitherto proved irresistible. They are commanded from two centres acting
+in common, the Gesu and the Propaganda. The Jesuit General, Beckx, if by
+no means in harmony with the line taken by the _Civilta_, which has been
+removed from his jurisdiction, thinks and feels about the Infallibility
+question in strict accordance with the doctrine and rules of his Order,
+and knows how to hold fast the threads with the support and counsel of his
+assistants. Not a few Bishops, without knowing it themselves, get drawn
+and moved round by these wires which meet in the Gesu. If they cannot be
+commanded at once, they will be slowly but surely led into the right road
+by a chaplain or secretary or consultor devoted to the Order. The
+Propaganda, as we said before, provides for all missionary Bishops, and it
+again is inspired from the Gesu. The whole machine works so accurately
+that lately, in the selecting of a Commission, 450 voting papers contained
+the same names. So admirably is the discipline managed that many a Cabinet
+majority might envy this scarcely attainable ideal of the Council.
+
+
+
+
+
+THIRD LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Dec. 19, 1869._--Since I have been here, breathing physically and
+morally the air of Rome, and have heard some of the most prominent
+Infallibilists, I can understand a good deal which was an enigma to me
+when in Germany. The leading spirits of this party believe in the advent
+of a new spiritual dispensation, a period of the Holy Ghost, which is to
+depend on the turning-point of this definition of Papal Infallibility.
+Archbishop Manning declared some years ago, in a speech received with
+enthusiastic applause by the Roman dignitaries, "La Chiesa Cattolica di
+oggidi esce tutta nuova del fianco del Vicario di Gesu Cristo." This
+reference to the formation of the woman from Adam's rib is very
+suggestive, for Eve, by the Divine ordinance, was to be subject to the
+man,--and it includes the notion which I have met with in several quarters
+here, that the proclamation of the new dogma will be immediately followed
+by an outpouring of the Holy Ghost, and a renewal of the Pentecostal
+miracle. There will of course be this difference, that henceforth the
+Bishops will no longer speak with tongues, like the apostles and disciples
+on the day of Pentecost, but only with the tongue of the Infallible Pope,
+and will utter in this way the thoughts and words of the Holy Ghost. Hence
+not the slightest effect is produced when any one, say a German or
+Englishman, points to the terrible intellectual stumbling-block that will
+thereby be obtruded on the faithful, and the perplexity and inward
+alienation of so many thousands, and those too the higher and leading
+minds, which may be certainly foreseen. The gain will far exceed the loss;
+numberless Protestants and schismatics, attracted by the powerful magnet
+of Papal Infallibility, and the power of the Holy Ghost, hidden in Papal
+utterances, will stream into the Church--that is the sort of vision
+hovering before these men. And a man who believes in an age of the Holy
+Ghost cares nothing for what is said of the breach with the views and
+traditions of the ancient Church involved in the new article of faith: he
+thinks it quite in order that a new dogma should inaugurate a new era.
+Compared with such fanaticism, the speech of another Infallibilist leader,
+a Frenchman, at a public dinner, sounds sober, though in its way it is no
+less extravagant, when he assures us that the great connoisseur and
+discoverer of subterranean Rome, the Cavaliere de Rossi, has detected
+Papal Infallibility in the Catacombs, and whoever wants to see and
+appreciate it there, has only to descend into them.
+
+Pius IX. finds that he can undertake what he likes with a majority so
+absolutely devoted to him and simply at his beck. The assurance, so often
+reiterated not long ago, that nothing was meant to be decreed which could
+disturb Governments or introduce conflicts between Church and State, seems
+to be already forgotten or held superfluous, and a number of Bishops, at a
+general audience, heard, not without consternation, from the mouth of the
+highest authority, the statement that the Syllabus must be made dogmatic:
+it would be better to yield in other points than give that up.
+
+Meanwhile the Opposition grows visibly stronger, and men like Darboy,
+Dupanloup, and MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam,(20) are not to be despised as
+leaders. They are not content with getting rid of Infallibility and the
+Syllabus, but strive for some freedom in the Council, and here they find
+sympathy even among the Infallibilists. For to have their hands so
+completely tied by the Pope's regulations, has surpassed all, even the
+worst, anticipations of the Bishops. That first gleam of hope, excited by
+the announcement that the Bishops would be allowed to propose motions, has
+speedily vanished. For it has become clear that this was merely intended
+to save the Pope from having to propose his own Infallibility to the
+Council, and provide for the motion emanating from the Bishops--according
+to the present plan, the Spanish Bishops. The right of initiation is
+rendered purely illusory by the fact that the Pope has reserved to himself
+and the Commission he has named, composed of the stanchest Infallibilists,
+the sanction or rejection of every motion. To this must be added the
+regulations for the order of business, and the naming by the Pope of all
+the officials of the Council, as well as the scrutators and presidents of
+Congregations or Commissions. This is an act of arbitrary power, and a
+gagging of the Council, far beyond anything attempted even at Trent. Yet
+at Trent the want of freedom was felt to be so great that for 300 years
+the Catholic world has manifested no desire to repeat the experiment of a
+Council. But what will be the impression made by the present Council,
+where the order of business is so managed as to make any serious
+discussion impossible? The strongest expressions of discontent come from
+the French Prelates, they feel how undignified, not to say ridiculous, is
+the _role_ assigned to them,--of saying _Placet_ to ready-made decrees--even
+more keenly than the Germans, who are also greatly disgusted. Attempts to
+protest against this oppressive code in the Congregation were suppressed
+by the declaration of the President, Cardinal de Luca, that the Pope had
+so ordained, and no discussion could be allowed on the subject. He would
+allow neither the courageous Bishop Strossmayer nor Archbishop Darboy to
+say a word on these intolerable restrictions. The whole scene made a
+profound impression.
+
+On December 14 the two parties measured their strength and organization in
+electing the twenty-four members for the Commission _de Fide_, which is,
+of course, the most important of all. The Liberals were completely
+overmatched, and, notwithstanding their 200 votes, not indeed properly
+combined, failed to carry one of their candidates. Neither Dupanloup nor
+Hefele could be brought in. A list of names to be voted for from the
+Propaganda was handed to every trusted partisan; the Italians and
+Spaniards were also furnished with one, and so all the Infallibilist
+leaders appear on the list of the Committee, Manning and Deschamps, Martin
+and Senestrey, Pie of Poitiers, Reynier of Cambray, then some Italians,
+Spaniards, and South Americans,--these therefore are the flower of
+theological learning among the Bishops. One of these men they must keep
+their eye fixed on, for he seems called to take a place of supreme
+importance and honour in this Council, and if all goes well, will
+certainly be counted with the heroes of ancient Councils, Athanasius,
+Cyril, and Augustine. This is Mgr. Cardoni, Archbishop of Edessa,
+Secretary to the Congregation for examining Bishops, Consultor of several
+other Congregations, theologian of the Dataria, and President of the
+Ecclesiastical Academy. Yet this man was not long ago a very obscure
+personage, even in Rome, but as First Consultor of the Preparatory
+Commission of Dogmas, he composed the report or _Votum_ of forty pages on
+Papal Infallibility. This is now printed and distributed, and serves as
+the basis for the discussion on the subject to be introduced in Council.
+Cardoni himself, as reporter, will discharge the necessary offices of
+midwife at the birth of the new dogma; he will have the last word if any
+doubts or objections are raised, and then at least 500 votes will proclaim
+at once the Infallibility of the Pope and the triumph of the greatest and
+most fortunate of Roman theologians. Cardoni will immediately be made
+Cardinal; as he brings this Divine gift to the Pope, he will himself
+partake in the enjoyment of what is so much indebted to him, and will reap
+the harvest of his labours.
+
+
+
+
+
+FOURTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Dec. 20, 1869._--It may truly be said that theology is now rare,
+very rare, in Rome. There is, of course, no lack of theologians; the Pope
+himself has no less than a hundred, chiefly monks; but if they were all
+pounded together in a mortar into one theologian, even this one would find
+some difficulty in getting his claims recognised in Germany. If any one
+here were to demand of the so-called theologians what, between the North
+Sea and the Alps, is considered the first requisite for a theologian,--the
+capacity of reading the New Testament and the Greek Fathers and Councils
+in the original language,--he would be ridiculed as a dreamer. And as to
+the theology of many Bishops, one is often reminded of the daughters of
+Phorcys, who had only one eye and one tooth, which they lent each other by
+turns to use. Not a few of them flutter about Infallibility like flies
+about a candle, in evident fear of getting burnt. But when the critical
+moment comes, they will vote obediently as the master whose power they
+have sworn to increase bids them. If the Prelates were even slightly
+acquainted with Church history, they would certainly recoil in terror from
+the maxims and doctrines their decision will recall from the realm of
+shadows they seem to have sunk into, and clothe again with flesh and
+blood. They would recoil from the complications and contests they and
+their successors must hereafter be involved in with all nations and
+governments, as forced executors of every infallible utterance of 256
+Popes.
+
+The sudden departure of Cardinal Mathieu, Archbishop of Besancon, is
+connected with the election of the Commission on Faith, which turned out
+so unfortunately for the Germans; the French Bishops after the previous
+consultation had divided their forces, the Infallibilists voting for
+Bonnechose, their opponents for Cardinal Mathieu. The defeated party
+wanted to protest against a scandalous intrigue about the election,
+carried on by a man whose name I suppress; and Mathieu's sudden departure
+was in order to avoid being mixed up with the conflict, and from disgust
+at the whole affair.
+
+A singular incident not long since created some sensation and amusement in
+English circles. The English Bishops, like their Archbishop, Manning, are
+declared Infallibilists--a tendency first introduced among the clergy there
+since Wiseman's time, for before that Gallican views prevailed almost
+universally in England, and definite assurances were given on the subject
+at the time of Catholic Emancipation. And as Papal Infallibility implied
+necessarily the doctrine of the Pope's dominion over monarchs and
+governments, which was formally abjured--_e.g._, in the Irish clerical
+seminary of Maynooth--the Infallibilist theory was supposed to be shelved
+also. It chanced that lately the _Pall Mall Gazette_, which is much read
+even here, under the heading, "The Infallibility of the Pope a Protestant
+Invention," quoted the following question and answer from a widely-used
+manual of instruction, approved by many Bishops, and highly praised even
+in Manning's journal, the _Tablet_, called _The Controversial
+Catechism_:--"_Q._ Are not Catholics bound to believe that the Pope is in
+himself infallible?--_A._ This is a Protestant invention, and is no article
+of Catholic belief; no Papal decision can bind under pain of heresy,
+unless received and prescribed by the teaching body, the Bishops of the
+Church."
+
+At the moment I am writing, there is a pause, but by no means a truce. _Le
+Concile ne marche pas, mais il intrigue_, I heard a Frenchman say this
+morning. The acoustic qualities of the Assembly Hall, which is the whole
+height of St. Peter's, make it quite unfit for use. If anything is to be
+proclaimed, it must be shouted at full pitch to the four sides. It
+happened the other day that the Bishops on one side were crying _Placet_,
+while those on the other side expressed their opinion by _Non placet, quia
+nihil intelleximus_. Pius IX., who was long ago made aware of the state of
+the case, really thought that all discussion was superfluous. And as the
+hall must be abandoned as utterly useless, the 120,000 scudi lavished on
+preparing it are wasted. There is no lack of funds, however; so much so,
+that 20,000 scudi have been spent already on laying the foundation of the
+memorial pillar of the Council. These things must make an indescribable
+impression on those who have heard most touching pictures drawn in the
+pulpit at home of the wants and poverty of the Head of the Church.
+
+Antonelli, to whom the impossibility of carrying on the Council in this
+place has been represented, has now taken the matter in hand, and another
+chamber is to be found and got ready. A room in the Quirinal is talked of,
+or the _atrium_ over St. Peter's in the Sistine. The latter would be an
+ominous place, for in the _Sala Regia_, which the Bishops must pass
+through to enter the Sistine, is Vasari's famous picture, painted by order
+of Gregory XIII., for the glorification of the massacre of St.
+Bartholomew. The contemplation of this picture, which now, since the
+publication of the nuncio Salviati's despatches, the Pope is proved to
+have ordered with full knowledge of the real nature of that horrible
+occurrence, and full intention of sanctioning it, might perhaps somewhat
+indispose the Prelates to vote for the articles of the Syllabus on
+religious coercion and the power of the Church to inflict bodily
+punishment. Antonelli means now to take up the Council in earnest. For
+him, indeed, who was formerly an advocate, the theological side of
+Infallibility has little interest; but he is too skilful and experienced a
+statesman and financier not to appreciate keenly the gain to be derived
+from the new dogma in all countries, in the shape of power, influence, and
+revenue. He understands well enough, and better than many statesmen this
+side the Alps, the incalculable consequences of having it henceforth
+taught and insisted on as a first principle in every catechism, public
+school, and country pulpit, that Papal decrees and decisions, not only in
+the domain of faith but of morals, the relations of Church and State, and
+the whole life of society, are absolutely infallible,--of its being made
+the first and crucial question for Catholics in all cases, What has the
+infallible Pope, either the reigning pontiff or one of his predecessors,
+decided on this point, or what will he decide if asked?
+
+A Bull appeared yesterday, which, if read and understood, would create
+great excitement. It professes to abolish a part of the numerous
+excommunications _latae sententiae_,(21) which the Popes have gradually
+accumulated; but virtually it is intended as a renewal or confirmation of
+the Bull _In Coena Domini_, which Clement XIV. (Ganganelli) first dropped
+the custom of publishing annually, and which, from his time, had been
+regarded, everywhere out of Rome, as abrogated, though the _Curia_ always
+maintained that it was binding in principle, as Cretineau-Joli shows in
+his Memoirs of Consalvi. I am only giving here the judgment of a friend
+who has read the Bull. If he is rightly informed, it is but the first link
+in a chain of decrees embodying the retrospective force of the anticipated
+dogma, for the saying will hold good then, "Quod fuimus erimus, quod
+fecimus faciemus." Every claim once advanced must be maintained, every
+doctrinal proposition renewed, and so the living body will be chained to a
+corpse.
+
+Desertions from the ranks of the Opposition to the majority of 500, must,
+no doubt, be reckoned on, and the renegades will say, like Talleyrand,
+that they are not deserting, but only coming in earlier than others.
+Whether these desertions will be numerous enough to reduce the minority to
+40 or 50, as the authorities hope, will be determined when the question of
+opportuneness gets disentangled from the question of principle. For it
+requires more than common courage to make open profession of disbelief in
+the Infallibilist dogma at Rome, since the Pope, in his letters to Manning
+and Deschamps, has indulged in severe censures of those who question his
+infallibility; and every Cardinal and Monsignore is accustomed to express
+himself in the same sense.
+
+Can this Council, then, which can move neither hand nor foot, be called
+free? Is an assembly free, when no speech can be made, no single decision
+come to, without the express permission of an external master? If this is
+freedom, there has never been an unfree Council. So I hear many saying, as
+well clergy as laity, and even Bishops. The Pope, of course, has not
+forgotten that, on the day of his election, sitting on the High Altar of
+that very church where the Council is now being held, he was adored by the
+Cardinals, and four days afterwards crowned with the triple tiara, with
+the words, "Scias te esse rectorem orbis." It has been summoned to arrange
+and negotiate the transition from the previous condition of the Church to
+a new one. Till now, at least in theory, Councils were, or were supposed
+to be, assemblies deliberating and deciding freely. But, in the new
+condition of the Church, under the rule of Papal Infallibility, assemblies
+of Bishops are purely superfluous, or only useful as machines for
+acclamation. The present assembly stands midway between the old Church and
+the new, and participates in both. The vital breath of freedom and
+independence it is deprived of, but it is not yet a mere
+acclamation-machine: it can still dissent and say, _Non placet_. On the
+day when the new dogma is proclaimed, and the eternal city again, as in
+1517,(22) declares its joy by illuminations, the Synod will have killed
+itself with its own hand, and marched into the grave as the last of its
+generation. And just as when a knight died the last of his race, his
+shield was broken and his arms obliterated, so will the usual chapter _De
+Conciliis_ be obliterated from the dogmatic manuals.
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Dec. 23, 1869._--The Council is suspended for a while, for want of
+an available place of meeting, or is occupied only in studying the
+_Schemata_ that have been distributed at home, and deliberating in
+different sections. The German Bishops have resolved to address a memorial
+to the Pope, protesting against being put into a strait-waistcoat by the
+regulations for the order of business, and claiming the right of proposing
+motions freely. They think it intolerable that every proposal, wish, or
+motion should have first to be examined, revised, and mutilated or changed
+at their pleasure by two Commissions, before it can even come on for
+discussion. And how are these two Commissions composed? Of course, the
+eight German Bishops who have already separated themselves from their
+countrymen, and prefer to associate with Spaniards and South Americans,
+hold aloof from this proceeding too. If I am correctly informed, a similar
+memorial has been handed in from the French Bishops; it was, at least,
+being circulated for signature during the last few days.
+
+You will have received, or found in the French and English papers, the
+Bull of Excommunications I mentioned in my last. As I said before, it is a
+re-issue of the Bull _In Caena Domini_. Certain excommunications nobody
+paid any attention to are dropped out, as, _e.g._, of sovereigns and
+governments who levy taxes without permission of the Pope. But new
+censures of wide application have come into their place. In reading the
+Bull, one feels as if one had got into the thick of a tempest, so fierce
+and frequent are the lightning-flashes of the Vatican ban, darting and
+burning in all directions. If they were to be treated seriously, there
+would not be many houses in the cities of Europe that would not be struck.
+The Bishops are hit hard; one unpleasant surprise follows on another.
+While they are considering how to secure a minimum of freedom in the
+Council, they are suddenly overwhelmed with a hailstorm of
+excommunications, many of which are directly aimed at themselves, but all
+of which are to be administered and executed by them and their clergy.
+They are summoned to Rome, and hardly have they got there when this Bull
+of anathemas, drawn up without their knowledge or participation, and which
+thrusts the souls intrusted to them by thousands out of the Church, is
+sent to them; and the whole burden of it, with all its endless
+consequences and complications, is laid on their shoulders. They seem
+intended to drain the cup of humiliation to the dregs. The only persons
+pleased with the Bull, as far as I can see, are the Jesuits, who are in
+the very best spirits here in Rome, and see both present and future in the
+most rosy hues. The view of the pious Bishops is simple and unanimous: the
+more excommunications, so many more reserved cases and perplexed and
+tormented consciences. But the confessionals of the Jesuits will be doubly
+thronged, who are furnished with all sorts of plenary powers of
+absolution, and are thus made indispensable, and placed in a very superior
+position to the secular clergy. Moreover, the Bishops are deprived of the
+power of absolving from these censures. So each of these multiplied
+excommunications is worth its weight in gold to the Order, and helps to
+build Colleges and Professed Houses.
+
+The Bull containing directions in the event of the Pope's death occurring
+during the Council was not issued by Pius IX. from any real anxiety to
+provide for such an occurrence,--for he enjoys the best health, and in all
+probability will falsify the old proverb, "Non numerabis annos Petri."(23)
+No one really supposed the Council would claim the right of electing in
+Conclave, as occurred once under totally different circumstances, after
+the deposition of a Pope (John XXIII.) at Constance. The real point of the
+document lies in the declaration that the Council is to be at once
+dissolved on the Pope's death, as a corpse from which the soul has
+departed. And this is a decisive intimation of the relations not only of
+the dead but of the living Pope to the Council. The Bull might be summed
+up in the words, "Without me you are nothing, and against me and my will
+you can do nothing."
+
+The opposition of German and French Bishops to the new dogma was more or
+less anticipated here; what was not expected was that the Orientals,
+numbering about sixty, and the North American Bishops, would pronounce
+against it. The former declare openly that no surer means could be found
+to throw back their Churches into schism, and place them under the holy
+Synod in St. Petersburg or the Patriarch in Stamboul. The Americans ask
+how they are to live under the free Constitutions of their Republic, and
+maintain their position of equality with their (Protestant)
+fellow-citizens, after committing themselves to the principles attested by
+Papal Infallibility, such as religious persecution and the coercive power
+of the Church, the claim of Catholicism to exclusive mastery in the State,
+the Pope's right to dispense from oaths, the subjection of the civil power
+to his supreme dominion, etc. The inevitable result would be that
+Catholics would be looked upon and treated as pariahs in the United
+States, that all religious parties would be banded together against them
+as common enemies, and would endeavour, as far as possible, to exclude
+them from public offices. One of the American Bishops lately said, "Nobody
+should be elected Pope who has not lived three years in the United States,
+and thus learnt to comprehend what is possible at this day in a freely
+governed Commonwealth."
+
+But even in the apparently compact and admirably organized mass of the 500
+Infallibilists, softly whispered doubts are beginning to be heard here and
+there. Before the eyes of some of these devoted Prelates hovers a pale and
+warning ghost, called exclusion of the clergy and of Catholic instruction
+from the public schools. It would indeed be impossible to put more
+effective weapons into the hands of the powerful and increasing party who
+are aiming at this, than by giving its due prominence henceforth in all
+Catechisms to the supreme article of faith of Papal Infallibility, with
+some of its consequences expressed, and others left to be orally supplied
+by the teacher, so that boys and girls would be trained in full knowledge
+of the glaring contradiction between religion and the order of the State,
+the Church and the Constitution of their country.(24) A Belgian layman
+here assured me yesterday that the result of the new dogma in his country
+would be a powerful movement against the position of the clergy in the
+primary schools; the gymnasia and middle schools they have lost already.
+One of the Belgian Bishops even is said to begin to be troubled with these
+apprehensions. And now a cry of distress is rising from England. The
+National Education League has published its programme for a system of
+compulsory education of the people, excluding all denominational teaching,
+and only allowing the Bible for religious reading. The English Bishops now
+in Rome, who are fanatical for the new dogma, may ask themselves if on
+their return home they could make a more acceptable present to the
+Committee of this already very powerful League than by issuing a corrected
+Catechism, enriched with the new article of faith. A penny edition of it
+would bring in hundreds of thousands of members to the League, and
+admirably further the design it now openly proclaims of "absorbing in a
+friendly way" the schools already existing.
+
+
+
+
+
+SIXTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Dec. 24, 1869._--The first part of a tolerably comprehensive
+document, or _Schema_, has been distributed, it is said, to the Bishops,
+"sub secreto pontificio," and no less than seventeen parts equally
+comprehensive are to follow. The _Schema_ of a dogmatic constitution
+_contra multiplices errores ex Rationalismo derivatos Patrum examini
+propositum_ is a sort of doctrinal compendium, divided into chapters, and,
+as is easily seen, is only an amplification of the opening propositions of
+the Syllabus. In this way we shall have the unprecedented occurrence of a
+Papal decree, extending to the length of a book, issued with the approval
+of the Council. If it is received and promulgated in this shape, it will
+create astonishment by its wholly unconciliar form. It is thrown into a
+declamatory shape; it indulges in complaints and reproaches about the
+blindness and misery of men, who have fallen into so many deadly errors,
+even materialism and pantheism; it carries on its front the impress of the
+new Jesuit school, and seems to be inspired by the aim of bringing before
+the contemporary world, in their crudest form, all the hardest and most
+offensive principles of particular doctrinal schools, which it has
+hitherto been endeavoured to soften or set aside. For the originator of
+this tractate assures us that the aversion of men for such doctrines is
+only one of the poisonous fruits of Rationalism. Here is a characteristic
+specimen. At that Florentine Synod of 1439, which bequeathed such painful
+recollections both to East and West, Eugenius IV. had it defined "that the
+souls of those who die only in original, or in actual mortal sin, descend
+into hell, but are unequally punished."(25) This proposition has sadly
+tormented theologians, and they have devised all sorts of ways of
+softening or explaining it, even assuming the very doubtful authority of
+this Council, which was rejected by the whole Gallican Church. For even
+the most resolute faith recoils in horror from the logical inference, that
+God has created the human race in order from generation to generation to
+plunge into hell far the larger portion of mankind, simply because they
+have not received the baptism which in most cases was never offered them.
+The vast gulf between this proposition and the Scriptural doctrine that
+God is Love, and wills all men to be saved, no theologian has undertaken
+to bridge over. But the Roman Jesuit to whom we owe this _Schema_ really
+thinks these are just the doctrines best adapted to cure men of this age
+of the fatal Rationalism they have fallen into.(26) This reminds one
+strongly of Antonelli's saying, that these Fathers have a special talent
+for ruining whatever they touch.
+
+The death of Cardinal Reisach is considered here an irreparable loss, and
+above all by the Pope himself, whose confidence he enjoyed more than any
+other Cardinal. He had the greatest share in preparing the propositions
+laid before the Council, and had he been able to make his influence felt,
+he would certainly have given powerful support to the new dogmas. He
+passed here for a man of comprehensive learning and great penetration. His
+friends used to commend his friendly and genial nature. For us Germans he
+was a sort of phenomenon, a show specimen of his kind, so to speak. In him
+we saw how far a German can go in the process of being Italianized, so
+radically was his whole being metamorphosed into that of the Italian
+_prelatura_, and the peculiar circle of thought in which Roman clerics and
+dignitaries move had become a second nature to him. What distinguishes a
+Roman Prelate is, first, that liturgical endowment--that willing absorption
+in the _caeremonia_, as the old Romans partly originated and partly
+borrowed it from the Etruscans--and next, the faculty of calculating
+quickly and surely what loss or gain in power and influence the settlement
+of any ecclesiastical question will bring. Reisach was eminent in both
+respects. No one excelled him in reverence for every line of the rubric
+and every ceremonial detail, as practised here. And again, in his dislike
+for German science, literature, and theology, he had become a thorough
+Italian, so that his ignorance of even the most famous intellectual
+products of Germany was quite fabulous. To him principally were addressed
+the denunciations of German works not composed exactly to the taste of the
+Roman Jesuits, and it was he who arranged with the Congregation of the
+Index the censures pronounced during recent years on the works of learned
+Germans.
+
+Thus then there is a niche left vacant in the Roman temple of heroes.
+Another Reisach will not so easily be found; for it is given to very few
+men to transmute their originally single nature into the form of the
+Siamese twins, inhabited by two souls, a German and an Italian.(27) If the
+vacant Hat is not to be the price of desertion from the ranks of the
+Opposition, but the reward of past services, three German Bishops may put
+in a claim for it, Martin, Senestrey, and Fessler. In fiery zeal for the
+good cause, restless activity, and unquestioning devotion, they are on a
+par, and were all Germany like-minded with this trio, the great
+sacrifice--"il sacrificio del intelletto"--so variously commended by the
+_Civilta_, would have long since been accomplished, and the Jesuits might
+hold up the Germans as a model for all nations to follow. Meanwhile for
+the moment Fessler occupies the most conspicuous position.
+
+_Postscript._--I have just learnt that the Pope is not disposed to give up
+his Council Hall in St. Peter's. Another attempt to hold a General
+Congregation there is to be made on Tuesday, which can hardly be a
+success. The natural consequence will be that the second Solemn Session,
+announced for January 6, will fall through from lack of any decrees ready
+to promulgate. The protest of a portion of the French Episcopate against
+the order of business has really been sent in, and this has inspired fresh
+courage into the German and Hungarian prelates, who have drawn up a
+protest against the innovations differing so widely from the form of the
+ancient Councils; they dwell especially on the violation of the right
+belonging by Divine institution to the Bishops. I need not say that the
+notorious eight--the Jesuit pupils and the Tyrolese Bishops--declined to
+join in this proceeding. Meanwhile scruples have arisen among the other
+pupils of the Jesuits, which again bring the whole affair into doubt.
+There is a notion among the French of dividing the Council into
+assemblies, formed according to the different languages, so as to get over
+the difficulty or impossibility of carrying on a free discussion in Latin.
+But then it became clear at once that, through the number of missionary
+Bishops, and Swiss or Belgians of the Romance tongues, the majority would
+be on the side of the Infallibilist party. And the Pope, who hates all
+these assemblies of Bishops, has interposed by causing a sort of standing
+order to be proclaimed, through the curialistic Cardinal Bonnechose, that
+he will allow no meetings of more than twenty Bishops.
+
+
+
+
+
+SEVENTH LETTER.
+
+
+Cardinal Schwarzenberg has been the subject of conversation in Rome for
+the last few days. He is said to have formally gone over to the
+Infallibilist camp, and the report will no doubt make the round of Europe.
+But it is not true, and he himself declares, notwithstanding appearances,
+that he has not changed, and does not mean to change, his attitude and
+mind. The circumstance which has given occasion to the rumour is as
+follows:--
+
+In a combined meeting of German and Hungarian Bishops, it was resolved, on
+Haynald's motion, to request of the Pope a better representation, and one
+more accordant with the dignity of the two Churches, on the Commissions.
+It was hoped that a majority of the French and a considerable number of
+the North American and Oriental Bishops, and even some Spanish and Italian
+Prelates, would join in this step. For Haynald's object was to propose
+that the whole assembly should be divided into eight national groups, and
+that each of these "eight nations" should be entitled to have two or three
+members, elected from its own body,--some sixteen or twenty-four in
+all--added to the four elected Commissions, and to the Commission nominated
+by the Pope for examining all motions proposed. This, it was thought,
+would secure a counterpoise to the skilfully disciplined majority which
+was crushing out all opposition. For it has already become evident that
+the strength of the Romanist party lies in the number of titular Bishops
+selected by the Pope, and Vicars-Apostolic or missionary Bishops; in
+persons, that is, who, having no flocks, or only having them in
+expectation, represent in fact nothing and nobody, and can therefore bear
+no testimony to the faith of their Churches, which have no existence. The
+Germans were greatly elated by this project; they admired and
+congratulated themselves on having shown so much spirit, and daring to
+tell the Pope something widely different from the assurance that they were
+ready to die in absolute subjection to him. Hereupon Schwarzenberg came
+forward to declare that he would not sign the petition, as he did not
+choose to compromise himself further with the Pope, and Rauscher of
+Vienna, and Tarnoczy of Salzburg, sided with him. This caused great
+consternation, and at the first moment many thought it betokened an entire
+apostasy, and that in Schwarzenberg's case the Cardinal had triumphed over
+the German. But he has so emphatically denied this that he must be
+believed. It is very conceivable that Schwarzenberg, seeing more deeply
+into the situation at Rome, was led by grounds of expediency to take this
+course; possibly the mere wish to make as sparing use as they could of the
+fund of high spirit and courage brought from Germany, and the fear of
+using it up too quickly, in case the Council should last some time, may
+have determined the three Prelates to decline subscribing. Already a new
+demand has been made upon the Bishops, to adopt the _Schema_ the Pope had
+intrusted the preparation of to the Jesuits.
+
+The contest over this _Schema_ has begun in good earnest, according to the
+impression made by the General Congregation held yesterday, Dec. 28. The
+first part of the _Schema_ was the one the speakers dwelt on,--as far, that
+is, as they could be heard, for the acoustic uselessness of the hall makes
+itself felt before and behind, and the pulpit had to be carried about all
+round the room before the right position could be hit upon for it.
+Meanwhile it had transpired, who were the authors of the _Schema_ which
+the Pope meant to promulgate, "with the approbation of the Council," as a
+binding rule of faith. They were two German Jesuits, Schrader, and
+another, either Franzelin or Kleutgen. It is remembered how, a year ago, a
+great deal was made in the newspapers of distinguished German scholars
+having been summoned to Rome for the preliminary labours of the Council.
+If several of the names mentioned created surprise from their obscurity,
+it gave satisfaction to find among those invited men like Hefele and
+Haneberg. It is now clear that every work of real importance was intrusted
+to other hands, chiefly to the Jesuits, while Hefele was summoned to Rome
+to extract the ceremonial from the Acts of the Council of Trent, after
+which he was dismissed, and Haneberg was commissioned to prepare a report
+on Eastern monasteries. Schrader has become notorious as the advocate of
+the extremest Papal system by his book _De Unitate Romana Commentarius_,
+where he treats all episcopal authority as a mere emanation of the Papal.
+According to him, every article of the Syllabus is to be so understood
+that the contradictory statement contains the true doctrine. It was
+therefore with very good reason that he was chosen out to draw up the
+_Schema_, or, in other words, to fabricate a second strait-waistcoat for
+theology, after the Council had already been put into one in the
+regulations for the order of business.
+
+The _Schema_ has aroused manifold displeasure, even among allies of
+Schrader and his brethren, and men who, like them, are Infallibilists.
+What I hear said everywhere is that the whole thing is a poor and very
+superficial piece of patchwork, with more words than ideas, and, as the
+blind old Archbishop Tizzani said in the Congregation, is above all
+designed to stamp the opinions of the Jesuit school as dogmas, and to
+substitute a string of new obligatory articles of faith for the
+_theologumena_ or doctrines of the theological schools hitherto left open
+to the judgment of individuals. For a Society, like that of Loyola's
+disciples, it is of supreme importance to possess in the multitude of new
+anathemas what will always supply abundant matter for accusations; it
+appertains to their "arcana dominationis" always to keep alive the fear of
+being charged with heresy. It makes other theologians dependent on the
+Order, and cramps their literary energies. And it must be borne in mind
+that there are no longer any powerful theological corporations which might
+meet the Jesuits on equal terms. Were the _Schema_ to be adopted, very few
+professors of Old Testament Exegesis could escape the charge of heresy, so
+far is the inspiration of the scriptural books, even the
+deutero-canonical, extended here for the first time.
+
+And thus it happened yesterday that there was no single speaker for the
+_Schema_, but all, beginning with Cardinal Rauscher, spoke against it; and
+Archbishop Conolly of Halifax said in so many words, "Censeo _Schema_ cum
+honore esse sepeliendum." This of course has only been the beginning of
+the discussion, and we are naturally in suspense as to how it will
+proceed. But so much is already gained, that a spirit of independence is
+roused among the Bishops. Much is said here about the desertion of certain
+Bishops from the ranks of the Opposition, and new names are mentioned
+every morning, often with the remark that So-and-so has let himself be
+caught with the bait of one of the fifteen vacant Hats. These Hats are
+held here to be capable of working miracles. There is thought to be no
+more effective means of working the conversion of a hardened
+anti-Infallibilist than a decoration of that kind, and, in truth, the
+number might not be great of those who would say with Darboy, "Je n'ai
+point de rhumer de cerveau, je n'ai pas besoin de chapeau." As long as
+fifteen of these Hats are suspended in the air ready to descend on a
+willing head, so long, every Italian is convinced, there can be no lack of
+conversions. The example of the Synod of Constantinople in 859 is quoted,
+where the Bishops were induced to vote for the deposition of Synesius by
+promising each of them separately the Patriarchal throne. Yet of the
+majority of French, German, Hungarian, and American Bishops, no one who
+knows them would expect this weakness; and so on closer inspection these
+rumours come to nothing. Even Ketteler, who had been given up for lost on
+account of his intimate relations with the Jesuits,--he lives in the German
+College--shows himself firm, and the most important personage who as yet
+has deceived the expectations formed of him is Cardinal Bonnechose,
+Archbishop of Rouen. It is stated in German circles that fifteen Spanish
+Bishops are wavering, and show a disposition to join the Opposition. The
+apprehension that the other party, whose admirable organization and
+adroitness in manoeuvring deserves the highest praise, will carry through
+Infallibility by a _coup_ still survives, and only yesterday several
+Bishops entered the Council Hall in dread of being taken by surprise by
+the acclamation. Cardinal di Pietro says it is no longer possible to drop
+the affair; things have gone too far already.
+
+I understand the feeling of the Roman clergy, and their indignation at
+these stubborn Hyperboreans. It is as though one wanted to snatch from the
+hands of the thirsty wanderer, who, after long toil, had at length reached
+the fountain, the cup he was raising to his lips. With Infallibility, as
+it is now defined and made clear as the sun at noonday by the Jesuits, all
+resistance is broken, every attack triumphantly parried, every end brought
+within reach. If the _Curia_ once becomes by this means the horny
+Siegfried, no vulnerable point even in the back will be left. The Jesuit
+Schrader, in his book on Roman unity, has proved that every act and every
+ordinance of the Pope is infallible. For, as he says, "all Papal measures,
+as regards their truth, belong to the order of faith, or morals, or law.
+All decrees, whatever their subject, always contain a true doctrine,
+whether speculative, moral, or juridical. But the Pope is infallible in
+the order of truth and doctrine, and therefore in all his decrees." Your
+readers will believe I am ridiculing or calumniating the valiant Jesuit,
+who shines at present as a star of the first magnitude in the theological
+heavens of Rome; but I have only given a faithful translation, as any one
+may ascertain for himself. That is the logic which prevails here, and
+which no Roman cleric doubts to be of triumphant force.
+
+_Dec. 30._--The second Session of the General Congregation on the _Schema_
+took place yesterday. About a third of the hall had been cut off by a
+partition, so that the speakers could be somewhat better understood. Among
+the five speakers, who, like the seven that had preceded them, pronounced
+for the rejection of the _Schema_, Strossmayer, and Ginoulbiac, of
+Grenoble, who is considered the best theologian among the French Bishops,
+commanded most attention. The _Schema_ was again censured for going much
+too far in its statements and condemnations, and it was shown that the
+Council, by accepting it, would enter on a wholly new path, widely
+different from that of the earlier Councils, where the Church would be
+forced into constantly narrower definitions, until a complete dogmatic
+philosophy, stiff and rigid, had been formalized. Strossmayer also
+observed on the formula of promulgation selected by Pius, which represents
+the Pope as a dogmatic lawgiver, and the Council as a mere consultative
+body called in to assist him, that it is an unheard-of innovation,
+departing from all conciliar traditions. This led to an opposite statement
+by Cardinal Capalti, one of the Presidents, and a reply from Strossmayer.
+As yet no single one of the host of 500 has said a word in defence of the
+_Schema_. The excitement is, as may be conceived, great. That even
+Rauscher came forward against the _Schema_ created the more sensation, as
+it was he who brought its author, Schrader, to the University of Vienna.
+
+
+
+
+
+EIGHTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Jan. 8, 1870._--One month is now gone by without any result, or, as
+many here say, simply wasted. The first real Session, on January 6, went
+off without any single decree being published. It has produced a very
+painful impression generally, that, for the obvious purpose of something
+to do, the unmeaning ceremony has been adopted of swearing to the
+profession of faith which every Prelate had already sworn to at his
+ordination and at other times. The question was inevitably forced on men's
+minds whether this profusion of superfluous swearings, in an assembly of
+men on whose orthodoxy no shadow of suspicion had been cast, was at all
+fitting or reconcilable with the Scriptural prohibition of needless oaths.
+But the Session had been announced, and the Opposition Bishops, contrary
+to expectation, had found a great deal to censure in the _Schema_ in
+general and in detail, so that in four General Congregations nothing had
+been effected. The simplest plan would have been to defer the Session, and
+anywhere else that course would have been followed. But in Rome? That
+would have been a _de facto_ confession of having made a mistake, and it
+is here a first principle that the _Curia_ is always right. So they had
+747 oaths taken, and thus the Solemn Session was held.
+
+It is exceedingly convenient to have to deal with a majority of 600
+Prelates, who are simply your creatures, obedient to every hint, and
+admirably disciplined. Three hundred of them are still further bound to
+Pius IX. by a special tie, for they are indebted to him, as the _Civilta_
+of January 1 reminded them, for both food and lodging, "sono da lui
+alloggiati e sostentati e assistiti in tutto il bisognevole alla vita."
+Nor does that journal fail to point to the extreme poverty of many of the
+Bishops or Vicars-Apostolic, drawn hither from Asia, Africa, and
+Australia; even among the European Bishops it calls many "poverissimi."
+Who has paid their travelling expenses, it says not. The _Civilta_ may be
+easy; none of them will swell the ranks of the Opposition, or attack the
+_Schema_, or refuse their votes and acclamations to the infallibility of
+their benefactor. And then the _Civilta_ has another powerful factor to
+rely upon; it says, and confirms what it says by the words used by the
+Pope at the Centenary, June 27, 1867, that from the tomb of St. Peter
+issues a secret force, which inspires the Bishops with a bold and
+enterprising spirit and great-hearted decisions. If I rightly understand
+the _Civilta_, it means that for many Bishops it is a risk, and requires a
+lofty courage, to vote for Papal Infallibility here in Rome, while the
+clergy and laity of their own dioceses, excepting a few old women of
+either sex, never hitherto knew, or wished to know, anything of this
+Infallibility, and the prevalent belief has always been that the business
+of Bishops at a Council was only to bear witness to the faith and
+tradition of their Churches, not to construct new dogmas strange to the
+minds of their flocks. "Nous avons change tout cela," thinks the Roman
+journal, and therefore is the Council held in St. Peter's, and not in the
+Lateran, that the "secret force" may take full effect. Certainly there is
+no lack of secret forces here, They are in full activity; there is an
+address being hawked about, praying the Pope to take up the Infallibility
+question at once, and put the Council in a position to vote upon it. This
+time the movement originated with two German Bishops, Martin of Paderborn
+and Senestrey of Regensburg. Slender causes and great effects! When the
+pond is full, a couple of moles can produce a flood by working their way
+through the dam. Both of these men have become perceptibly impatient at
+the obstinate and rebellious disposition of their German and Austrian
+colleagues, and are seeking to hasten the day, when, with the new dogma in
+their hands, they may triumph as willing believers over the forced belief
+of their brethren, only converted at the last moment. The address seems to
+have flashed suddenly upon the world, for--so said Mermillod and the rest
+of the initiated--its very existence was hardly known of; and it had 500
+signatures. It was not shown to Bishops of notoriously anti-Infallibilist
+sentiments, but no labour is spared with the doubtful, and others who have
+not yet declared themselves, so that it is quite possible 600 signatures
+may be scraped together. Papal Infallibility is here limited to cases
+where the Pope addresses his dogmatic decision to the whole Catholic
+Church.(28) That was Bellarmine's view, and it would certainly offer many
+advantages; for all difficulties and objections drawn from the first
+twelve centuries of Church history would be cut off at a stroke, as it is
+notorious that no Pope during that entire period addressed any decree on
+matters of faith to the whole Church. The idea never occurred even to a
+Gregory VII. or Alexander III. or Innocent III. The two last only issued
+decrees at the head and in the name of General Councils. Boniface VIII.,
+in 1302, was the first who in the title addressed his Bull _Unam Sanctam_
+to the whole Christian world. This Bull therefore, which makes the Pope
+king of kings and sole lord in political as in religious matters, would
+indeed be covered with the shield of Infallibility, and we should have a
+firm and immoveable foundation for the policy and civil law both of the
+present and the future. At the same time the various hypotheses and
+attempted denials rendered necessary by the case of Pope Honorious would
+be got rid of at one blow. Only this little difficulty would remain: how
+it came to pass that the Popes, who only needed to prefix the word "Orbi,"
+or "Ecclesiae Catholicae," to their decrees, in order to make them
+infallible and unassailable, so persistently despised this simple means,
+and thereby tolerated or produced so much uncertainty in the world? All
+their decrees before 1302, and most of them since, are addressed to
+particular individuals or corporations, and therefore fallible.
+
+The question now is, whether the minority of some 200 Prelates have spirit
+and harmony enough for a counter-address. On this thread the fate of the
+Catholic Church seems to hang. Pius IX. says, "As to Infallibility, I
+believed it as plain Abbe Mastai, and now, as Pope Mastai, I _feel_
+it."(29) He could therefore give us the best information, if he "feels"
+his infallibility, as to whether he only feels it when he signs a decree
+addressed to the whole Church, or also whenever his dogmatic anathemas, of
+which we possess such an abundance, are addressed to a single Bishop or
+national Church only. Meanwhile, if that large section of the
+Infallibilists who are fanatical get the upper hand, no distinctions will
+be admitted; the matter will be settled straight off by acclamation, and
+the Pope will be simply told, "Thou alone art always inspired by the Holy
+Ghost, whether speaking to all, to many, or to one, and every word of
+thine is for us the command of God." Others naturally opine that the
+matter cannot be so easily arranged, but that the question must be taken
+up in good earnest and sifted to the bottom, that it may be demonstrated
+to the whole world that Infallibility admits of historical illustration.
+
+In a conversation which took place to-day between two leading men of the
+opposite parties, a Belgian and a Frenchman, the former said, "Je veux que
+l'on discute a fond tous les textes et tous les faits." The Frenchman
+answered, "Je souffre de penser que le Saint Siege va etre discute et
+disseque de la sorte!" That is, in truth, a serious anxiety. To begin
+with, no discussion among the Fathers can be dreamt of so long as the
+Council Hall in St. Peter's is kept to, for the speeches made there
+already for the most part were not understood at all, or only by very few.
+What is heard is waves of sound, not words and sentences. But even if at
+last a room better suited for human voices and ears is found, the question
+of Infallibility would never be submitted to a regular and really free
+discussion. How would the Romance majority of Spaniards and Italians, who
+are the slaves of the _Curia_ but the masters of the Council, and whose
+whole intellectual outfit is based on the scholasticism of the
+seminaries--how would they receive it, if an audacious German or Frenchman
+were to throw the light of history and criticism on the rambling
+Infallibilist evidences of, _e.g._, a Perrone? What scenes should we
+witness! The offenders would be reduced to silence, not only by the
+throats but the feet of the majority.(30) Either the discussion will be
+broken off, when it is begun, or it will never be allowed to begin. And
+therefore so many favour the plan of acclamation; and it is related how
+Archbishop Darboy assured the Cardinal de Luca that such an attempt would
+be followed by the immediate departure and protest of a number of
+Bishops.(31)
+
+
+
+
+
+NINTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Jan. 9, 1870._--The Opposition has become exceedingly troublesome.
+The successive gradation of Roman judgments about it is noteworthy. First,
+it was said that the Council ran like a well-oiled machine; that all were
+of one mind, and only vied with each other in their devotion to the
+Supreme Head. Then the local correspondents of foreign papers reported
+that something which looked like opposition was manifesting itself, but it
+was a mere drop in the ocean. So said the London _Tablet_ and _Weekly
+Register_. Next they allowed there was certainly an Opposition, but it was
+already demoralized, or, as Antonelli said, must speedily fall to pieces.
+In diplomatic circles it was said that they were good people enough, but
+one must wait a little till the impressions of Fulda had worn off, and
+they had imbibed the _spirito Romano_; "il leur faut deux mois de Rome, et
+tout le monde sera d'accord." One month more, January, has to pass, and
+then in February conversions and desertions will begin. Meanwhile, Simor,
+Primate of Hungary, Tarnoczy of Salzburg, and Manning, are favourites for
+vacant Hats. It is hoped that the first will split up the harmony of the
+Hungarian Bishops, and bring over some with him as trophies into the
+Infallibilist camp.
+
+Cardinals Schwarzenberg and Rauscher--that is now become perfectly
+clear--have not budged an inch; both of them feel thoroughly as Germans,
+and are nowise minded to desert, cowardly and despairing, into the great
+Romance camp. Schwarzenberg has circulated an excellently composed
+treatise, which speaks out very judiciously on the real needs of the
+Church, and certain reforms which are become urgently needed, and
+emphasizes the perversity shown in the demand for the Infallibilist
+dogma.(32) Cardinal Rauscher has done the same, and his treatise against
+Infallibility is now in circulation. Something more has occurred also: on
+the 2d of January, 25 Austrian and German Bishops, with Schwarzenberg at
+their head, subscribed a protest, drawn up by Haynald, Ketteler, and
+Strossmayer, which is said to have been read and talked over fifteen times
+before it gave entire satisfaction. They appeal to their inherent rights,
+not dependent on Papal grace, but on Divine institution; ready as they are
+to guard the rights of the Head, they must also demand that the rights of
+the members shall be preserved and respected; the forms and traditions of
+the Tridentine Synod should not be so far departed from. The tone of the
+document is dignified. Rauscher has not subscribed though he thoroughly
+agrees with it, it is said from considerations the force of which the
+other Prelates acknowledged. The petition handed in by 15 French Prelates
+for an alteration of the order of business the Pope has answered by a mere
+dry refusal. We shall soon see whether the Germans will meet with similar
+treatment; in the eyes of these Italians the most modest criticisms and
+demands are open rebellion. To many of the German and Hungarian Bishops
+even this Protest seemed too bold and audacious, and they have prepared
+another representation, with forty signatures, expressed in much more
+moderate terms. They entreat the Pope to be graciously pleased to allow
+them to inspect the stenographic reports, and to let the Bishops print
+their treatises on the questions laid before them without the censorship,
+for the information of their colleagues. Posterity will marvel at the
+humble submissiveness of these Bishops, and the wisdom of the Roman
+policy, which, after two years' preparation for the Council, provides a
+hall where all discussion is impossible, and furthermore prohibits the
+Bishops from inspecting the stenographic reports of their own speeches.
+
+Some ten of the leading Bishops of different nations have formed
+themselves into an International Committee, so as not, for the future, to
+ask concessions of the Pope in the name of one nation only--the French or
+German. They wish that every Bishop should be admitted to speak in
+Congregation according to the order of inscription, irrespective of
+hierarchial rank or age, and that the speeches should be at once printed,
+and distributed to the Bishops before the next Session; and finally, that
+the Papal Commission for revising motions, which holds the whole Council
+in its hands, should be increased by the introduction of members freely
+elected. Some further requisitions which I am not acquainted with are said
+to be added.
+
+Against these things, which make the Pope very irritable, two principal
+remedies are adopted. In the first place, an attempt is made to prevent
+any number of Bishops meeting together, either by direct prohibition or by
+announcing the displeasure of the supreme authority against those who take
+part in such separate deliberations, which are said to be revolutionary.
+And next, the Bishops are worked upon individually, and every one is
+watched and taken stock of, on the assumption that everybody has his
+price, if one could only discover what it is. Two examples of this may be
+cited here. One of the most distinguished German Bishops, who is free from
+the usual clerical vanity, and could neither be bought with titles nor
+with the cut or colour of a vestment, was quite lately accosted by the
+Pope--in full consciousness of his Vicarship of Christ--with the question,
+asked in the most affectionate tone, "Amas me?" What inference was
+attached to an affirmative answer need not be specified. The other case
+occurred somewhat earlier. Lavigerie, Bishop of Nancy, came to Rome
+coveting some striking mark of distinction. It seemed worth while to bind
+him closer to the _Curia_, and so an article of ecclesiastical dress was
+hit upon, which he and no other Bishop of the Western Church was to wear.
+It was called a superhumeral, and is described as a somewhat broader
+stole, thrown over the shoulders, and adorned with fringes, with two
+maniples of the shape of shields hanging down from it. The effect is said
+to have been enormous, and of course since then Mgr. Lavigerie is a
+profoundly convinced Infallibilist. "C'est avec de hochets qu'on mene les
+hommes," said the first Napoleon; but it moves one's pity to look at
+Bishops who let themselves be led by the nose by these childish toys.
+
+Very instructive considerations may be formed here on the representation
+of particular nations and national Churches at the Council. Frenchmen and
+Germans must practise themselves in the virtues of humility and modesty,
+and learn how insignificant they are in the Catholic Church, in all that
+concerns doctrine and legislation. There is the diocese of Breslau, with
+1,700,000 Catholics, but its Bishop has not been chosen for any single
+Commission, while the 700,000 inhabitants of the present Roman States are
+represented by 62 Bishops, and the Italians form half or two-thirds in
+every Commission. For the Kingdom of God, wherein the least is greater
+than John and all the Prophets, lies, as is well known, between
+Montefiascone and Terracina, and whoever first saw the light in Sonnino,
+Velletri, Ceccano, Anagni, or Rieti, is predestinated from the cradle
+"imperio regere populos." It is true the 62 Bishops of this chosen land
+and people have not succeeded in restoring the most moderate standard of
+morality in their little towns and villages; there are still whole
+communities and districts notoriously in league with brigands--but the
+Council has no call to trouble itself with matters of that sort. There are
+the Archbishops of Cologne with 1,400,000, of Cambray with 1,300,000, and
+of Paris with 2,000,000 Catholics, but any four of the 62 Neapolitan and
+Sicilian Bishops can out-vote these Bishops with their 5,000,000 Catholics
+at their back. Thus the 12,000,000 Catholics of Germany Proper are
+represented at this Council by fourteen votes. Their relative positions
+may be expressed in this way: in Church matters twenty Germans count for
+less than one Italian. And should a German indulge any fancy that his
+nation, with its numerous theological High Schools, and its learned
+theologians, might reasonably claim some weight at a Council, he only need
+come here to be cured at once of that notion. There is not in all Italy
+one single real Theological Faculty, except in Rome; Spain gets on equally
+without any higher theological school or any theology; yet here at the
+Council some hundreds of Italians and Spaniards are masters, and are the
+appointed teachers of doctrine and dictators of faith for all nations
+belonging to the Church.
+
+Count Terenzio Mamiani has lately observed, in the _Nuova Antologia_,
+published at Florence, that in Italy there are not so many religious books
+printed in half a century as appear in England or North America (or
+Germany) in one year. And we must remember too that the theological
+literature published in Tuscany and Lombardy might almost be called
+copious in comparison with the nearly absolute sterility of the States of
+the Church. Here in Rome you may find a lottery dream-book in almost every
+house, but never a New Testament, and extremely seldom any religious book
+at all. It seems as though it were a recognised principle that, the more
+ignorant a people, the greater must be the share their hierarchy have in
+the government of the Church. And thus we have the question of
+nationalities within the bosom of the Church. Everything done here is but
+the expression of one idea and the means to one end, and this idea and end
+are that the spiritual domination of the Italians over the other nations,
+especially over the Germans and French, should be extended and confirmed.
+Above a hundred Spaniards have come from both sides of the ocean to let
+themselves be used as instruments of the Italians at the Council. They
+have no thought, or will, or suggestion of their own for the good of the
+Church. It is difficult to form a notion of the ignorance of these Latins
+in all historical questions, and their entire want of that general
+cultivation which is assumed with us as a matter of course in a priest or
+bishop. And up to this time I have always found here that the predilection
+for the Infallibilist theory is in precise proportion to the ignorance of
+its advocates. It has been deemed necessary still further to help on this
+immense numerical superiority, and so the Pope, as I am informed, has
+appointed during the two years since the proclamation of the Council 89
+Bishops _in partibus_, whose flocks are in the moon or in Sirius.
+
+And now for something about the course of procedure in the Council as to
+the _Schema_ during the last ten days. There are only constantly speeches
+on each side, for a real discussion is impossible in the Hall, and it is
+obvious that it was chosen, and is still kept to in spite of daily
+experience, for that very reason.(33) Some speakers, however, whom nature
+has endowed with a specially ringing voice, have made an unwonted
+impression. The most significant occurrence was Cardinal Capalti's
+interruption of Strossmayer's speech. The Bishop had touched on the novel
+and unconciliar form in which the decrees were to be published, as
+decisions of the Pope, with the mere approval or forced consent of the
+Council. It was an ominous circumstance that the assembly sacrificed by
+its silence the man who was speaking for its rights. Meanwhile there has
+been a wholly unexpected attack on the _Schema_ by a host of speakers, so
+that Antonelli, on leaving the Council, said, in visible excitement, to a
+diplomatist who was waiting for him, that this could not continue, or the
+Council would go on for ten years. Strossmayer was followed by Ginoulhiac,
+the learned Bishop of Grenoble, who spoke in the same sense. The
+proportion of speakers against the _Schema_ is overwhelming. In the
+Session of January 3, all four spoke against it, even the Patriarch of
+Venice. An impression was produced by the warning of the Eastern
+Patriarch, Hassoun, against embittering the Orientals, and driving them
+into schism by dogmatic innovations. The Italian, Valerga, named by the
+Pope to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, represented the Roman
+standpoint in its crudest form, but he had his speech read for him by
+Bishop Gandolfi.
+
+It is now said to be certain that Darboy, Simor, and Tarnoczy have been
+apprised of the intention to make them Cardinals. As regards the two last,
+the abandonment of all opposition to the Infallibilist dogma, and to every
+other decree on faith in a Papal sense, is an indispensable condition. But
+with Darboy the case is different: the _Curia_ must take him as he is or
+let him alone, for he cannot be bought at any price. The irritation,
+complaints, and sighs of the Pope at having to make this man a Cardinal,
+who will not yield or apologize, have already lasted some years. The
+Romanist party have published in a Quebec newspaper the Pope's bitter and
+reproachful letter to him, to which he made no reply. Darboy was and is
+resolved to be the _bona fide_ Bishop of his diocese, the largest in the
+world, and will not admit any arbitrary encroachments or concurrent
+jurisdiction of the Court of Rome to annul his acts at its caprice. "This
+stinks of schism," say the Romans here.(34) And therefore, according to
+Roman notions, he is "a bad Christian," for he does not believe in Papal
+Infallibility, and will not vote for it even as a Cardinal. Moreover,
+nobody sees better through the whole web of curialistic policy, with its
+artifices, small and great, and he shows not the slightest sympathy for
+it, so that in any case he will be a very inconvenient and unprofitable
+Cardinal. At the same time he is a man of rare eloquence, rich experience
+and knowledge of mankind, and easily outweighs ten Italian Cardinals in
+culture and learning. And the worst of it is that this bitter necessity of
+elevating Darboy has to be accepted with a good grace, for France wills
+it, and France must still remain the magnanimous champion of Rome and the
+Council. Some consolation is found for it in the now openly proclaimed
+apostasy of Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore, who has hitherto been
+wavering, for it is hoped that other American Bishops will follow his
+example.
+
+If at the end of the first month we take a view of the situation, it is
+clear that the word "Council" requires to be taken in a very wide and
+general sense to include this assembly. It cannot be compared with the
+ancient Councils in the first thousand years of Church history, before the
+separation of East and West, for there are no points of contact. In the
+first place, the whole lay world, all sovereigns and their ambassadors,
+are entirely excluded from the Synod, which has never happened from the
+Council of Nice downwards. That was, of course, necessary, for even at
+Trent the French ambassador announced, on entering the Council, that his
+King had sent him to watch over the freedom of the Bishops; and certainly
+the ambassadors of Catholic Powers would have protested against the
+present arrangements and order of business, which give much less security
+than even at Trent. Here the Bishops are in a sense the Pope's prisoners.
+Without his permission they cannot leave the Council, they are forbidden
+to meet together for common deliberation, are not allowed to print
+anything till it has passed the censorship, or to bring forward any motion
+without the Pope's approval. It is the Pope who makes the decrees and
+defines the dogmas; the Council has simply to assent. Two rights only are
+left to the Bishops; they can make speeches in the General Congregation,
+and they can say _Placet_ or _Non placet_. There is a quite luxurious
+abundance of means of coercion, impediments and chains;--with the Pope's
+300 episcopal boarders, the 62 Bishops of the Roman States, the 68
+Neapolitans, Sicilians, etc., all manoeuvring with a precision a Prussian
+General could not wish to surpass on the reviewing-ground, the _Curia_
+might have fairly hoped to gain its ends, even were a little more freedom
+allowed to the Opposition section of the Assembly.(35)
+
+
+
+
+
+TENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Jan. 15, 1870._--On Sunday last the Pope gave audience to a great
+crowd of visitors,--some 700 or 1000, it is said,--at once, and took
+occasion to express before them his displeasure at the Opposition Bishops.
+He said there were some Prelates who lacked the temper of perfect faith,
+and hence arose difficulties, which however he, the Pope, should know how
+to overcome. In Church matters no attention was to be paid to the judgment
+of the world, as he himself despised it, for the Church's kingdom is not
+of this world. It has hitherto of course been held in the Church that the
+judgment of the world--that is, of their flocks, who constitute their own
+immediate world--is exactly what the Bishops ought to attend to very much,
+and to avoid giving offence to them and perplexing their consciences in
+matters of religion.
+
+The prohibition to hold large episcopal meetings, communicated to the
+French Bishops only through Cardinal Bonnechose, is not obeyed either by
+the French or Germans, who continue to take counsel together. The united
+Germans and Hungarians have accepted in substance an address drawn up by
+Cardinal Rauscher, and on Sunday, January 9, bound themselves by a
+reciprocal obligation, with forty-three signatures, to vote against and
+combat in all conciliar methods the erection of Papal Infallibility into a
+dogma. The Austrian Prelates stand foremost in clearness, decision, and
+courage. Rauscher, Schwarzenberg, Haynald, and Strossmayer know what they
+want, are full of true love for the Church, understand the greatness of
+the danger, and are perfectly aware that no positive gain, nor any of the
+important reforms so urgently needed, can be expected from this
+Council--the Spanish and Italian phalanx is too strong and impenetrable for
+that,--but they hope, at least, by energetic resistance to ward off
+positive mischief from the Church.
+
+The French on their part are active; Cardinal Mathieu, who returned to
+Rome, January 5, has opened a saloon in his house for the deliberations.
+Next to Dupanloup, Bishop Place of Marseilles, Meignan of Chalons,
+Landriot of Rheims, and Ginoulhiac of Grenoble, speak most decidedly.
+There are some thirty-five like-minded with them, and the inopportunists
+among them and the Germans are gradually coming to perceive that their
+position is quite untenable, and that to persist in treating Infallibility
+as a mere question of time and convenience, is to give their adversaries a
+safe and easy victory. But the Germans are further advanced in this
+conviction than the French. The now famous Infallibilist Address seems to
+have been simultaneously hawked about from two quarters, viz., by the trio
+of Manning, Deschamps, and Spalding, and by Martin and Senestrey. Who
+composed it, and how many Bishops have signed it, is still uncertain; the
+movement has come to a dead-lock, perhaps because the Spaniards, who talk
+of presenting an address of their own, don't want to sign it. Several
+Italians too refused to sign, and so the result has not been as
+satisfactory as was hoped, although it can hardly be doubted that the
+dogma will have 450 or 500 votes when it is laid before the Council.
+
+It is a characteristic feature of the case, that throughout Italy prayers
+are offered in all the monastic communities still surviving, and in all
+zealously Catholic families, for the definition of the new dogma. The fact
+is mentioned in English journals, and I have heard it confirmed here. It
+reveals the patriotic feeling, that Papal Infallibility is an Italian
+possession more or less profitable to every member of the nation. "The
+Pope," as one hears it said here, "will always feel and think above all as
+an Italian; his decrees are manufactured by a Court nine-tenths of whom,
+at least, are Italians, and with his infallibility under our management,
+we Italians shall be able to dominate and make capital out of all other
+nations, in so far as they desire to be Catholic." The Italian is
+generally a good calculator. However, Italian priests and prelates feel
+and know right well what every nation and national Church owes to itself.
+If the Papacy belonged to any other nation, the Italians would never dream
+for a moment of acknowledging the system of Papal absolutism with its
+grand prop of Papal Infallibility. One soon observes, in conversing with
+these Monsignori, how they despise in their hearts the French and German
+Ultramontane Bishops, while at the same time admitting the correctness of
+their views, and praising them liberally for rolling in the dust before
+the infallible _Curia_, and crying out to the Romans, as that orator
+Ekebolius cried out to the Emperor Julian, "Only trample us under your
+feet, the salt that has lost its savour."
+
+Thirty-five German Bishops have declared at the beginning, that they are
+ready to subscribe the above-mentioned counter address against the dogma
+of Infallibility, pretty fully expressed in the form of a petition to the
+Pope, and among them are included those who were before of opinion that
+they had sufficiently discharged their duty by the letter they sent to him
+from Fulda. This is a praiseworthy example of harmony, but at the same
+time the greatness of the danger, which has now become evident to even the
+most trustful mind, is shown by the fact that all present at the
+consultation on this address bound themselves in writing to subscribe it.
+It is needless to say that the Tyrolese and the pupils of the Jesuits,
+with Bishop Martin, held aloof from the meeting.
+
+Another proof was given on this occasion of the very different measure
+dealt to the two parties. The Infallibilist Address was at once printed,
+though everything else here has first to undergo the most rigorous
+censorship. The Roman censors would, of course, have refused their
+_imprimatur_ to the counter address, and there was some scruple felt about
+printing it out of the country, as though by an evasion of the Papal laws,
+and so it cannot be printed at all. Even Bishop Dupanloup has been refused
+permission to print his answer to Deschamps. The address will probably be
+subscribed by the Bishops of each nation in separate batches, so that
+there will be five addresses, coinciding in substance. Forty-seven Germans
+and Hungarians are reckoned on--so many have subscribed already--and
+thirty-five French. The Anglo-Americans have somewhat altered the wording
+of the address, and say they can command twenty-five signatures. But what
+is most remarkable is, that a considerable section of the North-Italian
+Bishops from Piedmont and Lombardy now come out as opponents of
+Infallibilism, and give promise of twenty-five signatures for the counter
+address. The decisive point with them is their relation to the Italian
+nation and government, for the Infallibilist dogma must inevitably lead to
+a hopelessly incurable rupture between it and the Church. To these must be
+added six Irish and four Portuguese, making in all an Opposition of from
+140 to 150 votes.
+
+The great question daily mooted in the Vatican is now, how Infallibility
+can be erected into a dogma in spite of the resistance of the Opposition
+minority, for there is no longer any illusion as to an obstinate residue
+of anti-Infallibilist protesters being sure to be left, after allowing for
+the fullest effects of all the alluring seductions used. Precedents are
+sought for in the history of Councils where the majority has passed
+decrees according to its own will, without regard to the opposite
+representations and negative votes of the minority. But no such precedents
+are to be found. At all Councils from Nice downwards the dogmatic decrees
+have always been passed only with entire or approximate unanimity. Even at
+Trent, where the Italians, commanded from Rome through the legates,
+dominated everything, many very important decrees were abandoned after
+being drawn up, as soon as a few Bishops only had pronounced against them.
+If only this fatal precedent of the Tridentine Synod could be got rid of!
+The Jesuits investigate and refine, but, unluckily for them, one of their
+own body, Father Matignon, in 1868, when an Opposition was still believed
+to be impossible, himself established the fact, and justified it on
+doctrinal grounds;(36) and that is made use of now. So there is nothing
+left but to labour indefatigably for the conversion of opponents. But
+people in Rome seem not to know "qu'on ne prend pas les mouches avec du
+vinaigre;" and that methods of coercion, intimidation, and discrediting
+character, are not quite the most effectual means, psychologically, for
+converting adverse Bishops, is clear from the tone again and again
+manifested in the speeches on the _Schema_, which has gained conspicuously
+in sharpness and explicitness. On January 10, a Northern Prelate,
+distinguished for gentleness and refinement, but accustomed to
+parliamentary contests, said he had been obliged to speak in the vigorous
+style usual in his own country of the entire absence of real freedom in
+the Council, for the insolence of the other party was becoming daily more
+intolerable.
+
+
+
+
+
+ELEVENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Jan. 17, 1870._--It is a remarkable phenomenon that Pius IX., who is
+every way inferior to his predecessors of this century in theological
+culture, lets himself be so completely dominated by his passion for
+creating new articles of faith. Former Popes have indeed had their
+hobbies: some wanted to aggrandize and enrich their families; others, like
+Sixtus VI., were zealous in building, or, like Leo X., in fostering art
+and literature, or they waged wars like Julius II., or, finally, they
+wrote learned works, and composed many long Bulls full of quotations,
+etc., like Benedict XIV. But not one of them has been seized with this
+passion for manufacturing dogmas; it is something quite unique in the
+history of the Popes. Herein, therefore, Pius IX. is a singular phenomenon
+in his way, and all the more wonderful from his hitherto having kept aloof
+from theology, and, as one always hears, not being in the habit of ever
+reading theological books. If it is inquired how this strange idiosyncrasy
+has been aroused in the soul of a Pope who began his reign under such very
+different auspices, as a political reformer, the answer given by every one
+is, that it is the Jesuits, whose influence over him has been constantly
+growing since he took Father Mignardi of that Order for his confessor, and
+who have created and fostered in him this passion for dogma-making.
+
+The displeasure and discontent of the Bishops finds constant nutriment in
+the conduct of the _Curia_. They say that if these momentous propositions
+had been laid before them in good time, some months before the opening of
+the Council, so that they might have carefully examined them and pursued
+the theological studies requisite for that purpose, they should have come
+duly prepared, whereas now they are in the position of having to speak and
+vote on the most difficult questions almost extempore. The attacks and
+objections directed against the first part of the _Schema_ in their
+speeches have not applied so much to the separate articles as to the
+general scope and tendency of the whole, and I have not been able to
+ascertain anything more certain about the matter, for the real elaboration
+of the _Schema_, and discussion of its articles in detail, has to be
+managed in the Commission; in the Council Hall it is impossible. As yet
+there have been only long speeches on either side, as in academies or in a
+school of rhetoric, which, for the most part, were not understood, and in
+which the main question--what shape the decrees are to take, if issued at
+all--was never grappled with.
+
+On Friday, January 14, the debate on the _Schema_ opened. This is occupied
+with the duties of Bishops--their residence, visitation of their dioceses,
+and obligation of frequently travelling to Rome and presenting regular
+reports on the state of their dioceses; the holding of Provincial and
+Diocesan Synods, and Vicars-General. The duties of Bishops are the one
+thing spoken of, and the design is everywhere transparent of increasing
+their dependence on the _Curia_, and centralizing all Church government in
+Rome still more than before. Archbishop Darboy observed on it, that it was
+above all necessary, in examining this second _Schema_, to discuss the
+rights of Bishops, instead of only the duties Rome assigned them. Cardinal
+Schwarzenberg had really opened the debate in this sense, and he had the
+courage to speak of the College of Cardinals, and the reforms it needed. A
+simple Bishop would not have been suffered to do this, but they dared not
+interrupt a Cardinal. The speakers who followed, too, had a good deal to
+find fault with in the _Schema_, especially Ballerini, formerly rejected
+as Archbishop of Milan, and now titular Patriarch of Alexandria, and Simor
+the Primate of Hungary. This Prelate has protested so emphatically against
+the _Schema_ and the treatment the Bishops have experienced at the hands
+of the _Curia_, that the offer of a Cardinal's Hat seems by no means to
+have produced the desired effect upon him. There are said to be still
+sixteen portions or chapters of the _Schema_ in reserve, so that the
+authorities are already displeased at the length of the Bishops' speeches;
+and lately one Bishop gained general applause by saying he renounced his
+right to speak.
+
+We may gain some very valuable evidences in Russia and Poland as to how
+Papal Infallibility is already conceived of, and what hopes and fears
+respectively are entertained in reference to the projected new dogma. The
+six or seven million Catholics of that empire are very variously situated,
+and have different interests, and therefore, in some sort, opposite
+wishes. Among the Polish Catholics, who are just now being denationalized
+and Russianized, many are always looking out for the overthrow of the
+Russian dominion, and the restoration of a kingdom of Poland. To this
+party belongs Sosnowski, formerly administrator of the diocese of Lublin,
+whom the Pope has admitted to the Council. He is to represent the whole
+Polish Church at the Council, and is an ardent Infallibilist; he has
+accordingly given a severe snubbing, by way of answer, to the Polish
+priests who had communicated to him certain proposals of reform, with a
+view of restricting Papal absolutism, to be laid before the Council. His
+reply circulates here, and is also to be printed in a newspaper published
+at Posen. Sosnowski represents to the Polish clergy that the emancipation
+of Poland from Russia must continue to be the great object; and that for
+this a Pope recognised as completely absolute and infallible is
+indispensable. He appears to mean that such a Pope, being supreme lord
+over all monarchs and nations, can even depose the Russian Czar, or at
+least absolve the Poles from their oath of allegiance. He moreover assures
+them that Pius IX. has told him he reckons confidently on this
+emancipation of Poland from Russia. Here in Rome it is said and taught
+that the Pope is supreme master even of heretical and schismatical just as
+much as of Catholic sovereigns; for through baptism, whether received
+within or without the Church, every one at once becomes his subject. And
+we are reminded, in proof of this, how Pope Martin IV., in 1282, deposed
+the Greek Emperor, Michael Palaeologus, and absolved his subjects from
+their allegiance, simply because he had made a treaty with the King of
+Aragon. This explains why the Russian Government told the Bishops who
+requested leave to attend the Council, that they might go to Rome, but
+should not return. The 2,800,000 Catholics in Russia Proper, in the
+ecclesiastical province of Mohilew, think very differently from Sosnowski.
+A clergyman from thence said to-day, "If Papal Infallibility is made an
+article of faith, put into the catechisms and taught in the schools, it
+will bring us into a most difficult and desperate position as regards the
+Russian Government and people. We shall be told that our Czar sits in
+Rome, and that we obey him rather than the Czar at St. Petersburg, to whom
+we only swear a conditional allegiance, holding ourselves ready to rebel,
+if our infallible master at Rome absolves us from the oath; that we put
+his commands and prohibitions above the law of the land and the will of
+the Emperor. And thus, if Papal Infallibility is defined at Rome, it will
+be almost equivalent for us to a sentence of death on the Catholic Church
+in Russia, for everything will be done to undermine a Church regarded as
+an enemy and standing menace to the State."
+
+Two new works have arrived here, each of which, in its own way, touches on
+the great question of the day. The one is a book of Dr. Pusey's, on the
+relations of the English Church to the Catholic, where he declares that
+making Papal Infallibility a dogma would destroy all hope of a reunion of
+the Churches, or of the adhesion of any considerable section of the
+English Church.(37) Manning has assured them in Rome of precisely the
+reverse. The other work is the first Letter of the famous Oratorian,
+Father Gratry, to the Archbishop of Mechlin, a pungent criticism on that
+Prelate's brochure in favour of Infallibility, and on his gross
+misrepresentations of the history of Pope Honorius.(38) Gratry also
+exposes the Roman falsifications introduced into the Breviary. It may
+alarm the curialists, when they discover how all the most intellectually
+conspicuous among the French clergy pronounce against their favourite
+doctrine, and their design of imposing it on the whole Church, and how the
+disreputable means employed for building up this system, by trickery and
+forgeries, are more and more being brought to light.
+
+The Pope's attempt to reduce 740 members of the Council to complete
+silence on all that goes on there has proved a failure, as might have been
+foreseen. A great deal has come out, and the Pope manifests great
+displeasure at it. In a conversation with a diplomatist, who asked him
+how, with this rule, trustworthy reports could be sent to the different
+Governments, he accused the French Bishops of violating the secrets of the
+Council, and called them "chatterboxes" (_chiacceroni_). Accordingly, in
+the Session of January 14, a more rigorous version of the order of
+business was read, to the effect that the Pope had made it a mortal sin to
+communicate anything that took place in the Council; so that any Bishop
+who should, for instance, show a theologian, whose advice he wanted, a
+passage from the _Schema_ under discussion, or repeat an expression used
+in one of the speeches, incurs everlasting damnation! If your readers
+think this incredible, I can only assure them that it is literally true,
+and must refer them to the moral theology of the Jesuits on the foundation
+of the Pope's right to brand human actions, forbidden by no law of God,
+with the guilt of mortal sin, at his good pleasure. A Papal theologian,
+whom I questioned on the subject, appealed simply to the statement of
+Boniface VIII., that the Pope holds all rights in the shrine of his
+breast.
+
+
+
+
+
+TWELFTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Jan. 26._--The grand topic of all conversations is Bishop
+Strossmayer's speech of yesterday; and it is possible to give a pretty
+correct description of its contents, which seem to have made a profound
+impression on his 747 hearers. The Bishop declared it to be unseemly to
+begin with the disciplinary decrees about Bishops and their obligations,
+because this might raise the suspicion in their dioceses that their recent
+conduct had given occasion to it. When their duties were spoken of, their
+rights should also be put forward. But, in fact, the reform must be
+carried through from the highest ranks of the hierarchy to the lowest, so
+that the Bishops should be introduced in their proper order. He spoke of
+the necessity of making the Papacy common property, _i.e._, making
+non-Italians eligible; for it is now a purely Italian institution, to the
+immense prejudice of its power and influence. He pointedly insisted on a
+similar universalizing of the Roman Congregations, so that the important
+affairs of the Catholic Church should not be arranged and settled in a
+narrow and jealous spirit, as had unfortunately been the case hitherto.
+And all matters not necessarily pertaining to the whole Church must be
+withdrawn from the competence of the Congregations, so that it might no
+longer be the case, as before, "ut qui superfluis et minimis intendit,
+necessariis desit."
+
+Strossmayer insisted on a reform of the College of Cardinals, in the sense
+of its containing a representation of all Catholic countries in proportion
+to their extent and importance. The impression produced is said to have
+been most thrilling, when he exclaimed that it was to be wished the
+supreme authority in the Church had its throne, where the Lord had fixed
+His own, in the hearts and consciences of the people, and this would never
+be the case while the Papacy remained an Italian institution. And with
+regard to the more frequent holding of Councils, he is said to have
+reminded the Fathers of the _Decretum Perpetuum_ of Constance, that a
+Council should be assembled every ten years. But the presiding Legates
+seemed to be greatly disturbed at the mention of Constance. The Bishop
+proceeded to point out that ordinary prudence urgently dictated to the
+Church the more frequent holding of Councils. The increased facilities of
+intercourse supplied means to the Church to gather more frequently in
+Council round its head, and thus show an example to the more advanced
+nations, who transact their affairs in common assemblies, of the
+open-heartedness and freedom, the patience and perseverance, the charity
+and moderation, with which great questions should be treated. Once, when
+Synods were more frequent in the Church, the nations had learnt from her
+how to bring their affairs to a settlement, but now the Church must offer
+herself teacher in the great art of self-government.
+
+Strossmayer urged that an influence over episcopal appointments should be
+given to Provincial Synods, in order to remedy the dangers connected with
+the present system of nominations, which have become incalculable. He
+lashed with incisive words and brilliant arguments those who preach a
+crusade against modern society, and openly expressed his conviction that
+henceforth the Church must seek the external guarantees of her freedom
+solely in the public liberties of the nations, and the internal in
+intrusting the episcopal Sees to men filled with the spirit of Chrysostom,
+Ambrose, and Anselm. It cut to the quick when he spoke of the
+centralization which is stifling the life of the Church, and of the
+Church's unity, which only then reflects the harmony of heaven and
+educates men's spirits, when her various elements retain inviolate their
+proper rights and specific institutions. But as the Church now is, and in
+the organization designed to be imposed on her, her unity is rather a
+monotony that kills the spirit, excites manifold disgust, and repels
+instead of attracting. On this point the Bishop is said to have made very
+remarkable statements from his own experience, proving that, as long as
+the present system of narrow centralization endures, union with the
+Eastern Church is inconceivable, and, on the contrary, new perils and
+defections will be witnessed. He called the canon law a Babylonish
+confusion, made up of impractical and in most cases corrupted or spurious
+canons. The Church and the whole world expect the Council to make an end
+of this state of things by a codification adapted to the age, but which
+must be prepared by learned and practical men from every part of the
+Catholic world, and not by Roman divines and canonists. In repudiating the
+proposal of a previous speaker, that the Pope should take a general
+oversight of the Catholic press, he seized the opportunity of pronouncing
+a glowing panegyric on a man who had been shamefully maligned by that
+press, but to whom is chiefly owed any real freedom that exists in this
+Council. Every eye was turned on Dupanloup.
+
+Many single sayings are quoted from this magnificent speech. A French
+Prelate had desired that Bishops should not sit in the confessional;
+Strossmayer replied that he must have forgotten he was the countryman of
+St. Francis of Sales. Another speaker had maintained that the reformation
+of the Cardinals should be intrusted to their Father, the Pope;
+Strossmayer replied that they had also a Mother, the Church, to whom it
+always belongs to give them good advice and instruction.
+
+The speech lasted an hour and a half, and the impression produced was
+overwhelming. Bishops affirm that no such eloquence in the Latin tongue
+has been heard for centuries. Strossmayer does not indeed always speak
+classical Latin, but he speaks it with astonishing readiness and elegance.
+Cardinal di Pietro, who answered him yesterday, spoke of the "rara
+venustas" of his speech. It is related in proof of his noble manner, and
+the spirit in which he spoke and was listened to, that the opponent he
+most sharply attacked immediately asked him to dinner. He is said to have
+received 400 visits in consequence of his speech. The President paid him a
+singular compliment in putting out a special admonition the day after his
+speech against any manifestation of applause.
+
+There was the greatest excitement beforehand. His eloquence was already
+known from his former speech, which was rendered more significant from the
+Legates interrupting him. Had he been again interrupted this time, every
+one felt that the freedom of the Council would be in the greatest danger.
+Strossmayer's tact and moderation prevented it, although it was observed
+that Cardinal Bilio wished on one occasion to make the Presidents
+interfere. When Strossmayer mounted the tribune, somebody was heard to
+say, "That is the Bishop against whom the bell will be used."
+
+
+
+
+
+THIRTEENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Jan. 30, 1870._--A great deal has happened since my letter of
+January 17. My last was exclusively devoted to the impression produced by
+Strossmayer's speech, and I must go back to several previous occurrences.
+I will therefore enter directly on the most important facts of the last
+few days. You have already heard from the telegrams that the Pope has
+returned the addresses of the Opposition, of which there were several,
+divided according to nationality. They will be at once handed over to the
+Commission _de Fide_, composed of twenty-four members. These counter
+addresses are subscribed by 137 Bishops, while 400 or 410 have signed the
+first address in favour of the dogma. This document, I can now inform you
+definitely, was the joint production of a committee consisting of Manning,
+Deschamps, Spalding, the German Bishops Martin and Senestrey, Bishop
+Canossa of Verona, Mermillod of Geneva, and perhaps one or two more. That
+none of these gentlemen, or of the 400 signataries, have observed the
+gross and palpable untruths and falsifications of which this composition
+is made up, is marvellous, and justifies the most unfavourable inferences
+as to the theological and historical cultivation of these Prelates. If the
+names of the Bishops on either side are, not counted simply, but weighed,
+and the fact is taken into account that the main strength of the
+Infallibilist legion consists of the 300 Papal boarders who go through
+thick and thin in singing to the tune of their entertainer--that all the
+host of titular Bishops, with very few exceptions, and of the Romance
+South Americans, who are even more ignorant than the Spaniards, are ranged
+on the same side--and if we then compare the countries and dioceses
+represented respectively by the 400 and the 137, we shall come to the
+conclusion that the overwhelming preponderance in number of souls, in
+intelligence, and in national importance, is wholly on the side of the 137
+of the Opposition. It is besides affirmed now that the Address of the 400
+was not really presented to the Pope at all, but withdrawn at the last
+moment. If that is true, it must have been in consequence of a command or
+hint from the Pope, either from his advisers even yet feeling ashamed of
+exposing him by the reception of a document bristling with falsehoods, or
+because they thought he could not in that case reject the hated counter
+address, as he has done, without too glaring an exhibition of
+partisanship. The Spaniards have drawn up an address of their own, which
+harmonizes so well with the address of the 400, that Manning declared
+himself quite ready to sign it.
+
+The second important occurrence of the last few days is the treatment of
+the Chaldean Patriarch, an aged man of seventy-eight. He had commissioned
+another Bishop to deliver a speech he had composed, when translated into
+Latin, in the Council, expressing his desire to preserve the ancient
+_consuetudines_ of his Church and to lay a new compendium of them before
+the assembly. He added, with indirect reference to the Infallibilist
+dogma, a warning against innovations, which might destroy the Eastern
+Church. The Pope at once ordered him to be summoned, he was to bring
+nobody with him; only Valerga, whom the Pope has named Patriarch of
+Jerusalem, one of the most devoted courtiers of the Vatican, was present
+as interpreter. He found the Pope in a state of violent excitement,
+trembling with passion, and after a great deal of vehement language he was
+commanded either to resign his office on the spot, or renounce all the
+prerogatives and privileges of his Church. His request for two days to
+consider the matter was instantly refused, as also the request for leave
+to consult his own suffragans then in Rome. Had he refused, he would
+certainly have been incarcerated in a Roman prison; for it is notorious
+that according to the Roman theory every cleric is the subject, not only
+spiritually but bodily, of his absolute lord the Pope. So nothing was left
+him but to subscribe one of the papers laid before him, and make his
+renunciation.
+
+The third recent circumstance to be mentioned is the confidential mission
+of Lavigerie, Archbishop of Algiers, to Paris. I have spoken of this man
+before as Bishop of Nancy, and forgot to add that he had been translated
+to Algiers. He is to persuade the Emperor and the ministers Ollivier and
+Daru to make no opposition to the passing of the Infallibilist dogma, and
+to offer in return that the articles of the Syllabus on Church and State
+shall be either dropped, or modified in their application to France. He of
+course asserts that he has no mission of the kind, and is only going to
+Paris about an educational question, just as Cardinal Mathieu professed to
+have only gone to France to hold an ordination.(39) In Paris the
+strangeness of the situation is remarked on, that the very State which
+used always most vigorously to assert its independence against the
+domineering pretensions of the Pope is now suffering, not only the
+infallibility but the supreme dominion of the Pope, and his right of
+interference in its political affairs, to be decreed under cover of its
+bayonets. And in Rome it is understood that, if the French troops were
+suddenly to disappear during the rejoicings and illuminations following on
+the Infallibilist triumph, the situation might become very uncomfortable.
+It is therefore thought that a couple of articles of the Syllabus might
+the more easily be surrendered, as the shield of Infallibility would cover
+the whole Syllabus, and no one could hinder an infallible Pope from taking
+the first opportunity, in spite of all secret promises, of again utilizing
+the principle now made into a dogma. The Roman clerics, whether high or
+low, are unable to comprehend that not only the German but the Latin
+nations feel so decided an antipathy to the domination of the priesthood
+over civil and social life, and on that account only must resist the
+Infallibilist theory, because it involves the doctrine that the Pope is to
+encroach on the secular and political domain with commands and
+punishments, the moment he can do so without too great prejudice to his
+office and fear of humiliation. It seems so natural and obvious to a Roman
+Monsignore or Abbate that the chief priest should rule also over monarchs
+and nations in worldly matters; from youth up he has seen clergymen acting
+as police-officers, criminal judges, and lottery collectors, and has no
+other experience than of the parish priest, the Bishop, and the
+Inquisition, interfering in the innermost concerns of family life, and the
+"paternal government" often taking the shape of a strait-waistcoat; he
+lives in a world where the confusion of the two powers is incarnated in
+every college, congregation, and administrative office. Nowhere but in
+Rome would it have been possible for Leo XII., with universal consent of
+all the clergy, high and low, to re-introduce the Latin language into the
+law courts after it had been abolished under the French occupation.
+
+Lately, for the first time, a local priest, Leonardo Proja, in a work
+published here, has openly expressed his confidence that the Council will
+at once condemn the shocking error of setting aside the supreme dominion
+of the Pope over the nations, even in civil matters ("vel in civilibus")
+as an invention of the Middle Ages.(40)
+
+The Court of Rome and the Bishops are at present studying in a school of
+mutual instruction. The _Curia_ studies the Bishops individually,
+especially the more prominent among them, and watches for their weak
+points and the ways of getting at them and making them pliable, and, above
+all, of dissolving national ties. They don't always manage matters
+skilfully, for the want of all real freedom, the use of coercive measures,
+and this apparatus of bolts and bars, cords and man-traps, by which the
+Prelates are surrounded and threatened at every step in Council, by no
+means produce a _couleur de rose_ state of feeling, and the contrast
+between the title of Brother, which the Pope gives officially to every
+Bishop, and his way of treating them all, both individually and
+collectively, like so many schoolboys, is too glaring. Even the boasted
+freedom of speech does not extend very far, for every Prelate speaks under
+threat of interruption by the bell of the presiding Cardinal, directly he
+says anything displeasing to Roman ears. On the other hand, the Bishops,
+during their stay here of six or seven weeks, have learnt a good deal more
+than the curialists, and many of them have really made immense advances,
+before which the Romans would recoil with a shudder, if they could see how
+things stand. A great many of these Prelates came here full of absolute
+devotion to the Pope, and with great confidence in the integrity of the
+_Curia_ and the purity of its motives. When they found themselves
+oppressed and injured at home by its measures or decrees, they still
+thought it was so much the better in the other branches of ecclesiastical
+administration. But now, and here, scales have, as it were, fallen from
+their eyes, and they are daily getting to understand more clearly the two
+mighty levers of the gigantic machine. The dominant view in Roman clerical
+circles here is, that the Church in its present condition needs, above all
+things, greater centralization at Rome, the extension and deepening of
+Papal powers, the removal of any limitations still standing in the way in
+national Churches, and the increase of the revenues accruing from Papal
+innovations. This it is the business of the Council to accomplish. When,
+therefore, two Bishops lately attacked in their speeches the abuse of
+expensive marriage dispensations, it was at once said, "Well, then, if any
+change is made, what is to become of our Congregations and the revenues of
+their members?"
+
+The Bishops will return home poorer in their happy confidence, but richer
+in such impressions and experiences. They will also carry back from Rome
+with them a fuller knowledge of the Jesuit Order, its spirit and
+tendencies. They now see clearly that the grand aim of the Order is to
+establish at least one fortress in every diocese with a Papal garrison,
+and to hold bishops, clergy, and people under complete subjection to Rome
+and her commands. A French Bishop observed the other day, "If matters go
+on in this way, we shall have even our holy water sent us ready-made from
+Rome." And the Jesuits' business is to see that things do go on in this
+way. The Bishops have now an opportunity of seeing through the tacit
+compact, perfectly understood on both sides, between the _Curia_ and the
+Order. The Pope accepts the Jesuit theology, and imposes it on the whole
+Church, for which he requires to be infallible; the Jesuits labour in the
+pulpit, the confessional, the schoolroom, and the press for the dominion
+of the _Curia_ and the Romanizing of all Church life. One hand washes the
+other, and the two parties say, "We serve, in order to rule." So far the
+relations of parties are clear enough, and result from the nature of the
+case. It is less easy to define the attitude and disposition of the
+Bishops towards each other.(41)
+
+
+
+
+
+FOURTEENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 2, 1870._--There is evidently a deep split running through the
+Council. It is not merely the question of Infallibility which divides the
+Bishops, though this rules the whole situation. Each party has an opposite
+programme. The majority, with their reserve of the 300 Papal boarders,
+speak and act on the principle that they are there to accept without
+objection or substantial change whatever their master, the Pope, puts
+before them; that they are as Bishops what the Jesuits are as Priests--the
+heralds of the Pope's omnipotence and infallibility, and the first
+executors of his commands--and accordingly they mean to vote against every
+motion not introduced or sanctioned by the Pope, and to impede, both in
+Council and out of Council, whatever would displease him or curtail the
+revenues of the _Curia_. And thus the 130 or 140 Bishops, who wish for
+improvement in Church matters, are thwarted and paralysed at every step by
+an adverse majority of 400, admirably generalled. Cardinal Barnabo,
+Prefect of the Propaganda, is one of the most deserving men in the _Curia_
+from this point of view. He maintains good discipline among the missionary
+Bishops, and is not ashamed to besiege an individual Bishop who is under
+Propaganda, or supported by it, for a whole evening, and threaten him with
+the withdrawal of his pay if he does not vote just as the Pope desires.
+
+Midway between the two opposite camps there stands a body of some 150
+Prelates of different nations, averse to the new dogma and to the whole
+plan of fabricating dogmas, to which the Jesuits are impelling the Pope,
+and alive to the necessity and desirableness of many reforms, but who, on
+various grounds, shrink from speaking out plainly and with the guarantee
+of their names.
+
+As far as I can gather from personal intercourse of various kinds with
+many of the Infallibilist Bishops, their zeal is chiefly due to the
+following notions:--
+
+_First_, They are more or less impressed by the representation that there
+is a general need for new dogmas, and that the old ones are no longer
+sufficient; but for preparing and enforcing these a single infallible
+dictator is better adapted than an episcopal assembly. For, besides the
+inevitable opposition of a minority to every new dogma, the Bishops could
+never come forward as more than witnesses of the tradition of their
+respective Churches, whereas the infallible Pope, under direct inspiration
+of the Holy Ghost, can at once make into a dogma and article of faith
+whatever is clear to himself, without troubling himself about the past or
+the tradition of particular Churches, even the Roman,--as, for instance, at
+present, the doctrine of the bodily Assumption of the Virgin Mary.
+
+_Secondly_--and this is a crucial point,--The distinction between Bishops
+learned or ignorant in theology will become immaterial, because henceforth
+they will be mere promulgators and executors of Papal decrees on faith,
+and therefore ignorance of theology and Church history, which still has
+some importance, and is felt as a defect to be ashamed of, will no longer
+be any reproach to a Bishop. He who has no judgment of his own to form may
+well be incapable of forming one; he is the mere speaking-trumpet of one
+above him.
+
+_Thirdly_, Theology itself will be greatly simplified, and its study
+rendered shorter and easier. Those lengthy historical proofs of dogmas,
+the investigations as to the range and consequences of a doctrine and the
+like, will all become superfluous, and matters will be settled out of hand
+by a brief question to the Pope and his reply. A collection of these
+rescripts, under the title of "The Art of Learning Theology in a Week,"
+may henceforth be placed in the hands of every candidate for the
+priesthood, and would supply the place of a whole library. Even as a
+matter of economy this is no despicable advantage. The majority of 400 and
+minority of 137 are then opposed to each other in this way:--the majority,
+or the Spanish and Italian section (_a fortiori fit denominatio_) say, "We
+are resolved to abdicate as a teaching body and integral constituent of
+the ecclesiastical ministry; we desire to commit suicide for the benefit
+of the Church, in order that the authority of a single man may be
+substituted for the collective authority of the whole episcopate and of
+all Churches." The minority think, on the other hand, "We are resolved to
+hand down inviolate to our successors the inheritance of eighteen
+centuries, bequeathed to us by our predecessors. Our spiritual forefathers
+were judges and definers in matters of doctrine, and such we desire to
+remain; we do not choose to give a helping hand to making ourselves and
+our successors mere acclaimers instead of definers."
+
+For the rest, it involves a logical contradiction on the part of the
+Infallibilists to lay any special weight on mere numbers, for nothing
+turns on the votes of the Bishops in their system, but everything depends
+on the decision of the Pope. If 600 Bishops were ranged on one side and
+the Pope with 6 Bishops on the other, the 600 would be thereby proved to
+be in error and the 6 in possession of the truth. Cardinal Noailles
+observed very correctly, 150 years ago, that 300 Bishops, who proclaim a
+doctrinal principle on the mere word of a Pope whom they regard as
+infallible, have no more weight than one single Bishop who votes on his
+own personal conviction. The opposition of the minority, as might be
+expected from their antecedents of the last twenty years, is indeed
+wrapped up in cotton, but at bottom it is positive enough. It comes to
+saying that, if the Pope really wishes the Council to take in hand the
+question of Infallibility, witnesses must be heard on the subject.
+
+The Address of the forty-five German and Hungarian Bishops objects to the
+boundaries, as they had been hitherto drawn by the Pope for the teaching
+of the Church, being transgressed, and the Council being compelled to
+enter on a discussion of the grounds _pro_ and _con_, which must
+necessarily bring much suspicious matter into public debate. The
+definition itself would be sure to excite hostility against the Church,
+even with men of the better sort (_melioris notae viros_) and lead to
+attacks upon her rights. It may be said that the whole German episcopate,
+and the immense majority of the German Catholic Church by their mouth, has
+spoken out against the Infallibilist dogma.
+
+Simor, Patriarch of Hungary, has not, or at least not yet, subscribed the
+Address, but he spoke emphatically against the dogma in the meeting of
+German Bishops on January 16. All the other Hungarian Bishops at Rome,
+thirteen in number, have signed the Address; only the Greek Uniate Bishop
+of Papp-Szilaghy has, like Simor, omitted to do so. The North Italian
+Bishops too have determined on an address, substantially identical with
+the German one.
+
+The French Address, which thirty-three Bishops agreed to on January 15, at
+a meeting at Cardinal Mathieu's, differs somewhat in wording from the
+German, but the contents are the same in the main, and it is hoped to get
+forty signatures for this; twenty French Bishops wish to abstain from
+signing anything, and something under twenty have signed Manning's
+address, so that there are still twice as many French on the side of the
+Opposition as of the definition. We may add seventeen North Americans, who
+have accepted the German Address, with the omission of the clauses omitted
+in the French one, while the North Italians adopted it unaltered. The
+opposition to the dogma has thus maintained an universal character,
+including the most various nationalities. But it would be hardly feasible
+to decide a new dogma by mere counting of heads, treating the Bishops,
+like the privates of a regiment, as all equal, so that one vote is worth
+just the same as another. An analysis of the component elements of this
+majority, and a comparison of it with the Opposition in scientific culture
+and representation of souls, would give sufficiently impressive results.
+
+The most startling phenomenon is presented by the Belgian and English
+Bishops. The former are all on the Infallibilist side, and there can be no
+doubt that they understand the political importance of the new dogma. They
+apparently wish to make the breach incurable between the Catholics of the
+younger generation and the Liberal party, who adhere to the Belgian
+Constitution; for no Catholic for the future can at once recognise the
+doctrine of Papal Infallibility and the principles of the Belgian civil
+law, without contradiction. What makes the majority of English Bishops
+zealous adherents of Infallibilism it is hard to say; they are not in
+other respects disposed to be led by Manning. Nor can we assume that, like
+the Belgians, they deliberately wish to make the Catholic Church of their
+country the irreconcilable foe of the British Constitution, though that
+would be the inevitable consequence of the doctrine. It has been pointed
+out to these Prelates from England, that the solemn declarations of
+English and Irish Catholics are still preserved in the State Archives, in
+which they formally renounced belief in Papal Infallibility, and purchased
+thereby the abolition of the old penal laws and Emancipation. Thus it is
+said in the "Declaration and Protestation," signed by 1740 persons,
+including 241 priests, "We acknowledge no infallibility in the Pope." In
+the "Form of Oath and Declaration," taken in 1793 by all Irish Catholics,
+occur the words, "I also declare that it is not an article of the Catholic
+faith, neither am I thereby required to believe or profess, that the Pope
+is infallible." And a Synod of Irish Bishops, in 1810, declared this oath
+and declaration to be "a constituent part of the Roman Catholic religion,
+as taught by the Bishops; a formula affirmed by the Roman Catholic
+Churches in Ireland, and sanctioned and approved by the other Roman
+Catholic Churches."
+
+I hear that, among the Irish Bishops, Moriarty is averse to breaking with
+the ancient tradition of his Church. Bishop Brown of Newport, an open and
+decided opponent of Infallibilism, is kept away by ill health; Ullathorne
+of Birmingham and Archbishop MacHale of Tuam wish also to keep clear of
+it, but without signing the address. Bishop Clifford of Clifton, on the
+contrary, as I hear, has signed it. So Manning's following among his
+countrymen is a very divided one.
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTEENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 4._--There is a good deal of interesting matter to report of
+the Sessions of the last few weeks. And, first, as to the Council Hall:
+notwithstanding the great curtain, it remains a wretched apology for a
+Council-chamber, and I must repeat emphatically that such a discussion as,
+_e.g._, was possible in St. Paul's Church, at Frankfort, in 1848, would be
+hardly practicable here. Bishops whose voices are feeble and not
+penetrating enough, must give up the idea of speaking, and even strong men
+among them feel thoroughly exhausted after they have spoken. A French
+Bishop, whose speech had produced a great effect, said afterwards of the
+hall, "Elle est sourde, muette, et aveugle." But the Pope persists, on
+account of the neighbourhood of the so-called "Confession of St. Peter,"
+from which he thinks a force issues to bind the Bishops closer to him, and
+fill them with contempt of the world. This influence, however, has been
+very little manifested as yet--rather the reverse. There have been many
+Opposition speeches, and the bell of the presiding Legate not unfrequently
+interrupts them with its shrill dissonance; in the latter Sessions a new
+method has been practised of reducing unpleasant speakers to silence--by
+scraping with the feet. It is a striking fact that talent, eloquence, and
+force of thought are observed to be almost entirely on the side of the
+Opposition; very few men of mark or able speakers can be mentioned on the
+Infallibilist side. Manning and Mermillod would be good and versatile
+speakers, only they are not sufficiently masters of Latin. Deschamps alone
+on that side has won great applause as an eloquent speaker, though with
+sufficient poverty of thought.
+
+Among the Cardinals, de Angelis, de Luca, Bilio, and Capalti are
+considered the four Papal pillars of the Council. Bilio, a Barnabite, and
+still a young man, passes in Rome for an eminent theologian, and while the
+other Cardinals and Monsignori would hold it a sin to understand German,
+he knows two German words, which he constantly repeats, but always with a
+shudder, "deutsche Wissenschaft." He thinks German science something like
+the witches' caldron in Macbeth--full of horrible ingredients.
+
+The first dogmatic _Schema_ has gone back to the Commission on Faith after
+a long, many-sided, and severe criticism, and is to be revised and again
+laid before the Council as little altered as possible. The revision is
+intrusted to three of the most zealous Infallibilists, Martin, Deschamps,
+and Pie, with the indispensable Jesuits, Schrader and Franzelin. The
+Bishops are then simply to accept it without discussion. It is not to be
+discussed, first, because there can be no discussion in the Hall;
+secondly, because this wretched patchwork does not bear discussion;
+thirdly, because there would be no coming to an end this way; fourthly,
+and chiefly, because an excellent precedent will be created, which may be
+made a rule for the forthcoming _Schemata_, and will open the prospect of
+carrying through matters far more important and more valuable for the
+_Curia_.
+
+If once the first _Schema_ were voted without discussion, by the help of
+the devoted majority of 400, though against the opposition of many
+Bishops, the same method might be pursued with subsequent _Schemata_, and
+thus the most important of all, on the Church and the Pope, could be
+carried, which contains the most exorbitant assertions of Papal
+omnipotence, and implies Papal Infallibility, which is introduced by a
+side-wind. By this means the maxim observed at former Councils, and even
+at Trent, that decisions can only be settled by a unanimous vote, would be
+happily got rid of, and the resistance of the Opposition broken or
+rendered useless. Such a victory of the curialistic party would exceed all
+other successes in importance and practical value. The Council is
+accordingly come to a momentous crisis. Father Theiner, the Prefect of the
+Papal Archives, has had a part of the first volume of his _Acts of the
+Council of Trent_ printed. We find there a _modus procedendi_, which
+secures to the Fathers of the Council much more freedom and action than
+the present regulations, of which Italian Prelates say themselves that
+they leave no freedom, and only allow a sham Council. Theiner has been
+altogether forbidden, by the management of the Jesuits, to publish his
+work, and has received the most strict commands not to show the part
+already printed to any Bishop.
+
+The introduction of the second _Schema_, on Discipline, gave occasion to
+many earnest and important speeches. The Germans at first had to blush for
+one of their number, Martin of Paderborn, who made a speech overflowing
+with the most unqualified devotion to the will of the supreme master, the
+authorship of which was attributed to his Jesuit domestic chaplain, Father
+Roh. But the speech of Archbishop Melchers of Cologne made all the more
+favourable impression. He spoke, with quiet dignity and freedom, of the
+perversity and shamefulness of the meddling Roman domination, the system
+of dispensations, and the unmeasured centralization. Great was the
+astonishment of the assembly; Cardinal Capalti went on urging, with
+impatient look and sign, on de Luca, the President for the day, to stop
+the German Archbishop. At last, when he had nearly finished, de Luca
+interrupted him, and said he must hand in his proposals to the Commission.
+Melchers did not let himself be put down; he replied that he had done that
+long ago, and had received no answer, and observed that he spoke in the
+name of more than a million German Catholics. And then he quietly went on
+with his speech. The words of Archbishop Haynald cut deeper still; he is
+the best speaker in the Council after Strossmayer, and is also subtle and
+circumspect, so that the Legate, who was visibly anxious to interrupt him,
+could not discover the right moment for putting his bell in motion.
+
+As little did they dare to interrupt Darboy, Archbishop of Paris, when he
+ascended the tribune and began as follows:--"We are told we are not to make
+long speeches, but I have a great deal to say. We are told again not to
+repeat what has been said by others, but at the same time we are kept shut
+up in this Hall, where for the most part we cannot understand one another;
+we are not allowed to examine the stenographic reports of our speeches,
+and the only answer made to our representations is always the same--'The
+Pope wills it.' I don't know therefore what has been said by the speakers
+who have preceded me." He then went on to speak of the rights of the
+Bishops, their degradation by the Roman centralizing system, "the caves,
+wherein the Roman doctors have buried themselves from the light of day,"
+etc. He spoke in admirable style, and was listened to with rapt attention,
+though at every word his auditors expected an interruption from the
+Legate; but it never came. Darboy himself said afterwards that he had done
+like Conde, and flung his marshal's staff into the ranks of the enemy.
+
+On January 22, Dupanloup made a speech in the same sense, which has
+already been reported to you, and took occasion to mention those courtiers
+who have learnt never to tell the truth to the Pope. Courtiers of this
+sort from various nations sat and stood in crowds around him. He might
+have added what was said to the Pope--vainly, of course--300 years ago, in a
+work composed by his order, and is just as true now as then: that the
+dream of omnipotence and infallibility, so studiously produced and
+cherished in his soul by flatterers, is the main cause, next to the
+avarice of the _Curia_, of the decline and corruptions of the Church.
+Meanwhile it is truly wonderful that so much could be said at all; it was
+felt to be a moral discomfiture or capitulation of the _Curia_ in its
+state of siege. Cardinal Schwarzenberg, and after him the Primate of
+Hungary, had certainly struck the note which still rang on, but the
+Legates had not dared to silence them with the bell, and so missed the
+opportunity of _principiis obsta_. Schwarzenberg had already created a
+great sensation by recommending the periodical recurrence of Councils,
+afterwards taken up by Strossmayer, and then falling back on the decree of
+Constance (for decennial Councils), which is an abomination at Rome. No
+doubt they would have no objection in Rome to Councils every ten or twenty
+years, suitably modernized, manipulated, and obedient to every wink, like
+the present majority; but the fatal Opposition embitters this enjoyment,
+and when once the great work is accomplished, and Infallibility
+proclaimed, it will be found at Rome that all this machinery is not worth
+its pay, "que le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle;" for it costs too much
+money to entertain 300 _Placet_-saying Bishops, to make it worth while
+often to reproduce the drama, or rather the pantomine.
+
+Other Prelates, whom the _Curia_ reckons among the _Di minores gentium_,
+have no indulgence shown them. When an American Bishop spoke of the
+corruptions and gross falsehoods in the Roman Breviary, and of the
+fabulous interpolations in the works of some Fathers, _e.g._, St.
+Augustine, inserted there, Capalti rang his bell violently--the Fathers
+were not to be so spoken of. But the American did not let himself be
+disturbed, and proceeded at once to quote the Breviary lections from St.
+Gregory. He was again called to order, and told he must change the subject
+or leave the tribune.
+
+In this second _Schema_, compiled by Jacobini, the second Secretary of the
+Council, the gross ignorance of the author is glaringly exposed. With the
+usual self-sufficiency of Rome, and with the aim of making the Bishops
+still more dependent on the _Curia_ than before, the special conditions of
+whole countries had been ignored. Thus every Bishop, who wished to leave
+his diocese, was first to get the Pope's permission from Rome, and the
+Archbishops were to delate all who acted otherwise at Rome. Simor observed
+sharply on that, "This then is the position Rome assigns to Metropolitans,
+after robbing them of all their ancient rights: to be the accusers of
+their conprovincial Bishops." Another declared roundly that, if his
+physician sent him to a watering-place, he should not think of asking
+leave from Rome. Jacobini would not even recognise the right of Bishops to
+attend the political assemblies of their countries, of which they are
+members by the Constitution, because, as the _Schema_ words it, "assembleae
+generales" no longer exist in the sense allowed by Urban VIII. The Pope
+was further to have the right henceforth of giving away the benefices in
+the Bishop's gift during the vacancy of the See, which would bring in a
+large increase of taxes for the _Curia_, and draw a number of candidates
+to Rome again, as in the palmy days before the Reformation. In Germany we
+should get back the class of so-called _Curtisanen_,(42) who notoriously
+did so much to promote the Protestant division. The Bishops inflicted many
+a blow on the abuse of expensive dispensations to be elaborated at Rome
+from artificially derived impediments of marriage (as of cousins,
+godfathers, and the like) before the Legate's bell could stop them. Then a
+Hungarian Bishop related, how it often happens that a poor woman comes
+weeping to the Bishop, to beg him to save her marriage and her very
+existence by a dispensation. But the Bishop must let the poor woman be
+ruined, for not he but the Pope only can dispense, and "mulier non habet
+pecunias--pecunias." The Court Prelates said afterwards that this Hungarian
+had made himself very disagreeable with his "mulier non habet pecunias."
+
+The following occurrence was comic:--You know in what repute the supple and
+complaisant Fessler, Bishop of St. Poelten, is held here, the first herald
+for retailing the new dogma to the world. Not long ago, Charbonnel, the
+Capuchin Bishop of Sozopolis, placed himself near him, and began to speak
+of clerical place-hunting, the eagerness for distinctions and promotions
+among Bishops, and the crooked ways they often take to obtain them, and
+pointed so unmistakeably by look and gesticulation at his neighbour, the
+Secretary, that on going out Fessler said it was high time to put an end
+to the Council, which was every day getting more disagreeable. The
+question was then started by German and Hungarian Bishops whether it would
+not be better, as Martin thought, to substitute lay-brothers for
+clergymen's housekeepers, or whether the restoration of "the common
+life"--the Chrodogang institute--of course in a very modified form, should
+be attempted. They overlooked the fact that such matters cannot be
+regulated by a Council, but must be arranged according to the disposition
+and circumstances of the clergy in the various dioceses. Haynald, Meignan,
+Bishop of Chalons, and the Chaldean Patriarch, insisted that mere school
+questions should not be decided by the Council without any necessity, and
+that some freedom of movement must be left to Science. But the word
+freedom has nowhere so ill a sound as at Rome. Only one kind of freedom
+can be spoken of here--the freedom of the Church; and, in their favourite
+and accustomed manner of speech, by the Church is intended the Pope, and
+by freedom domination over the State, according to the Decretals. And to
+talk of freedom of Science! The Council, if it entertained such views,
+would be forgetting altogether that it was only called together for two
+purposes--to increase the plenary power of the Pope, and to aggrandize the
+Jesuits. But the Order has, like the Paris labourer of 1848, "le droit du
+travail;" it is not content to exist only, but must work--of course in its
+own way,--and for this it requires two things: first, new dogmas; and
+secondly, plenty of condemnations and anathemas. The business of the
+Council is to provide both.
+
+The Cardinals, with the exception of Rauscher, Schwarzenberg, and Mathieu,
+have taken no part in the speaking, nor have the Generals of Orders and
+Abbots. Only when the need for a reform of the Cardinals themselves was
+spoken of, Cardinal di Pietro rose, who is regarded as the most
+liberal-minded of the Italians in the Sacred College, to show that such a
+reform could only be a financial one, _i.e._, that the Cardinals required
+larger incomes. What the Bishops meant was something very different, viz.,
+a better and fuller representation of different nations in the _Curia_,
+and a limitation of the Italian monopoly. But scattered observations of
+that kind could elicit no sort of real apprehension in the minds of the
+Italians, who are firmly seated in the saddle; so secure do they feel in
+their possession of a dominion many centuries old, and so very odd do the
+claims of other nations appear to them. In this point the present Romans
+or Latins are of the same mind as the old Romans of the sinking Republic,
+who sacrificed 600,000 men in the Confederate war rather than allow equal
+political rights to their Italian allies.
+
+The great blow, which brings matters near a decision, has now been just
+struck, and all that the Jesuit and anti-German party longed for, and the
+French and Germans feared, is now before our eyes, the third _Schema_, "on
+the Church and the Pope," has been distributed, and leaves hardly anything
+to be desired in point of clearness and plain speaking. These transparent
+decrees and anathemas may be thus summed up: "The Christian world consists
+simply of masters and slaves; the masters are the Italians, the Pope and
+his Court, and the slaves are all Bishops (including the Italians
+themselves), all priests, and all the laity."
+
+This third _Schema_, which was distributed to the Bishops on January 21,
+is a lengthy document of 213 pages, entitled _De Ecclesia_, and it is the
+one the _Curia_ is chiefly bent on getting received. It is said to be the
+work of a red-hot Infallibilist, Gay, Vicar-General of the Infallibilist
+Bishop Pie of Poitiers, and is so drawn up that by a slight addition the
+Infallibility of the Pope, which it already leads up to and implies, can
+be inserted in express form very easily, and as the necessary logical
+supplement; and thus the internal harmony of this important document, with
+its appended anathemas, would be completely secured. Three main ideas run
+through the _Schema_, and are formulated into dogmatic decrees guarded
+with anathemas: _First_, to the Pope belongs absolute dominion over the
+whole Church, whether dispersed or assembled in Council; _secondly_, the
+Pope's temporal sovereignty over a portion of the Peninsula must be
+maintained as pertaining to dogma; _thirdly_, Church and State are
+immutably connected, but in the sense that the Church's laws always hold
+good before and against the civil law; and therefore every Papal ordinance
+that is opposed to the Constitution and law of the land binds the
+faithful, under mortal sin, to disobedience to the Constitution and law of
+their country.
+
+
+
+
+
+SIXTEENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 5._--On reviewing the situation, I believe I may venture to say
+that it has become better, far better, than it was a few weeks ago. For
+this the Christian world is mainly indebted to the noble, dignified and
+united attitude of the German and Hungarian Bishops. These men,--I speak of
+course only of the majority of the forty-six--while taking frequent and
+most conscientious consultation with one another, and knowing the three
+German Cardinals to be in substantial agreement with them, have gained
+almost daily in clearness of view, confidence and decision; and their
+example, again, has encouraged the Bishops of other nations. If, as many
+fear, Ketteler should, at the critical moment, go over to the Papal side,
+and let his sympathy for the convenient Infallibilist doctrine get the
+better of his love for the German Church and nation, his loss will be more
+than made up by forces newly gained. Hefele, who is the first living
+authority about Councils, has signed the Opposition address, and would, I
+believe, have still more gladly signed a stronger one. Three Cardinals of
+one nation who don't want to have anything to do with Papal Infallibility!
+"It is an unheard-of, an abominable thing," say the Romans. "O that we
+still had Reisach! his loss is bitter at so critical a moment, and that we
+should have to console ourselves for his death by the living voices of
+Martin, Senestrey, Leonrod and Stahl, is still bitterer!"
+
+The Hungarians are greatly influenced by knowing that they would find
+themselves isolated in their own country, if they, the representatives of
+ecclesiastical reform, were to return from Rome conquered, and as forced
+believers in Papal Infallibility and the complete system of ecclesiastical
+despotism. Their position is one of close union, and by its union is
+imposing; whereas the fifteen or sixteen Bishops of Austrian Germany are
+somewhat weakened by the desertion of Martin and the three Bavarians and
+the approaching apostasy of Ketteler, who is already preparing the way for
+it in the _Mainzer Journal_. From thence, as I perceive, has the falsehood
+gained currency, that the Opposition are ready to accept Spalding's
+(professedly) modified proposals, and thus to acknowledge Infallibility in
+its grossest form and vote the whole third _Schema_--that Magna Charta of
+ecclesiastical absolutism--absolutely and without any change. That would
+indeed be a catastrophe almost without precedent in Church history. We
+should have to assume that the Opposition Bishops had resolved to verify
+in their own case Mazarin's saying about Parliaments, that their policy is
+always to say "No," and act "Yes." Ketteler, moreover, has special grounds
+of his own for gaining or preserving the particular favour of the Pope;
+for remembering his retirement from the candidature for the Archbishopric
+of Cologne, he might effect the abolition of the compact of Rome with the
+Governments, which secures a veto to the latter, and the introduction of
+either entirely free elections with Papal confirmation, or, still better,
+of simple nomination of Bishops by the Pope. He has spoken in Congregation
+in this sense, and was of course cheered by the Infallibilists.
+
+No less strong and dignified is the attitude of half the French Bishops,
+who have attached themselves to men like Darboy, Dupanloup, Landriot of
+Rheims, Meignan of Chalons and Ginoulhiac of Grenoble. On the other side,
+there are about twenty decided Infallibilists, while the rest of the
+French Bishops wait or avoid speaking out. The party of Darboy and
+Dupanloup have the double advantage of being supported by their
+Government--while the Austrian ministry assumes a wholly apathetic and
+indifferent position,--and of belonging to the nation whose troops make the
+Council and the civil Government of the Pope possible, and whose Bishops
+therefore the _Curia_ is obliged to treat with respect. A French Bishop
+can say a good deal without, as a rule, having to fear being called to
+order by the Legate's bell.
+
+The North American Bishops too are being gradually educated to
+ecclesiastical maturity in the school of Rome and the Council, and have
+already grown out of that naive belief in the disinterested generosity and
+superhuman wisdom of the _Curia_ which most of them brought here. To-day
+the Pope paid them a visit at the American College, conversed in a
+friendly way with the Bishops individually, said obliging things, and, in
+a word, displayed those well-known powers of fascination he has such a
+command of. "A month ago this would have taken effect," said an American
+priest who was present, "but now it comes too late." He also assured me
+that not five of the forty-five American Bishops would sign the
+Infallibilist Petition or vote for the dogma.
+
+I have heard many, and especially French, Prelates say, during the last
+few days, sometimes in obscure hints, sometimes clearly, that the Council
+will soon--in a few weeks--be closed or dissolved; an opinion all the more
+surprising, because nothing as yet has been done. In that case the Bull
+with the many Excommunications will have to be treated as issuing from the
+Council.(43) But the only relation of the Bishops to that Bull is as the
+suffering and punished party.
+
+The third Solemn Session was to have been held on February 2, but had
+again to fall through from the want of any materials. And there are still
+mountains of work and numbers of elaborate _Schemata_ awaiting the
+Council; for the decrees it is summoned to make, or rather which Pius IX.
+intends to proclaim to the world, "with the approbation of the Council,"
+are to be veritable pandects embracing the entire doctrine and
+constitution of the Church, regulating all relations between Church and
+State, and restoring the Papal supremacy over the bodies and souls of all
+men. The domain of morals, properly so called, is alone excluded; for
+there the Jesuits have good reasons for wishing to keep their hands free.
+In short, the projected work that still remains to be done would occupy at
+least a year and a half. And for this end everything has been chosen and
+sharpened into the form of canons, which can only introduce complications,
+provoke conflicts with the civil Governments, embitter the relations of
+rival Confessions, prejudice the position of the Bishops, and foster the
+hatred of the lay world against the clergy. And accordingly, with many
+Bishops, the wish to escape taking any part in these discussions may be
+father to the thought, and a speedy end of the Council may appear to them
+a sort of conciliar euthanasia. To many a Bishop has the old proverb
+already occurred, in reference to the Council, that the best thing would
+be not to have been born and the next best to die early. It is not the
+Swiss only who have a home-sickness. And then there is the treatment; I
+heard a French Count here say to-day, "On les traite d'une maniere
+brutale."
+
+I have just received the last number of the Paris _Correspondant_, with
+its article by the Viscount of Meaux, Montalembert's son-in-law, who is
+here. His account of how the Council is treated is so much to the point,
+and so thoroughly confirms my own statements, that I will quote it for
+you.
+
+"The _Schemata_," he says, at p. 347, "are prepared beforehand, the order
+of business is imposed by authority (_imposee_), the Commissions are
+elected before any consultation, from official lists, by a disciplined
+majority which votes as one man. On these Commissions the minority is not
+represented, and there are no other deliberations except in Congregation.
+Before these Congregations the subjects are brought in all their novelty
+and laid before the 700 members, without any previous explanations. It is
+difficult to understand the speeches, and there are no reports which the
+Fathers can inspect, so that no Bishops have the opportunity of submitting
+their thoughts to the deliberate examination of their colleagues.
+Moreover, they are forbidden to have anything printed here for the
+Council. All these characteristics indicate an assembly summoned to
+approve, not to discuss, intended to exalt, not to moderate, the power
+which has summoned it. And with what haste does it push on in this
+direction! How impatiently does the majority press for a declaration of
+Papal Infallibility!" So far the Viscount. Matters must indeed have come
+to a pass when so cautious and strictly Catholic a journal as the
+_Correspondant_ presents its readers with this picture of the Council.
+
+There are two serious dangers to which we are always exposed. The first I
+have already spoken of, which is introducing the plan of passing the
+_Schemata_ by majorities, so that the desired dogma would be carried as it
+were by assault. The second danger--and it seems to me far more
+threatening--is that one of those involved and disguised formulas which the
+Infallibilists vie with one another in devising, in order to deceive and
+catch the votes of the less sharp-sighted Prelates and thus incorporate it
+into the third _Schema_, may really succeed with the greater number of the
+hitherto opposing and protesting Bishops. This notion is in fact implied
+in the phrase one has heard so often, that a middle party must be formed
+among the Bishops; for the programme or shibboleth of this middle party is
+to be an elastic formula, or one only expressing the thing metaphorically,
+or, again, one not sharply dogmatic but rather pious and edifying in
+sound. By the help of this middle party the formula might be made
+acceptable to the rest of the Prelates, and the desired end be happily
+attained. Thus Mermillod and two others have to-day invented a phrase,
+which seems to them suited to square the circle and to satisfy and unite
+all. They say they wish to declare that the Pope, whenever he speaks on
+doctrine, speaks _tanquam os et organum Ecclesiae_. And by this they
+understand that the Church has no other mouth than him and without him is
+dumb, from which it obviously follows that he is infallible. I doubt if
+many Bishops will be detained in the meshes of a net so coarsely spun. No
+better is the formula invented by Spalding, which might be called a pretty
+downright one,--that everybody must inwardly assent to every doctrinal
+decision of the Pope on pain of everlasting damnation.(44) That goes far
+beyond even the Manning-Deschamps Address, which limits his infallibility
+to decrees addressed to the whole Church, while this formula of Spalding's
+declares every conceivable Papal utterance (_judicium_) infallible; for a
+Christian can only give the assent of inward belief, when there is no
+possibility of error and when there is a really divine authority and
+revelation. Every theologian must declare this invention of the Archbishop
+of Baltimore's to be the most monstrous demand ever made on the conscience
+and understanding of the Catholic world. It is as if a courtier at Teheran
+were to say, "I will not indeed affirm that our Shah is almighty, but I do
+assert confidently that he can create out of nothing whatever he will and
+that his will is always accomplished." The reverend Fathers who torment
+themselves with inventing such devices would perhaps do best if they were
+to make a collection among themselves, and offer a prize of 100 ducats for
+that form of circumlocution or involution most securely adapted for
+entrapping the innocent souls of Bishops. Then the most ingenious heads
+from all Europe would compete in sending in their suggestions, and the
+right bait might be discovered among them.
+
+
+
+
+
+SEVENTEENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 5._--To supplement and partly to verify the news in my last
+letter, I will now tell you some facts that came to light yesterday and
+the day before.
+
+The Opposition Addresses were presented to the Pope on January 26,
+subscribed by forty-six Germans and Hungarians, thirty French, and twenty
+Italian Bishops, together with some of the North American Bishops, the
+Portuguese, and certain others. Cardinal Barnabo had employed all
+available means of intimidation to prevent the Orientals from signing, and
+hence the number of signatures was somewhat below what had been expected.
+Of the Germans, Martin, Senestrey, Stahl and Leonrod had signed the
+Infallibilist Address, which, as was only afterwards discovered, has not
+been presented, because--it was countermanded. It is not, as I first
+informed you, composed by the Episcopal Committee, but by the Jesuits, and
+emanates from the bureau of the _Civilta_; the abiding marvel is that 400
+Bishops could be induced to sign such a document without even verifying a
+single one of the pretended facts cited in it. That an Infallibilist
+should subscribe in blind confidence, and without examination, a document
+coming from the Pope himself, is natural; but that 400 pastors of the
+Church, assembled for deciding and therefore for examining ecclesiastical
+questions, should endorse on faith the composition of a nameless Jesuit,
+is an occurrence the Order may pride itself on.
+
+A Petition has been set on foot by the Jesuits, and hawked about with the
+Pope's approval, proposing that the bodily Assumption of the Mother of the
+Lord should be made an article of faith, and all who henceforth doubt of
+it, or point to the notorious origin of the notion from apocryphal
+writings, be anathematized. This anathema would inevitably fall on every
+one who is acquainted with Church history and patristic literature. This
+passionate delight in anathemas, curses and refusals of absolution has
+been powerfully aroused, as you may see from the canons which reproduce
+the Syllabus and are added to the third _Schema_. The augurs of the Gesu
+do not indeed smile, but simper, when they meet each other, for they know
+that the rich harvest from these seeds will drop into the bosom of their
+Order. Here again it is shown plainly that the interests of the Bishops
+and of the Jesuits are sharply opposed.
+
+That Bull, with its many curses and cases reserved to the Pope, which
+fills the Jesuits with hope and joy (though not they but the Dominicans of
+the Inquisition are its authors), is for the Bishops a source of
+discouragement and despair, so that the Bishop of Trent is said to have
+lately observed that he would rather resign his See than publish it. It is
+now asserted that the Pope has again suspended it, partly on account of
+remonstrances of the French Government, partly to put the Bishops in
+better humour for the Infallibilist definition.
+
+The Petition for the new Marian dogma had 300 signatures on January 31. In
+managing such affairs the Jesuits are unrivalled, for the Order is like a
+great actor, such as Garrick, _e.g._, whose every limb from top to toe
+moves, speaks, and conspires to express the same idea. Then they have an
+Infallibilist Petition from the East, the only one known to have been got
+up; that is to say, they made the Maronite boys and youths of their
+educational establishment sign the Petition they had drawn up.
+
+As I now hear, the majority, on January 25, resolved to let their Address
+and Petition drop, if the minority will accept Spalding's proposed
+addition to the third _Schema_. They are indeed very magnanimous, for that
+addition, as was observed just now, goes much further and stands to the
+Address somewhat as Dido's ox-hide cut up into thongs to the hide before
+it was cut: it will embrace whole countries and cities. Spalding desires
+too to have the Index placed completely under the shield of Papal
+Infallibility, and therefore the opinion that the Pope can have made any
+mistake about the sense of a book is to be condemned. Next day, the
+Petition of the minority, who knew nothing of the decision of the other
+party, was presented to the Pope and rejected by him. The Infallibilists
+appear to have spread the report that their Address had been actually
+given in simply for the purpose of catching their opponents in a trap.
+
+On Sunday, January 23, the Commission named by the Pope for examining
+motions proposed held its first sitting, under the presidency of Cardinal
+Patrizzi and not of the Pope himself, as was thought--seven weeks after the
+Council met and when a number of motions had long been awaiting its
+scrutiny. This delay had evidently been designed. It has now been resolved
+to arrange and examine proposals, not according to subjects but nations,
+so that the proposals of the French, Germans, etc., will be separately
+discussed and decided upon.
+
+Cardinal Rauscher has written, or got written, a treatise on the
+Infallibility question in German, which is now being translated into
+Latin, and which does not merely oppose the dogma as inopportune, but
+attacks the whole principle and, as I am assured, on fundamental grounds.
+But it cannot be printed here, where the Roman censorship is constantly
+growing stricter. It will be printed in Vienna, and copies will then have
+to be sent here under cover to the Austrian Embassy. To the
+representations of the German and French Bishops against the
+oppressiveness and injustice to the minority of the order of business, the
+Pope has not seen fit to make any reply. _Vae victis!_ Woe to them who do
+not belong to the faithful and devoted majority! This is what resounds
+here, morning, noon and night. Meanwhile the Papal Committee of the
+Council has devised a new means for paralysing the minority, and cutting
+short discussions which might easily become inconvenient. It is directed
+that all objections or proposals for modifications of the _Schemata_ are
+first to be handed over in writing to the Presidents and referred by them
+to the Commission _de Fide_, which rejects or admits them at its pleasure.
+If the authors of the proposals appeal against the decision of the
+Commission, the whole Council decides, of course by simple majority of
+votes. If this arrangement were really to be introduced, the
+minority--_i.e._, the German and French Bishops--would be deprived of all
+possibility of exerting any influence on the composition of the decrees or
+warding off any decree they considered injurious; they would always be
+outvoted, and the Council would more and more take the form of a mere
+machine for outvoting them. The Bishops would soon learn to spare
+themselves the useless trouble of proposing changes, and a much closer
+approach would be effected to the great object of making new articles of
+faith and decrees by a mere majority of votes. The only question is what
+the French and Germans intend to put up with from the Italians and
+Spaniards, for it is clear that here again the question of nationalities
+turns up in the background, and the Brennus sword of the Southern and
+Latin majority is always ready to be thrown into the scale.
+
+
+
+
+
+EIGHTEENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 6._--The report of the dissolution or prorogation of the
+Council gains in strength. Manning has found it important enough to have
+it contradicted in his journal, the _Tablet_. He writes, or makes somebody
+write, "The Holy Father is full of strength and confidence, and has no
+intention of proroguing the Council, as his enemies say." As far as the
+Pope is concerned, I hold the statement to be true. Pius is still
+absolutely confident of success and firmly convinced of two
+things--_first_, of his divine, legitimate and irresistible fulness of
+power, which requires that a conspicuous example, memorable for all future
+ages, shall be made of the Bishops who oppose him; _secondly_, of the
+special protecting grace and guidance accorded to the Council by the Holy
+Virgin, on whose benevolence he notoriously maintains that he has very
+special claims. He has issued an Indulgence for the whole Church, which
+gives us some insight into his connection of ideas and religious views. In
+the Bull of December 1869, he says that the Dominican General, Jandel, has
+represented to him that the new method of prayer, consisting of 150
+repetitions of the "Hail, Mary," was first introduced at the time the
+grand crusade against the Albigenses was organized. But our own age is
+infected with so many monstrous errors that this new method of prayer
+should be employed now also, in order that under the mighty protection of
+the Mother of God the Council may destroy these monsters. Whoever,
+therefore, after confession and communion, recites the Rosary daily for a
+week, for the Pope's intention and for the happy termination of the
+Council, may gain a plenary indulgence of all his sins, applicable also to
+the dead. The Pope adds that even when a child, and far more as Pope, he
+has always placed his whole confidence in the Mother of God, and that he
+firmly believes it to be given to her alone by God to destroy all heresies
+throughout the world. How this special power of the Holy Virgin consists
+with the fact that many heresies have now lasted quietly for fourteen
+centuries, it would be interesting to know. The rest the reader may find
+himself in the German Pastorals.
+
+Pius has even had his naive but robust belief in his own heavenly
+illumination and vocation to proclaim new doctrines sensibly embodied in a
+picture. In a chamber beyond the Raphael Gallery there is a picture
+painted by his order; he stands in glorified attitude on a throne
+proclaiming his favourite dogma of the Immaculate Conception, while the
+Divine Trinity and the Holy Virgin look down from heaven well pleased upon
+him, and from the Cross, borne in the arms of an angel, flashes a bright
+ray on his countenance. Thus Pius stands in a special mystical relation to
+Mary; she guides and inspires the Council through him, and he in turn will
+proclaim, with its assent, the decrees she has inspired and which will
+destroy the monstrous errors of the present day, or will at least give
+them a fatal blow. Unfortunately, not one single decree has yet been
+brought out after exactly two months, and all the heresies continue just
+as strong as before the Council met. And yet the pregnant and successful
+Councils of the ancient Church did not require a longer time for their
+decisions; the Council of Nice was finished in two months, the Council of
+Chalcedon in six weeks. Certainly it was not then supposed that Mary had
+first to give the Pope, and then he to give the Council, the weapons for
+destroying heresies: they were content to rely on the Paraclete promised
+by Christ.
+
+Meanwhile the present assembly has nothing in common with those ancient
+Synods, except in being composed of persons called Bishops. But our
+Bishops are unlike those of the ancient Church, for they have to yield up
+to the _Curia_ three-fourths of the rights possessed by their
+predecessors, and it would be simply ridiculous to liken the state of
+tutelage and restraint they are now placed under by the _Curia_ to the
+free and independent attitude of the fifth-century Councils. The more
+free-spoken among them have just addressed, on 2d February, another
+Petition to the Pope, requesting that the so-called Council Hall in St.
+Peter's may be exchanged for a more suitable chamber; for now that serious
+discussions on the dogmas and decrees are to begin--and the third _Schema_
+will be met with strong and persevering opposition in many of its
+articles--the present arrangement becomes still more intolerable than
+before. Any regular discussion is simply impossible in the present Council
+Hall; there is no doubt of that. "That is just right," say the Papal
+officials; "we neither desire nor need discussion, but simply that the
+propositions should be voted." "But this is an unheard-of thing, against
+all conciliar usage and all natural right," reply the Bishops. Archbishop
+Darboy said, "We are called on to anathematize doctrines and persons; to
+pass sentences of spiritual death. But would any jury in the world
+pronounce capital sentence without first having heard the defence?" And
+thus the Council has entered on a very critical period, and a spirit of
+irritation is becoming visible, increased by the constantly deepening
+conviction that the Bishops are to be used for purposes alien to their
+minds and suicidal. One word describes the entire plot--outvoting by
+majorities. The united German, French and North American Bishops are
+opposed to a well disciplined army of about 500, who will vote as one man
+at the beck of the Pope. This army consists of 300 Papal boarders, the 62
+Bishops of the Roman States who are doubly subject to him, 68 Neapolitans,
+80 of the Spanish race, some 110 titular Bishops without dioceses, the
+Italian Cardinals, 30 Generals of Orders, etc.(45) In a word, the Latin
+South is arrayed against the French and German North. And therefore the
+design of the _Curia_, to carry decrees or dogmas on every question of
+Church and State, etc., by a mere calculation of _plus_ and _minus_, is
+doubly monstrous and utterly unchurchlike. For, _first_, it must
+inevitably produce a deep national irritation, if it is said hereafter in
+Germany, Bohemia, Hungary, France and the United States, "The Italians and
+Spaniards have triumphed over our views and interests at Rome, simply
+because their dioceses are much smaller than ours and they have 50 Bishops
+for 100,000 souls, while we have only one." _Secondly_, it involves a
+complete break with the past of the Church and the practice of Councils.
+Some Bishops have examined the official records of the Council of Trent by
+the Roman historian Pallavicini, and have found there that Pius IV.
+directed his Legates--and that too with special reference to a decree on
+the fulness of Papal jurisdiction--to make no decrees the Bishops were not
+_unanimously agreed upon_.(46)
+
+But now just the contrary is to take place. The decisive contest on that
+point--if it comes to an open contest--will not be fought on the third
+_Schema_, _On __ the Church and the Pope_, but at once on the first
+_Schema_, the handiwork of the Jesuits, when it is returned to the
+Council, professedly modified but in substance unchanged, from the
+Commission of two Jesuits and three Infallibilists. As we hear, no
+attention has been paid to the counter representations of the Bishops,
+some of whom have objected to it altogether as superfluous and
+mischievous, some as erroneous and exaggerated. It will now without
+further discussion, which is simply impossible in the Council Hall, be
+accepted by the mere majority of votes of the compact troop of
+Infallibilists, who are at the Pope's command as _valets a tout faire_,
+and proclaimed as a dogma by Pius, _approbante Concilio_, as the form
+runs. Thereby, according to approved Roman doctrine, has the Holy Ghost
+spoken by the mouth of His divine representative, "causa finita est;" and
+it only remains for the 150 or 200 opposing Bishops to make all haste to
+perform a great mental evolution, to change their laws of thought, to
+reverence as revealed truth what they have hitherto rejected as error, and
+to force the clergy and laity under them by excommunication and suspension
+to perform the same gymnastic feat of leaping at one jump from unbelief
+into firm and immoveable faith.
+
+The modern and purely mechanical scholasticism has brought matters to such
+a pass that many seriously look upon the Council as a machine, which only
+needs turning to get new dogmas carried and authorized by the Holy Ghost.
+Formerly, theologians used to say that the voice of a General Council is
+nothing but the voice of the whole Church concentrated in one place; that
+every Bishop bears witness to the traditional belief of his Church and of
+his predecessors; and that the harmony of these testimonies proves what is
+the universal belief, and thus attests the truth and purity of the
+profession of faith sanctioned by the Council. But now all this is
+entirely changed. The Bishops have come, without any previous knowledge as
+to what they were to vote about; long-winded and ready-made documents are
+laid before them on questions most of them have never examined in their
+lives, of which their flocks at home know nothing and have never heard;
+they are expected to pass decrees the necessity and opportuneness of which
+appear to them highly problematical, and to pronounce a string of
+anathemas, because the Pope and Jesuits will it. They are cooped up in a
+treadmill called a Council, and must willingly or unwillingly grind what
+is thrown into it. It cannot indeed be exactly said that this procedure is
+new and unprecedented, for the same thing occurred, on a much smaller
+scale, at the Fifth Lateran Council under Julius II. and Leo. X.; but then
+only the Italian Bishops were made use of, who had long been broken in to
+the _role_ of flunkeys. Now, on the contrary, the Bishops of all nations
+have been brought into prison at Rome, and are to say Yea and Amen to the
+decrees the _Curia_ and the Jesuits have drawn up and mean to make
+obligatory.
+
+But the minority have taken courage, and stand on the defensive; and so
+the machine is at a standstill. The opponents of Infallibilism have not
+decreased; on the contrary, it is now thought that about 200 will vote
+against it. Many, who at first were only "inopportunists," have now
+through more careful investigation of the question become decided
+opponents of the doctrine itself.
+
+Antonelli does not spare assurances, that the Governments may be quite at
+ease as to the decrees to be issued by the Council; he says they only
+affect theology, that nothing will be changed in practical life by them,
+and that the _Curia_ has no intention of employing them for the purpose of
+interfering with political affairs. But these reassuring declarations are
+only made orally; great care is taken to avoid putting them into a
+written, and therefore binding, form. Meanwhile the French Government
+perfectly comprehends the situation and the objects aimed at, and has
+already announced that it will fully support its Bishops and protect them
+against the threatened domination by majorities. Archbishop Lavigerie has
+gained nothing in Paris, and the decision of France has been communicated
+to the Cardinal Secretary of State, to the effect that the Government will
+not allow the 33 French Bishops and their allies of the German and English
+tongue to be crushed and forced into adopting dogmas they have rejected.
+The _Civilta_ has just been singing the praises of Count Daru, who is a
+living proof that there are still real statesmen; it will very soon adopt
+just the opposite tone.
+
+Among the points which make the Bishops the more astonished, the longer
+they stay here and the more narrowly they inspect the condition of things,
+is the decline of study in Rome, and the want, not merely of learned men
+but even, and most especially, of well-grounded theologians. Rome was
+never a favourable soil for serious study and true learning; a resource
+was found in attracting foreigners here, which could easily be done by
+means of the great Religious Orders whose Generals reside here. But now
+these Orders, with the exception of the Jesuits, are in the same state of
+decay. Where are men of distinguished learning to be found among the
+Dominicans, Carmelites, Cistercians and Franciscans of our own day? To the
+Pope himself and those immediately about him this is a matter of
+indifference; Pius feels instinctively that, if there were real
+theologians at Rome, they would all offer at least a passive resistance to
+his _penchant_ for creating new dogmas. Only the Jesuits and their pupils
+favour that sort of thing; and as long as there were real theologians in
+Rome, history knows of no Pope who was possessed with this abnormal
+passion for fabricating dogmas.
+
+Now, indeed, among the 41 Italian Cardinals, only two are named as
+theologians, the Thomist Guidi and the Barnabite Lulio. Of the
+achievements of the latter nothing is known, and he has left the Jesuits
+to their own devices in the elaboration of the _Schemata_; but in the
+Council he is the chief representative of Roman theology. More
+distinguished than Lulio is the Piedmontese Prelate and Professor,
+Audisio, author of a History of the Popes, which of course cannot be
+measured by a German standard. Vincenzi, a good Orientalist and author of
+a learned--but in the main erroneous--apology for Origen, being a quiet,
+modest man who goes his own way, is thought nothing of here, and has
+neither title, dignities, nor benefices, although in knowledge he
+outweighs twenty Monsignori. De Rossi, the most acute and learned among
+the genuine Romans, who has educated himself by the study of German works,
+is a layman and therefore cannot be anything. The Dominican Modena,
+Secretary of the Congregation of the Index and as such director of the
+whole institution, who died a few weeks ago, passed here for a learned
+theologian, but no monuments of his knowledge and research are extant
+outside the Index. When a foreigner observed to him shortly before his
+death that, in order to condemn German or English books, one should
+understand something of the language, he showed great surprise at so
+unheard-of a demand, and replied that for Italians, who notoriously far
+excel all nations in genius and acuteness, if a foreigner translated a
+couple of passages from a book into Latin or Italian, that supplied quite
+enough materials for pronouncing a censure on the book. The Dominican
+Gatti has now succeeded Modena as Secretary of the Index, and therefore as
+supreme judge _ex officio_ of the literature of the world. On his
+scientific capacity and literary achievements history is silent. And so
+the few learned works produced here have to be provided by foreigners
+domiciled at Rome.
+
+Theiner publishes documents from the Archives, so far, that is, as they
+serve "the good cause;" much he is notoriously forbidden to publish. The
+French Benedictine, Pitra, now a Cardinal, edits the original documents of
+Greek canon law; the French Chaillot writes the single important Church
+journal or record, _Analecta Juris Pontificii_, where, notwithstanding its
+rigid Ultramontane line, useful collections or ancient treatises not
+previously printed may here and there be found. Dogmatics and theological
+philosophy--_i.e._, philosophy adapted to dogmatic needs and ends--are
+provided here by the three German Jesuits, Schrader, Franzelin and
+Kleutgen. For here Germans are only thought available when they have first
+been transformed into Jesuits and thereby, as far as possible,
+un-Germanized. That Order, on which the features of the Spanish national
+character of the sixteenth century are still indelibly impressed, cannot
+tolerate a genuine German in his natural shape; it would be compelled to
+eject him as Etna vomited out the brazen slipper of Empedocles. It is well
+known that the most industrious and learned of the Roman Prelates,
+Liverani, was obliged to leave Rome; he lives, I believe, at Florence.(47)
+
+If we examine the names of the Professors at the Roman University of the
+Sapienza, we find among the teachers of theology, with the solitary
+exception of the Canon-Regular, Tizzani, who is now blind, only
+monks--Dominicans, Carmelites and Augustinians--and these mere names wholly
+unknown beyond the walls of Rome. No less lamentable is the view presented
+by the philosophical, mathematical and philological departments. The best
+that can be said of this University, the intellectual metropolis of
+180,000,000, is about this, "que c'est une fille honnete qui ne fait pas
+parler d'elle."
+
+On the whole, the air here is much too raw, the soil inhospitable, the
+Index too near, and the censorship too merciless, for scientific works and
+serious investigations. The Italians say of a mindless work, "E scritto in
+tempo di Scirocco." And here there is an intellectual scirocco established
+in permanence. And thus the brave German Benedictines, who assembled here
+some years ago under an Italian Abbot, Pescetelli, in St. Paul's without
+the Walls, have become victims of the unhealthy atmosphere--that is,
+besides the mental scirocco indigenous here, the sharp north wind blowing
+from the Gesu. They had energetic men among them, such as Nickes and
+others, were anxious to work in German fashion, and made a good beginning
+in a volume of _Voices from Rome_, published in 1860; a German Cardinal
+was their protector. But no sooner had they been denounced to the Pope by
+the Jesuits--German and of ill-repute for orthodoxy are synonymous terms
+here than they had to decamp. The Abbot, weary of these chicaneries,
+resigned his office and returned to Montecassino. But the Benedictines
+generally are looked on most unfavourably by the authorities here. As it
+was said in a capital sentence at Paris, in 1794, that the condemned man
+was "suspected of being suspected of deficient sense of citizenship," so
+must it be said of the Benedictines here that they "are suspected of being
+suspected of a deficient sense of Papalism." They are not devoted enough
+towards the _Curia_; these little religious communities cannot be so
+entirely kept in hand, the Jesuits from of old are hostile to them, and it
+is found in Rome that they have not hitherto rendered sufficient service
+to the great cause of strengthening Roman domination. They are therefore
+to be revolutionized, and, like the Jesuits and the Mendicant Orders, to
+receive a monarchical constitution. Their autocratic General will then
+reside in Rome, and the Pope will do with them what he did with the
+Dominicans, when he made Jandel, the Jesuit pupil, their General. Then the
+Benedictines will be for the Jesuits what the Gibeonites were for the
+Israelites, their "hewers of wood and drawers of water."(48)
+
+Such a project for revolutionizing the Benedictines, who would then of
+course cease to be sons of St. Benedict, is reputed to be among the
+measures prepared for the Council. If the present condition of Rome be
+compared with earlier ages, as late as Benedict XIV.'s reign, or even
+twenty or thirty years later, there is truly an enormous difference, and
+this deep decay and intellectual collapse cannot be explained by external
+causes merely; inward and more hidden motives must be taken into account,
+which I think I well understand, but will not here speak of. That does not
+trouble our Roman clergy of to-day; they institute no comparisons, and
+don't even know the names of the men who dwelt in the same spot a century
+ago. And the thought of their own poverty of intellect and culture, if it
+ever occurs to the Roman clerisy, does not at all hinder their always
+admiring themselves, like Dante's Rachel,
+
+
+            "Mai non si smaga
+    Dal suo miraglio, e siedo tutto giorno
+    Ell' e de' suoi begli occhi veder vaga."(49)
+
+
+
+
+
+NINETEENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 8, 1870._--It is a most exciting drama that is being exhibited
+here, and notwithstanding much that is both little and painful in its
+details, one of great and moving import; and those who have the
+opportunity of inspecting its machinery more narrowly, can hardly at times
+avoid feeling very strongly on the subject. The figure of Laocoon, with
+the snakes coiled round him, is constantly recurring to my mind; for I
+seem to be witnessing the strategical arts and skilful evolutions of a
+general, who is trying to surround a little band of opponents with his
+immensely superior forces, so as to compel them to lay down their arms and
+surrender at discretion without striking a blow. The disproportion is
+indeed enormous; first there is the Pope, whose mere name still is a host
+in itself, and that Pope is Pius, who for twenty-four years has had such
+homage and flatteries heaped upon him as no Pope ever had before, and who
+is accustomed to shake the Roman Olympus by his nod. Then there are the
+Cardinals and Prelates, the whole spiritual staff of Congregations--the
+Papal family--all fully united and resolved, and the _contribuens plebs_ of
+foreign Bishops, who are fairly caught in the net, and will not be
+suffered to escape without the bonds and chains of the most stringent
+decrees securing their obedience. On the other side stand from 150 to 200
+Bishops, of divers tongues and nations and now for the first time united
+by a common need and a common danger, like a snowball liable to melt at
+the first breath of milder air, and fighting like those Spaniards of the
+Cortes, who, with one foot chained to a stone, compelled the Mexicans to
+spare their lives. One asks every morning in doubt and terror, how far the
+solvents employed have attained their end? Many would gladly capitulate if
+only they were met half-way by tolerable conditions, and such would secure
+them a rather less cold reception on their return to their dioceses.
+Meanwhile the eyes and the hopes of all educated Catholics, not only in
+Germany but in Italy, France and North America, are fixed on the chosen
+band of 300 Bishops.
+
+But how are matters likely to proceed? The Opposition is tough and
+tenacious. Every new _Schema_ bears so unmistakeably the impress of the
+interests of either the Jesuits or the _Curia_, that the Bishops cannot
+help growing constantly more cautious, suspicious and reserved. And to
+make their designs still clearer, the Jesuits supply the practical
+commentary in their official journal, the _Civilta_, to the effect that no
+measures of the Governments against the encroachments of the Church on the
+civil jurisdiction, or her summons to transgress the laws of the country,
+would bind the consciences of their subjects. The subjoined anathema
+against every one who refuses to acknowledge that laws are annulled by the
+ordinances of the Church (_i.e._, the Pope), is a sorry consolation for
+the Bishops; for experience has shown too often that courts of justice and
+statesmen don't trouble themselves about the excommunications incurred in
+the discharge of their official duties. The Bishops accordingly foresee
+nothing but endless rubs and collisions with the civil power, as well as
+with whole classes of the population at home; and when the Jesuits are
+commended to them as pledged and triumphant allies in the contest to be
+waged against Governments, constitutions and laws, they generally shake
+their heads suspiciously and with no particular feeling of triumphant joy.
+
+The Pope's 300 episcopal foster-sons cost him 25,000 francs daily, and
+that makes the pleasant little sum of 1,500,000 francs for two sterile
+months, during which these doughty warriors have sat a good deal, but
+accomplished nothing by their sitting; for the old Roman proverb, "Romanus
+vincit sedendo," has not been verified here. The Pope is gradually getting
+frightened at this daily expenditure, and, after the fashion of great
+lords, who readily lay the blame of the failure of their own plans on the
+bad advice of their subjects, he said to-day, in an outbreak of disgust,
+"per furia di farmi infallibile, mi faranno fallire."
+
+The proceedings of the Council must therefore be expedited and curtailed.
+At the same time nothing must be remitted of the matters it is to deal
+with and vote into canons and decrees. Therefore the order of business
+must be changed. Cardinal Antonelli says now that "the speeches have been
+too long and too many, and must be entirely put an end to; the Bishops
+must be content with handing over their observations in writing to the
+Commission of twenty-four or the Commission for Petitions." He tries to
+sweeten the bitter draught to their lips by remarking that this decision
+is for their own advantage, for, after being so wearied out with the long
+sittings and listening to speeches, they must be glad to be relieved of
+the burden. The Bishops, however, experience no such joyful feeling, but
+say that the last vestige of conciliar freedom is now abolished. They have
+the more reason for saying so, since it is notorious that the
+Infallibilist and purely Romanist party is exclusively represented on the
+Commissions, so that it may be clearly foreseen that the remarks and
+suggestions of the liberal-minded and reforming Bishops will simply be
+thrown into the waste-paper basket, or, under the most favourable
+circumstances, be buried in the archives of St. Angelo. At the moment I am
+writing the new _Regolamento_ has not yet been published, owing to the
+urgent requests and representations of certain Bishops. But to judge from
+Antonelli's statement, the authorities seem determined to drop the last
+veil, and show quite openly to the world that the Council has been
+arranged as a mere machine of Roman administration, and must therefore of
+course be forced back into the path from which it had wandered. Many a
+Bishop now looks back with painful regret to the Council of Trent, where,
+notwithstanding the haughty insolence of the Italians, the ambassadors of
+Spain and France acted as protectors to the foreign Prelates, and were a
+great check on the arbitrary violence of the Legates. Now, Antonelli
+assures every diplomatist who says a word on the unprecedented method of
+procedure, and the hostile character of the proposed decrees towards the
+State, that these things have only a theoretical and doctrinal
+significance, and that in practice the _Curia_ will study a wise
+moderation, and place itself on a friendly footing with the Governments.
+He means, that when one fills one's arsenal with new and effective
+weapons, that is no proof that they will at once be discharged. I don't
+know whether this satisfies the diplomatists. Perhaps Count Trautmansdorff
+is satisfied, for his Government has repeatedly announced its resolve to
+wait quietly till the Council is over and the _Curia_ is put in possession
+of all the decrees and dogmas it wants. Then, when the new doctrines are
+already inserted in all the catechisms and taught in all seminaries and
+enforced in every confessional, it will be time enough to consider what
+line the civil power should take in the matter. M. de Banneville and the
+Paris Government do not seem to be of this opinion. I don't imagine they
+are minded at Paris so entirely to sacrifice the Bishops to the arbitrary
+will of the _Curia_ and its paid majority, and for the last few days the
+French ambassador has been engaged in a lively telegraphic correspondence
+with his own Government. We may very soon expect important disclosures.
+
+As far as I can make out, the conviction still prevails among the Roman
+clergy and their episcopal allies that the dogma of Infallibility in the
+third _Schema_ will be accepted by the Council, at least in a somewhat
+modified form, but one easily capable of being extended and quite
+sufficient for present exigencies. They say, "We will first take the vote
+on the question of opportuneness, and a mere majority may very well decide
+that. It has decided already by the 400 or 410 signatures to the
+(Infallibilist) Address, and the Bishops who have themselves answered No,
+will be obliged to yield to this decision, and so to come to the vote on
+the dogma itself, _i.e._, to declare whether they personally hold the Pope
+to be dogmatically fallible or infallible." The Romans expect that, when
+matters have come to this point, not a few Bishops--especially Ketteler of
+Mayence, and, it may be hoped, many more with him--will come over to their
+side and profess their faith in Papal Infallibility. In whatever form they
+clothe their belief, it comes to the same thing in the end. At last there
+will only remain a little band of obstinate Prelates who will protest.
+They may talk if they please, and then it will be proclaimed to the world,
+by an overwhelming majority of perhaps 700 votes, that it has become
+Infallibilist. Then might a new St. Jerome say, with greater force than
+the former one said of Arianism, "Miratus est orbis se esse factum
+infallibilistam." A Roman clergyman, who expressed this expectation to me
+with peculiar confidence, added that there had been a like occurrence at
+the Council of Trent and it would now be repeated. I perfectly understood
+him, and the matter deserves to be mentioned here as a striking parallel
+to certain recurring possibilities. The Council, which was meant to reform
+and thereby to save the Church, was brought to an early consideration of
+the universal neglect of Bishops to reside in their dioceses and the need
+for recognising this duty as one of Divine obligation. But it appeared at
+once, in the first period of the Council, that the Court of Rome and its
+faithful Italians in the assembly had the strongest interest in preventing
+the assertion of this simple and logically necessary truth. For, as
+regards the past, it would have implied severe censure of the practice
+followed by the Popes since the beginning of the thirteenth century, which
+would be shown to be a constant violation of the Divine law; while, in
+regard to the present and future, it would have seriously limited the
+plenary power of the Popes, for it was always held a principle in the
+Church that no one could dispense from the law of God. But the non-Italian
+Bishops, and nearly all the Italians themselves, were at first in favour
+of declaring it to be "the Divine law," so strong was the evidence. And it
+was seen clearly enough that from the divinely imposed obligation must
+again be inferred the equally divine rights and institution of the
+episcopate. Meanwhile the Jesuit General made his two famous speeches to
+show that all episcopal authority was a mere emanation from the Pope. For
+ten months, from September 18, 1562 to July 14, 1563, all sessions of the
+Council had to be suspended to prevent any decree being made on the
+subject; and at last, on July 14, 1563, the twenty-eight Spanish Bishops
+and "the Divine right of residence" succumbed to the majority of 192
+votes, about three-fourths being Italians. _Absit omen!_
+
+The _Civilta_ of February 5, 1870, in its article, "I Politicastri ed il
+Concilio," has supplied a noteworthy commentary on the canons or decrees
+of the third _Schema_, which affirm the Church to be an institution armed
+with coercive powers of inflicting bodily punishments; for that is
+obviously the meaning. The "Politicastri" are those statesmen who imagine
+that the State has a sphere of its own, independent of the legislation of
+the Church and the interposition of the Pope. That, according to the Roman
+Jesuits, is a most abominable error. A law which contradicts a law of the
+Church has not the slightest validity for men's consciences. For the
+authority of a Council--and _a fortiori_ of a Pope, from whom, on the
+Jesuit theory, Councils derive all their force and validity--is above the
+authority of the State.(50) Should the State therefore require obedience
+to a law opposed to an ordinance of the Council, it would do so without
+any real right (_senza vero titulo giuridico_), and, should it enforce
+compliance, would be introducing a suicidal tyranny. It is further
+explained that this by no means applies to those religious laws only which
+rest on Divine ordinance, but also to those which are purely
+ecclesiastical, and therefore on Catholic principles are variable.
+
+Let us take the twelfth of the _Canones de Ecclesia_, which anathematizes
+all who doubt the Church's power to inflict corporal punishment; and
+consider further that the Popes have most solemnly declared that by
+baptism all heretics are become their subjects, are amenable to the laws
+of the Church, and must, if needful, be compelled to obey them.(51)
+Consider further that the Syllabus condemns the toleration or equality of
+different religions, and no doubt can remain as to what system it is
+intended to introduce.
+
+The second Letter of the famous Oratorian and member of the French
+Academy, Father Gratry, has just come here, and has produced a great
+impression. It treats of the gross forgeries by which the way for the
+introduction of the doctrine of Papal Infallibility has been gradually
+prepared, first in the ninth and then in the thirteenth century; and
+dwells especially on the fact that the theologians--above all Thomas
+Aquinas, who rules in the schools, and his many disciples and
+followers--were deceived by these fabrications, and that even the Popes
+themselves were misled by them. Gratry's exposition is clear and
+convincing; but he goes beyond the middle ages. He shows how dishonestly
+the Breviary was tampered with at Rome at the end of the sixteenth
+century, and how, up to the present time the Jesuits, Perrone and
+Wenninger,--the latter in a truly amazing fashion--have followed the
+practice of citing fabulous or corrupted testimonies.
+
+One grand result of the Council its authors have not foreseen or reckoned
+upon, which, however, has already attained alarming dimensions; I mean the
+scandal it has given. They seem to have really believed with a childish
+_naivete_ that the Council could be hermetically sealed up, like birds
+under a glass bell, and its members shut up apart,--that 3000 persons could
+be reduced to silence by a Papal edict about matters they feel there is
+the strongest necessity for speaking of. Such a notion could only grow up
+in the heads of Roman clerics, who are wont to look at the world beyond
+their own narrow sphere only through crevices of the open door, or through
+the key-hole. Only too much has become known. The Jesuits, the _Civilta_,
+the _Univers_, the _Monde, et id genus omne_, have done their best to
+reveal the sharp contrast of opposite parties, and the world of to-day,
+sceptically disposed as it is and little inclined to cover the shame and
+nakedness by turning away its face, is present at a double spectacle: it
+witnesses the system of force and intrigue by which a Council is managed,
+and it watches with keen observation the process of manipulating a new
+dogma. Men say now, what Cardinal Bessarion said before, according to an
+anecdote current here, that the way Saints were canonized in his own time
+made him very suspicious about the older Saints and Canonizations. In the
+same way the Protestant and Catholic laity, who are here in such numbers
+at present, say, "We know and see now how matters are managed in the
+Church when a new dogma is to be made; what artifices, and deceptions, and
+methods of intimidation are employed to gain votes. Must it not have been
+the same at former Councils?" I have heard even Bishops here say that such
+thoughts pressed upon them, and were severe temptations against faith. And
+if these things are done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
+Is it different with you in Germany?
+
+
+
+
+
+TWENTIETH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 9, 1870._--In commencing the discussion on the Catechism the
+Council passed into the last stage of the peaceful proceedings, which are
+to precede the battle on the claims of the Roman authority. The speech of
+Cardinal Rauscher, who is ill, was delivered by the Bishop of Gurk, and
+made a great impression. He was followed by Cardinal Mathieu, one of the
+best Latinists in the French episcopate, the Primate of Hungary and the
+Archbishop of Tours. After them Dupanloup spoke, who was again, as on the
+former occasion, not well heard. He lashed those who think that the
+cultivated nations of the Catholic world are to have a Catechism dictated
+to them by Rome. The Session was not favourable to the propositions, but
+men can no longer fix their minds on themes of lesser importance. All are
+thinking of the decisive contest which is imminent. Many indeed on both
+sides wish that it could be avoided. The threatening attitude of the
+policy of France has roused serious misgivings. It was known in Rome at
+the end of January, but the decisive instructions only arrived on
+Saturday, February 5, and produced a deep and unpleasant sensation.
+Hitherto the Court of Rome was able to hinder the withdrawal of the French
+troops, by threatening to take refuge under English protection at Malta;
+but with the good understanding that now prevails between the French and
+English Governments this is no longer possible. It is perfectly well known
+in the Vatican that neither of the two powers will stretch out a hand to
+uphold Papal absolutism. It is a proof of the strong impression produced
+by the French note that the Papal Court has kept it secret. No appeal is
+tried to Catholic public opinion or the loyal episcopate, for it is well
+ascertained that the Infallibilist doctrine has very different enemies
+from the temporal power. To Cardinal Antonelli it seems like a denial of
+the whole work of his life to stake the temporal power of the Pope for the
+sake of a new dogma. But if this is to be saved, the dogma must be
+sacrificed. So the Opposition now has the assurance that the neutrality
+and non-intervention of the Catholic powers is come to an end, and it is
+encouraged at the same time by the part the learned world has begun to
+take on its side, since the publication in Germany of the addresses which
+attest the antagonism of eminent Catholic scholars and professors of
+theology to the new dogma.
+
+Nevertheless the minority is composed of heterogeneous elements, and it
+may be safely calculated that they will not all hold out to the last. Some
+opponents of the definition are friends of the doctrine, and oppose it on
+grounds not of a purely abstract or theological nature. No one has
+calculated the numerical proportion of these in inopportunists to the real
+opponents of Infallibility. Any serious discussion of the question has
+long been avoided, and many think it ought to be avoided, because therein
+lies the dangerous weakness of the party. The ground of inopportuneness,
+which had already been adopted in the Letter to the Pope from Fulda, was
+taken up from the first, in the hope of paralysing the majority by an
+imposing number of dissentients. They hoped to be strong by their numbers,
+and to look strong by a certain kind of unity. The theory of
+inopportuneness seemed to provide a common ground for the decided
+opponents of the dogma and for the timid and vacillating or moderate
+adherents of the doctrine itself. That a really united Opposition has been
+formed on this basis is mainly due to the Bishop of Orleans. He attacked
+the opportuneness with such a powerful array of testimonies in his famous
+Pastoral, that every one saw clearly the doctrine itself was involved,
+though he never entered in so many words on the theological question. The
+position he provided has served its purpose for two months, without the
+party being brought to a declaration for or against the dogma. It has
+served to bring in adherents to the Opposition, who in the strictest sense
+of the word belong to the Roman Court party, and to provide waverers with
+a comparatively innocent method of resistance. It has prevented the
+victory of the _Curia_ in the days of their greatest ascendancy, but it is
+untenable for a permanence. The position of the inopportunists has the
+fatal disadvantage that it can be out-flanked. That would have happened,
+had the Bishops been separately requested to give their opinions "sub
+secreto," with a promise that no public declaration in the Council should
+be desired.
+
+Then, again, it is a position that can easily be mastered by means of the
+majority. A minority may be invincible on the ground of dogma, but not of
+expediency. Everything can be ventured to combat a false doctrine, but not
+to hinder an imprudence or a premature definition. In questions of faith
+one dare not give in; not so in questions of discretion only. And then the
+Council must have been sooner or later driven from the ground of
+inopportuneness, if it was not shipwrecked on the order of business; for
+it was a point of view the decision could not finally hinge upon, in
+presence of a preponderating majority.
+
+The defection of part of the Opposition was thus only a question of time,
+though it became more difficult for individuals after each act done in
+union, and many an inopportunist has advanced to theological contradiction
+of the dogma. But the attempt to make the rejection of the doctrine the
+principle of the party forced the contrast more and more on the minds of
+individuals. Among the Germans primarily, and in the groups of leading
+Bishops from different countries who took counsel together, a more
+determined spirit gradually developed itself, and it was seen that their
+adversaries made capital out of every sign of unclearness of view among
+the Opposition. They were constantly spreading reports that on the main
+point all were united, and that at most there were not above twenty
+opponents of the dogma, including only two Germans, who were adherents of
+Hermes and Guenther; perhaps only five opponents in all, or none at all. In
+presence of these assertions a public declaration seemed necessary, less
+for the faithful at home than for non-Catholics, who ask about the
+doctrine. The Bishops of the Opposition told themselves that honour and
+episcopal duty demanded that a Bishop should not withhold his belief on a
+fundamental question, at a moment when all have to speak, the moment of
+danger. The very success of the inopportunist policy is no true success.
+It is no victory of the truth, when it is not openly proclaimed in the
+contest. Those who do not fight under the banner of their own convictions
+are not on equal terms with their adversaries.
+
+Thus the view has been more and more making way, that not only must every
+definition be avoided as dangerous, but that the doctrine of the Roman
+theologians and their adherents in the Episcopate must be rejected as
+false. And this brought men more and more to the scientific ground. It was
+no longer a mere affair of personal conviction, but of direct evidence,
+and the moment was come for literary argument to assert its place in the
+proceedings of the Council. The position of the mere inopportunists became
+more difficult, and the band which held the party together was loosened.
+Their adversaries at once zealously availed themselves of this favourable
+crisis; nearly every Bishop of the minority was plied with various
+intermediate formulas and conciliar proposals. Attempts were made to sow
+disunion among the leaders; political jealousies at home, and whatever
+else could be made use of, were seized upon to undermine mutual
+confidence. Some were to be deceived by the phantom of a middle party, and
+were told that they might take a position as peacemakers at the head of a
+mediating section--of course in the anticipation that every one who makes
+concessions and admits the principle of the definition will pass over to
+the majority. Against all these attempts the Bishops of the minority have,
+on the whole, though not without some wavering, kept firm and true. But
+still the transition to the strictly theological standpoint, where
+individual conviction on the question of Infallibility must be decisively
+recognised and represented, cannot be accomplished without an internal
+conflict and shaking of the party.
+
+
+
+
+
+TWENTY-FIRST LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 11, 1870._--When once literature began to be brought to bear
+actively on the proceedings of the Council, the crisis could not long be
+delayed, for science, which has to do with truth only, knows nothing of
+diplomatic considerations, and makes no concessions to the requirements of
+the moment. It brings back the discussion inevitably from theory to fact,
+from the sphere of dogma to the sphere of history. In remorselessly
+exposing the inventions and forgeries which form the basis of the doctrine
+of Papal Infallibility, it necessarily attacks the whole ultramontane
+system of which that doctrine is the logical consequence. The fundamental
+refutation of the dogma is fatal to much in the specifically Roman
+theology and the modern claims of the Popes, which would not otherwise
+have been assailed in Council by any Bishop. Those who shrink from
+collision with the _Curia_, and would desire to spare it a public exposure
+of error before the whole world, and who have therefore hitherto remained
+on the defensive, will now be driven further and placed in a position they
+would never have chosen. They see their adversaries in a light--whether as
+deceived or deceivers--which seriously disturbs their daily intercourse
+with them. For it is no longer possible to conceal by any periphrasis the
+fact that the spirit the Opposition has to combat is no other than the
+spirit of lying. And so, when the voice of honest science cannot be
+excluded, no peaceful issue is possible. The contest takes the form of an
+internecine strife against that absolute Papal system for which the Court
+had at first confidently expected to gain the almost enthusiastic sanction
+of the Council. The aid of science can be purchased at no cheaper price.
+No wonder then if the Bishops recoil in trembling before the weighty task
+of winning the victory for that view which specially prevails among
+learned Germans of this day, first in the Council, and then among the mass
+of the clergy and the faithful. There are few among them who are not
+inwardly conscious that they will themselves come in for some of the heavy
+blows.
+
+Father Gratry's first Letter on its arrival at Rome roused serious
+reflection in many. His skilful handling of a subject familiar to all, and
+his repeated application of the solemn passage, "Numquid indiget Deus
+mendacio vestro?"(52) together with his unmistakeable allusion in his
+division of mankind into "viri veraces" and "viri mendaces," contributed
+to make clear the full significance of the contrast--to many for the first
+time. Doellinger's printed criticism of the Address was not calculated to
+quiet the excitement it caused. The Roman party, in the hope of effecting
+an internal split in the party, seized the handle which Doellinger's
+statement that he was in harmony on the main question with the majority of
+the German Bishops seemed to supply, and tried to extract a counter
+declaration from the Bishops. The first attempt, to induce the Archbishop
+of Munich to exert his authority, failed. Then the Bishop of Mayence
+brought the matter before the Assembly of German Opposition Bishops. He
+angrily disclaimed for himself any solidarity with Doellinger's view, and
+averred his belief in Papal Infallibility, saying it was only the
+difficulty and danger of a dogmatic declaration quite unnecessary in
+itself that made him an opponent of the definition. Had his motion been
+accepted, and the German Opposition renounced their hostility to the dogma
+and retired to the ground of mere expediency, the complete victory of the
+Infallibilists would have been a matter of a few weeks only. But when the
+German Bishops rejected Ketteler's urgent demand, and decisively refused
+to give up their assault on the dogma, the half-and-half character and
+weakness of their position vanished, and they ceased to subordinate or
+sacrifice the theological standpoint to the question of expediency. And
+thus the difficult word has been spoken; they have already pronounced
+against the doctrine itself in the Addresses they have signed. The
+reproach incurred thereby does not, of course, apply in full force to the
+Bishop of Mayence, who has always told his colleagues that he is on their
+side on the question of opportuneness only. The Bishop of Rottenburg
+(Hefele) has already declared in his speech at Fulda that it is necessary
+to advance further and assail the doctrine itself. And he repeated this in
+reply to Ketteler's proposal. The great majority of the Bishops were
+unfavourable to that proposal. While in this way they testified their
+agreement with Doellinger, some of them--especially Strossmayer--declared
+emphatically for the oecumenicity of the Council of Florence. They have
+weighty reasons for this. The more strongly the minority hold to
+Doellinger's interpretation of the famous Florentine decree, the less can
+they afford to depreciate the authority of the Synod. For in their opinion
+it is just that decree which serves to expose the dishonesty of the other
+party, and to overthrow the extreme doctrine. It will do them good service
+too in the discussion on the _Schema de Ecclesia_ and the new _Schema de
+Romano Pontifice_, which is now announced.
+
+But while the German Bishops rejected Ketteler's proposal, and left to the
+_Civilta Cattolica_ and the Mayence _Katholik_ the war against the Munich
+School, they did not venture to come to an open breach with the less
+homogeneous elements of their party, wishing to retain Ketteler on their
+side--who is as zealous against the Roman principles in Church and State as
+against German science--as an active ally in the contest against the
+_Schema_. For this end there have been consultations, especially between
+the Archbishop of Cologne on one side and the Archbishop of Munich on the
+other. The commotion produced by Doellinger's essay in the learned world of
+Germany gives them an opportunity for helping the minority over this
+discomfiture, and averting for the immediate moment of danger the
+threatened disruption. It cannot be denied that to a certain extent the
+latest declarations of German Catholics are very acceptable to the
+Bishops, for the very reason that they partly emanate from men who belong
+to the more moderate opponents of Infallibility. It is a piece of good
+luck for the Bishops staying at Rome that men who are independent, and at
+a distance from the flatteries and threats of the Vatican, undertake to
+call things by their right names, that reason makes itself heard by the
+side of passion, and science by the side of authority. It is moreover very
+convenient that the materials can be used while the writer is disowned.
+But although the Bishops know well how to value the importance of the
+support given to their cause from Germany, yet this new movement is not
+altogether to their taste; their dignity demands that they should not
+succumb to pressure from without, or owe too much to the public press. A
+Bishop is indeed presumed to be a theologian. And as it is impossible that
+the considerations which for the moment are decisive in the Council should
+always be taken into account by writers, there cannot fail to be manifold
+embarrassments. From the intra-conciliar point of view it is easy to go
+too far. And then it may be regarded as almost inevitable that many
+Bishops should receive these manifestations of opinion from Germany with
+outward coldness, or reply by advising that it should be left in their
+hands alone to secure the victory of truth. In their eyes silence is in
+itself a kind of vote of confidence. A too zealous participation might
+almost look like a sign of doubt as to the Bishops having strength and
+perseverance and coherence enough to conquer. To be sure, none feel such
+doubts more strongly than the Bishops themselves, but nothing can better
+serve to give them the confidence in themselves which is so much to be
+desired as showing them that others feel it.
+
+And thus among the German Bishops in Rome Hefele's view has triumphed over
+Ketteler's, the logical and decided over the half-and-half policy, and the
+difficult turning-point has been passed without loss or breach in the
+party. And not a day too soon! Next week a new _Schema_ and a new order of
+business will bring the disunion and irritation in the Council to a point.
+
+
+
+
+
+TWENTY-SECOND LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 15, 1870._--If I wrote a fortnight ago that the situation was
+essentially improved since the first weeks, this must be taken with
+important reservations. The most keen-sighted of the North American
+Bishops then said, "We have done nothing at all, and that is a great
+deal." He thought it an important gain that of the proposals laid before
+the Council, the two _Schemata_, nothing had passed, and none of the
+objects for which it had been convoked had, up to that point, been
+attained. But this has only been the damming up of a stream which
+eventually bursts through the more violently, and carries away the dam
+with it. For the majority of 500, who are resolved to indorse everything
+and vote every measure proposed, holds firmly together, before and behind;
+while the minority, on the other hand, is in danger of being shivered to
+pieces on the rock of opportuneness.
+
+The _Schema_ now under discussion, of a common Catechism for the whole
+Catholic world, is clearly connected with the general programme cut out
+for the Council; for if the new dogmas are fabricated, they will at once
+be inserted into this universal Catechism, and thereby inculcated in the
+simplest and most convenient manner on the youth and the whole body of the
+faithful. The Jesuits have found the experiment very successful in Germany
+with their own Catechism, and have thereby naturalized the doctrine of
+Infallibility gradually, with a precision rendered more explicit in each
+successive edition in the boys' and girls' schools, especially those
+conducted by nuns. The Catechism has also proved a great financial
+success, and thus whole countries have become tributary to the Order. In
+the same way the new Catechism of the Council will be a source of manifold
+profit to both the _Curia_ and the Jesuits. The _Curia_ treats the Council
+with scientific skill, like a patient who has first to be gently
+physicked, and then has stronger doses given him by degrees. First came
+the _Schema_ of philosophical and theological doctrine, then of
+discipline, and now the question of a common Catechism. Behind this looms
+the deeply-cutting _Schema_ on the Church; and when that is triumphantly
+passed, the _Schema_ on the Pope appears as the crown of the grand
+legislative work. While the former tractate propounds the _supremum
+magisterium_ of the Church, as holding sovereign power over lands and
+seas, souls and bodies, in the last _Schema_ this supreme _magisterium_
+crops out in the person of Pius IX., who now enters into the possession of
+the supreme dominion and powers marked out for him in the dogmatic chart,
+if we can speak of any marking out when, in principle, everything is laid
+claim to, and the master himself alone and conclusively draws the line of
+demarcation where he chooses. He presents himself to the world as
+infallible teacher and legislator in the realm of science, as supreme
+judge of the literature of the world, as supreme lord and master in all
+that pertains to religion, or is related to it, and as infallible judge of
+right and wrong in all points. Many will say with Polonius, "Though this
+is madness there is method in it." Let us examine these principles more
+closely.
+
+_First_, The Pope possesses the supreme and immediate dominion and
+jurisdiction, not merely over the Church in general, but over every
+individual Christian. Every baptized person is directly and immediately
+subject to the Pope, his ordinances, special commands and penalties. His
+power is "suprema tum in Ecclesiam universalem, tum in omnes et _singulos_
+Ecclesiarum pastores et _fideles_ jurisdictio;" or, as the twenty-one
+Canons say, "ordinaria et immediata potestas." Whoever disbelieves this
+incurs anathema.(53)
+
+_Secondly_, The Church stands as high above the State as heavenly
+beatitude above the profits and goods of this earthly life.--(_Can._ 13.)
+
+_Thirdly_, Every one must therefore prefer the advantage of the Church to
+the welfare of the State, "Si quando videantur utilia regno temporali, quae
+bonis sublimioribus Ecclesiae et aeternae salutis repugnent, ea nunquam
+habebunt pro veris bonis, etc."--(_Can._ 13 ad fin.)
+
+_Fourthly_, The supreme _magisterium_ of the Church, _i.e._ the Pope,
+whether alone or in union with a Council, has to decide what Princes and
+Governments should do or leave undone in questions of civil society and
+public affairs. "De ipsa agendi norma judicium, quatenus de morum
+honestate, _de licito vel illicito_ statuendum est pro civili societate
+publicisque negotiis, ad supremum Ecclesiae magisterium pertinet."
+
+_Fifthly_, As the Pope possesses not only the supreme office of teacher,
+but also the supreme right of coercion and punishment, he not only
+distinguishes as teacher what is and what is not permissible for States
+and nations, but he can enforce his decision on political matters by
+penalties upon every one--be he monarch or minister or private citizen. He
+has the right "devios contumacesque exteriori judicio et salubribus poenis
+coercendi atque cogendi."--(_Can._ 12.)
+
+_Sixthly_, Whenever a law of the Church conflicts with a law of the State,
+the latter must give way; and whoever maintains that anything forbidden by
+the law of the Church is allowed by the law of the State incurs
+anathema.--(_Can._ 20.)
+
+These ecclesiastical maxims, which deprive the laws of the land of all
+force and of all obligation for the conscience, are partly those already
+in existence, partly those any Pope may issue hereafter whenever it
+pleases him.
+
+Thus marriage, primary instruction and education, the toleration or
+suppression of dissenting communions, the jurisdiction and privileges of
+the clergy, the acquisition and control of ecclesiastical property, oaths,
+wills, and the whole of the unlimited domain taken into her hands and
+legislated for by the mediaeval Church, and in short whatever comes under
+the head of permissible or forbidden--this, _en masse_, forms the sphere of
+the Pope's jurisdiction, wherein he rules with absolute and sovereign
+power, and puts down all opposition by coercion and punishments. Truly
+this reminds one of the Prophet's words, "The bricks are fallen down, but
+we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are fallen, and we will
+plant cedars in their place." Since Paul _iv._'s time, 260 years ago, no
+Pope has so openly and undisguisedly spoken out the thoughts and wishes of
+his heart. The kernel of the doctrine, then, is this: there is on earth
+one sole lord and master over kings and subjects alike, over nations as
+over families and individuals, against whom no right or privilege avails,
+and whose slaves all are. The only difference is that some, viz., the
+Bishops, can on their side rule and lord it in their dioceses as upper
+servants in the name of the Church or the Pope, so far as their master
+does not interfere to stop them, while all others are mere slaves and
+nothing more. This obviously goes far beyond the Syllabus. This is the
+Bull _Unam Sanctam_ modernized and, so to speak, translated out of
+military language (about the two swords) into political and juristic
+terms. Innocent III., Innocent IV., and Boniface VIII., said that,
+"ratione peccati," they could interfere anywhere, and bring any affair or
+process before their Court, for it belongs to the Pope to decide what is
+sin and to punish it. What is said here comes to the same thing, that the
+Pope determines what is or is not allowable, and acts accordingly.
+
+It is a stately edifice of universal Papal dominion whereon the keystone
+of Infallibility, which bears and upholds the whole, is to be placed, so
+that every command and ordinance of the Pope, even in political matters,
+is infallible, as the Jesuit Schrader has so clearly and forcibly pointed
+out. And to this must be added further (according to Canon 9) a vast and
+infinite domain for infallible decisions, viz., "all that is requisite for
+preserving the revealed deposit in its integrity." Who can specify what is
+included here, or fix any limits to it?
+
+Two other links in this world-embracing chain are not visible, which are
+yet necessary for its coherence. The Interdict, which robbed whole
+populations of divine service and sacraments, must be restored in its
+ancient splendour, and the Pope's right to dispense from oaths must be
+distinctly asserted.
+
+The Fathers of the Council have daily opportunities of feeling how useful
+the temporal power is for the plenary jurisdiction of the Papacy. Were
+they assembled anywhere else than in Rome, there would be the possibility
+of holding a real Synod in the sense and manner of the Ancient Church,
+while the so-called Synod in Rome is in fact the mere painted corpse of a
+Council laid out on a bed of state.
+
+Soul and freedom are wanting. On any other soil than that of the States of
+the Church, the Bishops could assemble in a room where they could debate
+and understand one another, while they are now forcibly detained in the
+Council Hall. They could come to a mutual understanding by means of the
+press, by printed proposals or statements of opinion, weekly reports and
+the like. Anywhere else such treatment as the Patriarch of Babylon
+experienced would have been impossible; he has now taken refuge under the
+protection of the French Embassy. But here the King of Rome lends to the
+Pontiff the means of enforcing unreserved submission, and it is like the
+lion's den, "vestigia nulla retrorsum."
+
+Many a French Bishop has shared the experiences of the famous Lamennais
+thirty-eight years ago, who came to the Eternal City full of ardent
+devotion to the Chair of Peter and firm faith in its infallibility, and on
+his departure, after a long stay there, wrote to a friend, "Restait Rome;
+j'y suis alle et j'ai vu la la plus infame cloaque qui ait jamais souille
+les regards humains." I will not transcribe what follows, though it was
+lately read to me by a Bishop. It may be seen in his Letters.(54) But this
+I can testify: there are men in the French Episcopate who used to be
+zealous champions of the temporal power, but who would now bear its loss
+with great equanimity, if only the calamity of the decrees chartered for
+the Council could be thereby warded off.
+
+Yesterday, February 14, the ice was broken at last. The Bishop of Belley
+for the first time mentioned the Infallibility doctrine in the General
+Congregation, observing that the Council should at once proclaim it and go
+home, as that was the only object they had been summoned to Rome for.
+
+Meanwhile an instructive calculation has been made of the proportion in
+which the different nations and Catholic populations are represented in
+the Council. It appears from them that the Catholics of North Germany have
+_one_ vote in Council for every 810,000 souls, and those of the States of
+the Church for every 1200, so that one Roman outweighs 60 Germans. It has
+been further ascertained that the 512 Infallibilists in the Council
+represent a population of 73,011,000 souls, while only 94 opponents of the
+dogma represent 46,278,000. With the Infallibilists one vote represents
+142,570, with the Opposition, 492,320 souls.
+
+Austria has now announced by her ambassador, Count Trautmansdorff, that
+the Government will not allow decrees in contradiction with the
+Constitution to be promulgated in the country. This threat will produce
+little effect, for all the doctrinal decrees have full force throughout
+the whole Church from the mere fact of being promulgated at the Council;
+only the disciplinary regulations require to be promulgated in the various
+countries and dioceses. Thus the Council of Trent has never been
+promulgated in France, notwithstanding all the endeavours of the _Curia_,
+but the dogmatic decrees have always been in full force there as
+elsewhere.
+
+
+
+
+
+TWENTY-THIRD LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 16, 1870._--The order of business is now to be altered, which
+means that an end is to be put to the speeches. The Bishops are to hand in
+their views, scruples and suggestions in writing to the Commission for
+revising motions, which will use its own discretion as to noticing or
+leaving unnoticed the proposals made with a view to their being submitted
+to the Council. There will then, in place of a discussion, be a mere
+voting, which individuals may give their reasons for, if they have
+previously stated the particular point they wish to speak on and obtained
+leave for it. And in the new order of business, the Pope's right to make
+and promulgate decrees on faith with a mere majority is said to be
+emphatically laid down. When this and the anticipated and dreaded _Schema_
+"On the Pope" are promulgated, we shall see what attitude the Bishops will
+assume towards them. Both are now suspended like two swords over the heads
+of the Fathers. All at last depends on whether the Opposition remains
+compact, or crumbles to pieces under the efforts of the curialists.
+
+If the general war required by the principles of the new _Schema_ against
+modern systems and governments, which conflict in numberless cases with
+the laws of the Church, is to be undertaken, the question arises, Where is
+the army to carry it on, and what weapons are to be employed? No doubt the
+trumpeters of the army are ready at hand, viz., the Jesuits of the
+_Civilta_ and the monastery of Laach, but it seems a doubtful look-out
+about soldiers. The Jesuits, indeed, command at present a considerable
+number of distinguished and wealthy females, but that will not go far in
+the great contest against laws, parliaments and governments. The Pope
+himself must principally supply the arms, which can only be the old ones
+of excommunication, interdict and processes of the Inquisition.
+Excommunication was formerly very effective, when the excommunicated could
+be proceeded against as heretics after a twelve-month, but that is no
+longer feasible. Interdict, too, is become a blunted instrument, which no
+Pope has ventured to make use of since Paul V. succumbed in his battle
+with Venice. The Inquisition only survives now for the 700,000 souls of
+the present States of the Church. That drastic means of giving up
+refractory populations _en masse_ to slavery and spoliation, as applied by
+Clement V., Nicolas V., Julius II., and Paul III., cannot easily be
+adopted now. So they will be content for the time with establishing the
+principle, and must await more favourable circumstances for realizing it.
+But the Bishops are between two fires: they are discredited with Rome,
+because they must continue to acknowledge the civil laws, which are in
+fact condemned; they are exposed with their Governments and people to the
+constant suspicion of being on the watch for some political complication
+to secure the triumph, at least in particular cases, of the ecclesiastical
+principles recognised as valid at Rome--in other words, the Decretals--over
+the laws of the State.
+
+It seemed to me important to ascertain more precisely the attitude of the
+Dominicans--who are still a powerful corporation, through their possessing
+such influential offices as the Inquisition, Index, Mastership of the
+Sacred Palace, etc.--towards Infallibilism. They have always been the
+standing rivals and opponents of the Jesuits, and before 1773 were often
+able to resist them successfully. Now, of course, everywhere out of Rome,
+they are out-flanked and repressed by the Jesuits, while in Rome they have
+no influence with the Pope. Yet they too are all decided Infallibilists,
+and that because of their great theologian, Thomas Aquinas. That he
+himself became implicated in this notion only through means of the
+forgeries in Gratian, and of another great fabrication, with spurious
+passages of the Fathers, specially devised for his own benefit, they
+neither know, nor are willing to believe when told of it. They say they
+have once sworn to the doctrine of St. Thomas, and must therefore adhere
+to the Infallibilist doctrine introduced by him into the schools, to avoid
+perjury.(55)
+
+A certain feeling of discouragement betrays itself among many
+Infallibilists, and there is much in the occurrences of the last few weeks
+to account for it. Thus the Archbishop of Milan, whose diocese nearly
+equals in extent the whole States of the Church, has received an address
+from his clergy and people expressing agreement with his work against the
+dogma, which has greatly rejoiced him. And the news of the state of
+feeling in Germany is disheartening. Golden results had been reckoned on
+from the efforts of the Jesuits and their pupils there for the last twenty
+years. It was supposed here that a very considerable number of people
+beyond the Alps must be inspired with zeal for Papal Infallibility. When
+the impulse given by Doellinger evoked so many and such weighty expressions
+of opinion on the other side, it was confidently expected in Rome that a
+strong popular demonstration in favour of the dogma would burst out, like
+a mighty hurricane, from every district in Germany, as the 800 Jesuits at
+work there would easily be able to bring that to pass. But now it is
+evident that no single man of influence in the whole country will make
+himself responsible by name for this opinion, and that all who are eminent
+for authority and knowledge--especially historians and theologians--protest
+against the proposed new dogma. Even the Jesuit Catechism has not been
+able to effect everything in this respect. Can a new dogma be fabricated
+for Spaniards, Italians and South Americans exclusively? And even in North
+Italy an opposition is being manifested. It is a questionable policy to
+show to the German people so openly the gulf between their religious
+thoughts and desires and those of the Latin nations, and even to widen
+that gulf. And in what position would the episcopal signataries of the
+Fulda Pastoral find themselves, after giving such an explicit assurance to
+Catholic Germany, "that the Council would establish no new or different
+dogmas from those already written by faith on the hearts and consciences
+of all German Catholics"? The faith and conscience of the German
+Catholics, both theologians and laity, have now spoken loudly and
+unequivocally enough. And it is utterly impossible for a German Bishop to
+return home from the Council with the new dogma ready-made in his hand,
+and say to his flock, like St. Paul, "Ye foolish Germans, who hath
+bewitched you?" "You don't know yourselves what you have hitherto held in
+your faith and conscience. See, here is the true bread for your souls,
+just brought fresh from the bake-house of the Council. This is what you
+ought long ago to have believed; be converted, and confess that to be
+white which you have thought was black, and that to be a divine truth
+which you have taken for an invention of man." It cannot be presumed that
+a Bishop would willingly contemplate exposing himself to the ridicule of
+all Germany.
+
+The rumour of a speedy prorogation of the Council is constantly growing
+more definite. As this depends on one capricious will, it is quite
+possible in itself. But some striking result would have first to be
+attained, some conspicuous act accomplished by the Council; or else the
+fraud would be too glaring, the nakedness of the land too strikingly
+exhibited to the whole world. To the question, why ten precious weeks had
+been idly wasted without a single decree being achieved, the only answer
+would be, that the desire to deprive the Council of all independent action
+had led to the machine being cramped and fettered till it was brought to a
+standstill altogether. In accordance with the advice of the Jesuits the
+whole Council had in fact been pre-arranged, and nothing was to be left to
+the Fathers on their arrival at Rome but to affirm the thoughts and
+formulate the decrees suggested by others. The _Schemata_ prepared shall
+be read one after the other, and the Fathers shall say _Placet_, and to
+prevent their having any temptation to criticise and mangle and curiously
+dissect and combat the motions laid before them, the Sessions shall be
+held in a Hall where the speeches cannot be heard, and all discussion is
+impossible. That was the programme; the result has proved that the Court
+had judged rightly of about 500 out of the 700 members, but had deceived
+itself as to the remaining 200. Veuillot, who communicates the correct
+views about the Council daily to the French, has declared that it was
+right to deprive the Bishops of the freedom of evil (_qu'il ne fallait pas
+laisser aux Eveques la liberte du mal_). This beneficent care for the
+health of the Bishops' souls has however been extended a little too far.
+Many of them are so ungrateful as to think they are treated too much like
+automatons, and that with the "liberte du mal" they have also been
+deprived of the "liberte du bien." The Roman lists of names from which the
+Commissions had to be chosen are not forgotten. The right of proposing
+motions has been made illusory by the composition of the Commission
+appointed for examining them, and the arrangement for making the
+permission to bring them forward dependent on the pleasure of the Pope.
+And thus great uneasiness, not to say exasperation, prevails among the 200
+Bishops. And on the other hand, the Pope has been for several weeks past
+in a chronic state of mingled indignation and astonishment at finding so
+many Bishops--even at Rome, in his own immediate neighbourhood--daring to
+think and say the contrary to what he, Pius IX., thinks and says.
+
+This rebellion of thought has not indeed yet been directly and openly
+manifested in the Council Hall. But when the _Schema de Ecclesia_, and
+with it Infallibility, really come to be discussed, then even within the
+sacred precincts of St. Peter's, and close to the Tomb of the
+Apostles--which the Pope had assured himself would inspire very different
+thoughts into the Bishops' heads--bold utterances of contradiction will be
+heard, and will resound throughout Europe, for "publicity discloses the
+Acheron of the Council." The expected and decisive sealing up of 3000
+mouths is at an end once for all, and even that most correct and devoted
+of Romanists, Veuillot, has declared in his _Univers_ that such a silence
+of the grave is impossible, especially for the French, and has accordingly
+blurted out such of the secrets of the Hall as seemed to him desirable
+without scruple. Nor have the authorities taken it at all ill of him. But
+to hear Bishops publicly in Council, and in the hearing of the Papal
+Legates, proclaiming views diametrically opposed to those of the Pope--and
+that, too, in a question so fundamental and so completely dominating the
+whole future life of the Church--would be a scandal which must be averted
+even at the heaviest cost. Some time before the Indiction of the Council,
+in 1866, Pius himself formally asserted, in the most significant terms,
+and in presence of a numerous assemblage of foreigners who had come to
+offer him their homage, his true attitude towards the world and the
+Bishops, whether assembled or dispersed. He spoke in French, and in words
+carefully prepared beforehand, and I give the speech precisely as it was
+reported, with the reporters' names subscribed, in the _Monde_, the
+_Union_, and the _Observateur Catholique_ of April 1, 1866, p.
+357:--"_Seul_, malgre mon indignite, _je suis le successeur des apotres_,
+le vicaire de Jesus Christ; _seul_, j'ai _la mission de conduire et de
+diriger la barque de Pierre, je suis la voie, la verite, et la vie._ Il
+faut bien qu'on le sache, afin de ne pas se laisser tromper et aventurer
+par la parole de gens qui se disent Catholiques, mais qui veulent et
+enseignent tout autre chose que ce que veut et enseigne l'Eglise."
+
+Whether he really intended thereby to deny the office of the Bishops as
+successors of the Apostles, which has always hitherto been recognised in
+theology, I cannot say. But this much is clear, that every Bishop who in
+any important question of faith differs from the views of Pius, departs
+from "the way," swerves from "the truth," excludes himself from "the
+life." Nothing of the sort has ever been suffered at Rome; no dissent has
+ventured into the light of day. The censorship and the Inquisition have
+taken care of that. It would be a supremely dangerous precedent if that
+were now to happen for the first time, and with many Bishops of different
+nations for the dissidents. The contradiction between the Liberal Bishops
+and the Pope would be the more glaring, as Pius has only in the last few
+days addressed a very categorical letter to the Liguorian Jules Jacques on
+his own infallibility. He praises this man for having collected from the
+writings of Liguori his statements about Papal Infallibility, and thus
+exhibited the "sound doctrine." The "unsound" doctrine cannot be freely
+proclaimed in St. Peter's, and besides it has such a peculiar power of
+infection, that for centuries Rome has surrounded herself with a threefold
+_cordon_ and all sorts of disinfecting remedies against this epidemic. And
+accordingly, from the Roman standpoint, the adjournment of the Council
+must obviously appear to be in any case the lesser evil in comparison with
+so unheard-of a scandal. Just think of a philippic in the Council Hall
+against the infallibility of the Pope, an exposure of the errors of
+Popes--there in St. Peter's, close to the Vatican, and before 700 Prelates!
+That would indeed be, in the words of Daniel, the abomination of
+desolation in the holy place.
+
+Moreover, an adjournment and subsequent reassembling would have this
+advantage, that the order of business and the locality could be changed.
+So long as these remain unchanged, it is impossible to speak seriously of
+a Council, and if the Roman censorship prevents any complaints on the
+subject being heard, the _Curia_ cannot conceal from itself that after the
+close of the Council the real state of the case will be universally
+recognised as a notorious fact, and the entire want of freedom or
+examination or discussion be insisted upon as a ground and justification
+for rejecting the decrees. But a Council universally questioned or
+rejected would be an endless source of embarrassment and distress for the
+_Curia_ themselves. They would have at last to exclaim, "All I have gained
+is a loss."
+
+These and the like thoughts are now occurring to many. The advice of the
+French Government, which would on all accounts gladly welcome an
+adjournment, the admonitions of Austria, which has at last, at the twelfth
+hour, receded from its attitude of coldness and indifference, and the
+knowledge that the two Protestant powers, Prussia and England, maintain
+the same views on the threatened decrees and intended ecclesiastical
+conquests, though without making any direct representations on the
+subject--all this more or less contributes to the gravity of the crisis.
+There are some drops of wormwood mingled with the joyous goblets quaffed
+daily to the Pope by the majority of 500 obsequious and courtly Latins. As
+the obedience of these Bishops and the Vicars-Apostolic, who can at any
+moment be deposed by Propaganda, is unlimited, they will vote the
+_Schemata_ exactly as the Pope desires; but most of them do it at least
+with an inward repugnance, and say, like the Aragonese Cortes of old, "We
+obey, but we don't execute."
+
+
+
+
+
+TWENTY-FOURTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 20, 1870._--The following classification of the French Bishops
+here according to their parties may be interesting.
+
+The French themselves distinguish three factions, Liberal, Ultramontane,
+and the Third Party--_i.e._, those who have signed no address, and have
+openly refused to do so. To the Liberal section belong Alby, Gaz,
+Marseilles, Nizza, Cahors, Mende, Perpignan, Bayonne, Montpellier,
+Valence, Viviers, La Rochelle, Lucon, Besancon, Metz, Nancy, Verdun,
+Annecy, Autun, Dijon, Grenoble, Paris, Orleans, Rheims, Chalons, S.
+Brieux, Vannes, Bayeux, Coutances, Evreux--thirty votes altogether.
+
+The Ultramontanes are--Rodez, Aire, Nimes, Angouleme, Poictiers (in the
+superlative), Belley, St. Diez, Strasburg, Le Puy, Tulle, St. Jean de
+Maurienne, Langres, St. Claude, Blois, Chartres, Meaux, Versailles,
+Amiens, Beauvais, Rennes (a malcontent Ultramontane), Seez, Moulins,
+Toulouse, Carcassonne, Montauban, Laval and Le Mans--twenty-seven votes.
+
+In the Third Party, headed by the Cardinal-Archbishop of Rouen, are
+included Perigueus, Bourges, Tarantaise, Cambray, Arras, Nevers, Troyes,
+Pamiers, Tours--ten votes.
+
+The Bishops of Digne, Frejus, Toulon and Soissons are described as
+doubtful.
+
+The English Bishops are similarly divided. Manning has only been able to
+get one single Bishop over to his side. Two, Errington and Clifford, have
+signed the Address against Infallibility. Six, including Bishop Ullathorne
+of Birmingham, form a third party, who decline to sign anything on either
+side. It is the same with the Irish Bishops. The Romanized Cullen, whom
+the Pope forced as Primate on the Irish Bishops, with the same view as he
+imposed Manning on the English Bishops, against their will, is of course
+an Infallibilist, and would rejoice to enforce this dogma, which they
+detest, on the educated classes of Ireland by the help of the lower
+orders. Bishops Moriarty and Leahy (of Dromore) have signed the Petition
+against Infallibility. Archbishop MacHale of Tuam, and some others with
+him, belong to the third party, while the majority of the Irish Bishops
+see in Papal Infallibility a means for increasing their influence over the
+people. What view the South Italian Bishops take is illustrated by the
+following anecdote. An Italian statesman spoke to two of them about the
+immoderate claims contained in the _Schema de Ecclesia_, and asked them
+whether they really meant to assent to such decrees? "We cannot go against
+the Holy Father," was their reply. When he reminded them of the
+independent attitude of the German Bishops, they replied, "They can take
+that line, for they are rich." Another of the South Italians amused the
+Council by urging that the constant wearing of the long cassock should be
+enforced, because Christ rose and ascended into heaven in that dress.
+
+Since the _Schema de Ecclesia_ has been in the hands of the Bishops, it is
+clear to all that the Council has been convoked simply for the purpose of
+extending the power of the Pope and strengthening the influence of the
+Jesuits, and that everything is designed to subserve this one end. The
+Bishops are to forge chains for binding, first the secular powers, and
+then themselves and the whole clergy with them. The feeling they are
+possessed with is a bitter and painful one. They feel outwitted and caught
+in a trap. They were summoned to Rome, without being told a word of the
+objects aimed at or the matters to be dealt with; on their arrival they
+were strung and fixed, like the keys of a harpsichord, into the great
+conciliar instrument, and they find that they are to be used by the hand
+of the mighty musician to produce tones which sound to themselves most
+utterly nauseous. They know well enough that the most eloquent speeches
+and most forcible arguments don't change a single vote of the majority,
+who would remain firm and unmoved as the rock of Peter if a Chrysostom or
+Augustine was among them. In an outburst of disgust at the _Schema de
+Ecclesia_, a German Prelate, formerly Roman in his sympathies, exclaimed,
+"This _Schema_ deserves to be thrust down into hell." One hears these men
+congratulating their colleagues who stayed at home under a presentiment of
+what was coming. The news of the adjournment of the Council, begun under
+such evil auspices, would be welcomed by them with delight.
+
+But these reports of an adjournment are rather wishes than hopes. The
+prorogation would imply an admission that the Council had been a failure
+through the fault of the _Curia_, in the perversity of the regulations it
+imposed on the Bishops, and the extravagance of the measures it brought
+forward. "Perissent les colonies plutot qu'un principe"--this saying,
+uttered in the Paris Convention of 1793, may often be heard here in
+various applications. The world will be enlightened in a few days by the
+publication of the new or altered order of business. It is not prorogation
+that is the immediate business, but the subjection of the minority more
+than ever to the rule of the majority and its wire-pullers who stand
+behind it, the outvoting them by majorities.
+
+In French circles a paper called the _Moniteur Universel_ is making no
+small sensation. It contains a detailed account of the proceedings of the
+Council, drawn up by a learned Frenchman residing here and under the
+inspiration of French Bishops. It is thoroughly authentic and carefully
+weighed--far the best and most accurate account of the Council in that
+language. You may perhaps find room for the following, which substantially
+confirms and partly supplements and rectifies my own statements:--
+
+"The Council of Trent arranged the order of business for itself. In this
+case just the contrary has been done: everything was pre-arranged and
+imposed on the Council by the Pope, and even the secretaries and
+scrutators were named beforehand. No initiative is allowed to the Bishops;
+the Commission for examining motions is formed of the hottest
+Infallibilists and members of the _Curia_, but the final decision is
+reserved to the Pope. The proposers of a motion are not even allowed to
+explain and defend it, so that the freedom nominally conceded to the
+Bishops of proposing measures is rendered purely illusory. By the
+composition of the four Commissions, elected from Roman lists of names,
+all work of critical importance is kept in the hands of the few
+Infallibilists chosen for the purpose by the _Curia_, to the exclusion of
+700 Bishops, among whom are all the German Bishops who signed the Fulda
+Letter to the Pope, and the most influential French Prelates. In short,
+all Bishops not known to be thorough-going Infallibilists have been
+systematically excluded from the Commissions. Very different was it at
+Trent, where all the Fathers, divided into four Congregations, took a real
+part in the work. We must add the monstrous disproportion of national
+representation--the enormous and overwhelming preponderance of the
+Italians, still further strengthened by the host of Vicars-Apostolic, who
+can at any moment be deposed by the Propaganda without any legal
+formality. Thus the Italian Bishops alone outnumber all the French,
+German, Hungarian and North American together, though these last represent
+a population nearly three times as large. The weakness of the two French
+Cardinals, Bonnechose and Mathieu, who ought to have taken the lead, has
+frustrated the attempt to unite the French Bishops in a national group.
+Bonnechose consulted Antonelli, who said the French must not assemble in
+larger bodies than fifteen or at most twenty together. The evil
+consequences were at once shown in the elections.
+
+"The Bishops are compelled by the Pope to hold their sittings in a place
+where at least a third cannot understand a word that is said, so that,
+_e.g._, Cardinal di Pietro long since declared he had not really
+understood a single speech, and another Cardinal said that not twenty
+words of all the speeches had reached his ear. A really searching
+discussion and living interchange of observations and replies is out of
+the question. No speaker can hope to produce any impression on this
+audience. And thus the first _Schema_, which consists of 140 pages, was
+the subject of general discussion for weeks without any detailed
+discussion of the separate articles being arrived at, or any point
+certainly ascertained, notwithstanding the number of speakers. The only
+result was a great waste of time, bodily fatigue and a deep
+discouragement. Had the object been to satiate the assembly with speeches
+_usque ad nauseam_ it could not have been better managed. It would be
+something if the Fathers could read the speeches they can't hear, but
+neither are they allowed to be read; the Bishops may not even print their
+addresses at their own cost. Thus many of them are wholly deprived of the
+opportunity of expressing their views, knowing that they will not be
+heard.
+
+"Vigorous preparations were made for two years before the opening of the
+Council. There is matter enough for ten Councils, but it is only
+communicated to the Bishops piecemeal, so that they can get no insight
+into the connection and plan of the separate propositions. Thus a
+ready-made Council has been put before 700 Bishops, which they are obliged
+again to unstitch like a web. As the Bishops had no means of gaining
+previous information, the Council is mostly deaf and dumb, and has at last
+got driven into a narrow pass from which there is no exit without a
+thorough alteration of the order of business. No one can say how it will
+be with the examination of the separate articles of the _Schemata_, and
+yet the Council ought to have most carefully weighed every word of decrees
+which are to be imposed on the world under anathema."
+
+
+
+
+
+TWENTY-FIFTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 24, 1870._--Since my last letter, the Council, whose movements
+for a long time were like those of a tortoise, has made gigantic strides.
+The Goddess of Insolence ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA AND OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}) rules here just as the Greek
+tragedians--especially Sophocles--describe her. All rumours of an
+adjournment of the Council were partly well-meant wishes of several
+Bishops, partly produced by the fact of the Governments--the French in
+particular--earnestly desiring it. Here in Rome no one of the Vatican party
+has thought of it for a moment. All who know the real state of things and
+persons here must be convinced that the Council will certainly be gone
+through with to the end, either completely--in full accordance with the
+well-calculated plan sketched out during the last two years for partly
+Jesuitizing and partly Romanizing everything in the Church, in theology
+and in the religious life, and carrying out centralization to the utmost
+extent--or that, at least, there will be no adjournment till the most
+precious jewel hitherto wanting to the Papal tiara, dogmatic
+Infallibility, has been inserted there. Then, and not till then, will the
+_Curia_ have obtained the irresistible talisman which opens every gate,
+fulfils every desire and brings every treasure. That dogma is Aladdin's
+magic lamp for Rome.
+
+There are three powers who wish to gain by the Council, and who decide on
+its proceedings and destiny--the Pope, the Jesuits, and the _Curia_. Among
+the members of the _Curia_ there are indeed very few who have not long
+since made their calculations, with that appreciation of the realities of
+life which is peculiar to the Italian nation, and who do not know as well
+what a dogma is worth for Rome as people know what a man is "worth" in
+England. Every assailant of the dogma is their personal enemy; he is
+simply emptying their gold-mine. Nor is the doctrine less valuable and
+indispensable to the Jesuits, at this day more than before, since they no
+longer have to fear the rivalry of any other Order in making capital out
+of the prerogative of Infallibility.
+
+As regards the Pope, he has constantly changed in his official life and
+vacillated from one side to the other, and those about him say that in
+many, nay in most, things he follows capricious and momentary impulses.
+But Pius is inflexible and immutable where he fancies he is a divine
+instrument and has received a divine mission, and that is the case here.
+He is persuaded that he is ordained by the special favour of God to be the
+most glorious of all Popes. Among his predecessors there are three to whom
+he seems to me to have a great likeness. I should say that he had chosen
+them as models, if I could assume that he knew their history. But Pius has
+never occupied himself with the past; he is purely the child of his age,
+and lives only in the present. The three are Innocent X., Clement XI., and
+above all Paul IV. He has in common with the first his strong experimental
+belief in his own personal inspiration without any theological culture. He
+resembles the second in giving himself up to the theological guidance of
+the Jesuits, and in his highhanded treatment of such Bishops as dare to
+have an opinion of their own. And just as Paul IV. used to boast that
+hereafter men would be obliged to tell of the lofty plans conceived by an
+aged Italian who, as being near his death, might have rested and bewailed
+his sins,(56) so does Pius too desire in his old age to make great though
+peaceful conquests, and to establish the Papal sovereignty as a "rocher du
+bronze," to borrow the phrase of another autocrat. With the help of the
+Council he hopes to render the universal dominion of the Papacy an
+impregnable fortress, by means of new walls, bastions and batteries, and
+to hand it down to his successors as an omnipresent and omnipotent power.
+He believes that the thoughts and desires of his soul are in reality the
+counsels of God made known to him by inspiration, and that if by following
+these counsels he accomplishes the deliverance of the Church and of
+mankind, it is the Hand of God which uses him as an instrument. And why
+should not Pius see a sign of his election to high and extraordinary
+destinies in the circumstance of his having already sat longer than any of
+his 256 predecessors, even Pius VI., on the apostolic throne? A history of
+his Pontificate has already been written in this sense by one of the
+Jesuits of the _Civilta,_ and Pius has the chapters read to him one after
+the other. I am told that a chapter on the Council is already written. The
+French Court historiographer, Vertot, who had to describe a Belgian
+campaign including the siege of a fortress, wrote the history of the siege
+before it was finished, and said quietly, "Mon siege est fait." And thus
+the Jesuit historian of the Pope can already say, "Mon Concile est fait."
+And in one sense the Council is indeed finished since the 23d
+inst.--finished by the new order of business.
+
+If the merit of this clever invention is primarily due to the Cardinals on
+the Commission for revising motions, and the Jesuits who were probably
+taken into partnership with them, its introduction must be counted among
+the most eventful acts of Pius, past or future. If it is carried out and
+adhered to without opposition, it is unquestionably the most conspicuous
+of all the victories of the Pope. Margotti, the editor of the _Unita
+Cattolica_, will hardly be able to find words to do justice to the great
+day, February 23, 1870, with its boundless wealth of happy results, in the
+next edition of his work, _Le Vittorie della Santa Chiesa sotto Pio IX_. A
+_Te Deum_ will have to be sung in every Jesuit College of the old and new
+world.
+
+Great anxiety was felt beforehand about the new order of business. It was
+said that the Sessions were to be something more than mere votings, that
+there would still be speeches made, that the written memorials would not
+be so directly thrown into the waste-paper basket, but would be considered
+and--if they approved of them--made use of by the Commission. But everything
+will be settled by the Commission and by a simple majority of votes; the
+minority may talk, but only so long as the Commission and the majority
+choose to listen to them. _Vae victis!_ The Council belongs to the Italians
+and the Spaniards, who are in close alliance with them: from henceforth to
+wish to reject any _Schema_ or decree brought before it, is like wanting
+to stop water from flowing downwards. All the proposals of the minority
+for a change in the order of business have been left unnoticed. It had
+already been resolved that a debate could only be cut short by the votes
+of a majority of two-thirds, but this has been reversed. What will the
+French and Germans do now? This is naturally the question which trembles
+on every lip and is written on every countenance. Will they simply
+acquiesce in the _fait accompli_ with a good grace, and obediently assume
+the role of the Greek Chorus in the drama of the Council--simply to reflect
+and moralize, but take no active part in the proceedings? The next few
+days will show. So much every one perceives; the order of business is the
+noose which, once fixed on the minority, cannot be got out of, and will
+only be drawn tighter and tighter till it strangles them at last. It is
+clear that the majority has the hide of a rhinoceros, from which every
+arrow shot by the Opposition, however skilfully aimed, glances off
+harmless. Where are now the wise and foolish virgins? "Give us of your
+oil, for our lamps are gone out," must the Germans, French, and Spanish
+say henceforth to the Italians, and the answer will be more friendly than
+in the Gospel: "You need not buy any more oil; come over to our side and
+be content to use our store."
+
+It is hardly necessary to observe to your readers that everything which
+takes place here turns on the question of Infallibility. The new order of
+business is merely the outer covering for this kernel. "With Infallibility
+we have all we desire or need," say the Italians, if that is gained we may
+"let the nigger go," and can dispense with his services for the future.
+But for German theologians, whose hair stands on end at the new order of
+business and all it involves, I can find no other consolation than what
+they may derive from the following Persian tale. An English ambassador
+sent to Persia--I think it was Morier--paid the usual visits at Teheran, and
+was introduced to the younger son of the Shah. He found him groping about
+blindfold in the room, and feeling for the furniture in it. The Prince
+explained this strange business by telling him that it was the rule for
+the younger sons to be blinded at the death of the Shah, in order to make
+them incapable of succeeding, and that he wished to prepare and practise
+himself beforehand for the fate impending over him. "Go ye, and do
+likewise."
+
+If the German theologians should still have courage to present an address
+to their Bishops, the subscription might be, "Morituri vos salutant." Why
+have these theologians come to such utter discomfiture?
+
+Here one already hears shouts of triumph; the day of retribution will soon
+come for those proud Transalpines, when they must bend their necks under
+the Caudine yoke of the new dogma, or await suspension, degradation, etc.
+
+If German theology had long been decried and hated by the _Curia_ and the
+Italian Jesuits, and if the _Civilta_ gladly took occasion to pour out its
+wrath on the scholars of "foggy" Germany, you may conceive the extent this
+fury has reached in Italian clerical papers and curialist circles, since
+it has become known that the most influential theologians have pronounced
+against Infallibility, and that not one--with the exception of a couple of
+pupils of the Jesuits--has said a word to defend it. It is well that one of
+the most distinguished Italians, a man whose devotion to the Church is
+unimpeached even in Rome, and whom the Pope has commissioned to write a
+history of the Council--I mean Cantu--has some years ago confessed and
+censured this characteristic of his countrymen. "To call laziness
+superiority, and evade the trouble of examining questions by depreciating
+them, this is only too much the habit of Italians, and then they mock at
+the ponderous, long-winded, hair-splitting Germans. But we must endure the
+reproach of negligence and thoughtlessness from the Germans, while we
+blindly accept falsified documents."(57)
+
+Cantu has hit on the sore place there; for it is precisely their having
+pointed out the long line of numerous and systematic forgeries, on which
+the Roman claims of Infallibility are based, and which are used to further
+other aims of the Italians, that is the main ground of the hatred of the
+Germans. And now Frenchmen too, like Gratry, come forward and publish
+these facts over land and sea in their cosmopolitan tongue and clear
+incisive style.
+
+To return to what preceded the publication of the new order of business;
+in the last sittings of the Council coming events threw their shadows
+before. The Bishops of Carcassonne and Belley declared roundly that
+Infallibility must be proclaimed, and in order, said the latter, to
+restore the menaced or broken unity of the Church. The impatience and
+vexation of the authorities are constantly on the increase. Manning said
+there was only one way of stopping the definition, and that was to cut the
+throats of half the 500 Bishops of the majority. Of course the Prelates
+who heard him cried out, like the Emperor Charles V. at the Diet of
+Augsburg, when Count George of Brandenburg wanted to cut off heads for
+another doctrine, "No heads off! no heads off!" At the last sitting on the
+_Schema de Catechismo_, on the 22d, a scene occurred which presages what
+is to become the regular practice. The Bishop of Namur had said, in
+reference to some previous attacks on the Breviary, that no one who spoke
+against it could be a good Christian. For the information of your readers
+I must premise a few words here. The Breviary is a collection of prayers
+and lections for the clergy, introduced by Rome, consisting chiefly of
+psalms and passages from the Bible and the Lives of the Saints.(58) The
+_Curia_ has used this, like so many other things, as an _instrumentum
+dominationis_, and a number of fables and forgeries devised in the
+interest of the Papal system have been interpolated into it. The French
+Church had long since adopted the precaution of employing a Breviary of
+her own, much better and purer than the Roman. It was against observations
+made about this in the Council that the harsh comment of the Bishop of
+Namur was directed.
+
+
+
+
+
+TWENTY-SIXTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, Feb. 28, 1870._--Our last letter closed with an account of a scene
+in the Session of February 22, occasioned by some attacks on the Roman
+Breviary. The Bishop of Namur had maintained that no one who attacked it
+could be a good Christian.
+
+Haynald was one of those who had censured the present condition of the
+Breviary, and he now replied to Bishop Gravez that in criticising it he
+had the Fathers of Trent and the Popes themselves for accomplices
+(_complices_). A tempest broke out at these words. But Haynald went
+further and said, with reference to Bishop Langalerie of Belley, that the
+majority, with their proposals for new dogmas, were the cause of the
+disunion which had broken out in the Church, and that it would be much
+better for the heads of the Church to confine themselves to preserving the
+ancient doctrines in their purity, instead of adding new ones. The Church
+had succeeded very well with the old doctrines. At this first open attack
+in Council on the Infallibilist project the storm grew fiercer, and
+Capalti seized the bell of the President, De Angelis, rung it violently
+and forbade the speaker to proceed. "Taceas et ab ambone descendas," he
+exclaimed. When Haynald went on all the same, a wild cry broke from the
+majority. The Archbishop of Calocsa at last came down, and so great was
+the excitement that the sitting was closed and the next postponed to March
+2.
+
+Meanwhile more attention and care than before has been devoted in Paris to
+what is going on at Rome. The Emperor and his present ministers understand
+the gravity of the situation; they know what would be meant by such
+journals as the _Monde_ and the _Univers_ daily appealing to infallible
+Papal decisions, and under their authority calling in question every
+institution and law of France, and proving beforehand to their readers
+that there is no obligation in conscience to submit to them, because the
+Pope has directly or indirectly signified his disapproval. Archbishop
+Lavigerie of Algiers brought back word to Cardinal Antonelli, on returning
+to Rome from his mission, that France was in no condition to tolerate the
+definition of Infallibility, which might lead to a schism, since not only
+the whole body of State-officers, but the writers, and even the Faubourg
+St. Germain, were opposed to the new dogma. Antonelli is not apt to be
+much influenced by such representations, which he views as mere idle
+threats; he is spoilt by the courtly flatteries of the ever obsequious M.
+de Banneville, whom he has managed completely to disarm. He has three
+devices of domestic diplomacy by which he knows how to make excellent use
+of both Banneville and Trautmansdorff. At one time he says, "It is not
+we--Pius, the _Curia_ and I--who want the dogma, but the foreign Bishops,
+and we should be encroaching on the freedom of the Council by impeding
+them. And we ought not to subject ourselves to that reproach." Then, for a
+variety, he adopts another line. "The Pope," he says, "has all he wants
+already, and the dogma of Infallibility would not give him anything more.
+As it is, and with a Council assembled, all the decrees emanate from him
+and receive from him their validity, and he can summon or dissolve the
+Council at his pleasure, so that it only exists by his will and would
+crumble into dust without him. It is therefore the interest of the
+Bishops, not ours, that is in question here, and they will know well why
+the dogma is so valuable to them." His third formula is, "Every good
+Christian believes the doctrine already, and therefore little or nothing
+will be changed in the Church by defining it, and we have not the least
+desire to use the new decree for calling in question the existing compacts
+and Concordats. We shall gladly leave alone the concessions we have
+already granted." These resources of the Cardinal have hitherto sufficed.
+But new powers and demands seem to be coming to the front, which his
+diplomatic counters will no longer satisfy. I have copies of two letters
+of Count Daru, of January 18 and February 5. These official expressions of
+opinion from Paris have made the _Civilta_ Jesuits bitterly angry, and
+their famous article on the _Policastri_, in its original form, contained
+a violent attack on the French statesmen, who were classed with the other
+ministers and diplomats in such ill repute at Rome. But this roused the
+alarm of the supreme authority, and so the Jesuits had to eat their own
+words, and to substitute for their attack a high commendation of Count
+Daru and the loyalty of France to the Concordat. There is some good in
+having the articles of the _Civilta_ regularly revised in the Vatican. I
+understand that it is intended at Paris to send a special ambassador to
+Rome to the Council.
+
+Meanwhile the Bishops of the minority are consulting how they shall deal
+with the new order of business. It was announced to the Fathers at the
+Session of February 22 that, in accordance with these new regulations,
+they must hand in all their observations on the first ten chapters of the
+_Schema de Ecclesia_ in writing within ten days.
+
+Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore has not receded from his ludicrous notion
+that his Infallibilist formula is milder and more tolerable than that of
+the 400. He has laid it before the thirty-five French Bishops (of the
+minority), who have unanimously rejected it. Its essence consists, as was
+mentioned before, in asserting that everybody must receive with
+unconditional inward assent every Papal decision on every question of
+faith or morals or Church life. On all theological principles such faith
+can only be accorded in cases where all possibility of error is excluded,
+or, in other words, where a revealed truth is concerned; and therefore to
+accept this formula would be to set aside the limitation of Papal
+Infallibility, hitherto recognised even in Rome, to decisions pronounced
+_ex cathedra_. And thus, in the crush and confusion of the innumerable and
+often contradictory decisions of Popes, theology would degenerate into a
+lamentable caricature of a system--"science" it could no longer be
+termed--involved in hopeless contradictions. If the good Spalding had the
+slightest acquaintance with Church history, he would know that he was
+bound, in virtue of his inward assent paid to all Papal decrees, first of
+all to reject his own orders as invalid.(59)
+
+And now I must notice more particularly what Bishop Ketteler has published
+against me in some German newspapers. He says that in the telegram of
+February 13, published in the _Allg. Zeitung_ of February 15, he has found
+the opportunity he had long desired for convicting the writer of the
+_Letters from Rome_ of building up "a whole system of lying and
+deceit."(60) It is "an indescribable dishonesty," a "detestable untruth,"
+etc. His short letter bristles with such accusations. The untruths he
+complains of are the following:--
+
+(1.) The telegram called the statement made by Bishop Ketteler and his
+ally, Bishop Melchers, a "proposal." He replies that it was only a
+"communication."
+
+(2.) It treats the occurrence as a "negotiation," whereas it was only a
+"short conference."
+
+(3.) There was no debate with "a serious opposition." The Bishops indeed
+had expressed different views, and some had disapproved Doellinger's
+pronouncement, while the others thought only certain individual Bishops
+might have occasion to come forward against it. (They accordingly
+understood Ketteler's "communication" just as my informant did, and
+therefore spoke out against accepting it.)
+
+(4.) Ketteler did not hear any Bishop say, as stated in the telegram, that
+Doellinger really had the majority of (German) Bishops with him.
+
+And now let us compare Ketteler's account, deducting the abusive comments
+subjoined to every sentence, with the--of course extremely
+compressed--account in the telegram, and we shall find the two in
+substantial agreement. The Bishop is obliged to interpolate something into
+the telegram, in order to find fuel for the fire of holy indignation his
+delirious fancy has betrayed him into. He quarrels with me fiercely for
+saying there was a debate and a negotiation, whereas there was only a
+conference; but I never made use of those words. He says he made no
+motion, but he himself recounts statements of the Bishops which show
+clearly that they understood his "communication" as an invitation to do as
+he did. Only one somewhat important point of difference remains, viz.,
+whether the Bishops named in the telegram said what they are there
+reported to have said or not. Bishop Ketteler can only say that he did not
+hear them say it. But considering that in an informal meeting of forty or
+forty-five persons, broken up into groups, a great deal is said which
+every one in the room does not hear, and that I received my information
+the same day from one who was present, I still adhere to my assertion that
+they did say it. For the rest, I am much indebted to Bishop Ketteler; he
+assures us that he has long desired an opportunity for saying all the evil
+he can of me and my Letters. He has now made a grand onset. If he had
+found anything in the eighteen long Letters before him better suited to
+his purpose, he would certainly not have taken refuge in such petty
+trivialities and, like a boy with snowballs, have flung what has turned
+into water in his hand. He has thus unwillingly given testimony to the
+truthfulness of my Letters. And for this I pardon him his exaggerated
+rhetoric, but will not suppress the remark made by an Englishman who knows
+mankind well: "There are certain women, says Fielding, always ready to
+raise a cry of 'Murder, fire, rape' and the like, but that means no more
+in their mouths than any one else means in going over the scale, Ut, Re,
+Mi, Fa, Sol," etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+TWENTY-SEVENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, March 8, 1870._--"Habemus Papam falli nescium!" The Bishops of the
+Manning and Deschamps party are in raptures; all Rome, say the
+Infallibilist devotees, is in the highest spirits. The great doctrine, on
+which, as all the Jesuits and their disciples assure us, hinges the
+salvation of humanity and the regeneration of science and literature, was
+published on March 6 in the form of a supplement to the _Schema de
+Ecclesia_. The Pope bears witness of himself that he is infallible as
+teacher of the Church, and the great majority of the Council will readily
+assent. Already they are exulting in that moment of triumph when the Pope
+from his throne in the Hall, "sacro Concilio approbante," and amid the
+pealing of all the bells in Rome, will proclaim to the world that it is
+now fortunate enough to possess an infallible teacher and judge in all
+questions of faith and morals, guaranteed by God Himself. Day and hour for
+the proclamation will be chosen with the greatest deliberation and
+foresight, and here another ground for clinging so pertinaciously to the
+present Council Hall comes out. It was thought quite incomprehensible why
+"the master" insulted 750 aged men by compelling them, in spite of all
+wishes and representations and the evidence of his own senses, to hold
+their sittings in a Chamber so utterly unfit for the purpose. In a city so
+abounding in churches and halls as Rome this seemed an act rather of
+ill-tempered caprice than of hospitable care. It was known of course that
+the previous expectations of the Vatican had been disappointed, that it
+had been hoped the _Schemata_ would be received by acclamation or by
+storm, as it were, without discussion, and that the Hall had been chosen
+on the very ground of its acoustic defects being adapted to that end. Now
+however a new recommendation of the Hall betrays itself. At a certain hour
+on a clear and cloudless day the rays of the sun fall exactly on the place
+where the Pope's throne stands, so that Pius may hope, by help of careful
+arrangements about the time, to stand in a glory of sunlight at the moment
+when he announces to the world the divine revelation of his own
+infallibility. It is on this wise, as we said before, that he has had
+himself represented in the memorial picture of the proclamation of the
+Immaculate Conception. At the Coronation of Charles X. of France doves
+were let fly into the church. And so in Rome also a dove might be trained,
+so as to make it hover above the Pope at the moment of his apotheosis
+being proclaimed by his own mouth, which would make the effect quite
+irresistible.
+
+In this state of things the eyes of all men are turned on the Bishops
+united, or rather not united but only assembled, in Council. The great
+majority are much in the disposition of the Athenians, when Alexander sent
+word to them that he had become a god, and wished to be worshipped as
+such. The popular assembly cried out that, if Alexander really wished to
+be a god, he was one. So say 300 Bishops: "We eat the Pope's bread and
+drink his wine and rest under his roof, so--let him be infallible." And 100
+Bishops say: "We are nothing but titular Bishops, with no dioceses or
+flocks; from whom but the Pope do we get our titles? So--let him be
+infallible." Others again say: "We call ourselves Bishops or
+Vicars-Apostolic by favour of the Pope, and during his good pleasure. Let
+him then be infallible." Lastly others say: "The _Curia_ has us in its
+power, and we need it at every step; the Pope must be infallible, since he
+desires it." Thus we have 550 born infallibilists. And to them must be
+added those whom the Italians--_e.g._, Mamiani--call more curtly than
+courteously "gli Energumeni stranieri," prelates of the Manning type _et
+id genus omne_, who really take part as volunteers in this campaign for
+the triumph of papal infallibility and the domination of souls. Many, like
+Sieyes formerly, will vote "la mort et sans phrase," but we shall read of
+unctuous motives alleged by the volunteers for their votes. They want
+infallibility for themselves as well as others; for themselves, because
+then there will be no further need "to dig," for which they have "neither
+hand nor foot," but all doctrines will be received ready made, measured
+and cut out by the Jesuits and stamped and guaranteed as genuine in the
+Roman printing-office; for others, because thereby every doubt or
+suspicion or inconvenient demand in matters of doctrine will be summarily
+got rid of and suppressed.
+
+It is three months to-day since the Council was opened. Viewed from
+without, the circumstances could hardly have been more favourable; in
+national diversities and universality of representation the assembly
+surpassed all former Councils, nor was it so obvious at the beginning that
+under this bright outside was concealed a crying and iniquitous inequality
+of representation, and that here again the mastery was placed in the hands
+of the Italians. But how have all hopes been deceived now, and who had
+thought of this lamentable upshot!
+
+Lamartine desired of his age that Italy should produce "des hommes et non
+de la poussiere humaine." For three months have these 750 prelates been
+assembled--in theory the very flower of the Catholic world, the pastors of
+180 million souls, men with a rich experience at their back. They were at
+once separated into two parties, one of 600 and the other of about 150. On
+which side are the men and on which the human dust? What have these 600
+done in the three months they have been together, what have they brought
+to an issue, and what thoughts or sparks of intelligence have been struck
+out of this daily contact with so many high dignitaries from the four
+quarters of the world? Their utter sterility, aimlessness and poverty of
+thought--their passively resigning themselves to a mere assent to the
+thoughts and words of others--all this, when watched close at hand, makes a
+painful impression. It is true that European history since 1789 has
+accustomed us to the infirmities and follies and the unproductiveness of
+great deliberative assemblies; it has become an every-day phenomenon, and
+in our days one's expectations from an ecclesiastical assembly can only be
+of the most moderate kind. There is no fear there of rash and hasty
+decisions or revolutionary measures. But La Bruyere's saying, "A great
+assembly always becomes a rabble," is verified even at Rome, and the
+Italians of 1870 have already begun to emulate the example of their
+ancestors in 1562. Just as the majority at Trent knew how to reduce a
+disagreeable speaker to silence by wild cries and coughing and scraping
+with their feet, so is it now at the Vatican Council. It is the
+humiliating feeling of intellectual impotence and of deficiency alike in
+knowledge, eloquence and mind, as compared with the minority, from whom
+almost everything emanates that can be called life or thought in the
+Council. They feel their abject littleness, in their thankless role of
+being a mere echo of the _Schemata_ and Canons proposed, and having to
+present in so unadorned and undisguised a form that "sacrificio dell'
+intelletto" which the Jesuits so eagerly commend. The honour of being
+afterwards lauded, as one of the 600 organs of the Holy Ghost at this
+Council, has to be purchased rather dear. But we cannot in fact come to
+close quarters and converse with these Bishops of the majority, without
+being reminded of the reply of a Dane to a Frenchman, who said to him
+(before the Revolution) that the highest Order in France was that of the
+Holy Ghost. "Notre Saint Esprit est un elephant," answered the Dane. But
+the situation is almost too serious for such thoughts.
+
+A synopsis of the outstanding measures has been presented to the Council.
+There are altogether 51 _Schemata_: 3 on "Faith," 28 on "Discipline," 18
+on "Religious Orders," 2 on "Oriental Church affairs:" of these 39 have
+not yet been distributed, and 46 not discussed; 12 are in the hands of the
+Bishops, of which 5 have been already discussed and are to be again
+presented and examined, after being modified by the Commission. This is
+obviously matter enough for two years' work; yet the Council Hall and the
+hitherto irresistible and invulnerable majority will conspire to push the
+51 _Schemata_ expeditiously through the Council, unabbreviated and hardly
+altered. If only the master at last praises and rewards his servants!
+
+Meanwhile 34 French Bishops have signed a Statement of Protest against the
+new order of business. I hear that the perversity of deciding doctrines by
+counting heads is emphatically dwelt on. The same document has been
+subscribed by 33 German Bishops, with certain additions. Cardinals Mathieu
+and Rauscher, while professing their agreement, did not think it well to
+sign. Some 10 or 12 Germans have accepted a shorter but more precise and
+pointed address, maintaining the same principles. Some Orientals too have
+signed, while the deliberations of the Americans, on the other hand, came
+to no result.
+
+Such declarations are necessary for the outer world and for the
+satisfaction of their own consciences, but they can hardly be expected to
+produce any effect, nor do the signataries themselves anticipate any
+important change being made in the new _regolamento_. Would that their
+representations were formal protests, declaring that they would take no
+further part in an assembly lacking the necessary conditions of a true
+Council! But neither the French nor Germans could resolve on that. It
+would be hard even for a man like Dupanloup, who may be reckoned a leader
+of the Opposition, openly to contradict his own earlier writings about the
+Pope. The question suggests itself, If Pius, before his infallibility is
+made a dogma, has said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," what will
+he say when his apotheosis is accomplished? What words of human language
+will suffice adequately to denote the sublimity of his position? A former
+saying of a member of the Italian aristocracy, well known for his witty
+remarks, occurs to me, "Gli altri Papi credevano esser Vicarii di Christo,
+ma questo Papa crede che nostro Signore sia il suo Vicario in cielo."
+
+We live here in the place whereof Tacitus wrote eighteen centuries ago,
+"Cupido dominandi cunctis affectibus flagrantior est."(61)
+
+If infallibility is defined, every member of the Roman Congregations has
+the pleasing certainty that he possesses "divinae particulam aurae." Pius is
+as firm and resolved as ever; the Jesuits have told him that, if the new
+dogma produces any confusion and scandal in the Church, it matters
+nothing--other dogmatic decisions have led to great confusion, but have
+remained triumphant; in a hundred years all will be quiet. Father
+Piccirillo, the editor of the _Civilta_ and special favourite of Pius, has
+consoled other prelates in the same way.
+
+The _Schema de Ecclesia_ has been compared with the lecture notes of a
+Jesuit Professor at the Collegio Romano, and the two are shown to agree
+precisely. Even the most abject _Placet_-men of the majority feel rather
+ashamed of this; they had not quite expected to be summoned to Rome,
+simply in order to formulate the lecture notes of a Jesuit into dogmatic
+decrees for the whole Church.
+
+An individual so insignificant intellectually, that I never expected to
+have any occasion for mentioning his name, and who is regarded in German
+circles as the standing joke of the Council, a certain Wolanski, has just
+been placed on the Congregation of the Index, as censor for German books.
+He would be utterly incompetent even to transcribe the work of a German
+theologian for the press. But in Rome they like, from time to time, to
+give a kick of this sort to foreigners.
+
+_Postscript._--I have just been put in a position to tell you something of
+the contents of the episcopal protest against the new order of business.
+In respect to the thirteenth article it is objected, that in former
+Councils a method of voting simply designed to secure expedition ("eo
+expedito modo") has never been adopted--a form "quo nullus certe alius
+gravitati et maturitati deliberationis, imo et ipsi libertati minus
+favet." It is added, that even in political assemblies the right is
+granted of demanding that votes should be taken by calling names. It is
+not rapidity of decision, but prudence and the utmost possible security,
+that is the important point. "Quod in Concilio maxime refert, non est ut
+cito res expediatur, sed ut caute et tutissime peragatur. Longe satius est
+paucas quaestiones expendere et prudenter solvere, quam multo numerosiores
+proponere et decurtatis discussionibus suffragiisque praecipitanter
+collectis res tam graves irrevocabiliter definire." The document goes on
+to protest against the regulation for first counting the votes of those
+who assent to the proposed decrees, and not till after this has been done
+of those who reject them. This is quite wrong; "Cum in quaestionibus fidei
+tutius sit sistere et definitionem differre, quam temere progredi, ideo
+conditio dissentientium favorabilior esse debet, et ipsis prioritas in
+dandis suffragiis excedenda esset." The memorialists further desire that,
+in the definition of a dogma or the establishment of a canon armed with
+anathema, the votes should be orally given by _Placet_ and _Non placet_,
+not by rising and sitting down. And then great stress is laid on the point
+of dogmas not being decided by a mere majority but only by moral
+unanimity, so that any decree opposed by a considerable number of Bishops
+may be held to be rejected. The Bishops say, "Cum dogmata constent
+Ecclesiarum consensu, ut ait Bellarminus," moral unanimity is necessary.
+There is a further demand or request of the Bishops, "ut suffragia patrum
+non super _toto Schemate_ et quasi _in globo_, sed seorsim super unaquaque
+definitione, super unoquoque Canone, per _Placet_ aut _Non placet_
+sigillatim rogentur et edantur." The Fathers should also be free,
+according to the Pope's previous arrangement, to give in their remarks in
+writing. But the following is the most important passage:--"Id autem quod
+spectat ad numerum suffragiorum requisitum ut quaestiones dogmaticae
+solvantur, in quo quidem rei summa est et totius Concilii cardo vertitur,
+ita grave est, ut nonnisi admitteretur, quod reverenter et enixe
+postulamus, conscientia nostra intolerabili pondere premeretur. Timeremus,
+ne Concilii OEcumenici character in dubium vocari posset, ne ansa hostibus
+praeberetur, S. Sedem et Concilium impetendi, sicque demum apud populum
+Christianum hujus Concilii auctoritas labefactaretur, 'quasi veritate et
+libertate caruerit,' quod his turbatissimis temporibus tanta esset
+calamitas ut pejor excogitari non possit." On this we might however
+observe with all respect, that a greater calamity is quite conceivable,
+and that is the sanctioning of a doctrine exegetically, dogmatically and
+historically untenable by an assembly calling itself a Council. The
+Protest ends with these words:--"Spe freti futurum ut hae nostrae gravissimae
+animadversiones ab Eminentiis vestris benevolenti animo accipiantur,
+earumque, quae par est, ratio habeatur, nosmet profitemur: Eminentiarum
+Vestrarum addictissimos et obsequentissimos famulos."
+
+
+
+
+
+TWENTY-EIGHTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, March 9._--The decree on infallibility appeared on Sunday, March 6,
+just a year after the project was announced in the _Allgemeine Zeitung_.
+The Bishops knew three weeks before, through an indiscretion of Perrone's,
+that it was drawn up. But its extreme and unqualified form will have taken
+many by surprise. Men could hardly believe that the Roman See would
+publicly confess so huge an excess of ambition, and itself court a
+reproach of which the Catholic Church may indeed be cleared, but the
+Papacy never. The circumstances preceding the appearance of this
+composition, which will be a phenomenon in the world's history, are hardly
+less remarkable and significant than the text itself.
+
+It was decided on February 21, at a meeting of the French Cabinet presided
+over by the Emperor, to send a special ambassador to the Council. A
+despatch to this effect was forwarded to Rome the same evening. The notion
+so greatly displeased the Marquis de Banneville, that he delayed carrying
+out his instructions and sent word of his anxieties to Paris. Here he said
+quite openly that he could remain no longer, and must go to Paris to get
+the decision reversed. He contented himself however with sending an
+_attache_ to France. At last, on March 1, the design of the French
+Government was communicated to Cardinal Antonelli, and three days
+afterwards, on March 4, the Marquis de Banneville came to receive his
+reply. The Cardinal was unfortunately prevented by an attack of gout from
+seeing him. And thus the answer has been given in the unexpected form of a
+dogmatic decree.
+
+Not less remarkable is the coincidence of the decree with the publication
+of Count Daru's Letter. Its publication, which proclaims to the world the
+policy of the French Cabinet towards the Court of Rome, has excited the
+greater sensation in Rome, as it could not have emanated from any ordinary
+correspondent. The letter was only known to the English Government, and
+there was no copy in England except in the hands of the Ministry. It
+cannot be supposed that it would be offered for publication without the
+connivance of Count Daru himself, and this conjecture is confirmed by the
+tone of the _Francais_, Count Daru's organ, on the subject. It was open to
+it to disavow the letters, which are addressed to a private individual,
+and not, as the _Times_ incorrectly stated, to a French prelate. But
+instead of seizing on this loophole, the _Francais_ says that the private
+letters of the minister contain nothing different from his public
+despatches. What gives these things the greater weight is that they imply
+the probability of interpellations, in Paris as well as in Florence, and
+the ministry must be presumed to be determined to persist to the end in
+the path it has entered upon.
+
+But the clearest light is thrown on the act of the _Curia_, when we look
+at its relation to the simultaneous movement among the minority.
+
+The new order of business seemed to many calculated to bring the internal
+split in the Opposition to the surface. To accept it was equivalent to
+accepting the dogma itself. To reject it was to intimate the resolution
+not to surrender the rights of Bishops, of whom St. Thomas says, "Obtinent
+in Ecclesia summum potestatem," and therefore not to recognise the Pope's
+infallibility. But it has just been explained in the most emphatic terms
+in Father Gratry's Letters, which are in the hands of all the Bishops, how
+difficult it is to coquet with the Jesuit dogmas without falling into the
+old Jesuit system of morality. However, this much desired division only
+occurred on a very limited scale.
+
+The Opposition resolved to protest against the order of business. The
+Protest is said to have been drawn up by skilful French hands, and was
+subscribed on March 4 by thirty-four French Bishops, and another, signed
+by almost the same number of German Bishops, was presented to the Legates
+two days later. A very high estimate is formed of its importance here.
+According to the Roman view the majority of the Council has no better
+right than the minority to proclaim a new dogma, for the right belongs to
+the Pope alone, who can just as well elevate the teaching of the minority
+as of the majority into a dogma. And therefore, in maintaining that no
+dogma can be defined without the universal consent--the moral unanimity--of
+the Episcopate, and that a Council which receives a dogma without that
+consent is liable to be rejected as not free and OEcumenical, the Bishops
+are not only protesting against the threatened encroachments of the
+majority, but just as much against the claim of the Pope to define dogmas
+by his own authority. I have lately cited the words of Pius IV. on that
+point. In putting forward and defending their right and qualification to
+be witnesses of the faith and representatives of their Churches, the
+Bishops are not only vindicating a position very difficult to assail, but
+at the same time shaking the principal foundation of the present Council.
+In the first place the minority represent relatively far greater numbers
+of Catholics than their adversaries, and in the next place the bulk of the
+majority is artificially swelled by a crowd of prelates who really
+represent no Churches and only bear witness for themselves. That many of
+them have been simply created to give their services at this Council, is
+notorious. According to the official Roman register, fifty-one Bishops _in
+partibus_ were named between June 1866 and August 1869. By every one of
+these creations the Pope has neutralized by his own plenary power the vote
+of an Archbishop of Paris or Vienna; in other words, he has put some
+favourite Roman monsignore on an equality, as regards the decisions of the
+Council, with a venerable Church containing more than a million of souls.
+The presence of such elements in the assembly gives grounds for doubting
+whether it can be regarded as a real representation of the whole Church,
+and so this declaration of the Bishops is like knocking a nail in the
+coffin of the OEcumenical Council.
+
+I have mentioned that the Protest of the French Bishops was handed in on
+March 4. That day was the beginning of the decisive crisis for the
+Opposition. The adhesion of the Germans was next awaited; it followed on
+the 6th March, and their example is pretty sure to be followed by other
+nations. The prospect of this danger, combined with the news from France,
+brought the long preconcerted resolve of the other side to sudden and
+immediate maturity. A few days before they had not intended to come
+forward with the decree yet. But now the great object was to cut short any
+further development on the part of the Opposition, and, if possible, to
+hinder the German Protest. The existing situation seems even to have
+influenced the form of the decree. For a moment the French middle
+party--Bonnechose, Lavigerie, etc.--had fancied a professedly moderate
+formula would be carried, but now the counsels of the most determined
+infallibilists prevailed, and the Pope, in great visible excitement, gave
+his assent to the decree in the form in which it has been published. This
+took place on March 5. The decree is dated March 6. With the view of
+stopping the German Protest, they did not wait for the next sitting to
+distribute the printed copies to the Fathers in Council as usual, but sent
+them direct to their houses. This was the answer to the protesting
+movement.
+
+Considering that none of the former addresses of the minority--some twelve
+have been presented--have been taken the slightest notice of, there were of
+course the best reasons for anticipating no better fate for this last. But
+it has served another purpose. It was an intimation on the part of the
+signataries that their patience has reached its limits. The Protest did
+not indeed pledge them to any definite course of action. But it certainly
+imposes on them the duty of not tolerating anything further of the same
+kind, and not lending a hand to any decision affecting the whole future of
+the Church, under conditions they have themselves declared to imperil the
+authority and solidity of the Council. Either the Protest means nothing,
+and the signataries are as persuaded of its worthlessness and insincerity
+as their adversaries, or it means that they will not allow the great dogma
+to come on for discussion unless they obtain an assurance that no dogma
+shall be proclaimed by Pope or Council without a moral unanimity. The
+_Curia_ have known how to give so emphatic an expression to their contempt
+for the Opposition, that even the sharpest and bitterest words would show
+less scorn and insolence than their act. By choosing the precise moment,
+when the minority declare that their conscience is troubled and in doubt
+about the legitimacy and result of the Council altogether, for bringing
+forward the very decree which has all along been the main cause of that
+doubt and trouble of conscience, they proclaim plainly and emphatically
+that they know the Opposition regards its own words as nothing but words,
+and that there is no earnest manly decision or religious conviction behind
+them. The conscientiousness of the Opposition, _i.e._ of the most
+distinguished French and German Bishops, could not be put to a prompter, a
+more crucial, or a more decisive test.
+
+How will this test be borne? How will the doctrine of the Church and the
+honour of two nations be saved? The events of the next few days will
+decide.
+
+
+
+
+
+TWENTY-NINTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, March 15._--Livy relates that, in the battle at the Thrasimene Lake,
+the combatants on either side, Romans and Carthaginians, felt nothing of
+the earthquake under their feet. Here in Rome it is not so much the heat
+of the contest that makes the great body of Bishops unconscious of the
+moral earthquake which has begun to shake the Church, for there is no
+strife in the ranks of the majority, and their intercourse with the other
+party is very small. But every one thinks first of his own home and
+diocese, and the Italians, Spaniards and South Americans--nearly 500
+prelates in all--have abundant cause for reckoning on absolute indifference
+and ease, on a passive and generally willing assent. In those countries it
+is only money questions, the contest about Church property, that stirs
+men's minds. How much is to be left to the clergy or taken from them, that
+is the question here. And the Bishops hope that papal infallibility will
+give some added force to the papal decisions on the inviolability of
+Church property.
+
+Among the Opposition Bishops many are still in good spirits and full of
+confidence. "We are too many, and we represent too considerable portions
+of the Christian world, for our resistance to be ignored and our votes
+thrust aside," is what many of them still assert. But the dominant party
+don't admit this. Antonelli says: "As soon as the Pope promulgates a
+decree with the assent of a great number of Bishops, he is infallible, and
+therefore a minority of opposing votes need not be attended to."
+Naturally--for he, like other Italians, moves in the circle of papal
+infallibility which he, as advocate and financier, considers to belong to
+the "grandes idees de l'Eglise." He would certainly, if asked, agree with
+the view of Cardinal Jacobazzi, about 1530, that the Pope could hold an
+OEcumenical Council with one Bishop only and issue an infallible decree.
+The state of the case is this: if the decree is published by the Pope with
+the assent of the majority of the Council, it is ruled that the gift of
+infallibility has all along resided in the Popes alone, and that the
+supreme authority in dogmas has only been derived to General Councils from
+them, whether by their taking part in the proceedings or confirming them.
+On this theory, even a very considerable number of opposing Bishops have
+no rights; the Pope could issue a dogmatic decree with the minority
+against the votes of the majority, for he and he alone would always be the
+organ of the Holy Ghost. Either no reply will be given to the complaints
+of the Bishops about the new order of business, any more than to their
+previous memorials, or they will be told that it is reserved to the Pope
+to settle whether a decree or _Schema_ voted by a majority only shall be
+promulgated, since he, being alone infallible, can do what he pleases. In
+this sense the silence of Section 14 may well be interpreted.
+
+All the talk about "inopportuneness" is now quite at an end. I had
+predicted that from the first. Any Bishop who wanted to discuss now,
+whether it was the right time for making the new dogma, would be laughed
+at rather than listened to. It has been decided by 500 Bishops with the
+Pope that the decree is opportune, and in saying that the question is
+about the truth of articles of faith, not their convenience, they have
+reason and history on their side.
+
+There are said to be 100 Opinions or Objections of the Bishops about or
+against the _Schema_ on the Church, already in the hands of the Commission
+of Faith. Among them is the memorial of an eminent German Bishop, whose
+bosom two souls seem to inhabit, and who therefore occupies the singular
+position at once of a friend of papal infallibility and an opponent of the
+definition and member of the Opposition. He read his paper in the meeting
+of German Bishops, and it was received with general approval, in spite of
+the pungent comments it contained on the new order of business in
+connection with the publication of the _Schema_ on infallibility a few
+days later, as being a disgrace to the Council and the Church.
+
+Count Trautmansdorff and M. Beust have received from Antonelli one of
+those quieting and entirely conciliatory answers that clerical statesman
+is so fond of pouring forth in all directions.(62) Its substance is as
+follows: in theory, and as regards what the scholastics called universals,
+where high and far-reaching principles have to be established, the Church
+is inexorable; there she cannot abandon an iota of her claims, and must
+draw and force home the sword of anathema. She must therefore necessarily
+pronounce modern civilisation, with its freedoms, a medley of
+soul-destroying errors, must raise the banner of coercion and forcible
+suppression, and accordingly condemn freedom of religious profession and
+of the press. But in practice--in Concordats and special Indults and
+concessions of graces--the Pope is not so strict and inexorable; there he
+is open to negotiations, and the separate Governments can obtain from him
+as a favour the actual toleration of what in theory he most solemnly
+condemns, of course only _durante beneplacito_, so long as it pleases him
+and the Governments behave well and don't deserve to be punished by the
+withdrawal of their indults and privileges. And that is so long as
+circumstances remain unaltered, for it is self-evident that, as soon as
+the temper of public opinion and the political situation become such as to
+offer any prospect of an ecclesiastical pretension being successfully
+urged, the indult will be abrogated and the practice conformed to the
+theory. Antonelli always has both pockets full of such distinctions
+between the strict and hard theory and the mild and indulgent pliability
+in practice, and no diplomatist leaves him without such consolation. De
+Banneville has always been satisfied with the fare thus set before him by
+the Secretary of State. Trautmansdorff has so far the advantage, that the
+doctrines of Church and State imposed by the Court of Rome on the Council
+give the Austrian Government a very convenient handle for declaring the
+legal abolition of the Concordat, which is practically torn to pieces
+already; for with a Pope who has become infallible and feels himself
+called to be the supreme judge of right and wrong, though there may indeed
+be an armistice, no real and genuine peace and no treaty is possible.
+
+Moreover nothing can be more convenient and elastic than the theory
+Antonelli expounds with all the unction of priestly diplomacy to the
+representatives of the European Governments. It makes everything--persons
+and institutions, governments and peoples--ultimately dependent on the
+indulgence and favour of the Pope. By the higher and divine law, so runs
+this doctrine, everything in the world should properly be differently
+arranged; the censorship of the Holy Office, religious coercion and
+clerical immunities, in a word the whole system of canon law, should
+flourish everywhere in full vigour as in the States of the Church. But the
+Vicar of God is merciful; he condescends to the evil condition of States
+and of mankind, and does what is so easily done in Rome, he dispenses--for
+at Rome obsolete laws are maintained simply to supply matter for
+dispensations,--he declares his readiness to tolerate what in itself is to
+be condemned, out of regard for the unfavourable circumstances of the age,
+and thus all at last falls under the sceptre of the Pope, who rules at one
+time by favour and dispensations, at another by strict law. Constitutions
+and laws will be allowed to exist for awhile, and until further notice.
+This however is no recognition of them, but only an "indult," for which
+sovereigns and statesmen and nations must be thankful while it lasts, but
+which may at any moment be revoked.
+
+The plan of acclamation, announced by the Jesuits as far back as February
+1869, still counts many friends. There are 600 episcopal throats ready to
+shout, and these prelates had the rather get the affair settled in that
+summary fashion, because they would then be spared the hearing of things
+which bring a blush to many a face. For the Opposition Bishops could bring
+forward reasons and facts which, if once spoken in this place, would make
+a powerful echo and come unrefuted before the present and future
+generations. Of all possible questions that of infallibility is certainly
+the one which can least be discussed here and before 275 Italian prelates.
+What has happened in the last sittings, the exaltation of some and the
+bitterness of others, gives no hope of a quiet examination, but on the
+contrary leads us to expect that the majority will make the fullest use
+either of their physical preponderance or of the new rights given them by
+the Pope for reducing their adversaries to silence. Many who are resolved
+to gratify the Pope's desire by their _Placet_, are apprehensive that the
+objections of their opponents might leave the unpleasant taste of an
+unanswered argument in their mouths, and that the sting of a vote given
+without adequate knowledge and examination might remain fixed in the
+conscience of the Bishops. In this connection the answer of a North
+American Bishop of the infallibilist party is significant. He said that he
+remembered having heard, when in the theological class in his seminary,
+that the condemnation of Pope Honorius by the Sixth Council meant nothing,
+and now in his old age nobody could require him to study and examine the
+question for himself.
+
+Since the appearance of Gratry's Letters, what is most especially dreaded
+is the mention and discussion of the forgeries and fictions that have been
+perpetrated for centuries past in the interest of the Papacy. Should they
+really come to be spoken of in the Council Hall, one may be quite prepared
+for Legate Capalti, even if he is not presiding, striking his bell till it
+bursts. The Italian and Spanish majority would sooner let a speaker teach
+Arianism and Pelagianism than touch on this sore. Cyprian, pseudo-Isidore,
+Anselm, Deusdedit, Gratian, Thomas Aquinas and Cyril--these are now
+terrible names, and hundreds here would fain stop their ears when they are
+uttered. "Is there then no balm in Gilead, no physician?" Just now a
+theologian or historian would be worth his weight in gold, who could
+produce evidence that all these forgeries and inventions are genuine
+monuments of Christian antiquity, and that the whole edifice of papal
+absolutism has been built up with the purest and most conscientious
+loyalty to truth. For this "horse" they would now, like Richard III. of
+England, offer a kingdom. For the first time the world, with a free press
+in full possession, is to accept a new dogma with all its extensive
+belongings--to accept it in faith, at a time when historical criticism has
+attained a power against which Rome is impotent, and when its conclusions
+pass into the literature and the common consciousness of all thinking men
+with a rapidity hitherto unprecedented. The works will soon be counted not
+by hundreds but by thousands, which relate and make capital out of the
+fact that from the year 500 to 1600 deliberate fraud was at work in Rome
+and elsewhere for disseminating, supporting, and finding a basis for, the
+notion of infallibility. If they imagine in Rome that they can escape this
+power by means of the Index and similar fulminations, such as some French
+Bishops have hurled at Father Gratry, that is like sending a couple of old
+women with syringes to put out a palace on fire.
+
+The leader and oracle of the infallibilists, Archbishop Manning, knows
+something of the contradictions of history to his pet dogma. He has heard
+something of the long chain of forgeries, but he demonstrates to his
+associates by a bold method of logic, that it is an article of faith that
+is at issue here, and that history and historical criticism can have
+nothing to say to it. "It is not, therefore, by criticism on past history,
+but by acts of faith in the living voice of the Church at this hour, that
+we can know the faith."(63) The faith which removes mountains will be
+equally ready--such is clearly his meaning--to make away with the facts of
+history. Whether any German Bishop will be found to offer his countrymen
+these stones to digest, time will show.
+
+Of what French infallibilists are capable has been evidenced in the case
+of Bishop Pie of Poictiers, who is, next to Plantier of Nimes, the leader
+of this faction. He introduces into his Lenten Pastoral the history of
+Uzza, who wanted, with a good object, to support the tottering Ark, and
+was punished by being burned to death. The Ark, he says, is the Church and
+its doctrine, and whoever touches it with the best intentions, be he
+layman or priest, commits a grievous crime and audacious sacrilege, which
+must bring down on his head the most terrible wrath of God. The animals,
+which draw the waggon containing the Ark, are the Bishops. If then,
+proceeds Pie, any of these oxen swerve from the road and kick
+(_regimbent_), there are plenty more at hand to bring back the cart into
+the right track, for--and here the oxen suddenly become horses
+(_coursiers_)--all the steeds of the sacred cart do not stumble at the same
+time. Thus does this prelate expound to his flock the position of the
+majority and minority at the Council, and for their full consolation he
+adds: "Moreover there is one supreme and divinely enlightened driver of
+the cart, who is liable to no error, and he will know how to deal with the
+shying and stumbling of the horses." According to Bishop Pie therefore,
+the waggon of the Church is sometimes drawn by horses--the Opposition who
+make _sou-bresaut_ and _ecarts_; sometimes by steady-going oxen--the great
+majority,--and among these last the Bishop of Poictiers with amiable
+modesty reckons himself. If the readers of the _Allgemeine Zeitung_ doubt
+whether a highly respected leader of the majority and member of the
+Commission on Faith has really written such nonsense, I can only refer
+them to the document itself, which will no doubt be reprinted in the
+_Univers_ or _Monde_.(64)
+
+There are many indications that the wishes of the clique of zealots, who
+wanted to get the infallible Pope made out of hand on St. Joseph's day,
+will not be realized, but that a longer interval will have to be allowed.
+The _Schema_ "on Faith" prepared by the Commission, viz., by the
+above-named Bishop Pie, and containing the philosophical and theological
+matter for the Council, was to have been distributed last week, and even
+Bishops of the minority had received professedly confidential notice of
+it; but no such distribution took place. So the Session of this week too
+will fall through, and it is not easy to see how this first fruit of the
+Council can well be imparted to the expectant world before Easter. And
+here I constantly come across the view that the postponement of the
+discussion on the grand _Schema de Ecclesia_, with the article on
+infallibility, is done with a purpose. The Opposition is still too strong
+and compact; it is hoped that some members will be detached from it every
+week, and that several will leave Rome; some Austrians are gone already.
+Everything depends on making the Opposition so small and weak, that they
+may be walked over, and may seem only to exist as a captive band of German
+Barbarians to grace the triumphal procession of the Latins, and then to be
+surrendered to those "executeurs des hautes oeuvres de la justice de Rome,"
+MM. Veuillot and Maguelonne, the editors of the _Univers_ and the
+_Correspondance de Rome_.(65) This delay is of course a severe trial of
+patience for the majority who are hungering after the new bread of faith.
+
+I will not conceal that even among the highest Roman dignitaries the
+infallibilist dogma provokes expressions of discontent. Are they honestly
+and sincerely meant? The voting will show. The _mot d'ordre_ has gone
+forth to correspondents of foreign journals, to say that the whole
+Opposition is thoroughly broken up, and that some are deserting and the
+rest running away. But as yet these are wishes rather than facts. As far
+as I can see, the French and German Bishops, who wish to maintain the
+ancient doctrine of the Church and reject the new dogma, hold firmly
+together. Some Bishops said, directly after the publication of the
+supplementary _Schema_ on infallibility, that their only choice lay
+between a schism or a false doctrine; nothing else was left them except to
+resign their Sees. And your readers would be astonished if I could venture
+to mention their names--names of the highest repute.
+
+The war of extermination against the Theological Faculties of the German
+Universities is to be energetically carried on. The Bishop of Ratisbon's
+measure is only a premonitory feeler. Some particular exceptions however
+might be made, as long as the chairs were filled by pupils of the Jesuits.
+The German College is now to be the nursery for professors of theology and
+philosophy at German Seminaries and High Schools. This reminds one of the
+Alexandrian Psaphon, who kept a whole aviary of parrots, and taught them
+to scream, "Great is the God, Psaphon," and then let them fly, so that
+they carried over land and sea the fame of his godhead. In Rome there is
+fortunately an abundance of such aviaries. There are colleges here for
+England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany and Hungary, Belgium, Poland,
+and North and South America, and thousands of their inmates have already
+been indoctrinated in Psaphon's fashion.
+
+
+
+
+
+THIRTIETH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, March 20, 1870._--At last the greatest theologian of Catholic
+England, in fact the only man of learning there who would be called in
+Germany a real theologian, has spoken out in the great controversy. Dr.
+Newman is superior of the Birmingham Oratory. It has long been notorious
+that he deplored the condition of the English (Catholic) Church, which has
+for many years been brought under the convert yoke, and sympathized with
+the old Catholics, both clergy and laity, who are now crushed under it; so
+much so, that the convert party there tried to brand him with the
+reputation of heterodoxy, and strangers intending to visit the illustrious
+Oratorian were warned not to incur suspicion by doing so. Newman had
+accordingly maintained a persistent silence in the controversies going on
+in England, desirous as everybody was and is to know his judgment upon the
+question which is now "gladius animam Ecclesiae pertransiens." But in the
+midst of this silence he had opened his heart, in a letter to a Bishop who
+is a friend of his own, on the uncomfortable and dangerous position into
+which an "aggressive and insolent faction" has brought the Church, and
+disturbed so many of the truest souls. He says:(66)
+
+"... Such letters, if they could be circulated, would do much to reassure
+the many minds which are at present distressed when they look towards
+Rome.
+
+"Rome ought to be a name to lighten the heart at all times, and a
+Council's proper office is, when some great heresy or other evil impends,
+to inspire hope and confidence in the faithful; but now we have the
+greatest meeting which ever has been, and that at Rome, infusing into us
+by the accredited organs of Rome and of its partisans (such as the
+_Civilta_ [the _Armonia_], the _Univers_, and the _Tablet_) little else
+than fear and dismay. When we are all at rest, and have no doubts, and--at
+least practically, not to say doctrinally--hold the Holy Father to be
+infallible, suddenly there is thunder in the clearest sky, and we are told
+to prepare for something, we know not what, to try our faith, we know not
+how. No impending danger is to be averted, but a great difficulty is to be
+created. Is this the proper work of an OEcumenical Council?
+
+"As to myself personally, please God, I do not expect any trial at all;
+but I cannot help suffering with the many souls who are suffering, and I
+look with anxiety at the prospect of having to defend decisions which may
+not be difficult to my own private judgment, but may be most difficult to
+maintain logically in the face of historical facts.
+
+"What have we done to be treated as the faithful never were treated
+before? When has a definition _de fide_ been a luxury of devotion and not
+a stern, painful necessity? Why should an aggressive, insolent faction be
+allowed to 'make the heart of the just sad, whom the Lord hath not made
+sorrowful'? Why cannot we be let alone when we have pursued peace and
+thought no evil?
+
+"I assure you, my lord, some of the truest minds are driven one way and
+another, and do not know where to rest their feet--one day determining 'to
+give up all theology as a bad job,' and recklessly to believe henceforth
+almost that the Pope is impeccable, at another tempted to 'believe all the
+worst which a book like Janus says,'--others doubting about 'the capacity
+possessed by bishops drawn from all corners of the earth to judge what is
+fitting for European society,' and then, again, angry with the Holy See
+for listening to 'the flattery of a clique of Jesuits, Redemptorists, and
+converts.'
+
+"Then, again, think of the store of Pontifical scandals in the history of
+eighteen centuries, which have partly been poured forth and partly are
+still to come. What Murphy inflicted upon us in one way M. Veuillot is
+indirectly bringing on us in another. And then again the blight which is
+falling upon the multitude of Anglican ritualists, etc., who themselves,
+perhaps--at least their leaders--may never become Catholics, but who are
+leavening the various English denominations and parties (far beyond their
+own range) with principles and sentiments tending towards their ultimate
+absorption into the Catholic Church.
+
+"With these thoughts ever before me, I am continually asking myself
+whether I ought not to make my feelings public; but all I do is to pray
+those early doctors of the Church, whose intercession would decide the
+matter (Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome, Athanasius, Chrysostom, and Basil)
+to avert this great calamity.
+
+"If it is God's will that the Pope's infallibility be defined, then is it
+God's will to throw back 'the times and moments' of that triumph which He
+has destined for His kingdom, and I shall feel I have but to bow my head
+to His adorable, inscrutable Providence.
+
+"You have not touched upon the subject yourself, but I think you will
+allow me to express to you feelings which, for the most part, I keep to
+myself...."
+
+Thus writes Newman in most glaring contrast to Manning. The latter was
+long nothing but his admiring disciple, and does not possess a tenth part
+of the learning of his master. He owes simply to his infallibilist zeal
+acquired in Rome his elevation to the Archbishopric of Westminster, to
+which the Pope appointed him, in anticipation of his present services,
+against the will of the English Catholics and the election of the Bishops.
+The Roman correspondent of the _Standard_ having published extracts from
+Newman's letter, he took occasion to come forward and say that he had no
+wish to conceal that he "deeply deplored the policy, the spirit, the
+measures of various persons lay and ecclesiastical, who are urging the
+definition of that theological opinion" (of papal infallibility), while on
+the other hand he has "a firm belief that a greater power than that of any
+man or set of men will overrule the deliberations of the Council to the
+determination of Catholic and Apostolic truth, and what its Fathers
+eventually proclaim _with one voice_ will be the Word of God."
+
+No one knows better than Newman that, next to the Jesuits, two of his old
+Oxford friends and disciples, Manning and Ward, are the chief authors of
+the whole infallibilist agitation. Well for him that he does not live in
+Manning's diocese! In the English clerical journals, _e.g._, the _Weekly
+Register_, the fact has lately several times come to light, that English
+priests who utter a word against infallibility are promptly reduced to
+silence by threats of suspension and deprivation. Every infallibilist, who
+has the power, is also a terrorist, for he feels instinctively that free
+and open discussion would be the death of his darling dogma. Under these
+circumstances it is very significant that some of the English Bishops are
+bold and honest enough to speak their minds plainly, to the effect that
+the English Catholics had gained all their political rights on the
+repeated assurance, and with the express condition, that the doctrine of
+papal infallibility would not be taught and received in the English
+Church, and that on that ground they have felt bound to repudiate this
+opinion. The chief among these Bishops are Clifford, Bishop of Clifton,
+and Archbishop Errington.(67)
+
+I can give you the precise facts of the affair about Montalembert's
+Requiem from the most authentic sources, and it is worth while to do so,
+for it speaks volumes on the present state of things. The news of his
+death had reached Rome some hours, when a considerable number of
+foreigners, chiefly French, were admitted to an audience with the Pope.
+Immediately after the first words of blessing and encouragement, which
+they had come to request of him, Pius went on to speak of the man whose
+death had just been announced to him, saying that he had done great
+services to the Church, "mais il etait malheureusement de ces Catholiques
+liberaux qui ne sont que demi-catholiques. Il y a quelques jours il
+ecrivait des paroles"--here the Pope made a pause, and then
+proceeded--"Enfin, j'espere qu'il est bien mort"--or probably "qu'il a fait
+une bonne mort"--"L'orgueil etait son principal defaut, c'est lui qui l'a
+egare."
+
+While this was going on in the Vatican, Bougaud, one of the Vicar-Generals
+of the Bishop of Orleans, was inviting his countrymen from the pulpit of
+the French church of St. Louis to a Requiem for the illustrious dead, to
+be held next day in the church of Ara Celi. Archbishop Merode, Grand
+Almoner of the Pope and brother-in-law of Montalembert, had so arranged
+it, because it is an ancient privilege of the Roman patricians to have
+funeral services solemnized for them in this church, and Montalembert had
+been named a patrician by Pius IX. in recognition of his services in
+restoring the States of the Church and bringing back the Pope to Rome. He
+had contributed more than any of his contemporaries to that restoration,
+and it was he whose speech in the National Assembly at Paris in 1848 had
+decided the question of the Roman expedition. Bougaud had also mentioned
+that. Many had heard on the day before the service that it had been
+suddenly forbidden; nevertheless at the appointed hour in the morning
+about twenty French Bishops appeared with many priests and a large
+assemblage of laymen, the _elite_ of the French visitors now in Rome.
+There before the entrance of the church they found M. Veuillot, the old
+and implacable opponent and accuser of Montalembert, standing among a
+group of sacristy officials, who announced to all comers that the Pope had
+forbidden any service being held or any prayers offered there for the
+departed Count. They thought this incredible and forced their way into the
+church, and here the sacristans informed them that, by special order of
+the Pope, not only was the intended Requiem stopped but the usual masses
+must be suspended, as long as the French remained in the church. By
+degrees the congregation broke up, and about an hour afterwards, when the
+church was empty, a French priest contrived to say a low mass in a side
+chapel.
+
+It was probably Banneville who intimated to the Pope, at his audience for
+taking leave on the 17th, what a feeling this had created in French
+circles in Rome, and what impression it must produce in France. So on the
+morning of Friday the 18th, to the amazement of the court officials, the
+Pope went to Sta. Maria Transpontana, an out-of-the-way church, without
+his usual cortege. Several Bishops passed the church on their way to the
+Council, and were surprised to see the Pope's carriage waiting at the
+door, as they knew nothing of what had taken him there. In the church the
+Pope sent orders to a Bishop to say mass "for a certain Charles," at which
+he assisted, and the following notice then appeared in the _Giornale di
+Roma_: "His Holiness, in consideration of the former services of Count
+Montalembert, ordered a mass to be celebrated for him in Sta. Maria
+Transpontana, and himself assisted at it from the tribune." Meanwhile the
+journalists were instructed to say in their correspondence columns, that
+the prohibition had been issued, because the Requiem was meant to be made
+into a demonstration.(68) That insinuation implicates Archbishop Merode
+also, who resides in the Vatican, for he had given the order. The charge
+of pride, which the Pope brought against Montalembert, will excite
+astonishment and something more in France, where it was precisely his
+gentleness and modesty that had made him so universally beloved.
+
+
+
+
+
+THIRTY-FIRST LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, March 21, 1870._--A feeling of weariness, lethargy and disgust has
+been forced on many Bishops by the treatment they have received and the
+whole course of affairs in the Council up to this time. The news of its
+dissolution would be welcome tidings to their ears. And not only
+strangers, but many residents here, would joyfully hail their deliverance
+from the existing situation; even one of the Legates said lately that, if
+the Council were to be suddenly dissolved by a death, the Church would be
+freed from a great distress. The Assembly Hall alone would suffice to
+disgust a prelate with the idea of taking part in a Council for the rest
+of his life. Yet they are obliged to sit hours in this comfortless
+chamber, without understanding what is said. A sense of time unprofitably
+wasted is the only result of many a sitting for men, to whom at home every
+hour is precious for the care of a large diocese. They say that, for the
+first time since Councils came into being, the Bishops have been robbed of
+their essential and inalienable right of free speech on questions of
+faith; that they are compelled to vote, but not allowed to give reasons
+for their vote and bear witness to the doctrine of their Churches. They
+complain that, though they can hand in written observations, no one but
+the Commission of twenty-four knows anything about them, and that for the
+Council itself and their fellow Bishops they can do nothing. The
+Commission will perhaps present a summary report of a hundred of these
+memorials and counter representations, according to the new order of
+business. This means that the work carefully matured by a Bishop through
+weeks or months of severe study will be summed up in two or three words,
+and in the shape it is thrown into by a hostile Committee. If the Bishops
+regard it as an intolerable oppression at home to have to submit their
+Pastorals for previous inspection to their Governments, here they can have
+nothing printed, even after it has undergone the censorship.
+
+It is no mere phrase, when the Bishops say in their Protest against the
+new order of business that their consciences are intolerably burdened, and
+that the OEcumenical character of the Council is likely to be assailed and
+its authority fundamentally shaken (_labefacteretur_). They consider the
+arrangement for deciding doctrines by simply counting heads intolerable,
+and they recognise as of immeasurable importance, and the very
+turning-point of the whole Council (_totius Concilii cardo vertitur_), the
+question as to the necessary conditions of a definition of faith binding
+the consciences of all the faithful. The Pope wants to have a new article
+of faith made by the Council, on the acceptance or rejection of which
+every man's salvation or condemnation is henceforth to depend. And now
+this same Pope has overthrown the principle always hitherto acknowledged
+in the Church, that such decrees could only be passed unanimously, and has
+made the opposite principle into a law.
+
+The Opposition Bishops are well aware that any regular examination and
+discussion of the infallibility question is rendered impossible by the
+nature of the Council Hall and the plan of voting by majorities. They have
+therefore proposed to the Legates that a deputation of several Bishops
+chosen from among themselves should be associated with the Commission on
+Faith, or with certain Bishops of the majority, to discuss the form of the
+decree, and that, when they have come to a common understanding, the
+formula as finally agreed upon should be submitted to the vote of the
+Council in full assembly. The authorities will not readily yield to this
+demand on many accounts, and chiefly because what Tacitus said of the
+Roman people 1800 years ago is well understood at Rome now, "Juvit
+credulitatem nox et promptior inter tenebras affirmatio."
+
+It was a prudent foresight which led the Pope so strictly to prohibit the
+Bishops from printing anything here during the sitting of the Council; the
+Jesuits of the _Civilta_ must retain their exclusive monopoly of free
+speech. But such conferences as the minority wished for were no less
+dangerous than printing, and would naturally lead to the grounds of their
+decision being made public. They have been summoned to affirm, not to
+deny, and "promptior inter tenebras affirmatio." Meanwhile the Germans say
+that a thorough sifting of the question is the first thing necessary to be
+insisted upon, and that for two reasons: first to satisfy their own
+consciences, and secondly for the sake of their flocks. For they would not
+think it enough to enforce the new dogmas on the faithful of their
+dioceses by mere official acts and by referring them to the authority of
+the Council, which is ultimately reduced to the authority of the Pope, but
+would feel bound to give them sufficient reasons for its acceptance; and
+they have not been able to discover the cogency of these reasons
+themselves. Pius IX. considers this superfluous. He feels his
+infallibility, as he says, and therefore thinks it very scandalous that
+the Bishops do not choose to be content with this testimony of his
+feeling. However, the negotiations with the Legates about these
+conferences are still going on.
+
+It must be allowed that there is not the slightest exaggeration in the
+words of the seventy-six protesting Bishops. It is strictly true that the
+new order of business, if it is carried out, must raise the greatest
+doubts as to the OEcumenical character of the Council among all thinking
+Catholics, especially such as are familiar with the history of Councils.
+And it is undeniable that this would excite a terrible disturbance in the
+Church, a contest the end of which cannot be foreseen. The Jesuits are now
+stirring the fire with the same assiduity and malicious pleasure as their
+predecessors in the Order of 1713 and the following years, when the whole
+of France and the Netherlands was plunged into a state of ecclesiastical
+strife and confusion by the Bull _Unigenitus_, which they procured. They
+enjoy such contests, and have always carried them through with the
+merciless harshness which is peculiar to them, relying on the strength of
+their organization. It may sound hard that the Order should so often be
+reproached with making its members at once accusers and bailiffs, but they
+would themselves consider this rather a note of praise than of blame.
+
+The retribution for their conduct in 1713 and afterwards came in 1763 and
+1773. But the Order, or at least its Roman members, who are all-powerful
+through the favour of the Pope, have no fear of such consequences now. A
+Jesuit can make a home for his theology, now here now there. If the Order
+is driven from one country, it is received into another; its property is
+moveable and can be transferred easily and without loss, and moreover it
+possesses, so to speak, an itinerant mint in its carefully elaborated
+skill in the direction of female souls, whether lodged in male or female
+bodies. They are thorough adepts too in the speculations of the money
+market, and manage their transactions in banknotes as successfully as the
+most practised merchant, so that they are quietly but surely recovering
+their prosperity in many cities of the Italian Kingdom, even in Florence,
+while all other Orders have been suppressed there. So they are well
+equipped and in excellent spirits for meeting the future. If their system
+of doctrine is now raised to full dominion by Pope and Council, and if
+they succeed in the next Conclave in procuring the election of a Pope
+thoroughly devoted to them and resolved to carry on the present system,
+the ship of the Order will ride majestically on the waves of future
+events, and fear no storms. A thoroughly well-informed man has assured us
+that the Pope said the other day to a Roman prelate, that "the Jesuits had
+involved him in this business of the Council and infallibility, and he was
+determined now to go through with it, cost what it might. They must take
+the responsibility of the results." A very similar statement was made by
+the Emperor Francis I. He said that "he could not tell how his finance
+minister would answer hereafter for having precipitated so many men into
+poverty and misery by establishing a national bankruptcy."
+
+For the fourth or fifth time since the opening of the Council, the
+ultramontane correspondents have been instructed to say, that the acoustic
+defects of the Hall have been remedied through new arrangements. This is
+not true; the speeches are never understood in many parts of the Chamber,
+not even where the secretaries sit. Meanwhile the Pope has conceived a
+desire to appear again in the midst of the Bishops and hold a Solemn
+Session. Hitherto he has been invisible and generally unapproachable to
+his "venerable brethren," as he officially styles them. The last time the
+assembly saw him was at the unsuccessful Solemn Session of January 6, when
+the Bishops had to go through the useless ceremony of swearing oaths, in
+order to fill up the vacant time. For Pius does not feel that there is the
+slightest need for ascertaining the views of the Bishops about the
+measures in hand, or their wishes and proposals, and hearing their report
+of the state of Church matters in their own countries. He stands too high
+for that. A French prelate remarked lately that the Council does not
+thrive, because the Pope stands at once too near it and too far from it--so
+near that he robs it of all freedom, so far that there is no community of
+feeling and views and understanding.
+
+There has never indeed been a period in Church history where it has been
+made so palpably plain to the Episcopate how much the name of "brother,"
+which the Pontifex gives to every Bishop, is worth, and how immeasurable
+is the gulf between the "brother" on the Roman throne, the Pope-King, and
+the brother in Paris or Vienna or Prague.
+
+On the 16th a part of the first _Schema_ was distributed in a revised
+form, and a General Congregation was held upon it on the 18th, at the very
+time when the Pope was hearing a mass for Montalembert in reparation for
+his treatment of the illustrious dead on the 15th and 16th. He wanted to
+hold a Solemn Session on the 25th, and thought there would be some decrees
+ready to be published. In defiance of the order of business the Bishops
+had only a day and a half, instead of ten days, allowed them to get
+acquainted with the revised text. However, so large a number of speakers
+sent in their names, and so many new difficulties came to light, that Pius
+had once more to abandon his design of proclaiming new articles of faith
+on that day to the expectant world. It looks as if the fourth month of the
+Council would pass by with as little result as the three first. Easter
+Monday is already named as the period fixed for publishing the first
+doctrinal decree. Meanwhile a new power has been introduced in the person
+of the Jesuit, Kleutgen. He had been condemned some time ago by the Holy
+Office on account of a scandal in a convent. But he has now been
+rehabilitated, as the Jesuits have no superfluity of theologians, and is
+to take part in drawing up the _Schemata_. The time fixed for sending in
+representations on the infallibility decree has been extended for ten days
+more, to the 25th. There is no lack of criticisms and counter-statements;
+the Bishops, although foreseeing that their intellectual progeny will be
+strangled directly after birth, seem anxious to gain the satisfaction of
+saying, "dixi et salvavi animam meam." The German Bishops remember the
+assurances they gave at Fulda. The Archbishop of Cologne reminded the
+faithful of his diocese, as late as Feb. 9, of this Pastoral, to set their
+minds at rest. To-day, March 21, in view of the infallibilist _Schema_ and
+the new order of business, he would no doubt hardly think it prudent to
+say any longer to the Germans, "Be confident that the Council will
+establish no new dogma, and proclaim nothing which is not written by faith
+and conscience on your hearts." The Germans will now be curious to see the
+circumlocutions and explanations appended, in the fresh Pastorals compiled
+after the fabrication of the new dogma, to the Pastoral issued from the
+tomb of St. Boniface.
+
+The Bishops should take care that they are not, like the eagle in the
+Libyan fable, struck with arrows feathered from their own wings.
+Banneville, who succeeded two men very unacceptable in Rome, Lavalette and
+Sartiges, was amicably received, and found it agreeable to keep on the
+best footing with Antonelli, and to treat the whole affair of the Council
+easily and superficially. Whatever he said was always very mildly
+expressed. It was so convenient to enjoy the favour both of the Pope and
+the Secretary of State, and to be commended by the majority of the Council
+as a pious and enlightened statesman. The differences between him and
+Count Daru were accordingly inevitable. For Daru appreciates the extent of
+the danger, not only as a statesman but as a zealous Catholic, while
+Banneville's one thought has ever been to please the Roman authorities, so
+that a French prelate said to him shortly before his departure,
+"Pensiez-vous que vous etiez ambassadeur aupres de Jesuites?" And thus at
+last the necessity of instructing him has been recognised at Paris. But at
+the same time Bishop Forcade of Nevers has been sent there, intrusted with
+the mission of representing Banneville's conduct to the Government as
+exactly right, and advocating the views and desires of Antonelli and the
+majority of the Council. He has told them at Paris that the majority do
+not want to hear anything of the admission of a French ambassador to the
+Council--which is credible enough--but that the Government has nothing to
+fear from the decrees, for the Court of Rome would in any case respect the
+Concordat. Antonelli, as may be seen, abides by his panacea. The only
+question is whether they are disposed at Paris to be paid with such
+diplomatic counters. Meanwhile it has been rumoured that Count Daru would
+send a memorial to the Council. To the Council? Say rather to the Pope and
+his Secretary of State. This putting forward of the Council, whose freedom
+and self-determination the Roman Court is neither able nor willing to
+anticipate, is a device which no one can take seriously. The Bishop of
+Orleans in his last publication has pierced a hole in the mask, which
+renders it nearly useless. He remarks (p. 54), "Whatever is to come before
+the Council can only come through the Commission appointed by the Pope,
+that is ultimately through himself. He is the master, the sole and
+absolute master, with whom it rests to admit a proposal or set it aside."
+
+Antonelli says that no ambassadors can be admitted, for if it were
+conceded to the French, it could not be refused to other powers, Austria,
+Bavaria, or even Prussia. He is quite right there. It has been a main
+object from the first with this Council to give a striking example of the
+entire exclusion of the lay element in ecclesiastical deliberations. It is
+just because the Governments and States are so deeply concerned in the
+projected decrees, because their rights and laws and their whole future
+are affected, that they are not to be heard or admitted. In presence of
+the representative of his Government, many a Bishop would think twice
+before assenting to a decree flatly contradicting the laws and political
+principles of his country. And then the admission of ambassadors would
+break through the mystery, and make the strict silence imposed on the
+Bishops almost useless. A large number of them, and above all the entire
+Opposition, would be very glad of this, but for that very reason the
+ruling powers detest it the more. As a foretaste and practical
+illustration of what the maxims of the _Schema de Ecclesia_ will lead to,
+when made into dogmas, it is worth while to notice the decision issued by
+the Pope and his Penitentiary in September 1869, when this Schema had just
+been drawn up, on the question whether a priest could swear to observe the
+Austrian Constitution. To take the oath absolutely was forbidden; he can
+only take it with an express reservation of the laws of the Church,
+and--which is very significant--he must state publicly that he only takes
+the oath, even with this reservation, by virtue of papal permission. That
+is a new and very important step on the road to be trodden with the aid of
+the Council. Every clergyman is to be reminded, and to remind others, in
+merely discharging a simple civil obligation, that he is dependent on the
+Pope in the matter, and may not properly speaking swear civil fealty and
+obedience to the laws without papal permission, not even in the
+conditional form which makes the oath itself illusory. This is quite after
+the mind of the Jesuits, who have always shown a special predilection for
+the doctrine that every cleric is not a subject and citizen with
+corresponding rights, but simply a subaltern and servant of the Pope. This
+is a prologue to the twenty-one Canons of the _Schema de Ecclesia_.
+
+I have just learnt from the _Koelner Volkszeitung_ that the chaplain of a
+prelate here charges me with a gross falsehood in reference to the words
+of the Pope. He appeals to the Paris _Union_, which has the words used by
+the Pope, "Je suis la voie, la verite, et la vie," with the passage
+inserted by the editor. I had cited the words from the _Observateur
+Catholique_ of 1866 (p. 357), where they are authenticated by the
+signature of an ear-witness, MacSheeby, and correspond entirely with the
+statement of the _Union_. But in the _Monde_, which was not in my reach, a
+totally different version is given, which has no similarity to that
+authenticated by Roman correspondents in the _Union_ and _Observateur_,
+and does not connect the words, "I am the way," etc., with the Pope at
+all. It must remain uncertain after this whether the version of the
+_Monde_ or of the two other journals is the genuine one.
+
+
+
+
+
+THIRTY-SECOND LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, March 28, 1870._--The Bishops who have attacked the new order of
+business, because it brought into view the possibility of a dogmatic
+definition being carried without the _consensus moraliter unanimis_,
+received the desired answer in no doubtful form at the sitting of Tuesday,
+the 22d. The measures of the _Curia_ for a month past have been
+unmistakably contributing more and more to produce a worthy and
+loyal-hearted attitude among the minority. After long dallying, Rome has
+brought the secrets of her policy a little too boldly and conspicuously
+into view. Hardly was the domination of the majority in matters of faith
+fixed by the stricter _regolamento_, when the Pope had the proclamation of
+his own infallibility proposed in the most arrogant form. On this followed
+the attempt to press it to an immediate decision, and then the
+determination to admit no ambassadors of the Governments. If these
+proceedings were not enough to lay bare the perilous nature of the whole
+situation, the Pope and the zealots of his party supplied the remaining
+proof,--the former, by his conduct about Falloux, about Montalembert on the
+day the news of his death arrived, about the Munich theologians in secret
+consistory, and about the so-called Liberal or "half-Catholics" on every
+occasion; the latter by their growing impatience about the infallibility
+definition, and their assurances that there is no real opposition to this
+dogma, and that, if there was, it could not hold its ground after the
+promulgation had taken place. And so the opponents of the decree must know
+at last that they have to deal with a blind and unscrupulous zeal, not
+with a theological system carefully thought out and placed on an
+intellectual basis; that the contest has to be carried on against the
+whole power and influence of the Pope, and not, as had been maintained
+with transparent hypocrisy, only against the wishes of the noisy and
+independent party of the _Civilta_ and its allied journalists. They begin
+to use more earnest and manlier language, the language of clear
+apprehension and conscientious conviction. If the comments handed in last
+week on the _Schema de Ecclesia_, and the protests against any hurrying of
+the discussion on it, were known to the world, the Catholic Episcopate and
+the strong reflux current here would appear in a very different light from
+what might be gathered from the previous course of things. Not a few of
+these opinions drawn up by the Bishops breathe a truly apostolic spirit,
+and deal with the Roman proposals in the tone of genuine theology. An
+influential theologian of a Religious Order has pronounced of one of them,
+that it exceeds in force and weight the treatise which appeared in Germany
+last year, _Reform of the Church in Her Head and Her Members_.(69) It has
+been urged by English prelates that it concerns their honour to resist the
+promulgation of a dogma, the explicit repudiation of which by the Irish
+Bishops was an efficacious condition of Catholic Emancipation. The
+American Protest contains a more threatening warning than the German, and
+the German is stronger than the French.
+
+After these declarations the attitude of the minority was clearly defined,
+and invincible by any foe from without. Their contention is, that no right
+exists in the Church to sanction a dogma against the will and belief of an
+important portion of the Episcopate, and that only by abandoning any claim
+to such a right can the Council be regarded as really OEcumenical. To be
+quite consistent, the minority ought to take no further part in the
+Council till this point, on the decision of which they rightly hold its
+authority to depend, is settled; for their protest implied the doubt
+whether they were taking part in a true or only a seeming Council, whether
+they were acting in union with the Holy Ghost or co-operating to carry out
+a gigantic and sacrilegious deception. Yet the words expressly stating
+this doubt, and making the distinct withdrawal of the theory of voting
+dogmas by majorities a condition of any further participation in the
+proceedings, were not adopted into any of the Protests. This implied that
+the signataries would appear in the next General Congregation, that they
+refrained from a suspicious attitude, and were unwilling to interpret the
+ambiguous order of business _in malam partem_, until facts compelled them
+to do so. A conflict which might have such incalculable results was to be
+avoided, till necessity made it a positive duty; and that was not the case
+as long as a favourable interpretation of the _regolamento_ continued
+possible.
+
+Thus the minority committed the strategical blunder of postponing a
+conflict which they saw to be inevitable, and when they could not know
+whether any more favourable opportunity for entering on it for the benefit
+of the Church would occur in the future. There is hardly anything doubtful
+or open to double interpretation in the order of business, when more
+closely examined. Every Bishop sees quite clearly that it is specially
+arranged for overcoming the opposition of the minority, and will be used
+without scruple for that end.(70) And who knows how many members of the
+present Opposition, if once the _Curia_ applies its last lever, will have
+strength to resist to extremities? how many are ready, by humble
+submission or by resigning their Sees, to quiet their consciences and
+sacrifice their flocks to error? There are men among them better fitted
+for the contest against the principle formally enounced in the revised
+order of business, than for the contest against infallibility. The Bishop
+of Mayence, _e.g._, passes for one of the strongest and most decided
+opponents of the _regolamento_, which I mention as a point of great
+importance at this moment. The resolve of the protesting Bishops, to avoid
+the threatened conflict at present, can only be justified if another and
+better opportunity for defending the cause of the Church occurs in the
+future course of the Council and before any decision is arrived at. Had
+they been willing, after handing in their protests, to go on quietly
+joining in the proceedings, without doing anything to give emphasis to the
+step they had taken, they would in fact have bent under the yoke of the
+majority. They only needed to keep silent: that implied everything. For it
+would necessarily be assumed that they had withdrawn or forgotten their
+protests, and to continue to act upon and submit to the new order of
+business themselves would imply that they had renounced their resistance
+to any of its particular details. It was therefore all the more essential
+for them to let it be clearly known how far their concessions would
+extend, and what was their final limit. Unless they did this, they would
+either seem not quite sincere, or would have really accepted the
+_regolamento_ with its obvious consequences. The Council, the Presidents,
+the Pope, the expectant Catholic world without, had a right to know their
+real intentions, and whether they meant to adhere to their declarations.
+The first voting on the propositions of the _Schema de Fide_ could not
+fail to decide this point. Thus it became a necessity to put this question
+of principle in the front at the reopening of the deliberations of the
+Council.
+
+Meanwhile the concessions of the Presidents and the majority on some
+points had elicited a more friendly feeling in the Opposition. The
+discussion on infallibility was postponed, and the first _Schema_ was
+returned from the Commission with important modifications. Even the
+shameful treatment of Montalembert could not altogether destroy this
+conciliatory state of feeling. Ginoulhiac, the learned Bishop of Grenoble,
+who was to be preconised as Archbishop of Lyons on Monday the 21st,
+undertook on the 22d to meet the discreet concessions of the
+infallibilists in a kindred spirit. He was indeed obliged to make his
+speech on the Tuesday, though he had not been preconised on the day
+before. The French, who have no Cardinal--for Mathieu's custom is to go
+away at any critical moment, and he was not then returned--had gladly left
+to one of the Austrian Cardinals the less pleasing duty of declaring their
+attitude towards the _regolamento_. Schwarzenberg did but slightly glance
+at it in his speech and yet was called to order. Archbishop Kenrick of St.
+Louis, one of the most imposing figures in the Council, touched on the
+theme more closely, and dwelt on the office of Bishops as witnesses and
+judges of faith, in the sense which forms the basis of the opposition of
+the minority. Lastly, Strossmayer ascended the tribune, and then followed
+a scene which, for dramatic force and theological significance, almost
+exceeded anything in the past history of Councils. He began by referring
+to that passage at the opening of the _Schema_, where Protestantism is
+made responsible for modern unbelief--"systematum monstra, mythismi,
+rationalismi, indifferentismi nomine designata." He blamed the perversity
+and injustice of these words, referring to the religious indifference
+among Catholics which preceded the Reformation, and the horrors of the
+Revolution, which were caused by godlessness among Catholics, not among
+Protestants. He added that the able champions of Christian doctrine among
+the Protestants ought not to be forgotten, to many of whom St. Augustine's
+words applied, "errant, sed bona fide errant;" Catholics had produced no
+better refutations of the errors enumerated in the _Schema_ than had been
+written by Protestants, and all Christians were indebted to such men as
+Leibnitz and Guizot.
+
+Each one of these statements, and the two names, were received with loud
+murmurs, which at last broke out into a storm of indignation. The
+President, De Angelis, cried out, "Hicce non est locus laudandi
+Protestantes." And he was right, for the Palace of the Inquisition is
+hardly a hundred paces from the place where he was speaking. Strossmayer
+exclaimed, in the midst of a great uproar, "That alone can be imposed on
+the faithful as a dogma, which has a moral unanimity of the Bishops of the
+Church in its favour." At these words a frightful tumult arose. Several
+Bishops sprang from their seats, rushed to the tribune, and shook their
+fists in the speaker's face. Place, Bishop of Marseilles, one of the
+boldest of the minority and the first to give in his public adhesion to
+Dupanloup's Pastoral, cried out, "Ego illum non damno." Thereupon a shout
+resounded from all sides, "Omnes, omnes illum damnamus." The President
+called Strossmayer to order, but he did not leave the tribune till he had
+solemnly protested against the violence to which he had been subjected.
+There was hardly less excitement in the church outside than in the Council
+Hall. Some thought the Garibaldians had broken in: others, with more
+presence of mind, thought infallibility had been proclaimed, and these
+last began shouting "Long live the infallible Pope!" A Bishop of the
+United States said afterwards, not without a sense of patriotic pride,
+that he knew now of one assembly still rougher than the Congress of his
+own country.
+
+This memorable day has already become the subject of myths, and so it is
+no longer possible to define with certainty how many prelates were hurried
+into these passionate outbreaks. Some speak of 400, some of 200; others
+again say that the majority disapproved of the interruption. The
+excitement was followed next day by a profound stillness, which was not
+broken even when Haynald and the North American Bishop Whelan said very
+strong things. It seemed as if a sense of what they owed to the dignity of
+the Council and a feeling of shame had got the better of those turbulent
+spirits. But enough has occurred to show the world what spirit prevails
+here, and what sort of men they are who support infallibilism. That up to
+this time this Council does not deserve the respect of the Catholic world,
+is the least point; it is of more importance, that an internal split in
+the Church is more and more revealing itself. Henceforth it will no longer
+be possible to throw in the teeth of genuine Catholics their compromising
+or dishonourable solidarity with error and lies, for this has given place
+to an open and avowed opposition. On one side stands the small but morally
+powerful band of those who accept Strossmayer's noble words with head and
+heart, on the other a crowd of "abject"(71) fanatics and sycophants. This
+division is of supreme significance for the future course of the Council,
+because it strengthens and consolidates the minority in their harmony and
+determination, and obliges them to take a further step, as soon as the
+majority have made it unmistakably clear that they will not acknowledge
+and respect their claim to prevent a dogmatic definition.
+
+The Presidents, by denouncing Strossmayer's speech but not the
+interruption of it, as it was their duty to do, gave evidence of an
+undisguised partiality, and justly incurred the suspicion of sympathizing
+with the shouters and not with the speaker, and thinking the proclamation
+of infallibility allowable without the moral unanimity of the Council.
+Accordingly a categorical demand was sent in to them to declare themselves
+on this point, and, in case of their giving no answer, another last step
+is reserved, which will have the nature of an ultimatum and will bring the
+OEcumenicity of the Vatican Council to a decisive test. And so it may be
+said that the Bishops of the minority have delayed but not wavered. The
+moment for a decisive move, which may test the existence of the Council,
+must come when a dogmatic decree has to be voted on. This crisis seemed to
+have arrived on Saturday, March 26, when the preamble of the _Schema de
+Fide_ was to have been voted on. Various amendments had been proposed, one
+very important one by Bishop Meignan of Chalons, in which the Fathers were
+designated as definers of the decrees, and another equally important,
+implicitly containing infallibility, by Dreux-Breze, Bishop of Moulins.
+Moreover this preamble contained the obnoxious passages immortalized by
+the glowing eloquence of Strossmayer. The antagonistic principles seemed
+to have reached their ultimate point. Votes were to be taken on dogmatic
+decrees before any agreement had been come to on the necessary conditions
+of such voting. At the last moment the Presidents resolved to evade the
+crisis. The very day before the sitting, Friday, March 25, Cardinal Bilio
+went to the authors of the amendments and persuaded them to withdraw them,
+and so on Saturday the text of the preamble was brought forward without
+any amendment. Nor was there any voting on that either, but they passed at
+once to the discussion on the first chapter of the _Schema_, in which the
+Primate of Hungary (Simor) made an adroit and conciliatory speech as
+advocate of the Commission on Faith. The debate then proceeded. By the
+eleventh article of the new order of business, every separate part of a
+_Schema_ must be voted on before the next can come on for discussion.
+
+It was a breach of this rule to pass on straight to the first chapter of
+the _Schema_, without having voted on the preamble. The Bishops asked
+themselves what this meant. Was it intended, by the withdrawal of the
+amendments and the abandonment of the discussion, to declare the preamble
+tacitly accepted? Was it intended to correct that objectionable passage?
+But the wording of the _regolamento_ was too strict to allow of that being
+done except in the General Congregation. It seemed at any rate as if more
+prudent counsels had prevailed and it was intended to avert the dreaded
+contest on the main principle by concessions, so as to pass such decrees
+as were possible, that they may be unanimously promulgated in the Easter
+session. Thus time would be gained for loosening the compact phalanx of
+the Opposition, and at the same time getting it more deeply implicated in
+a compromising actual acceptance of the new order of business, in its form
+as well as its spirit. This double danger is always imminent, but in fact
+the Opposition as yet has suffered no loss.
+
+We are at the end of the fourth month of the Council, and yet they have
+not dared to put one decree to the vote. The amendments, which were so
+obnoxious, have disappeared. The passage about unbelief being the
+offspring of Protestantism, which Strossmayer assailed, will perhaps be
+corrected, though in an irregular manner. The simple and sanguine spirits
+among the Opposition Bishops exult over a victory obtained. One of the
+most famous of them exclaimed, "It is clear the Holy Ghost is guiding the
+Council."
+
+
+
+
+
+THIRTY-THIRD LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, March 30, 1870._--Yesterday (the 29th) the first voting in Council
+took place, on the preamble of the _Schema de Fide_. As I told you in my
+last letter, this preamble had been objected to by Strossmayer on account
+of the passage representing rationalism, indifferentism, the mythical
+theory of the Bible and unbelief as consequences of Protestantism. Several
+amendments had been proposed; two of them I have mentioned already, one
+introduced by Bishop Meignan of Chalons, substituting for a mere
+approbation of the decree a statement expressly guarding the right of the
+Episcopate to define,--the other, proposed by Dreux-Breze, designed to
+smuggle in the infallibilist doctrine in a form requiring a sharpsighted
+eye to detect it.(72) Many infallibilists had reckoned on the victory of
+their dogma last week by means of this amendment. The Presidents had got
+some of the amendments withdrawn on Friday, the 25th, but these two they
+suffered to remain. They were equally sure that the first would be
+rejected and the second accepted by the majority; nay they counted on a
+far larger majority for the passage implying infallibility than for the
+rejection of Meignan's proposal, and hoped that this occasion would tend
+to bring to light unmistakably the power and extent of the infallibilist
+party.
+
+At the beginning of the sitting of Saturday, the 26th, the exact
+regulations for the method of voting were first read out, and this was
+repeated a second time to preclude any risk of misapprehension. Yet it was
+announced immediately afterwards that there would be no voting, and this
+unexpected change was made during the Session and in presence of the
+Fathers. There had in fact been a kind of fermentation going on since
+Tuesday, the 22nd, when Strossmayer's affair occurred. The justice of his
+criticism on the passage about Protestantism and unbelief had become
+evident to many; at least fifteen Bishops made representations to the
+President about it as late as the Friday. According to a very
+widely-spread report, one of them was the Bishop of Orleans and the other
+the Bishop of Augsburg. But in spite of this, and of the prospect of a
+catastrophe, which the union of the Germans made imminent, they seem to
+have gone into Saturday's sitting firmly resolved not to yield. Yet a last
+attempt succeeded. After the mass, when all were assembled, a Bishop
+handed in a paper with a few lines to the Presidents, on which two of them
+at once left the Hall. Meanwhile the order of the day and the method of
+voting was read out. On their return the decision was announced; the
+preamble was withdrawn to be amended. It was an English Bishop whose paper
+produced such important results.(73)
+
+On Monday, the 28th, the preamble was distributed in its revised form;
+Dreux-Breze's objectionable amendment had disappeared, the passage about
+Protestantism was altered, and even the style was improved. Primate Simor,
+speaking in the name of the Commission, had already stated officially that
+the Bishops were at liberty to subscribe the decrees by _definiens
+subscripsi_, _i.e._, to use the ancient conciliar formula by which the
+Bishops used to describe themselves as defining the decrees. And thus the
+principle for which Meignan, Strossmayer, and Whelan had contended, was
+conceded. In this form and after these concessions the preamble could no
+longer be opposed.
+
+The strength of the minority has been proved, though in an irregular
+manner. But obviously this gives an opening to the majority for similarly
+setting aside the order of business when it is inconvenient for
+themselves. Beyond a doubt the spirit of conciliation has triumphed over
+all opposition at the critical moment. And it may be distinctly said that
+this result was attained, partly through the firm attitude of the
+minority, partly through the prudent and abundantly justified yielding of
+the Presidents. By this discreet procedure they have declined all
+responsibility for the conduct of those who, on Tuesday the 22d, would
+hear of no objections to that portion of the preamble. And their doing
+this so decidedly makes their silence on the other matter, which caused
+such an outbreak, the more surprising, and some explanation of it is all
+the more necessary.
+
+The amended preamble was then accepted unanimously. But the chapter _De
+Deo Creatore_ did not pass so easily, though it might have been expected
+that, at the end of four months, the Bishops would have arrived at some
+agreement on that point. The main difficulty arose from the tendency again
+to smuggle in statements favourable to infallibility, and paving the way
+for its definition by a sidewind. The first paragraph, _e.g._, opens thus,
+"Sancta Romana Catholica Ecclesia credit et confitetur unum esse Deum
+verum et vivum, Creatorem coeli et terrae." Two amendments were proposed on
+this: (1.) "Proponitur, ut initio capitis primi simpliciter dicatur,
+'Sancta Catholica Ecclesia credit et confitetur,' " etc. (2.) "Proponitur,
+ut in capite primo verba 'Romana Catholica Ecclesia' transferantur, ita ut
+legatur 'Catholica atque Romana Ecclesia.' Sin autem non placuerit
+Patribus, ut saltem comma interponatur inter verba _Romana_ et
+_Catholica_." There was a great deal of discussion about this word
+"Romana." The German Opposition Bishops exhibit a better organization than
+the French. In spite of the great majority, it was announced that the
+voting would be only provisional, a "suffragatio provisoria," and it is
+probable that the first chapter will be revised in this point, as in
+several others, before being presented for definitive acceptance.
+
+It is very noteworthy that the Italian Government has made no attempt to
+utilize the new complications, and the introduction of a new system of
+policy in France very hostile in principle to Roman absolutism. The Roman
+question has gone to sleep at the moment when a solution seemed to be in
+view. Indifference has taken the place of zeal at the very time when zeal
+had a prospect of success. Nowhere is the reason of this seeming apathy
+better understood than at Rome. The Italians are patient, because they see
+the settlement approaching in the natural course of things and without
+violence: they know that with the death of Pius IX. a far-reaching change
+must ensue. His successor will enter on the difficult inheritance under
+very different conditions.
+
+The change of sovereigns will, in another point of view, be a very
+critical transition for the system dominant here. There is no point the
+non-Italian Episcopate with the foreign Cardinals and the Great Powers,
+are so united upon as throwing open the _Curia_ and the Sacred College to
+foreigners. A Papal election under present circumstances might be very
+dangerous for the centralization policy. The hardly-won domination of that
+party which Pius IX. has made into his instrument would be menaced, for
+after a long pontificate an election is always a reaction and not a
+continuation. The numerous elements of opposition, which have so long been
+suppressed, combine then for mutual aid. Pius IX. has created the College
+of Cardinals himself, but his successor will be the creation of the
+College. The ruling party runs the risk of getting a Pope who will no
+longer serve it and carry on its policy, and it is certain that the next
+Pope will be much weaker than the present one in his relations with the
+Governments, the Cardinals and the Episcopate. Much, very much, of the
+present resources of the Papacy depends on the person of Pius IX., and
+will be buried with him. It is the interest of all who are concerned in
+the continuance of the existing system, that his personal influence should
+survive his reign.
+
+He alone can hand on to his successor his own special connection with
+France, and he alone can secure the choice of a successor in the Jesuit
+interest. But, to accomplish that, he must survive his own pontificate,
+must himself fix on the desired successor, must himself inaugurate him and
+support him with the whole weight of his personal influence. And thus the
+bold and ingenious device has been started of Pius IX. abdicating, and a
+new election being held during his life. It is said not to be quite a new
+project; in the honeymoon of the Council, just after the New Year, it
+first began to be somewhat inconsiderately spoken of. Pius IX. is nearly
+eighty, two years older than is generally said. He was elected June 16,
+1846, and will therefore, on June 16, 1870, complete the twenty-fourth
+year of his pontificate. But there is an old saying, universally believed
+in Rome, that no Pope will reign twenty-five years, as it was the
+exclusive privilege of St. Peter to be Pope for a quarter of a century.
+"Non numerabis annos Petri." It is a fact that none of the 255
+predecessors of the present Pope has held office for twenty-five years;
+even those elected at thirty-seven, like Innocent III. and Leo X., died
+earlier. So according to this belief, which is not confined to the vulgar,
+Pius has only one year more to live. But in spite of his age he is healthy
+and wonderfully strong, and, as he belongs to a long-lived family, he has
+the prospect of still living some time, only not as reigning Pope. It is
+no pleasing prospect for a man, in whose character there is a large
+element of _amour propre_, to be treated as the setting sun, while all are
+speculating on his speedy death. It would be another thing, at the very
+moment of his glorious triumph over the Council and after gaining
+infallibility, to resign it, to decline to enjoy his success, to renounce
+this mighty power in the first moment of fruition, and to transfer the
+splendid inheritance to the hands of a younger man. Thus next June might
+witness the most brilliant jubilee, and an example be given of such
+imposing grandeur that the world has seen nothing like it, of such wisdom
+and eventful significance that the present system would be immortalized
+and become the heirloom of the Papacy for all ages. The Pope would retire
+into a glorious privacy, like the founder of the North American Republic
+after his second Presidentship, and taste the honours of an ex-Pope,
+unequalled by any former ceremonial splendour, and close his days in a
+position of unprecedented elevation. This seductive dream has found little
+aliment in the course of the Council hitherto. The plan would be at bottom
+a conspiracy against existing law, against Cardinals, Governments, and the
+Episcopate, and notwithstanding its dazzling lustre, would make the very
+worst impression on the Council. A victorious Pope might conceivably
+attempt to carry it out, but in the present situation it would be a
+dangerous challenge.
+
+The abdication of a Pope is not without precedent in history. In 1294 a
+Pope took this step, which has never since been repeated; Celestine V.
+resigned the papal office, to which he felt himself unequal. After a long
+and quarrelsome Conclave, the Cardinals, at their wits' end, had elected
+the pious recluse of Einsiedlen, and dragged him from his mountain home; a
+few months later they got tired of him and urged him to abdicate, and he
+complied. Many doubted whether a Pope could resign; they thought that,
+according to the law established by the Popes themselves in the decretals,
+no Pope could dissolve of his own power the bond which unites him to the
+Church and the Church to him. It would require a superior in the hierarchy
+to do this, and none such exists. It had first therefore to be decided
+that a Pope could resign, and Celestine settled this by a special Bull.
+After that he solemnly and publicly laid down his office. Boniface VIII.
+succeeded, who shut up the unfortunate man in a mountain fastness, where
+he died soon afterwards in a damp unhealthy dungeon.
+
+In the strictly initiated circles, where the above project is most
+definitely spoken of, the man selected by Pius for his successor is also
+known; it is Cardinal Bilio, aged forty-four, who possesses the confidence
+equally of the Pope and the Jesuits. He edited the Syllabus, and assisted
+the Jesuits in drawing up the first _Schema_; in short, Pius would have
+the satisfaction of reckoning securely on his carrying on the present
+system for many years. Of course, even if the seventeen or eighteen vacant
+Cardinals' Hats were given to men pledged to this scheme, it would still
+remain a question whether Pius could succeed in still controlling the
+Conclave after his abdication. Many think that the Cardinals would then,
+as has so often happened, elect a very aged man, and Cardinal de Angelis
+is named as the likeliest to be chosen.
+
+
+
+
+
+THIRTY-FOURTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, April 10, 1870._--When it became known that the Solemn Session for
+accepting and proclaiming the first dogmatic decrees was to be held, not
+on the 11th April as first intended, but on the 24th, the question of how
+this interval should be used came to the front. For the moment general
+attention is directed towards Paris. The answer of Cardinal Antonelli,
+drawn up by Franchi, Archbishop of Thessalonica _in partibus_ and one of
+the most active curialists in the affairs of the Council, arrived there
+March 24. According to the account of a French statesman, it produced the
+impression of being intended for a mediaeval king, who could neither read
+nor write. The two main points in it are--(1.) that the _Canones de
+Ecclesia_ contain no new claims and do not affect States which have a
+Concordat at all, and (2.) that no ambassador can be admitted to the
+Council.
+
+The French Government oscillated a long time between the counsels of
+different advisers. The Bishop of Nevers represented the middle party, at
+whose head stands Cardinal Bonnechose; the Bishop of Constantine and
+afterwards the Bishop of Coutances might, as members of the Opposition,
+have come to a similar opinion. At first the plan found favour of not
+sending any special ambassador to the Council, but accrediting the
+ambassador to the Pope for the Council also. France would thereby have
+gained the start of Prussia, for it was hardly to be supposed that a
+Protestant diplomatist would claim the right of entering the Council. So
+much more important became the question, whether the Marquis de
+Banneville, who had meanwhile gone to Paris to justify his policy of
+inaction, would be superseded, or sent back to Rome in this double
+capacity, and therefore with increased powers. The latter course would be
+a significant concession to the inflexible Pope, a decided gain for the
+majority, and therefore a sensible blow for the Opposition. It would be a
+practical proof that Rome had only to resist, in order to intimidate
+France, and that the Imperial Government renounced all further
+interference with the Council. That was so obvious that a host of
+candidates for this weighty and honourable office were proposed to the
+minister. Baroche is said to have wished for it; Cornudet, a friend of
+Montalembert's, was much talked of, as well as Corcelles and Latour
+d'Auvergne, two men who seemed particularly well fitted to make the change
+of persons more acceptable at Rome. For some time the Duke of Broglie had
+the best prospect of it, who stands high among the Catholic laity as a
+political historian and student of Church history and the Fathers, but as
+a Liberal Catholic he belongs to the party the Pope hates above all others
+just now. To appoint him would have been at once to identify the French
+Government with the minority, and might, instead of conciliating, have led
+to results most abhorrent to the amiable and pious character of the Duke.
+
+It was also a prevalent opinion that qualifications should be first
+attended to, and the best head among French statesmen be intrusted with
+this important mission--that men should be chosen like Rouher or Thiers,
+who had done service to the temporal power, but who stood quite aloof from
+the internal feuds of parties. To accredit them would make the withdrawal
+of the Romanizing Banneville less surprising and less irritating to the
+_Curia_. The Bishops of the middle party wanted the place for one of
+themselves. But they are not a body in much favour at Paris, and it was
+intimated to them that the best qualified prelates are not to be found in
+their ranks. Their representative, the Bishop of Nevers, came back in a
+state of irritation from Paris, where he is said to have found only three
+adherents of papal infallibility, two of whom were women. It is
+conjectured that the third was the Nuncio Chigi, who has affirmed that all
+Paris will illuminate the day the dogma is proclaimed.
+
+The proposal for a Conference emerged again in the French Cabinet, but was
+rejected as inappropriate, for it would necessarily betray the weakness of
+a disunited ministry. At last the plan was adopted of sending a
+preliminary answer to Antonelli's letter, and waiting for the result of
+this before fixing on an ambassador. And so it was resolved at the
+beginning of April to draw up a note, which might at the same time be laid
+before the other powers, and serve as the basis for common action. It was
+communicated to the various Governments during last week, and is said to
+have been brought to Rome to-day by the Marquis de Banneville. But the
+Empress had meanwhile sent to Rome to get a more definite and authentic
+report of the views of the Bishops. But the answer did not reach Paris
+till after the note had been drawn up and despatched.
+
+The only answer the minority needed to give was to communicate to the
+Government the various memorials they had presented to the Council, for
+these documents indicate the only policy which can be pursued with
+success, and which must be pursued. They deal not only with purely
+theological questions, but with the management of the Council, with
+questions of freedom and right which concern the lay world as much as the
+clergy. It is in the nature of things that the Governments should follow
+the lead of the Opposition, for to fall short of this would be to
+sacrifice their Bishops, while to go beyond it would be unjustifiable and
+dangerous.
+
+It has now been again declared on the part of the minority, that their
+freedom is encroached upon by the order of business and the way the
+Presidents conduct affairs. The changes they asked for were not made, and
+their protests remained unanswered. In the opinion of many Bishops the
+legitimate freedom of the Council no longer exists, and over a hundred
+have said plainly that it would not be regarded as OEcumenical, if the
+question of making dogmatic definitions on faith and morals against the
+will of the minority is left doubtful. And this doubt, so far from being
+removed, has been changed into certainty at Rome. The Presidents passed
+over the demand of the Opposition in silence, although it threatened and
+called in question the very existence of the Council; they did not protect
+Strossmayer against the rude interruption which followed on his asserting
+the necessity for unanimity, but rather sided with it. The official press
+has openly attacked this view of the minority. Antonelli maintains the
+right of the Pope to make into a dogma the precise contrary of what the
+Council has unanimously accepted. According, therefore, to the well-known
+declarations already made by the minority, the Council has lost the
+character of OEcumenicity, and the See of Rome has abandoned the ground of
+Catholicism.
+
+The various States must direct their attention to these points within
+these limits. They may pronounce in favour of the prorogation or
+reformation of the Council, but they cannot recognise it under its present
+conditions on any strictly Catholic principles. But to desire reforms now,
+after the experience of four months, during which the dominant spirit has
+manifested itself with such unscrupulous audacity, and after the
+determination to force through the infallibilist system in doctrine and
+practice in its crudest form by deceit and violence has become
+unmistakably clear, would betray a rare simplicity. The whole thing is
+settled by the question about majorities; and on that point, after what
+has passed, Rome can hardly yield now without giving up her claims
+altogether. An infallibility, which is subject to the veto of the minority
+of Bishops, ceases to be infallibility; the condition of moral unanimity
+in the Episcopate excludes it. And so the Council could not be saved
+without involving the _Curia_ in a contradiction. A Council dominated by a
+Pope who holds himself infallible is _a priori_ a nonentity. The
+Governments can only help it by securing it a speedy euthanasia. If they
+wished to act worthily and sincerely and in accordance with the gravity of
+the situation, they would have to declare, in union with the most
+influential Bishops, that the arbitrary and crooked way of managing the
+Council makes the establishment of any important decrees impossible; that
+the Vatican Council has lost all moral authority in the eyes of the world,
+and that the best thing would be to put an end to it with the least
+sacrifice of its dignity.
+
+The Governments might use such language, but only after an open breach
+between the minority and the Presidents. The minority must have spoken
+their last word, and they have not done so yet. The interest of the
+Catholic Church requires that the Bishops should have the necessary time
+for forming and carrying out their resolutions, and that the crisis should
+not be precipitated by a catastrophe. The Council can do no good by the
+decrees fathered on it, but it has already done much good by the
+declarations of different sections of its members, by the speeches of
+individual Bishops, and the spirit manifested by a portion of them, and it
+will do much more very shortly. More than once have words been spoken
+there which have fired millions of hearts, have strengthened the bond of
+love and unity among Christians, and have openly indicated the real
+defects and the real remedies required for them. This seed of a better
+future in the Catholic Church will not be lost, but will bring forth
+abundant fruit. In each successive utterance genuine Catholic principles
+have come out more and more clearly, as the progress of the combat has
+forced them on the minority. The false problems, only hypocritically
+pre-arranged to be laid before the Council, disappear more and more. It
+becomes more and more clearly ascertained and acknowledged, that the
+contest is one of first principles, for the maintenance of divine truths
+and institutions against arbitrary violence and impudent deceit.
+
+New declarations on the rights of the State and the conditions of a really
+OEcumenical Council, directly condemning the new Roman system of the
+Syllabus and Infallibilism, may perhaps appear in a few days. While in the
+highest degree critical and threatening for the Council, they might form
+the basis of sounder developments for the future. If particular States are
+to bring the matter to a decisive issue, it seems desirable that the
+Bishops should come forward with their resolutions designed to promote
+this end.
+
+
+
+
+
+THIRTY-FIFTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, April 12, 1870._--Veuillot says, in the _Univers_ of April 2, that
+there are three great "devotions" in Rome, the Holy Sacrament, the holy
+Virgin, and the Pope. For the moment, and in regard to the Council and all
+that concerns the _Curia_, the devotion to the Pope is of course the chief
+affair. How that devotion may best be erected into the supreme law of
+religious thought and feeling--how to effect that henceforth, in all
+questions of the spiritual life, every one shall turn only to Rome and
+take his orders and look for certainty from thence alone--this is the task
+the Council has to achieve; all else is subordinate, or is merely the
+means to an end.
+
+Next to the Jesuits Veuillot is unquestionably the man to whom
+infallibilism is chiefly indebted; and when it is made a dogma, a grateful
+posterity must give honourable place to his name among the promulgators of
+the new article of faith. He is much too modest, when he says his role in
+the Church is only that of the door-keeper who drives out the dogs during
+divine service. Veuillot is much more to his readers than any Father of
+the Church. Continual dropping hollows out the stone, and for years past
+Veuillot has been familiarizing his readers, in numberless articles where
+the copious verbiage concealed the poverty of thought, with the notion
+that papal infallibility is the first and greatest of all truths. His
+journal is read even in Rome in the highest circles, and read by those who
+read nothing else, except perhaps Margotti's _Unita Cattolica_.
+
+The _Univers_ is very successful in the business of stirring up the
+inferior clergy against their bishops in the dioceses of Opposition
+prelates, and getting them to present addresses in favour of
+infallibilism. In the number of April 2, _e.g._, they are directed to get
+their petitions for the new dogma sent here through the Paris nunciature,
+and to take particular care that they are printed--"de plus, il importe de
+les publier." The _Monde_ has invented a peculiar means of advancing the
+good cause. It announces that the Freemasons are the people who
+disseminate writings against papal infallibility, and then intimates to
+the Italian Bishops the important fact that the minority of the Council
+are affiliated to Masonic Lodges.
+
+The _Unita Cattolica_, the organ of Margotti, the Italian Veuillot, has
+15,000 subscribers and 100,000 readers, and has more influence than all
+the 256 Italian Bishops put together. Their pastorals are powerless as
+compared with this daily paper, and they themselves are divided between
+their fear of the powerful Margotti and their regard for the judgment of
+the educated classes. But as most of these last are indifferentists, and
+give no moral support to a Bishop, the journalists carry the day, who
+treat every opponent of the pet Roman dogma as Veuillot does.
+
+An Anglican clergyman named Edward Husband, who not long since became a
+Catholic, has again left the Church, because the dispute about papal
+infallibility and the extravagant _cultus_ of Mary were too great scandals
+for him. It is only to the exasperation caused by proceedings at Rome, as
+an English statesman has written word, that we owe the passing in the
+House of Commons by a majority of two of a Bill for the civil inspection
+of Convents, which had always previously been rejected. The minority had
+done their best to avert it, but were overruled, and Newdegate--a person
+who was hitherto almost regarded as a joke--triumphed. All reports from
+England confirm the belief that this is only one symptom of the hostile
+state of feeling rapidly spreading there. Among English statesmen there is
+not one, within the memory of man, who has shown such sympathy for
+Catholics and their Church as Gladstone, as neither have any had so
+extensive a knowledge of theological and ecclesiastical questions. Yet he
+too took occasion, during the debate of April 1 on the Irish Education
+question in the Commons, to speak his mind on the tendencies of the Roman
+Jesuit party. After quoting an unfavourable comment of his former
+colleague, Sir George Grey, on the demands of the Irish Bishops, he
+proceeded to say, with raised voice and in most emphatic tones, amid the
+"loud cheers" of the House, that "events have occurred and are occurring,
+in a great religious centre of Europe, of such a character that it is
+impossible for a statesman to feel himself in nearer proximity with the
+opinions of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy than he stood four years
+ago."(74)
+
+I have already pointed out that, as soon as the new articles of faith are
+defined, their effects will be manifested in the education question
+throughout pretty well the whole of Europe. This enrichment of the creed
+will at once be repaid with losses and humiliations of the Church in the
+popular schools, and in the whole system of education. In England this is
+making itself felt already. The agitation for secularizing the schools,
+the immense majority of which have hitherto been denominational, gains
+continually in force and range under the influence of the news from Rome.
+The _Daily News_, _e.g._, said that the fact of ultramontanes desiring
+denominational schools was quite enough to convince Protestants of the
+superiority of secular and national schools. Yet Manning goes on asserting
+in the Vatican, that the infallibilist dogma will be the powerful magnet
+to draw Protestants by thousands into the Church. They are only too glad
+to believe him.
+
+You know already that the Roman Jesuits have declared it, in the last
+number of the _Civilta_, to be a wicked error to require moral unanimity
+of the Council for a dogmatic decree. They call it a Gallican heresy to
+make the consent of the whole Church, or the whole Council, a condition of
+dogmatic decisions. A simple majority is quite enough, for it is
+ultimately the will and mind of a single individual, viz., the Pope,
+wherein resides the whole force and authority of the decision. If he
+assents to the judgment of a minority of the Bishops, it thereby becomes a
+law of faith for the whole Christian world; but if the majority is with
+him, all shadow of doubt vanishes. Whenever a controversy arises, whether
+in the scattered or assembled Church, it is the Pope's office to settle
+the difference by his decisive sentence, and to say, "This is truth:
+whoever believes it belongs to the Church, and whoever believes not, let
+him be accursed." Once again it is clear that the Jesuits are of a
+different mind from the rest of the world. The world supposes that the
+Pope is to be declared infallible by the Council, and that only then will
+this infallibility become an universal article of faith. The Jesuits of
+the _Civilta_, on the contrary, think that the Pope--and he alone--is
+already and ever has been infallible, and that all authority in matters of
+faith is merely a light streaming forth from him and merging in his
+authority; the sole ultimate ground on which the Council, whether
+unanimously or by a majority, can declare the Pope infallible is because
+it knows that former Popes have held themselves to be infallible, and that
+the present Pope believes in and "feels" his own infallibility. And thus
+on the Jesuit theory we have the symbol of eternity, the snake biting its
+own tail. Why must we regard the Pope as infallible? Because he says so,
+and every one must believe his word on pain of damnation. Why must we
+believe his word? Because he is infallible. And why are the Bishops of the
+whole world summoned to Rome? To bear witness to this logic of the Jesuits
+and the _Curia_, much like the compurgators in German law. The Pope
+affirms, "I am infallible," and the 700 Bishops affirm that he is a
+trustworthy witness, and because he says so it is certain. The
+infallibilist Bishops admit the new theory of the legal force of dogmatic
+decrees of a majority. They too say, "When the Pope adheres to the
+majority, the article of faith is already defined, and to reject it is
+heresy." They too revolve in the logical circle of the Jesuits.
+"Infallibility is always on the side taken by the Pope."
+
+The pretence of impartiality maintained for some time by the Vatican, and
+under which Antonelli sheltered himself against diplomatic inquiries and
+warnings, has now been abandoned. The Pope has taken his side in the most
+emphatic way; he feels and denounces as a personal injury every hesitation
+about the projected dogma, and his expressions of displeasure grow
+constantly bitterer, and are sedulously disseminated, so that many Bishops
+are already terrified or driven into the infallibilist camp by the dread
+of his biting reproaches, for his words are immediately spread about in
+their dioceses and pass like a coin from hand to hand. Every work that
+appears anywhere in favour of his pet dogma is rewarded and sanctioned by
+a commendatory papal Brief, as being excellent, profoundly learned and
+conclusive, while the opponents of the dogma are branded in these
+documents as fools, blind or wicked assailants of what they inwardly know
+to be the truth. The _Univers_ lately contained three such papal missives
+on the same day.(75) Meanwhile the opportunity of an allocution is seized
+for whetting the consciences of the Bishops of the minority, and telling
+the world how impure are the motives of their opposition, and how virtuous
+and noble-hearted are the prelates of the majority, the Italians and
+Spaniards. On March 28, the _Osservatore Romano_ published a speech
+addressed by Pius to the Oriental prelates and papal vicars of the Latin
+rite, in which he said, _totidem verbis_, that in the representative of
+Christ was renewed what happened to Christ Himself before the tribunal of
+Pilate. Pilate suffered himself to be terrified by the assurance that, if
+he delivered Christ, he was no friend of Caesar, and gave him up through
+fear of men. And so now, when the principles of eternal life and the
+rights of the Church and the Papal See are at stake, they are attacked by
+men who call themselves friends of Caesar, but are really friends of the
+Revolution. "Be united," added the Pope, "with me, and not with the
+Revolution, and be not misled by the desire for popularity and applause;
+to me and not to public opinion must your minds be directed (_poiche
+dovete tener rivolte le menti a me e non alla opinione publica_). Put no
+trust in your own lights." And he concluded, "On the basis of humility we
+will fight for the kingdom of God, without despairing and without fear of
+error."
+
+Thus does Pius lay bare the egotism and cowardice of the Bishops who demur
+to infallibility. They are afraid of conflicts with the modern State,
+which is the product of the Revolution, and are loath to alienate the
+educated classes of the Church, which is mere popularity-hunting. Pius is
+in earnest in what he says about humility, and applies it to himself as
+well as others; he frequently says that he too is a poor sinner, who has
+his place in the great hospital of diseased and sinful humanity, but with
+this difference,--in all other mortals sin begets error as its necessary
+consequence, but not with him. He is indeed a sinner, but in his case sin,
+through a special miracle, has no influence on the intellect, and when he
+feels his own infallibility, it would be presumptuous to dream of any
+self-exaltation or flattering illusion.
+
+It is of course understood that other and very various methods are also
+being made use of to diminish the numbers of the Opposition. Leave of
+absence is most readily accorded to them. It has become visible now to the
+blindest eye that the infallibilist dogma is the real object of the
+Council, for which alone it was convoked. The great aim hitherto in all
+sessions and votings has been gradually and imperceptibly to bring the
+Bishops to the point of practically accepting the decisions of the
+majority on questions of faith, and to get them to let the critical moment
+for protest and refusal of participation slip by unused. By this means
+precedents are created, and when the crucial question of infallibility
+comes on, they will be told that they have already virtually conceded the
+principle, and it is now too late to deny it.
+
+The Governments have made it quite clear that it is only encroachments on
+the secular and civil domain, such as the relations of Church and State,
+and especially the twenty-one canons, which give them any anxiety, and
+have led them to make representations and protests. They disclaim all
+intention of meddling with questions of pure dogma, and therefore leave
+untouched the infallibilist theory, which Count Beust regards as a mere
+internal question of Church doctrine. This admission breaks off the point
+of all diplomatic arrows shot from Vienna, Paris, or anywhere else, for
+with infallibility the _Curia_ possesses all it wants for the attainment
+of its ends and the extension of its power over the social and political
+domain. Prevost-Paradol justly remarked the other day in the _Journal des
+Debats_, "The ministers who are so ready to let the infallibilist dogma
+slip through their fingers seem not to consider that it comprehends
+everything (_qu'il emporte tout_). If the Pope is declared infallible
+to-day, he was infallible yesterday, and, if so, the Syllabus has
+precisely the same force and validity as if the Council had confirmed it."
+So it is in truth, and moreover the Bulls and decisions of former Popes,
+which claim absolute dominion over the State, become inviolable articles
+of faith. And then again it seems to pacify the Governments that Antonelli
+assures them he and his master are merely concerned with the theory, and
+have no intention of at once putting the new articles of faith into
+practice, summoning kings before their tribunal, overturning
+constitutions, and abrogating laws. On the contrary the Pope, if his mercy
+is appealed to, will look favourably on much belonging to the present
+civilisation and order of the State; only of course all this must be
+regarded as a mere indulgence which might at any moment be withdrawn.
+Meanwhile at Rome the disclaimers of the Governments of any desire to
+meddle with doctrine are sedulously made capital out of for working on the
+Bishops. They are referred to in proof that the whole lay world has
+nothing to say to this purely dogmatic question, and that the Governments
+themselves treat the matter as politically innocuous, and the Bishops are
+admonished to lay aside their foolish resistance to a doctrine which with
+the power of the Pope will also so mightily increase their own.
+
+
+
+
+
+THIRTY-SIXTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, April 13, 1870._--The _Schema de Fide_ has occupied the Fathers in
+almost daily sessions, and the Solemn Session for the public voting and
+promulgation of the decrees finally completed, which was first fixed for
+Easter Monday, has been postponed to Low Sunday. The number of amendments
+proposed gives the Bishops a great deal of labour, if the handling of
+these matters in the Council Hall is to be called a labour. What takes
+place is this: the Bishop who wishes to propose an alteration in the text
+of the Jesuit draft ascends the tribune and delivers an address, which as
+a rule the majority of his auditors cannot follow. Then he hands the
+President his motion, which however is not read, so that the Council gain
+their first knowledge of it through the Deputation, who have the
+amendments sent in to them--which of course are often very
+contradictory--printed and distributed in the order of precedence. Thus,
+_e.g._,--there were no less than 122 amendments proposed on the third
+chapter of the _Schema_, occupying 44 folio pages. They began to be
+distributed on April 3, and most of the Bishops only got their copies on
+the 4th, when there was a sitting of the Council, and on the 5th the
+voting was to take place, so that most of them had no time even for a
+cursory reading: still less was it possible to give explanations or
+attempt to come to any oral understanding or comparison of the various
+views. Meanwhile the discipline of the majority continues to be admirable;
+they always know exactly how they are to vote, and obey the signal given
+as one man. Nor has there been any repetition of the wild paroxysm of
+passion on March 22, which turned the Hall into a bear-garden of demoniacs
+while Strossmayer was speaking. Many who were most conspicuous that day in
+their screams and gesticulations, seem to have felt ashamed since, and
+have no doubt also received a hint that such excesses of zeal may injure
+the good cause. But however well organized and docile the majority show
+themselves, the defects of the order of business, combined with the bad
+qualities of the Hall, become very perceptible, and the result of the many
+votings is a confusion into which the Deputation tries afterwards to
+impart some sort of order.
+
+Strossmayer has made a representation to the Legates; at the sitting of
+March 22 he was called "a damnable heretic," without having given any
+intelligible occasion for it, and he expects and demands a public
+reparation for this injury in whatever way they deem most suitable. What
+is still more important, his conscience has constrained him to put the
+question from the tribune, whether articles of faith are really to be
+decided by mere majorities according to the 13th article of the new order
+of business. When he expressed his conviction that moral unanimity was
+essential in such cases, he was interrupted by a frightful tumult and
+could not say any more.
+
+The Legates have given no answer either to the three representations of
+the Bishops about the second order of business with its principle of
+majorities, or to Strossmayer's complaint. But on April 1 an admonition of
+President de Angelis was again read, directing the Fathers to be as brief
+as possible in their speeches, that they might not produce disgust
+(_nausea_) in the assembly by their prolixity or digressions, in which
+case they had only themselves to thank for the marks of displeasure
+elicited. This was commonly understood as an indirect answer to
+Strossmayer; he had produced "nausea" in the prelates, and had therefore
+no cause for complaint. That was rather too much for the minority, and
+their international Committee of about 30 Bishops resolved on presenting a
+common protest to the Presidents against the frequent interruptions and
+the wording of the admonition. Meanwhile Haynald was not interrupted, when
+he declared his agreement with Strossmayer. And it is worth notice that
+the Presidents have not as yet availed themselves of the right assigned
+them by the Pope to cut short the discussion, and get the speeches of the
+Opposition put an end to by the vote of the majority. There was nothing
+certainly in the subjects last under discussion to tempt them to do so.
+The Bishop of Rottenburg had proposed that the decree should contain no
+anathemas on persons but only on doctrines; the Germans and about six
+French Bishops agreed with him, but the rest would hear nothing of it. But
+it was significant that the most extreme section of infallibilists urged
+that in mentioning the Church in the _Schema de Fide_, the predicate
+"Romana" should alone be affixed to Church, with a perfectly correct
+instinct that the complete Romanizing of the Church which they desiderate
+must lead to the annihilation of its Catholicity, and that the particular
+predicate necessarily excludes the universal. But they did not carry their
+point.
+
+It is the universally prevalent feeling that all these detailed
+discussions and motions are mere preliminary skirmishes in which both
+parties practise themselves for the great contest and the decisive blow to
+be struck when the _Schema de Ecclesia_ comes on. The chief aim is to
+ascertain how far the minority can be induced to go, how much they will
+put up with, and what can be wrung from them by surprise or by quiet
+working on them individually. Public scenes, solemn protests before the
+whole world, are what the Legates want at any price to avoid. When the
+infallibilist dogma was to have been carried by sudden acclamation on St.
+Joseph's Day, four American Bishops handed in a paper declaring that, if
+this were done, they would immediately leave the Council and announce the
+reasons of their departure as soon as they got back to their dioceses.
+That took effect.
+
+It is perhaps one of the most noteworthy and eventful changes in the
+policy of the Papal Court, that it now strains every nerve deliberately to
+exclude the laity from all share in Church affairs, and endeavours to hold
+them aloof in every case where formerly the Church not only allowed but
+desired and demanded their regular participation. Thirty years ago it was
+quite different, but since the darling scheme of the Jesuits for complete
+ecclesiastical absolutism and centralization in Rome, both intensive and
+extensive, has been adopted, the maxims first avowed by Pius in his
+instructions to Pluym, his delegate at Constantinople, have been acted
+upon. The Pope there affirms that the participation of the laity in Church
+matters has been the greatest injury to the Church. In Germany and north
+of the Alps generally, all who thought they knew anything of the spirit
+and history of the Church had believed just the contrary, and considered
+those to have been the most prosperous ages of the Church when there was a
+cordial understanding and unsuspicious co-operation between clergy and
+laity; and they pointed to the example of earlier Popes, who attributed a
+priesthood to Christian princes, and exhorted them to take the most active
+part in ecclesiastical affairs. But historical reminiscences are of no
+account here; we must be content to float on the stream of the present,
+without looking backwards or forwards, with the great multitude. "Fear
+nothing; I have the Madonna on my side," said the master the other day to
+a prelate who had warned him of the danger incurred by the present system.
+That word explains the enigma of our present situation.
+
+The quarrels with the Orientals, which I shall perhaps relate more fully
+by and bye, have again thrown a clear light on the existing condition of
+things and the maxims adhered to. In a dispute about the privileges of a
+Convent here, an Armenian Archbishop with his secretary and interpreter
+were condemned by the Inquisition to imprisonment in one of the Jesuit
+houses--nominally "to make the exercises." The unfortunates for whom this
+fatherly correction was decreed, were to "exercise themselves" till they
+were reduced to submission. They first betook themselves to the protection
+of the French embassy, but in accordance with instructions from Paris they
+were repulsed. Then they were taken under the charge of Rustem Bey, the
+Turkish ambassador at Florence, who has lately been residing here and
+transacting business with Antonelli. But the Cardinal soon intimated to
+him that Catholic priests, of whatever nation, were in Rome simply
+subjects of the Pope and under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition. So the
+helpless Armenians had to succumb, and were favoured with domestic
+imprisonment, while a monk of another Order was made Abbot of the convent.
+The affair has naturally excited double astonishment. German, French, and
+English priests, who are here in great numbers, have had the unpleasant
+surprise of discovering that, according to the theory accepted here, they
+belong not only spiritually but bodily to the Pope, who is the absolute
+lord of their persons, and that the Inquisition can seize and incarcerate
+any of them at its pleasure. And the occurrence has recalled some very
+unlovely reminiscences. Men acquainted with Roman history have shown that
+Paul V. got Aonio Paleario and Carnesecchi to surrender themselves and had
+them burnt by the Inquisition; that Paul V. enticed to Rome by a
+safe-conduct the priest Fulgentio, who took the side of the State in the
+Pope's quarrel with Venice, and had him burnt there as "a lapsed
+heretic;"(76) that the English Benedictine Barnes, who was seized on
+Belgian soil and dragged to Rome, was first imprisoned in the Inquisition
+till he became insane, and then had to die in a lunatic asylum. It is true
+that the Inquisition no longer inflicts torture and death, but nobody who
+has once come into its power would escape without having an abjuration
+extorted from him. The best security for a Western priest consists in the
+dread of the _Curia_ of involving itself in trouble with his Government;
+were it not so, a foreign clergyman would be compelled to confine his
+conversation with clerics here to the weather, for there is always the
+most stringent obligation of denouncing any one the least suspected of
+heresy to the Inquisition, and a German clergyman, who got into any
+theological talk could hardly avoid that suspicion, so many would be the
+points of difference and opposition.
+
+There have been movements among the Hungarian Bishops, the connection of
+which is not quite clear. But the following facts are authentic. Simor,
+Archbishop of Gran and Primate, who for two months adhered with the rest
+of his countrymen to the minority, has gone over in the most demonstrative
+way to the majority, who pride themselves not a little on their conquest.
+It had been previously agreed between the Emperor and the Pope that he
+should be made a Cardinal, and he had been informed of this; but for a
+Cardinal-designate before his actual creation to vote against the formally
+and energetically expressed will of the Pope would be monstrous. Such a
+thing is quite inconceivable in Rome. Moreover, before he became Primate,
+Simor spoke in favour of infallibilism.(77) Another Hungarian Bishop is
+gone over with him. Other Hungarian Bishops whom the minority, whether
+rightly or not, reckoned deserters, have gone home, and have there, it is
+said, represented the state of things in the very darkest colours, saying
+that there is no real freedom in the Council and the minority is breaking
+up. The Government at Pesth have consequently sent a confidential agent
+here to invite the Hungarian Bishops to escape the storm and return home.
+But they replied that the Government had better provide for the return of
+those already gone home, so as to add more strength to the minority on
+whom all the hopes of Catholics are now centred.
+
+
+
+
+
+THIRTY-SEVENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, April 15, 1870._--The _Constitutio Dogmatica de Ecclesia Christi_
+will receive its definitive form in the Congregation of Easter Tuesday,
+but the substance is already fixed. It received many significant
+alterations in the course of discussion, and the ready reception accorded
+to it as a whole is due to the many detailed amendments which have been
+conceded. These changes are so important that the spokesman of the
+Commission, Pie of Poitiers, said in his closing speech it was really the
+work of the whole Council, so that the Fathers might truly say, "_Visum
+est Spiritui Sancto et nobis_." After the insertion of the word "Romana"
+before "Catholica Ecclesia," the three first chapters were accepted in
+their amended form. The fourth, on faith and knowledge, was debated only
+cursorily and by a few speakers on April 8. But this chapter contains a
+passage of the greatest practical importance. At the end occur these
+words: "Since it is not enough to avoid heretical pravity, unless those
+errors which more or less nearly approach it are shunned, we admonish all
+of the duty of observing the constitution and decrees where such evil
+opinions not expressly named here have been proscribed and prohibited by
+this Holy See."(78) The Bishops with good reason saw in this passage a
+confirmation of the judgments and increase of the authority of the Roman
+Congregations, _i.e._, of the tribunals through which the Pope exercises
+his power. It seemed to them desirable to give due expression to their
+objections, and accordingly a request was made to the President to appoint
+a further day for this subject. But as nobody had inscribed his name to
+speak, the request was refused and the whole debate was closed on that
+day, Friday, April 8. But to avoid the danger of opposition at the last
+moment and secure the decrees being unanimous, a certain concession was
+made by announcing that the closing paragraph should not be voted on till
+the whole _Schema de Fide_, four chapters of which only were as yet ready,
+should be completed. Thus a great point was gained,--a decree on matters of
+faith was carried by moral unanimity and not by surprise, but after a
+serious though compressed debate, which helped to win for the views of the
+minority a very perceptible influence on the form of the decree.
+
+But on the following day, April 9, a notice was communicated that, as the
+closing paragraph of the _Schema_--beginning with the words "Itaque supremi
+pastoralis," etc.(79)--had not been treated with sufficient particularity
+at the last general sitting, it must be again brought forward for
+deliberation before the whole fourth chapter came to be voted upon. The
+Fathers were thereby admonished that they might produce their amendments
+on the fourth chapter at the next sitting. This Congregation was held on
+April 12, when the final paragraph was put to the vote, and this roused
+them from the dream of unanimity. It was observed in the debate that if
+the voting on the paragraph were put off till the whole _Schema de Fide_
+was completed, this would be putting it off to the Greek Calends. But if
+the fixing of this _Schema_ was undertaken directly after Easter, the more
+important subject of the _Schema de Ecclesia_ must give place to it, and
+so it might easily happen that infallibility would not come on at all this
+spring. To withdraw the closing paragraph would be not only not to
+maintain but to lose that favourite form of authoritative papal utterance
+through the medium of the Roman Congregations, which especially required
+to be upheld. Pie of Poitiers insisted on the fact that the paragraph had
+been published in the _Allgemeine Zeitung_, and could not therefore
+without peril be withdrawn even for the moment only.
+
+The Opposition were partly disposed themselves to treat the passage as
+unimportant. There were some who thought that in principle it was right
+for the Roman decisions to be respected and a certain authority attached
+to them, for this was necessary for the government of the Church; and the
+very wording of the passage distinguished these decisions from matters
+defined under anathema. So the minority resolved not to make any
+collective resistance to it, and many well-known members of the Opposition
+accepted it without contradiction. Notwithstanding this, when the whole
+fourth chapter came to be voted on on Tuesday, April 12, the desired
+unanimity was not attained; 83 Bishops gave a conditional _Placet_ only.
+They handed in the grounds of their vote in writing, which seem to have
+been of various kinds, for even the Bishops of Moulins and Saluzzo, who
+are notorious infallibilists, were among them. Some, especially English
+Bishops, may well have demurred to the designation "_Romana_ Catholica"
+before "Ecclesia;" others may have thought it necessary to guard their
+rights as against majorities; but far the greater number wanted to
+repudiate the concluding passage. The vote was understood here in this
+latter sense, and no stone was left unturned to induce the Opposition to
+yield on that point. The step they have taken makes the deeper impression,
+because it is known that they have not put forth their full strength.
+
+It must be allowed that the final paragraph contained no actual doctrine
+which made the resistance of the Episcopate an absolute duty and required
+unanimous consent, but still it is obvious that the Council thereby
+sanctioned and strengthened what it ought to have reformed and limited,
+and therefore the carelessness manifested by a portion of the Opposition
+admits of no favourable explanation. For the chief cause of the weakness
+and corruption of the Church is to be found in those Roman
+Congregations,--in the principles of some and the defects of others. The
+Bishops who accept the paragraph give their approval, _e.g._, to the
+Inquisition and the Index, and thereby prejudice not a little their moral
+influence and dignity. The vote of last Tuesday does not accordingly
+appear to me any proof of the firm organization or imposing power of the
+minority; it only shows what they might accomplish if they chose, but that
+they do not choose to do as much as they can. But the event will show
+whether the _Curia_ holds to its policy of securing unanimity by prudent
+and well-timed concessions. The minority will be urged and entreated first
+to withdraw their objections. If that fails, the Court must either give up
+the hope of unanimity or accept a very sensible humiliation. For if the
+text remains unaltered, those who have now given a conditional _Placet_
+can give no simple _Placet_ next time.(80) Rome will certainly exhaust all
+her arts to avert the scandal of an open opposition in a Solemn Session.
+
+I said in a former letter that the Opposition had taken up a position
+which no enemy from without could dislodge them from, but this did not
+imply at all that all internal dangers are overcome. These by no means
+consist in the decomposing influences of hope and fear which the _Curia_
+makes such use of, or the prospect of a Cardinal's Hat, or again in party
+divisions at home, which might have disturbed and divided the French,
+Austrian and North American Bishops. The latter danger might have made
+itself felt at the commencement of the Council, but constant intercourse
+and community of experiences during this winter have put an end to it. The
+real disease which has weakened the minority in the past and threatens it
+in the future lies deeper--the great internal differences of Catholicism,
+which are now being brought to a decisive issue, do not coincide with the
+antagonism of the rival parties in the Council, but divide the minority
+itself. The main question, exclusive of the immediate controversy and
+partly independent of it, which divides Catholics into two sections so
+sharply that no sympathy or confidence can bridge over the gulf, remains
+unsolved within the minority and constantly endangers their coherence. The
+common designation of Liberal Catholics tends rather to obscure than to
+express the principle of this division. By Liberal Catholics may be
+understood those who desiderate freedom not only _for_ but _in_ the
+Church, and would subject all arbitrary power of Church as well as State
+in matters of religion to law and tradition; but that is the end they aim
+at, not their fundamental principle. Such requirements concern the
+constitution rather than the doctrine of the Church, law rather than
+theology. They are important, but they do not contain the crucial point of
+the present contest in the Church. The root of the matter lies not simply
+in the relation to be maintained towards the chief authority in the
+Church, but in the right relation to science; it is not merely freedom but
+truth that is at stake. It is mainly as an institution for the salvation
+of men and dispenser of the means of grace that the Church has to deal
+with the labouring, suffering and ignorant millions of mankind. And in
+order to guard them from the assaults of popular Protestantism, a popular
+Catholicism and fabulous representation of the Church has been gradually
+built up, which surrounds her past history with an ideal halo, and
+conceals by sophistries and virtual lies whatever is difficult or
+inconvenient or evil, whatever, in short, is "offensive to pious ears."
+
+But such a transfigured Catholicism is a mere shadow Catholicism, not the
+Church but a phantom of the Church. Its upholders are compelled at every
+step to employ various weapons, to ward off any triumph of their enemies
+and avoid disturbing the faithful in a religious sentiment artificially
+compounded of error and truth combined. The more the notion of the supreme
+glory, and even infallibility, of the Pope was developed, the greater
+solidarity with the past became requisite, that the history of the Popes
+might not be suffered to bear witness too strongly against such views. To
+quote a significant phrase in constant use here during this winter, "the
+dogma must conquer history."(81) A contest has arisen, not of dogma but of
+a theological opinion against history, that is against truth; the end
+sanctifies the means. It was held allowable in order to save the Church
+and for the interest of souls to commit what would in any other case have
+been acknowledged to be sin. Not only was history falsified, but the rules
+of Christian morality were no longer held applicable where the credit of
+the hierarchy was at stake. The very sense of truth and error, right and
+wrong,--in a word the conscience--was thrown into confusion. Thus, _e.g._,
+when Pius V. demanded that the Huguenot prisoners should be put to death,
+he did right, for he was Pope and a Saint to boot. Since Charles Borromeo
+approved the murdering of Protestants by private persons, it is better to
+approve it than to call his canonization in question. Or one moral
+aberration is got rid of by another. Many of the leading Catholic writers
+of this century deny that Gregory XIII. approved the massacre of St.
+Bartholomew,(82) or that heretics have ever been put to death at Rome.
+
+This spirit, which falsifies history and corrupts morals, is the crying
+sin of modern Catholicism, and it reaches high enough. Of the three men
+who are commonly held in France to stand at the head of the Catholic
+movement, one wrote a panegyric on Pius V., another under the name of
+_Religion et Liberte_ attacked absolutism in France while defending the
+double absolutism in Rome, and a third vindicated the Syllabus--all three
+thus manifesting the influence of this deplorable spirit.
+
+On the other hand the genuine Catholic, who wishes also to be a good
+Christian, cannot separate love for his Church from the love of goodness
+and truth. He shrinks from lies in history as much as from present
+adulation, and is divided by a deep moral gulf from those who deliberately
+seek to defend the Church by sin and religious truth by historical
+falsehood. This contrast is most conspicuously exhibited in the question
+of infallibility, as one example may suffice to prove. The principles of
+the Inquisition have been most solemnly proclaimed and sanctioned by the
+Popes. Whoever maintains papal infallibility must deny certain radical
+principles of Christian morality, and not merely excuse but accept as true
+the opposite views of the Popes. Thus the Roman element excludes the
+Catholic and Christian. Such differences obviously cut deep into men's
+ethical character, and divide them far more decisively than any striving
+for common practical ends or community of interest and feeling can unite
+them on the ground of prudence. In presence of so profound an internal
+division the question of the opportuneness of the definition of
+infallibility assumes a very subordinate place, and the mere inopportunist
+is immeasurably removed from the decided opponent of the dogma. Between
+Bishops who consider Popes fallible and those whose conscience is easy
+enough to swallow certain doctrines of former Popes on faith and morals,
+and who do not see any deadly peril for souls in giving a higher sanction
+to these dogmas--between anti-infallibilists and mere inopportunists--the
+difference is far deeper than the union. The inopportunists stand nearer
+to the infallibilists than to those who oppose the dogma on principle.
+They are divided from the one party on a mere question of prudence, from
+the other on a question of faith and morality; with the one they are
+united by an internal bond, with the other by an external bond, only which
+circumstances may dissolve.
+
+This is the true explanation of the halting policy so often observed in
+the Opposition. The honest opponents of infallibility wished to secure the
+support of those who do not properly speaking share their sentiments. But
+they should never for a moment have forgotten that they have to attack
+what Gratry has rightly described as an "ecole de mensonge." And the
+greatest honesty and outspokenness is necessary for defending the honour
+and truth of Catholicism against that school. Instead of that they exhibit
+themselves in a false light and obscure the situation.
+
+Meanwhile Pius IX. by his letters to Gueranger and Cabriere has completely
+and publicly identified himself with that school, at the very moment when
+Gratry was so unmistakeably exposing its spirit, and he has made this
+still clearer by the distinctions bestowed on Margotti and Veuillot at the
+very moment when Newman characterized them as the leaders of "an
+aggressive and insolent faction." He said plainly to the French Bishop
+Ramadie of Perpignan that "only Protestants and infidels denied his
+infallibility." His official organ describes the Opposition as allies of
+the Freemasons, and he himself calls all who oppose his infallibility bad
+Catholics. It is true that the Opposition has gradually been brought to
+make very decided declarations of opinion, and has itself expressed doubts
+about the future recognition of the Council. But that has complicated its
+attitude still further. The other party may ask, "Why these doubts about
+OEcumenicity? The Bishops of various countries are assembled in great
+numbers; the Governments offer no hindrances, and the Council has united
+itself with the Pope in the greatest freedom in the capital city of the
+Church. Why then doubt the good results and oecumenical character of the
+Council and the validity and future recognition of its decrees?" And the
+Opposition can only answer, "For the sole and single reason that the Pope
+destroys all freedom of action by his regulations, that he has already
+overthrown the ancient constitution of the Church and exercises a power
+over the Council incompatible with the rights of the Bishops and the
+freedom of the Church."
+
+The French note is to be presented to-day to Antonelli and next week to
+the Pope, instead of to the Council. It is doubted whether Pius will
+communicate it to them.(83)
+
+
+
+
+
+THIRTY-EIGHTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, April 17, 1870._--It is a good sign that the minority have at length
+recognised the imperative necessity of grappling directly with the problem
+of papal infallibility, and examining in their own writings this question
+on which the future of the Church depends. It has been perceived now that
+it was an unfortunate notion to put forward only grounds of expediency,
+discretion, and regard for public opinion; for no answer was left when
+Spanish, South American, Irish, Neapolitan and Sicilian Bishops said that
+no such public opinion existed with them, that some were apathetic and
+others had long held the doctrine, which would create not the slightest
+difficulty or inconvenience with them, and that they were the majority.
+
+It was high time therefore to take firmer ground, and now this has been
+done by Cardinals Schwarzenberg and Rauscher and Bishop Hefele, three of
+the most influential prelates of the Church, or rather by four, for Bishop
+Ketteler too has either composed or got some one to compose a work on
+papal infallibility.(84) But the whole edition had the ill luck to be
+seized in the Roman Post-office, so that not a single Bishop got a copy.
+The authorities seem to know that the work opposes the dogma, on which all
+the thoughts and plans of the _Curia_ now hinge, although Ketteler not
+long ago showed himself an adherent of the doctrine, and only assailed the
+opportuneness of defining it.
+
+The _Univers_, as the official organ of the Court, now announces the
+principle on which the Papal Government acts. One must distinguish, it
+says, between the Custom-house and Post-office. The Custom-house gives the
+Bishops the missives and packets addressed to them unopened, for it
+assumes that they will only have proper books sent them. It is different
+with the Post-office, which is bound not to favour the dissemination of
+error.(85) So the conscientiousness of the officials of the Roman
+Post-office is a model for the rest of the world, and it is understood
+that the habitual opening of letters, so far from being immoral, is an
+expression of the purest and most delicate morality; for might not a
+letter contain some error or attack on the rights of the Vicar of Christ?
+And how could the officials answer to God and His earthly representative
+for even unconsciously co-operating in the spread of such error?
+
+As I have not seen Ketteler's publication, I can only quote the judgment
+of a friend who has read it and thinks it will do good service. The other
+three works are before me. They must all have been printed at Naples, for
+the Roman police has to look after the consciences not only of the
+Post-office secretaries and letter-carriers, but of the compositors,
+printers, bookbinders and booksellers. It cannot allow that any breath of
+error should sully the pure mirror of their souls, even though concealed
+under the veil of the Latin tongue; and the corroding poison becomes worse
+when prepared, as in this case, by Bishops and Cardinals.(86)
+
+I will speak first of Cardinal Rauscher's work, which is the most
+comprehensive of the three, and touches on many questions passed over in
+the other two. Written in a calm and dignified tone, it carefully avoids
+every word or phrase which could offend the _Curia_, and goes to the
+utmost length in making concessions possible for any one to accept without
+becoming an infallibilist; but it will nevertheless pour much oil on the
+flame of anger which has been blazing for weeks past, and singes now one
+Bishop and now another. Papal infallibility, says the Archbishop of
+Vienna, must extend to everything ever decided by any Pope, and the whole
+Christian world must hold with Boniface VIII. and his Bull _Unam Sanctam_
+that the Popes have received power from Christ over the whole domain of
+the State. That will be welcome news to those who want to exclude the
+Church altogether from civil society. That the Popes themselves in the
+ancient Church did not hold themselves infallible, that the whole history
+and conduct of the ancient Church in doctrinal controversies would be an
+inexplicable riddle on the infallibilist hypothesis, and moreover that the
+Popes have often fallen into open errors rejected by the Church--all this
+is well established, though the author cites only some particular facts
+from the abundant sources he has to draw upon. He then shows the sharp
+antithesis between the ancient doctrine of the Church and the Popes on the
+relations of Church and State and the enunciations of Popes since Gregory
+VII. and Innocent III. With papal infallibility the whole mediaeval theory
+of the unlimited power of Popes to depose kings, absolve from oaths of
+allegiance, abrogate laws, and interfere in all civil affairs at their
+will, must be declared to be an immutable doctrine with which the Church
+stands or falls. The Christian Emperors would have treated such a doctrine
+as high treason, and even in the days of Charles the Great it would have
+excited universal astonishment. If this doctrine really had to be preached
+now to the Christian people, it would be a triumph for the enemies of
+religion, for the best men would soon be convinced of the utter
+impossibility of paying any regard to the precepts of the Christian
+religion in civil matters. The Cardinal proceeds to dwell on the forgeries
+by which the great master of scholastic theology, the favourite and oracle
+of all Jesuits and ultramontanes, Thomas Aquinas, was led to adopt the
+doctrine of infallibility, and how again his influence shaped the whole
+scholastic system and drew the great Religious Orders, who were bound by
+oath to maintain his teaching, to adopt it. He concludes in these weighty
+words:--"If the Pope is declared to be, alone and without the Episcopate,
+infallible in faith and morals, the OEcumenical Councils are robbed of the
+authority recognised by Gregory the Great, when he said he honoured them
+equally with the four Gospels; for they would be and would always have
+been, even at the time of the Nicene Council, superfluous for deciding on
+faith and morals. This doctrine would be a declaration of war against the
+innermost convictions of the Church, and she would be robbed for the
+future of those aids supplied by the Council of Trent at her extremest
+need; even the See of Rome would lose the support the Bishops then
+assembled gave to it, for after the close of that Council, the power of
+the Popes became greater than it was before."
+
+The remark of Cardinal Rauscher that, when the dogma of papal
+infallibility is defined the Church will be deprived of one of her most
+effective institutions, viz., General Councils, has made a great
+impression here, as far as I can see. It is readily understood that an
+assemblage of men, educated to believe in the infallibility of one master,
+and to repeat mechanically without examination whatever he tells them,
+would have no influence among men and would be universally regarded as
+superfluous, a mere idle pageant rather than any real support to the
+Church. The Church would be impoverished by the loss of one member of its
+organism, and that very member would be paralysed which in moments of
+distress and danger had most effectually protected her.
+
+Bishop Hefele's work is worthy of the man who is beyond question the most
+profound historical scholar among the members of the Council. One can only
+regret that a writer so pre-eminently qualified to pronounce a clear and
+weighty opinion on the whole controversy in all its bearings should have
+confined himself to the single question of the condemnation of Pope
+Honorius. Those who wish to know the history of Honorius and the Sixth
+Council in 681, and to see a flagrant example of the utterly crude and
+unscientific poverty of that modern scholasticism which is treated as
+theology in the Jesuit lecture-rooms, may be recommended a brief study of
+this question, which has already produced so many writings and hypotheses,
+simple and easily understood as it is in itself. A General Council,
+acknowledged by the whole Church in East and West, condemned a Pope for
+heresy after his death, and anathematized him on account of a dogmatic
+letter he issued. The sentence was without contradiction accepted
+throughout the whole Church, the Roman Church included, and even
+introduced into the profession of faith to which every new Pope had to
+swear at his election. It was repeatedly confirmed by subsequent Councils,
+and in short remained in full force for centuries, till the Popes were
+seized with a desire to become infallible. It is only since the fifteenth
+and sixteenth century, and especially since the Jesuits--beginning with
+Bellarmine--undertook to revise history according to the requirements of
+their new dogmatic system, that this extremely contradictory fact had to
+be submitted to a process of manipulation, and the rock on which all
+schemes of papal infallibility seemed to be wrecked had to be got out of
+the way. "Si plus minusve secuerit sine fraude esto," was said in the old
+Roman law which allowed a creditor to cut a pound of flesh from the body
+of his debtor, and so do the knives of the Jesuits and curialists cut
+right into the flesh of history. The Acts of the Sixth Council were said
+to have been corrupted through the perfidy of the Greeks, and the whole
+history and even the letters of Honorius to be forgeries. The Popes
+themselves, Rome, and the whole West had let themselves be fooled by the
+cunning Greeks into condemning an innocent and orthodox Pope as a heretic,
+and the letters of Pope Leo II. must also be forgeries. In short these
+reasoners were caught in the meshes of their own net, and when in 1660
+Lucas Holstein got the Roman _Liber Diurnus_ printed--an excellent edition
+of which Roziere lately brought out in Paris--the whole impression was
+suppressed, for it contained the old form of oath which expressly attested
+the condemnation of Honorius. But twenty years later the book appeared to
+the great chagrin of Rome, and the infallibilist school had to change
+their front. They now turned to the letters of Honorius and tried to show
+that they were perfectly orthodox. But that did not touch the fact that a
+General Council had solemnly condemned a Pope for heresy, and that the
+whole Church--the Popes and the Roman Church included--had accepted the
+sentence without demur. Hefele has shortly and pointedly exposed the
+shifts and dishonesties of this long controversy carried on in more than a
+hundred polemical works; and he has taken care, at the same time, to
+establish conclusively the wide-reaching facts and general results of the
+inquiry. He shows (page 11), how up to the eleventh century every Pope
+swore to the truth that an OEcumenical Council had condemned a Pope for
+heresy.(87)
+
+Cardinal Schwarzenberg's work is chiefly directed against Archbishop
+Manning.(88) Hitherto the infallibilists, to avoid pushing their theory
+into sheer absurdity, had appended the condition of _ex cathedra_, which
+everybody could interpret more or less stringently according to his own
+view, and theologians had actually given twenty-five different
+explanations of what was required for an _ex cathedra_ decision. In order
+to get out of this labyrinth, Manning has propounded a simpler theory.
+Everything according to him depends on the Pope's intention; whenever he
+"intends to require the assent of the whole Church," he is infallible.(89)
+Schwarzenberg points out with pungent irony to what monstrous consequences
+this would lead. He recalls the saying of Boniface VIII. that the Pope
+holds all rights locked up in his breast. And thus it must be assumed on
+Manning's theory that the Pope holds in his own mind all doctrines present
+and future, and draws from this internal treasure-house under divine
+inspiration what he wishes to reveal to the world, so that infallibility
+becomes inspiration. Has it occurred to the Cardinal that this is
+precisely the personal opinion of the very man who has now, for the sake
+of his own infallibility, resolved to plunge the Church into an internal
+conflict, of which no one can see the end?
+
+It is then further pointed out that, if the new dogma with its
+consequences prevails, all Governments will put themselves in an attitude
+of self-defence against the Church. Bishops as well as Councils cease to
+be any necessary part of the _magisterium_ of the Church, and there is no
+longer any need for the distinct assent of the Episcopate; the only office
+left them is to praise and accept with thanks every decision of the
+Pope's. Perhaps they may still be allowed to give their advice before he
+decides, but they have nothing to say to the decision itself or after it,
+but only to obey and promulgate the papal revelations.
+
+
+
+
+
+THIRTY-NINTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, April 23, 1870._--The four chapters of the _Constitutio Dogmatica de
+Fide_ bear in their ultimate shape such evident marks of the influence of
+the minority, and so many concessions were made in them, that there is a
+danger of overlooking the greatness of their defeat and their change of
+mind, should they finally accept the supplemental paragraph mentioned in
+my last letter but one. Although it was determined that the minority
+should make no general opposition to this paragraph, there were not a few
+Bishops who saw clearly enough its importance and danger. They consoled
+themselves at first with the promise that the suspicious passage, which
+clothed the Roman Congregations and the mischief they work in the Church
+with conciliar sanction, would not be voted upon till the still incomplete
+portion of the _Schema de Fide_ came on for final settlement. And when, in
+spite of this promise, it was announced to be the general wish of the
+Commission that the voting should take place at once, the opponents were
+quieted by a written assurance that no new power was thereby to be given
+to the Roman Congregations, and nothing to be altered about them, but all
+to remain as of old. Gasser, Bishop of Brixen, had the courage to say, in
+the name of the Deputation, that the passage did not refer to heresy,
+though it expressly binds the Bishops to the observance of the
+constitutions and decrees of the Holy See, not only in regard to heresy
+(_haeretica pravitas_), but also theological errors and controversies. It
+is incredible that any one could be deceived by such a ruse as this, and
+yet it is a fact that not even forty Bishops made the omission of this
+paragraph a condition of their _Placet_. As the Opposition seemed thereby
+to be shrunk to less than five per cent. of the Council, the _Curia_ was
+persuaded that it could get rid of them altogether by acting with spirit.
+
+On April 18 appeared an admonition with the following passage: "It must be
+remembered that according to the Apostolic Brief, _Multiplices inter_ (of
+Nov. 27, 1869), prescribing the method of procedure in public Sessions, no
+other vote can be given in them than a simple _Placet_ or _Non
+placet_."(90) The Fathers who had given conditional votes in Congregation
+had to choose now whether they would accept the chapter unconditionally or
+reject it "sans phrase." It was foreseen that this alternative would
+disclose the weakness of the Opposition, and that those of its number who
+shrank from a decisive rejection would be won for the majority, for the
+real test of an Opposition is not in words but acts. Protests which are
+not answered, and speeches which are not heard, may be patiently borne
+with, as long as all goes well in the public voting. The _Curia_ reckons
+that the minority will not now dare to show itself, and thus the unanimity
+will not be disturbed: and its consequent resolve might decide the whole
+course and upshot of the Council. If the minority gives in here, it will
+have suffered a first defeat, and must reconstitute itself on a new basis,
+by taking part in decrees carried under anathema, which are against its
+own convictions, it breaks with its past, accepts the responsibility and
+solidarity of the Council and complicity with the majority. This is to
+admit that all the petitions and protests it was thought necessary to
+present in the interests of the freedom of the Council were superfluous
+and aimless, and all the warnings offered of the threatened danger of its
+oecumenicity being questioned, etc., unmeaning. For the Council to publish
+anathemas implies the conviction that it is free, legitimate, and
+oecumenical, and that the order of business is acceptable. The minority
+thereby would themselves testify to everything they have hitherto
+assailed, and the only thing left for them would be to insist on their
+rights as guarded by the _consensus unanimis_. All other grounds for
+calling the Council in question would be abandoned, and it might fairly be
+doubted whether the Opposition would adhere to that after giving up so
+much; at the same time it is morally certain that the Court and the
+majority do not acknowledge that right.
+
+During the General Congregation of the 19th, four Bishops, Latour
+d'Auvergne, Dreux-Breze, La Bouillerie, and Mermillod, went to the Pope
+and requested him to have the decree on infallibility brought forward
+directly after the Solemn Session of the 24th. They thought rightly enough
+the favourable moment had come and all was now ready. Pius received the
+Bishops, who came as deputies of the 400, with great distinction, and
+replied that he would discuss the matter with the Presidents.
+
+As it is impossible to see how the Bishops or the Governments could get
+rid of the _regolamento_ when once it is fairly established, the
+Opposition Bishops know that they will have to approach the great question
+in the position they take for themselves to-morrow in the first solemn
+voting, and with such power, unanimity, and influence as they thereby
+establish their claim to. It is still open to them up to to-night to use
+the present moment for a complete victory. They only need declare that
+their protests and warnings were not idle words but seriously meant, that
+the incongruities which endanger the freedom of the Council and suggest
+doubts of its legitimacy must be got rid of before any decrees are
+published under threat of everlasting damnation, and that until they are
+listened to on this point they refuse to take part in any solemn voting.
+
+But, as far as I know of the Opposition, the majority of them have no ear
+or heart for such counsel; their grand object is to avoid any decisive
+conflict, and so to-morrow they will simply yield,--to consider quietly
+afterwards their future plan of campaign! Some have thought they might
+save their honour and conscience by a written explanation of their vote.
+In the public international meeting of the Opposition these plans were
+rejected, but two rough drafts of the kind were proposed the day before
+yesterday, one by the Germans, one by the French. Both are too strong and
+dignified to find many supporters, and too weak to justify the Opposition
+in the eyes of the Christian world.
+
+It is the sacred duty of the Bishops in Council to bear witness to the
+ancient doctrine of the Church, and to reform it when it has been obscured
+by abuses in practice and in the rule of the hierarchy. The more abuses
+there are, so much the more difficult, and so much the more indispensable
+also is this reform. What the Catholic world expects of the Council is not
+a fresh sanction, still less an increase, of these abuses, but the
+deliverance and purification of the Church from them. But to accept the
+paragraph which recommends obedience to the constitutions and decrees of
+Roman Congregations is to make the fulfilment of this serious duty, on
+which the fate of the Church hinges, impossible. For that paragraph will
+confirm and clothe with new authority decrees which are a disgrace to the
+Church and an injury to civilisation, wherein the confused morality of
+dark centuries is taught and Christian morality denied; and that too
+without any examination or discussion, any limitation or exception. The
+Bishops will thereby degrade themselves to servants of the Roman
+_prelatura_, and sink into accomplices of the Inquisition. We are told
+indeed that the paragraph will not touch dogma, but for ethics and
+practice it is almost more important than infallibility itself. It gives
+full play beforehand for arbitrary caprice and paves the way for the
+infallibilist dogma.
+
+If we look into the future, the questions come before us of unanimity in
+matters of faith, and of the confirmation and acceptance of the Council
+throughout the Church. As to the latter, the Bishops will make it far
+harder for the Governments to stand by them if to-morrow they virtually
+repudiate their own protests. The question of unanimity remains as weighty
+as before, and the gross errors of the _Civilta_ in its attack on
+Strossmayer's vindication of the principle of moral unanimity in decisions
+on faith has greatly lightened the task of two learned Bishops, who
+undertook to put in a clear light the true doctrine of the Church on the
+subject.
+
+If the voting of to-morrow goes altogether in the sense of the _Curia_,
+the inference will be that all the positions of the minority can be
+turned, and that as they are resolved to avoid any collision, they may be
+brought by skilful manipulation not to trouble the moral unanimity any
+further. Many of them console themselves with the thought that they are
+only sacrificing everything to peace and harmony, and are not responsible
+for the undertaking they have been deluded into.
+
+The propositions of the _Schema de Ecclesia_ give abundant room for
+manoeuvring. There are many opportunities for apparent concessions and for
+dividing and perplexing the Opposition, and finally driving them into a
+corner, so that in mutual distrust of one another they may abandon all
+hope of making any successful resistance, and satisfy themselves that as
+nearly everything has been given up already it is not worth while to risk
+a catastrophe by taking any further step.
+
+
+
+
+
+FORTIETH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, April 24, 1870._--The final votes of _Placet_ or _Non placet_ on the
+four chapters of the _Schema de Fide_ are to be taken in to-day's public
+Session. And thus after four months and a half a theological decree, or
+rather a batch of decrees and doctrinal decisions, will be brought to a
+successful issue, and the first ripe fruit plucked from the hitherto
+barren tree of the Council, so that there will be something in black and
+white to carry home. As these four chapters have been subjected to the
+pruning and toning down of the Opposition, they bear little resemblance to
+the original draft of the Jesuits, and the minority may lay claim to a
+victory which four months ago could scarcely have been hoped for. What has
+been gained for the future by these theological commonplaces and
+self-evident propositions is of course another question. The general view
+of the Bishops appears to be that there is no real gain for the Church in
+these propositions, which can only excite the wonder of believing
+Christians that it should be thought necessary to prohibit at this time of
+day such fundamental errors. The value of their labours they take to lie,
+not in what they have said, but in what they have with so much trouble
+expunged from the _Schema_.
+
+Several Bishops attach great weight to the consent of the Deputation to
+substitute for "Romana Ecclesia" the words "Ecclesia Catholica et
+Apostolica Romana." Others think it a matter of indifference. Hefele's
+pamphlet on Honorius has created such a sensation that the Pope has
+commissioned the Jesuit Liberatore and Delegati, Professor at the
+Sapienza, to white-wash Honorius, and make away with everything in his
+history incompatible with the new dogma. Pius is persuaded, and his
+infallible "feeling" tells him, that everything must have happened quite
+differently from what is represented; how, he knows not, but he thinks
+that the Jesuit and the Roman professor have only to make the proper
+investigations and they will soon discover the requisite materials for
+refuting the German Bishop.
+
+On Wednesday, April 20, Rome was illuminated to celebrate the Pope's
+return from Gaeta. The Roman officials greatly dislike these illuminations
+on financial grounds, for they have to contribute to the cost out of their
+own pockets. A triumphal arch was erected for the Pope at the end of the
+narrow street leading to St. Peter's piazza, and the following inscription
+in letters of fire was conspicuous far and wide:--
+
+
+    Popoli chinatevi innanzi al Vaticano,
+    Ecco il Pontefice ch'io vi conservai nei giorni di pericolo,
+    Esso e la pietra angolare della mia chiesa,
+    Il refugio degli oppressi,
+    Il sostegno del povero,
+    Lo scudo della civilta e della fede.
+
+
+That is the witness Pius bears to himself. To theologians it may be a new
+idea that he personally is the corner-stone of the Church, but that is
+only one of the many predicates and prerogatives which may be deduced from
+infallibility. Two isolated voices cried "Evviva il Papa infallibile." It
+was clear the multitude was to be stimulated to swell the cry, but, as
+before, all remained quiet. The attempt has been sometimes made before,
+whether by amateurs or under official inspiration I know not, and then
+Veuillot asserts in the _Univers_ that he has heard this shout of vast
+multitudes breaking forth spontaneously from the exuberance of their
+hearts. It is like the music of the spheres which only Pythagoras heard.
+
+Ketteler's pamphlet was finally published on April 18, and the Bishop has
+begun to distribute it. It is really directed against the dogma itself,
+which for a long time people could not believe, and not merely against the
+opportuneness of defining it. How much better would it have been for the
+interests of the Church, if the necessity had been recognised long ago for
+looking this Medusa's head straight in the face, and defying its
+petrifying gaze, and if our Bishops had plainly and decisively announced
+their resolution last December to have no dealings with it. Now at least
+Cardinal Rauscher does not spare warnings; he perceives the gravity of the
+danger and has had a new fly-leaf distributed, showing that the
+promulgation of papal infallibility will elevate the two Bulls _Unam
+Sanctam_ (of Boniface VIII.) and _Cum ex Apostolatus officio_ (of Paul
+IV.) into rules of faith for the whole Catholic world, and thus it will be
+taught universally in Europe and America, henceforth, that the Pope is
+absolute master in temporal affairs also, that he can order war or peace,
+and that every monarch or bishop who does not submit to him or helps any
+one separated from him ought to be deprived of his throne if not of his
+life, besides the other wonderful doctrines in the second of these Bulls,
+which must reduce every theologian to despair.(91) All that is nothing to
+the majority, for whom the law of logical contradiction has no existence.
+It is their watchword that the dogma conquers logic as well as history.
+One of their German members gladly re-echoes the idea that the proper aim
+and office of the Council is to stop the mouth of arrogant professors; if
+that is accomplished everything is gained, according to this pastor of a
+flock feeding on red earth. On the other hand I heard very different words
+fall to-day from the mouth of another German Bishop, who said he was
+constantly asking himself how long the German Bishops would look on and
+put up with everything.
+
+The great and all-absorbing question now is what will next be brought
+before the Council after April 24. In the natural order the second part of
+the _Schema de Fide_ would come on, which is comparatively innocuous
+though abundantly capable of improvement. But is it not time to fabricate
+the talisman of absolute power, the infallibilist dogma? Then would the
+Council be in the fullest sense and for ever provided for and finished,
+and the master would praise his servants. Many will answer the question in
+the affirmative. The two modern Fathers, Veuillot and Margotti, strain
+every nerve daily for that end, and many of the most zealous French
+Bishops--as those of Moulins, Bourges, and Carcassonne, and the
+indefatigable Mermillod--have represented to the willing Pius, as I
+mentioned yesterday, that now is the nick of time, and that he may gratify
+the longing of his faithful adherents by placing infallibility in the
+order of the day. These Frenchmen consider that their Government, now
+occupied with the plebiscite, will not trouble itself with the acts and
+decisions of the Council, and moreover needs the help of the clergy. Amid
+the bustle of the plebiscite, they think the new dogma, and even the
+reproduction of the Syllabus in the twenty-one canons, will excite little
+stir or indignation, for the French can only embrace one idea at a time,
+and the Parisians only discuss one subject in their _salons_.
+
+Banneville has at last actually presented the memorandum of his Government
+to the Pope, as President of the Council, and with the intimation that it
+should be communicated to the Fathers. That of course will not be done,
+for both Pius and Antonelli are irritated at the paper. Pius is annoyed at
+the innermost kernel of the dogma being so openly exposed to view, when
+Count Daru says, "You want to hand over all rights and powers to the
+Church, and then by the infallibilist dogma to concentrate this plenitude
+of temporal and spiritual power in the one person of the Pope." That is of
+course what the _Curia_ does want, but it should be uttered in pious and
+somewhat obscure phraseology, as the _Civilta_ usually speaks, and not be
+called by its right name in this bold and naked fashion. Antonelli again
+is much displeased, because his favourite distinction between the
+principles in which the Church must be inexorable, and the practice in
+which Rome will graciously concede the very opposite, is met here by the
+inquiry whether the faithful are actually to be taught henceforth that
+they must believe what they need not carry out in practice, and accept as
+divinely revealed rules which they may without hesitation transgress? He
+had reckoned on a better understanding, on the part of the French
+Government, of the favourite Roman theory of infinite and inexhaustible
+papal indults and dispensations, and is glad that he need make no reply to
+the note which throws so glaring a light on the morality of the _Curia_
+and its notions of duty and truth. He contents himself with telling the
+diplomatists that there would be some difficulty in the Pope's
+communicating the note to the Council. Clearly, for they must at the same
+time be directed to attempt a refutation, and that would lead to very
+awkward consequences. The French Government might indeed have sent their
+memorandum to each Bishop separately, but then they would have had the
+prospect of the non-French Bishops of the majority returning it unopened.
+
+Count Trautmansdorff has also presented the memorandum of the Austrian
+Government to the Cardinal Secretary of State. It runs as follows:--
+
+"Nous voulons seulement elever aussi notre voix pour degager notre
+responsabilite et signaler les consequences presqu'inevitables d'actes qui
+devraient etre regardes comme une atteinte portee aux lois qui nous
+regissent. Comme le Gouvernement francais, c'est a un devoir de conscience
+que nous pensons obeier, en avertissant la cour de Rome des perils de la
+voie dans laquelle des influences preponderates semblent vouloir pousser
+le Concile. Ce qui nous emeut, ce n'est pas le danger dont nos
+institutions sont menacees, mais bien celui que courent la paix des
+esprits et le maintien de la bonne harmonie dans les relations de l'etat
+avec l'Eglise. Le sentiment qui nous fait agir doit paraitre d'autant
+moins suspect au St. Siege qu'il correspond a l'attitude d'une fraction
+importante des Peres du Concile, dont le devouement aux interets du
+Catholicisme ne saurait etre l'objet d'un doute. Places sur un tout autre
+terrain que cette fraction, puisque nous n'obeissons qu'a des
+considerations politiques, nous nous rencontrons toutefois aujourd'hui
+dans le desir commun d'ecarter certaines eventualites. Cette coincidence
+de nos efforts nous permet de croire qu'en prenant la parole au nom des
+seuls interets de l'Etat nous ne meconnaissons pas ceux de l'Eglise. Si la
+demarche du Gouvernement francais, que nous desirons seconder de tout
+notre pouvoir, vient en ce moment donner un appui a la minorite du Concile
+et l'aider a faire prevaloir des idees de moderation ou de prudence, nous
+ne pourrons que nous feliciter d'un tel resultat, bien que, je le repete,
+notre action soit parfaitement independante et doive rester en tout cas
+independante de celle des membres du Concile."
+
+Finally the observations of the French Government are urgently commended
+to the attention of the _Curia_.
+
+
+
+
+
+FORTY-FIRST LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, April 27, 1870._--We find ourselves in a remarkably critical
+position here. The great event so long expected of the first promulgation
+of dogmas is over, and the desired unanimity has been successfully
+attained for these four chapters of the _Schema de Fide_, notwithstanding
+the supplemental paragraph. Two Bishops who could not overcome their
+dislike to that paragraph preferred to stay away or leave Rome for the
+day. All the curialists are in high feather, and are congratulating each
+other on their victory, boasting that they have gained three most
+important points without any public opposition. First, the Pope, for the
+first time for 350 years,(92) and in contradiction to the practice of the
+first 1000 years of Church history, has defined and published the decrees
+in his own name as supreme legislator, just like those masters of the
+world, Innocent III., Innocent IV. and Leo X., merely with the addition
+that the Council also sanctions them. Secondly, the new order of business
+has now been virtually accepted by all, and the protest abandoned.
+Thirdly, the conclusion, which is meant to invest with conciliar authority
+the former dogmatic decrees of the Popes, has been accepted.
+
+The excitement visible on the countenances of the majority, when
+Schwarzenberg, Darboy, Rauscher and Hefele were called up to vote, showed
+what had been expected. The mass of the majority say the same thing will
+happen when the _Schema_ on the Church has to be voted on; the minority
+answer that it will not, and that they only want to avoid wasting their
+powder before the time; "la minorite se recueille," like Russia after the
+last war, and on the division day will be found fully equipped for the
+fight. We shall soon see, for that day is not far distant. But now what
+next? The infallibilist party are afraid of this dogma being lost after
+all, like a ship wrecked in port. They reckon that the time is approaching
+when the Council must inevitably be prorogued, and therefore urge the Pope
+to break through the regular order of the _Schemata_, and bring forward at
+once either the whole _Schema de __ Ecclesia_ or the article on papal
+infallibility which has been interpolated into it. The four French Bishops
+assured him that they spoke in the name of the 400. Pius would not of
+course feel any very constraining influence in their wishes _per se_, for
+he knows well enough that the 400 are composed mainly of his foster-sons
+and of the Bishops of the States of the Church and the Neapolitans, who
+all speak or hold their peace and sit or stand as they are bidden. But it
+would be an unspeakably bitter sacrifice for him to refuse to his trusty
+adherents what he so earnestly desires himself, and to let these 400 or at
+least many of them say, "Your own organ, the _Civilta_, the Jesuits,
+Veuillot, Margotti--have forced this question upon us; we have agitated for
+it and staked our name and theological credit on it, and now it is all to
+be labour lost!"
+
+But now the writings of the German Bishops have appeared and the notes of
+the Governments have been delivered. To the French note is added a more
+urgent one from Austria, as well as a Prussian, a Portuguese and now also
+a Bavarian note, and all breathe the same spirit. All give warning that
+they shall regard the threatened decrees on the power and infallibility of
+the Pope as a declaration of war against the order and authority of the
+State. Even the English Government leaves no room for doubt about its
+mind, and if the Pope--as I know--fears above all things any manifestation
+of feeling there, he might learn from Manning that the strongest antipathy
+is felt among all classes, high and low, to the proposed dogmas, and that
+English statesmen see in them nothing less than a suicidal infatuation.
+Manning has thoroughly authentic proofs of that in his hands, but of
+course he won't produce them.
+
+Pius is in a chronic state of extreme irritation. He sees with pleasure
+his two favourite journals--the _Univers_ and _Unita_--abuse the Opposition
+Bishops in the most contemptuous language, and he indulges himself in
+outbreaks of bitterness against those who question his infallibility,
+which pass from mouth to mouth here but which one dares not write down.
+Even Cardinal Bilio is alarmed at such ebullitions, and affirms that he is
+constantly urging moderation and forbearance on the Pope, and has already
+warded off a great deal of mischief.
+
+What strikes us foreigners is the evident indifference to the Council and
+its acts manifested by the inhabitants of the eternal city of every class.
+It is seldom spoken of in society, and what absorbs the attention of the
+world north of the Alps seems hardly to have the least interest for the
+Romans, what is there heard of with astonishment they hardly think worth a
+passing mention. And if ever the Council is spoken of, it is in hurried,
+mysterious, abrupt sentences, for every one says the espionage system has
+never been in such force here as since the opening of the Council, and a
+large staff lives by the trade. I know persons here whose doors are
+constantly watched by spies, who do not even conceal themselves, and if
+the Roman theologians had such rich materials for their investigations as
+is possessed by the Roman police, they would not have their equals in the
+world.
+
+The Romans as a rule are fully aware of the financial value of the
+infallibilist doctrine, and know right well that a large increase of
+revenue as well as power from all countries is looked for as its product.
+That in their eyes is already an accomplished fact. They know for certain
+that the dogma will be at once proclaimed, and there is hardly a Roman
+here who has not an uncle or brother or nephew in orders and may not hope
+to share the anticipated profits in his own person or in the person of his
+relatives. The curialists here say, "We have lost so much by the
+diminution of the States of the Church, and so many payments, benefices
+and lucrative posts have passed out of our hands, that we absolutely
+require to be indemnified in some other way, and this the new dogma is
+intended to do and must do for us." If ever the Pope is acknowledged
+throughout Christendom as an infallible authority, it is inevitable that
+ecclesiastical centralization should take much larger dimensions than
+before. Not only doctrine, but everything concerning Church life will be
+drawn to Rome and there finally settled. Theologians may undertake to
+distinguish between matters to which the Pope's infallible authority
+extends or does not extend, but in practice everything signed with his
+name will be held to be an utterance of divine truth, and nothing which is
+not attested with that signature will be held valid. There is a proverb
+here--
+
+
+    Quei consigli son prezzati
+    Che son chiesti e ben pagati.
+
+
+And who would not gladly pay a handsome sum to be armed with an infallible
+decision, which will at once crush all opposition and put down all
+adversaries? The golden age of papal chanceries and clerks lies not in the
+past, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries when, as a court prelate
+of the day tells us, the papal officials were daily employed in counting
+up gold pieces; it will first dawn on the day this truly golden doctrine
+of infallibility is promulgated. Were Cicero to re-appear in Rome now, he
+might repeat what he said in the Oration _Pro Sextio_, "Jucunda res plebi
+Romanae, victus enim suppeditabatur large sine labore;" only he could no
+longer add, "Repugnabant boni, quod ab industria plebem ad desidiam
+avocari putabant." For such "boni" no longer exist at Rome; rather is the
+account of Tacitus completely verified, "Securi omnes aliena subsidia
+expectant, sibi ignavi, aliis graves."(93) Another thing is the large and
+incurable deficit in the Roman finances, which must increase every year.
+There is an annual expenditure of thirty million francs to cover, and the
+Peter's pence, which came to fourteen millions in 1861, have sunk to about
+eleven millions, notwithstanding the collections ordered to be made
+everywhere twice a year. No further help can be obtained from loans. M. de
+Corcelles, who has exposed this uncomfortable state of things with the
+best intentions, has no other remedy to propose but a great increase of
+Peter's pence. It is hoped in Rome that the different nations will
+contribute larger sums than before to the Pope, now he is become
+infallible and thus more closely united to Deity. But they reckon much
+more on the enormous centralization and all-embracing monopoly of all
+possible dispensations, indulgences, consultations, canonizations, and
+decisions on moral, liturgical, political, dogmatic and disciplinary
+questions. They remember the treasures amassed in the temple of Delphi in
+ancient days, and expect the new oracle to be erected on the Tiber to
+attract, like a vast magnet, not iron but gold and silver.
+
+Neither Pius nor the Monsignori and other curialists think it conceivable
+that the minority will hold out to the last in their opposition. They
+reckon securely on this fraction of the Council being broken up by fear
+and discouragement, and that few if any of them will let matters come to a
+_non placet_ in the next public Session, and thus openly confess
+themselves unwillingly subdued. To those Roman clerics, who are accustomed
+to look at religious questions only as the ladder by which to mount to an
+agreeable life and good income, courage and steadfastness in the
+confession of ascertained truth is something strange and inconceivable.
+Fear and hope, calculations of loss and gain, will finally decide the
+Bishops' votes--that is the firm persuasion of every Italian member of the
+_Curia_. So much is certain: if on the very eve of the Solemn Session,
+when the new dogma is to be promulgated, it was certainly known that
+eighty Bishops would say _Non placet_ next day, the Session would be
+countermanded and the Church saved. The first question for us Germans is
+of course whether we can trust our Bishops? Will they abide steadfast? Or
+will they at last sacrifice themselves and the truth, their clergy and
+their flocks? As to what immediately concerns the clergy, this is not
+strictly a question of doctrine belonging to the sphere of religious faith
+and mystery, where one might make a willing submission of mind to a decree
+held to be the voice of divine revelation; it is a pure question of
+historical facts to be determined by historical evidence, of points on
+which every educated man capable of judging evidence, whether a Catholic
+or not, can form an independent judgment. Every one with eyes to see can
+answer with absolute certainty these three questions, on which the whole
+matter hinges--
+
+1. Is it true that the admonition to Peter to confirm his brethren has
+always and in the whole Church been understood of an infallibility
+promised to all Bishops of Rome?
+
+2. Is it true that this infallibility of all Popes has been taught and
+witnessed to in the whole Church through all ages down to our own day?
+
+3. Is it true that no Pope has ever taught a doctrine rejected by the
+Church, and that no Pope has ever been condemned by the Church for his
+doctrine?
+
+It is absolutely impossible for any one, who feels compelled by his own
+investigation of history to answer these three questions in the negative,
+to submit inwardly to the opposite decision of the Council, whatever
+external homage he may pay to it. Ten Councils will not be able to shake
+him for a moment in his conviction; he will only say, "pur si muove." His
+doubts will be turned, not against what is historically certain but
+against the Council; he will call in question the real freedom, the
+intrinsic claims and authority of this Council, and--to go no further--the
+two successive regulations for conducting business supply in this case
+abundant materials for the question. And it is just as impossible for a
+man who has a notion of historical certainty to believe in any one else's
+mind being changed by the decree of an assembly of Bishops. If a
+well-educated man told me he had just come to the conclusion that Julius
+Caesar never lived, I should not believe in his conviction but in some
+disorder of his mental faculties, and should advise him to undergo medical
+treatment. And so, if the new dogma is proclaimed and the clergy submit
+either tacitly or expressly, no cultivated man in all Germany will believe
+that the thousands of scientifically trained men who have had a German
+education have suddenly changed their convictions, because some hundreds
+of Italians and Spaniards have chosen to decree away the testimony of
+history. "Facts are stubborn things." Public opinion will recognise only
+two alternatives in the case of those who submit, ignorance or
+dissimulation and falsehood. And the effect will be an immeasurable moral
+degradation of the Catholic clergy and a corresponding decay of their
+influence.
+
+This consideration will not of course make the slightest impression on the
+majority of the Council, or even on those Germans who belong to it. We
+have psychological riddles to deal with here. How, _e.g._, are we to
+explain the fact that a man, who has taught the very opposite doctrine in
+a manual of instruction for the higher class of colleges published
+seventeen years ago, and has let it pass through eleven or twelve editions
+without a word being altered, is now in Rome one of the most zealous
+promoters of the definition, and is constantly affirming that all the
+clergy except a few professors will readily submit?
+
+
+
+
+
+FORTY-SECOND LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, April 29, 1870._--What I mentioned in my last letter as a pamphlet
+of Cardinal Rauscher's, is a printed memorial addressed to the Presidents
+of the Council, bearing the title of _Petitio a pluribus Galliae, Austriae
+et Hungariae, Italiae, Angliae et Hiberniae et Americae Septentrionalis
+Praesidibus exhibita_, and dated April 20th. It states that papal
+infallibility is beset by many objections and difficulties, which require
+an examination such as is impossible in a General Congregation. Among them
+is one of supreme importance, bearing directly on the instruction to be
+given to the faithful on the divine commandments and the relation of the
+Catholic religion to civil society.
+
+"The Popes have deposed Emperors and Kings, and Boniface VIII. in the Bull
+_Unam Sanctam_ has established the corresponding theory, which the Popes
+openly taught down to the seventeenth century under anathema, that God has
+committed to them power over temporal things. But we, and almost all
+Bishops of the Catholic world, teach another doctrine. We teach that the
+ecclesiastical power is indeed higher than the civil, but that each is
+independent of the other, and that while sovereigns are subject to the
+spiritual penalties of the Church, she has no power to depose them or
+absolve their subjects from their oaths of allegiance. And this is the
+ancient doctrine, taught by all the Fathers and by the Popes before
+Gregory VII. But if the Pope, according to the Bull _Unam Sanctam_,
+possessed both swords--if, according to Paul IV.'s Bull _Cum ex Apostolatus
+officio_, he had absolute dominion by divine right over nations and
+kingdoms,--the Church could not conceal this from her people, nor is the
+subterfuge admissible,(94) that this power exists only in the abstract and
+has no bearing on public affairs, and that Pius has no intention of
+deposing rulers and princes; for the objectors would at once scornfully
+reply, 'We have no fear of papal decrees, but after many and various
+dissimulations it has at last become evident that every Catholic, who acts
+according to his professed belief, is a born enemy of the State, for he
+holds himself bound in conscience to do all in his power to reduce all
+kingdoms and nations into subjection to the Pope.' We need not define more
+precisely the manifold accusations the enemies of the Church might deduce
+from this.
+
+"This difficulty then must be most carefully sifted before papal
+infallibility is dealt with. The Conference we demanded on March 11 may do
+much towards clearing it up. But the question, whether Christ really
+committed to Peter and his successors supreme power over kings and
+kingdoms is, especially in this day, one of such grave importance that it
+must be directly brought before the Council, and examined on all sides. It
+would be inexcusable for the Fathers to be seduced into deciding, without
+thorough knowledge and sifting, on a question which has such wide
+consequences and affects so deeply the relations of the Church to human
+society. This question therefore must necessarily be brought before them,
+before the eleventh chapter of the _Schema de Ecclesia_ can be taken in
+hand. It might, if you please, be separately treated. But, as it cannot be
+adequately judged of without a thorough examination of the relations of
+the ecclesiastical to the civil power, it appears to us very desirable
+that the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of the _Schema_ should be
+discussed before the eleventh."
+
+What first strikes one about this remarkable document is, that the German
+Bishops belonging to the minority--Martin, Stahl, Senestrey and the
+Tyrolese are of course out of the reckoning--are not represented here. Does
+this indicate a real divergence of view or only a difference of tactics?
+The former notion seems to me inconceivable. It is impossible that men
+like Hefele, Ketteler, Eberhard and the rest should have any doctrinal
+predilection for the system of papal absolutism extended over sovereigns
+and the whole political and civil domain. Certainly they too are so
+strongly opposed to the infallibilist dogma because it involves the
+mediatizing of all kings and governments. I can therefore at present
+discover no explanation of this phenomenon, and cannot allow any room for
+the suspicion that the persistently active curialistic influences have
+succeeded in dividing the German Bishops from the rest of the minority.
+
+What will the Presidents do with a document so serious, so moderate and so
+incisive? What have they done already? So far as I know, nothing. It is a
+principle, and has now become an habitual practice with them, to leave all
+representations and petitions of the minority unnoticed and unanswered.
+The directing Deputation, which is intrusted with the entire control of
+the Council, feels quite justified in adopting this line by the papal
+ordinances.
+
+The policy hitherto pursued by the Jesuits and the _Curia_ was, first to
+extend to the utmost the comprehensive office of the Church, as legislator
+for the nations and guardian of faith and morals; and then, by making the
+Pope absolute master and dictator of the Church, to assign to him all that
+had been claimed for the Church, so that he--acting of course in the
+interests of religion and morality, but simply according to his own good
+pleasure--should have every office, person and institution subject to him,
+and that the final appeal in every cause should lie to his tribunal. Since
+all this can only be secured and guaranteed by the infallibilist dogma,
+the inferences on the relations of Church and State drawn by the opposing
+Bishops form precisely the chief recommendation of that dogma in the eyes
+of the Legates, the Italian Cardinals, the Spanish and Italian Bishops and
+those of the French who are ultramontanes. They all say among themselves,
+if not aloud before the world, "That is just what we want; our very object
+is to get the doctrine on the relations of Church and State changed, the
+independence of civil society and the civil power abolished, and the
+complete temporal supremacy of the Church--_i.e._, the Pope--at least
+gradually established." It is not indeed advisable to say this as yet in
+such explicit and unreserved terms, but the reason why the infallibilist
+dogma is so opportune and indispensable is exactly because it implies
+jurisdiction over the temporal sphere, which the Pope can according to
+circumstances either leave unused and say nothing about it, or suddenly
+draw forth for use like a weapon concealed under a mantle. He has dealt
+thus with the Austrian Constitution; while he let alone other countries,
+whose constitutional systems must have been partly at least a scandal on
+Roman principles, he pronounced the Austrian Constitution abominable
+(_nefanda_). And any one, who wishes to examine the practical significance
+of this infallible judgment, need only go to the Tyrol and observe how it
+has been already explained there to the inhabitants by their enthusiastic
+clergy.
+
+At the audience, when he presented the French note to the Pope, Banneville
+expressed the wish of his Government that the discussion of the _Schema de
+Ecclesia_ (with the chapter on infallibility) might at least not be taken
+before its time--which was equivalent to saying, "At least give us time,
+for the matter is not yet ripe for discussion." Hitherto delay has been
+for the interest of the _Curia_, for it was expected that the minority
+would wither away and finally be extinguished; they trusted to the power
+so often proved of the Roman solvents. The article of the _Civilta_ which
+told the prelates, "We care nothing for your talk about moral unanimity in
+matters of dogma, and shall make the new dogma in spite of your
+opposition," was written _in terrorem_, and was meant to hold up before
+the refractory the terrible perspective of a contest emerging in the
+abortion of an impotent schism. The article has not in the main produced
+the desired effect, for the Bishops still hold together and bind
+themselves by writings and public declarations, and the number of those
+who can no longer with any decency desert to the majority threatens to
+increase. Now therefore it is the interest of the _Curia_ to allow no
+further delay, but to bring forward the _Schema_ at once.
+
+The Bavarian ambassador has presented the note of his Government, which
+appeals emphatically to the attitude of the German Bishops who represent
+in the Council sound principles on the relations of Church and State.(95)
+It cannot indeed appeal to its own Bishops, for three of them are active
+and fiery supporters of infallibilism and the supremacy of the Pope over
+Kings and States. It was previously thought impossible for a German Bishop
+to desire to see the day when the Popes could again grasp the reins of
+temporal dominion which had dropped from their hands, depose monarchs,
+give away countries, abolish constitutions, annul laws and dispense oaths
+of allegiance. But this spectacle we now enjoy! For the pastors of souls
+must be assumed to intend to make dogmas, not for a mere pastime or for
+the enrichment of theological commentaries and text-books, but in order to
+reduce the theory to practice.
+
+Pius did not say, when receiving the French memorandum, whether he would
+communicate it to the Council. But Antonelli has now stated that the Pope,
+though President of the Council, will not find it at all advisable to do
+so. That is only consistent, for every curialist regards the Council as
+under strict tutelage, and in fact only existing by the will of the Pope
+and living by the breath of his mouth. It is simply from care for their
+health that he withholds so unsound a document from his Bishops. Antonelli
+says he will not reply to it, as it contains nothing new, and merely
+repeats the note of Feb. 20, which is not strictly true. He adheres to his
+favourite distinction, "In theory we are inexorable, grasping,
+high-flying, as Gregory VII. or Innocent III., but in practice full of
+forbearance and compassion. We take account of human weakness and
+blindness, and, if the Northern nations do not acknowledge the
+prerogatives of our priestly absolutism, and desire to retain their
+political and religious liberties in spite of our theoretical condemnation
+of them, we shall not force matters to an open breach and shall make no
+use of the old methods of compulsion."
+
+Now are the Governments agreed or not in reference to the Council? They
+are no doubt all agreed in their aversion to the new dogma and the renewal
+of the Syllabus, but there is a great difference in their practical
+attitude. The rulers in some States mean to utilize the occasion for
+bringing about the entire separation of Church and State, _i.e._, for
+gradually extruding the Church and the clergy from all the positions of
+public trust they still hold, and reducing the Church to the level of a
+sect tolerated and as far as possible ignored by the State, and
+secularizing education, marriage and family life. This is the attitude of
+Belgium, Italy and Spain towards the Council. Out of Belgium there is no
+country so remarkably indifferent about the Council and its decrees,
+whatever they may be, as Italy, _i.e._, the Italian Government and many
+millions of Italians. The statesmen there say, "We have no Concordats to
+defend, for they have fallen with the old Governments; the State has no
+longer any concern with religion and the Church, which are mere private
+affairs of the individual. And thus the separation of Church and State is
+already in principle accomplished." I can vouch for the following saying
+of a high public official there: "There are hundreds of us who do not know
+whether we are among those excommunicated on political grounds or not. In
+a dangerous illness we may send for a confessor, and then we shall find
+out."
+
+The number of those who desire and aim at this complete divorce of Church
+and State is legion. Their view predominates in the French cabinet since
+Daru's retirement, and most of them view what is going on in Rome with
+satisfaction and hope. The more frantic and insolent is the conduct of the
+Papalists, so much the better in their opinion, for so much easier and
+more painless will the separation be for civil society. To make papal
+infallibility and the Syllabus into dogmas is in their eyes a step which,
+far from hindering, one should wish to see thoroughly effected. When the
+Church is caught in this net, she must assume the full responsibility of
+all doctrines and principles established by any of the Popes, and she has
+herself pronounced judgment on their utter incompatibility with the whole
+existing order of society. The State can then no longer go hand in hand
+with her anywhere, and will dismiss her. It is impossible to be ignorant
+that this view is widely prevalent, and is rapidly and powerfully
+increasing.
+
+
+
+
+
+FORTY-THIRD LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, April 30, 1870._--Now that the matter has gone so far, those about
+the Pope no longer make any secret of the fact that for many years--indeed
+from the beginning of his pontificate--he has formed the design of making
+papal infallibility an article of faith. A work has lately been
+distributed here, _Riflessioni d'un Teologo sopra la Riposta di Mgr.
+Dupanloup a Mgr. Arcivescovo di Malines_, Torino 1870. The writer says,
+"Could the Bishop of Orleans be ignorant that Pius IX. has always intended
+to define this dogma and condemn Gallicanism? All the acts of his
+pontificate have been directed to this end. Nay, we affirm distinctly that
+he believed himself to have received a special mission to define the two
+dogmas of papal infallibility and the Immaculate Conception.(96) And as he
+is under the special guidance of the Holy Ghost, his will sufficiently
+establishes the opportuneness of this definition."
+
+This was obviously written for the eyes of the Pontiff, whose whole life
+is surrounded as with a rose-garland of miraculous deliverances,
+illuminations and divine inspirations. And thus the veil is now dropped,
+and the time come for speaking openly. Up to the end of last summer, and
+even till December, the answer given from Rome to all inquiries and
+anxieties of Bishops or Governments was, that there was no intention of
+bringing infallibility before the Council and that the _Civilta_ was
+mistaken; the Court of Rome was not responsible for what an individual
+Jesuit might write. Antonelli gave the most quieting assurances on all
+sides. But meanwhile the Committee of Theologians employed in preparing
+the materials for the Council had already voted this new dogma, under
+direction of the highest authority, and Archbishop Cardoni had sent in his
+report upon it, which was received by all against the single vote of
+Alzog. The subjects to be brought before the Council were carefully
+concealed from the Bishops, and an oath of silence imposed on the
+theologians who were summoned, in order that they might come to Rome
+unprepared and without the necessary books, and might simply indorse the
+elaborations of the Jesuits as voting-machines in the prison-house of the
+Council.
+
+It is merely repeating what is notorious in Rome to say that Pius IX. is
+beneath comparison with any one of his predecessors for the last 350 years
+in theological knowledge and intellectual cultivation generally. One must
+go back to Innocent VIII. and Julius II. to find Popes of similar
+theological and scientific attainments. It is known here that, small as
+are the intellectual requisites for ordination in the Roman States, it was
+only out of special regard to his family that Giovanni Maria Mastai could
+get ordained priest. His subsequent career offered no opportunity or means
+for supplying this neglect, and thus he became Pope with the feeling of
+his entire deficiency in the necessary acquirements. This unpleasant
+consciousness naturally produced the idea that the defect would be
+remedied without effort on his part by enlightenment from above, and
+divine inspiration would supply the absence of human knowledge. This
+illusion has been and will be so common, that we need not have troubled
+ourselves about it, did it not threaten now to become a destructive
+firebrand. The public letters which have passed of late between the
+assembled Fathers on the absorbing question of the day deserve attention.
+They show the deep gulf which divides the members of the Episcopate. There
+is Spalding, Archbishop of Baltimore, who first wanted to help the Pope to
+get his infallibility acknowledged indirectly by his now famous
+_postulatum_, where the real point was kept in the background, when he
+proposed a decree that every papal decision was to be received with
+unconditional inward assent. But now, in his letter to Dupanloup, he has
+changed his mind, and wants infallibility to be openly and explicitly
+defined. So again in the _postulatum_ he had declared moral unanimity to
+be necessary for a dogma, but now on the contrary he considers a mere
+majority of votes to be sufficient. Two other American Archbishops have
+come forward in opposition to him, Kenrick of St. Louis and Purcell of
+Cincinnati. They say that Spalding's letter has fallen among them like a
+bomb-shell; it has hitherto been their custom for such matters to be
+discussed in an assembly of the American Bishops, but that has not been
+done in the present case, and he has written his letter alone and without
+any communication with his colleagues. Indeed he had previously advised
+them to oppose the definition of infallibility, as sure to produce nothing
+but difficulties, but now he has taken up just the opposite view, on what
+grounds they know not. The two prelates add that American Catholics have
+very special reasons for disliking the definition, for the notion of the
+Pope having the right to depose monarchs, dispense oaths of allegiance,
+and give away countries and nations at his will, is equally strange to
+Protestants and Catholics in their country. They think that Archbishop
+Spalding will find himself greatly embarrassed in America with his
+infallibilist doctrine, as has already been the case for some years with
+regard to the condemnation of religious freedom by the Syllabus. The two
+Archbishops, as one sees, tread lightly and cautiously. They are in
+Rome,--"incedunt per ignes suppositos cineri doloso." Still they assert
+with American freedom of speech, "We, and several more of us, believe that
+the dogma contradicts the history and tradition of the Church."
+
+The citizens of the United States, whether Protestant or Catholic, will
+certainly be astonished when the new dogma comes into full force among
+them and its consequences are brought to light, suddenly recalling a long
+series of papal decisions into active life;--when, for instance, the recent
+Bull (_Apostolicae Sedis_), with its many and various excommunications
+reserved to the Pope alone becomes known, and again the decision of the
+infallible Urban II. that it is no murder to kill an excommunicated man
+out of zeal for the Church, a decision which to this day stands on record
+in 200 copies of the canon law. And as a commentary on this the work of
+the present Jesuit theologian of the Court of Rome, Schrader (_De Unitate
+Romana_), will be put into their hands, from which they will learn that
+the contents of all papal decrees are infallible, for they always contain
+some "doctrina veritatis"--whether moral, juridical, or rational--and the
+Pope is always infallible "in ordine veritatis et doctrinae." Yet that is
+but one flower from the dogmatic garden, into which Archbishop Spalding
+will introduce the citizens of the United States after infallibility is
+happily proclaimed. They will then also hear, among other interesting
+truths, that according to the irrefragable decision of Leo X. every priest
+is absolutely free by divine and human law from all secular authority, and
+no layman has any right over him.(97) And they must be reminded, in order
+to make them more submissive, that in 1493 Pope Alexander VI. gave over
+their country with all its inhabitants, "in virtue of the plenitude of his
+apostolic power," to the kings of Spain in the infallible Bull _Inter
+caetera_,(98) and then drew the famous line from the North to the South
+Pole, which included whole provinces of the present United States in his
+great and generous gift. By virtue of papal infallibility they are
+subjects of the Spanish Government, and who knows if right and fact may
+not some day again coincide? "Res clamat ad dominum."
+
+
+
+
+
+FORTY-FOURTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, May 13, 1870._--The time for the most eventful decisions is come:
+to-morrow the debate on infallibility commences. The opponents of the
+dogma have taken every means to put off this decision, and now that they
+are foiled, enter upon the question with the greatest repugnance and a
+sense of being defeated by anticipation in the perilous contest. The
+diplomatists too, who had presented notes from their Governments to the
+Vatican or had been instructed to support the notes presented, made urgent
+representations that the existing order of business should not be departed
+from, so as to get the discussion of infallibility deferred. And then some
+Bishops made an attempt to move the Pope's conscience. They told him that
+by this undertaking he was sowing divisions among the faithful, shaking
+faith, preparing for the closing days of his life a terrible
+disillusionizing and bitter reproaches, and kindling a fire which after
+blazing up in various parts of the Catholic world would turn into a
+frightful conflagration. He was urgently entreated to listen to some of
+the Bishops, who were in a position to inform him of the real state of
+things in different countries.
+
+There has unquestionably for some time past been a certain vacillation
+among the Pope's counsellors, but never for a moment did they think of
+giving up the whole enterprise, and confessing themselves defeated. And as
+it was clear that, if the _Schemata_ preceding the infallibility question
+were discussed in their regular order, the hot season would set in with
+its miasmas, and the inevitable prorogation of the Council would most
+seriously imperil the dogma, the resolve to proceed at once with the
+matter, regardless of consequences, prevailed in the _Curia_. The
+Opposition tried to hinder this intention by a solemn act. A deputation,
+consisting of several Bishops of different nations--a German, a Hungarian,
+and a Bohemian Bishop for Germany--was to be sent to the Pope, with
+Archbishop Purcell of Cincinnati for its spokesman, to make the most
+earnest and direct representations to him. From fear of this
+demonstration, and in order at once to cut off all hopes placed upon it,
+the _Curia_ had the _Synopsis Animadversionum_ distributed in great haste,
+_i.e._ a selection from the Opinions of the Bishops, partly in favour of
+the dogma, partly against it. The opinions are about equally divided, but
+some represent more than one author. Thus _e.g._ 4 Hungarians and 16
+Dominicans, in one case 24 Bishops, gave in the same Opinion. They are all
+printed without the names, but some of the writers are easily recognised,
+as _e.g._ Rauscher, Schwarzenberg, Fuerstenberg, Krementz, Dupanloup,
+Clifford, Kenrick, etc. It is to be observed that some of these opinions
+are printed word for word, while others--of the Opposition Bishops--are
+cunningly tampered with, to the great disgust of their authors. But in
+most cases the reader cannot tell whether he has the opinion of a man of
+high position or of a nobody before him.
+
+In consequence of this rapid manoeuvre of distributing the Synopsis, the
+Opposition did not think it well to send their deputation, which
+accordingly fell through. The dogmatic constitution on infallibility was
+known here on the 1st of May, but was not published for eight days
+afterwards. The _Curia_ was evidently not yet quite clear about its
+tactics; perhaps the season might not appear sufficiently advanced, and
+they might feel more secure of carrying their point when the heat had
+driven the foreign Bishops away and the Council was left to the Italian
+and Spanish rump.
+
+The minority however did not cease to labour for the postponement of the
+infallibilist discussion. The certainty that the _Curia_ would be in
+earnest about it gave them somewhat more energy than they had shown in the
+debate on the Little Catechism. The voting on it on May 4 had been quite
+unexpected. For it had been resolved that the amendments modifying the
+text should first be voted on, and the whole text be decided afterwards,
+when printed and brought forward in the definitive form it had received
+through the voting on the amendments. But instead of that, amendments and
+text were voted upon on the same day, so that many Bishops--including
+Darboy and Kenrick--were absent, and the whole number of _non-placets_ and
+conditional votes together did not reach 100. This voting on May 4 was
+however provisional; the definitive voting takes place to-day, Friday, May
+13. The _Curia_ of course does not wish to have so considerable an
+Opposition left, and has therefore somewhat altered the text, but not in
+their sense. All the German Bishops of the minority, amounting to about
+40, will vote _Non placet_, as I hear, and the French also, with a single
+exception, making some 30 more. Several others will join them, so that the
+previous 56 _Non-placets_ will be augmented by most of the 44 prelates who
+voted _juxta modum_. The opposition to the Little Catechism may thus reach
+100 votes, and will certainly exceed 80.
+
+One might be tempted to ask why the Opposition, when it is so numerous,
+has no confidence of victory and is always shrinking from decisive
+measures. It is idle to suppose that the cancerous ulcer of infallibilism
+can ever be once for all cut out of the body of the Church, except by a
+scientific demonstration of its falsehood, or its adherents subdued
+without a decisive contest. This uneasy attitude of the minority arises
+from the want of sympathy and confidence among its various elements. The
+inopportunists are afraid of their allies not only hindering the
+definition but undermining belief in the doctrine and upsetting the whole
+Jesuitical system and school of lies, and thus exposing the contrast
+between the primacy as Christ founded it and as it has since been
+perverted. And the others judge from what they themselves say that their
+resistance will not be firm and persevering, and that they already think
+of yielding sooner or later. And even for those who hold the doctrine to
+be thoroughly false and unecclesiastical, it is much more convenient not
+to proclaim their conviction so roundly and maintain the opposition at all
+hazards, after the Pope has solemnly and formally committed himself and
+done all in his power to get the dogma defined and all condemned who
+reject it. For all who openly declared the doctrine to be an error would
+be declaring the Pope to be an innovator; and he must appear to every
+decided opponent of infallibilism no common innovator either, like any
+"doctor privatus," but the most fearful and dangerous enemy of revealed
+truth and the pure doctrine of the Church, since he abuses his supreme
+authority to impose a false doctrine on consciences by terrorism, anathema
+and excommunication. But it is too much to demand of the Bishops to
+express such judgments, or give occasion for such conclusions and
+alternatives. While they wish to hold aloof from so tremendous a conflict,
+it is their interest to avoid a collision which must involve such
+considerations. The more many of them are ensnared in the delusion of the
+present papal system, the more vivid is their desire not to be forced into
+so public and decisive an announcement.
+
+It is exactly those Bishops who are not the strongest dogmatically who
+display the most zeal in hindering the discussion on infallibility, and
+they have done a good deal to rehabilitate a force capable of resistance
+even after the abject surrender of April 24. This fact shows how little
+the astute and practised Roman Court has succeeded in gaining over the
+Fathers separately. The Hungarian primate notoriously signed the
+_postulatum_ against infallibility with reluctance, and he has since
+openly adhered to the majority as spokesman of the Deputation _de Fide_,
+after he had previously retired from the assembly of German Opposition
+Bishops. He has a good right to reckon confidently on a Cardinal's Hat;
+and yet it is known that he, like almost all the Hungarians, will come
+forward to oppose the definition, and will probably speak against it
+to-morrow. Ginoulhiac, Bishop of Grenoble, who is perhaps the most learned
+Bishop in France, after Maret, though his learning is of a somewhat narrow
+and old-fashioned kind, is by nature and education one of those who are
+anxious to find some middle way, by which they may at once bow to
+authority and escape the consequences of an inexorable logic. The _Curia_
+has long believed his theologian's heart could be won by well-selected
+citations, but other means have been also employed. After he had been
+named to the Archbishopric of Lyons, the Pope refused him the desired
+audience and also the preconisation, so that the diocese will have to
+remain many months without a chief pastor. But he continued firm, and took
+part in the compilation of a document, which might well become the most
+important in its results of all the declarations of the Opposition. The
+Bishop of Mayence was predisposed by all his sympathies and antipathies to
+support the cause of Rome in this Council, and he has often, as well at
+Fulda as here, repudiated the notion that the Pope's claim to
+infallibility is an encroachment on the divine prerogatives. For a time he
+was a drag on his colleagues, but the policy of the Court and its
+treatment of the Opposition has more and more alienated him from the
+curialists; so that from seeming at first in Roman eyes to be divided by
+an immeasurable gulf from men like Dupanloup, he has become a powerful
+influence in the minority. The pamphlet on infallibility, written at his
+suggestion, and addressed from Solothurn to the Bishops, showed his
+changed attitude. This publication is well known to have been for a time
+kept back, and it was only after a contest of some weeks with the
+authorities that he succeeded in getting it issued. As the contemporaneous
+writings of Rauscher, Schwarzenberg and Hefele met with no particular
+opposition, this hostile treatment of Ketteler was ascribed to the belief
+that the greater sharpness of the German protest against the order of
+business, as compared with the French, was due to him. Where the French
+text speaks of the Bishops as representing the Churches, the Germans added
+the remark that this was the more important to insist upon in the case of
+the Vatican Council, where so many Bishops were admitted to vote, whose
+claim to vote by divine right was doubtful.(99) This historical
+consideration has since been urged with great effect by Kenrick, whose
+decisive weight in fixing the value of the Vatican Council will only be
+known later. It was universally believed that Ketteler had co-operated in
+getting this passage inserted in the German Protest, and so one is not
+surprised that he should have taken a leading part in the last move of the
+Opposition. To-day a declaration, signed by 77 Fathers, has been presented
+to the Presidents, protesting energetically against the inversion of the
+established order in the interests of infallibility. It contains the
+severe remark that they well know no answer can be expected, but they are
+unwilling to let any doubts be cast on the freedom of the Council, and to
+have the Bishops made a public laughing-stock.
+
+They cannot take much by this move. The arguments against inverting the
+purely arbitrary order of business, previously introduced, are weak in
+comparison with the objections to the definition on principle, and to
+insist on them is simply beating the air. The majority only see proofs of
+their weakness and grounds for increased confidence in the obstinate
+holding aloof of the Opposition from the main question, and in the fact
+that men who are not real assailants of the dogma play a prominent part in
+its proceedings. Wherever there has been any talk of hesitation, it has
+been only in the Vatican and the Commission _de Fide_, never among the
+mass of the party. Pius may for a moment have shared the scruples
+suggested to him by two of the Legates, and the Deputation may have
+believed that the dogma could be established without any violent
+precipitation, and regretted the indecent zeal of the French, but the
+ardent infallibilists--French, English, Belgian, Swiss, etc.--have never
+slackened in their confidence or their assiduity. They still affirm, as
+they ever have done, that infallibility has no real opponents or hardly
+any, and that the leading members of the Opposition privately hold the
+view or at least have never openly rejected it; there are but few even
+among the _Animadversiones_ which deny the admissibility of the
+definition. So they think that there is a bait for every one of these
+troublers of peace, and that they can all either be won over by
+concessions or frightened into submission. The example of the Prince
+Bishop of Breslau, who is known to have suspended a priest for attacking
+the doctrines of the Syllabus, is very interesting in this point of view.
+If the Pope were to issue a Bull condemning the opponents of his
+infallibility, and to deal in the same way or--as he easily might--more
+solemnly and harshly with other doctrines than the Encyclical of 1864,
+Prince Bishop Foerster would at least punish all malcontents as severely as
+he punished the contemner of the Syllabus.(100) Yet in spite of all this,
+he is a member of the Opposition, and the majority believe it would
+probably soon melt away, if the Pope could resolve on adopting this
+policy. Moreover their leaders speak as though the Opposition had already
+incurred censures. They expect to make short work with the German Bishops
+who signed the Fulda Pastoral. In that document it is said, "The Holy
+Father is accused of acting under the influence of a party, and desiring
+to use the Council simply as a means of unduly exalting the power of the
+Apostolic See, changing the ancient and genuine constitution of the
+Church, and setting up a spiritual domination incompatible with Christian
+liberty. Men do not scruple to apply party names to the head of the Church
+and to the Episcopate, which hitherto we have been accustomed to hear only
+from the lips of professed enemies of the Church. And they plainly avow
+their suspicion that the Bishops will not be allowed full freedom of
+deliberation, and will themselves be deficient in the knowledge and
+straightforwardness requisite for the discharge of their duties in
+Council. And they accordingly call in question the validity of the Council
+and its decrees."
+
+Here in Rome the Bishops have to listen to these and similar observations
+_usque ad nauseam_, which their adversaries use only to remind them of
+this Pastoral. While denying before the world that the definition of
+infallibility was the object of the Council, or was intended at all by the
+holy Father, they at the same time wrote to Rome to deprecate it, being
+perfectly well acquainted with the designs of the _Curia_, and
+corresponded with friendly prelates on the means of averting it. And thus
+the other party may now say to them, "You acknowledge yourselves that the
+unity and strength of the Church is to be preferred to strict veracity,
+and that in so sacred a cause some measure of deception is allowable.
+Don't choose then to be better than your neighbours. You have already
+abandoned the ground of objective truth, and you may as well come over to
+us altogether." But the chief means of breaking the Opposition consists in
+the Pope's making the Bishops feel the full weight of his authority and
+compromising himself yet more deeply.
+
+The _Curia_ has succeeded in setting aside the attempted intervention of
+the Governments, and the battle will have to be fought out, as is fitting,
+by the Bishops themselves. In the mind of the majority it is already over;
+the Deputation has issued a reply to the objections of the minority, which
+deserves the most careful attention of the theological world. It contains
+a flat denial of the force of historical evidence, and closes with a
+repudiation of the necessity of moral unanimity.(101) This points out the
+road which the loyal Bishops of the Opposition must follow.
+
+_Postscript._--I have just heard that the definitive voting on the Little
+Catechism, which was announced for to-day's sitting, has not taken place.
+The _Curia_ had discovered that the German and French Opposition Bishops
+would vote _en masse_ against it. No regard had been paid to the
+representations and objections of those who voted _juxta modum_ on May 4,
+and accordingly this stronger resistance was foreseen, and the _Curia_
+shrank from appealing to a new vote. Matters remain as the voting of May 4
+left them, and it is hoped that before the next Solemn Session the
+minority will be split up by a more important controversy.
+
+
+
+
+
+FORTY-FIFTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, May 14, 1870._--The sitting of May 4 requires a more particular
+mention which shall be added here. The reporter on the scheme of the
+Catechism was Zwerger, Bishop of Seckau, who is a special favourite of the
+_Curia_,--forming as he does with the Tyrolese Rudigier and Fessler the
+little party of Austrian infallibilists,--a youthful and elegant prelate,
+whose Latin is seasoned with such terms as _portraitus_, _praecautionibus_,
+etc. He gave the consoling assurance that the new Catechism should be
+compiled by a Commission of Bishops named by the Pope, so that it might be
+"omnibus numeris absolutus." He added that unfortunately he could not
+introduce this masterpiece into his own diocese, but he would in principle
+vote for it.
+
+The question of the Catechism is of course closely connected with that of
+infallibilism. For first the Catechism will quickly and strongly inoculate
+the rising generation with the dogma, and secondly, as being a papal
+text-book, it will familiarize all the young from an early age with the
+notion, that in religion everything emanates from the Pope, depends on him
+and refers to him. Thus every one will be taught that not only all rights,
+as Boniface VIII. said, but all religious and moral truths, are drawn
+forth by the Pope from the recesses of his own breast.
+
+The notion is excellent, and does infinite honour to the Jesuits who
+invented it. It is like the egg of Columbus. One cannot think at first how
+it did not occur centuries ago to the astute members of the _Curia_. But
+to begin with, it would have been impossible earlier to fit this
+catechetical strait-waistcoat on such a Church as was the French; and then
+again a sufficient motive was wanting, for it is four centuries since any
+Pope thought of introducing new dogmas into the Church. The whole history
+of the Church offers but three examples of it. The first was the attempt
+of Gregory VII. and Innocent III. to alter the doctrine hitherto prevalent
+on the relations of Church and State, and to substitute the new doctrine
+of the Pope's divine right to exercise temporal sovereignty over princes
+and peoples. This did not succeed. The second instance was the attempt
+made from the thirteenth century downwards by the _Curia_, and especially
+by the Jesuits,--for which a long series of forgeries and fictions paved
+the way,--to replace the primacy of the ancient Church by something totally
+different, viz., an absolute monarchy, so as to destroy the power and
+authority of the Episcopate, reduce the Bishops to mere delegates or
+commissioners of the Pope, and erect him into the irresponsible master of
+the whole Church and all its members, the sole source of all
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction. This scheme too was wrecked on the
+opposition, first of the great Councils, and afterwards of the French
+Church. The third attempt, to make all Popes infallible and thus establish
+the sole and universal monarchy of the Pope, is now going on. And as the
+teaching of the Church has to be altered and enriched with new dogmas, the
+Jesuits who inspire the Pope have quite rightly perceived that a Catechism
+clothed with supreme authority, such as never previously existed, must be
+introduced throughout the whole Catholic world. This undertaking promises
+special advantages to the Jesuit Order, and so it has been brought before
+the Council, and forced rapidly and unexpectedly to the vote. So little
+had it been anticipated, that over 100 of the Bishops in Rome were absent.
+Another attempt was made in this _Schema_ to get papal infallibility
+accepted by a side-wind, by inserting a statement that the whole teaching
+office of the Church resided in the primacy, to the exclusion of the
+Bishops. It was felt at once that this would give the Pope a position and
+authority incompatible with any other, even that of the Church herself,
+and that the Bishops would entirely lose their judicial office in matters
+of doctrine. Partly on account of this passage, and partly on general
+grounds, 57 Bishops voted _Non placet_, among whom were Cardinals
+Schwarzenberg and Rauscher, Archbishops Scherr and Deinlein, and Bishops
+Dinkel and Hefele. It created a great sensation that Cardinal Mathieu,
+Archbishop of Besancon, also voted against it. He has only lately returned
+from his Easter visit to France, and is said now to belong decidedly to
+the minority. Among the 24 Bishops who voted _juxta modum_, were the
+Archbishops of Cologne and Salzburg, and the Bishop of Mayence. An
+interval of two days was given them to put into shape the condition on
+which they wanted to make their vote dependent. But we have already seen
+that, when the time was come, the Legates preferred not calling for any
+definitive vote.
+
+Are we to infer from the collapse of so weighty and pregnant a question as
+this of the Catechism that henceforth everything will be settled much
+quicker? I cannot say. But as early as January 22 the Pope declared, in a
+Brief addressed to M. de Segur, that the delay in the proceedings of the
+Council was due to the powers of Hell, for as it was to inflict on them
+their inevitable death-blow, they wished to protract it as long as they
+could. Pius is persuaded that, as soon as the Council produces its fruits,
+all faults and vices will at once disappear from human society, and all
+who are in error be led into the truth. That is expressly stated in the
+Brief; and these are no mere phrases, such as the _Curia_ frequently
+indulges in, but are uttered in sober earnest. Pius really holds his
+infallibility to be the divinely ordained panacea for effecting a thorough
+cure of mankind, who are now sick unto death. He is convinced that the
+fount of unerring inspiration, which will henceforth flow incessantly from
+the holy Father at Rome, will fructify all Christian lands like a
+supernatural Nile stream, and overflow all human science for its
+purification or its destruction. The Jesuits make the decrees, who are not
+indeed themselves infallible, but whose compositions, directly the Pope
+has signed his name to them, become inspired and free from every breath of
+error.
+
+The psychological enigma presented by Pius can only be solved by looking
+steadily at the two root-ideas, which interpenetrate and supplement one
+another in his mind. There is first his belief in the objective
+infallibility of his 256 predecessors, and next his belief that he,
+Mastai, has through continual invocation and worship of the Madonna
+attained to an inspiration and divine illumination of which she is the
+medium. This last privilege is in his eyes, as all about him know and
+occasionally say, a purely personal one, which his predecessors did not
+all experience. But it strengthens his faith in infallibilism, and--which
+is the main point--he is certain by virtue of this infused illumination
+that he is God's chosen instrument for introducing the dogma. And this
+higher certainty naturally leads him to regard the opposing Bishops as
+unhappy men snared in the meshes of a fatal error, who rebel in their
+sinful blindness against the counsel of God, and will be dragged at the
+chariot-wheels of the triumphal car of the infallible Papacy in its
+resistless progress, like boys hanging on behind, in spite of their
+efforts to pull it back. And therefore sharp rebukes--_verbera
+verborum_--must not be spared these episcopal opponents. Pius knows that
+the German and American members of the party are infected by the
+atmosphere of Protestantism, and the French by that of infidelity, so that
+they are suffering at least under a violent heterodox influenza, and
+require drastic remedies. But no one had imagined that all regard for
+decency would be so completely laid aside, and that the Pope would so far
+forget his high position as to actually descend into the arena, deal blows
+with his own hand, and assail all disputants with bitter and insulting
+words, as he has in fact done. He might have waited quietly till his
+unconditional majority of 500 had voted the dogma, and then have
+fulminated to his heart's content the plenitude of anathemas and curses at
+the still unbelieving "filii perditionis" and "iniquitatis alumni," in the
+forms that are stored up ready for use in the Roman Chancery. But he is
+too impatient to wait for the decision, and exhausts all the weapons in
+his quiver by anticipation. When the Bishops of the minority presented
+their first remonstrance against the new dogma, he had it announced in his
+journals that it was only from the lofty impartiality which became him
+that he had not received their memorial, as neither had he received those
+of the other party. But now this mask is dropped, and no means are omitted
+for overreaching or intimidating the minority. It is confidently expected
+that fear and discouragement will soon do their work in splitting up the
+Opposition. Many of its members recoil in alarm from the position they
+will be placed in by persevering to the last. It needs more than ordinary
+episcopal courage, it needs a deep conscientiousness and faith firm as a
+rock in the ultimate victory of the true doctrine of the ancient Church,
+to confront in open fight the triple host of the _Curia_, the Jesuits and
+the ultramontanes.
+
+And now for the first time the excellence of the Council Hall is proved,
+and the wise foresight of the _Curia_ in choosing it and adhering to it
+with the firmness of old Romans in spite of all entreaties and
+representations to the contrary. It is precisely adapted to the present
+tactics of the majority. The Bishops will occupy a number of sittings with
+speeches, generally read, seldom spoken, which four-fifths of their
+auditors, as before, neither understand nor wish to understand. For the
+majority know everything already, they are armed with a triple
+breastplate, and have their short and powerful watchword, which renders
+them invincible. Those who frequent infallibilist circles here may hear
+St. Augustine's saying quoted ten times a day, "Roma locuta est, causa
+finita est," or St. Ambrose's "Ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia," or that St.
+Irenaeus said every one must necessarily agree with the Roman Church. These
+are mere fables; Augustine and Irenaeus said nothing of the kind, but
+something quite different; and while Ambrose did indeed use the words, it
+was without the remotest reference to the Pope and his infallibility. But
+the words are quoted in a hundred books and pamphlets, and are used like
+theological revolvers which never miss fire. And then Mermillod will
+repeat in the Council what he lately said in a sermon here about the
+threefold manifestation of God in the crib of Bethlehem, in the Sacrament
+of the Altar, and--in the Vatican. Pie of Poitiers will utter some of those
+bold Oriental metaphors, which all France laughs at but which are gravely
+received in the Council Hall. Manning will commend infallibility as the
+one plank of safety for mankind who are sinking in the shipwreck of
+scepticism, while he sings a paean over the triumph of the dogma over
+history. There will be room even for some flashes of genius from the
+German infallibilists, the Tyrolese and the three Bavarians, if they can
+resolve on opening their lips hitherto so firmly closed. And then the
+African heat and sultry atmosphere, drying up the brain, which have
+already begun to press on Rome like a leaden pall, will come in to
+expedite the close. The majority will avail themselves of the right the
+Pope has conferred on them to break off abruptly the discussion, in which
+nothing has been discussed, and the Pope will appear in a Solemn Session,
+in the full pomp of the earthly representative of Christ, to proclaim with
+infallible certainty his own infallibility and that of all his
+predecessors and successors, "approbante Concilio." And thus will he enter
+on his new empire of the world; for he will then for the first time be the
+acknowledged master and sole teacher of mankind; before, he was only a
+pretender. The Bishops will bow their heads reverently under a profound
+sense of their own fallibility before the one divinely enlightened man,
+and the world will go to sleep to wake next morning enriched and blessed
+with the new and fundamental article of faith. The day of the promulgation
+will be a great day of creation. "God said, Let there be light, and there
+was light, and the evening and the morning were the first day" of the new
+Church, after the old Church for 1869 years had been unable to ascertain
+and formulize its chief article of faith. For the Popes were always
+infallible; "the light appeared in the darkness, and the darkness
+comprehended it not." From the Pentecost of the blessed year 1870, as
+Manning has prophesied, dates the age of the Holy Ghost, and the Church is
+for the first time really complete. As the Pentecost of the year 33 was
+the birthday of the ancient Church, so will the Pentecost of 1870 be the
+birthday of the new and infinitely more enlightened Church. Nearly all
+commentators now assume that the seven days of creation in Genesis are not
+seven ordinary days, but signify a great period of the world's history. It
+cannot then be taken ill if the Church, instead of distinctly putting
+forward her principal dogma on the first Pentecost, which would certainly
+have been the most natural course, should have waited nineteen centuries
+in the vain attempt to ascertain and formulate it, and have only now
+hatched the egg in the year 1870.
+
+
+
+
+
+FORTY-SIXTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, May 15, 1870._--Yesterday the discussion of the _Schema_ on the
+Primacy began, _i.e._, speeches were delivered for and against
+infallibility, for any regular discussion is of course impossible in the
+Council Hall. The Hall is really more patient than the proverbially
+patient paper, as long as the majority do not get excited. Things can be
+said there which would not be allowed to be written, still less printed.
+The names of 69 Bishops are inscribed to speak. Bishop Pie of Poitiers had
+already the day before, as reporter of the Deputation, exceeded the
+expectations generally formed of him. He had discovered a wholly new
+argument, to which he gave utterance with evident self-complacency. The
+Pope, he said, must be infallible, because Peter was crucified head
+downwards. As the head bears the whole weight of the body, so the Pope, as
+head, bears the whole Church; but he is infallible who bears, not he who
+is borne.--_Q.E.D._ The Italians and Spaniards applauded enthusiastically.
+On the 14th Cardinal Patrizzi spoke. The Pope, he observed, certainly
+claims personal infallibility, but he does not therefore wish nor is he
+obliged to separate himself from the Episcopate. Certainly not, thought
+the minority, since we must all assent to that claim of the infallible, so
+that he cannot separate himself from us Bishops or shake us off if he
+wished it. Bishop Rivet of Dijon carried off the honours of the day among
+the Opposition. Bishop Ranolder of Vesprim referred briefly but forcibly
+to the dangers into which the new dogma would plunge the Hungarian Church.
+Dreux Breze, who followed worthily in the footsteps of Pie, was this time
+eclipsed by a Sicilian prelate, who said that the Sicilians had a reason
+peculiar to themselves for believing the infallibility of all the Popes.
+It is well known that Peter preached in that island, where he found a
+number of Christians; but when he told them that he was infallible, they
+thought this article of faith, which they had never been taught, a strange
+one. In order to get at the truth about it, they sent an embassy to the
+Virgin Mary, to ask if she had heard of Peter's infallibility, to which
+she replied that she certainly remembered being present, when her Son
+conferred this special prerogative on him. This testimony fully satisfied
+the Sicilians, who have ever since preserved in their hearts faith in
+infallibility. This speech was really delivered in the Council Hall on May
+14. The Opposition Bishops see a proof of the insolent contempt of the
+majority in their putting up such men as Pie and this Sicilian to speak
+against them.
+
+Sicily is truly the land where faith removes mountains, and Pius would
+find himself among his most genuine spiritual children if he went to
+Messina. There the letter is still preserved, which the Virgin Mary
+addressed to the inhabitants and let fall from heaven, and the feast of
+the _Sacra Lettera_ is annually observed with the full approval of the
+Roman Congregation of Rites, when the excited populace shout in the
+streets "Viva la Sacra Lettera." The Jesuit Inchover has written a book to
+prove its authenticity to demonstration.
+
+A great many copies of the remarkable pamphlet _Ce qui se passe au
+Concile_ have been secretly disseminated--the Government naturally wants to
+suppress it--and it is eagerly read. I have learnt from a Frenchman that
+Pius himself has read some pages, on which he observed, "C'est mal, c'est
+tres-mal, excessivement mal." It is clear that the author has himself
+collected his notices in Rome. If its revelations show how every usage of
+former Councils has been reversed and all true freedom carefully
+destroyed, a further evidence of this is supplied by the statement of the
+official _Giornale di Roma_ about the departure of the Americans, where
+the Bishops are plainly reminded that they are liable to arrest, and that
+any of them who quit Rome without leave incur heavy censures. A German
+Archbishop, who had an audience of the Pope to-day, took the opportunity
+of speaking to him about the universal aversion and resistance of the
+Germans to the infallibilist dogma. It made not the slightest impression.
+Pius answered: "I know these Germans of old, who choose to know best about
+everything; every one wants to be Bishop and Pope." Yet it is notorious
+that he does not understand a word of German, and has never been in
+Germany or read a German book, even in a translation. But he reads
+Veuillot and Margotti, and hears the Jesuits at least three times a week.
+Meanwhile the Protest drawn up by Ketteler against the arbitrary change of
+the order of business was presented on the 12th of March with 72
+signatures. It contains, as I said before, the words: "We know well that
+we shall receive no answer to this any more than to our former memorials."
+
+All German Catholics count here for half Protestants. A German must here
+give special evidence of his orthodoxy, I do not say before he is trusted,
+but before he is reckoned a Catholic at all by the side of Spaniards and
+Italians. Above all is German theology in ill repute, and the mere word
+"history" in the mouth of a German acts like a red handkerchief on certain
+animals. The good times are gone by when Germany was considered the
+classical land of obedience in comparison with France, so copious was the
+influx of Peter's pence, the Jesuits, on whom the chief hopes are centred,
+have effected very little here except in Westphalia and the Tyrol.
+
+It is hard for the Bishops, even after a five months' experience, to
+comprehend the role assigned them, and to understand that they have only
+been summoned to receive commands, to obey, and to do service. It is a
+saying current among the Monsignori that the Bishops are nothing but
+servants of the Pope. "Just consider the monstrosity," said one of the
+youngest but most actively employed of the Cardinals to a French priest,
+when the famous letter of censure addressed by the Pope to the Archbishop
+of Paris appeared in the newspapers, "this Archbishop dares to speak of
+rights which belong to him! What would you say if one of your lackeys were
+to talk of his rights, when you gave him your orders?"
+
+
+
+
+
+FORTY-SEVENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, May 16, 1870._--The Bishops of the minority want to bind themselves
+by subscribing an agreement to vote for no formula which contains the
+personal infallibility of the Pope. A calculation emanating from them has
+been shown me, according to which the strength of the Opposition is
+undiminished, or rather increased. It enumerates 43 Germans and
+Hungarians, 40 North Americans, 29 French, 4 Portuguese, and 10 Italians.
+The number of Bishops from the United States who are considered to be
+trustworthy is especially worthy of notice. They have been greatly
+influenced by the recent publications of the Bishops, and particularly by
+the excellent work of Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis. When they first
+came to Rome they were nearly all inclined to the new dogma, but here
+their eyes have been gradually opened. The insolent and despotic treatment
+of the Bishops, the spectacle of adulation exhibited by persons who call
+themselves successors of the Apostles, and the lamentable sophistry
+employed in torturing historical facts--as _e.g._ the case of Honorius--all
+this has gradually filled these Republicans with disgust and aversion, and
+driven them to the opposite side. But clearly what has chiefly influenced
+them has been the conviction produced by the controversy that, if they
+take home with them the new dogma of the Pope's political supremacy over
+all States, they will be exposed to the contempt and hatred of all
+educated America. And as many of them are Irishmen by birth, they have
+been reminded that, as Alexander VI. gave the American peoples to Spain,
+so Adrian IV. gave Ireland to the King of England and thereby brought
+misery on the emerald isle.
+
+The Bishops of the Opposition know how to appreciate the strength and
+numerical preponderance of their rivals; they know too that, besides a
+cool calculation and passive subjection to the commands of their "lord," a
+certain enthusiasm and confidence also prevail among their ranks. There
+are first the numerous missionary Bishops and Vicars-Apostolic, who must
+certainly vote as they are told, for they are entirely in the power of the
+Propaganda, and Cardinal Barnabo is an inexorably strict master: the
+Orientals have experienced that. And moreover the Bishops engaged in
+converting the heathen say, "How conveniently the new dogma will simplify
+and facilitate our work with Negroes, Kaffirs, New-Zealanders, etc.! We
+have hitherto had to refer them to the Church, of whose nature and
+authority we could only impress a dim conception on their minds with much
+time and trouble. Henceforth we shall tell them that God inspires one man
+in Rome with all truth, from whom all others receive it. That is short,
+simple, and what a child can understand."
+
+But the main strength of the papal army consists in the 120 Bishops from
+the kingdom of Italy with the the exception of 10, the 143 from the States
+of the Church, and the 120 titular Bishops without subjects or dioceses,
+most of them created by the present Pope, who represent nobody but
+themselves, or rather him who has raised them from the dust and set mitres
+on their heads. That makes altogether 373 Italians. This chosen band will
+remain here patiently through the heat so unendurable to the Northern
+Bishops, and the question has been already mooted in the Vatican, as I
+hear from the mouth of one who is in its confidence, whether it would not
+be best to protract the affair and defer the final voting till these
+recalcitrant Northerners have obtained the permission which will be
+readily accorded them to flee from the heat and fevers, after which the
+Italian and Spanish prelates would vote the darling dogma with conspicuous
+unanimity. The idea deserves to be preferred to another, which is also
+under consideration. The Pope might issue a Bull defining that the moral
+unanimity, which has been so much talked of, is not necessary for Councils
+in voting articles of faith, and that a simple majority is sufficient. For
+it is thought that most of the minority Bishops, especially the
+inopportunists, would not dare to resist the new papal definition, and
+would thus be compelled at last to succumb to the infallibilist decree. We
+shall soon see. You may gather what the leaders of the minority think of
+the situation from a remark of Cardinal Mathieu's, "On veut jeter l'Eglise
+dans l'abime, nous y jeterons plutot nos cadavres."
+
+The two Bavarian Bishops, Stahl and Leonrod, have thought fit after two
+months to make a public demonstration of their assent to Bishop Raess's
+condemnation of Gratry. The explanation accepted here is that, after the
+Bavarian note had been presented, the authorities wished the Bavarian
+Bishops to make an adverse move on the conciliar chess-board; and as these
+two prelates would not openly contradict their King, the expedient of a
+very late adhesion to the effusions of the Bishop of Strasburg was chosen.
+
+It is commonly assumed that all the Cardinals are infallibilists as a
+matter of course, and the more so as this is at bottom the only doctrine
+which may be said to have been exclusively invented and built up by men
+who either were already or were soon about to become Cardinals. Still this
+is not quite the case. Apart from the non-resident Cardinals, Rauscher,
+Schwarzenberg and Mathieu, there are some among the residents who would
+gladly be dispensed from voting for the new foundation article of faith on
+which the whole edifice is henceforth to rest. But one of them said
+to-day, "We shall ruin our position, lose all influence, and become the
+mark of endless attacks. And as every one here has some weak and
+vulnerable point in his past life, he dare not expose himself to these
+fatal assaults on his character and honour from which there would be no
+escape." At the same time the Cardinal admitted that the whole College has
+so lost its influence and become so insignificant, that for six months the
+Pope has not once assembled them. Antonelli and a few favourites, with the
+Jesuits of the _Civilta_, are the people who now construct the history of
+the world and the Church.
+
+
+
+
+
+FORTY-EIGHTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, May 20, 1870._--The first week of the great debate is drawing to a
+close. The Archbishops of Vienna, Prague, Gran, Paris, Antioch and Tuam
+have spoken against the infallibilist definition. So much is gained; the
+Catholic world knows that it is represented in Council, while the Court
+party is robbed of some illusions about the strength of the resistance to
+be looked for. The only fruit of its better knowledge as yet observable is
+seen in an increased obstinacy and a greater insolence of tone. The
+Commission has already declared by anticipation, in its reply to the
+remarks of the Bishops against the dogma, that the denial of infallibility
+is condemned under pain of censure, and scientific arguments are no longer
+available. The giving out of this watchword does excellent service to the
+majority, who are very shy of theological arguments and treat their
+opponents as heretics. That far-famed courtesy, which has hitherto been an
+ornament if not exactly a real excellence of Rome, has greatly diminished,
+and the hypocrisy so long spun out has disappeared; it has become
+necessary to recognise the broad gulf which divides parties. And this has
+produced a tendency on the side of the Court and the majority to push
+their claims to the extremest point, to play for high stakes, and hold out
+no prospect of concessions beforehand. The minority is in their eyes not a
+power to be negotiated with but a gang of insolent mutineers to be put
+down. The mass of the majority have carried their leaders with them, and
+only passion now prevails in that camp. But the harshness and roughness
+the _Curia_ has thought it necessary to display has done more to
+strengthen the Opposition than the changes and concessions already
+pre-arranged will do to dissolve it. They have been suffered in this way
+to gain a position which they might never have won if the _Curia_ had
+exercised more foresight. Whether all the elements of the Opposition will
+be found reliable, pure in their aims and loyal in their hearts, the
+future will show. At present I only record the audacious policy of the
+majority based on cunning calculations, as it has been evinced in the
+early days of the discussion. But the majority naturally includes men of
+different minds; there are some who would like to be well rid of the
+affair, and others who would gladly discover a formula not looking like a
+positive innovation which might satisfy opponents, while the great mass of
+them want the blow to be struck so that, after crushing the Opposition
+within the Council, they may annihilate it without the Council also. These
+last have the upper hand in the majority, and will probably retain it till
+the general debate is over and the doctrine itself and its definition come
+to be discussed. They are led by cool, calculating heads, but consist for
+the most part of the uneducated and unlearned mass of the episcopate who
+have no independence, the people who during Strossmayer's speech presented
+the spectacle of a rabble of conspirators rather than an ordered assembly.
+To keep them in the requisite state of exaltation the speeches must be
+adapted to their intellectual level. And as they are more easily excited
+than controlled they do not of course exhibit the majority in a favourable
+light, and one may be prepared at any moment for the Council being
+disgraced by an outbreak of their frenzy. Nothing more of the kind however
+has happened yet.
+
+At the head of the extreme party stands the close ally of the Jesuits, the
+Archbishop of Westminster. He was the first to say out with the utmost
+distinctness that infallibility belongs to the Pope alone and
+independently of the Episcopate. The ultramontane speakers, Pie, Patrizzi
+and Deschamps, have vied with one another in their endeavours to get this
+extreme view of Manning's accepted, which they themselves did not all
+share before. The emancipation of the Pope from the entire Episcopate is
+the very turning-point of the whole controversy, the object for which the
+Council was put on the stage; infallibility tied to the consent of the
+united or dispersed Episcopate nearly all the Bishops would accept, for
+very few indeed clearly understand that even Councils depend on another
+consent than that of the Episcopate. But such a definition of
+infallibility would cost Rome the very thing she has laboured so much and
+sinned so much to gain. It is a great advantage for the Opposition that in
+this matter there are no formulas of compromise possible but such as are
+manifestly perfidious and insincere.
+
+On the 17th Deschamps, Archbishop of Mechlin, made perhaps the most
+important, certainly the most remarkable, speech delivered in favour of
+the _Constitutio_. He is considered the ablest speaker of his party, which
+notoriously has no superabundance of good speakers, and is said to be a
+superficial man who takes things easily. He not only committed himself to
+the extremest section of the party, but denounced his opponents as bad
+Christians not walking in the fear of God. The change of tone was much
+remarked in him, as in the Bishop of Poitiers. Manning exhibits the same
+change, who now maintains that all who do not submit to the majority might
+well be excommunicated directly after the promulgation of the decree. Two
+German Bishops, Greith and Hefele, spoke on the same day; and indeed in
+this debate many weighty voices will be raised from every land where the
+contest about the Church is being fought, to point to the practical
+dangers involved in the circumstances of the case--a kind of argument Pius
+is wont to put aside with a "Noli timere." Greith of St. Gallen spoke for
+Switzerland; as a learned theologian he declared himself against the
+definition on scientific grounds, and as a Swiss Bishop on account of the
+present circumstances of his country; for he is persuaded that his Swiss
+brother bishops, with their zeal for the infallibilist decree, are simply
+forging weapons against the Church for the Radicals. Bishop Hefele of
+Rottenburg touched in the course of his speech on the affair of Honorius,
+which must later on come into the discussion. Next day Hefele read
+Cardinal Rauscher's speech. But Cardinal Schwarzenberg's address exceeded
+all expectations and left a profound impression. Cardinal Donnet and the
+Archbishop of Saragossa, who spoke in the name of the Deputation, did not
+bring the defence any further or develop any new points of history,
+and--which is more important--gave no further information about the plans
+and hopes of the _Curia_ and the majority.
+
+On Thursday the 19th Cardinal Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin, spoke, who for
+twenty years has been the protagonist of Romanism in the British isles.
+With sound tact he chose the most learned Bishop of the minority, Hefele,
+for attack, and assailed not his speech but his publications. Yet he did
+not attempt to refute him, but only to prove that he had contradicted
+himself, since the account of Honorius given in his History of Councils is
+different from that in his latest work. It is true that in the History,
+where no doctrinal inferences were to be drawn, the theological
+significance of the condemnation of Honorius does not receive the same
+exhaustive appreciation and exposition as in the little tractate on the
+question whether he was justly condemned for heresy. But there is no
+difference of principle between the two works; in both Hefele says plainly
+that Honorius was justly pronounced a heretic, even if he was no heretic
+at heart. But when the two passages are separated from each other, it can
+be made to look as though he had maintained in the former that Honorius
+was really orthodox whereas he now declares that he was a heretic. But the
+process could with equal reason be reversed, and the heresy of Honorius
+shown to be affirmed in the History and his orthodoxy in the pamphlet. But
+what use would even an orthodox Pope be for upholding the purity of the
+Church's doctrinal deposit, if he used heretical formulas to express his
+own really true opinion?
+
+None the less however was Cullen's attack received with great
+satisfaction, for the ruling powers know well enough on what the Bishop of
+Rottenburg's opposition is based, and think to subdue German
+science--_i.e._, the devil himself--in his person. On the same day the
+Patriarch Jussuf uttered words that deserve to be laid to heart on the
+consequences such a dogmatic blunder would entail in the East--a
+significant indication that the Orientals are not prepared to bend
+obediently under the yoke of a decree aimed at their ritual and their
+rights as well as their tradition. The Archbishop of Corfu answered him
+next day. There is very little that can be properly called debating, for
+the order of proceedings is better suited for academical addresses than
+for real discussion; the practice of making prelates speak in their order
+of precedence makes any honest interchange of blows impossible. But the
+Greek coming forward to speak looked like a preconcerted answer to the
+Armenian. The Archbishop of Corfu insisted that, so far from the dogma
+rendering the reunion of the Greek Church more difficult, such a result
+was inconceivable without it, nor could the dogma excite any suspicion,
+because the Greeks found it in their tradition as well as their Fathers
+and Councils, and envied the Latin Church her infallible Pope. In evidence
+of this he cited the passages where the Pope's primacy is recognised. The
+great body of the Fathers listened to this with grave faces: it was only
+following the style of their own theologians.
+
+But three more important speakers had been heard before the Corfiote. The
+first was Simor, primate of Hungary, who was chosen, as is well known,
+into the Deputation on Faith and has shown himself a more zealous advocate
+of its proposals and adherent of the _Curia_ than ever. The majority
+believed that it possessed in him a master of Latin who could rival the
+eloquent leader of the Opposition, and Simor justified his reputation as
+an accomplished Latinist. But he spoke--assuredly to the no small disgust
+and amazement of the majority--as an unequivocal opponent of the proposed
+decree. And this implied that the whole Hungarian Episcopate would vote
+against it. He was followed by a feeble old man whose speech fell flat
+after that of the eloquent primate, and who could only be known to a few
+of his hearers, though he holds an important place in the history of the
+last generation. This was John MacHale, for the last thirty-five years
+Archbishop of Tuam and formerly the most powerful prelate in Ireland, a
+famous name in the days of O'Connell; but his political role has long been
+played out, and he belongs to a bygone age and an obsolete school. For the
+twenty years during which Cullen has been introducing Roman absolutism
+into Ireland his influence has been on the decline, and while he was
+expounding his antagonism to the definition to-day in a long and
+complicated address, men said to themselves, "magni nominis umbra." It was
+the accumulated debt of twenty years he paid off to Cardinal Cullen. But
+he can hardly be expected to have gained over any of his countrymen to the
+Opposition besides the three or four of them who already belong to it.
+
+MacHale was succeeded by the Archbishop of Paris, the most accomplished
+and skilful, and therefore the most feared, of all the Opposition
+prelates. Darboy was lately the most influential advocate of that system
+of dallying and postponement which has so grievously injured the minority,
+and was involved through his intimate alliance with the Tuileries in the
+unhappy policy of his Government, so that he had become somewhat less
+trusted and influential. So much greater was the impression produced by
+his speech to-day, wherein he declared distinctly and repeatedly that a
+dogmatic decree not accepted by the whole Episcopate could not have any
+binding force. A suppressed murmur which ran through the ranks of the
+majority as he spoke seems to herald coming storms.
+
+So far the Opposition has made its voice clearly heard. That it has on its
+side reason, Scripture and history signifies nothing for the moment; what
+is important is that it makes its strength felt, that it has won over
+waverers or doubters to its ranks, and that it has at last spoken plainly.
+The position of parties and the question itself will take many new shapes,
+when the separate chapters of the Constitution come on for discussion.
+
+
+
+
+
+FORTY-NINTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, May 26, 1870._--The intellectual superiority of the Opposition has
+made itself so sensibly felt in the course of the debate on infallibility
+that they have visibly won in spirit and confidence, while a decrease of
+the assurance of victory hitherto manifested by the majority is
+observable. There is no sign yet of the breaking up of the Opposition or
+the desertion of its members to the infallibilist camp. The Court party
+had confidently reckoned on a considerable number of mere inopportunists
+giving in and separating from the opponents of the actual doctrine of
+infallibility, as soon as the dogma came to be discussed. The latter was
+said to be a mere tiny fraction, who would eventually take fright at their
+own impotence and come over. But as yet this hope has not been realized,
+and there are many indications that it is not likely to be realized, for
+the course of events and their experiences in Rome, as well as the
+discussions, both oral and written, have converted inopportunists into
+decided fallibilists. Cardinal Schwarzenberg has spoken with great power
+and dignity, and even the most zealous adherents of the Roman dogma must
+have been somewhat impressed by his declaration that its effect in Bohemia
+would be to make the nation first schismatic and then gradually
+Protestant. It at the same time illustrated the conduct of the Jesuits in
+a way that will not be forgotten. When the Archbishop of Paris affirmed
+that the much desired infallibilist decree was not one of the causes of
+the Council, but its sole cause, every one felt what a bitter truth had
+been uttered, and that the veil would thereby be torn away from that web
+of untruths and dishonest reticences about the object of the synod, by
+which the Bishops had been deceived and enticed as it were into a trap to
+Rome. Veuillot indeed had openly said in his official organ at the end of
+April, that to decree the new dogma was the principal and at bottom the
+sole office of the Council. That was at the very time when about eighty
+Bishops put out their strong protestation that they had come to Rome under
+the erroneous impression, deliberately suggested by the _Curia_, that the
+question of infallibility would not be brought before the Council; while
+yet Cardoni had many months before, in the Commission on Faith, presented
+by command of the Pope the report which has lately been printed, and the
+whole Commission had agreed with him that papal infallibility should be
+defined. That same Commission, with the Jesuit Perrone and Dr. Schwetz of
+Vienna at its head, has now presented an address to the Pope urging the
+definition of the new article of faith, without which those worthies think
+they cannot exist any longer.
+
+The infallibilist speaker who created most sensation was Cardinal Cullen,
+Archbishop of Dublin. He gained the warm applause of his party by the
+aggressive tone of his speech, in which he attacked especially Hefele and
+Kenrick. He appealed to the testimony of MacHale to show that the mind of
+Ireland has always been infallibilist--a glaring falsehood, as is proved by
+the famous Declaration of the Irish Catholics in 1757 formally repudiating
+the doctrine. And it made no slight impression, when the grey-haired
+MacHale rose to repudiate the pretended belief in infallibility not merely
+for himself but for Ireland. But it is certainly true that in former times
+for more than a century the Irish people, like the Spanish, was victimized
+to papal infallibility. Every Irishman or Spaniard, who knew the history
+of his country, would recoil with horror from a theory which has borne
+such poisonous fruit for both nations in the past and may be equally
+injurious in the future. To acquaint the Catholic tenants in Ireland with
+the infallible decisions of Popes about heresy and heretics would be
+enough at once to increase ten-fold the agrarian crimes prevalent there,
+and would be the surest means for reproducing such a massacre as occurred
+there in 1641.
+
+When Cullen replied to the Archbishop of St. Louis, "non est verum," the
+aged prelate requested leave of the Legates to defend himself briefly. It
+was refused. Hefele was as little free to answer Cullen's attack, and has
+therefore had a pamphlet in his justification printed at Naples. A new
+work by one of the most illustrious of the French Bishops is also expected
+from Naples, designed to prove against the Jesuits of the _Civilta_ the
+necessity of moral unanimity for dogmatic decrees. Another Irishman,
+Leahy, Archbishop of Cashel, said such absurd things in favour of the
+Court dogma that his speech was considered a clear gain for the minority.
+
+There are 89 speakers inscribed for the general debate, and not a third of
+them have yet spoken. This opens out a prospect of the debate being spun
+out to a great length, oppressive as the tropical heat is now become. The
+_Curia_ still relies on the Northerners being tamed down. If only a good
+many of them would emulate the example of the Bishop of Hildesheim, and go
+away! The plan has often succeeded with English and Irish juries, of
+locking them up, when they could not agree, till they found a true
+verdict. But that won't answer here. On the contrary the longer the debate
+lasts, the more numerous the Opposition party becomes. At first many
+Bishops thought they might fairly gratify the good and amiable Pius, who
+won all hearts, even by making a new dogma, and give him the present he so
+greatly longed for. But Pius has completely cured his former worshippers
+of this disposition to make an article of faith "pour les beaux yeux du
+Pape." It has no doubt happened before that Italian Bishops have been
+treated by the Pope like servants, hired for the day's work and dismissed
+again if they did not obey the orders of the _Curia_. One need only refer
+to that parody on a synod, the fifth Lateran assembly, when Leo X.
+propounded downright forgeries and untruths to his Italian Bishops, who
+had to call themselves an OEcumenical Council, and dictated their votes.
+But even there no one ventured to treat Transalpine Bishops--Germans,
+French and Hungarians--with the insolent contempt now shown, to refuse even
+a reply to their urgent petitions and representations, and to make them
+drain the cup of humiliations and grievances to the very dregs. But the
+great task to be achieved in the first months of the Council was the
+kneading and manipulating the Bishops in all possible ways, so as to make
+them feel the immeasurable gulf between the master and the servants, that
+they might be more ready at last to sacrifice their episcopal dignity and
+ancient rights on the altar of Roman supremacy. When once they have
+assented to the infallibilist dogma, they neither can nor ought to be or
+desire to be anything else but passive and unintelligent promulgators and
+executors of papal commands and decrees on faith. That what is really
+required of them is to abdicate their office as a teaching body and
+themselves abolish their authority, Ketteler has lately declared without
+reserve in the Congregation; and he is a man who has profited much by his
+Roman schooling, though in a quite different sense from what his master
+intended. The Roman system of drill does not succeed with Germans,
+Hungarians and Americans.
+
+A note received a fortnight ago from Paris by M. de Banneville, to be
+communicated or read to Cardinal Antonelli, has created great excitement
+here, owing to his studiously concealing it from his diplomatic
+colleagues. Its substance is as follows: France renounces any further
+interference with what is going on here, and contents herself henceforth
+with taking note of the decisions of the Pope and the Council. The
+Government has done its duty, as a friendly Catholic power, in seeking to
+withdraw the Court of Rome from the perilous path on which it has entered.
+The attempt has proved fruitless. The _Curia_ seems resolved to ruin
+itself. France will maintain the attitude of a passive spectator, but
+accepts the altered condition of things introduced by this declaration of
+war on the part of the Roman Court. On the day of the definition the
+Concordat ceases to be in force and the previous relation of Church and
+State expires. The State separates itself from the Church and the French
+troops leave Rome. Separation of Church and State means in France and
+elsewhere that the budget of worship will be dropped, and the clergy must
+be supported by the faithful. And here I may mention a fact which has come
+to my knowledge on the best authority. When Count Daru was going to
+despatch his famous memorial to the Holy See, he wished for an
+interpolation in the Chamber on the attitude of the Government towards the
+occurrences in Rome, and a friend of his applied on the subject to one of
+the most celebrated orators of the Left, who declined, saying, "Rome fait
+trop bien nos affaires pour qu'il soit de notre interet de lui creer des
+embarras." The contents of the note mentioned above are confirmed by the
+words of a leading statesman at Paris, quoted by a Bishop who has lately
+returned from thence, that for his own part he considered the separation
+of Church and State in France inevitable. He had however assented to the
+well-meant attempt of Count Daru to warn the Pope, and if possible deter
+him from his short-sighted enterprise; but as that attempt had proved
+futile, it remained to take advantage of the blunders of the _Curia_. So
+enormous a spiritual power as the Court of Rome was aiming at was
+incompatible with the possession of secular power, and accordingly the
+French troops must be withdrawn from Rome, and matters left to take their
+course.
+
+Even now there is a wish discernible among Cardinals like di Pietro, Corsi
+and Bilio, to discover some intermediate formula, while the party men,
+like Manning, Pie, Cullen, and all who have been concerned in the
+agitation and have staked their credit on its result, hold to the most
+uncompromising form, as laid down in the existing programme. The latter
+reckon on their overpowering preponderance of numbers, on the power of the
+Pope, and the dread of ecclesiastical methods of coercion, such as
+excommunication and the like, whereby all resistance will be certainly put
+down. On the other hand, the Cardinals and members of the Papal Cabinet
+just referred to prefer to set their hopes on the hazy views and yielding
+temper of many Bishops of the minority, and think that an ambiguous
+formula might serve at once to delude and divide them. Their watchword is
+"conciliazione, un partito di conciliazione." But all their ingenuity is
+expended in the elaboration of a phrase which may contain in a somewhat
+allegorical and obscure form the infallibility and universal monarchy of
+the Pope. To this conciliatory section also belongs a man who understands
+the greatness of the danger clearly enough, and who so lately uttered
+words which have become notorious here: "This Pope began by destroying the
+State, and now will close his career by destroying the Church too." Yet
+the speaker of these words does not scruple to use his high position and
+influence for actively furthering the undertakings which must lead to the
+catastrophe.
+
+It is impossible for outsiders to form anything like an adequate
+conception of the complication of views and plans and the multifarious
+activity of the Roman _prelatura_. Things happen which must appear
+incredible to every one who has heard of the proverbial skill and gift of
+accurate calculation possessed by the ruling clergy here. Thus a member of
+a powerful Order is sentenced to six years' imprisonment by the Holy
+Office on account of an occurrence in a nunnery here, the convent being at
+the same time broken up and the nuns distributed over other convents. Yet
+after scarcely two years' imprisonment this man, who is unhappily a
+German, is brought back here, and intrusted with the preparation of the
+draft decrees for the Council, and now the Court trusts to its favourite
+"segreto del S. Ufficio" for the cause of his sentence and of the
+dissolution of the convent not coming to the ears of the Bishops, but in
+vain. The matter has created too great a sensation, and the culprit is too
+well known.
+
+Meanwhile the minority are being plied with reasons, which are only
+mentioned cursorily, or not at all, in the printed documents of the Court
+and the majority. They are told that all their own interests depend on the
+papal authority being preserved intact, and that the evils they fear from
+the proclamation of the dogma cannot come into comparison with this common
+interest. They are bidden to remember how far the Pope has already
+committed himself in this matter; since John XXII.--more than 600 years
+ago--no Pope has thrown the Brennus sword of his authority into the scale
+to decide a question of doctrine, but Pius has cut himself off from all
+possibility of retreat by his _Schema_, his conversations with many
+Bishops, and his letters of encouragement and commendation to
+infallibilist writers. He has declared, not once or twice but a hundred
+times, that he knows and _feels_ his infallibility, and wills the Catholic
+world to believe it. He might simply by a Bull condemn all who oppose it
+as heretics, and how many of the Bishops would summon courage to resist
+the Bull?
+
+As yet these reasons, practical as they appear, have not produced much
+effect. The Opposition grows visibly, and the speeches of its members have
+produced an impression quite unexpected by themselves. The words of the
+Melchite Patriarch, Jussuf, have kindled a flame among the Orientals too,
+and there are Bishops who tell me they had not thought it possible for a
+discourse in the Council Hall to produce so great a revolution of feeling.
+But I will not conceal from you that you may find in Margotti's _Unita_,
+which draws its information from the highest authority, news in comparison
+to which my statements must appear pure fables. He writes from here on the
+18th of May, "The action of the Holy Ghost is beginning to be felt; the
+Opposition diminishes daily. Cardoni has just issued his masterly work on
+papal infallibility, and now every one comprehends that it is the sole
+remedy and defence against the dominant pest of journalism and a free
+press. We must have a Pope who, being himself infallible, can _daily_
+teach, condemn and define, and whose utterances no Catholic ever dares to
+doubt."(102) So runs the statement in the _Unita_ of May 24. Inconceivable
+blindness of past generations, who allowed whole centuries to pass without
+needing or asking for a single papal definition! Henceforth the definition
+wheel, which the Pope is to turn, is never to remain still for a
+day--because of journalism.
+
+Thus does civilisation increase the wants of men. Our forefathers had to
+lead a joyless life without sugar, coffee, tea, alcohol and cigars, and
+stood on so low a level of cultivation that they fancied they got on very
+well without any infallible papal definition. But we, who are so
+gloriously advanced, require besides bodily enjoyments many--if possible
+very many--daily infallible definitions, and the Pope, out of sheer
+inexhaustible goodness, is on the point of acceding to the earnest prayers
+of 180 millions and opening the definition machine. Veuillot lately
+declared it was high time that the fact of the Pope's permanent divine
+inspiration should be universally acknowledged; Margotti says that we want
+not only this, but daily definitions.(103) In this noble rivalry of the
+two Court journalists the Italian has evidently stolen a march on the
+Frenchman.
+
+In my former statistics the number of Americans was put too high and of
+French too low. Only 23 Americans were lately calculated to belong to the
+Opposition, to whom must be added 10 Orientals, 4 Portuguese, 10 Italians
+and 5 Spaniards, making the whole minority over 120.
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTIETH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, May 27, 1870._--New speakers are continually inscribing their names
+for the debate on infallibility. And as only four can usually speak in one
+sitting, it is impossible to foresee the end of the general debate, after
+which the detailed discussion of the separate chapters is to follow. The
+minority seem resolved at this second discussion to enter thoroughly for
+the first time on the numerous separate points, exegetical, dogmatic and
+historical, which offer themselves for consideration. If the majority and
+the Legates allow this, the end will not be near reached by June 29; and
+after that date residence in Rome is held to be intolerable and the
+continuation of the Council impracticable. This last assumption I conceive
+to be mistaken. The Pope can very easily go to Castel Gandolfo for his
+summer holidays, while he leaves the Council to go on here. That it should
+consist of hundreds of Bishops is quite unnecessary; former Popes have
+known how to manage in such cases. Eugenius IV. had his Florentine Council
+nominally continued, after the Bishops were all gone except a handful of
+Italians; Leo X. was content with about sixty Italians at his so-called
+fifth Lateran Council. What is to hinder Pius IX. from keeping on the
+Council, after the Northern and distant Bishops are departed, with the
+Bishops of his own States and the titular episcopate resident in Rome,
+together with a host of Neapolitans and Sicilians? Some too would be sure
+to remain of the leaders and zealots of the majority. But the Court party
+can cut short the discussion and push matters to a vote whenever they
+like. The order of business enables them to do so, but of course this
+imperial policy will only be applied when the Pope gives the signal.
+
+Nearly the whole sitting of May 25 was taken up by a speech of Manning's,
+who justified the expectations formed of him by assuring the Opposition
+that they were all heretics _en masse_. But he left the question
+undecided, whether they had already incurred the penalties of heresy
+prescribed in the canon law. Ketteler's speech made a precisely opposite
+impression. Men were in a state of eager suspense as to what he would say,
+for he was known to have passed through a mental conflict. Ten months ago,
+in his publication on the Council which was then convoked, he had come
+forward of his own accord as the advocate of papal infallibility; he had
+come to Rome full of burning zeal and devotion for the Pope, though at
+Fulda he had declared the new dogma to be inopportune. I omit the
+intermediate steps of the process of disillusionizing and sobering he has
+gone through. His speech has shown that, like many others, he has become
+from an inopportunist a decided opponent of the dogma itself.
+
+Such a change of mind based on a conscientious weighing of testimonies and
+facts is inconceivable and incredible to a regular Roman. When some of the
+Vicars Apostolic who are supported at the Pope's cost signed the
+representation against the definition, the indignation was universal among
+the Monsignori and in the clerical world here. "Questi Vicari, che
+mangiano il pane del Santo Padre!" they exclaimed in virtuous disgust.
+That a poor Bishop, and one too who is maintained by the Pope, should yet
+have a conscience and dare to follow it, is thought out of the question
+here; and this view comes out with a certain _naivete_. The anxiety of the
+German Bishops about the new dogma perplexing so many Christians and
+shaking or destroying the faith and adherence to the Church of many
+thousands can hardly be mentioned here, so impatient are the Monsignori
+and Cardinals at hearing of it. People here say, "That does not trouble us
+the least; the Germans at best are but half Catholics, all deeply infected
+with Protestantism; they have no Holy Office and have little respect for
+the Index. Pure and firm faith is to be looked for among the Sicilians,
+Neapolitans and Spaniards; and they are infallibilists to a man. And even
+in Germany your women and rustics are sound. Why do you have so many
+schools, and think every one must learn to read? Take example from us
+where only one in ten can read, and all believe the more readily in the
+infallible living book, the Pope. If thousands do really become
+unbelievers, that is not worth speaking of in comparison with the
+brilliant triumph of the Papacy now rendered infallible, and the
+inestimable gain of putting an end to all controversy and uncertainty in
+the Church for the future." When I look at the careless security of the
+majority, I could often fancy myself living in the year 1517. The view
+about foreign countries and Churches prevalent here is just what Moliere's
+Sganarelli expresses about physicians and patients: "Les veuves ne sont
+jamais pour nous, et c'est toujours la faute de celui qui meurt."
+
+The finance minister has had the bad condition of the papal treasury
+communicated to the Bishops; a standing annual deficit of 30 million
+francs, and the Peter's pence decreasing! Some new means of supply must be
+discovered, and the extremest extension of ecclesiastical centralization
+and papal absolutism has always been recognised at Rome as the most
+productive source of revenue. Every one here believes that the new dogma
+will prove very lucrative and draw money to Rome by a magnetic attraction.
+It will make the Pope _de jure_ supreme lord and master of all Christian
+lands and their resources. The ultramontane jurists and theologians have
+long maintained that he can compel States as well as individuals to pay in
+to him such sums as are required for Church purposes. And there is no more
+urgent need for the Church now, than that an end should be put to the
+deficit of the Roman Government. And if it should be impossible or
+unadvisable to put in force these supreme monetary rights of the Papacy at
+once, still, when the temporal supremacy of the Pope is made an article of
+faith, Rome possesses the key which may be used at the right moment for
+opening the coffers and money-bags. And therefore the opponents of the
+dogma are regarded as enemies of the Roman State economy and the wealth of
+the Roman clergy; and the variance between the two parties is embittered.
+
+Meanwhile the Pope is never weary of carrying on his personal
+solicitations for the votes of the Bishops; he has the right of being a
+persevering beggar. But one hears less of conversions to the majority than
+of men going over to the Opposition; and the effluences from the Tomb of
+the Apostles close to the Council Hall, of which such great expectations
+were formed, seem to act in the opposite direction.
+
+A new system of tactics has been for some time adopted, in France
+principally, and is now to be introduced into Germany. The clergy in the
+dioceses of Opposition Bishops are to be seduced into signing addresses
+expressing strongly their belief in papal infallibility and desire for its
+speedy promulgation. This device has been pursued with great success
+through means of the Paris nunciature and the _Univers_. The French parish
+priests who, since the Concordat, have been removeable at the will of the
+Bishops and have suffered sufficiently from their arbitrary caprice in
+transferring or depriving them, see their only resource in the _Curia_,
+and the notion has lately been disseminated among them that the
+infallibilist dogma will procure their complete emancipation from
+episcopal authority. Accordingly almost every number of the _Univers_
+contains enthusiastic addresses, which might be tripled by making all the
+nuns subscribe, as they would do with the greatest pleasure.
+
+The plan which has proved so successful in France is to be adopted now in
+Germany also. The nuncio at Munich reports that there is a swarm of
+red-hot infallibilists there, and that the clergy are eagerly awaiting the
+news of the definition; the diocesan organs of Munich and Augsburg,
+together with the clerico-political daily papers, are quoted as
+indubitable testimonies, and the Bishops of Cologne, Augsburg, Munich,
+Mayence, etc., are told on high authority that they have nobody behind
+them, and that their claim to represent the faith of their dioceses is in
+contradiction with facts. There are indeed no numerously signed addresses
+to show in Rome, but the daily papers give weighty evidence. Silence, it
+is thought here, implies consent, the women and the rustics are certainly
+for the Pope. The Pope says in his supreme self-satisfaction, "Scio
+omnia." He knows the true state of things beyond the Alps far better than
+the Bishops; the Jesuits and their pupils and the nuncios take care of
+that. Hugo Grotius says, with reference to Richelieu, "Butillerius Pater
+et Josephus Capucinus negotia cruda accipiunt, cocta ad Cardinalem
+deferunt." So it is here, the Jesuits do what the Fathers Boutillier and
+Joseph did in Paris. Pius receives only what is "cooked," and twice
+cooked, first in the Cologne and Munich kitchen and then in the Roman. The
+German Bishops remember with some discomfort that they themselves sharply
+rejected and censured every declaration of adhesion, and violently
+suppressed the movement only just beginning.
+
+The Cardinal General-Vicar has ordered public prayers for a fortnight by
+the Pope's command: the faithful are to invoke the Holy Ghost for the
+Council, since the whole world presents so wretched an appearance
+(_miserabile aspetto dell' orbe_), and the longer the conflict (of the
+Council) with the world increases, the more glorious will be the victory,
+and then, it is said, will all nations behold miracles--which appears from
+the context to mean that, considering the opposition of the world (and of
+so many Bishops), the erection of the new article of faith must be
+regarded as a miracle of divine omnipotence, but a miracle which will
+certainly be wrought. Many interpret this to mean that people must be
+prepared for a conciliar _coup d'etat_. But as matters stand, it can
+hardly be supposed that the Court party will let matters come to a _non
+placet_ of at least 120 Bishops, nor would anything be gained by cutting
+short the debate. In the last analysis the main ground of the dogma with
+the majority always resolves itself into this--that the present Pope and
+his predecessors for many years past have held themselves infallible. That
+is the only ground on which the Dominicans, Jesuits and Cardinals have
+interpolated it into the theology of the schools. Pius might certainly
+define it in a Bull to the entire satisfaction of the majority, and
+thereby put an end to the contention of the Bishops. An end? it may be
+asked. Well, yes--the end of the beginning.
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-FIRST LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, June 2, 1870._--The debate drags on its weary length without any
+turning. Of real discussion there is none, for very few of the prelates
+can speak in Latin without preparation. As I have said before, academical
+discourses are delivered, almost always without any reference to what has
+immediately preceded. Only the majority have the right of reply allowed
+them. If a Bishop is attacked or calumniated, he cannot answer till his
+turn comes, which is often not for some weeks, as was Kenrick's case; and
+if he has spoken already, he cannot speak again in the same debate, and
+cannot therefore defend himself at all, as occurred with Hefele. But the
+members of the Deputation can speak whenever they choose; they interrupt
+the order and interpose as often as seems necessary to them for defending
+their proposals or weakening the force of an important speech on the other
+side. Very often they break in on the course of proceedings quite
+arbitrarily and without any connection with previous speakers. They have
+the stenographic reports before their eyes, and thus know the exact words
+of the speaker and can answer them while their opponents have no similar
+advantage. That all this implies an iniquitous injustice and want of
+freedom never occurs to the dominant party, who are on the contrary
+astonished at the kindness and patience of the Pope in allowing an
+opponent of his omnipotence and advocate of doctrines long since condemned
+to use St. Peter's as the theatre, and his Council as the occasion, of a
+persevering attack on his dearest wishes, ideas and acts. They ask
+themselves how long he will tolerate so strange a reversal of his plans
+and views. It is certain that his excitement has reached fever heat, but
+it has not yet been resolved to break off the debate, which is so far
+remarkable, inasmuch as according to the opinion of the Court it can
+neither have any practical results nor any character of sober reality. As
+they did not regard it from the first as a means for establishing the
+truth, it must now appear to them simply a hindrance in the way of the
+truth already ascertained. For those who attack infallibility, and thus
+utter error and blasphemy over the tomb of the Apostles, freedom of speech
+can be no right in the opinion of the majority, but simply a favour
+dependent on the pleasure of the deeply injured and offended chief. It is
+characteristic of the present stage of the affair, that during this debate
+there has been no disposition shown to interrupt the speakers of the
+minority. Signs of discontent have been frequent enough, but no further
+attempt to stop a speech by force.
+
+There is still an immense and unprofitable number of speakers enrolled.
+Above a hundred have sent in their names since the beginning, who might
+easily have been debarred from doing so, and the tediousness of the
+discussion is aggravated by the members of the Deputation, who lengthen it
+out still further by their frequent and usually prolix interpositions.
+
+The chief events of the last fortnight have been the speeches of Manning
+and Valerga for the dogma, and of Ketteler, Conolly and Strossmayer
+against it. The Bishop of Mayence spoke on Monday, May 23, when he
+expressed his opinion more forcibly and gave more offence than any
+previous speaker. He defended the constitution of the Church against the
+Roman conspiracy, citing the arguments contained in the pamphlet he had
+before distributed, and denounced against ecclesiastical centralization
+the same penalty of revolution, incident to a centralized State, which, he
+said, is already knocking at the doors. He gave his decisive adhesion to
+those who demand unanimous consent, and declared that he had always held
+the personal infallibility to be "opinio probabilissima," but could find
+no necessary certainty in it, neither "certitudo dogmatica" nor "veritas
+dogmatizanda."
+
+One might think that a man who is so unclear about the logic of history
+and the principles of morals belongs to the majority. However the
+impression produced by Ketteler's speech was favourable to the minority,
+and all who have watched his attitude before the last four months,
+especially at Fulda, must have recognised the decided advance in the line
+taken by the Opposition. Many think the conversion is complete, and the
+great wound of the Opposition--its containing members ready sooner or later
+to turn renegades--finally closed. The Bishop of Mayence was at first
+believed to be the author of the pamphlet he has distributed, but it was
+not composed under his eye or under his influence, nor even at his
+suggestion, and bears no trace of his mind. The general line is Maret's,
+but his leading idea, that in case of a conflict a Council is superior to
+a Pope, does not occur in it. Ketteler must have acquired a great deal of
+Roman experience and non-Roman development before he would denounce a
+papal decree to his country and his diocese as uncatholic. But the advance
+which he, like others, and more than many others, has already made, is
+unquestionably a gain, and gives a peculiar force to his words. But it has
+damaged and discredited the minority that so many Bishops are more careful
+about the position and influence of the Church than about the purity of
+doctrine.
+
+I must return once more to Manning's speech of May 25, as it was very
+interesting and important. He asserted roundly that infallibility was
+already really a doctrine of the Church, which could not be denied without
+sin (_sine publico peccato mortali_) or proximate heresy (_proxima
+haeresi_), and therefore they did not want to make a new dogma but simply
+to proclaim an existing one. In these bold but highly significant words
+Manning pointed to what many better men choose to be blind to. He no
+longer acknowledges the opponents of the doctrine as brothers in faith, as
+members of one and the same Church, since they do not satisfy his
+conditions of orthodoxy; his faith and theirs are not the same. He has
+been the first to proclaim this great truth in Council, and it is time for
+the minority to ask themselves, whether unity still really survives in the
+sense hitherto maintained against Protestants, whether the foe is really
+still outside and has not penetrated into the inmost sanctuary of the
+Church, for the temple must be cleansed before the nations are converted.
+The minority can no longer live in peace with Manning and his like, or
+imagine that the contest does not threaten the very existence of the
+Church. Manning has indeed said that he does not think the decree strong
+enough. The Spaniards agree with him, and an open difference on this point
+has arisen in the Deputation. The great majority would be glad to find a
+formula less offensive to the Opposition, but Manning has the Pope on his
+side, and gets him worked upon by certain sacristan-like natures, like the
+Bishops of Carcassonne and Belley, who have won the special confidence of
+Pius IX. through having a certain mental affinity with him. Manning's
+whole speech was an attempt to hinder concessions, and keep the _Curia_ to
+the point of forcibly suppressing the minority. And it counts also for a
+sign that the Pope is resolved to go all lengths. The fanatics would
+prefer the Church being exposed to the danger of schism to modifying their
+theory in the least particular, for the latter would be a humiliation for
+themselves, while the other kindles a contest the end of which they feel
+no doubt about. It is reckoned certain that of the Bishops who will vote
+against the dogma, not all have the courage for a protest, and that of
+those who do protest some will rather resign their sees than undertake the
+contest with the _Curia_ under excommunication.
+
+Manning's argument for infallibility from the condition of England was
+remarkable. It is unquestionably his chief motive, and what gives the
+stamp of sincerity to his position, to make Catholicism more compact and
+closely united in Protestant England. He hopes by means of the dogma to
+suppress those differences of opinion which are a source of disturbance
+and weakness, so that all will re-echo his words, uphold his theology in
+the face of a disintegrating Protestantism, and his policy in the face of
+political parties with the combined strength of five million men. He
+conceives that the Christian element is more and more disappearing from
+the Established Church and the sects of England, and sees a general
+dissolution of belief which offers a future to Catholicism as the one
+definite authority. But he maintained in the Council that the English
+Catholics were in favour of infallibility, and that even Protestants
+testified that it would strengthen his hands. That the leading English
+theologian, Newman, has spoken so strongly against the definition he of
+course did not say. It was only consistent with the bitter enmity between
+the two to ignore it. Nor did he say that the English Bishops present at
+the Council are equally divided--himself, Ullathorne, Chadwick and
+Cornthwaite being infallibilists, against Errington, Clifford, Amherst,
+and Vaughan, who are fallibilists. He read extracts from Protestant
+papers, stating that papal infallibility is the logical outcome of
+Catholicism; to such miserable weapons was he driven for defending his
+cause. Clifford, who followed him, had an easy task in exposing these
+misrepresentations and falsehoods. One point in his speech his hearers
+missed: he said that the mischief the definition threatened the Church and
+the mischief it had already done to the interests of religion in England,
+might be gathered from the letter of an illustrious English statesman, for
+the authority of which he could appeal to an Archbishop there present.
+This Archbishop was Manning himself, and the allusion was to a letter
+addressed to him by an English minister, saying in substance that in
+England it was the most vehement Protestants, and those most notorious for
+their hostility to the Catholic Church, who eagerly desired to see
+infallibility and the Syllabus made into dogmas, and that the present
+policy of Rome had so greatly increased the anti-Catholic feeling of the
+country that every step taken by the Government to extend the rights of
+Catholics and improve the social condition of Catholic Ireland met with
+the most persistent opposition.
+
+The Italian Valerga, titular Patriarch of Jerusalem, delivered on Tuesday,
+May 31, a more spirited, piquant and insolent speech, which I will give a
+report of in my next letter.
+
+The great debate may last till the middle of June, when it is hoped that
+the chapter on the primacy may be carried without difficulty, and the
+special debate on infallibility be brought to a successful end before the
+middle of July. But there is sure to be a lively and protracted discussion
+on the primacy, which may easily exhaust the patience of the majority, for
+the continuance of the present situation is a deep humiliation for the
+Pope and _Curia_. The Opposition, whose existence at first was so boldly
+denied, and of which there was originally only a germ in the Episcopate,
+subsequently developed in Council through the clumsy tactics of Rome,
+places the Roman See in an unwonted and what is thought an intolerable
+light. What Pius IX. and the Jesuits reckoned on accomplishing, first in
+three weeks, then in four months, at Easter, at Pentecost, on the feast of
+St. Peter and St. Paul, by acclamation, by unanimous consent, is not done
+yet and seems to recede further and further. The Roman people are losing
+their reverence for the Pope, though they await the doctrine with
+equanimity. They say, "Si cambia la Religione," and laugh good-humouredly.
+But I heard the words from the mouth of a Roman priest, "L'idola restera
+al Vaticano, ma l'altare sera deserto."
+
+It is certain attempts will soon be made either to cut short the debate or
+adjourn it and overcome the opposition by some compromise. Such an attempt
+was made before by a Cardinal, but the Bishop of the minority to whom he
+applied would not even look at the formula. Then the Dominicans conceived
+a similar idea, but were answered that there were strong reasons not only
+against the wording of particular forms, but against any reference to the
+question. Such proposals are sure to be repeated in spite of Manning and
+the fanatics. But the Opposition Bishops cannot entertain them separately
+without breach of word to their colleagues, though it is always possible
+that some formula or other may find friends and advocates among them.
+
+The rupture with France is a decisive one. In the first place a Bishop
+from the North of France has repeated here a conversation he had with a
+leading statesman in Paris, who said that the attitude of Rome was
+equivalent to a declaration of war against France, and that the Government
+had done everything to withhold the _Curia_ from its perilous course, but
+in vain. He himself opposed Count Daru's policy, as he did not wish to
+prevent what might lead to the separation of Church and State, but now he
+thought they were free to carry out the separation, as Rome had made it
+inevitable. The reciprocal obligations of the two Courts would cease, and
+therefore the occupation of the Roman States by French troops, for the
+spiritual power the Pope was aiming at was incompatible with secular
+power. At the same time the French ambassador uttered similar warnings
+here, and informed the Cardinal Secretary of State that he was ordered to
+do nothing more to restrain the course of events. Antonelli is said to
+have replied that he took the same view, but had not influence enough to
+do anything. It is of course believed here that the present administration
+in Paris is not strong or firm enough to carry out a policy which would be
+more after the mind of Prince Napoleon than of the Emperor. But the
+_Curia_ underrates the offence given to France by the quiet contempt with
+which both Daru's notes were treated.
+
+Meanwhile the incense is being constantly swung before Pius, so that the
+clouds of homage conceal the abyss to which he is drawing on the Church.
+There is great agitation going on among the French as well as the Italian
+clergy, with a view to securing their votes for infallibility and also
+presents of money. Their expressions not seldom exceed in devotion to Pius
+everything of the kind ever heard of before; and it seems as if the old
+canon law sycophants had come back to life, who made no scruple of
+designating the Pope God and Vice-God. Let us give two examples. One of
+these true sons of the Church in Italy submits by anticipation to whatever
+Pius chooses to define, whether with the approval of the Council or by his
+own sole authority. Seven priests from Cuneo bring these verses--
+
+
+    Parla, O Gran Pio,
+    Cio che sona il tuo labbro,
+    Non e voce mortal, voce e di Dio.
+
+
+The international Committee of the minority thought it necessary that a
+treatise should be expressly composed to discuss the weighty question of
+moral unanimity being required for dogmatic decrees, and Dupanloup has
+undertaken the task. He had a pamphlet on the subject printed at Naples
+and laid before the Fathers. He first proves from history that this
+condition was never wanting in any Councils which count as oecumenical, and
+was distinctly recognised and maintained at Trent by the Pope himself. He
+then examines the opinions of the chief theologians of all ages, including
+St. Vincent of Lerins and St. Augustine, and Popes Leo I., Vigilius and
+Gregory the Great, who all agree in making moral unanimity an
+indispensable condition for a decree on faith. He proceeds to observe that
+in matters of discipline and canon law a numerical majority is enough, as
+decisions of that kind may be altered afterwards, but for a dogma there
+must be moral unanimity of the Council and the Churches to whose faith it
+bears witness, or else Catholicism would be annihilated. But great
+theologians and theological schools of former ages opposed papal
+infallibility, and it is opposed now by a large number of Bishops at the
+Vatican Council representing great Churches and Catholic nations. A
+Council is only then infallible when the assembled Bishops of the whole
+Church bear witness to the faith inherited from the beginning. The
+majority must therefore either convert the minority to their views by free
+discussion or give up their design; were they to suppress the minority by
+mere brute force of numbers, that would be unconciliar and unprecedented
+in Church history. It is not mere probability but unquestionable certainty
+that is required for defining a dogma, and a considerable number of
+distinguished members of the Council have no such firm belief in papal
+infallibility. To define it in spite of this would be to act as judges and
+masters of faith, not as its depositaries and witnesses. A minority
+denying a dogma which had been the perpetual belief of the Church would be
+in the wrong, but not a minority repudiating the definition of a doctrine
+which had never been held an article of faith. Even the Pope cannot by his
+authority raise the decision of a mere majority to the dignity of a dogma,
+for he only promulgates decrees on faith "sacro approbante Concilio," and
+without moral unanimity the Council has not approved. The words of the
+Bishop of Orleans are directed principally against the _Civilta_, which
+has notoriously laboured to establish the opposite hypothesis, and he
+asks, "Are we at a Council or not? If we are, the rules of Councils must
+be observed, or else a great assembly of Bishops is reduced simply to
+playing the part of a theatrical exhibition."
+
+Dupanloup goes on to remark on the storms and incalculable evils which the
+definition of papal infallibility would bring on the Church and the
+Papacy. He concludes with these words: "If ever moral unanimity was
+requisite for a dogmatic decision, it is so at a Council like the Vatican,
+where there are 276 Italian Bishops, of whom 143 belong to the States of
+the Church; 43 Cardinals, of whom 23 are not Bishops or have no Sees; 120
+Archbishops or Bishops _in partibus_, and 51 Abbots or Generals of
+Orders--while the Bishops present from all Catholic countries of Europe,
+exclusive of Italy, only number 265, so that the Patriarchs, Primates,
+Archbishops, and diocesan Bishops of the whole world are outnumbered by
+the diocesan Bishops of Italy alone.(104) At a Council so composed a mere
+majority can never decide; and the less so when the personal intervention
+of the Pope makes itself felt, when the freedom of the Bishops is so
+seriously hampered, and in so many ways, when the question of
+infallibility has been so unscrupulously and violently brought forward for
+discussion by a mere sovereign act--a sort of _coup d'etat_--when
+consciences are tormented and a number of writings are issued which have
+created a great sensation and give evidence of the anxiety of the
+faithful, and when lastly the Bishops themselves let a cry escape from
+their tortured hearts which the whole press re-echoes. Under such
+circumstances it is impossible to settle the matter by a mere _coup_ of
+the majority; and if it is done all kinds of mischief must be feared. Nor
+is it I alone who say so; there are 100 Bishops who say, 'An intolerable
+burden would be laid on our consciences. We should fear that the
+oecumenical character of the Council would be called in question, and
+abundant materials supplied to the enemies of religion for assailing the
+Holy See and the Council, and that it would be without authority in the
+eyes of the Christian world, as having been no true and no free Council.
+And in these troubled times no greater evil can well be conceived.' "
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-SECOND LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, June 3, 1870._--Valerga attacked the "Gallicans," drawing a parallel
+between the Pope and Christ, and between the Fallibilists and
+Monothelites. As in Christ the human will co-existed with the divine, so
+in the Pope may personal infallibility co-exist with moral sinfulness, and
+to conclude from the former against the latter--to draw an argument from
+scandals in papal history against the _privilegium inerrantiae_--is
+analogous to the error of the Monothelites, who denied the possibility of
+a human will subject to sin co-existing with the divine will in the same
+person. Never has the well-known spirit of the Roman _Curia_ shown itself
+so openly and with such technical adroitness as in this carefully
+elaborated and minute accusation against the Opposition. As Archbishop
+Purcell of Cincinnati expressed it, it was "exemplum sophismatum artis ad
+instar congestorum," and great expectations might be formed of its
+salutary effect on the French. Purcell answered shortly and pointedly that
+the charge applied equally to the Council of Trent and the sixth, seventh,
+and eighth OEcumenical Councils, and that he and his colleagues were
+content to endure the patriarch's anathema in such good company. Even
+Bellarmine quotes a whole cloud of witnesses against infallibilism, and
+neither he nor later writers had refuted them. It is a matter of
+thankfulness to God that he has never suffered this opinion to gain
+dogmatic authority. Purcell then cited clenching proofs of the public
+erroneous teaching of Popes, and among them the history of the ordinations
+and reordinations of Formosus and Sergius. The standpoint which he took as
+a republican was interesting. He said that the Church was the freest
+society in the world, and was loved as such by its American sons, for the
+Americans abhorred every doctrine opposed to civil and spiritual freedom.
+As kings existed for the good of the peoples, so Popes for the good of the
+Church, and not _vice versa_. Perhaps he was thinking of the words of the
+absolutist Louis XIV., "La nation ne fait pas corps en France, elle reside
+tout entiere dans la personne du roi." For "nation" put "Eglise," and the
+words describe precisely the papal system, as it is now intended to be
+made exclusively dominant by means of the Council.
+
+The most important speech in this sitting, and one of the most remarkable
+theologically since the opening of the Council, was that of Conolly,
+Archbishop of Halifax. Formerly an unhesitating adherent of personal
+infallibility he had come here without having specially studied the
+question, and under the full belief that the _Allgemeine Zeitung_ had
+calumniated the Roman See in representing this dogma as the real object of
+the Council. But when he found what was expected of him here, he
+instituted a searching examination, and thoroughly sifted, as he said,
+what the classical Roman theologians cite for their favourite doctrine. He
+now frankly submitted to the Council the result of his studies,--that the
+whole of Christian antiquity explains the stock passages of Scripture
+alleged for papal infallibility in a different sense from the _Schema_,
+and bears witness against the theory that the Pope alone, without the
+Bishops or even in opposition to them (_etiam omnibus invitis et
+contradicentibus_), is infallible. But what our Lord has not spoken, even
+though it was certain metaphysically or physically, can never become the
+basis of an article of faith, for faith comes by hearing, and hearing is
+not by science, but by the words of Christ. It is the speciality of
+Catholicism not to interpret passages of Scripture singly and by mere
+critical exegesis, but in the light of tradition and in harmony with the
+Fathers. To found a dogma on the rejection of the traditional
+interpretation would be pure Protestantism. It is not therefore the words
+of Scripture simply but the true sense, as revealed by God and attested by
+the perpetual and unanimous consent of the Fathers, which all are pledged
+by oath to follow, that must be called the real revelation of God. To cite
+modern theologians, as Bellarmine does, is nothing to the purpose. I will
+have nothing, he said, but the indubitable word of God made into a dogma.
+The opinions of 10,000 theologians do not suffice me. And no theologian
+should be quoted who lived after the Isidorian forgeries. But no single
+passage of Fathers or Councils can be quoted from that earlier time of
+genuine tradition, which affirms the Pope's dogmatic independence of the
+rest of the Episcopate. If there be any such, let it be shown; but there
+is none, and innumerable and conclusive testimonies can be cited on the
+other side. Even at the Apostolic Council at Jerusalem St. James proved
+the teaching of Peter by the Prophets, and appealed to it because it
+agreed with theirs and not on account of his authority. Conolly was ready
+for his part to believe that no Pope could wilfully and knowingly become
+heretical,--_i.e._, persistently hold out against all the rest of the
+Church; but that did not prove papal infallibility, and to define it would
+be to bring the Vatican Council into contradiction with the three Councils
+which condemned Honorius, to narrow the gates of heaven, repel the East,
+and proclaim not peace but war. To those who said, "Pereant populi sed
+promulgetur dogma," Conolly replied that the loss of one soul was serious
+enough to outweigh all the advantages looked for from the new dogma. He
+declared, against Manning, that no one was justified in calling an opinion
+"proximate heresy" which the Church had not condemned as such; for it was
+a duty to follow and not to anticipate her sentence. A Pope had said that
+no one should censure a doctrine before the Holy See had spoken, and the
+Penitentiary had declared in 1831 that the Gallican Articles were not
+under any censure. He had worked thirty-three years among Protestants, and
+could testify that what Manning affirmed was the reverse of the truth.
+
+Conolly is a man who is on the whole in tolerable harmony with Roman
+views, but who is therefore all the more resolved to vote against
+infallibility. While he forbids the Gallican doctrine being taught in his
+diocese, he protests here against the Roman. There is evidently a process
+going on in his mind, which in so cultivated a theologian can have but one
+result. He ended by declaring that he would accept the definition if the
+Council proclaimed it, for he was convinced that God was among them. But
+that merely meant that he was convinced the dogma would never be
+proclaimed. On the strength of that conviction he was almost the first
+speaker who briefly but decisively maintained the doctrine to be
+untenable.
+
+Yesterday, Thursday, Vancsa, Bishop of Fogarasch, of the Greek Rite,
+quoted the testimonies of Greek Fathers against infallibility, and his
+speech was thought a remarkable one. Dreux-Breze of Moulins followed him,
+and again had the misfortune immediately to precede Strossmayer. He
+contended that, as the Pope is supreme teacher, and the French call him
+"Souverain Pontife," and he is the highest judge, he must be infallible.
+As Vicar of Christ, he is also king, for Christ said to Pilate, "Thou
+rightly callest me king," and the royal title was affixed to the cross.
+But if Christ was infallible as king, so is the Pope. He supported all
+this by texts of Scripture, and spoke against the Fathers who accused the
+Pope of despotism or maintained that the new dogma would be the formal
+introduction of the grossest despotism. Without the Pope, who is
+"Episcopus universalis," and can seldom exercise his office on account of
+the number of the faithful and of his labours, the Bishops have no
+jurisdiction, and cannot even absolve without powers derived from him.
+"Let us therefore go on," he concluded, "to unity and agreement, and give
+Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and the Pope what belongs to the Pope."
+
+Strossmayer followed him, and declared that papal infallibility was
+against the constitution of the Church, the rights of the Bishops and
+Councils, and the immutable rule of faith. He explained the constitution
+of the Church according to the holy Fathers and especially St. Cyprian
+(_De Unitate Ecclesiae_), who did not hold their jurisdiction to be limited
+to their dioceses, since by virtue of their character they often had to
+exercise authority in the concerns of the universal Church, and were
+obliged to do so, as, _e.g._, in Councils. This sharing of authority and
+rights between the Pope and the Episcopate was evident from the
+controversy between Pope Stephen and Cyprian in the third century about
+the rebaptism of heretics, in which the latter did not the least admit any
+personal and absolute infallibility bestowed on the Pope by our Lord. And
+St. Augustine defended him on the ground that the question had not yet
+been decided by a General Council, which shows that the sole authority in
+matters of faith and morals was in his opinion a General Council, united
+with its head.
+
+Strossmayer took this opportunity of vindicating the French Church
+admirably from the calumnies and attacks of the Patriarch of Jerusalem. He
+complained indignantly of a Church which had come forth pure and
+victorious from the bitterest persecution, and which boasted such great
+martyrs and confessors, being slandered by the comparison of so-called
+Gallicanism to Monothelitism, and of those great men being libelled who
+during life had rendered such conspicuous services to the Church of God,
+as well as their successors who had made wonderful and exceptional
+sacrifices for the Church and the Holy See. Strossmayer blamed the
+Patriarch's vague and general statements about the constitution of the
+Church, and advised him to bring arguments from positive tradition, which
+were alone of any decisive force. He proceeded to insist on the power and
+necessity of General Councils, especially in our days, and he proved the
+necessity of their being frequently held from the conduct of the Apostles,
+from the holy Fathers, and from the Councils of Constance and Trent. But
+if once the personal infallibility of the Pope were defined, Councils
+would become superfluous and useless, and the Bishops would be robbed of
+their authority as witnesses and judges of faith. In the one way the
+greatest injury would be done to the prosperity of the Church, and in the
+other the rights of Bishops would be reduced to a mere assent, so that
+they would hardly any longer be consultors and theologians; but this would
+be clearly against the unchangeable constitution of the Church and the
+usage of Councils, as for instance that of Chalcedon, where the Bishops
+most unmistakeably exercised the office of judges as regarded the Letter
+of Pope Leo. The Bishops could make no such concession without betraying
+their authority, and casting a slur on their predecessors at the Council
+of Trent, who are well known to have so emphatically vindicated their
+freedom and rights, when the two words "proponentibus Legatis" were
+inserted by the Legates against their will. And the speaker praised the
+wisdom of the Council of Trent in resolving to abstain from deciding any
+questions which might give occasion for discord or for prejudicing the
+rights and freedom of the Bishops.
+
+In the last part of his speech Strossmayer discussed the Catholic rule of
+faith, which had been completely changed and violated by the comments of
+the members of the Deputation of Faith on the _Schema_. The principle of
+at least moral unanimity was, he said, a sacred one, corresponding to
+precedent and pleasing to the faithful. There were whole volumes of the
+holy Fathers extant on this principle, as of Irenaeus, Tertullian,
+Augustine and Vincent of Lerins, who in common with all others maintained
+that there are three essential conditions for proving a divine tradition
+and propounding an article of faith, antiquity, universality and
+agreement. They all thought the tradition of the Roman Church a principal
+river, whereby the whole earth was watered, but they regarded the
+traditions of the other Churches also as tributaries by which the river
+must be constantly fed, or it would in course of time be dried up. They
+all ascribed the first authority to the witness of St. Peter's successor,
+but that authority was only manifested clearly to the Catholic world after
+being reinforced by the consent of all the other Churches. This divine
+rule would be completely overset by the personal infallibility of the
+Pope, to the great injury of faith. If it is said that the definition is
+earnestly desired by many, it must be replied that it is also desired by
+the worst enemies of the Church, who openly say in writing and by word of
+mouth that it is the best means for destroying the infallibility of the
+Church. That fact alone would explain the alarm and anxiety of so many of
+the most learned Fathers of the Council. Strossmayer dwelt in conclusion
+on the danger that would result from the definition for the Southern
+Sclaves and Catholic Croats, who lived side by side with eight million
+persons out of the unity of the Church. Not only would the return of these
+separated brethren be barred, but it might be feared that the Catholic
+Croats would be driven out of the Church. He therefore always hoped, and
+entreated the holy Father, that he would emulate the example of the
+humility of St. Peter in his martyrdom, and of Christ who was exalted by
+his Father because He had humbled Himself to the death of the Cross, and
+magnanimously have the subject withdrawn.
+
+The speech was listened to with great attention, and became the topic of
+conversation in all circles at Rome, and even Bishops of the other party
+paid a high tribute to it. As yet 24 Bishops have spoken against the dogma
+and 35 for it,--most of the latter having no real dioceses.
+
+Two interesting episodes have intervened. Last week the police refused the
+Prince Bishop of Breslau his _visa_ for Naples, because he could show no
+permission from the Presidents of the Council to go there. This implied
+that the Fathers are civil as well as spiritual subjects of the Pope. The
+Bishop, who was wearied out with the objectless proceedings in the Council
+Hall, sent to Fessler, the Secretary of the Council, for the requisite
+permission; Fessler replied that he could not give it, and referred him to
+the President de Angelis, who tried to represent the whole affair as a
+mistake. It had not been so ill meant, and at most only the departure of
+the Orientals was intended to be prevented, he said, and he authorized
+Fessler to instruct the police to give the permission. But that was the
+most complete indorsing of what they had done, and proved that the Pope
+meant to use his temporal power for managing the Council and controlling
+the actions of the Fathers. On that account the departure of the Prince
+Bishop had been hindered, and the whole affair involves the question of
+ecclesiastical freedom and international right. Does a member of the
+Council thereby lose or prejudice his rights as the subject of a foreign
+state, or is the freedom of individual Bishops suspended while taking part
+in it? So anxious is the Pope to give up nothing which may serve for
+dominating the Council, that he restricts the Bishops in the most harmless
+exercise of personal freedom, which at other times he would never have
+thought of. I will not dwell on the insult in this procedure to the King
+of Prussia, whose safe-conduct was no more respected than the Emperor
+Sigismund's at Constance, for a graver question is at stake,--that of
+international right and freedom of the Council. Meanwhile they reckon on
+Prussia taking no further notice of the affair, and the Prince Bishop has
+given up his journey after these difficulties. France, too, has quietly
+endured a series of insults, and so they hope not to have to abolish the
+regulation or disavow the police.
+
+Rome cannot admit the principle of international right in this case,
+without giving up one of her own principles, the Inquisition, according to
+whose laws foreigners can be arrested, imprisoned, and put to the
+question. No secular tribunal limits its power, and every Bishop therefore
+could in theory be brought before it. By papal law the Pope might at any
+moment have Cardinal Schwarzenberg arrested, and if the right has become
+inapplicable, that is due to the influence of foreign states and the
+modern spirit, whose restraints on the full exercise of Church authority
+it is the office of the Council to remove, as the Syllabus, Bull of
+Censures, _Schema de Ecclesia_, etc., prove. According to Roman canon law,
+freedom at the Council is inconceivable.
+
+In a former letter I gave an inaccurate account of the Prince Bishop's
+conduct towards the priest Jentsch, at Liegnitz, being misled by
+statements in the Roman newspapers.(105) The text of the explanation
+accepted by the Bishop shows that no principle was conceded or denied, and
+he said himself that he agreed in substance with Jentsch.
+
+The arrival of Father Hoetzl in Rome seemed for a time likely to produce
+still more serious conflicts, for his affair looked as if it would oblige
+the minority to give expression to their view of Doellinger's teaching on
+the necessity of general consent for the oecumenicity of a Council. Those
+who had undertaken the instruction of Hoetzl cared less for converting him
+than for using the opportunity to provoke dissension among the minority.
+He was told that an explanation, not a retractation, was all that was
+demanded of him, and when the explanation he offered was found
+unsatisfactory another was proposed to him on May 31. The crucial passage
+in it was read and examined by leading bishops of the minority, whose
+names were calculated to inspire complete confidence. Hoetzl had some cause
+to think he had saved honour and conscience, and responsibility to man and
+God, when he sought the judgment of liberal German Bishops and resolved to
+abide by it. But though they disliked the passage, they thought it
+difficult to know how to save a man who had come to Rome in such childish
+confidence, and did not feel justified under the circumstances in urging
+him to go to extremities and sacrifice himself to their interests. It was
+not their place to drive him to a breach with his Order or a loss of
+personal liberty, at a time when they had not themselves publicly,
+solemnly and decisively repudiated the doctrine imposed on him. Still less
+did they want to compromise themselves or break up their harmony before
+the time. And their hesitation may have led Father Hoetzl into his mistake;
+he was acting in concert with the minority when he signed.
+
+I give only a brief preliminary notice of the most important points in
+to-day's sitting. After Dinkel, who spoke very well, and Domenec, Bishop
+of Pittsburg, who was much interrupted, Maret made a longer speech, which
+he delivered in a very loud voice, as deaf persons are apt to do. In the
+course of it he declared that it would be called a vicious circle for the
+less to give power to the greater, as would be done if the Council, which
+was said to possess a lower authority, were to confer on the Pope--a higher
+authority--the prerogative of infallibility. Thereupon Bilio struck in very
+excitedly, crying out "Concilium nihil dat Papae nec dare potest, sed
+solummodo recognoscit, suffragia dat, et Sanctus Pater quod in Spiritu
+Sancto ipsi placet decidit."
+
+In yesterday's sitting a _postulatum_ for the close of the general debate
+was prepared, which is said to have received 150 signatures. After Maret's
+speech it was at once produced and the close voted. Little more than 60
+prelates have spoken, and above 40 were waiting their turn, amongst whom
+were Haynald and other considerable persons. The continuation of the
+debate had been reckoned upon and much was hoped from it; but now that the
+example has once been set of using the well-known clause in the order of
+business in the interests of one party, the step may be repeated in every
+succeeding debate. The Opposition will be driven into greater firmness by
+this occurrence, which they had foreshadowed in the half-threatening
+formula at the end of their great Protest. The question is now forced upon
+them, whether they were in earnest in what they then said.
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-THIRD LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, June 4, 1870._--The first impression made on the minority by the
+violent closing of the general debate led many of them, in discussing it
+directly after the sitting, to say they would take no further part in the
+debates. A great meeting was arranged for to-day at Cardinal Rauscher's to
+decide the question. It was the largest international gathering of the
+Opposition yet held, including nearly 80 Bishops, but was for that very
+reason difficult to manage. Two possible courses were discussed--to remain
+in Rome but take no further part in the debates, as not being free, and
+vote at the end _non placet_ against the infallibilist _Schema_, or simply
+to issue a protest against the injustice they had suffered, and continue
+to take part in the proceedings. The former view was supported principally
+by the Hungarians, North Americans, the leading French Bishops, and men
+like Strossmayer, Simor, Haynald, Darboy, Dupanloup, Clifford, Conolly
+(represented by proxy), and others. They insisted that words were of no
+further avail, and they should show their sense of the want of freedom by
+acts, so that, as far as in them lay, no decree should be carried which
+had not been thoroughly discussed. In this way the oecumenicity of the
+Council would be denied without coming as yet to a breach in Council or a
+disturbance in the Church; for they could no longer recognise the Council
+as legitimate, nor yet retire, for to retire would precipitate the most
+extravagant decisions and lead to an open conflict. There were many
+reasons why it could no longer be held legitimate, such as its
+composition, the order of business, the pressure exercised on the Bishops
+by the Pope personally or through his officials, the notorious design of
+getting dogmas promulgated by a majority, etc. It would be simply a
+degradation to give in any longer to such a farce. In Parliaments speeches
+were not altogether useless, for if they could not influence votes they
+enlightened public opinion, but at this so-called Council most of their
+hearers were quite incapable from their standard of cultivation of
+appreciating theological arguments, not to add that the moral standard of
+many among them was such that, even if they were convinced, they would not
+act on their convictions. And speeches, which were not made public, could
+produce no effect out of doors. To debate under these circumstances would
+only be to incur a large responsibility for the entire conduct of the
+Council. But if the Opposition refrained from discussion and left the
+field free to the majority, the differences among them would soon be made
+manifest. The _Curia_ could hardly hold out against so serious a
+demonstration, but if it remained obstinate, no further doubt would be
+possible in the Church as to the opinion of the minority about the
+Council.
+
+On the other side it was urged that all which could be gained by such a
+demonstration would be gained equally by a declaration showing how the
+forcible closing of the general debate had undermined the foundations and
+future authority of the Council. They owed it to the world to do more than
+merely give reasons against the legitimacy of the Council; they must
+debate and bring forward the objections to the infallibilist doctrine
+itself, and thus give public testimony of their convictions. Most of the
+Germans took this view, which many French Bishops readily acceded to, when
+they observed that the Hungarian phalanx had been broken up. Perhaps other
+and more subordinate motives helped to establish this opinion, but many of
+its advocates are men of no decided resolution, and men who in reality
+want only a semblance of resistance and are already secretly prepared to
+yield at the last moment. It was thought strange that at this assembly,
+which had been summoned to consult on the means of meeting the violent
+_coup_ of the majority, a German Archbishop was present who had joined the
+enemies of his party in subscribing the proposal for closing the debate
+the day before.
+
+The draft of the Protest finally adopted against this act of violence had
+been brought to the meeting by Cardinal Rauscher, and bears marks of the
+antagonistic elements it combines. Yet it contains one passage, which may
+perhaps be appealed to hereafter, "Protestamur contra violationem nostri
+juris."(106)
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-FOURTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, June 6, 1870._--There have been indications for some time past that
+the _denouement_ was likely to be precipitated. The Pope himself declared
+that it was impossible to keep the Bishops here in July. The great debate,
+with 106 speakers inscribed, wearied every one, and the tropical heat
+increases the exhaustion and disgust. But the minority maintained their
+resolve to carry on the general debate to the end, while the majority
+counted on its absorbing the discussion of the separate chapters of the
+_Schema_, and accordingly Fessler announced that the speakers were at
+liberty to treat of points which belonged properly to the special debate.
+His party considered that, if the general and special debate were mixed up
+in this way, they might insist at the end that the separate chapters
+required no further discussion, since everything had been said already,
+and so they might come sooner to the decision they so earnestly desired.
+Very few speakers have attempted any theological argument--perhaps only
+Conolly, Dinkel and Maret; and this made it easier to mix up the general
+and special discussion, which again has helped to give a vague and
+rambling character to the debate. It was clear that after 106 or more
+speeches on the preliminary question, there were still five weary debates
+to come on the preamble and each of the four chapters, so that, unless the
+discussion was to be forcibly closed, it must either last on through the
+whole summer, or a prorogation be allowed while the main question was
+still unsettled. The first expedient seemed hardly practicable, and could
+only be held out _in terrorem_, so that the Court really had to choose
+between an act of arbitrary power or a prorogation of the Council, which
+last would be equivalent to a great victory of the minority. There was no
+want of attempts to get up an agitation for an adjournment. It seemed a
+happy escape from grave embarrassments to those secular and untheological
+counsellors of the Pope, who have given up the notion of infallibility,
+and on the contrary are convinced that the definition involves the
+separation of Church and State, the fall of the temporal power and the
+loss of the accustomed resources of the Papacy. These men do not expect an
+isle of Delos to rise out of the sea for the Pope when the States of the
+Church are swallowed up, but they are excluded from any influence on the
+Council. The more full the Pope is of the one grand subject of his
+infallibility, the less will he listen to Antonelli, to whom the mysteries
+in which he is not initiated are a nuisance, and who hates the line taken
+by Manning and the French zealots and apostolic Janissaries, and would
+like nothing better than an ambiguous formula leaving things just where
+they are.
+
+But as soon as the majority became aware that some of the more colourless
+Bishops of the middle party were working for the prorogation of the
+Council, they resolved to be beforehand with them. Their _postulatum_ for
+closing the debate with its 150 signatures was got ready on Thursday the
+2d, but was not meant to be presented till the Saturday. But the great
+excitement at the close of Maret's speech gave them the opportunity for
+striking the blow on Friday, when the close of the general debate was
+carried by a large majority. The order of business undoubtedly gave the
+Presidents the right of putting it to the vote, and moreover they have
+more than the letter of the law on their side. They might have urged that,
+as the general and special debates were not kept separate, most of what
+was now omitted might be supplied afterwards, and the Fathers who had
+missed their turn would have five other opportunities of speaking. They
+might have also alleged, in excuse of hurrying the proceedings, the
+constantly growing impatience and disgust generally manifested in the
+assembly, and the uselessness of all minute discussion of details. It is
+enough to mention as indicative of the prevalent feeling of the majority,
+that they received the Bishop of Pittsburg with derisive laughter when he
+ascended the tribune, and that they muttered at every affectionate or
+respectful allusion to the Pope by an Opposition speaker, "Et osculatus
+est Illum."(107) Under these circumstances Conolly omitted nearly half his
+manuscript. The majority might have urged the further excuse that far more
+of their own speakers than of their opponents were excluded by the close
+of the debate. Some 27 of the latter had as yet spoken against 36
+infallibilists, which however, considering that the minority are only a
+fourth of the Council, tells in their favour.
+
+But if we examine the matter more closely, the Opposition has lost all it
+had left by the close of the general debate, viz., freedom of speech. It
+has been sacrificed to the caprice of the majority, for the subsequent
+debates may be closed in the same way: that on the primacy because it is
+no new subject, and that on infallibility because the general debate
+turned wholly upon it. So the Opposition had nothing left them but to
+protest, unless they would summon courage for a decisive act. But their
+protest is as feeble as the last; it is simply directed against the abuse
+of an order of business they had already protested against, and then
+themselves accepted by continuing to take part in the Council. A party
+intoxicated with success cannot be restrained or conquered by these paper
+demonstrations, nor even the sympathy of the Catholic world be gained; a
+definite and firm principle is requisite for that. After all their
+experiences it may be called a harmless amusement for the minority to
+present protest after protest, with the certainty that they will be laid
+by unnoticed and unanswered.
+
+The French Bishops of the minority held a meeting on the 3rd, from which
+they came away troubled and undecided. The Germans take the matter less
+seriously. Their past presses heavily upon them. They had an opportunity,
+when the second _regolamento_ was issued at the end of February, and again
+at the Solemn Session at the end of April, of either getting their views
+accepted or bringing the Council to an end. But they were not then strong
+enough for that. Now at the eleventh hour a last though less favourable
+opportunity is offered them. But at the international meeting at Cardinal
+Rauscher's last Saturday, their views were again set aside, for the
+assemblage of the whole body of Opposition Bishops brought to light the
+unpleasant fact of a gulf between the intellectual leaders and the mass of
+the minority, which makes any real leadership impossible. And this is the
+more lamentable, because the men who since the opening of the Council have
+risen to so important a position were almost unanimous; for Hefele and
+Rivet, Bishop of Dijon, were almost the only ones among them, except
+Ketteler, who rejected the energetic measure of holding aloof from the
+debates for the future and protesting by silence. It seems that Hefele
+wanted to recognise the Council as still having some claim. The other
+leaders succumbed, unwillingly and predicting evils, to the will of the
+majority, who were satisfied with the protest drawn up by Rauscher.
+
+But all is not yet lost, and the tactics actually adopted may perhaps in
+skilful hands be made as effective as the rejected policy. Between
+Pentecost and the feast of the Apostles from 80 to 90 speakers might make
+their voices heard. If we consider that more than 100 speakers had
+enrolled their names for the first and tolerably irregular debate, and
+that 49 speeches were suppressed, it is clear that the great question of
+the primacy and infallibility of the Pope would require a much longer time
+for uninterrupted and complete discussion, and thus the adjournment would
+remain as probable and as inevitable as before. The Court and the majority
+would perhaps shrink from depriving the proceedings of all dignity, weight
+and completeness by a fresh _coup d'eglise_, as such an attempt might
+appear even to them too bold and dangerous in the special debate on the
+principles of the Church. And if such an attempt was made, it would
+perhaps exhaust at last even the patience of the patient Germans, and lead
+them to muster all their forces for the last contest. One must admit that
+if orthodox Catholicism is only to be saved by an adjournment of the
+Council this is not much to the credit of the Church. But the reason why
+so many prefer a prorogation to a decisive conflict is because they fear
+that many present opponents of the doctrine might at last vote for its
+definition and betray their consciences through fear of men, and that many
+who vote against it and insist on the necessity of unanimity would
+ultimately accept and teach a dogma false in itself and carried by
+illegitimate means.
+
+I will merely mention, in illustration of this, that it was lately thought
+very necessary to distribute a _Disquisitio Moralis de Officio
+Episcoporum_, discussing whether a Bishop does not greatly violate his
+conscience by voting for a decree to define the personal and independent
+infallibility of the Pope, without having any previous conviction of its
+being a revealed doctrine always held and handed down in the Church as
+such. The treatise is well written, but no such bitter irony against the
+Episcopate is contained in the pasquinades, and it is obvious that the
+author has not underrated their weakness from the fact that many Bishops
+would vote differently if the voting was secret. There are some among them
+too who doubt if papal absolutism and a power which kills out all
+intellectual movement is not better than truth and purity of doctrine, and
+if the responsibility of individual Bishops is not superseded by a decree
+of the Pope, at least when issued "sacro approbante Concilio."
+
+To judge from to-day's debate on the preamble, one would imagine the
+Opposition neither knew how to speak nor how to keep silence. None but the
+French, who have put down their names to speak, appear to have much desire
+to take any further part in the discussion. Perhaps they think it
+ludicrous to take any serious part in a debate which may be suddenly
+broken off, and speak, as it were, with a halter round their necks. And
+those who had thought the right plan was to keep silence henceforth were
+the best speakers of the Opposition; they do not therefore fall readily
+into a policy they disapproved. Their view is that, as the majority has
+done its worst and the minority has not the spirit to follow the counsel
+of its leaders, it is no longer worth while to fight against a result
+which cannot be permanent.
+
+This weak and vacillating attitude may possibly only be a momentary
+consequence of the sudden commencement of a discussion which seemed
+distant and for which they were unprepared. On the other hand the
+confidence of the majority increases, and they announce the close of the
+debate on Corpus Christi. If the minority remain as undecided as they were
+at the Conference at Cardinal Rauscher's, an unfavourable issue must be
+feared, and this will be their own fault, for sacrificing their cause at
+the very moment they have for six months been preparing for, through some
+of them not choosing to be silent and the others not choosing to speak.
+
+The main argument urged against taking further part in the discussion is
+that the historical and traditional evidences against infallibility had
+been prepared by men who lost their turn through the closing of the
+general debate, and cannot be brought forward in the special debate which
+is only about changes in the text of the decree. The majority have thereby
+testified their refusal to listen, not to certain speakers, but to a
+certain portion of the theological argument, and thus they prevent the
+investigation of tradition which is so unwelcome to them. Only secondary
+matters can be discussed now, while the main point is left untouched. To
+many, and especially the Hungarians, this seemed a betraying of the cause.
+The Hungarians absolutely refuse to take any further part in the debates,
+for in their eyes the Council has already condemned itself, and they
+cannot too soon publish their opinion to the world by recording their _non
+placet_. They are therefore dissatisfied with the Germans, who prevented
+stronger measures being adopted, and some of them--like Simor, who would
+not go on attending the sittings--have even refused to sign the Protest to
+the Pope, because it involves too much deference to the Council. There are
+accordingly only 81 signatures, for the Archbishop of Cologne has also
+refused to sign, but on grounds precisely opposite to those of the
+Archbishop of Gran.
+
+Meanwhile the Vicar-General here is organizing all sorts of demonstrations
+for the happy result of the Council in the sense of the Court party. There
+were to be three processions this week, and no pains were spared to induce
+persons of rank, including ladies, to take part in them. In many cases the
+attempt failed, for it is idle to deny that a large portion of the Roman
+citizens of all ranks turn away with indifference and contempt from St.
+Peter's, and of course from all religion too.
+
+The _Unita Cattolica_ predicts with triumphant confidence that God will
+yield to their pious importunities (_Iddio obbedira_), the Holy Ghost will
+fill the Council Hall, descend upon each of the Fathers and work the
+miracle of making them all boldly confess the infallibilist doctrine. As
+in the year 33 the people, who surrounded the house where the Pentecostal
+miracle was wrought, asked, in amazement at the new tongues of the
+Apostles, "Are these who speak Galileans?" so in 1870 they will hear the
+Bishops and Cardinals proclaim papal infallibility and will ask
+themselves, "Are not these the men who wrote as zealous Gallicans?" The
+Spirit of God will work this "noisy miracle" (_strepitoso miracolo_).
+
+A remarkable Petition has for some time been hawked about, begging the
+Pope to promote St. Joseph to be General Protector of the Catholic Church.
+Many have objected that it is unfair to disturb the "riposo di San
+Giuseppe," but the notion finds much favour in the Vatican.
+
+It is impossible to foresee at this moment how the great decision will
+turn out. The majority are evidently consolidating their plans, and the
+argument may be heard among them that, if papal infallibility were an
+error, the devil would not have stirred up the war which is being carried
+on against it. But one may still always assume that 120 Bishops will say
+_Non placet_, unless some miserable formula of compromise is hit upon. But
+the real decision will be when the Pope determines to ignore these 120
+opponents and proceed to the order of the day.
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-FIFTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, June 10, 1870._--If we look at the many minor subdivisions of the
+two great parties and consider the individual differences even within that
+narrower circle, it is impossible to form any approximately sure
+conjecture about the immediate issue of the contest. All are agreed that
+the definition must be attempted or the Council prorogued within the next
+few weeks, and many Bishops are already preparing for departure. The
+majority, with Manning at its head, insists on the dogma being defined,
+however numerous and strong the minority may prove, as being the very way
+to exhibit most clearly the power and right of the Pope to make a new
+article of faith with only a fraction of the Council; and there can be no
+doubt that the Pope inclines decidedly to this view himself. He is so
+completely in the hands of the Jesuits that he will not listen to
+counsellors like, _e.g._, Antonelli, who makes no secret in his
+confidential intercourse of the fact that he has lost all influence in the
+matter and has no opinion to give. The Pope's feeling towards the
+Opposition, and especially towards its leaders, grows more bitter every
+day. Strossmayer he regards as the mere head of a sect (_caposetta_), and
+he termed another German Cardinal and Archbishop the other day "quell'
+asino." The Jesuits make capital out of this disposition of Pius IX. for
+effecting the ruin of all the men of the old school who yet remain to him
+from his earlier and more liberal days, while he leaves no stone unturned
+to win over wavering Bishops to the infallibilist side. He tried to work
+on the Portuguese lately by a visit, on which a French prelate observed,
+"On n'a plus de scrupules, ce qu'on fait pour gagner les voix, c'est un
+horreur. Il n'y a jamais rieu eu de pareil dans l'Eglise." The most urgent
+next to Manning is Deschamps. He has proposed canons anathematizing all
+those Bishops who claim a share for the Episcopate in the sovereign rights
+of the Church--a measure expressly aimed at the Opposition and the views
+professed by Maret both in his book and in the Council.
+
+Meanwhile some differences have arisen among the majority, branching off
+at last into what may be called a middle party. Even Pie of Poitiers is no
+longer altogether in accord with Manning and Deschamps, and Fessler said
+lately that a definition could not be carried against 80 dissentient
+votes. This party disapproves Bilio's treatment of Maret, which is
+disowned by Cardinal de Luca, who in other respects often speaks openly
+against Manning. Others, including Cardinals, say plainly in reference to
+the minority Bishops that the Papacy is threatened with destruction. The
+definition must, if possible, be prevented by proroguing the Council, and,
+failing that, the difficulties must be evaded by an ambiguous formula. The
+prelates who speak thus are too sober-minded not to perceive the political
+dangers the new dogma would bring with it. They not only think the price
+too high, but they dread being themselves reduced by the definition under
+the intolerable dominion of the Jesuit party. They frequently confer with
+members of the Opposition with the view of devising a compromise.
+
+The French Opposition Bishops have lately had another meeting and resolved
+to continue to take part in the debates. The little misunderstanding
+between them and the Hungarians has quite disappeared, and several of the
+latter--_e.g._, Simor--are said to be again disposed to speak. And it is
+thought that many speeches, suppressed by the violent closing of the
+general discussion, will be delivered at the supreme moment in the debate
+on the fourth chapter of the _Schema_, which deals with infallibility.
+
+The debate on the separate chapters has reached as far as the third
+section "on the meaning and nature of the Roman primacy." As twenty-six
+speakers are inscribed the discussion may last to the middle of next
+month, and then will immediately follow the debate on the fourth and most
+important chapter, which a great number are likely to take part in, and
+there will be no want of amendments. Conolly will propose the formula that
+the Pope is infallible "as head of the Church teaching with him" (_tanquam
+caput Ecclesiae secum docentis_), while others, as Dupanloup and Rauscher,
+will reproduce the formula of St. Antoninus of Florence, declaring the
+Pope infallible when he follows the judgment of the Universal Church,
+"utens consilio," or "accipiens consilium Universalis Ecclesiae." This
+amendment is said to have been seriously discussed in the sitting of the
+Deputation on Faith on June 8, though it amounts to pure Gallicanism, for
+Antoninus says plainly (about 1450), "In concernentibus fidem Concilium
+est supra Papam." It is certain that the Deputation will labour to make
+some changes in the _Schema_ in view of the Opposition. Lastly, men like
+Strossmayer press for an unambiguous denial of the personal infallibility
+of the Pope.
+
+The more recklessly the Court party are resolved to advance, and the less
+they care for the destruction of the Church which must result from a
+decree irregularly enacted, the more are the Opposition disturbed at this
+prospect, and often made irresolute, but these are only passing moments of
+temptation. "Conscience before everything," said a German Bishop to me the
+other day, who was weighed down by his gloomy views of the future of the
+Church. Even men who are infallibilists at heart speak of the terrible
+crisis in the Church, and think only God can save her. The most decided I
+meet are the Hungarians.
+
+In the present debates from four to five speeches are delivered at each
+sitting. The most remarkable were those of Landriot and Dupanloup. The
+Presidents are very ready to interrupt, as Bilio did when Verot, Bishop of
+Savannah, was speaking on the preamble. Verot, who is a man of high
+character but very singular, submitted and left the tribune, saying,
+"Humiliter me subjicio." This conduct might suggest to the Presidents that
+the definition would be hastened by a second grand interruption.
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-SIXTY LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, June 11, 1870._--If the new article of faith is accepted and
+proclaimed throughout the Catholic world, what will be its retrospective
+force? On what decisions and doctrines of previous Popes will it set the
+seal of infallibility? What amplifications and corrections of Catholic
+theology will it involve? These questions are naturally raised here, not
+indeed by the Bishops of the majority but by many of the Opposition; only
+no one is in a position to give even an approximately accurate answer from
+want of the necessary books, and the Court party reckoned on this "penuria
+librorum," which Cardinal Rauscher has already complained of. A German
+theologian who had previously examined and studied the subject, undertook
+to answer the anxious question of the Bishops, and I send you his
+collection, which makes no claim to completeness, as a not unimportant
+contribution to the history of the Council.
+
+The Jesuit Schrader, who is the most considerable theologian of his Order
+since Passaglia's retirement, and who has been employed both before and
+during the Council for drawing up the _Schemata_, on account of the
+special confidence reposed in him by the Pope, has shown, in his great
+work on _Roman Unity_,(108) that, as soon as papal infallibility resting
+on divine guidance and inspiration is made into an article of faith, it
+must by logical necessity include all public ordinances, decrees and
+decisions of the Popes. For every one of these is indissolubly connected
+with their teaching office, and contains, whatever be its particular
+subject, a _doctrina veritatis_ either moral or religious. Papal
+infallibility is not a robe of office which can be put on for certain
+occasions and then laid aside again. The Pope is infallible, because he
+is, in the fullest sense of the word, the representative of Christ on
+earth, and like Christ he teaches and proclaims the truth by his acts as
+well as his words; in short no public act or direction of his can be
+conceived of as not having a doctrinal significance. And thus Catholic
+theology and morality will be enriched by the new dogma with not a few
+fresh articles of faith, which will then possess the same authority and
+dignity as those already universally received as such.
+
+There are indeed former papal decisions which, in becoming themselves
+infallible through the proclamation of infallibility, will in turn cover
+and guarantee the infallible character of the collective Constitutions of
+all Popes. The first of these decisions is the statement of Leo X. in his
+Bull of 1520 against Luther, "It is clear as the noonday sun that the
+Popes, my predecessors, have never erred in their canons or
+constitutions." The second is the declaration of Pius IX. in his Syllabus,
+"The Popes have never exceeded the limits of their power." This assertion
+too will become an infallible dogma, and history must succumb and adapt
+itself to the dogma. Let us however specify some of the new articles of
+faith thus declared to be infallible.
+
+1. According to the teaching of the Church, the validity of the
+sacraments, and especially of ordination, depends on the use of the right
+form and matter. The whole Church for a thousand years regarded the
+imposition of the Bishop's hands as the divinely ordained matter of
+priestly ordination. But Eugenius IV., in his dogmatic decree, decided
+that the delivery of the Eucharistic vessels is the matter of the
+sacrament of Orders, and the words used in their delivery the form.(109)
+If the doctrine of this decree, solemnly issued by the Pope _ex cathedra_
+and in the name of the Council of Florence--which however was no longer in
+existence--was to be accepted as true and infallible, it would follow that
+the Western Church for a thousand years, and the Greek Church up to this
+day, had no validly ordained priests. Nay more, there would at this moment
+be no validly ordained priest or Bishop in the Church at all, for there
+would be no succession. And Eugenius gave an equally false definition of
+the form of the sacraments of Penance and Confirmation.
+
+2. According to the teaching of Innocent III., in the decretal _Novit_,
+and other Popes after him, the Pope is able and is bound, whenever he
+believes a question of sin to be involved, to interfere, first with
+admonition and then with punishments. He can on this ground reverse any
+judicial sentence, bring any cause before his own tribunal, summon any
+sovereign before him, simply to answer for a grave sin or what he
+considers such, annul his ordinances, and eventually excommunicate and
+depose him.(110)
+
+3. God has given to the Pope supreme jurisdiction over all kings and
+princes, not only of Christendom but of the whole earth. The Pope has
+plenary jurisdiction over the nations and kingdoms, he judges all and can
+be judged by none in the world, according to Paul IV. in the Bull _Cum ex
+Apostolatus Officio_, and Sixtus V. in the Bull _Inscrutabilis_. It is
+also a doctrine of faith, to be received on pain of eternal damnation,
+that the whole world is subject to the Pope even in temporal and political
+matters, according to the Bull of Boniface VIII., _Unam Sanctam_. Boniface
+adds that the Pope holds all rights "in scrinio pectoris sui."
+
+4. According to papal teaching, it is the will of God that the Popes
+should rule and "govern," not only the Church, but all secular matters and
+literally the whole world. Thus Innocent III. says; "Dominus Petro non
+solum universam Ecclesiam sed etiam saeculum reliquit gubernandum."
+
+5. According to papal teaching, as proclaimed by Gregory VII. at the Roman
+Council of 1080, the Popes with the Fathers assembled in Council under
+their presidency are not only able, by virtue of their power of binding
+and loosing, to take away and bestow empires, kingdoms and princedoms, but
+can take any man's property from him or adjudge it to any one.(111)
+
+6. According to papal teaching the Pope alone can remit all sins of all
+men. Thus Innocent III. says in his letter to the Patriarch of
+Constantinople.(112)
+
+7. According to papal teaching the Pope is ruler by divine right of
+Germany and Italy during the vacancy of the Imperial throne, because he
+has received from God both powers, the spiritual and the temporal, in
+their fulness (_jura terreni simul et coelestis imperii_). So John XXII.
+has declared in his Bull of 1317.(113) On account of this doctrine
+millions of German and Italian Christians, from 1318 to 1348, were placed
+under ban and interdict and deprived of the sacraments by the Popes.
+
+8. The Pope by divine right can give whole nations into slavery on account
+of some measure of their sovereign. Thus Clement V. and Julius II. dealt
+with the Venetians on account of territorial quarrels, Gregory XI. with
+the Florentines,(114) and Paul III. with the English on account of Henry
+VIII.'s revolting from him.
+
+9. The Pope can also give full authority to make slaves of a foreign
+nation merely because they are not Catholics. Thus Nicolas V. in 1454
+authorized King Alfonso of Portugal to appropriate the property of all
+Mahometans and heathens of Western Africa, and to reduce them to perpetual
+slavery.(115) Alexander VI. in 1493 gave similar rights to the Kings of
+Spain over all inhabitants of America, when bestowing on them that quarter
+of the world with all its peoples.(116)
+
+10. According to papal teaching it is just and in consonance with the
+Gospel to rob innocent populations, cities, regions, or countries _en
+masse_, with the sole exception of the infants and the dying, of divine
+service and sacraments, by an interdict, merely because the Sovereign or
+Government of the country has violated a papal command or some right of
+the Church. Innocent III., Innocent IV., Martin IV., Clement V., John
+XXIV., Clement VI., and others have done so.
+
+11. The Popes as God's vicars on earth can make a present of whole
+countries inhabited by non-Christian peoples, and hand over all rights of
+sovereignty and property in them to any Christian prince they please.
+Alexander V. did this in his Bull addressed to Ferdinand the Catholic and
+Isabella, as he declares, "auctoritate omnipotentis Dei nobis in B. Petro
+concessa ac Vicariatus Jesu Christi, qua fungimur in terris."(117)
+Historically it may be said with perfect truth, that the peoples of the
+southern and middle regions of America have been made the victims of the
+theory of papal infallibility. The Spanish Church and nation, as well as
+the sovereigns, have willingly received and maintained this doctrine,
+because their claim both to Navarre and America rested solely upon it,
+primarily on the Bulls of Alexander VI. and Julius II. With the Gallican
+doctrine both claims would fall through. Alexander had empowered the
+Spaniards to make the Indians slaves. All Spanish theologians appeal with
+Las Casas to "el divino poder del Papa," as he calls it, as the basis of
+the Spanish dominion in America, and no one dared to call in question the
+divine right of the infallible vicar of God, by virtue whereof he had
+given over millions of Indians to slavery, and thereby to extermination;
+within eighty years whole countries were depopulated.
+
+12. It is just and consonant with the Gospel to burn to death as heretics
+those who appeal from the sentence of the Pope to a General Council. So
+Leo X. declares in his Bull of 1517, _Pastor AEternus_ (issued in the fifth
+Lateran Synod).
+
+13. Leo X. declared in another Bull, _Supernae Dispositionis_, also
+published in the Lateran Synod, that all clerics are wholly exempt by
+divine right from all civil jurisdiction, and therefore not bound in
+conscience by the civil law.(118)
+
+14. According to the teaching of the Church, every Christian is bound
+before God to do penance for his sins by ascetic exercises of abstinence,
+self-denial and almsgiving. On Church principles no one can dispense from
+this obligation, because it rests on divine ordinance. But the Popes teach
+that it may be relaxed or superseded by means of plenary or particular
+indulgences granted by themselves. They teach that to take part in a war
+against enemies of the Holy See and in the extermination of heretics is an
+effectual means for gaining pardon of sins, and a complete substitute for
+all works of penance. Thus did Paschal II. instruct Count Robert of
+Flanders in 1102, that for him and his warriors the surest means of
+obtaining forgiveness of sins and heaven was to make war upon the clergy
+of Liege and all adherents of the German Emperor, Henry IV.(119) Innocent
+III. charged King Philip Augustus of France with the conquest of England,
+after he had deposed King John, as a means for obtaining remission of
+sin.(120) Martin IV. again impelled the French in 1283 to make war on the
+Aragonese by the promise of plenary remission of their sins.(121) And
+whenever there was a war to be undertaken in the territorial interests of
+the Holy See, or for the extermination of heretics, the Popes urged men to
+take part in it as the surest and most effectual means for cleansing them
+from all their sins and attaining eternal happiness.
+
+15. The Inquisition, both Spanish and Italian, is so pure a product of
+papal teaching on faith and morals, that there never was an Inquisitor who
+did not exercise his office by virtue of Papal authority and in the Pope's
+name, or whose power the Pope could not at any moment he chose have wholly
+or partially withdrawn. All essential laws and regulations of the
+Inquisition--the accused being deprived of any advocate to defend him, the
+admission of infamous and perjured witnesses, the frequent application of
+the torture, the obliging the civil magistrates to carry out capital
+sentences of the Inquisitors, the prohibition to spare the life of any
+lapsed heretic even on his conversion--all this emanates from the direct
+and personal legislation of the Popes, and has always been confirmed by
+their successors.
+
+16. Gregory IX., Innocent IV., and Alexander IV. teach that it is in
+accordance with the principles of morality and the Gospel to condemn a
+heretic seized by the Inquisition, who has recanted, to lifelong
+imprisonment.(122)
+
+17. Alexander IV. teaches that it is lawful for the Pope to have the goods
+of those condemned for heresy sold by his inquisitors, and to take the
+proceeds for himself.(123)
+
+18. Innocent III., Alexander IV., and Boniface VIII. teach that it is just
+and consonant with the Gospel to deprive the sons and daughters of
+heretics, though themselves Catholics, of their hereditary property. But
+if the sons themselves accuse their parents and get them burnt, then their
+inherited property, according to papal doctrine, is exempt from
+confiscation.
+
+19. According to papal teaching torture is an institution thoroughly in
+harmony with morality and the spirit of the Gospel, and should be employed
+particularly against those accused of heresy. Thus Innocent IV. and many
+later Popes have directed, and Paul IV. ordered the rack to be very
+extensively used.
+
+20. It is especially just and Christian, according to the teaching and
+regulation of Pius V. in 1569, to torture persons who have confessed or
+been convicted of heresy, in order to make them give up their
+accomplices.(124)
+
+21. This same canonized Pope has ordered in a Bull that even the sons of a
+man who has once offended an inquisitor should be punished with infamy and
+confiscation of their goods.
+
+22. There is a whole string of papal decrees declaring it a duty of
+conscience for every Christian to denounce even his nearest relations to
+the Inquisition, and give them up to prison, torture and death, if he
+perceives any trace of heretical opinions or of anything forbidden by the
+Church in them.(125)
+
+23. The same Popes have declared it to be just and evangelical, and have
+ordered, that a relapsed heretic, even if he recants, should be put to
+death.(126) They have further declared it to be moral and Christian-like
+that in trials for heresy witnesses should be admitted to accuse or give
+evidence against the accused, whose testimony would not be admitted in any
+other court on account of their former crimes or their infamy.(127)
+
+24. According to papal teaching it is just and Christian forcibly to
+deprive heretics of their children, in order to bring them up Catholics.
+Thus Innocent XII., by a sentence of the Holy Office at Rome, pronounced
+null and void the edict of Duke Victor Amadeus of Savoy in 1694 ordering
+their children, who had been forcibly taken from them, to be restored to
+the unfortunate and cruelly persecuted Waldenses under his
+government.(128)
+
+25. The Popes teach that a sentence once pronounced for heresy can never
+be mitigated, nor pardon ever granted to any one sentenced to death or
+perpetual imprisonment for heresy. Thus Innocent IV. rules in his Bull _Ad
+Exstirpanda_.(129)
+
+26. Up to 1555 it was the teaching of the Popes that only those should be
+burnt who persisted obstinately in maintaining a doctrine condemned by the
+Church, and those who had relapsed after recanting into the same or some
+other heresy. But in that year Paul IV. established the new principle that
+certain doctrines, if only just put forward and at once retracted, should
+be punished with death. Thus whoever rejected any ecclesiastical
+definition on the Trinity, or denied the perpetual virginity of Mary and
+maintained that the scriptural language about "brothers of Jesus" was to
+be taken literally of children of Mary, was to be classed with the
+"relapsed" and to be executed, even though he recanted.
+
+27. Up to 1751, theologians, especially Italians, who defended trials for
+witchcraft and the reality of an express compact with Satan, together with
+the various preternatural crimes wrought thereby and the carnal
+intercourse of men and demons (_incubi et succubi_), used to appeal to the
+infallible authority of the Popes, the Bulls of Innocent VIII., Sixtus V.,
+Gregory XV. and several more besides, in which these things are affirmed
+and assumed and the due penalties prescribed for them.(130)
+
+28. If an oath that has been taken is prejudicial to the interests of the
+Church (_e.g._, in money matters), it must be broken. So teaches Innocent
+III.(131)
+
+29. The Popes can dispense at their pleasure oaths of allegiance taken by
+a people to their King, as Gregory VII., Alexander III., Innocent III.,
+and many others have done.
+
+30. They can also absolve a sovereign from the treaties he has sworn to
+observe or from his oath to the Constitution of his country, or give full
+power to his confessor to absolve him from any oath he finds it
+inconvenient to keep. Such a plenary power Clement VI. gave to King John
+of France and his successors.(132) Thus Clement VII. absolved the Emperor
+Charles V. from his oath restricting his absolutism over popular rights in
+Belgium, and again from his oath not to banish the Moriscos from their
+home. And Paul IV. announced to the Emperors Charles and Ferdinand that he
+dispensed their oath to observe the Augsburg religious peace.(133)
+
+31. In 1648 a prospect of toleration was held out to the sorely oppressed
+Catholics of England and Ireland, if they would sign a renunciation of the
+following principles, ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}) The Pope can dispense any one from obedience to
+the existing Government; ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA~}) The Pope can absolve from an oath taken to a
+heretic; ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}) Those who have been condemned as heretics by the Pope may at
+his command, or with his dispensation, be put to death or otherwise
+injured. This renunciation was signed by fifty-nine English noblemen and
+several ecclesiastics, but Pope Innocent X. declared that all who had
+signed it had incurred the penalties denounced against those who deny
+papal authority, _i.e._, excommunication, etc. And so the penal laws
+against Catholics remained in force for another century. Paul V. had
+previously condemned the oath of allegiance prescribed by James I. for the
+English Catholics, and the execution of a considerable number of them was
+the result.(134)
+
+32. The Popes teach that they can absolve men from any vow made to God or
+empower others to do so, and can even give them powers prospectively for
+dispensing vows to be made hereafter. And thus they have empowered royal
+confessors to absolve kings from any future vow they may find reason to
+repent of.(135)
+
+33. The Popes have declared, by granting indulgences, that their
+jurisdiction extends over Purgatory also, and that it depends on them to
+deliver the dead who are there and transfer them into heaven. Thus Julius
+II. bestowed on the Order of Knights of St. George, restored by the
+Emperor Maximilian, the privilege that, on assuming the habit of the
+Order, the Knights "confessi et contriti, a poena et a culpa et a carcere
+Purgatorii et poenis ejusdem mox et penitus absoluti et quittandi esse
+debeant, plane et libere Paradisum et regnum intraturi."(136) Then or
+shortly before (1500) the doctrine was first propounded in Rome, that the
+Popes could attach to certain altars by special privileges the power of
+delivering one or more souls from Purgatory.
+
+34. The Pope can dissolve a marriage by placing one of the parties under
+the greater excommunication, and thus declaring him a heathen and infidel.
+Urban V. did this in 1363, when he excommunicated Bernabo Visconti, Duke
+of Milan, depriving him and all his children of all their rights and
+property and absolving his subjects from their allegiance to him, and at
+the same time pronouncing his wife free to marry again: "Uxorem ejus uti
+Christianam a vinculo matrimonii cum haeretico et infideli liberavit."(137)
+
+35. Innocent III. had paved the way for this by establishing the doctrine
+that the bond between a Bishop and his diocese is stronger than the
+marriage bond between man and wife, and therefore as indissoluble by man
+as the latter, and that God alone could dissolve it, and the Pope as God's
+vicegerent.(138) It followed that the Pope, and he alone, could also
+dissolve a validly contracted marriage.
+
+36. According to papal teaching it is praiseworthy and Christian for a
+man, who has promised a woman with an oath to marry her, to deceive her by
+a sham marriage, and then break the bond and retire into a monastery. This
+recommendation (to commit an act of treachery at once and of sacrilege)
+was given by Alexander III. in 1172, and it has been incorporated in the
+code of canon law drawn up by command of the Popes.(139)
+
+37. The Popes teach that anyone attending a service celebrated by a
+married priest commits sacrilege, because the blessing he gives turns to a
+curse. So Gregory VII. teaches, in direct contradiction to the doctrine of
+the ancient Church, and even to modern theology.(140) The notion has long
+since been exploded.(141)
+
+38. The Popes teach that they have the power of rewarding services done to
+themselves with a higher degree of eternal beatitude. Thus Nicolas V.
+promised all who should take up arms against Amadeus of Savoy (the
+antipope Felix) and his adherents, not only remission of all their sins,
+but an increase of heavenly happiness, and gave his lands and property at
+the same time to the King of France.(142)
+
+39. The Popes teach that it is false and damnable to maintain that a
+Christian ought not to abstain from doing his duty from fear of an unjust
+excommunication. Clement XI. declares the contrary to be true in his Bull
+_Unigenitus_, prop. 91.
+
+40. Those who die wearing the Carmelite scapular have papal assurance,
+resting on a revelation granted to John XXII., that they will be delivered
+on the next Saturday after their death by the Virgin Mary from Purgatory
+and conveyed straight to heaven. So says the Bull _Sabbathina_, confirmed
+by Alexander V., Clement VII., Pius V., Gregory XIII., and Paul V., by the
+last after long and careful examination, and with indulgences attached to
+it.(143)
+
+41. According to papal decisions it is an excess of extravagance and
+folly, and a detestable innovation, to translate the Roman missal into the
+vernacular. It is to violate and trample under foot the majesty of the
+ritual composed in Latin words, to expose the dignity of the holy
+mysteries to the gaze of the rabble, to produce disobedience, audacity,
+insolence, sedition and many other evils. The authors of such translations
+are "sons of perdition." Alexander III. says this _totidem verbis_ in his
+Brief of Jan. 12, 1661.(144) Nevertheless the translated missal is in
+general circulation in France, England and Germany, and is daily used by
+all the most pious persons.
+
+42. To receive interest on invested money is a grievous sin according to
+papal teaching, and any one who has done so is bound to make restitution.
+Papal legislation makes it, under the name of usury, an ecclesiastical
+offence to be judged by the spiritual tribunals. The principle established
+by the Popes was, that it is unlawful and sinful to ask for any
+compensation for the use of capital lent out. And under the head of usury,
+which was strictly forbidden, was included anything whatever received by
+the lender in compensation for his capital, every kind of interest,
+commercial business and the like. Thus Clement V. pronounced it heresy to
+defend taking interest, and liable to the penalties of the papal law
+against heresy.(145) His successors, Pius V., Sixtus V., and especially
+Benedict XIV., adhered to this condemnation of all taking of interest. The
+results were that real usury was greatly advanced thereby, that all sorts
+of evasions and illusory contracts came into actual use, that the wealth
+of whole countries was damaged, and commercial greatness, banished from
+Catholic countries, became the monopoly of Protestant countries.(146)
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-SEVENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, June 18, 1870._--The great merits of Cardoni are at length to
+receive their fitting reward. He has hitherto been only Archbishop of
+Nisibis, a city that has long ceased to exist; he has now become keeper of
+the archives of the Roman Church. He was the principal person intrusted
+last year with the grand mystery of the fabrication of the new dogma,
+which required for its success the strictest secrecy; the Bishops, with
+the exception of course of the initiated, were to be drawn to Rome
+unprepared and innocent of the design and then to be taken by surprise.
+Had the real object of the Council become known in the spring of 1869, it
+might easily have proved a complete failure. It was therefore intrusted to
+Cardoni's experienced hands, who managed matters so well in the Commission
+that the Bishops were kept in the dark, and his lucubrations on
+infallibility were first printed in April,--it is said after being
+considerably altered by the Jesuits. The reward of Cardoni is a punishment
+for Theiner, who has to suffer for his Life of Clement XIV. and for
+communicating to some of the Bishops a paper on the order of business at
+Trent. The archives are now closed to him, and he has had to surrender the
+keys to Cardoni, though he nominally retains his office. Every German
+scholar knows that Theiner, after coming to Rome, became extremely
+reserved in his communications and very cautious in his own publications,
+always suppressing whatever might excite displeasure there, and throw a
+slur on the Roman authorities. It was much easier under his predecessor
+Marini--as German and French scholars, such as Pertz, Raumer and Cherrier,
+and the British Museum can testify--to get a sight of documents or even
+transcripts, of course for a good remuneration. Theiner, who was
+inaccessible to bribery, knew that he had an abundance of enemies and
+jealous rivals watching him, and carefully guarded against giving them any
+handle against him. But the original sin of his German origin clung to
+him; he was not a Reisach and could not Italianize himself. There is great
+joy in the Gesu, the German College, and the offices of the _Civilta_!
+
+Theiner's great offence is his letting certain Bishops, viz., Hefele and
+Strossmayer, see the account of the order of business at the Council of
+Trent, showing the striking difference between that and the present
+regulations and the greater freedom of the Tridentine synod. But Hefele
+had seen the Tridentine Acts in the spring of 1869, and knew about it
+without Theiner's help.
+
+Meanwhile there is no abatement of the bitter exasperation in the highest
+circles. The three chief organs of the Court--the _Civilta_, the _Unita_
+and the _Univers_--have evidently received orders to vie with each other in
+their descriptions of the "Liberal Catholics" as the most abandoned and
+dangerous of men. For the moment nobody is more abominated than a Catholic
+who is opposed to infallibility and unwilling to see the teaching of the
+Church brought into contradiction with the laws of his country, which is
+what they mean by a Liberal Catholic; such persons are worse than
+Freemasons. The _Civilta_ says they are more dangerous to "the cause of
+God" than atheists, and have already proved so. We know how his
+confessors, La Chaise and Le Tellier, explained to Louis XIV. that a
+Jansenist is worse and more dangerous than an atheist.
+
+In convents and girls' schools the new article of faith is already strong
+enough to work miracles. The _Univers_ relates "a miraculous cure wrought
+through an act of faith in the infallibility of the Vicar of Christ," at
+Vienna on May 24. But that is little in comparison with the greater and
+more difficult miracles which the dogma will have to accomplish. If the
+English proverb is true, there is nothing more stubborn than facts; to
+remove them from history or change their nature will be harder than to
+move mountains. Here in Rome we are daily assured that the dogma has
+conquered history, but these anticipated conquests will have to be fought
+out, at least everywhere north of the Alps, and cannot be won without
+great miracles. But the Jesuits have never of course been without their
+thaumaturgists, and they have been able to accomplish the impossible even
+in the historical domain.
+
+The Pope seems peculiarly annoyed at some of the English Bishops opposing
+infallibility, probably because Manning had told him that the English
+above all others reverenced him as the organ of the Holy Ghost. He lately
+broke out into most bitter reproaches against Bishop Clifford of Clifton,
+before an assemblage of Frenchmen, most of whom did not even know him by
+name, and accused him of low ambition, saying that he knew "ex certa
+scientia" the only reason why Clifford would not believe in his
+infallibility was because he had not made him Archbishop of Westminster.
+Yet there is perhaps no member of the Council whom every one credits with
+so entire an absence of any ambitious thought. The spectacle of such
+conduct on the part of the man, who for twenty-four years has held the
+highest earthly dignity, produces a painful feeling in some, and contempt
+in others.
+
+It is indeed disgusting to see the Court party compelling men, most of
+them aged, to remain here to the great injury of their health at a season
+when all who are able to do so leave Rome, although many of them are
+accustomed to a different climate and feel sick and exhausted. They are
+treated like prisoners, and not even allowed a holiday without special
+leave. No such egotistic and unscrupulous absolutism, as what now prevails
+here, has been seen in the Christian world since the days of the first
+Napoleon. If there were any persons here besides courtiers who could
+advise the Pope, as friends, they would have to tell him that his credit
+before the world demanded that an end should be put to this state of
+torture, and the Bishops be allowed to depart, many of whom are already
+dead. But, as was observed before, even Antonelli does not conceal his
+impotence as regards the Council, and as to others, it may suffice to
+acquaint Transalpine readers with one detail of Roman Court etiquette. If
+the Pope sneezes, the attendant prelate must immediately fall on his
+knees, and cry "Evviva!" in that position. Every man is at last what his
+_entourage_ has made him, and Pius has for twenty-four years had every one
+kneeling before him, and has been daily overwhelmed with adorations and
+acts of homage, the effect of which may be read in Suetonius' biographies
+of the Emperors.
+
+The affair of the Prince Bishop of Breslau, who was not allowed to leave
+Rome, has been arranged, by Cardinal Antonelli ordering an apology to be
+made. The regulations about refusing visas were only meant for the
+Orientals, who are certainly detained in Rome against their will, but in
+extending the same treatment to German prelates the police had exceeded
+their instructions and must be severely punished. Foerster answered that he
+did not wish this, and that Cardinal de Angelis in his note had fully
+approved their conduct. Meanwhile the same thing has been repeated: the
+visa was refused to the suffragan Bishop of Erlau in Hungary, who wanted
+to go to Naples, because he had received no permission from the Secretary,
+Bishop Fessler.
+
+The Franciscan, Hoetzl, has made an explanation satisfactory to the
+authorities, and is now again received into favour, but he is to stay here
+for the festival of June 29, on which day, as Pius was at least convinced
+a week ago, the proclamation of the new dogma with all imaginable pomp
+will take place. We live in very humane times, and so the good Father from
+Munich has suffered no worse martyrdom than the heat. He has been
+instructed, the _genius loci_ has done its work, his Spanish General has
+simply reminded him of certain rules of the Order--and so his conversion
+has been very quickly, easily and happily accomplished. He was not even
+threatened, I believe, with the Inquisition, and even there he would not
+have fared as ill as Galileo in 1633.
+
+You must allow me, before relating the events of the last few days in the
+Council Hall, to recur to the occurrences of June 3, which I am now better
+acquainted with, and which have proved to be sufficiently important and
+eventful to deserve more detailed mention.
+
+On the motion of Cardinal Bonnechose, who belongs to the middle party,
+Cardinal de Angelis had asked the Pope, directly after the session of June
+2, whether he would not permit the prorogation of the Council, in view of
+the intolerable heat and the too long absence already of so many Bishops
+from their dioceses. The reply was a decided negative; there should be no
+adjournment till the infallibilist _Schema_ was disposed of. That was a
+hint to the majority, which they used next day, as the wish to cut short
+the debates had been loudly expressed for some days previously.
+
+On the same day the Bishop of Pittsburg in North America spoke against
+infallibility and defended the Catholics of his country, who had hitherto
+known nothing of this doctrine, but were yet genuine Catholics in life and
+practice and not in name only, like the Italians. Capalti immediately
+attacked him and imposed silence. Bishop Dinkel of Augsburg followed.
+Senestrey, Bishop of Ratisbon, in the previous sitting had assured the
+prelates, who listened eagerly, that all Germany, so far as it was
+Catholic, thought as he did, and that every one was deeply penetrated with
+reverence for the infallible Pope, while it was a mere invention of
+certain evil-minded persons that there were those in Germany who doubted
+this divine prerogative of the Vicar of God. The astonishment was great;
+they had heard so often that the aversion to the new dogma was most deeply
+rooted and most widely spread in Germany. Dinkel pointedly contradicted
+his colleague, and warned them against being misled by such tricks. He won
+great commendation, and his Biblical comments were also found to be well
+grounded and to the purpose.
+
+Bishop Maret of Sura next ascended the tribune. He like others has made
+advances since being in the Roman school. If he had to write his work on
+the Pope and Council now, he would take a far more decided and bolder
+line. It was not without reason that he pointedly distinguished the two
+things, papal infallibility based and dependent on episcopal consent, and
+the personal infallibility of the Pope deciding alone, as the real subject
+of the controversy; for during the last few days there have been Bishops
+who excused their adhesion to the majority on the pretext that they only
+found the former kind of infallibility in the _Schema_. Maret then showed
+in what a labyrinth the majority was on the point of involving the
+Council. Either the Council was to give the Pope an infallibility he did
+not yet possess, in which case the donor was higher than the receiver by
+divine and therefore inalienable rights; or the Pope was to give himself
+an infallibility he had not hitherto possessed, in which case he could
+change the divine constitution of the Church by his own plenary power; and
+if so why summon a Council and ask its vote? There Bilio angrily
+interrupted him, exclaiming to one of the most learned and respected men
+of the French clergy, the president of the Paris Theological Faculty, "Tu
+non nosti prima rudimenta fidei." And then he gave the explanation I
+mentioned before, that it did not belong to the Council to bear witness,
+to judge and to decide, but only to acknowledge the truth and give its
+vote, and then to leave the Pope to define what he chose by the
+inspiration of the Holy Ghost. There could be no talk here of majority or
+minority, but only of the Council. The majority applauded. Maret remained
+quiet, and asked without changing countenance, after this effusion of
+Bilio's was at an end, "Licitumne est ac liberum continuare sermonem."
+Then all was silence, and he was able to finish his speech without further
+interruption.
+
+Hereupon followed the violent closing of the discussion by a decree of the
+majority. The euphemistic language in which the _Giornale di Roma_
+announced it next day was remarkable:--"Fu _terminata_ la discussione
+generale intorno alla materia di fede, che cominciata con la Congregazione
+del 14 Maggio, era stata proseguita per tutte le adunanze tenute nel
+suddetto spazio di tempo, nelle quali ebbero parlato in proposito 65
+padri," etc.--such an obituary announcement as those which used to be put
+into the Russian newspapers on the death of a Czar, and which led
+Talleyrand to say, "Il serait enfin temps que les Empereurs de Russie
+changeassent de maladie."
+
+At the international meeting at Cardinal Rauscher's on the 4th, when about
+100 Bishops were present, some of the bolder and more vigorous of them
+thought they ought to show by observing complete silence that there was no
+freedom at the Council. This view, as was said before, did not prevail;
+and the alternative of a protest was again adopted. On June 6, when the
+special debate began, Bishop Verot of Savannah in Georgia was the speaker
+who incurred the peculiar displeasure of the Court party, and was
+maltreated by Bilio. He objected to the words of the preamble "juxta
+communem et universalem doctrinam," as not being true, because the
+doctrine referred to was not universal or everywhere received, but was
+only the doctrine of the so-called ultramontane school. At this murmurs
+arose, and Verot remarked that a previous speaker--Valerga--had been quietly
+listened to while he talked for an hour and a half about the Gallican
+school, and compared them with the Monothelite heretics; it was only fair
+therefore to let him call the other school by its name. Hereupon Bilio,
+who has assumed the role of _ex officio_ blusterer and terrorist,
+interposed in his manner of a brawling monk, saying this topic had nothing
+to do with the preamble, and could be introduced afterwards in the
+discussion on the four chapters.
+
+Bishop Pie of Poitiers had proposed to his colleagues on the Commission
+_de Fide_ to put the article on infallibility, which was too crudely
+worded, into a shape which all could accept, to which Manning and Dechamps
+replied that it could not be improved upon, and they would allow not the
+slightest change. And as they had a majority in the Commission, Pie's wish
+was strangled before its birth.
+
+There is no want of restless activity and agitation in favour of
+infallibility. The processions to obtain the gift of infallibility from
+the Holy Virgin and the numerous Saints, whose bones and relics fill the
+Roman Churches, march with sonorous devotion through the streets; the lazy
+and lukewarm are urged not to remain idle at so important a time, and
+there is no lack of intimations of the real profits which the dogma must
+yield to the city. The Bishops of the minority must have had marble hearts
+if they had continued proof against so many fervent prayers for their
+conversion, and wished still to defend their Gallican citadel in spite of
+the general assault upon it. The Roman parish priests have already
+presented an address in favour of the dogma, but not--as I hear--till after
+the opposition among them had been put down by the highest authority. And
+now an urgent admonition has been addressed to the University Professors
+either to signify their desire for the definition or resign their offices.
+All who receive salaries here have long been accustomed to the soft
+pressure put upon them from above, and are hastening, with a correct
+appreciation of the importance of the wish of the authorities, to follow
+lead. In the last few days we have had an address from 40 Chamberlains of
+the Fathers of the Council who "prostrate at the Pope's most sacred feet
+earnestly desire to have the opportunity of sharing the wholesome fruits
+(_saluberrimi frutti_) of infallibility and the exultation felt by all
+true believers at the decree." The text of the address is given in the
+_Unita Cattolica_.
+
+Meanwhile the chief Pontiff himself speaks in most emphatic terms. The
+_Tedeschi_, notwithstanding Senestrey's assurances, are in bad odour here.
+A letter of the Papal Secretary in the _Univers_ of June 2 describes the
+Opposition Bishops as _amateurs de nouveautes dangereuses_, and I
+understand that in a letter to Chigi, the nuncio at Paris, the Pope speaks
+of his infallibility as "that pious doctrine, which for so many centuries
+nobody questioned." This expression is peculiarly suggestive. That the
+Pope uses it in good faith is certain, and that he has not gained his
+conviction by any study of his own is equally certain. He has been deluded
+by this monstrous lie, which no single even half-educated infallibilist
+will make himself responsible for, and thus has been driven into his
+perilous course. No one, who has but glanced at the official Roman
+historians, such as Baronius or Orsi or Saccarelli, can possibly maintain
+seriously that there has been no doubt for centuries about papal
+infallibility. This saying lifts the veil and affords us a glance into the
+workshop, where the Pandora's basket was fabricated which has now been
+opened before our eyes. Future theologians will know how to appreciate
+that weighty saying, "no one for many centuries," and I for my part would
+say, like Gratiano to Shylock, "I thank thee for teaching me that word."
+
+Cardinal Schwarzenberg, who spoke on the 7th against the second chapter,
+was not, I think, interrupted, as was however the Bishop of Biella,
+Losanna, on the pretext that he did not keep to the subject. The old man
+is a doubly unpleasant phenomenon to the Court party, both from his
+boldness and clearness of view, and as being a living proof that even an
+Italian may be a decided opponent of infallibilism. At the international
+meeting at Cardinal Rauscher's on the 8th it was determined that the third
+chapter was to be especially attacked in the speeches.
+
+This third chapter deals with matters of very pregnant import. It binds
+the Bishops to the acknowledgment that all men are immediately and
+directly under the Pope, which means that the so-called papal system is to
+be made exclusively dominant in the Church, in place of the old episcopal
+system, or in other words is to displace the latter, as it existed in the
+ancient Church, altogether. Bishops remain only as Papal Commissaries,
+possessed of so much power as the Pope finds good to leave them, and
+exercising such authority only as he does not directly exercise himself;
+there is no longer any episcopate, and thus one grade of the hierarchy is
+abolished. The persons bearing the name of Bishops are wholly different
+from the old and real Bishops; they have nothing more to do with the
+higher teaching office (_magisterium_), and have no authority or sphere of
+their own, but only delegated functions and powers, which the Pope or any
+one appointed by him can encroach upon at pleasure. Even this is not
+enough for Archbishop Dechamps of Mechlin, who has now proposed four
+canons anathematizing all defenders of the episcopal system; this has
+roused the suspicions even of several Bishops of the majority. These four
+canons are so significant an illustration of the aims of the party that
+they deserve to be put on record here:--
+
+(1.) "Si quis dixerit Romanum Pontificem habere quidem in Ecclesia
+primatum jurisdictionis, non vero etiam supremam potestatem docendi,
+regendi et gubernandi Ecclesiam, perinde ac si primatus jurisdictionis ab
+illa suprema, potestate distingui posset--anathema sit.
+
+(2.) "Si quis dixerit talem potestatem Romani Pontificis non esse plenam,
+sed divisam inter S. Pontificem et episcopos, quasi episcopi a Spiritu S.
+positi ad Ecclesiam Dei docendam et regendam sub unico summo pastore etiam
+divinitus vocati fuerint, ut in suprema potestate totius Ecclesiae capitis
+participent--anathema sit.
+
+(3.) "Si quis dixerit supremam in Ecclesia potestatem non residere in
+universae Ecclesiae capite, sed in episcoporum pluralitate--anathema sit.
+
+(4.) "Si quis dixerit Romano Pontifici datam quidem esse plenam potestatem
+regendi et gubernandi, non autem etiam plenam potestatem docendi
+universalem Ecclesiam, fideles et pastores--anathema sit."
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-EIGHTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, June 21, 1870._--What I have to communicate in this letter is so
+important, that I find it desirable to take it out of the historical order
+of events and let it precede the detailed account of what occurred between
+June 8 and 17.
+
+A circumstance occurred on Saturday, which has kept all who are interested
+about the Council in breathless suspense ever since. Nothing in fact could
+be more unexpected than that, at the moment when the Opposition, though
+still maintaining the contest from a sense of conscientious duty, almost
+despairs of success, a fresh ally should join its ranks in the person of a
+Roman Cardinal, whose accession is the more valuable because he does not
+only speak in his own name, but has concerted his speech with the fifteen
+Bishops of his Order. In fact I hear his speech spoken of in many quarters
+as the most important and unexpected event in the Council. It must not of
+course be supposed that Guidi's spirited speech represents adequately the
+tendencies of the Opposition, but still it must be affirmed that it
+involves a complete, and as we believe irreconcilable, breach with the
+majority. In order to enable people to appreciate the full weight of the
+speech it is of some importance to premise a brief account of the speaker.
+
+Cardinal Guidi has belonged, almost ever since his entering the Dominican
+Order, to the convent of the Minerva. For a long time he belonged to the
+theological professoriate connected with the convent, and enjoyed, as
+such, the well-earned reputation of great learning and strict orthodoxy.
+When eleven years ago Pius IX. wished to send thoroughly trustworthy and
+learned Roman theologians to the University of Vienna, to inculcate
+genuine Roman science and views on the young clergy, his eye fell on
+Father Guidi. After working there for some years he returned to Rome,
+having been meanwhile appointed Cardinal, and was soon afterwards made
+Archbishop of Bologna; and as the Italian Government promised to place no
+impediment in the way of his residing there, he actually betook himself to
+his See. But he soon found that it was not the place for him. The
+Dominican Order had seriously compromised itself in the notorious Mortara
+affair, and accordingly the Bolognese rabble broke out repeatedly into the
+most deplorable demonstrations against the new Archbishop as a member of
+the hated Order. He therefore returned to Rome, and administered his
+diocese from hence. And here he was one of the Pope's favourites, only
+during the last year he has lost favour through his freedom of speech.
+Since then he has been prosecuting his theological studies in retirement,
+and it was pretty well known what he thought about the personal
+infallibility of the Pope. Several months ago he had assembled the
+Dominican Bishops at the Minerva about this affair. His view prevailed,
+and when Father Jandel, the General imposed on the Order by the Pope and
+reluctantly accepted, tried to put a pressure on them, they replied that
+they were Bishops, and were bound, as such, to consult their consciences
+when called to act as judges of faith. Then began a notable agitation in
+the Order, which was already divided into two camps. One arbitrary act
+followed another. A so-called academy of St. Thomas was opened, and hardly
+had the President taken his seat, when he made a long speech, expounding
+the doctrine of St. Thomas and the Order on papal infallibility in the
+most tactless and violent manner to his episcopal audience. A Dominican
+Bishop delighted the Pope by getting up an infallibilist address among his
+episcopal colleagues. Then followed a series of writings defending St.
+Thomas against _Janus_. A member of the Order was forbidden by the
+General, Jandel, "to speak either publicly or privately about
+infallibility," and the _Civilta Cattolica_ of June 18 praised the General
+for prefixing to the infallibilist writing of a Dominican the approbation
+that in the Dominican Order papal infallibility has always been held as a
+Catholic truth.
+
+Under these circumstances people were the less prepared to find Cardinal
+Guidi, in contrast with his numerous sympathizers in the College of
+Cardinals, venturing boldly on a step which must embitter his whole
+existence at Rome. The very first sentence of his momentous speech must
+have concentrated the anger of the majority on a Cardinal, as they
+thought, so confused and oblivious of his duty. Guidi began by affirming
+that the separate and personal infallibility of the Pope, as stated in the
+amended chapter of the _Schema_, was wholly unknown in the Church up to
+the fourteenth century inclusive. Proofs for it are vainly sought in
+Scripture and Tradition. The whole question, he added, reduces itself to
+the point whether the Pope has defined even one dogma alone and without
+the co-operation of the Church. No man could claim divine inspiration
+(_doctrina infusa_). An act might be infallible, a person never. But every
+infallible act had always proceeded from the Church herself only, either
+"per consilium Ecclesiae sparsae," or "per Concilium." To know "quid ubique
+credatur, si omnes Ecclesiae cum Romana Ecclesia concordent," information
+is indispensably required. After this examination the Pope sanctions
+doctrine "finaliter," as St. Thomas says, and only so can it be rightly
+said "Omnes per Papam docent." He then showed from the works of the
+Jesuits Bellarmine and Perrone, "in definendis dogmatibus Papas nunquam ex
+se solis egisse, nunquam haeresim per se solos condemnasse." As Guidi
+uttered these words the majority began to make a tumult under the lead of
+the Italian Spaccapietra, Bishop of Smyrna. The Cardinal saw he could not
+continue his speech. One bishop cried "birbante" (scoundrel) and another
+"brigantino." But Guidi did not let himself be put out of countenance; he
+answered with astonishing firmness and calmness that he had a right to be
+heard, and that no one had given to the Bishops the right of the
+Presidents. "However, the time will come yet for saying your _Placet_ or
+your _Non placet_, and then every one will be free to vote according to
+his conscience." Here for the first time his speech was interrupted by
+loud applause, and the words "Optime, optime" resounded from every side
+among the Opposition Bishops. Manning was asked by one of them, who stood
+near him, "Etes-vous d'accord, Monsigneur?" He replied, "Le Cardinal est
+une tete confuse." On this a high-spirited Bishop could not refrain from
+observing to the powerful Archbishop of Westminster, "C'est bien votre
+tete, Monseigneur, qui est confuse et plus qu'a moitie Protestante."
+
+After this pretty long interruption Guidi went on to require a change in
+the chapter on infallibility "ut clare appareat Papam agere
+consentientibus episcopis et illis occasione errorum qui sparguntur
+petentibus, facta inquisitione in aliis Ecclesiis, praemisso maturo examine
+et judicio et consiliis fratrum aut collecto Concilio." This was the true
+doctrine of St. Thomas; "finaliter" implied something to precede, and the
+words "supremus magister et judex" pre-suppose other "magistri" and
+"tribunalia." He concluded by proposing these canons:--
+
+(1.) "Si quis dixerit decreta seu constitutiones a Petri successore
+editas, continentes quandam fidei vel morum veritatem Ecclesiae universae ab
+ipso pro suprema sua et apostolica auctoritate propositas non esse
+extemplo omnimodo venerandas et toto corde credendas vel posse
+reformari--anathema sit.
+
+(2.) "Si quis dixerit Pontificem, cum talia edit decreta, posse agere
+arbitrio et ex se solo non autem ex consilio episcoporum traditionem
+Ecclesiarum exhibentium--anathema sit."
+
+On sitting down he gave his manuscript to the Secretary, and was soon
+surrounded by the leaders of the Opposition, some of whom complimented him
+on his speech, while others expressed their admiration of his courage in
+resisting the attempts to interrupt him. When a learned Italian Bishop
+asked Valerga, Patriarch of Jerusalem, what he thought of this speech, he
+replied audibly with the pun, "Si e squidato," and on his interrogator
+rejoining that anyhow the speech contained nothing but the truth, Valerga
+let slip an expression very characteristic of himself and his party, "Si,
+ma non convien sempre dir la verita."
+
+After this speech a large number of Bishops left the Council Hall, and
+excited groups of prelates might be seen standing about in all directions.
+Cardinals Bonnechose and Cullen addressed their very pointless speeches to
+empty benches. Both pleaded for the proclamation of the fourth chapter, as
+it stood. Bonnechose, from whom Ginoulhiac and others had expected a very
+moderate speech, proved that he had completely gone over into Manning's
+camp, which cannot surprise any one in the case of a man who himself made
+no secret of his having no clear views on the question. Cullen destroyed
+by his last speech the impression made by the first, which had been
+admired, not for its contents but for its strictly parliamentary form.
+
+Cardinal Guidi's courageous speech was destined soon to bear its fruits.
+The Pope--the dearest object of whose heart is the perfect freedom of the
+Council, as the official journal stated the other day--sent for him at
+once, and next day boasted to several Cardinals of having energetically
+rebuked their undutiful colleague for his heresy and ingratitude, and
+threatened him with being called on to renew his profession of faith. But
+the Cardinal may consider himself indemnified for these hard words of the
+Pope by the homage he received the day after his speech from almost the
+whole body of the Opposition Bishops who came to visit him. And he knows
+that the best of them were even worse treated by his Holiness than
+himself, where it was possible.
+
+
+
+
+
+FIFTY-NINTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, June 22, 1870._--On the 13th the votes were taken on the changes
+proposed in the preamble, and taken by rising and sitting down.(147)
+Instead of "Vis et salus Ecclesiae ab eo (Papa) dependet" was proposed "Vis
+et soliditas in eo (Papa) consistit." The majority seem to have thought
+that stronger. The debate began with the speech of the Irish Archbishop of
+Cashel, a member of the Commission. It is precisely in our days, he said,
+that it is so necessary for the Pope to have absolute and irresponsible
+authority, for therein lies the one safeguard, first, against the
+encroachments of Liberalism; secondly, against the Radical and anti-Church
+policy of the Governments; thirdly, against the poisonous and unbridled
+influence of journalism; and fourthly, the absolute Pope can alone meet
+the ecclesiastical and national enterprises of Russia or subdue the
+political sects and ward off the Revolution which is impending everywhere.
+In short, human society requires a deliverer, and this deliverer must be
+omnipotent and infallible. So it is said in the Commission, and the Irish
+prelate, who was specially alarmed by Fenianism, spoke in its name. As
+soon as the Pope with the assent of the Council--or indeed without it--has
+ruled his own omnipotence and infallibility, the deliverance of mankind is
+accomplished.
+
+The French Benedictine, Cardinal Pitra, undertook to lift the assembly out
+of this cloudy region back to the firm ground of facts, viz., the facts
+disclosed by himself. He expatiated on the collection of canons in the
+Greek Church, saying that those relating to the Roman See had been
+falsified, and the Russian Church was above all implicated in this system
+of forgery, which had brought things to such a pass that there was no
+authentic collection of canons in the Oriental Church. This was probably
+intended to serve as a diversion, for the enormous fabrications in favour
+of papal omnipotence, which were carried on for centuries and are
+incorporated in the codes of canon law, had been frequently before
+referred to in a very suspicious manner in the Council. Even the Bishop of
+Saluzzo, who is almost a thorough-going Roman absolutist, had called the
+collection of canons (Gratian's, etc.) an Augean stable. Pitra went on to
+indulge in an uncommonly fervid philippic against the Machiavellian and
+persecuting Russia. But he forgot to say one thing, viz., that in no
+country would the impending decrees be received with such satisfaction as
+in Russia, nowhere would they give greater pleasure than in that great
+Northern State which considers itself the happy heir of Rome in the East.
+So much must be known even in Rome, that on the day the dogma is
+promulgated all the bells in Mohilew, Wilna, Minsk, etc., will resound to
+ring the knell of Rome. Pitra was followed by Ramirez y Vasquez, Bishop of
+Badajoz. He maintained in the style and tone of Don Gerundio de Canpazes,
+the doctrine that the Pope is Christ in the Church, the continuation of
+the Incarnation of the Son of God, whence to him belongs the same extent
+of power as to Christ Himself when visibly on earth. Maret had announced
+his intention of speaking, with the view of combating the four anathemas
+of Dechamps, which were so manifestly directed against his book. But
+Dechamps, on learning this, told the Bishop of Sura that, if he would keep
+silence, he would withdraw his anathemas, and excused himself by alleging
+his zeal for the new dogma, assuring Maret that he had a good heart and
+meant no harm. So Maret renounced his design of speaking.
+
+On the 14th, Haynald, in spite of his bodily suffering, delivered a long
+polemical speech against the majority, and maintained his reputation of
+being the best Latin speaker after Strossmayer. Jussuf, the Melchite
+Patriarch of Antioch, came next with an apology for the Oriental Churches
+and their liberties. He pointed out in earnest words the danger of their
+defection, if the present design of taking away their ancient rights was
+carried out. He produced letters from his home telling him that he had
+better not return at all than bring back from Rome decrees curtailing
+their ecclesiastical liberties. And if the Pope chose to send back another
+Patriarch instead of him, they might be very sure he would not be
+received. Bishop Krementz of Ermeland observed that Holy Scripture made,
+not Peter, or as is here understood the Pope, the foundation of the
+Church, but Christ, and then as secondary foundation the Apostles and
+Prophets. Only after these and in dependence on them could this
+designation be applied to the See of Rome.
+
+It had indeed been already observed among the minority how monstrous it
+was to make the Pope "the principle of unity in the Church," as the
+_Schema_ puts it, and that the ancient Fathers speak indeed of an
+"exordium unitatis" established in the person of Peter, but had never
+called him, and still less the Bishop of Rome, the principle of
+ecclesiastical unity, which would be logically inconceivable. In the
+voting, which was again taken by rising and sitting down, the little band
+of dissentients disappeared before the consentient mass, and the
+expression "principium unitatis," opposed as it is both to logic and
+tradition, was accepted. Before the voting Bishop Gallo of Avellino had
+uttered in the name of the Commission some Neapolitan mysticism about Adam
+and Eve and the mysteries already revealed in Adam and Eve of the Church
+resting on the Pope.
+
+Cardinal Mathieu was the first speaker on the fourth chapter on
+infallibility. His long and powerful speech was mainly directed against
+Valerga, who had outraged the French by his attack on the "Gallican
+errors." It was a well-delivered panegyric on the French nation, which had
+shed the blood of her sons to restore Rome to the Pope, and without whose
+troops at Civita Vecchia the Council could not remain in Rome. The only
+doubt is whether this Valerga is worth as much notice as the French have
+accorded to him. After Mathieu Cardinal Rauscher spoke. His speech was
+very inaudible owing to the nature of the Council Hall, but was clear and
+well grounded, and showed how the acceptance of a personal infallibility,
+by virtue of which every utterance of a Pope must be believed by all
+Christians under pain of eternal damnation, is equally at issue with facts
+and with the former tradition of the Church, and must have a fatal effect
+in the future. He referred to Vigilius, Honorius, the reordinations of
+Sergius and Stephen, and the contradiction between Nicolas III. and John
+XXII., and commended the formula of Antoninus requiring the consent of the
+Church as a condition. He could never assent to the _Schema_ without
+mortal sin. "We knew all that from your pamphlet," said Dechamps while he
+was speaking. "But you have never refuted it," replied Rauscher.
+
+Cardinal Pitra was to have followed, but he was unwell, and the sitting
+was broken off. The Presidents had issued an instruction that no one
+should speak out of his turn, and if prevented on the regular day should
+lose his right altogether. The rule in this case affected the zealous
+infallibilist Pitra, and accordingly the Bishops were dismissed before the
+usual hour.
+
+The two next days, the 17th and 18th, were festivals, and there was no
+sitting held. As there are already 75 speakers enrolled for the fourth
+chapter, the promulgation obviously cannot take place on June 29, and the
+Council will last on into July. There is indeed a simple means of
+gratifying the desire of the Pope and curtailing the pains of the Bishops,
+who are now absolutely tortured by the heat: the majority can any day cut
+short the special debate, as they have already cut short the general
+discussion. It may of course be objected that this procedure, of depriving
+the Bishops of their right of speaking and violently imposing silence upon
+them, overthrows the nature of a Church Council, where every Bishop is
+meant to bear witness not only to his own belief, but to the tradition of
+his country and the faith of his diocese. If the Bishops are deprived of
+this right--and that too where so momentous a question is at issue and
+there is such diversity of opinion--the freedom essential to a Council is
+wanting.
+
+The Pope becomes more lavish of his admonitions and instructions every
+day. In the last Papal _Capella_ Patrizzi assured him the faithful were
+impatiently awaiting the proclamation of infallibility, whereon Pius, in
+presence of several Bishops of the minority, replied that there were three
+classes of opponents of the dogma, _first_, the gross ignoramuses, who did
+not know what it meant; _secondly_, the slaves of princes, he said "of
+Caesar," referring both to Vienna and Paris; _thirdly_, the cowards, who
+feared the judgment of this evil world. But he prayed for their
+enlightenment and conversion.(148) This was of course applied here
+universally to the Bishops of the Opposition. Moreover the Pope had just
+before had a letter written to certain canons of Besancon, saying that all
+the objections raised now had been triumphantly refuted a hundred times
+over, and that as to appealing to the results of historical criticism and
+the examination of texts, viz., to the huge mass of deliberate
+falsifications and forgeries, these were "des anciens sophismes ou
+mensonges contraires aux prerogatives du St. Siege." The remark touches
+Rauscher, Schwarzenberg, Dupanloup, Hefele, Maret, Kenrick, Ketteler (in
+the pamphlet he circulated), and some thirty more. There is much dispute
+here as to the paternity of those views which Pius emits both orally and
+in writing. Has he got them from the _Civilta_, or are the Jesuit writers
+of that journal only the pupils of the Pope, who has received this
+information "by infused science" from the Virgin Mary? On that point
+opinions differ. The majority, who are quite aware that every one would
+think it a joke to call Giovanni Maria Mastai a learned theologian, hold
+to the latter view, and to the well-known picture painted by the Pope's
+own order, where the "actus infusionis" is represented to the eye. Their
+favourite watchword is that every one who does not accept the decree is,
+or in a few days will be, a heretic and enemy of the Church; his _non
+placet_ consummates his separation from her, and hence Manning has already
+proposed that each of these Bishops should have his excommunication handed
+him with his railway-ticket when he leaves Rome. Livy says, "Haec natura
+multitudinis est, aut servit humiliter aut superbe dominatur;" the
+"multitude" in the Hall combines both characteristics.
+
+On June 18 the Pope observed a German priest among those admitted to an
+audience, and asked who he was, when he replied that he was secretary to a
+Bishop, who is well known for his learning and his fallibilist views. Pius
+turned away with an exclamation of disgust. Of another very eminent
+dignitary of similar views he is wont to say in the bitterest terms, that
+his opinions are prompted solely by personal enmity to himself.
+
+The majority are said to be very impatient, so that many anticipate the
+violent closing of the debate on Saturday, the 25th. And the greater
+number of the intending speakers on the fourth chapter, now increased to a
+hundred, belong to the Court party, who might say that they are only
+willingly renouncing the pleasure of hearing their own ideas put forward.
+But then the speeches of Darboy, Place (of Marseilles), Maret, Clifford,
+Schwarzenberg, Simor, Dupanloup, and Haynald would also be suppressed.
+Hefele was the first to put down his name, as he was not allowed at the
+time to answer the fierce attack of Cullen. On his inquiring after some
+days when his turn would come, he was told that he was the fifty-first in
+order, as all who came before him in age and rank must speak before he
+could be permitted to open his mouth. A little later he was told he came
+seventy-first, so that his hope of being able to vindicate himself in the
+Council is almost at an end. Meanwhile he has had a brief reply to the
+attack of a Frenchman, de la Margerie, printed at Naples.
+
+The minority have resolved to send a deputation to the Pope to petition
+for the adjournment of the Council, since it is horrible to detain so many
+aged men, many of whom are sick, by violence in this unhealthy city. They
+will of course meet with a positive refusal, for the Jesuits and the holy
+Virgin, who is always appealed to, are for carrying out the compulsory
+system to the last. But you may judge how the heat and the moral and
+physical miasmas are working on the Bishops from the fact that there are
+now only five or six on a bench where thirty Bishops used to sit, though
+most of the others are in Rome or the neighbourhood. Indeed they are kept
+prisoners here, and Antonelli said recently to a diplomatist, "Si quelque
+Eveque veut faire une partie de campagne (like Foerster) la police n'a rien
+a y voir, mais s'il voulait quitter le Concile, alors ce serait
+different," so that every foreign Bishop lives here under the inspection
+of the police, who are to take care that he does not escape. This
+statement seemed to the diplomat to whom it was made so seriously to
+affect the sovereign rights of his Government, that he at once reported
+it.
+
+The Roman logic, as may be seen from the _Civilta_, is simply this: the
+Council is what it is through the Pope alone; without him it can do
+nothing and is an empty shadow. Freedom of the Council therefore means
+freedom of the Pope: if he is free, it is free. You may infer what
+reception will be accorded in the Vatican to the petition just resolved
+upon for a secret voting on the Papal _Schema_. There could be no more
+eloquent testimony to the real state of things and the estimate formed of
+the freedom of the Council, for it is dictated by the knowledge that a
+secret ballot would give a very considerable number of negative votes, at
+least 200, if the private expressions of opinion of the Bishops may be
+relied upon, while no one here ventures to hope for more than 110 or 115
+_non placets_ in a public voting. There are certainly some hundred, even
+of the Papal boarders, who would say _Non placet_, if their votes were
+sheltered by secrecy. Neither the Catholic nor the non-Catholic public has
+any idea of the extent to which a Bishop in the present day is dependent
+on Rome, and how difficult or impossible the administration of his office
+would be made for him by the disfavour of Rome. The worst off of all are
+the Bishops under Propaganda, who have simply no rights. For them to speak
+of freedom, after the Pope has announced his wish, would be ludicrous, and
+to this category belong not only all the Oriental and Missionary Bishops,
+but the American and English also. And even for the Bishops of the older
+Sees, who are under the _Congregatio Episcoporum et Regularium_, and are
+protected by the common law or by Concordats, the practice of the _Curia_
+is a field full of man-traps, a belt studded with nails, which only needs
+to be drawn in by curialistic hands to make the nails pierce the body of
+the obnoxious Bishop. As things now are here, and after Pius has gone
+further than any Pope for centuries in glaring partisanship and open
+threats of enmity against all dissentients, secret voting must appear the
+only possible means of securing even a shadow of freedom for the decrees
+of the Council. If the voting is public, the word freedom, as used of the
+Council, could only be regarded as a mockery. And it is very well known
+here that the Pope's _entourage_ do everything in their power to maintain
+him in his belief that the Opposition will melt away at last like snow
+before the sun, and hardly four negative votes will remain.
+
+Last year the theologians summoned for the preliminary work were sent home
+at the beginning of June, and scarcely one or two even of the directing
+Commission of Cardinals stayed longer in Rome. Now the 15th or 20th of
+July is spoken of as the day for the promulgation, and if it should be a
+little earlier there will still be many of the prelates who will return
+from Rome ill and with their constitutions permanently shattered. The
+ancients found the word "amor" reversed in the name of the eternal city
+(_Roma_), and the Bishops are daily reminded of it. Meanwhile the
+brilliant recompense of Cardoni's services has rekindled the hopes of the
+majority; there are fifteen or sixteen vacant Hats, which will be given to
+those who have deserved best of the new dogma. The merits of the Italians
+are not conspicuous; they have most of them done moles' work, chiefly as
+spies, for that business is conducted here to an extent almost unheard of
+in Europe. Valerga is of course an exception, who has excelled all the
+Italians as a speaker. After him, Mgr. Nardi has so greatly distinguished
+himself by his active zeal that a red Hat would seem a fitting ornament of
+his head, but then there are very suspicious circumstances, only too
+notorious in Rome. The men who have done and will do the most important
+services, who are indeed the modern Atlases to carry the main weight of
+the new dogma on their lusty shoulders, are of course the Jesuits. Pius is
+penetrated with the feeling that their services are above all praise and
+recompense. A Jesuit cannot be rewarded with titles and colours and
+dresses, but he can receive a Cardinal's Hat. The names of Toletus,
+Bellarmine, Pallavicini, de Lugo, recall grand memories. Not long before
+its dissolution in 1736, three of the Order were in the Sacred College
+together--Tolomei, Eienfuegos and Salerno. That might happen again, and the
+College would gain in capacity and working power. As Kleutgen cannot be
+thought of, on account of his trial before the Inquisition, and Perrone is
+too old, the next candidates would be Curci, Schrader and Franzelin.
+Father Piccirillo, from his intimate relations to the highest personage,
+would possess the first reversionary claim, and his services have been
+rewarded in a manner greatly desired and long aimed at by his Order, for
+he has received the permission, unprecedented in the history of Rome, to
+go alone into the secret archives and there work. Such an event would at
+other times have been regarded at Rome as a downfall of the heavens or a
+sign of the last judgment, and even now it has produced perplexity and
+amazement in genuine Roman circles. For every one who passes the threshold
+of the chamber of archives incurs _ipso facto_ excommunication. So the
+Order is firmly seated in this unapproachable sanctuary. There is no fear
+of indiscreet publications. Piccirillo, far from publishing anything, will
+excel in mere negative activity.
+
+Among foreign candidates for the Cardinalate Manning stands out as a star
+of the first rank in the Roman firmament. He may claim some paternity of
+the great idea of at last treating the apotheosis of the Papacy seriously,
+and he long ago suggested to Darboy how nice it would be for the two chief
+capitals of Europe, London and Paris, each to have its Cardinal, which
+could be best brought about by furthering the infallibilist definition.
+But Darboy would hear nothing of it. Next to Manning comes Dechamps of
+Mechlin; but as the Pope has named him primate, which is indeed a mere
+title, he is thought here to have had his reward. Spalding, who has
+deserved so well of Rome, would of course create a great sensation in the
+United States by the red hat, which has never yet been seen there. Among
+the French, Dreux-Breze of Moulins and Pie of Poitiers come first in
+order. There is great difficulty about Simor, the ill-advised and
+ungrateful son who had the Cardinalate, so to speak, in his pocket, and is
+now causing such distress to the lofty giver. How fortunate, say the Court
+party, that d'Andrea is no longer alive. Rauscher, Schwarzenburg, Guidi,
+d'Andrea, Simor--that would be too much. But now for the Germans! There it
+is difficult to select; all the faithful ones must be rewarded, who have
+literally sweated and are sweating daily in the interest of the good
+cause--Fessler, Martin, Senestrey, and then Stahl, Leonrod, Rudigier and
+the Tyrolese Gasser and Riccabona. The Tyrol has had no Cardinal since
+Nicolas of Cusa (Bishop of Brixen) and Madrucci (Bishop of Trent), and
+there most especially would the return of a countryman with a red hat be
+kept as a national festival.
+
+Margotti has had a denial inserted in the _Univers_ of the fact that a
+Sicilian Bishop related the story of St. Peter and the Virgin Mary in the
+Council Hall. On this I have merely to remark that it was told me the same
+evening by three Bishops, none of whom heard it from one of the others,
+and the speaker was Natoli, Archbishop of Messina. We know what Margotti's
+assertions and denials are worth.
+
+
+
+
+
+SIXTIETH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, June 23, 1870._--On reading the last document emanating from the
+Council, composed by the most distinguished of the American Bishops, an
+inexpressible feeling of astonishment comes over me, as often before, at
+the new and unprecedented spectacle so boldly offered to the startled
+world, and I again recognise the necessity of accounting to myself for the
+condition of the Catholic Church which has made this possible, and
+remembering that the position of the Papacy in the modern Church for some
+time past has been hardly less novel and strange than this present
+infallibilist Council.
+
+The two great events of modern history, the Reformation and the
+Revolution, have made the Papacy what it is,--the Reformation by forcibly
+driving the Catholic half of Christendom into centralization, the
+Revolution by removing the last remaining independent powers within the
+Church, viz., the Gallican Church with the Sorbonne and Parliament. So it
+came to pass that with the Restoration the Church was surrendered to the
+discretion of the Papacy, just as at the same time the Roman States, by
+the withdrawal of all provincial and corporate independence, became a
+uniform and absolute monarchy. The very spirit of the nineteenth century,
+without much help from Rome, contributed to the consolidation and
+strengthening of this new system. The re-awakening and growth of distinct
+Church feeling in powerful classes of the educated nations, the legitimist
+ideas of the ruling classes of Europe, and later on the combined Catholic
+and Liberal interest of the struggle against hostile bureaucracies and the
+antipathy of parliamentary majorities--principles of reaction and
+principles of freedom all alike in turn subserved the cause of the Church,
+_i.e._, the Papacy. For although Papacy and Church were still not wholly
+identified in fact, to say nothing of right, the times did not suggest the
+need for distinguishing between them.
+
+There was opportunity given, one might suppose, for a great display of
+activity. A fresh creative spirit passed here and there through the new
+world of the nineteenth century, and not least through the Catholic
+portion of it, which produced in individuals many fair flowers of art and
+science, and also of practical piety. It was enough to catch the
+inspiration, in the sense of the age and of the eternal needs of mankind,
+and as the wilderness blossoms under the hand of a gardener, there grew
+out of the ruins of the Revolution a new era of rich Christian life. But
+the destiny of Catholicism was to be the reverse. There was indeed then,
+and is now, urgent need of an immense deal to be done in the Church; to
+carry on the daily ecclesiastical administration by no means satisfied the
+requirements of the age, but the Church herself needed and needs
+reform--reform everywhere from the outer rind to the marrow. But reform,
+whether in Church or State, generally results from the struggle of rival
+forces. And the only power surviving in the Church possessed neither the
+capacity nor the inclination for acts of world-wide import; it seemed to
+have no sense but for the maintenance and extension of its own dominion.
+Such Catholic works as the nineteenth century has produced did not emanate
+from Rome, and were little if at all helped on by her. On the contrary,
+Rome put a restraint on everything which did not serve directly as an
+instrument of her power. Every germ of relative independence seemed to be
+viewed with distrust. Here and there the intellectual labour of a lifetime
+of Catholic study was simply extinguished. The youth of talent turned from
+a path which led only to unfruitful conflicts. The once promising
+seed-plot of original Catholic production became dry, and even the noblest
+creation of the century, the female orders for nursing the sick, are said
+by those best informed to show symptoms of decay. There was stillness.
+From Rome one only heard a monologue. The Bishops' Pastorals were its
+echo, or were so long-winded and verbose that the simple and noble
+language of the pronunciamento issued by the newly elected Bishop of
+Rottenburg was quite a phenomenon. Men boasted of the Catholic unity,
+which had never been so palpable and so undisturbed as in these latter
+days, but it was a unity of sleep over the grave of intellectual and all
+higher ecclesiastical life.
+
+Who will bring us deliverance? asked every one who looked at things
+independently of the mere force of habit with a clear eye. The answer was
+that there was no longer any independent power anywhere but in the centre,
+and therefore deliverance could only come from thence; the lever could
+only be applied in Rome, and nobody but a future Pope was in a position to
+do this.
+
+How peculiarly are things disposed! In Rome they had all they could
+desire. There has never been a time when Catholic Christendom lay so
+submissively at the Pope's feet. In fact he possessed practically the
+prerogative of infallibility, for no one contradicted whatever he might
+say. The Bishops were disused to learning; there was hardly among them a
+theologian of note, and therefore they had no spirit for theological
+convictions of their own. It seemed to be the office of their lives to
+re-echo the Roman oracles. The daring project of defining the Immaculate
+Conception met with hardly any serious opposition, though many Bishops
+could not conceal from themselves that the faith of antiquity and the
+belief of their own dioceses knew nothing of the new dogma. And then in
+the Encyclical and Syllabus came a perfect flood of irrational and
+unchristian propositions. What did the Bishops of Christendom, the judges
+of faith, do? Some put a more rational interpretation on it, the others
+took it all for granted as it stood; everywhere the new articles of faith
+and morality were received as though all were in the most regular order.
+That was in fact a situation without any precedent, and there was nothing
+left to wish for but its continuance for ever. The talisman to secure this
+continuance was discovered in the tenet of papal infallibility, and to
+make this into a dogma and foundation-principle of the Church has been the
+grand object to which the thoughts and measures of the last ten years have
+been directed.
+
+Even this last point might perhaps have been attained by adhering to the
+practice which has prevailed hitherto of quietly collecting the votes of
+the _Ecclesia dispersa_, and passing over the isolated opponents still
+left to the order of the day. Why was the perilous plan of a General
+Council adopted instead of this? Perhaps with the view of extruding and
+getting rid of for the future all the doubt still attaching to the assent
+of the Church dispersed; certainly in the full confidence, after all that
+had occurred previously, that there was absolutely no demand the Bishops
+would dare to refuse. The authorities felt in the position,
+ecclesiastically speaking, of being able to challenge the Holy Ghost
+Himself to say if He would refuse to set His seal to the deformation of
+the Church.
+
+All the world knows how the Vatican Council has been managed. It was as if
+they wished to keep the Holy Ghost a prisoner, with eyes and ears
+bandaged. But things did not go as they wished. On the contrary this
+extreme step of the _Curia_ roused a reaction, which seems likely to lead
+to a revolution that will take its place in history and introduce a
+complete change in the future. Certainly the deliverance is coming from
+the centre, but not as was thought and desired, not in peace but in storm,
+not as a gift of the highest human wisdom but as a nemesis. For it is an
+old law, equally prevalent throughout the Christian and Heathen world,
+that pride will always bring its punishment.
+
+We are already in the third stage of this movement. First came, quite
+unexpectedly, protests against infallibility from the lay world, instead
+of the accustomed clouds of incense, and then still more unexpectedly the
+military obedience of the clergy was broken through by the most decided
+intimations of conscientious sincerity and scientific conviction; and now
+even the princes of the Church are putting themselves at the head of the
+Opposition. There is still some difference between the Church dispersed
+and a great assembly, many as are the restrictions imposed here by fraud
+and violence on the free expression of opinion. The man of knowledge and
+character, who would there remain alone and isolated, gains tenfold power
+and energy here. Consciences are aroused. Many a Bishop who left home with
+his head wholly or half involved in the haze of Jesuit doctrine, receives
+the impulse here to unprejudiced study and is irresistibly driven to the
+side of right and truth. Besides, it is no small thing to have seen the
+state of things at Rome for six months with one's own eyes.
+
+We shall do well not to raise our expectations too high. The spirit of
+slavery, which has become ingrained in one generation after another,
+cannot be scared away in weeks and months from men's minds and the conduct
+of affairs. So much the more noteworthy is every increase of outward or
+inward strength in the struggling minority at the Council. And so I return
+to the work already mentioned, to remark that its contents justify us in
+reckoning the author, the venerable Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis, with
+Strossmayer, Hefele, Dupanloup, Darboy, Schwarzenberg, and Rauscher among
+the heads of the Opposition.
+
+It is only matter of course that much which has often been said before
+should be repeated here, which we may pass over, without however omitting
+to notice the impression which the plain and practical nature of the
+treatise is calculated to produce. What concerns us more nearly is the
+distinctness and firmness with which the present claims of the _Curia_ are
+repudiated, as, _e.g._, in pointing out the injury to episcopal rights
+involved in the desired definition. "The Bishops," says the author, "have
+always been held judges of faith. But assuming that the Pope alone is
+infallible, the Bishops may indeed assent to his judgments, but cannot
+exercise any real judicial office, and thus lose a right inherent in the
+episcopal office. But this right they are in no position to resign,
+however much they might wish it, for its connection with the episcopal
+office rests on the institution of the Saviour." In another passage he
+says, "Appeal is made to the number of theologians, who in the course of
+ages have defended infallibility. But that does not make it an article of
+faith. Divine Providence does not permit such opinions, when they have no
+true ground or do not agree with the records of revelation, to become
+articles of faith. It has been a view held for centuries that Christ gave
+Peter and his successors supreme authority in secular affairs also. But
+there is no one in our own day who does not reject and deplore it and seek
+for an excuse for it in the circumstances of the age, except the Roman
+clergy, in whose _Proprium Officium S. __ Zachariae_ we read the other day,
+that the Pope by his apostolic authority transferred the sovereignty over
+the Franks from Childeric to Pepin. And yet the Popes have ventured to
+make this usurped authority, so far as in them lay, into an article of
+faith." Then follows a reference to the Bull _Unam Sanctam_, and the
+similar statements of Bellarmine and Suarez. "On the other hand," Kenrick
+proceeds, "we find at this Council some Bishops, of whom the present
+writer is one, who have published and solemnly sworn to a declaration that
+the Pope, at least in England, possesses no such power. This example might
+teach those who are pressing for the definition of papal infallibility,
+that even the most solemn papal decree, and though issued like that of
+Boniface VIII. at a Synod, is null and void if it be not grounded on God's
+word in Scripture and Tradition. 'Commenta delet dies, judicia naturae
+confirmat.' "
+
+We may recognise in the tone of these remarks, with all their moderation,
+an advance on the part of the Opposition to greater freedom and
+distinctness of speech. And this impression is still more confirmed by
+Kenrick's judgment on the well-known proceedings in and out of Council.
+"There is yet another argument used," he says, "which I can only refer to
+with reluctance. It is urged that papal infallibility is so vehemently
+attacked by its opponents that, if it is not now declared to be an article
+of faith, it is virtually admitted to have no foundation, and surrendered
+to the daily increasing violence of its assailants without protection.
+Those who so argue forget that they are themselves responsible for having
+occasioned this deplorable controversy, by announcing to the astonished
+world that at the Vatican Council two new dogmas would be proposed to the
+faithful, papal infallibility and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin,
+and in a similar spirit publishing works in England and the United States
+on the Pope's authority, with a view of preparing men's minds for the
+acceptance of these dogmas. In view of this temerity, which has not only
+not been rebuked but has even been defended in Bishops' Pastorals, and
+with a clear perception of the unhappy consequences that must follow from
+it, men, who deserve eternal remembrance and will obtain praise of God,
+have lifted up their voice to remind the faithful that in matters of faith
+no innovation is allowed, that papal infallibility as distinct from the
+infallibility of the Church has no evidence of Scripture and Tradition,
+and that the office of Councils is to investigate and not to carry decrees
+by acclamation. And just because they speak the truth openly, these men
+are reproached with stirring up the people by the very persons who would
+eventually have interpreted their silence as assent and have used it as
+ground for carrying out their own designs. Then again it is urged upon
+good people that something must be done under the circumstances for
+maintaining the honour of the Papacy, forgetting that Bishops should have
+not circumstances but the truth before their eyes, and that it is as
+little competent to the successors of the Apostles as to the Apostles
+themselves to do anything against the truth, but only for the truth."
+
+In another passage, after dwelling on the preponderance of the Italian
+prelates he proceeds, "If they wish to give the decrees of the Council the
+character of the testimony of the whole of Christendom, without altering
+the inequality of numbers of the representatives of different nations,
+there is the precedent of the plan adopted at the Council of Constance
+with the happiest results, viz., taking the votes by nations or languages
+and not by heads. And this method would secure the speedier and better
+settlement of the matters under discussion, for the Bishops of the same
+tongue or nation know the needs of their Churches better and would
+understand how to meet them; moreover they could express their views more
+readily in their mother tongue than is possible in the General
+Congregation where Latin is obliged to be spoken, which they have perhaps
+lost their familiarity with through the long course of an active life, so
+that they have either to keep silent or to speak under difficulties. And
+by this means a discussion and searching examination would become
+practicable, which must necessarily take place at a Council, but which is
+wanting at the Vatican Council. There is indeed abundant opportunity for
+making speeches, but the great number of Fathers and the order of business
+imposed on the Council cuts off all opportunity for submitting any point
+to a close examination by regular debate with one speaker answering
+another. Five months have already passed since the opening of the Council,
+with what result need not be said here. Meanwhile the question of the new
+definition has roused a great excitement throughout the Christian world,
+which is still on the increase; some desire the definition, others
+emphatically repudiate it. Bishops have entered the lists against Bishops,
+priests have written against their own and against other chief pastors,
+and won commendation from the supreme authority for doing so. The journals
+of both parties, with their not always true reports or at least crooked
+reasonings, keep the whole world in a state of agitated suspense as to
+what is coming. May one say to what all this will lead and what will be
+the end of this violent tempest which has so suddenly risen in a clear sky
+and seems likely to produce much mischief? They are certainly deceived who
+fancy that the promulgation of the new dogma will at once lay the waves;
+the contrary is far likelier. Those who would obey the decrees of the
+Council will find themselves in a most difficult position. The civil
+Governments will treat them, not without some plausible grounds, as less
+trustworthy subjects. The enemies of the Church will throw in their teeth
+the errors said to have been taught by the Popes or sanctioned by their
+conduct, and will laugh to scorn the only possible answer--that they did
+not promulgate these errors as Popes but as individual Bishops of Rome.
+And then the scandalous Church history records of certain Popes will be
+urged as so many proofs of the internal discrepancy of Catholic belief,
+for men do not distinguish between infallibility and impeccability, which
+appear to them inseparably connected."
+
+What Kenrick thinks the Opposition ought to do is not expressly stated,
+but may be gathered from his language. He says indeed that "whoever does
+not submit to the decisions of an OEcumenical Council does not deserve the
+name of Catholic," but he adds, "if the indispensable conditions have been
+observed in holding the Council." And he makes moral unanimity one of
+these conditions. He does not allow the crude conception which seems to
+prevail among the majority, that a Council has simply to vote and then the
+world must reverence the result as the dictate of the Holy Ghost. The
+infallibility of Councils is to him no miraculous work of inspiration, but
+a simple result of the constitution the Church received from her Founder,
+whose assistance will never fail her, if she remains true to Scripture and
+Tradition and the agreement of the various particular Churches.
+
+Kenrick and all the Bishops who hold firmly with him may meet the
+impending decision in quietness and confidence, for the defeat of their
+opponents is certain, whether they persist and define and promulgate the
+new dogma, or retreat at the last moment. In the former case deliverance
+will come through a catastrophe whose consequences defy all calculation.
+And yet even in Rome there do not lack pious minds which, undisturbed by
+these terrible dangers, desire to see the insolent enterprise carried
+through, in the belief that the prevalent corruption can only be overcome
+by a life and death struggle. "Quod medicina non sanat, ferrum sanat."
+
+
+
+
+
+SIXTY-FIRST LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, June 24, 1870._--Rome is just now like an episcopal lazar-house, so
+great is the number of the prelates who are sick and suffering and
+confined to their bed or their chamber. And still greater is the number of
+those who feel worn out and impatiently long to be gone. But there are
+persons here who calculate thus--that the Italians, Spaniards and South
+Americans are accustomed to the heat, and bear it very well, and as to the
+Germans, French and North Americans--"vile damnum si interierint."
+
+Guidi's speech still occupies men's minds, and forms the topic of
+conversation in conciliar circles. Men are astonished at the courage of a
+Cardinal in daring so directly to contradict the Pope. While Pius has word
+written to Paris that "for many centuries no one doubted the Pope's
+infallibility," Guidi declares it to be an invention of the fifteenth
+century.
+
+The following account of the dialogue between the Pope and the Cardinal is
+current at Rome, and it seems to rest on the authority of Pius himself,
+who is notoriously fond of telling every one he meets how he has lectured
+this or that dignitary:--
+
+Guidi, on being summoned by the Pope directly after his speech, was
+greeted with the words, "You are my enemy, you are the coryphaeus of my
+opponents, ungrateful towards my person; you have propounded heretical
+doctrine." _Guidi._--"My speech is in the hands of the Presidents, if your
+Holiness will read it, and detect what is supposed to be heretical in it.
+I gave it at once to the under-secretary (_sottosecretario_) that people
+might not be able to say anything had been interpolated into it." _The
+Pope._--"You have given great offence to the majority of the Council; all
+five Presidents are against you and are displeased." _Guidi._--"Some
+material error may have escaped me, but certainly not a formal one: I have
+simply stated the doctrine of tradition and of St. Thomas." _The
+Pope._--"_La tradizione son' io--vi faro far nuovamente la professione di
+fede._" _Guidi._--"I am and remain subject to the authority of the Holy
+See, but I ventured to discuss a question not yet made an article of
+faith; if your Holiness decides it to be such in a Constitution, I shall
+certainly not dare to oppose it." _The Pope._--"The value of your speech
+may be measured by those whom it has pleased. Who has been eager to
+testify to you his joy? That Bishop Strossmayer who is my personal enemy
+has embraced you; you are in collusion with him." _Guidi._--"I don't know
+him, and have never before spoken to him." _The Pope._--"It is clear you
+have spoken so as to please the world, the Liberals, the Revolution, and
+the Government of Florence." _Guidi._--"Holy Father, have the goodness to
+have my speech given you."
+
+The same afternoon a Spanish Bishop belonging to the extremest
+Infallibilists said, "Absque dubio facies Concilii est immutata. Oportet
+huic sermoni serio studere." When Guidi asked how the Cardinals had taken
+his speech, Mathieu replied, "Cum seria silentiosa approbatione," on which
+Guidi observed, "Sunt quidam qui idem mecum sentiunt, sed deest illis
+animi fortitudo."
+
+"La tradizione son' io"--it would be impossible to give a briefer, more
+pregnant or more epigrammatic description of the whole system which is now
+to be made dominant than is contained in those few words. All the members
+of the _Civilta_, the thick volumes of Schrader, Weninger and the Jesuits
+of Laach are outdone by this clear and simple utterance. Pius will take
+rank in history with the men who have known how by a happy inspiration to
+throw a great thought into the most adequate form of words, which
+impresses it for ever indelibly on the memory. The formula is worthy to be
+classed with the equally pregnant saying of Boniface VIII., "The Pope
+holds all rights locked up in his breast." It is bruited about here from
+mouth to mouth, and the analogy of Louis XIV., which inevitably occurs to
+everybody, reaches even further. Every day since I have witnessed the
+drama being enacted here, has the saying suggested itself to me,
+"L'Eglise, c'est moi." Any one who would form a judgment of the state of
+things here should be recommended above all to read a work like, _e.g._,
+Lemontey's _Essai sur l'etablissement monarchique de Louis __XIV._, or the
+instructions of the King for the Dauphin. One sees there how absolute
+sovereignty, the intoxicating sense of irresponsible power--and spiritual
+absolutism is far more overpowering than political--leads almost of
+necessity to the notion of infallibility and divine enlightenment. Louis
+XIV. says seriously and drily to his son, "As God's representative we have
+part in the divine knowledge as well as the divine authority."(149) And he
+warns him that all his own errors had arisen from his too great modesty in
+giving ear to extraneous advisers. For eight hundred years the question
+has been disputed, why the Popes are so short-lived, and the phenomenon
+has been ascribed to a special divine dispensation which removes them
+betimes, that they may not be morally poisoned by too long enjoyment of
+their dignity--"ne malitia mutaret intellectum."
+
+The minority perceive, on a calmer consideration, that the two canons
+proposed by Guidi would not provide sufficient security for the episcopate
+taking part in the teaching office of the Church according to the
+integrity of her constitution. The second indeed, like a well-aimed arrow,
+hits the mark. It calls the thing by its right name, and anathematizes the
+purely personal infallibility of the Pope, independent of the consent of
+the Church and resting on direct divine inspiration, as a heresy, which it
+unquestionably is in the eyes of every theologian who knows anything of
+the Church and her tradition; but then, after the Pope has so openly and
+expressly committed himself to precisely this view of the Church, it is
+thought impossible here in Rome, and close to the Vatican, to throw an
+anathema in his face. And besides the expression in the first canon, that
+the consentient "consilium Ecclesiae" is requisite for an infallible papal
+utterance, is open to the same charge of vagueness as the notorious and
+much-abused _ex cathedra_, and could as easily be explained away into the
+mere arbitrary caprice of the Pope. It would always rest with him in the
+last resort to maintain "ex certa scientia" that the "consilium Ecclesiae"
+agreed with his own judgment.
+
+A remodelling of the fourth canon has been undertaken, but the new formula
+is not known. It is however much talked of among the Bishops, and the
+general view is that it remains substantially unchanged, and still
+contains the personal infallibility of the Pope independently of the
+Church. Manning had said that the utmost regard that was possible should
+be paid to the views of the Opposition in the alteration of the chapter.
+And so those Bishops still hope for the accomplishment of their desires
+who, like Ketteler and Melchers, entreat that only one, however sterile,
+verbal concession may be made, so as to give them a bridge on which to
+pass over the gulf safely into the camp of the majority.
+
+I lately heard a Roman layman say that what most surprised him among the
+many wonderful things he had seen here was the contempt for the Catholic
+Church which prevails here. For that contempt could not be more
+emphatically expressed than by the Pope appropriating to himself what
+according to the ancient doctrine belongs to her, and declaring himself
+the sole and exclusive organ of the Holy Ghost. It is the same here
+universally; when one talks with a Roman, the _Curia_, the Pope, is
+everything, and the Church nothing but the "contribuens plebs." My
+informant thought it was easy enough to understand the view of born
+Romans, but difficult to give any rational account of the attitude of the
+episcopal majority, for it must be clear to every one of them that the
+promulgation of the new dogma would destroy irrevocably all episcopal
+independence of Rome, and strip the nimbus from the brow of the Bishop who
+is a successor of the Apostles. I observed to him that in Romance
+countries this primitive idea of the episcopate had long since vanished,
+as he might easily convince himself by asking the next Italian peasant or
+shopkeeper he met what was his notion of a Bishop. And five-sixths of the
+majority belong to these countries,
+
+In the Congregation of June 20 the Deputation put up one of its members,
+Bishop d'Avanzo of Calvi and Teano, to speak. For there was urgent need of
+promptly meeting the great scandal given by Guidi, and deterring any
+Cardinal who might be so disposed from following his example. The speaker
+allowed that in dogmatic decrees the tradition of the Church must be
+consulted and the Holy Ghost invoked, but how this was to be done was left
+to the judgment of the Pope, By his second canon Guidi passed over "ad
+aliena non Catholica castra," exceeded all Gallicans and wanted--he, an
+Italian, a Dominican and a Cardinal--to canonize Gallicanism. A shudder ran
+through the ranks of all the Italians who live between Ferrara and Malta,
+but they remembered for their comfort that the unworthy son of the
+peninsula had been for some years professor at Vienna, and it was obvious
+that the German malaria he had caught there was the cause of this
+matricidal heresy.
+
+Guidi had said that the admonition to Peter to confirm his brethren
+pre-supposed something to be confirmed, _i.e._, that the Pope only
+confirmed the doctrine already maintained by the Bishops. To this d'Avanzo
+answered that it was utterly uncatholic, and one must rather begin from
+above and not from below, and ascribe the authorship and initiation of
+doctrine to the Pope, who was immediately inspired by the Holy Ghost;
+"causa princeps infallibilitatis est assistentia Spiritus Sancti." And
+here followed a statement that must be given word for word: "Supervacaneum
+est omne additamentum, nulla emendatio in decreto et canone schematis
+acceptatur; nulla conditio, nulla limitatio admittetur per deputationem;
+inutilis est igitur omnis labor? 'Animalis homo non percipit quod de coelo
+est.' "(150) To say the definition was inopportune was merely pandering to
+the corrupt portion of society, and especially to the tribe of Government
+officials. The speaker added emphatically: "Satis fit servis Satanae, qui
+sunt gubernantes, negantes ordinem supernaturalem--ergo Decretum est
+opportunum. In Pontifice Spiritus Domini vivit et agit, Pontifex ergo hoc
+Spiritu agente errare non potest." It became known at once in the Council
+that this declaration, which annihilated so many hopes, had been made in
+the name and by special command of the Pope, and that "the animal man"
+meant the Opposition.
+
+The two next speakers were the titular Patriarchs Ballerini and Valerga.
+The first said with notable frankness, "Were we to let personal
+infallibility drop, we should destroy the obedience due to the Pope and
+exalt ourselves against God Himself." In other words, the Vice-God orders
+us to declare him infallible, and of course we obey implicitly.
+
+Valerga's appearance was the beginning of a comedy, which was repeated in
+subsequent sittings. He wanted to prove papal infallibility by inferences
+from the Florentine decree, which was received by all; but he was twice
+interrupted by the Presidents for not keeping to the question. He
+thereupon left the tribune, not without remarks being made by Opposition
+Bishops that they saw this treatment was not reserved for them only. The
+same thing happened on June 22 to Bishop Apuzzo of Sorrento and Archbishop
+Spaccapietra. On the 20th, towards the end of the debate, Archbishop
+MacHale of Tuam in Ireland spoke with great severity against the decree,
+the fatal consequences of which he seems to appreciate better than most of
+his Irish colleagues. Bishop Apuzzo reminded the Hungarians that they once
+had a primate (Szelepcsenyi, a pupil of the Jesuits) who had summoned a
+synod to condemn the Gallican Articles of 1682, and that quite recently a
+Provincial Synod at Colocza had used language of very infallibilist sound.
+Haynald took part in that Synod, and he, as well as Rauscher, to whom the
+same reproach was addressed, had already observed that it would not do to
+put a strictly logical interpretation on mere complimentary phrases. In
+the course of his speech Apuzzo became still more abusive. "Those are the
+sons of Satan," he exclaimed at last, "who say the Bishops are judges in
+the Church. No! we are but poor sinners." At the same time he proposed a
+supplement still more peremptory than the chapter. Spaccapietra came to
+grief in Church history, which is more grossly mishandled at Rome and in
+the Council Hall, when it is appealed to at all, than anywhere else. This
+time St. Polycarp's yielding to the Pope about the observance of Easter--he
+notoriously did just the reverse--was to serve as an example to the
+Opposition. When the speaker went on to utter fierce invectives against
+Cardinal Guidi, he was interrupted. He declared he had only something to
+say against the schismatics, but the President closed his mouth in
+theatrical fashion saying, "Cedat verbum tintinnabulo." So he left the
+rostrum.
+
+Men breathed more freely when, after these hollow declamations, two
+British Bishops brought the clear practical sense of their race and
+country to bear on the question and the previous discussion of it. The
+first of them, Archbishop Errington, who was formerly Cardinal Wiseman's
+coadjutor but soon got out of favour at Rome, pointedly characterized the
+vicious nature of the whole transaction; there were speeches on both
+sides, one affirming, another denying, and no one could feel that he had
+refuted anything or advanced his cause the least by his words. The
+Deputation alone had the privilege of referring to the speeches and
+examining them, and it belonged to the majority, not to the Council; "how
+it was formed, we know." As a tribunal the Council was bound to institute
+a calm and searching investigation of facts, tradition and testimonies,
+and for this only one means was available, which was employed at the
+former great Councils including the Tridentine, to form deputations from
+both parties for earnest conference, where scientific examination might
+take the place of rhetorical harangues--from both parties, for it was idle
+with Bilio to bid them ignore the existence of two parties. "Modo in hoc
+Concilio fit aliter et illud ineptissime," he concluded, and he proposed
+the formula, "Magisterium universalis Ecclesiae est infallibile."
+
+The next speech, of Vitelleschi, who is Archbishop of Osimo but has never
+been in his diocese, though it is so near, left no impression; it was an
+exhortation to vote infallibility unanimously. And then followed
+Archbishop Conolly of Halifax with a speech such as has seldom been heard
+here. "Thrice," he said, "have I asked for proof from Scripture according
+to its authentic interpretation, from Tradition and from Councils, that
+the Bishops of the Catholic Church ought to be excluded from the
+definition of dogmas; but my request has not been complied with, and now I
+adjure you, like the blind man on the way to Jericho, to give us sight
+that we may believe. Hitherto we have recognised the strongest motive for
+the credibility of Catholic doctrine in the general consent of the Church
+notified through the collective episcopate; this has been our shield
+against all external assailants, and by this powerful magnet we have drawn
+hundreds of thousands into the Church. Is this our invincible weapon of
+attack and defence now to be broken and trampled under foot, and the
+thousand-headed episcopate with the millions of faithful at its back to
+shrink into the voice and witness of a single man? Let the Deputation
+prove to us that it has really been always the belief of the Church that
+the Pope is everything and the Bishops nothing. The Council of Jerusalem
+did not adopt the formula of Peter but of John, who spoke before him, and
+in the Apostles' Creed we do not say 'Credo in Petrum et successores
+ejus,' but 'Credo in unam Ecclesiam Catholicam.' We Bishops have no right
+to renounce for ourselves and our successors the hereditary and original
+rights of the episcopate, to renounce the promise of Christ, 'I am with
+you to the end of the world.' But now they want to reduce us to nullities,
+to tear the noblest jewel from our pontifical breastplate, to deprive us
+of the highest prerogative of our office, and to transform the whole
+Church and the Bishops with it into a rabble of blind men, among whom is
+one alone who sees, so that they must shut their eyes and believe whatever
+he tells them."
+
+Was it confidence of victory that moved the Legates to allow the bold and
+free-minded American, who spoke with the full weight of a deep and
+laboriously attained conviction, to bring these earnest words to a close
+without interruption, after they had recently reduced three of their own
+speakers in succession to silence? I know not. It was the unenviable lot
+of the Archbishop of Granada, Monzon y Martins Benvenuto, to follow
+Conolly. No one expects at this Council ideas or facts from a Spaniard,
+but merely bombast and abject protestations of homage. Since they no
+longer have Queen Isabella and the throne has been vacant, these prelates
+have transferred their undivided devotion to the Pope, and among the
+reptiles here they are the most cringing after the Neapolitans. Monzon
+said he thirsted for new dogmas, and the infallibility of the Pope did not
+satisfy him; he earnestly desired a second dogma, viz., the divine and
+inviolable nature of the States of the Church.
+
+It was reported two days ago that Cardinal Morichini, who formerly as
+nuncio breathed some German air, intends to speak in Guidi's sense, but
+since the scene between the Pope and Guidi has become known, it is
+generally thought that no Cardinal will be so foolhardy as to express any
+other opinion in Council than that of the inspired Pope. Meanwhile there
+are new speakers enrolled, among whom are Haynald, Strossmayer, the
+Bishops of Dijon, Constantine, Tarentaise, etc. The number considerably
+exceeds a hundred, but Errington has only too much reason for saying the
+debates are like a boy riding a rocking-horse--movement without advance.
+
+You may imagine what capital the Jesuits make out of the speech of the
+Dominican Guidi. They are the supreme and thoroughly devoted body-guard of
+the Roman See, and can alone be implicitly trusted. And in fact nobody
+thinks it possible that a Jesuit should speak in Council like Guidi, as
+neither does any one here credit a Jesuit with sincere conviction of what
+he says; it is always known beforehand what he will say on any question,
+viz., what the Order considers for its interest and imposes as a corporate
+doctrine on its individual members. The sons of Ignatius remember now that
+the Dominicans have never been trustworthy. As early as 1303 the French
+appeal from Pope Boniface VIII. to a General Council was supported by 130
+Dominicans at Paris, and at the Councils of Constance and Basle they took
+the most active part in the measures against papal omnipotence and in
+framing the mischievous canons of the fourth and fifth sessions of
+Constance; they joined Savonarola in opposing Alexander VI. and preferred
+being burned to submitting. And again they gave powerful aid in France to
+the establishment of the Gallican doctrine. And what, say the Jesuits, is
+the great Church history of the Dominican Natalis Alexander but an arsenal
+from which to this day the opponents of infallibility get their weapons?
+
+Preparations are already being made for the festivities which are to
+accompany the promulgation of the new dogma. The Romans--the native
+population--cannot understand why a part of the Bishops resist it so
+stoutly, and no less mysterious to them is the fiery zeal of foreigners,
+especially Frenchmen, in its favour. Their view is that infallibility, as
+being likely to bring large sums of money into Rome, is certainly a
+profitable and praiseworthy affair, and they are accordingly ready for
+noisy demonstrations of joy. Plenty of sky-rockets will go up, there will
+be illuminations, the pillars of the churches will be clothed in red
+damask according to the local usage, and numberless wax-candles will be
+burnt. Some enthusiasts think the fountain of Trevi will that day flow
+with wine instead of water, and it is hoped that at nightfall a
+transparency of the famous picture painted by the Pope's command to
+represent his infallibility will be shown to the faithful people. And next
+time the French Veuillotists choose to cry in the streets "Long live the
+infallible Pope!" some Romans will join the cry.
+
+The festivities will absorb large sums of money, and the financiers are
+not without anxiety; for however lucrative the new dogma may prove by and
+bye, for the moment it is an unproductive capital, and the annual deficit
+of thirty million franks cannot be covered by promises of future
+prosperity. It has now been determined, since the huge bankruptcy of
+Langrand-Dumonceaux, who had been named a Roman Count, has created some
+alarm, to take in the Rhenish and Westphalian nobility with the
+ecclesiastical unions there as sureties, and thus to negotiate a loan of
+twenty million franks "al pari." The noble presidents of the unions are
+said to have already signified their willingness.
+
+The rewards of those for whom there are no Cardinal's hats are already
+under consideration. It is said that about a hundred Bishops will be named
+"assistants at the Pontifical Throne" in recognition of their services.
+Others will be made "protonotarii apostolici," most of them only
+"protonotarii sopranumerarii non participanti." Several priests especially
+zealous for the good cause will be made titular Bishops, and others
+"prelati domestici" and "monsignori," or "camerieri segreti," etc. Then
+there are the distinctions by means of colours, and soon we shall be able
+to measure a man's zeal for the new dogma at the first glance by seeing
+whether he wears the "abito paonazzo" or violet or scarlet. And there are
+exceptional decorations for use in church kept in reserve, like what the
+Archbishop of Algiers had given him.
+
+The attitude of Ketteler creates astonishment and is studied as a riddle
+to which no solution can be found. The Pope said to-day, "Io non capisco,
+cosa vuole quel Ketteler, che un giorno distribuisce delle brochure contro
+di me e contro della mia infallibilita, e che il giorno dopo scrive nei
+giornali che sia pieno di devozione per me, e che crede alla mia
+infallibilita, pare che sia proprio mezzo," and thereupon he made a
+gesture indicating that the Bishop of Mayence was not quite right in his
+head.
+
+In fact Ketteler is the only man here who perplexes a reporter or
+historian. He has a work printed and distributed, in which infallibility
+is declared to be an unscriptural and unecclesiastical doctrine, and he
+says in his attack on me that according to his view Scripture and
+Tradition (_i.e._, the two only sources for the Church's faith) do not
+justify its dogmatic definition. Yet he affirms that he was always an
+infallibilist believer and will soon be more so than ever. It is difficult
+to report on the performances of a theological gymnast who seems rather to
+balance himself in mid air than to have firm ground under his feet. Here
+it is thought that he follows the counsel of his powerful patrons in the
+German College and the Gesu, who have made him understand that the new
+dogma will certainly be proclaimed, and that he would do well to change as
+speedily as he can from an inopportunist to a zealous advocate and
+executor of the decree. He has lately been reproached by an influential
+theologian (Gass) with making his own Church worse than it is by his
+doctrine that the Catholic Church knows of no duty of obedience against
+conscience. It will certainly never occur to me, now or at any future
+time, to have recourse to the conscience of Bishop Ketteler; that would
+indeed be the last refuge one would fly to!
+
+
+
+
+
+SIXTY-SECOND LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, June 30, 1870._--In the middle ages ecclesiastical controversies
+were decided by the ordeal of the cross. The representatives of both
+parties placed themselves before a large cross, with their arms stretched
+out in the form of a cross, and he whose arms first sank, or who fell
+exhausted to the ground, was conquered. The heat and the Roman fever have
+replaced this ordeal at the Council. The process which is to test the
+result has been going on for six weeks, and the majority will evidently
+come out of it with flying colours. It is composed chiefly of Italians and
+Spaniards of both hemispheres, who can bear such things much better than
+northerners, and as it is four times as numerous as the minority, gaps
+made in its ranks by sickness and death are soon filled up, and the
+phalanx remains firmly closed, while the Opposition receives the news of
+the sickness or departure of one of its members as heralding its growing
+discouragement and final defeat. How well the authorities understand the
+inestimable value of this new ally, the heat and mephitic exhalations, is
+shown by the laconic but significant words of the papal journalist,
+Veuillot, in his 125th Letter on the Council, "Et si la definition ne peut
+murir qu'au soleil, eh bien, on grillera." As before, so now again Roman
+orthodoxy seems to have called fire to its aid, and for Bishops, who do
+not wish to be roasted according to Veuillot's wish, flight is the only
+alternative.
+
+Cardinal Guidi has received the most peremptory orders from the Pope to
+make a formal retractation of his speech in Council. The form and occasion
+of making it he may arrange with the Legates. He has already had an
+interview with Bilio. The Pope has forbidden him to receive visits, that
+he may be free to consider without distraction the greatness of his error.
+Solitary confinement is adopted in the penal legislation of other
+countries too as an efficient instrument of reformation. Guidi has told
+the Presidents that he is ready to give an explanation of his speech in a
+public sitting, if they will announce beforehand that he does so by the
+Pope's desire; but he can make no retractation. Jandel, the Dominican
+General, intends now to deliver a speech in refutation of Guidi's theory,
+which has been composed for him in the Gesu. Many think that Guidi will be
+deterred from letting things come to extremities by the terrible example
+of Cardinal Andrea, who was worried to death. A Cardinal, who lives out of
+the Roman States, may maintain a certain independence or even opposition,
+as the precedent of Cardinal Noailles shows, but in Rome this is
+impossible. As Archbishop of Bologna Guidi would be under the protection
+of the Italian Government, but thither he will never be allowed to return.
+
+Heat, fever and intrigues--this is a brief description of the state of
+Rome, as regards the Council. The heat and pestilential miasmas are
+unendurable for foreigners from the north; already six French and four
+American Bishops have been obliged to save their lives by departure, and
+of those who stay in Rome a third are unable from their bodily ailments to
+attend the sittings. A Petition to the Pope is now in course of signature
+praying for a prorogation, on account of the danger to the lives of many
+foreign and aged prelates at this season of the year. I give you the text,
+but will observe that I hear most refuse to sign, some thinking the case a
+hopeless one, others of very ill repute in the Vatican fearing their
+adherence would only make it more so. The Petition runs thus--
+
+"Beatissime Pater! Episcopi infrascripti, tam proprio quam aliorum
+permultorum Patrum nomine a benignitate S. V. reverenter, fiducialiter et
+enixe expostulant, ut ea, quae sequuntur, paterne dignetur excipere:
+
+"Ad Patres in Concilio Lateranensi v. sedentes hoc habebat, die XVII.
+Junii, Leo X. Papa 'Quia jam temporis dispositione ... concedimus'
+simulque Concilium Pontifex ad tempus autumnale prorogabat.--Pejor certe
+inpraesentiarum conditio nostra est. Calor aestivus, jam desinente mense
+Junio, nimius est, et de die in diem intolerabilior crescit; unde RR.
+Patrum, inter quos tot seniores sunt, annorum pondere pressi, et laboribus
+confecti, valetudo graviter periclitatur.--Timentur inprimis febres, quibus
+magis obnoxii sunt extranei hujusce temperiei regionis non assuefacti.
+
+"Quidquid vero tentaverit et feliciter perfecerit liberalitas S. V., ut
+non paucis episcopis hospitia bona praeberentur, plerique tamen relegati
+sunt in habitationes nimis augustas, sine aere, calidissimas omninoque
+insalubres. Unde jam plures episcopi ob infirmitatem corporis abire coacti
+sunt, multi etiam Romae infirmantur et Concilio adesse nequeunt, ut patet
+ex tot sedibus quae in aula conciliari vacuae apparent.
+
+"Antequam igitur magis ac magis creverit aegrotorum numerus, quorum plures
+periculo hic occumbendi exponerentur, instantissime postulamus, B. Pater,
+ut S. V. aliquam Concilii suspensionem, quae post festum S. Petri
+convenienter inciperet, concedere dignetur.
+
+"Etenim, B. Pater, cum centum et viginti episcopi nomen suum dederint, ut
+in tanti momenti quaestione audiantur, evidens est, discussionem non posse
+intra paucos dies praecipitari, nisi magno rerum ac pacis religiosae
+dispendio. Multo magis congruum esset atque necessarium brevem aliquam, ob
+ingruentes gravissimos aestatis calores, Concilio suspensionem dari.
+
+"Nova vero Synodi periodus ad primam diem mensis Octobris forsitan
+indicari posset.
+
+"S. V., si hoc, ut fidenter speramus, concesserit, gratissimos sensus
+nobis populisque nostris excitabit, utpote quae gravissimae omnium
+necessitati consuluerit.
+
+"Pedes S. V. devote osculantes nosmet dicimus S. V. humillimos et
+obsequentissimos famulos in Christo filios."
+
+Attempts have already been made by word of mouth to secure some compassion
+from the Pope for the severe sufferings of the Bishops, but wholly in
+vain. His comments on the members of the minority, if rightly reported
+here, are so irritable and bitter that I scruple to mention them. But I
+must relate what occurred to-day at a farewell audience given to some
+Maltese Knights, who had come to exercise their privilege of keeping guard
+at an OEcumenical Council. The Pope first turned to an English member of
+the Order and wished him success in the scheme for introducing it into
+England, and then expressed his sympathy for that nation in his confident
+expectation of the speedy and innumerable conversions promised by Manning,
+adding the remark that the Italians were somewhat volatile. And the
+mildness of the expression, compared with former ebullitions of anger,
+proved that the infallibilist line of the Italian Bishops had covered in
+his eyes the political sins of the nation. But then he turned to the
+Germans, who were present in the greatest number, with the words, "I piu
+cattivi sono i Tedeschi, sono i piu cattivi di tutti, lo spirito Tedesco a
+guastato tutto." Even that was not enough, but a Bohemian knight who was
+present had to listen to a stream of invectives against the conduct of
+Cardinal Schwarzenberg, which made a very unpleasant impression on him. As
+a French Bishop said to me to-day, it is a humiliating spectacle to see a
+man who, at the very moment when he is assimilating his office to the
+Godhead, recklessly displays the little weaknesses and passions which
+people are generally ashamed to expose to view.
+
+It was clearly shown in the Congregations of 23d and 25th June that the
+majority only continue to tolerate the speeches of the Opposition as an
+almost unendurable nuisance. Loud murmurs alternated with the ringing of
+the Presidents' bell. When Bishop Losanna of Biella, the senior of the
+Council, was speaking against burdening the Christian world with the new
+dogma, the Legate tried to ring him down. He entreated that at least out
+of regard for his advanced age they would let him finish the little he
+still had to say. In vain. The Legate went on ringing and the Bishop
+speaking, so that the assembly for some time was regaled with a duet
+between a bell and an--of course inaudible--human voice.
+
+In the Congregation of the 23d Bishop Landriot of Rheims made a long
+speech in the interests of mediation and mutual concessions, which showed
+careful study, but was received with every sign of displeasure by the
+majority: he also proposed what Errington had wanted, that a Commission
+formed from both parties should examine the whole tradition on the subject
+and report the result to the Council. At this cries of "Oho, oho!" rose
+from the majority. Discouraged and intimidated the Archbishop concluded
+with the declaration that, if the Pope pleased to confirm the _Schema_, he
+submitted by anticipation, at which the faces which had grown black
+brightened up again and the apology for the French Church which he ended
+with was condoned.
+
+The most remarkable speeches in the sitting of 25th June were those of the
+Bishop Legate of Trieste and Ketteler of Mayence. The first had the
+courage to say plainly that the manipulation of Scripture texts, which
+were pressed into the service of the new dogma in glaring contradiction to
+the authentic interpretation of the Church, was a sin. Ketteler's speech
+created the greatest sensation from its decided tone, and its not
+betraying the contradiction in which he seems to find himself involved
+after his public declarations in Germany. I must indeed reckon on my
+report again displeasing and angering him, for this "mobile ingegno usato
+ad amar e a disamar in un punto" is wont to take it very ill if his bold
+transitions do not leave the same impression on others which floats before
+his own memory. But I will fulfil my duty as historian of the Council in
+spite of this. Ketteler urged that nobody had alleged any clear evidence
+for a personal and separate infallibility of the Pope being really
+contained in Scripture, Tradition and the consciousness of all Churches;
+it was only the opinion of a certain school--"placita cujusdam scholae" he
+repeated several times emphatically. The Pope certainly had the right of
+proscribing doctrines which contradicted the dogmas already decided by the
+Church, but by no means the totally different right of formulating a new
+dogma without the consent of the episcopate. It was the greatest absurdity
+to believe or say "Pontificem in pectoris sui scrinio omnem traditionem
+repositam et infusam habere." At these words murmurs arose in the
+assembly; all had shortly before heard and repeated to one another the
+Pope's assertion, "La tradizione son' io." Then Ketteler attacked the
+theory of Cardinal Cajetan, the well-known first opponent of Luther, that
+Peter alone among the Apostles had a "potestas ordinaria" to be
+transmitted to his successors, while the "potestas specialis" conferred by
+Christ on the rest expired at their death, so that the Bishops are not
+successors of the Apostles but derive all their authority from the Pope.
+This mischievous system had been adopted by a certain school, and the
+_Schema_ before them was drawn up in accordance with it and in
+contradiction to all Catholic tradition. It placed the Bishops in the same
+relation to the Pope as priests occupied towards Bishops, which was
+unheard of. He protested against the whole system, and desired that in
+every dogmatic decree Holy Scripture and Tradition should be taken full
+account of: the Pope needed the co-operation of the Bishops as
+representatives of tradition. It was utterly wrong to believe that the
+_depositum fidei_ was committed to the Pope alone.
+
+If the force and clearness of Ketteler's speech evoked deep and serious
+reflection, an amusing episode occurred at the close of the sitting. The
+Irish Bishop Keane of Cloyne ascended the tribune. There is a story told
+of a German city whose sapient councillors carried the sunlight out of the
+street in sacks to light their town-hall, which had no windows; and so
+Keane informed his hearers that St. Peter brought the whole body of
+tradition with him to Rome well stored up; here and here alone it was
+still kept, and every Pope took what was required from the stock which he
+possessed as a whole genuine and entire.
+
+Those who wish to prosecute psychological and ethical studies should come
+to Rome. Here they may observe how the three great powers of the world, as
+St. Augustine calls them, "Errores, amores, terrores," work together in
+full harmony and activity; the last especially will aid the victory of the
+first--for how long He only knows who rules the destiny of man.
+
+
+
+
+
+SIXTY-THIRD LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, July 2, 1870._--The Pope's reported answer to those who spoke to him
+of the sufferings of the Bishops and their danger of death, and the
+consequent need for proroguing the Council, is passing from mouth to
+mouth. I should consider it a sin to publish it. Were it true, one would
+have to treat the man who could so speak as the Orsini treated Boniface
+viii. in his last days. If it is not true, it is very remarkable that the
+Romans have no hesitation in circulating it and really credit their Pope
+with it. This and the disdain bordering on simple contempt with which the
+Romans look down on the Bishops are among the indelible impressions they
+will take back with them over the Alps.
+
+In the sitting of 28th June Bishop Vitali of Ferentino in the Roman States
+first inveighed against the long speeches of the Bishops, and then broke
+into a dithyrambic panegyric on his master, the Pope, who, like the
+Emperor Titus, was the "deliciae orbis terrarum." He was somewhat abruptly
+interrupted by the Legates in the middle of his rhapsody. Ginoulhiac,
+Archbishop of Lyons, who is the most learned member of the French
+episcopate after Maret, next delivered an ably and carefully composed
+speech, which was not interrupted. He appealed to the words and example of
+former Popes who had acknowledged--like _e.g._, Celestine I. in 430--that
+they were not masters of the faith but only guardians of the traditional
+doctrine, and that not singly but in unison with all Churches and their
+Bishops, as was clearly expressed in the decree. Pius VI., strong as was
+the pressure put upon him by France, delayed a long time the issue of the
+decree against the civil Constitution of the clergy of 1790, because, as
+he wrote to the King, the Pope must first conscientiously ascertain how
+the faithful will receive his decision. But a large section of Catholics
+were not at all disposed to receive this _Schema_, and the decree would
+evidently evoke the bitterest hostility to the Church where it did not
+already exist, and immensely increase it where it did. Pius VI. then said
+that, if the Roman See, the centre of the Church, lost its authority
+through exaggerating its claims, all was lost. Pius IX. should take care
+that this doctrine did not become a snare to innumerable Catholics. He
+concluded by commending the formula of St. Antoninus, which requires the
+consent of the episcopate.
+
+In the sitting of 30th June a member of the almost extinct third party
+among the French, Sergent, Bishop of Quimper or Cornouailles, came
+forward. He proposed adding to the _Schema_, which might then be accepted,
+words requiring the co-operation for decisions on faith of the "episcopi,
+sive dispersi sive in Concilio congregati." But he insisted on the
+superiority of the Pope to a Council according to the decree of Leo.
+X.,--or, as he said, the fifth Lateran Council, and defended the order of
+business imposed on this Council by Pius IX. But here he touched on a very
+sore place; the Bishops sit here under the continual conviction of having
+their hands tied in an illegitimate and tyrannical fashion, and knowing
+that the order of business is in direct contradiction to the independence
+of the ancient Councils. The Legates must have felt that the Opposition
+would say, "Haec excusatio est accusatio," and that it would give the
+requisite handle for again renewing their written protests by word of
+mouth now at the decisive moment. Sergent was therefore called to order.
+
+After the Bishop of Aversa, who spoke as an ordinary infallibilist, Bishop
+Martin of Paderborn came forward and created a sensation. A German
+infallibilist, like Martin, who was not kneaded and dressed in the Jesuit
+school, is an interesting and curious phenomenon of itself, and produces
+somewhat the same impression as an European who voluntarily lives among
+savages and adopts their language and customs. But Bishop Martin's
+appearance was remarkable on other grounds also. It was long since any one
+had been heard in the Council who spoke in so angry a tone and with such
+noise and visible endeavour to supplement his stammering utterance by the
+action of hands and feet. It was a difficult labour that Martin achieved,
+like a singer drowning his own voice, and doubly meritorious in these
+melting days. And here I may make a remark that should have been made
+before: the Hall has really gained lately in acoustic qualities, from
+having an awning stretched over it which acts as a sounding-board.
+
+Martin shouted into the Hall that the personal infallibility of every Pope
+was inseparable from the primacy, for the Pope was the supreme legislator,
+and therefore he must of necessity be divinely preserved from all error.
+The Bishops of the minority were amazed at this statement, for none of
+them had expected a German Bishop to declare the whole code of the
+Inquisition, as promulgated by the Popes from Innocent III. to Paul V.,
+infallible and inspired. But there was still better behind. Two German
+witnesses for infallibility were cited, Dr. Luther, on account of his
+letter to the Pope in 1518, and Dr. Pichler of 1870. Up to 1763 all
+Germans were stanch infallibilists, but then Febronianism came in and for
+a time obscured this light of pure doctrine, which had previously shone so
+bright in Catholic Germany. But an orthodox reaction had followed, thanks
+to the excellent catechism of the Jesuit Deharbe, the Provincial Synod of
+Cologne and several Pastorals. Martin then referred to Doellinger, and
+reproached him with having in his earlier works--which were not
+named--taught papal infallibility, whereas he now assailed it. The Bishop,
+who is a member of the Deputation, then proposed a formula he had devised,
+"Traditioni inhaerentes docemus Pontificem, cum universalem Ecclesiam
+docet, vi divinae assistentiae errare non posse." But that was not enough,
+without smiting down the opponents of the doctrine by a solemn anathema,
+as follows, "Si quis dixerit non nisi accedente consensu Episcoporum
+Romanum Pontificem errare non posse, anathema sit." He moreover agreed
+with Spalding and Dechamps that parish priests and others having cure of
+souls should be required by a special admonition addressed to them to
+impress this doctrine of infallibility on their people often and
+emphatically from the pulpit.
+
+The speech was delivered in the tone and manner of a confessor dealing
+with a hardened sinner in his last moments, and the Germans, from whose
+ranks the speaker had issued,--men like Rauscher, Haynald, Strossmayer,
+Hefele--sat shamefaced with their eyes on the ground, while the delight of
+the Italians and Spaniards could be read on their countenances at this
+humiliation of the nation which prides itself on the superior culture of
+its clergy. But they were surprised at Martin's concluding declaration
+that no doubt in Germany great dangers for the Church would follow from
+the promulgation of the doctrine. It was mentioned in the Council Hall
+that, in a widely circulated school-book which had passed through eleven
+or twelve editions, Martin had taught the exact reverse of the doctrine he
+now so noisily and peremptorily maintained; but then it was observed in
+excuse for him that the heterodoxies of this book, though it bore his
+name, were no fault of his, as he had simply transcribed it from the
+papers of the late Professor Diekhoff, which were left in his charge.
+
+
+
+
+
+SIXTY-FOURTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, July 5, 1870._--Rome is an excellent school for Bishops; a course of
+seven months at the Council produces wonderful results. One illusion after
+another is laid aside and an insight gained into the working of the huge
+machine and the forces that put it in motion, and the Bishops learn at
+last, though it be laboriously and not without tears, why they were
+summoned and what services alone are demanded of them. The historian
+Pachymeres relates that, when the people of Constantinople demanded a
+Council in 1282 in order to judge the unionist Patriarch, Bekkus, Bishop
+Theoktistus of Adrianople said that they treated Bishops like wooden spits
+on which Bekkus might be roasted, and which might then be thrown into the
+fire.(151) A very similar feeling has come over many Bishops here; they
+know that if they say _Non placet_ at last, they will be cast into the
+fire, after they have helped by their reluctant practical recognition of
+both the first and second order of business--destructive as both are to all
+real freedom--to forge the new spiritual yoke. And then they find their
+schoolroom a very narrow and uncomfortable one, and have at last
+discovered that it looks very like a prison cell.
+
+It is but a game of moves and counter-moves as on a chessboard, only that
+no one dares to incur the penalty of high treason by saying "Check to the
+king," or lifting a finger for such an audacious move. The minority were
+so confounded and irritated by the abrupt closing of the general debate,
+because they hoped to prolong it till prorogation became inevitable. For
+nobody doubted in April and May that this would follow at the end of June,
+and the notion was sedulously fostered by the official staff of the
+Council--the Legates and Secretary Fessler--and by the Pope himself. It is
+not long since Pius said to a French Bishop, "It would be barbarity on my
+part to want to keep the Bishops here in July." And thus the Opposition,
+whenever they were shaken and disturbed by some violent act, let matters
+be hushed up and never gave any practical effect to their protests and
+complaints. But now the Court party say that it would indeed be tyrannical
+cruelty to keep us here, under ordinary circumstances, imprisoned in this
+furnace full of fevers, but it is justified by the abnormal situation. The
+grand and saving act of the infallibilist definition, which is to quicken
+the whole Church with new powers of life and introduce the golden age of
+absolute ecclesiastical dominion, cannot any longer be held in suspense.
+"You surely will not wish," said Cardinal de Angelis to a Bishop who was
+urging the necessity of a prorogation, "that the Pope, after spending so
+many thousand scudi on the Bishops, should now be left alone in the
+Vatican without any recompense." And Antonelli thinks the Bishops have
+only themselves to blame for their present suffering condition; why have
+they wasted so much time in speeches?
+
+Since that shocking saying of the Pope's, which I referred to in my last
+letter, has became known here, the Bishops have abandoned as hopeless the
+design of making a direct appeal to him for the prorogation of the Council
+on the score of the health and lives of its members. And this conviction
+has been further strengthened by the insolence of the Court theologian,
+Louis Veuillot. "Let yourselves be roasted, since it is only through this
+fiery ordeal that the precious wine of infallibility can be matured," he
+exclaims to them, and they know now that they are inside a door over which
+the inscription is written
+
+
+    "Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch' intrate."
+
+
+And now there is a new cause of alarm. It is said--perhaps the report is
+spread on purpose--that at last no Bishop will be allowed to depart till he
+has signed a bond laid before him declaring his entire and unconditional
+submission. We actually hear that, by a recent decision, leave of absence
+is only to be given to the Bishops in case of serious illness, that is,
+when they are no longer equal to the journey. Several prelates therefore
+have already inquired of the ambassadors of their Governments, what means
+of protection they could afford them in case of such violence being
+exercised. The ambassadors will be obliged to write home for further
+instructions, as it seems no such case had been foreseen as possible to
+occur. But so many astonishing and seemingly impossible things have
+happened during the last seven months that such an act would no longer
+excite even any particular surprise.
+
+Guidi still appears in Council and shows himself in his votes an
+independent thinker and by no means a humiliated or broken man, but in his
+convent he is guarded like a prisoner and constantly urged by threats and
+persuasions to recant. When a remark was made to the Pope about his harsh
+treatment of this man, who still as Cardinal shares the numerous
+privileges of his order, he is reported to have said, "I summoned him, not
+as Cardinal, but as brother Guidi, whom I lifted out of the dust." Guidi
+had drawn great displeasure on himself before by joining Cardinals Corsi
+and Riario Sforza in making representations to the Pope against the
+alteration introduced by his order in the sequence of the subjects for
+discussion, by which means the infallibilist _Schema_ was interpolated
+before its time. He lived in the Minerva with certain Bishops of his
+Order, Milella, Pastero, Alcazar and Manucillo, and their mutual
+conferences led to the matured conviction that the personal infallibility
+of the Pope is a novel doctrine, of late invention and unknown even to the
+great Thomas and the Thomist school, chiefly introduced in substance by
+the Jesuits. Guidi appeals to the fact that years ago he has taught this
+at Vienna, as was or easily might have been known. If he keeps firm, and
+Cardinal Silvestri, who often votes with the Opposition, joins their side
+in good earnest--five dissentient Cardinals, including Mathieu, Rauscher
+and Schwarzenberg--more Italian Bishops than the Court would like, may say
+_Non placet_. It is already remarked that they earnestly inquire among
+themselves whether the German and French minority are likely to remain
+firm at the decisive moment and not melt away, in which case they would be
+ready to vote with them. You may imagine how intensely Guidi is hated
+here. For the moment he might make O'Connell's boast his own when he said
+he was "the best abused man in the British Empire." What Persius said is
+equally true of the clerical "turba Remi" now,--"sequitur fortunam ut
+semper, et odit damnatos." I may mention in illustration of the view
+prevalent among the majority, that Manning the other day told one of the
+most illustrious Bishops of the minority he had no further business in the
+Catholic Church and had better leave it. Even in the Council Hall Bishop
+Gastaldi of Saluzzo exclaimed to the minority that they were already
+blotted out of the book of life.
+
+The internal history of the minority since the end of June consists mainly
+of their endeavours to avert the departure of the timid and home-sick and
+those attacked by fever. Hitherto leave has been given them readily enough
+when asked, but it is said this will not be so for the future. The Prince
+Bishop of Breslau, Foerster, was urgently entreated to remain, and he
+seemed to be persuaded, but now he is gone,(152) and so are Purcell of
+Cincinnati, Vancsa, Archbishop of Fogaras, Greith of St. Gall, and
+others--a serious loss under present circumstances. The feeling of
+self-preservation at last overpowers every other; and what answer can be
+given to a man who says, when required to stay and help to save the truth,
+"If I am ill in bed with fever on the critical day, my vote is lost"?
+Moreover the burning atmosphere peculiar to Rome, impregnated with
+exhalations from the Pontine marshes, oppresses and enervates mind as well
+as body and cripples the energy of the will.
+
+So on the 1st July an understanding was arrived at among the Opposition
+Bishops. It was felt more and more clearly that to go on with the speeches
+was a sterile and dreary business. For one solid and thoughtful speech
+from, _e.g._, Darboy, Strossmayer, Haynald, Guidi, Dupanloup, Ginoulhiac,
+Ketteler or Maret, one had to listen for long hours to the effusions of
+Spanish, Sicilian and Calabrian infallibilists, and the speeches of this
+party sound as if their authors had first studied the dedicatory epistles
+to the Popes which the Jesuits prefix to their works, and strung together
+the sonorous phrases contained in them. Moreover the conduct of the
+Legates had become palpable partisanship. For several days they offered
+demonstrative thanks to every speaker who gave up his turn; the bitterest
+attacks of the majority on their opponents passed unrebuked, and the
+murmurs and signs of impatience whenever infallibility was called in
+question grew more and more pronounced. It became evident that there was
+nothing really to be gained by prolonging the speeches, when all hope of
+getting the Council prorogued had to be abandoned.
+
+At the sitting of July 2 the affair was to have been brought to a
+settlement. The minority had sketched out a notice in the Council Hall,
+stating that all speakers on their side withdrew, and handed it to
+Cardinal Mathieu to communicate to the French, but they declined to accept
+it, saying every one should be free to decide for himself. And so, on that
+day, out of twenty-two Fathers only four spoke, including Meignan of
+Chalons and Ramadie of Perpignan.
+
+But it soon became irresistibly evident to both parties that it was
+advisable for them to put an end to the oratorical exercises. The Legates
+had frequently used the formula of the Index when a speaker gave up his
+turn, saying, "laudabiliter orationi renunciavit," or "magnas ipsi agimus
+gratias." The majority had two reasons for wanting the speeches to go
+on--first the wish of particular individuals to signalize themselves and
+lay up a stock of merits deserving reward; and secondly, that the Northern
+Bishops might succumb to the rays of the July sun, as Homer's Achaeans sunk
+under the arrows of Apollo. But they were made to understand that the Pope
+would account their simple "_Placet_, sans phrase" a sufficient service,
+and reward it according to their wish.
+
+Moreover they felt secure about the eventual attitude of the minority, or
+at least a considerable portion of them, for it was known that two German
+Bishops had said, "We shall resist to the last moment, but then we shall
+submit, for we don't wish to cause a schism." This gave great joy to the
+Court party. I heard a monsignore say, "These are our best friends, more
+so than those who already vote for and with us, for their coming over at
+the critical moment can only be ascribed to the triumphant and
+irresistible power of the Holy Ghost poured out through the Pope upon the
+Council; each of them is a Saul converted into a Paul, who has found his
+Damascus here at Rome, and becomes a living trophy of the vice-godship of
+the Pope and the legitimacy and oecumenicity of this Council. We can desire
+nothing better for our cause than these late and sudden conversions." And
+thus at last an understanding satisfactory to all parties was come to; on
+July 4 all the speakers enrolled withdrew, only reserving their right of
+presenting their observations in writing to the Deputation.
+
+
+
+
+
+SIXTY-FIFTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, July 7, 1870._--I must go back a few days and tell you something
+more of the speeches made since St. Peter's Day. It is for the interest of
+the contemporary world and of posterity that the Roman system of hushing
+up and deathlike silence should not be fully carried out, and that it
+should be known what truths have been uttered and what grounds alleged
+against the fatal decision of the majority and rejected by them.
+
+Soon after Bishop Martin a man spoke who had gained the highest respect
+from all quarters, Verot, Bishop of Savannah, a really apostolical
+character, compared in America with St. Francis of Sales. On a former
+occasion, on June 15, he had pointedly criticised the conduct of the Court
+party and the attempt to surrender all that yet remains of the ancient
+constitution of the Church to a centralized papal absolutism. "If," he
+said, "the Pope wants to possess and exercise a direct and immediate
+jurisdiction in my diocese, only let him come over to America himself, and
+bring with him plenty of the priests who are so abundant here to my
+country where there are so few; gladly will I attend him servant and
+observe how he, riding about in my huge diocese, judges and arranges
+everything on the spot." And, as some Bishops of the majority had given
+out the favourite Roman watchword, that historical facts must yield to the
+clearness and _a priori_ certainty of doctrine, Verot replied briefly, "To
+me an ounce of historical facts outweighs a thousand pounds of your
+theories." This time he was not interrupted, as he had always been
+before,--by most no doubt not understood. Maret too, in the sitting of July
+1, attacked the projected absolutism which the Church was now to be
+saddled with. In the political world, he said, it is done away with and
+disappears more and more under a common feeling of repugnance, and now it
+is for the first time to be confirmed in the Church, and Christians, "the
+children of heavenly freedom," are to be reduced, after the protection
+afforded by the consent of the episcopate is abolished, to spiritual
+slavery, and forced into blind subjection to the dictates of a single man.
+He said this in more courteous language than this brief epitome gives
+scope for.
+
+Among the most important speeches was that which followed, of Bishop David
+of Saint Brieuc in Bretagne. It was one of the speeches of a kind I said
+in an early letter would not be tolerated, the result has refuted me. The
+Bishop said that the proposed article of faith was first invented in the
+fifteenth century, when a new form, different from that ordained by
+Christ, was given to the Church, at the expense of the inalienable rights
+both of the Bishops and the faithful. If the hypothesis of papal
+infallibility really belonged to the deposit of faith, it must have been
+defined and universally acknowledged in the earliest ages, as it would
+evidently be a fundamental doctrine indispensable for the whole Church.
+The parallel drawn between this and the lately defined and previously
+undetermined and open doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is quite
+irrelevant. It is clearly evident, he added, that this new attempt to
+exalt the Papacy will produce the same disturbance as the earlier one in
+the sixteenth century. A sign of it is the sudden and rapidly growing
+alienation of the French clergy from their Bishops, which is instigated
+from a distance. Passing on to a vindication of the much abused Gallican
+doctrine, he showed that the former Popes themselves declared it to be
+allowable and only reprobated the attempt to make it into a special and
+separate rule of faith for the French Church alone.
+
+The Spanish Bishop of Cuenca, Paya-y-Rico, followed, and began by
+affirming in the bragging and bombastic style of his country, that in
+Spain the infallibilist doctrine had always prevailed. This was a glaring
+falsehood; it would have been enough to cite against him the names of
+Tostado, Escobar, Victoria, and others, the Spanish Bishops and
+theologians at Trent, and the fact that the Inquisition first made the
+doctrine dominant in Spain. But immediate replies are not permitted in the
+Council Hall, and the majority were so charmed with his disclosures that
+they loudly applauded him. Encouraged by this he turned round upon the
+Opposition, observing that a short interval was still allowed them to come
+over to the majority, and that, unless they made a good use of it, their
+only choice lay between a subsequent meritorious submission or
+condemnation for heresy.
+
+The minority, who meet daily either in national or international
+conferences, were engaged in drawing up a formula requiring the consent of
+the episcopate as indispensable, but soon gave this up and resolved to
+abstain from any demonstration, as they could gain nothing by it. Several
+thought this would compel the majority, if they really wanted to gain the
+concurrence of the Opposition, to make proposals on their side for some
+tolerable formula. But at present that is highly improbable.
+
+In the sitting of July 5, where the only business was to vote on the third
+chapter, in consequence of the general withdrawal of the speakers, an
+unexpected occurrence intervened. Some days before Bishop Martin of
+Paderborn had proposed in his own name and that of some of his colleagues
+that in a Supplement, designated as a _monitum_, the doctrinal authority
+of the Bishops should be mentioned, but only incidentally and in a sense
+compatible with the Pope's prerogative of personal infallibility. When the
+Pope heard of this, he was much displeased, and peremptorily ordered that
+a canon should be laid before the Council for acceptance enouncing
+emphatically and under anathema the papal omnipotence over the whole
+Church. The Deputation had already had the third canon printed and
+distributed in the following amended form:--"Si quis dixerit, Romani
+Pontificis Primatum esse tantum officium inspectionis et directionis et
+supremam ipsius potestatem jurisdictionis in universam Ecclesiam non esse
+plenam, sed tantum extraordinariam et mediatam--anathema sit." But in order
+to carry out the Pope's command, the Bishop of Rovigo, as a member of the
+Deputation, read the canon in a more stringent form, which in fact left
+the extremest absolutist nothing to desire, but which was not in the
+printed text and was either not heard or not understood by the greater
+part of the Bishops, while yet it was to be voted on on the spot--in
+contradiction to the distinct directions of the order of business. This
+more stringent version of the canon runs thus:--
+
+"Si quis dixerit, Romanum Pontificem habere tantummodo officium
+inspectionis vel directionis, non autem plenam et supremam potestatem
+jurisdictionis in universam Ecclesiam, tum in rebus, quae ad fidem et
+mores, tum quae ad disciplinam et regimen Ecclesiae per totum orbem diffusae
+pertinent; aut eum habere tantum potiores partes, non vero totam
+plenitudinem hujus supremae potestatis; aut hanc ejus potestatem non esse
+ordinariam et immediatam sive in omnes ac singulas Ecclesias, sive in
+omnes et singulos pastores et fideles--anathema sit."
+
+A more shameless outwitting of a Council has never been attempted.
+Archbishop Darboy at once rose and protested against this juggling
+manoeuvre, and the Legates were obliged, humiliating as it was for them, to
+let the matter drop for the present; but the addition will be brought
+forward again in a few days.
+
+A proof has lately forced itself on my attention of the confusion of mind
+habitual to many of the Bishops of the majority. I asked one of them, who
+had expressed his surprise that so much fuss was made about this one
+dogma, whether he had formed any clear conception of its retrospective
+force and examined all the papal decisions, from Siricius in 385 to the
+Syllabus of 1864, which would be made by the infallibilist dogma into
+articles of faith. And it came out that this pastor of above a hundred
+thousand souls imagined that every Pope would be declared infallible, not
+for the past but for the future only!(153) But he was somewhat perplexed
+when I mentioned to him on the spur of the moment merely a couple of papal
+maxims on moral theology, which were now to be stamped with the seal of
+divinely inspired truths.
+
+On Saturday the 9th the special voting is to take place on the emendation
+just mentioned of the third chapter of the third canon in the interests of
+papal absolutism, and on the same day or Monday the whole of the third
+chapter and the amendments on the fourth are to be voted on; on Wednesday,
+the 13th, the votes are to be taken on the whole _Schema_ "en bloc." As
+yet the Opposition can still be reckoned at 97, exclusive of Guidi and the
+Dominican Bishops, who may not improbably come to its aid at the critical
+moment.
+
+One of the witticisms circulating here, for which the Council affords
+matter to genuine Romans, is the following, that in the sitting of July 4
+there was a great uproar among the Bishops, they were all set by the ears
+and the Pope himself ran away, and why all this? "E perche tutta questa
+cagniara? perche il Papa vuole esser _impeccabile_, e i vescovi non lo
+vogliono."
+
+
+
+
+
+SIXTY-SIXTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, July 14, 1870._--I must again interrupt my narrative of the
+occurrences and speeches between June 5 and 10 to communicate the details
+of the great event of the session of July 13--an event which has falsified
+all expectations on both sides, and created a sensation and astonishment
+in Rome which it will take people some time to recover from. Even beyond
+the Alps, in spite of the all-absorbing question of the war, it will rouse
+interest and joyful surprise. In the last few days before the critical
+morning of the 13th there was much discussion among the Bishops of the
+various nations as to whether they should vote a simple "No" or a
+conditional "Yes,"--a _Non placet_ or a _Placet juxta modum_. It was not
+merely the fourth chapter that was in question, which deals with
+infallibility, but the whole _Schema_ on the Papacy, which contains also
+the much-decried third canon of the third chapter, establishing for the
+first time the theory of the universal episcopate of the Pope, the very
+theory Pope Gregory the Great characterized as an abomination and a
+blasphemy. It was known that the Bishops who are mere dilettantis in
+theology--and their number is legion, as is natural under the present
+system of episcopal appointments--would greatly prefer voting _juxta
+modum_, _i.e._, with a conditioned "Yes." That would always leave them
+free to reserve their further decision till the public voting "coram
+Sanctissimo" (as the Pope is here called), when only a direct "Yes" or
+"No" can be voted. Each of them could present in writing the conditions or
+wishes on which he desired to make his _Placet_ dependent, and then say
+"Yes" or "No" according to his pleasure in the Solemn Session, if his
+suggestions were disregarded--"Yes," if he wished to direct the lightning
+flashes of the angry Jupiter to other heads than his own; "No," if he
+could summon manliness and courage enough at the last moment. The Court
+party and the majority had neglected no means of impressing on the
+recalcitrants the uselessness of their negative votes and the personal
+disadvantages to themselves. Every one was told, "It is determined
+irrevocably to take no account of your 'No,' and to go on to the
+promulgation of the dogma. Supported by at least 500 favourable votes, and
+throwing the surplus weight of his own vote into the scale, the Pope, on
+the 17th or 24th July, will walk over your heads amid the presumed
+acclamations of the whole Catholic world; and how lamentable and hopeless
+a situation will yours be then! You are then heretics, who have incurred
+the terrible penalties of the canon law; you have surrendered at
+discretion, bound hand and foot, to the mercy of the deeply injured Pope.
+Consider, 'Quid sum miser tunc dicturus, quem patronum rogaturus?' "
+
+Thus they were worked on individually. And more drastic methods were
+employed as well. It was asserted that two documents had already been
+drawn up in the Vatican, which every Bishop would be compelled to sign
+before being allowed to leave Rome; the one a profession of faith
+comprising the new article of infallibility, and the other an attestation
+of the perfect freedom of the Council throughout its whole course. Whoever
+refused to sign either would thereby at once incur papal censures. "We
+shall thus have," they were told, "your _Non placet_ and your 'free'
+acknowledgment under your hand of the article of faith you denied a few
+days before, and shall show it to the world. Do you wish then morally to
+annihilate yourselves in public opinion?"
+
+As the Bishops who are resolved to give a negative vote knew well the more
+timorous temper of many of their colleagues, who were half-ready to be
+persuaded and half-ready to succumb, and remembered the Scriptural saying
+that "a high priest must have compassion on our infirmities," some of them
+drew up a formula stating the basis on which the timid might vote _Placet
+juxta modum_. In the preamble of the _Schema_ the word "principium" was to
+be exchanged for "exordium," and instead of "vis et virtus in eo (Papa)
+consistit," was to be put "praecipue in eo consistit;" the third canon of
+the third chapter was to be wholly omitted, and the word "episcopalis"
+left out of the chapter, and lastly, the formula of St. Antoninus was to
+be substituted for the fourth chapter. The proposed document ends with
+"Secus in Solemni Sessione dicturus sum, _Non placet_."
+
+On July 12 the Bishops of the minority held the most largely attended
+international conference which has yet taken place; about 70 were present.
+Three prelates, two German and one French--Ketteler, Melchers and
+Archbishop Landriot of Rheims--proposed that all should vote _Placet juxta
+modum_, but at the same time hand in a precise and decided formulas the
+condition of their assent, with a declaration that, if their demands were
+rejected or inadequately complied with, they should be obliged to vote
+_Non placet_ in the Solemn Session. This would have substantially secured
+the complete victory of the majority and the _Curia_. Every one would have
+naturally said, "Your 'Yes,' however conditioned, can only bear the sense
+that in the main point you agree with the _Schema_, and that main point
+lies in the two new and great articles of faith, which hang together and
+must shape the future of the Church, the universal episcopate of the Pope
+and his infallibility. By saying _Placet_ you affirm these two new dogmas,
+and after that it will matter little what particular collateral wishes or
+conditions you may choose to add. Whether they are acceded to or not, you
+must in consistency say 'Yes' on the great day of the public profession,
+when only a simple affirmative or negative vote can be given."
+
+The three Cardinals, the two primates Simor and Ginoulhiac, Strossmayer
+and others, spoke out repeatedly and emphatically against this mischievous
+proposal which would at the last moment have frustrated all their hopes,
+and annihilated the results of seven months' sufferings and labours. A
+decisive impression was produced by the remark of the Archbishop of Milan,
+that there were many infallibilists who on various grounds would vote
+conditionally, and this peculiar kind of vote, which was better adapted to
+courtiers than Bishops, had better be left to them. "The only befitting
+course for us," he said, "who are convinced of the falsehood of the
+doctrine, is to say 'No.' " This was unanimously accepted. Tarnoczy, who
+for some time back has withdrawn from his German and Hungarian colleagues,
+and votes regularly with the majority, was not present. Cardinal
+Schwarzenberg said he should be glad if one of the Cardinals voted _Non
+placet_ before him, but if this did not happen he should be the first, and
+should count it a distinction to stand at the head of this noble band.
+
+It was remarkable how generally the view prevailed that scarcely ten
+opposing votes would really be given when the time came. No means were
+spared, by rumours and inventions, to spread terror and despair among the
+ranks of the Opposition. Thus the report was circulated in foreign
+journals--where you will have read it--as well as here, that a "sauve qui
+peut," and "debandade" had become the watchword of the Opposition, and not
+thirty would be left on the day for voting. We see now that this was all
+pure invention. Even Foerster's departure, which I reported myself, had not
+taken place; only Greith had gone. When Darboy had an audience of the Pope
+the day before the voting, and said that there was a considerable number
+of Bishops who would join him in saying _Non placet_, the Pope replied,
+"Perhaps many will vote _juxta modum_, but certainly not above ten _Non
+placet_." For some time past Pius has notoriously known everything with
+absolute certainty, even the temper of distant countries. The formulas put
+into the Pope's mouth by the Roman Chancery, "proprio motu" and "ex certa
+scientia," have been transmuted by the habit of twenty-four years into
+actual flesh and blood with him.
+
+At the beginning of the sitting the news had spread among the majority
+that the negative votes would be much more numerous than had been supposed
+on the evening before. On this Dechamps of Mechlin went to the heads of
+the Opposition and entreated them with humble gestures and whining voice
+to vote _juxta modum_, saying there was really some disposition with the
+authorities to insert the "consensus" and "testimonium Ecclesiarum" into
+the fourth chapter. The trick was too barefaced to succeed, and sharp
+words were spoken on the other side. One of the Bishops said to the new
+primate, "C'est une impudence sans exemple," and Darboy called the
+attention of the three Cardinals to this treacherous attempt at the last
+moment to divide and perplex the Opposition. Now began the voting "sub
+secreto," as it was again called, and the sub-secretary Jacobini read the
+names of the Fathers from the pulpit. And then a wholly unexpected
+phenomenon came to light: out of 600 Fathers present in Rome--there were
+764 in January--only 520 had appeared, and it was at once known that very
+many of the absentees had stayed away from dislike to the _Schema_, and to
+avoid the disagreeable consequences of a negative vote.
+
+The line taken by the Orientals in the voting excites surprise here. The
+Propaganda has spared no means of exercising a strict supervision and
+control over them, and yet the upshot is that the most influential of them
+have voted _Non placet_, some _juxta modum_, and others have absented
+themselves. In fact all the real Eastern Bishops--_i.e._, those who
+represent dioceses--have voted against the dogma. Every one acquainted with
+the state of things in Asia foresees that the promulgation of the dogma,
+which will follow in spite of this, will lead to the definitive separation
+of the Uniate Churches in the East. But that makes not the slightest
+impression on the Pope and the Jesuits.
+
+When the names of the _juxta modum_ voters were read out, the President
+said "quorum, quantum possible erit, habebitur ratio." That sounded like
+open mockery: it meant, "We (the Deputation) have already settled among
+ourselves what is impossible, viz., making the co-operation of the
+episcopate a condition, but still there are some possible things. If,
+_e.g._, any Bishops wish to have 'inerrantia' substituted for
+'infallibilitas,' perhaps they may be gratified." But even concessions of
+that sort are doubtful, for one cannot give the lie to Bishop Gasser of
+Brixen, who has distinctly declared that "nec verbum addetur nec verbum
+demetur amplius."
+
+Among the conditional voters are Dreux-Breze, certainly only because the
+decree is not strong enough for him. The whole Hungarian Episcopate
+remained firm in its opposition. The Austrians know now why Rudigier and
+Fessler were given them as Bishops. I send you with this the authentic
+list of the Fathers who did not vote with a simple _Placet_. It shows that
+it was just the Bishops of capital cities, as well as North American,
+Irish, English, and beyond expectation many North Italian prelates, who
+voted against the dogma. Only one, strictly speaking, was wholly false to
+his professions, the Bishop of Porto Rico.
+
+The Pope is still sure that at the last critical moment a divine miracle
+will enlighten the benighted minds of the opponents and suddenly reverse
+their sentiments. The Holy Ghost will and must do this. Pius seems to have
+clear assurances on that point. He had lately a remarkable conversation
+about it with a French Bishop, whom he had never seen before. As he
+regards every opponent of the dogma as his personal enemy, he received him
+as such and reproached him with being Caesar's friend instead of the
+Pope's; the Bishop replied that his white hairs testified to his having
+nothing to fear or hope for, but simply to follow his conscience, which
+constrained him with many of his colleagues to vote against the new dogma.
+"No," exclaimed Pius, "you will not vote against it; the Holy Ghost at the
+decisive hour will irresistibly enlighten you, and you will all say
+_Placet_."
+
+When the French Government in 1733 had the cemetery of La Chaise
+surrounded with soldiers, to stop the miraculous cures at the grave of the
+Abbe Paris, the inscription was found one morning over the entrance--
+
+
+    De par le roi defense a Dieu,
+    De faire miracle en ce lieu.
+
+
+On the 17th or 24th July 1870 there might be written over the entrance of
+the Council Hall--
+
+
+    De par le Pape ordre au bon Dieu
+    De faire miracle en ce lieu.
+
+
+The echo of the Vatican, Veuillot's _Univers_, has just been accusing the
+Bishops of the minority of ruining the papal treasury by prolonging the
+debates on infallibility through their opposition, and thus obliging the
+Pope to go on supporting his 300 episcopal foster sons, and buy his
+infallibility late and at a high price, when it ought to have been cast
+into his lap by spontaneous acclamation at the first. A physician has now
+been discovered for the treasury which has sickened under the
+infallibility affair. Rothschild is said to have been here and concluded a
+loan of forty million franks. As the deficit only amounts to thirty
+million, there remain ten million for fireworks, illuminations and
+church-decorations, the journey-money of trusty Bishops, and the like. But
+now the war is impending, and with it the withdrawal of Peter's pence and
+perhaps still worse.(154)
+
+The following voted _Non-placet_:--1. _Prague_, Cardinal Prince-Archbishop
+Schwarzenberg; 2. _Besancon_, Cardinal Archbishop Mathieu; 3. _Vienna_,
+Cardinal Prince-Archbishop Rauscher; 4. _Antioch_, Patriarch Jussuf, of
+the Melchite Rite; 5. _Babylon_, Patriarch Audu, of the Chaldean Rite; 6.
+_Gran_, Archbishop and Primate of Hungary, Simor; 7. _Lyons_, Archbishop
+Ginoulhiac; 8. _Tuam_, Archbishop MacHale; 9. _Olmuetz_, Prince-Archbishop
+Fuerstenberg; 10. _Trabezund_, Bishop Ghiureghian, of the Armenian Rite;
+11. _Munich_, Archbishop Scherr; 12. _Bamberg_, Archbishop Deinlein; 13.
+_Seert_, Bishop Bar-Tatar, of the Chaldean Rite; 14. _Halifax_, Archbishop
+Conolly, of the Capuchin Order; 15. _Lemberg_, Archbishop Wierzcheyski, of
+the Latin Rite; 16. _Paris_, Archbishop Darboy; 17. _Kalocsa_, Archbishop
+Haynald; 18. _Milan_, Archbishop Nazari di Calabiana; 19. _Tyre_,
+Archbishop Kauam, of the Melchite Rite; 20. _Biella_ (_Italy_), Bishop
+Losanna; 21. _Autun_, Bishop Marguerye; 22. _Ivrea_ (_Piedmont_), Bishop
+Moreno; 23. _Dijon_, Bishop Rivet; 24. _Metz_, Bishop Dupont des Loges;
+25. _Iglesias_ (_Sardinia_), Bishop Montixi; 26. _Acquapendente_ (formerly
+in the Roman States), Bishop Pellei; 27. _Trieste_, Bishop Legat; 28.
+_Orleans_, Bishop Dupanloup; 29. _Vezprim_, Bishop Ranolder; 30.
+_Mayence_, Bishop Ketteler; 31. _Bosnia_ and _Syrmia_, Bishop Strossmayer;
+32. _Budweis_, Bishop Jirsik; 33. _Breslau_, Prince-Bishop Foerster; 34.
+_Kerry_, Bishop Moriarty; 35. _Leontopolis, in partibus_, Bishop Forwerk,
+Apostolic Vicar of Saxony; 36. _Plymouth_, Bishop Vaughan; 37. _Clifton_,
+Bishop Clifford; 38. _Nice_, Bishop Sola; 39. _Parenzo_ and _Pola_, Bishop
+Dobrilla; 40. _Kreutz_ (_in Croatia_), Bishop Smiciklas, of the Ruthenian
+Rite; 41. _Augsburgh_, Bishop Dinkel; 42. _Gurk_, Bishop Wiery; 43.
+_Caltanisetta_ (_Sicily_), Bishop Guttadauro di Reburdone; 44. _Vacz_ (_in
+Hungary_), Bishop Peitler; 45. _Marianne_ (_Syria_), ---- of the Melchite
+Rite; 46. _Chatham_, Bishop Rogers; 47. _Csanad_ and _Temesvar_, Bishop
+Bonnaz; 48. _Pittsburg_, Bishop Domenec; 49. _Luzonia_, Bishop Colet; 50.
+_Sura, in partibus_, Bishop Maret; 51. _St. Brieuc_, Bishop David; 52.
+_Treves_, Bishop Eberhard; 53. _Coutance_, Bishop Bravard; 54. _Lavant_,
+Bishop Stepischnigg; 55. _Soissons_, Bishop Dours; 56. _Akra_, Bishop
+Mellus, of the Chaldean Rite; 57. _Siebenbuergen_, Bishop Fogarasz; 58.
+_Chalons_, Bishop Meignan; 59. _Valence_, Bishop Gueullette; 60.
+_Perpignan_, Bishop Ramadie; 61. _Paleopolis, in partibus_, Bishop
+Mariassy (_Hungary_); 62. _Petricola_ or _Little Rock_ (_United States_),
+Bishop Fitzgerald; 63. _Marseilles_, Bishop Place; 64. _Cahors_, Bishop
+Grimardias; 65. _Osnaburgh_, Bishop Beckmann; 66. _Szathmar_ (_Hungary_),
+Bishop Viro de Keydi Polany; 67. _Munkacs_, Bishop Pankovics, of the
+Ruthenian Rite; 68. _Bayeux_, Bishop Hugonin; 69. _Raab_, Bishop ----; 70.
+_La Rochelle_, Bishop Benedetto; 71. _Nancy_, Bishop Foullon; 72.
+_Constantine_ (_Algiers_), Bishop de las Cases; 73. _Oran_ (_Algiers_),
+Bishop Callot; 74. _Gap_, Bishop Guilbert; 75. _Ermeland_, Bishop
+Crementz; 76. _Rochester_, Bishop MacQuaid; 77. _Louisville_, Bishop
+Kenrick; 78. _Cassovia_, Bishop Perger (Hungary); 79. _Agathopolis_,
+Bishop Namszanowski, Provost of the Prussian Army in Berlin; 80.
+_Montreal_ (_Canada_), Bishop Bourget; 81. _Grosswardein_, Bishop
+Lipovniczky; 82. _Fuenfkirchen_, Bishop Kovacs; 83. _Steinamanger_, Bishop
+Szenczy; 84. _Rottenburg_, Bishop Hefele; 85. _Ajaccio_, Bishop Sante
+Casanelli d'Istria, and three more whose names were omitted in the
+official catalogue.
+
+There voted _Placet juxta modum_:--1. De Silvestri, Cardinal-Priest; 2.
+Trevisanato, Cardinal Patriarch of Venice; 3. Guidi, Cardinal Archbishop
+of Bologna; 4. _Salsburg_, Archbishop and Primate Tarnoczy; 5. _Oregon
+City_, Archbishop Blanchet; 6. _Nisibis, in partibus_, Archbishop Tizzani;
+7. _Tyre and Sidon_, Archbishop Bostani, Maronite; 8. _Manila_, Archbishop
+Melithon-Martinez; 9. _Granada_, Archbishop Monzon y Martins; 10.
+_Avignon_, Archbishop Dubrevil; 11. _New York_, Archbishop MacCloskey; 12.
+_Cologne_, Archbishop Melchers; 13. _Melitene, in partibus_, Archbishop
+Merode; 14. _Rheims_, Archbishop Landriot; 15. _Sens_, Archbishop
+Bernardou; 16. _Burgos_, Archbishop Yusto; 17. _Ventimiglia_ (_Italy_),
+Bishop Biale; 18. _Columbica_, _in partibus_, Bishop Verolles, Apostolic
+Vicar in Leao-Tung (China); 19. _Canopo_, _in partibus_, Bishop Besi; 20.
+_Sira_, Bishop Alberti, Apostolic Delegate in Greece; 21. _Zenopolis_, _in
+partibus_, Bishop Moccagatta, Apostolic Vicar in Xan-Tung; 22. _Lipari_,
+Bishop Ideo; 23. _Birmingham_, Bishop Ullathorne; 24. _Vancouver_, Bishop
+Demers; 25. _Mileto_, Bishop Mincione; 26. _Moulins_, Bishop Dreux-Breze;
+27. _Gezira_, Bishop Hindi, of the Chaldean Rite; 28. _Hadrianopolis, in
+partibus_, Bishop De la Place, Apostolic Vicar in Tsche-Kiang; 29.
+_Tarnovia_, Bishop Pukalski (Galicia); 30. _Chartres_, Bishop Regnault;
+31. _Urgel_, Bishop Caixal y Estrade; 32. _Monterey_, Bishop Amat; 33.
+_Tanes_, _in partibus_, Bishop Salzano, Dominican; 34. _Newcastle_, Bishop
+Chadwick; 35. _Lacedonia_, Bishop Majorsini; 36. _Todi_, Bishop Rosati;
+37. _Avellino_, Bishop Gallo; 38. _Amelia_, Bishop Pace; 39. _Nola_,
+Bishop Formisano; 40. _Imola_, Bishop Moretti; 41. _Zamora_, Bishop Conde
+y Corral; 42. _Avila_, Bishop Blanco, Dominican; 43. _Savannah_, Bishop
+Verot; 44. _Cuenca_, Bishop Paya y Rico; 45. _Cajazzo_, Bishop Riccio; 46.
+_Teramo_, Bishop Milella, Dominican; 47. _Nocera_, Bishop Pettinari; 48.
+_St. Christophori_, Bishop De Urguinaona; 49. _Clariopolis_, _in
+partibus_, Bsciai, Apostolic Vicar in Egypt, of the Coptic Rite; 50.
+_Erzeroum_, Bishop Melchisedechian, of the Armenian Rite; 51. _Monte
+Fiascone_, Bishop Bovieri; 52. _Savona_, Bishop Cerruti; 53. _Agathonica_,
+_in partibus_, Bishop Pagnucci; 54. _Ascalon_, _in partibus_, Bishop
+Meurin, Society of Jesus; 55. _Dionysia_, _in partibus_, Bishop Gentili;
+56. _Cattaro_, Bishop Marchich; 57. _Serena_, Bishop Orrego; 58. Mardin,
+Bishop of the Chaldean Rite; 59. _Tiberias_, _in partibus_, Bishop
+Valeschi; 60. Guardi, General of the Ministers of the Sick; 61. The Abbot
+of the Camaldolese in Etruria.
+
+The following abstained from voting, though in Rome at the
+time:--_Cardinals_: 1. Mattei, 2. Orfei, 3. Quaglia, 4. Hohenlohe, 5.
+Berardi, 6. Antonelli, 7. Grassellini; 8. The Patriarch Harcus of Antioch,
+of the Syrian Rite; 9. The Archbishop and Primate Salomone of Salerno; 10.
+The Maronite Archbishop Aun of Beirout; 11, 12. Two other Archbishops; 13.
+_Aleppo_, Archbishop Matar, of the Maronite Rite; 14. _Venezuela_,
+Archbishop Guevara; 15. _Utrecht_, Archbishop Zwysen; 16. _Tours_,
+Archbishop Guibert; 17. _Rodi_, _in partibus_, Archbishop Pace-Forno,
+Bishop of Malta; 18. _Mardin_, Archbishop Nasarian, of the Armenian Rite;
+19. _Alby_, Archbishop Lyonnet; 20. Iconium, _in partibus_, Archbishop
+Puecher Passavalli; 21. _Guadalaxara_, Archbishop Loya; 22. _Amida_,
+Archbishop Bahtiarian, of the Armenian Rite; 23. _Tournay_, Bishop Labis;
+24. _Terni_, Bishop Severa; 25. _Veglia_, Bishop Vitezich; 26. _Almira_,
+_in partibus_, Bishop Carli, Capuchin; 27. _Montauban_, Bishop Doney; 28.
+_Cava_, Bishop Fertilla; 29. _Curia_, _in partibus_, Bishop Grioglio; 30.
+_Segni_ (Papal State), Bishop Ricci; 31. _Paphos_, _in partibus_, Bishop
+Alcazar, Dominican Vicar Apostolic; 32. _Vicenza_, Bishop Varina; 33.
+_Salford_, Bishop Turner; 34. _Catanzaro_, Bishop de Franco; 35.
+_Bergamo_, Bishop Speranza; 36. _Savannah_, --; 37. _St. Angelo in
+Lombardy_, Bishop Fanelli; 38. _Dromore_, Bishop Leahy, Dominican; 39.
+_Glarus_, --; 40. _Birta_, _in partibus_, Bishop Pinsoneault; 41. _Fernes_,
+Bishop Furlong; 42. _Anagni_, Bishop Pagliari; 43. _Siguenza_, Bishop
+Benavides; 44. _Ceramo_, _in partibus_, Bishop Jeancard, Suffragan of
+Marseilles; 45. _Polemonia_, _in partibus_, Bishop Pinchon; 46. _Lipari_,
+Bishop Athanasio; 47. _Apamea_, Archbishop Ata, of the Melchite Rite; 48.
+_Mindus_, _in partibus_, Bishop Papardo del Parco; 49. _Bursa_, Bishop
+Tilkian, of the Armenian Rite; 50. _Astorga_, Bishop Arguelles y Miranda;
+51. _Comacchio_, Bishop Spoglia; 52. _Charlottetown_, Bishop MacIntyre;
+53. _Vallis Pratensis_, -- (?); 54. _Lamego_, Bishop de Vasconcellos
+Periera de Mello; 55. _Montpellier_, Bishop Curtier; 56. _Barcelona_,
+Bishop Monserrat y Navarro; 57. _Amatunto_, _in partibus_, Bishop Galezki,
+Apostolic Vicar in Cracow; 58. _Kilmore_, Bishop Conaty; 59. _Priene_, _in
+partibus_, Bishop Cosi; 60. _Tuy_, Bishop Garcia y Anton; 61. _Puno_,
+Bishop Huerta; 62. _Adelaide_, Bishop Shiel; 63. _Albany_ (_America_),
+Bishop Conroy; 64. _Concordia_, Bishop Frangipani; 65. _St. Hyacinth_,
+Bishop Laroque; 66. _Dubuque_, Bishop Hennessy; 67. _Vannes_, Bishop
+Becel; 68. _Goulburn_, Bishop Lannigan; 69. _St. Germani bei Monte
+Cassino_, -- (?); 70. _Verdun_, Bishop Hacquard; 71. _Egea_, _in partibus_,
+Bishop Reynaud; 72. _St. Giov. di Cuyo_, Bishop Achaval; 73. _Cirene_, _in
+partibus_, Bishop Canzi; 74. _Rodiopolis_, _in partibus_, Bishop Tosi; 75.
+_Buffalo_, Bishop Ryan; 76. _Adramyttium_, _in partibus_, Bishop Gibbons;
+77. _Coria_, Bishop Nunez; 78. _Heliopolis_, Bishop Nasser, of the
+Melchite Rite; 79. _Titopolis_, _in partibus_, -- (?); 80, 81. Abbates
+nullius; 82, 83. Burchall, President of the Benedictine Congregation in
+England; 84. The Abbot of Janow, Apostolic Administrator in Russia; 85.
+Montis Coronae; 86-91. These names could not be announced on account of the
+great confusion.
+
+
+
+
+
+SIXTY-SEVENTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, July 16, 1870._--As I had to report in my last letter, the attempt
+of the Legates and the Deputation to outwit and catch the minority by a
+violation of their own order of business had all but succeeded. Darboy and
+Strossmayer frustrated this plot, on which it is literally true that the
+fate of the Church was staked. For the third canon of the third chapter
+had been brought forward in so enlarged and altered a form, that it
+involved in substance the abolition of the entire episcopate, as an
+integral constituent of the Christian Church, and substituted for it the
+papal "totality," as the theologians of the seventeenth century called it;
+_i.e._, the theory that in the whole Church there is one sole individual
+who is in exclusive possession of all plenary powers and all
+ecclesiastical rights. The weight and importance of the doctrine thereby
+designed to be for the first time imposed on the Church cannot even be
+made intelligible in a few words. Most readers are naturally unaware of
+the sense attached in canon law and the language of the _Curia_ to the
+words, "potestas immediata et ordinaria." Well! they mean that all
+Christians, whether laymen or clerics, are personally subjects, body and
+soul, of their lord and master, the Pope, who can impose on them without
+restriction whatever commands seem good to him. There are, besides the
+Pope, who exercises immediate authority by virtue of his universal
+episcopate, papal commissaries in the separate dioceses, who call
+themselves Bishops, and are so named by the Roman Chancery. They exercise
+the powers delegated to them by the one true and universal Bishop, and
+carry out the particular orders they receive from Rome. According to this
+view the whole Church has, properly speaking, no other right or law or
+order but the pleasure of the reigning Pope. This is the most perfect form
+of absolutism ever yet excogitated in any man's brains.
+
+The order of business prohibits any alteration in the text of the decrees
+being voted upon without previous discussion in Council. That however was
+now attempted, and the violation of the order of business by the Legates
+themselves was so flagrant, the design of fraud so palpable, that the
+incident continued to be the subject of general conversation up to the
+12th July. When the plot had miscarried, it was alleged in excuse that the
+previous discussion had been forgotten!--forgotten precisely in the case of
+the most important article yet brought forward, and of a change of such
+immeasurable weight that one may truly say no discussion of equal weight
+and influence has been passed in any Council during 1800 years. The affair
+of course made a great sensation. The words "deceit" and "lying" were used
+more than once in the national meetings of the Opposition Bishops, and it
+was urged that the whole Deputation _de Fide_ were accomplices of the
+Legates in this unworthy trick, and that the Bishops were being compelled
+in a truly revolting manner to vote on alterations of the most
+comprehensive kind, which had only been communicated to them the day
+before. A short memorandum was issued by the French Bishops, which
+recommended that this opportunity should be seized for leaving Rome. It
+runs as follows:--
+
+"(1). L'heure de la Providence a sonne: le moment decisif de sauver
+l'Eglise est arrive. (2.) Par les additiones faites au III. canon du 3me
+chap. la Commission _de Fide_ a viole le reglement qui ne permet
+l'introduction d'aucun amendement sans discussion conciliaire. (3.)
+L'addition subreptice est d'une importance incalculable; c'est le
+changement de la constitution de l'Eglise, la monarchie pure, absolue,
+indivisible du Pape, l'abolition de la judicature et de la co-souverainete
+des eveques, l'affirmation et la definition anticipee de l'infaillibilite
+separee et personnelle. (4.) Le devoir et l'honneur ne permettent pas de
+voter sans discussion ce canon, qui contient une immense revolution. La
+discussion pourrait et devrait durer six mois, parce qu'il s'agit de la
+question capitale, la constitution meme de la souverainete dans l'Eglise.
+(5.) Cette discussion est impossible a cause des fatigues extremes de la
+saison et des dispositions de la majorite. (6.) Une seule chose, digne et
+honorable, reste a faire: Demander immediatement la prorogation du Concile
+au mois d'Octobre, et presenter une declaration, ou seraient enumerees
+toutes les protestations deja faites, et ou la derniere violation du
+reglement, le mepris de la dignite et de la liberte des eveques seraient
+mis en lumiere. Annoncer en meme temps un depart, qui ne peut plus etre
+differe. (7.) Par le depart ainsi motive d'un nombre considerable
+d'eveques de toutes les nations, l'oecumenicite du Concile cesserait et
+tous les actes, qu'il pourrait faire ensuite, seraient d'une autorite
+nulle. (8.) Le courage et le devouement de la minorite auraient, dans le
+monde, un retentissement immense. Le Concile se reunirait au mois
+d'Octobre dans des conditions infiniment meilleures. Toutes les questions,
+a peine ebauchees, pourraient etre reprises, traitees avec dignite et
+liberte. L'Eglise et l'ordre moral du monde seraient sauves."
+
+But the majority of the Opposition did not assent to this; they resolved
+to present another Protest, which the Court party might apply, like its
+predecessors, "ad piper et quidquid chartis amicitur ineptis." It was
+drawn up by Bishop Dinkel of Augsburgh, and signed, so far as I know, by
+all of them.
+
+On the evening of the 9th July a proposal of a new formula of
+infallibility was distributed to the Bishops; it was apparently designed
+to split up the Opposition, and was broad, declamatory, full of
+quotations, and lavish of assurances that the Roman See has always
+administered its supreme teaching office in the most excellent manner and
+proclaimed nothing but truth. Now, it was added, since there has been a
+great deal of contradition, it is necessary to define that its _ex
+cathedra_ decisions are infallible, and its decrees on faith and morals
+irreformable by virtue of the divine promise given to it. This new
+production was discussed in the French and German conferences and
+rejected, although one of the most influential German Bishops, Ketteler,
+had taken it under his protection. He assured them that the Deputation had
+unanimously resolved that no change or concession by a hair's-breadth
+should be allowed in this form of words, for to deny papal infallibility
+involved a denial of the primacy altogether.
+
+Meanwhile the Jesuit Franzelin had received orders from the highest
+authority to revise afresh the formula adopted by the Deputation, with
+which Schrader is said to be very ill satisfied.
+
+In the sitting of July 11, first the Bishop of Trevisa, as a member of the
+Deputation, defended the notorious decree in the third canon of the third
+chapter, which is to revolutionize the whole constitution of the Church in
+the sense of papal absolutism. Then the votes were taken, by rising and
+sitting down, on the weightiest and most pregnant article that has been
+laid before any Council for 600 years, and the uncertainty in this method
+of voting, wholly unprecedented in Church history, was so great that
+according to the majority only 50 or 60 voted against it, while the
+minority reckon between 90 and 100 adverse votes.
+
+Then Bishop Gasser of Brixen made a speech three hours long in the name of
+the Deputation on the infallibility decree, which in its new form--and this
+he declared to be the _ultimatum_--had been enriched with an anathema
+against those who "contradicere praesumpserint." Gasser was unwilling to be
+left behind by Manning, Dechamps, Dreux-Breze and the Spaniards. He
+vindicated the doctrines of Cardinal Cajetan against Ketteler.
+
+Meanwhile Cardinal Guidi had been so powerfully belaboured, that it had
+frightened him, and he now voted for the third chapter with the majority.
+The process which had been found so effective in France, of raising their
+diocesan clergy against fallibilist Bishops, had been applied to him too
+by means of agents sent to Bologna. The apostasy of Archbishop Tarnoczy of
+Salzburg, who also voted with the majority, excited grief but no surprise.
+While the occupant of one of the oldest Sees of Germany, the successor of
+Arno, Pilgrim and Colloredo, flung away his own rights and those of his
+successors like so many hollow nutshells, even Cardinal Silvestri voted
+against the third chapter and the anathema attached to the fourth.
+
+The result of the 13th July has acted like an earthquake, shaking and
+confusing for the moment men's heads and plans of operation. Even if half
+the voters _juxta modum_ are abstracted, as belonging to the majority,
+there remain 31 votes among them in favour of essential changes in the
+fourth chapter, changes which the Deputation has declared to be absolutely
+inadmissible, and which, if admitted, would offend one section of the
+majority. This last consequence would not of course matter at all; a
+single word from the Pope would set it aside at once, for it is
+self-evident that no Bishop who is convinced of his unconditional
+inerrancy could hesitate for a moment to vote for a decree sanctioned by
+him. Still the perplexity is great. If the decree, as voted by the
+majority, is brought forward at the public session, some 120 negative
+votes may be expected. But the Pope is resolved to become infallible
+"senza conditione," as he says.
+
+It is now often said that on the day of the Solemn Session the Holy Ghost
+will yet most assuredly work a wonderful miracle and convert the
+Opposition so suddenly that, although they had entered the Council Hall
+resolved to say "No," they will say "Yes." Some, including Antonelli, vote
+for conciliatory measures and concessions, which however the Deputation on
+Faith declares to be impossible. The other very numerous party says on the
+contrary that the unexpected force and extent of the opposition to so
+fundamental a dogma makes an anathema all the more necessary. A new plan
+of operations has now been hit upon, which is greatly favoured by the
+recent deaths. The grand Session for proclaiming the dogma had been fixed
+for the 17th, and many among the minority were with great difficulty
+persuaded to remain till that critical day. But now the 25th is talked
+of.(155) At the same time the report is circulated and confirmed by
+Antonelli, that there will be no prorogation even at the end of July or
+beginning of August, but the Council will continue, though many Bishops,
+on requesting leave, will be permitted to depart. It is urgently
+necessary, according to Antonelli, to settle the questions about the
+Oriental Rite. Yet for centuries the Court of Rome has not troubled any
+Council with these affairs, but settled and regulated them by itself, as
+is testified by a whole series of papal decrees. And after infallibility
+is proclaimed, it is utterly superfluous to keep hundreds of foreign
+Bishops here on that account. But it is known that the new dogma will lead
+to the separation of the Orientals, and so their Bishops are to be kept
+here longer as hostages, and the name of the Council is to supply the
+pretext. And it is hoped that the French and German Bishops will the more
+certainly ask leave and go home, so that the Opposition may be reduced to
+a small handful. The Pope himself appears greatly to desire this, as was
+at once inferred from his remark that the Archbishop of Paris is staying
+on a long time.
+
+Five Bishops, including Foerster of Breslau, actually took their departure
+on the 14th.
+
+
+
+
+
+SIXTY-EIGHTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, July 17, 1870._--All the Bishops of the minority have left Rome,
+after presenting a statement of their attitude towards the decrees on the
+Papacy. They made a last attempt, immediately before going, to move the
+Pope at least not to hurry on the affair but to grant some respite by
+proroguing the Council. At twelve o'clock to-day he received a deputation
+headed by Darboy and Simor. Darboy, who spoke first, represented to him
+the great and manifold dangers the definition would unquestionably give
+rise to for the whole Church. Hitherto Pius had met all suggestions of
+scruple by appealing to his "I am Tradition"--his already assured
+infallibility. This time he did not do so. He fell back on the ground of
+its being "too late." Matters had gone too far, and the whole Christian
+world was now too much occupied and too powerfully excited about the
+question. Besides, the Council had already passed a decree by a
+considerable majority, and he was therefore in no position to put a check
+on the Council, which was now in full swing and urgently pressing for a
+final decision on this question. The promulgation of the decree of the
+majority will accordingly follow to-morrow.
+
+The Orientals have subscribed the declaration of the minority. Two German
+Bishops only, Melchers and Ketteler, have withheld their signature and
+presented a separate declaration of their own to the Pope. The manifesto
+of the minority runs thus:--
+
+"_Beatissime Pater!_
+
+"In Congregatione generali die 13 h. m. habita, dedimus suffragia nostra
+super schemate primae Constitutionis dogmaticae de Ecclesia Christi.
+
+"Notum est Sanctitati Vestrae 88 Patres fuisse, qui, conscientia urgente et
+amore Sanctae Ecclesiae permoti, suffragium suum per verba _non placet_
+emiserunt; 62 alios, qui suffragati sunt per verba _placet juxta modum_,
+denique 70 circiter qui a congregatione abfuerunt atque a suffragio
+emittendo abstinuerunt. His accedunt et alii, qui, infirmitatibus aut
+aliis gravioribus rationibus ducti, ad suas dioeceses reversi sunt.
+
+"Hac ratione Sanctitati Vestrae et toto mundo suffragia nostra nota atque
+manifesta fuere, patuitque quam multis episcopis sententia nostra
+probatur, atque hoc modo munus officiumque quod nobis incumbit
+persolvimus.
+
+"Ab eo inde tempore nihil prorsus evenit quod sententiam nostram mutaret,
+quin imo multa eaque gravissima acciderunt, quae nos in proposito nostro
+confirmaverunt. Atque ideo nostra jam edita suffragia nos renovare ac
+confirmare declaramus.
+
+"Confirmantes itaque per hanc scripturam suffragia nostra a Sessione
+publica die 18 h. m. habenda abesse constituimus. Pietas enim filialis ac
+reverentia quae missos nostros nuperrime ad pedes Sanctitatis Vestrae
+adduxere, non sinunt nos in causa Sanctitatis Vestrae personam adeo proxime
+concernente palam et in facie patris dicere _non placet_.
+
+"Et aliunde suffragia in Solenni Sessione edenda repeterent dumtaxat
+suffragia in generali Congregatione deprompta.
+
+"Redimus itaque sine mora ad greges nostros, quibus post tam longam
+absentiam ob belli timores et praesertim summas eorum spirituales
+indigentias summopere necessarii sumus; dolentes, quod, ob tristia in
+quibus versamur rerum adjuncta etiam conscientiarum pacem et
+tranquillitatem turbatam inter fideles nostros reperturi simus.
+
+"Interea Ecclesiam Dei et Sanctitatem Vestram, cui intemeratam fidem et
+obedientiam profitemur, D. N. J. C. gratiae et praesidio toto corde
+commendantes sumus Sanctitatis Vestrae
+
+"devotissimi et obedientissimi filii.
+
+"ROMAE, _17 Jul. 1870_."
+
+
+
+
+
+SIXTY-NINTH LETTER.
+
+
+_Rome, July 19, 1870._--On the evening of the 15th a deputation of the
+Bishops of the minority waited on the Pope, consisting of Simor, Primate
+of Hungary, Archbishops Ginoulhiac, Darboy and Scherr (of Munich),
+Ketteler and Rivet, Bishop of Dijon. After waiting an hour they were
+admitted at 9 o'clock in the evening. What they tried to obtain was in
+fact much less than the Opposition had hitherto aimed at: they only asked
+for the withdrawal of the addition to the third chapter, which assigns to
+the Pope the exclusive possession of all ecclesiastical powers, and the
+insertion in the fourth chapter of a clause limiting his infallibility to
+those decisions which he pronounces "innixus testimonio Ecclesiarum." Pius
+gave an answer which will sound in Germany like a maliciously invented
+fable,--"Je ferai mon possible, mes chers fils, mais je n'ai pas encore lu
+le Schema; je ne sais pas ce qu'il contient." And he then requested
+Darboy, who had acted as spokesman, to give him the petition of the
+minority in writing. He promised to do so, and added, not without irony,
+that he would take the liberty of sending with it to his Holiness the
+_Schema_, which the Deputation on Faith and the Legates had with such
+culpable levity omitted to lay before him, when it wanted only two days to
+the promulgation of the dogma, thereby exposing him to the peril of having
+to proclaim a decree he was ignorant of. This Darboy did, and in a second
+letter to the Deputation severely censured their negligence in not even
+having communicated the _Schema_ to the chief personage, the Pope.
+
+Pius added further, whether ironically or in earnest I know not, that if
+only the minority would increase their 88 votes to 100, he would see what
+could be done. He concluded by assuring them it was notorious that the
+whole Church had always taught the unconditional infallibility of the
+Pope. Bishop Ketteler then came forward, flung himself on his knees before
+the Pope, and entreated for several minutes that the Father of the
+Catholic world would make some concession to restore peace and her lost
+unity to the Church and the episcopate. It was a peculiar spectacle to
+witness these two men, of kindred and yet widely diverse nature, in such
+an attitude, the one prostrate on the ground before the other. Pius is
+"totus teres atque rotundus," firm and immoveable, smooth and hard as
+marble, infinitely self-satisfied intellectually, mindless and ignorant,
+without any understanding of the mental conditions and needs of mankind,
+without any notion of the character of foreign nations, but as credulous
+as a nun, and above all penetrated through and through with reverence for
+his own person as the organ of the Holy Ghost, and therefore an absolutist
+from head to heel, and filled with the thought, "I and none beside me." He
+knows and believes that the holy Virgin, with whom he is on the most
+intimate terms, will indemnify him for the loss of land and subjects by
+means of the infallibility doctrine and the restoration of the papal
+dominion over states and peoples as well as over Churches. He also
+believes firmly in the miraculous emanations from the sepulchre of St.
+Peter. At the feet of this man the German Bishop flung himself, "ipso Papa
+papalior," a zealot for the ideal greatness and unapproachable dignity of
+the Papacy, and at the same time inspired by the aristocratic feeling of a
+Westphalian nobleman and the hierarchical self-consciousness of a Bishop
+and successor of the ancient chancellor of the Empire, while yet he is
+surrounded by the intellectual atmosphere of Germany, and with all his
+firmness of belief is sickly with the pallor of thought, and inwardly
+struggling with the terrible misgiving that after all historical facts are
+right, and that the ship of the _Curia_, though for the moment it proudly
+rides the waves with its sails swelled by a favourable wind, will be
+wrecked on that rock at last.
+
+The prostration of the Bishop of Mayence seemed to make some impression on
+Pius. He dismissed the deputation in a hopeful temper. It was of short
+duration. For directly the report got about that the Pope was yielding,
+Manning and Senestrey (_de grands effets par de petites causes_) went to
+the Pope and assured him that all was now ripe, and the great majority
+enthusiastically set on the most absolute and uncompromising form of the
+infallibilist theory, and at the same time frightened him by the warning
+that, if he made any concession, he would be disgraced in history as a
+second Honorius. That was enough to stifle any thought of moderation that
+might have been awakened in his soul.
+
+The sitting of July 16 was held to consider the proposals of those who had
+voted _juxta modum_. The Legates had promised to pay as much consideration
+as was possible to their wishes, and they redeemed their pledge by
+striking out one passage and inserting another. The majority decided, on
+the motion of certain Spaniards, which was adopted by the Deputation on
+Faith, to strike out the words at the opening of the fourth chapter,
+saying the Pope will define nothing "nisi quod antiquitus tenet cum
+caeteris Ecclesiis Apostolica Sedes." This was felt to impose too narrow
+limits on the Pope's infallibility and arbitrary power of defining. And as
+the minority had the day before expressed to the Pope their special desire
+that the consent of the Church should be laid down as a requisite
+condition of doctrinal definitions, it was now resolved, in direct
+contradiction to their wishes, again on the motion of Spanish Bishops, not
+only to leave the words "definitiones Pontificis ex sese seu per sese esse
+irreformabiles," but to add to them "non autem ex consensu Ecclesiae." And
+thus the infallibilist decree, as it is now to be received under anathema
+by the Catholic world, is an eminently Spanish production, as is fitting
+for a doctrine which was born and reared under the shadow of the
+Inquisition.
+
+In the last sitting of the Congregation three Bishops of the Deputation on
+Faith spoke, the Neapolitan D'Avanzo, Bishop of Calvi and Teano, Zinelli,
+Bishop of Rovigo, the author of the notorious addition to the third
+chapter of the third canon, and Gasser, Bishop of Brixen. D'Avanzo was
+jocose: "As," said he, "the angel bade the Apostle John swallow a book,
+telling him it would make his belly bitter but taste sweet as honey in his
+mouth, so must we Bishops swallow this infallibilist _Schema_, and I have
+done so already. It will no doubt give many of us a stomach-ache, but we
+must act as if we had honey in our mouths." Gasser, who as a speaker is
+"se ipse amans sine rivali," to quote Cicero's saying about Pompey, made a
+speech of endless length, exhausting the patience of his hearers; but
+there was some gold mixed with all this dross. Such was his declaration
+that Councils had hitherto been useful only for people of unsound faith,
+who did not chose to believe the Pope's _ipse dixit_, which every good
+Christian had always believed. But now "quid credendum sit unice ab
+arbitrio Pontificis in posterum dependebit." On this a well-known
+Hungarian Bishop could not refrain from observing to his neighbour, "Si
+etiam infallibilitas Pontificis contenta esset in Sacra Scriptura magis
+compromitti non posset quam hoc levissimo ac ineptissimo sermone, quo
+auditores ex integro jam lassos ad vomitum movit et martyres reddidit."
+
+An amusing scene occurred at the close of this sitting, the last attended
+by the Bishops of the minority. A printed address was read out and
+distributed to the Fathers, in which the Legates complained in the
+strongest language of certain works describing the course of the Council.
+Two were named and characterized as "calumnious," both published at Paris.
+The one, by Gaillard, was _Ce qui se passe au Concile_; the other was by a
+man distinguished alike for intellect, eloquence and learning, a member of
+the Council, who has had almost unique opportunities of seeing through the
+whole business. It is the work I have before mentioned, _La Derniere Heure
+du Concile_, in which the personal intervention of the Pope and the
+pressure brought to bear by him are forcibly depicted in strict accordance
+with truth. This pamphlet had already created a great sensation, and when
+the Legates called on the Bishops to join them in condemning it, the
+Italians and Spaniards, who--being for the most part ignorant of French--had
+not read it, immediately shouted out "Nos condemnamus." "We do not," cried
+the Bishops of the minority. Two copies of the address were then handed to
+each of them, one of which they were ordered to return with their names
+subscribed. The result was not successful; Haynald told the Legates, in
+the name of the Hungarian Bishops, that they had better first translate
+_La Derniere Heure_ into Latin, and then he and his colleagues would see
+whether it was really as bad as the Cardinals maintained.
+
+All the Bishops from South and Central Italy who could be whipped up, or
+who had previously obtained leave of absence on account of illness or age,
+were peremptorily recalled for the Solemn Session of July 18. Of the
+Cardinals, Hohenlohe was absent. The rest appeared, including Antonelli,
+but only three, Patrizzi, Bonaparte and Pambianco, threw a certain
+spontaneity and energy of voice and manner into their _Placet_ by standing
+up to deliver it. Guidi was the one most observed; he sat there with an
+oppressed and abstracted air, and his scarcely audible _Placet_ escaped
+with difficulty from his lips. The two negative voters were Bishops Riccio
+of Cajazzo and Fitzgerald of Little Rock. When the Monsignore who was
+repeating the names and votes had credited one of them with a _Placet_ out
+of his own head, the Bishop shouted in a stentorian voice, "No; _Non
+placet_!"
+
+As all the Bishops of the Opposition but two stayed away, and an _abest_
+was the answer to every name of the slightest note that was called, the
+Holy Ghost had no opportunity for working a miracle of conversion, and all
+went prosaically and smoothly as the wheels of a watch, without any
+sensation. Each of the stipendiaries has discharged his obligation, and
+the Pope and Monsignori find that the Council has cost large sums, but
+think the money is well spent and will bring in abundant interest. The
+most remarkable case of desertion was that of Bishop Landriot of Rheims.
+Not one of the Bishops had been so open-mouthed, or had announced his
+fallibilist opinions with such copious flow of words to everybody he came
+across. He now says, like Talleyrand, that he has only deserted before the
+rest. Clerical Rome, so far as I can yet make out, is not in any very
+exalted state of enthusiasm; that is prevented by the political
+conjunctures, which give Antonelli and Berardi a good deal to think about.
+De Banneville has indeed given the most consoling assurances to Antonelli;
+the 5000 French troops at Civita Vecchia, who had received orders to hold
+themselves ready for recall to France, are to be at once replaced by 5000
+more--recruits it is believed. Paris wishes just now to be on the best
+terms with Rome, who may well prove a useful ally in what the _Monde_ has
+already designated a religious war against Protestantism. Meanwhile they
+are pleased at the Vatican to have erected their _rocher de bronze_
+beforehand. The Bishops have--ostensibly of their own free will--abdicated
+in favour of the monarch, to receive back from him so many rights and
+commissions as he may think good to delegate to them. The revolution in
+the Church is accomplished "to enrich _one_ among all." Pius himself is
+more than content; his supreme desire, the crown of his life and work, is
+attained.
+
+During the voting and promulgation a storm burst over Rome, and made the
+Council Hall so dark that the Pope could not read the decree of his
+infallibility without having a candle brought. It was read to an
+accompaniment of thunder and lightning. Some of the Bishops said that
+heaven thereby signified its condemnation of Gallicanism, while others
+thought Pius was receiving a divine attestation, as the new Moses who
+proclaimed the Law of God, like the old one, amid thunder and lightning.
+It is remarkable that the days of the opening and closing of this Council
+were the two darkest and most depressing Rome has witnessed during the
+eight months of its session. It rained without intermission, so that the
+promised illumination was partly given up and partly proved a lamentable
+failure. There were few but monks, nuns and Zouaves, during the session in
+the very empty-looking church. When the Pope at last proclaimed himself
+the infallible and absolute ruler of all the baptized "with the
+approbation of the holy Council," some bravos shouted, several persons
+clapped, and the nuns cried in tones of tender rapture, "Papa mio!" That
+was the only semblance of a demonstration. If any spark of enthusiasm
+really glimmered in the souls of the Romans, it was quenched by the
+downpour of rain. The keen-witted Roman, who is accustomed to speak of
+this Pope with a certain good-humoured irony, as a sort of comic
+personality, thinks there is no harm in gratifying the wish of the old man
+who has set his heart on this infallibility; that will hurt nobody. All
+the most important members of the diplomatic bodies stayed away, in
+obedience to the instructions of their governments. Neither the
+ambassadors of Austria, France, Prussia or Bavaria were present. The
+Belgian and Dutch consuls and an agent of some South American Republic
+attended. The decrees of July 18, establishing under anathema the two new
+dogmas, are the following:--
+
+"(_a._) Si quis itaque dixerit, Romanum Pontificem habere tantummodo
+officium inspectionis vel directionis, non autem plenam et supremam
+potestatem jurisdictionis in universam Ecclesiam, non solum in rebus, quae
+ad fidem et mores, sed etiam quae ad disciplinam et regimen Ecclesiae per
+totum orbem diffusae pertinent; aut eum habere tantum potiores partes, non
+vero totam plenitudinem hujus supremae potestatis, aut hanc ejus potestatem
+non esse ordinariam et immediatam sive in omnes ac singulas Ecclesias sive
+in omnes et singulos Pastores et fideles--anathema sit.
+
+"(_b._) Sacro approbante Concilio docemus et divinitus revelatum dogma
+esse definimus: Romanum Pontificem, cum ex cathedra loquitur, id est, cum
+omnium Christianorum Pastoris et Doctoris munere fungens, pro suprema sua
+apostolica auctoritate doctrinam de fide vel moribus ab universa Ecclesia
+tenendam definit, per assistentiam divinam, ipsi in beato Petro promissam,
+ea infallibilitate pollere, qua divinus Redemptor Ecclesiam suam in
+definienda doctrina de fide vel moribus instructam esse voluit; ideoque
+ejusmodo _Romani Pontificis definitiones esse ex sese, non autem __ ex
+consensu Ecclesiae irreformabiles_. Si quis autem huic Nostrae definitioni
+contradicere, quod Deus avertat, praesumpserit--anathema sit."
+
+In the work against infallibility circulated here by the Bishop of Mayence
+occurs the following passage: "Will it not seem to all nations that the
+authority of all Bishops is suppressed and sentenced to death, only in
+order to erect on such vast and manifold ruins the unlimited authority of
+the one Roman Pope?" When these lines were written, the Bishop and his
+theologian had no notion, or at least no knowledge, of the third anathema
+of the third chapter, which was afterwards made still more rigorous. They
+were only thinking of infallibility, but what would they have said, had
+they known that the Bishops would be required to subscribe to the
+abolition of the episcopate and the transference of all conceivable
+ecclesiastical powers and rights over the 180 million of Catholics in
+principle and in detail to the Pope alone, as a new article of faith
+imposed under anathema? And yet this is what happened on the 13th and 18th
+July 1870. That the ordinary and immediate jurisdiction of the Bishops
+still survives, is indeed affirmed in the decree, but the affirmation is
+contrary to fact. It would be in inevitable collision with the constantly
+encroaching jurisdiction of the Pope; the earthen vessel dashed against
+the iron.
+
+The Jewish general and historian, Josephus, relates how he was shut up
+with forty companions in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and summoned to
+surrender by the Romans. They resolved to die first. The Bishops are not
+offered this alternative, but threatened with both at once. They are
+bidden to submit and then kill themselves, to subscribe the decree of the
+majority, and thereby sign the sentence which degrades and annihilates
+them, under pain of incurring anathema. That is the demand. The situation
+is an unprecedented one. And what of the 532 real or titular Bishops who
+have made the 13th and 18th July "dies nefasti" for the Church, and
+renounced so many rights and duties for themselves and their successors,
+like a cast-off garment? Perhaps it lightens their hearts and is a
+pleasant feeling to them to be able to say, "Thank God, I need not trouble
+myself any more about doctrine, tradition, or dogma; henceforth the one
+infallible oracle in the Vatican will attend to all that, and he again
+will devolve the burden on the lusty shoulders of the Jesuits, as he has
+done before. And how sweet and convenient it is to be a mere executor of
+papal decrees, while one's episcopal income remains untouched, and to be
+able to cover one's-self with the Medusa shield of a papal order in every
+difficulty, and every conflict with clergy, people or governments!" I
+heard a Bishop of this party say the other day, "Now first begin the
+golden days of the episcopate."
+
+It is reported that on the very day after the promulgation several Bishops
+experienced a certain reaction of sobriety, a feeling like what German
+students are wont to attribute to cats, and inquired of the high
+dogma-fabricating parties, the Legates and some members of the Deputation,
+whether they were really bound to believe, confess and teach all that is
+contained in the Syllabus, the Bull _Unam Sanctam_, etc., as _e.g._, the
+subjection of the secular powers to the Pope, the Church's power of
+inflicting bodily punishment with Pius who reigns gloriously, the burning
+of heretics with Leo X., _et id genus omne_. They are said to have been
+answered with a well-known Roman proverb, "Toto devorato bove, turpe est
+in cauda deficere"--"You have swallowed the whole ox of papal
+infallibility, and the last Spanish addition with it, and you need not
+strain at the tail, _i.e._, the consequences; that indeed is the best part
+of this ox."
+
+The Bishops of the minority agreed before leaving Rome that they would
+none of them act alone and independently, in such further steps as would
+have to be taken concerning the decrees of the majority, but would all
+continue to correspond and act in concert. Meanwhile the Council has not
+been prorogued, but leave of absence is given to Bishops who can allege
+urgent reasons up to November 15. Perhaps in the interval the builders of
+the new Jesuit-Papal Zion, who stay behind, will prepare many a surprise
+for the Catholic world.
+
+Future historians will begin a new period of Church history with July 18,
+1870, as with October 31, 1517.
+
+Are we really at the end of the drama? It appears so. On the same spot
+where, 1856 years ago, the first monarch of the world, Augustus, bade the
+attendants on his death-bed clap their hands in token of the role being
+well played out to the end, the Roman courtiers on July 18 have saluted by
+clapping of hands the first man proclaimed infallible monarch of the world
+by 532 spiritual satraps. The eight months' campaign has terminated in the
+preliminary closing act of July 18; the absolute Papacy celebrates its
+financially dear-bought, but otherwise easily obtained, triumph over the
+Church, which now lies defenceless at the feet of the Italians. It only
+remains to follow up the anathematized enemy, the Bishops of the minority,
+into their lurking-places, and compel each man of them to bend under the
+Caudine yoke amid the scornful laughter of his colleagues of the majority.
+Anathemas, the "ultima ratio" of Rome, have already been discharged at the
+fugitives, and every such shot of the Infallible is itself infallible.
+
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX I.
+
+
+    SPEECH OF DARBOY, ARCHBISHOP OF PARIS, DELIVERED MAY 20, ON THE
+    _Constitutio Dogmatica de Ecclesia_.
+
+
+There seem to me to be three points to be considered in reference to this
+_Schema_: its origin, its contents and scope, and its practical results.
+
+And first as regards its origin and presentation to the Council at this
+time, it is enough to mention two facts, from which it may be judged
+whether the affair has been conducted regularly and in accordance with the
+dignity and rights of this venerable assembly.
+
+It is certain that the fourth chapter, dealing with the infallibility of
+the Pope, is the turning-point of the whole _Schema_. For whatever is
+brought forward in the former chapters about the power and origin of the
+primacy in Peter and its continuance in the Popes, about which there is no
+difference among us,--and certainly in the first and second chapters this
+seems to exceed the right measure--is unmistakeably connected with the
+infallibility in the fourth chapter. So entirely is this infallibility the
+grand object of the Vatican Council, that some have indiscreetly asserted
+it is in a sense the sole object. And with reason, for the fabrication of
+such a dogma must always remain the weightiest act of an OEcumenical
+Council; and moreover the other questions to be dealt with are either of
+far less importance, or have long since been settled and only require
+revision, as, _e.g._, questions about the being and attributes of God, the
+reality and need of revelation, the duty of faith, and the relation of
+faith to reason. Yet this serious question of infallibility was neither
+indicated in the Bull convoking the Council nor in the other public
+announcements referring to it, and with good reason, because on the one
+hand the Catholic world had no desire for a settlement of this question,
+nor was there any other ground producible for meddling with what had
+always hitherto been a subject of free inquiry among theologians, and on
+the other hand there are many and grave evils, partly endangering the
+salvation of souls, which the Pope out of his care and affection has
+thought it more needful to deal with.
+
+It is certain that the first stirring of this question came from without,
+from religious and secular journalists, and that too in an impertinent
+manner, against all ecclesiastical and traditional precedent and all rules
+of hierarchical order and usage, by seeking to put a pressure on the
+conscience of the Bishops through demagogic agitation, and to intimidate
+them with the prospect of intrigues in their dioceses which would make the
+government of them impossible. Nay, matters have come to such a pass that
+the Fathers of the Council, however piously and courageously they may be
+simply following their conscience, are accused of having paid an improper
+deference to party opinion, by promoting the introduction of the
+infallibility question in consequence of these violent agitations, and all
+of us appear to have lost something of dignity and freedom through the
+tumult raised before the doors of the Council-chamber. And such a
+judgment, which is in the highest degree mischievous and injurious to our
+honour, can hardly be endured without damage and disgrace to this
+venerable assembly, an assembly which must act independently and not under
+pressure from without, which must not only be, but appear to be, free.
+
+It is further certain that the question brought before us to-day has been
+introduced against the natural and logical order of the subjects in hand,
+and thereby the cause itself is prejudiced. The rest of the _Schema de
+Fide_ ought first to have been submitted to our consideration, on which we
+have already debated and have the arguments of both sides so fresh in our
+memory that the final discussion would have been all the easier. Then
+again the _Schema de Ecclesia_ begins quite incorrectly with the primacy.
+Neither its first compilers nor any theologians before now were of opinion
+that the treatise on the Church should begin with that. And furthermore,
+our studies have been directed to the questions intended to come on for
+consideration according to the order originally announced.
+
+And lastly, it is certain that the precipitate introduction of the
+question of infallibility by reversing the original order has contributed
+to the injury rather than the honour of the Holy See. For as, according to
+the Bull _Multiplices inter_, motions are to be sent in to a special
+Congregation, which then reports to the Pope, who either accepts or
+rejects its decisions, it follows that the authors of this motion have
+compelled the Holy Father to make a decision in his own case and in
+reference to a personal prerogative, and have thereby--no doubt
+unintentionally--failed to show a fitting regard for his high position, if
+they have not rather directly injured it.
+
+If I am right on all these points--and such appears to be the case--it is
+impossible to discuss and decide upon the question of infallibility, thus
+originating and thus introduced, without paving the way for the insults of
+unbelievers and the reproaches which threaten the moral authority of this
+Council. And this should the more carefully be avoided, because writings
+and reports directed against the power and legitimacy of the Council are
+already current and widely circulated, so that it seems more likely to sow
+the seeds of contradiction and disunion among Christians than to quiet
+men's minds and lead to peace. If I may venture to add a practical remark
+to this portion of my speech, I should say that some have with good reason
+declared this question to be inopportune, and that there would be equally
+good reason for abstaining from any decision, even if the discussion of it
+were opportune.
+
+On the contents and tendency of the _Schema_ I shall make only a few
+observations.
+
+The _Schema_ does not deal with the infallibility of the Church, which we
+all believe, and which has been proved for twenty centuries, but lays down
+as an article of faith that the Pope is, alone and of himself, infallible,
+and that he possesses this privilege of inerrancy in all matters to which
+the infallibility of the Church herself extends. It must be well
+understood that the _Schema_ does not refer to that universally admitted
+infallibility, which is the invincible and inviolable strength of dogmatic
+decrees and decisions binding alike on all the faithful and all their
+pastors, and which reposes wholly and solely on the agreement of the
+Bishops in union with the Pope, but that it refers--though this is not
+expressly stated--to the personal, absolute and exclusive infallibility of
+the Pope. On the former kind of infallibility--that of the Church--complete
+harmony prevails among us, and there is therefore no ground for any
+discussion, whence it follows that it is the second kind of infallibility
+which is in question here. To deny this would be to disguise and distort
+the doctrine and spirit of the _Schema_. And moreover, the Pope's personal
+infallibility is not maintained there as a mere opinion or commendable
+doctrine, but as a dogma of faith. Hitherto the opportuneness and
+admissibility of entertaining this question has been disputed at the
+Council; that dispute is now closed by the Pope's decision that the matter
+can no longer be passed over in silence, and we have now to consider
+whether it is or is not opportune to declare the personal infallibility of
+the Pope a dogma.
+
+To deal rightly with this subject and come to a decision, it is requisite
+that the formula or definition of the doctrine should be laid before us,
+that it should be proved by sure and unquestionable evidence, and finally,
+that it should be accepted with moral unanimity.
+
+There is the greatest difficulty in fixing the form or definition of the
+doctrine, as is shown by the example of those who first composed and then
+revised the _Schema_, and who seem to have expended much--perhaps
+fruitless--labour upon it; for they indulge in ambiguous expressions which
+open the door to endless controversies. What is meant by "exercising the
+office of the supreme teacher of Christendom"? What are the external
+conditions of its exercise? When is it certain that the Pope has exercised
+it? The compilers of the _Schema_ think of course that this is as clear
+as, _e.g._, the oecumenicity of a Council. But they thereby contradict
+themselves, for a Council is only then held oecumenical by the body of the
+faithful scattered over the world when the Bishops are morally unanimous,
+and therefore infallibility would still depend on the consent of the
+episcopate if the same principle is to be applied to papal decrees. The
+authors of the _Schema_ either eliminate this consent or they do not. In
+the former case they are introducing an innovation, and an innovation
+which is unprecedented and intolerable; in the latter case they are only
+expressing an old and universally received view and fighting a man of
+straw. But in no case can they pass over in silence the necessity or
+needlessness of the consent of the episcopate, for that would be to infuse
+doubts into the faithful and throw fresh difficulties in their way in a
+question of such vast importance and all that at present hinges on it.
+
+The compilers only define the subject-matter of papal infallibility by
+saying that it is identical with the infallibility of the Church. But that
+explanation is inadequate until the Council has defined the infallibility
+of the Church. Hence it is clearly a logical fallacy to prefix the
+_Schema_ on the Primacy to that on the Church. Of the infallibility of the
+Church we know that it always acts within the proper limits of its
+subject-matter, both because the common consent of the Bishops is
+necessary and because the Church is holy and cannot sin, while the
+compilers of this _Schema_ on papal infallibility on the one hand,
+according to their own statement, exclude the consent of the Bishops, and
+on the other hand have not undertaken to prove that every Pope is holy and
+cannot sin.(156)
+
+But if a form of definition was really discovered, it would have to be
+confirmed by solid and certain proofs. It would have to be shown that this
+doctrine of personal infallibility is contained in holy Scripture, as it
+has been always interpreted, and in the tradition of all centuries, that
+it has the moral assent not merely of some but of all Fathers, Doctors,
+Bishops and Theologians, and that it is in perfect harmony with all
+decisions and acts of the General Councils, and therefore with the decrees
+of the fourth and fifth sessions of the Council of Constance--for even
+supposing they were not oecumenical, which I do not admit, they would show
+the mind and common opinion of the theologians and Bishops.(157) It would
+further have to be proved that this doctrine is neither contradicted by
+historical facts nor by any acts of the Popes themselves, and lastly that
+it belongs to that class of truths which the Council and Pope in union can
+decide upon, as having been acknowledged for revealed truth always,
+everywhere and by all.
+
+All this our _Schema_ omits. But when the question is of defining a dogma,
+the Fathers must have sufficient evidence laid before them and time
+allowed them for weighing it. As it is, neither the original nor the
+revised draft of the _Schema_ supply such arguments as might illustrate
+the matter and clear up all doubts, and as little is sufficient time
+allowed--as is generally notorious--for unravelling this complicated
+question, solving its difficulties and acquiring the necessary information
+about it. In such a matter, where a burden is to be laid on the conscience
+of the faithful, a hasty decision pronounced without absolute certainty is
+dangerous, while there is no danger in a fuller discussion and in not
+deciding till it can be done with complete certainty of conscience.
+
+It would finally be necessary that the doctrine of the personal and
+independent infallibility of the Pope, after being clearly expressed and
+certainly proved, should be accepted by the Fathers with moral unanimity;
+for otherwise we must fear that the definition would be regarded as a
+papal constitution and not a decree of a Council.(158) It is a duty to
+impose a truth of faith on all Christians, but this difficult and sacred
+right can only be exercised by the Bishops with the greatest caution. And
+therefore the Fathers of Trent, as you all know, whatever sophistical
+objections may be raised, did not pass their decrees on dogmatic questions
+by numerical majorities, but with moral unanimity. I content myself now
+with referring to the perplexity of conscience among the faithful, which
+must arise from passing this dogma over the heads of the minority, and
+thus giving a handle for questioning the validity and authority of this
+Council.
+
+Two leading remarks may suffice on the practical consequences of the
+dogma, for the only object of bringing forward the personal infallibility
+as an article of faith is to make the unity of the Church more compact and
+the central authority stronger, and thus to supply an efficient remedy for
+all abuses.
+
+As regards unity and central authority, I must first make the general
+observation that they exist and must be preserved, not however in that
+shape which we may fancy or which approves itself to our reason, but as
+Jesus Christ our Lord ordained and as our fathers have maintained it. For
+it is no business of ours to arrange the Church according to our good
+pleasure and to alter the foundation of the work of God. The necessary
+unity in faith and that of the common central authority under fatherly
+guidance exists and has always existed among Catholics, or else one would
+have to say that there had been some essential defect in the Church of the
+past, which all will certainly deny.
+
+The unity of doctrine and Church communion and the central authority of
+the Pope remain then unshaken, as they always flourished and flourish
+still without any dogmatic definition of infallibility.
+
+Let it not be said that this unity will hereafter be closer when the
+central authority is stronger, for this inference is fallacious. Mere
+unity is not enough, but we must have that unity and that measure of it
+which the nature and scope of the thing, as well as the law and the
+necessity of life, demand. Else the thing itself might lamentably perish
+by being forced into too rigid an unity, from its inward vitality being
+cramped, disturbed and broken through the external pressure. Thus even in
+civil matters the unity of freemen, who act for themselves under the law,
+is indeed looser but more honourable than the unity of slaves tormented
+under an arbitrary tyranny. Permit us to retain that unity which belongs
+to us by the ordinance of Christ, and that means of unity--viz., the
+central authority of the Pope--which our forefathers acknowledged and
+honoured, who neither separated the Bishops from the Pope nor the Pope
+from the Bishops. Let us loyally hold fast to the ancient rule of faith
+and the statutes of the Fathers, and the more so since the proposed
+definition is open to many grave objections.
+
+And again we can hardly doubt that this expedient would be powerless for
+healing the evils of our time, and it must be feared would rather tend to
+the injury of many. The matter must not be regarded only from a
+theological standpoint, but also in its bearings on civil society. For we
+in this place are not mere head-sacristans or superiors of a monastery,
+but men called to share with the Pope his care for the whole Church; allow
+us therefore to take the state of the world into our prudent
+consideration.
+
+Will personal and independent infallibility serve to rouse from their
+grave those perished Churches on the African coast, or to wake the
+slumbers of the East, which once bloomed with such flowers of intellect
+and virtue? Will it be easier for our brethren, the Vicars-Apostolic, to
+bring the heathen, Mahometans, and schismatics to the Catholic faith, if
+they preach the doctrine of the Pope's sole infallibility? Or will the
+proposed definition perhaps infuse spirit and strength into Protestants
+and other heretics to return to the Roman Church and lay aside all
+prejudices and hatred against it? And now, first, for Europe! I say it
+with pain,--the Church is everywhere under ban. She is excluded from those
+congresses where nations discuss war and peace, and where once the
+authority of the Holy See was so powerful, whereas now it is bidden not
+even to proclaim its views. The Church is shut out in several European
+countries from the Chambers, and if some prelates or clergymen here and
+there belong to them, this appears a rare occurrence. The Church is shut
+out from the school, where grievous errors advance unchecked; from
+legislation, which manifests a secular and therefore irreligious tendency;
+and lastly, from the family, where civil marriage corrupts morals. All
+those who preside over the public affairs of Europe avoid us or hold us in
+check.
+
+And what sort of remedy do you offer the world, which is diseased with so
+many uncertainties about the Church? On all those who are seeking to shake
+off from their indocile shoulders even the burdens imposed on them from of
+old and reverently accepted by their fathers, you would now lay a new, and
+therefore difficult and odious, burden. All those who are of weak faith
+are to be crushed by a new and inopportune dogma, a doctrine never
+hitherto defined, and which, without any amends being made for the
+injurious manner of its introduction, is to be defined by a Council of
+which many say that its freedom is insufficiently attested. And yet you
+hope to remedy everything by this definition of personal and exclusive
+infallibility, to strengthen the faith and improve the morals of all. Your
+hopes are vain. The world either remains sick or perishes, not from
+ignorance of the truth and its teachers, but because it avoids it and will
+not accept its guidance. But if it now rejects the truth, when proclaimed
+by the whole teaching body of the Church, the 800 Bishops dispersed over
+the world and infallible in union with the Pope, how much more will it do
+so, when the truth is proclaimed by one single infallible teacher, who has
+only just been declared infallible? For an authority to be strong and
+effective, it is not enough for it to be claimed; it must also be
+accepted. And thus it is not enough to declare that the Pope is
+infallible, personally and apart from the Bishops, but he must be
+acknowledged as such by all, if his office is to be a reality. What is the
+use, _e.g._, of an anathema, if the authority which pronounces it is not
+respected? The Syllabus circulated through Europe, but what evils could it
+cure even where it was received as an infallible oracle? There were only
+two large countries where religion ruled, not in fact but _de
+jure_--Austria and Spain. In both of them this Catholic order fell to the
+ground though commanded by the infallible authority; perhaps indeed in
+Austria on that very account.
+
+Let us take things as they are. Not only will the independent
+infallibility of the Pope not destroy these prejudices and objections
+which draw away so many from the faith, but it will increase and intensify
+them. There are many who in heart are not alienated from the Catholic
+Church, but who yet think of what they term a separation of Church and
+State. It is certain that several of the leaders of public opinion are on
+this side, and will take occasion from the proposed definition to effect
+their object. The example of France will soon be copied more or less all
+over Europe, and to the greatest injury of the clergy and the Church
+herself. The compilers of the _Schema_, whether they desire it or not, are
+introducing a new era of mischief, if the subject-matter of papal
+infallibility is not accurately defined, or if it can be supposed that
+under the head of morals the Pope will give decisions on the civil and
+political acts of sovereigns and nations, laws and rights, to which a
+public authority will be attributed.(159) Every one of any political
+cultivation knows what seeds of discord are contained in our _Schema_, and
+to what perils it exposes even the temporal power of the Holy See.
+
+To explain this more minutely in detail would take too long and might be
+indiscreet, for were I to say all, I might easily bring forward things it
+is more prudent to suppress. However, I have delivered my conscience, so
+far as is allowed me, and so let my words be taken in good part. I know
+well that everything in the world has its difficulties, and one must not
+always shrink from action because greater evil may follow. But I put the
+matter before the reverend fathers, not that they may instantly conform to
+my opinion, but in order that they may give a full and ripe consideration
+to the arguments of all parties. I know too that we must not childishly
+quail before public opinion, but neither should we obstinately resist it;
+it is wiser and more prudent often to reconcile one's-self with it, and in
+every case to take it into account. I know, lastly, that the Church needs
+no arm of flesh, yet she does not reject the approval and aid of civil
+society, and did not, I think, look back with regret from the time of
+Constantine to the time of Nero. So much for the practical consequences of
+the _Schema_.
+
+Finally, my desire is (1.) that the _Schema_ should be deferred for a
+later discussion, because it has not been introduced into the Council in a
+sufficiently worthy manner; (2.) that it should meanwhile be revised, and
+the limits of infallibility more accurately marked out, so as to leave no
+handle for future sophistries and attacks; (3.) but, best of all, that the
+question of infallibility should be let drop altogether on account of its
+manifold inconveniences.
+
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX II.
+
+
+LETTERS ON THE COUNCIL FROM FRENCH BISHOPS.(160)
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+Votre judicieuse dissertation est pleine de sens et de la meilleure
+critique; mais c'est bien de cela qu'il s'agit aujourd'hui! On veut se
+tromper et tromper; le reste importe peu. Ce qui importe le plus, ce qui
+nous sauvera, je l'espere, mieux que toutes discussions avec des gens de
+mauvaise foi ou de parti pris, c'est d'etablir des bases incontestables et
+de faire que la saine opinion publique soutienne les vrais interets de
+l'Eglise.
+
+1. Le Gallicanisme n'est pas une doctrine, pas meme une opinion, c'est une
+simple negation de pretentions nees au onzieme siecle, et une resistance a
+ces pretentions, au nom de la tradition ancienne et constante des Eglises.
+L'ultramontanisme, au contraire, est une doctrine, une opinion qui est
+venue s'entre sur le vieux tronc et qui a pousse des jets de croyances
+positives. Muselee au Concile de Florence, ecartee au Concile de Trente,
+cette opinion reparait furieuse au Concile du Vatican.
+
+2. Le Gallicanisme est improprement nomme. Son _veto_ appartient a toutes
+les nations Catholiques. L'Espagne en soutenait la force antique, Saint
+Francois de Sales en vengeait les droits au nom des privileges de la
+maison de Savoie, et aujourd'hui, nous autres Francais, nous l'avons
+trouve faible chez nous, en comparaison de sa vitalite en Allemagne, en
+Autriche, en Hongrie, en Portugal, en Amerique, et jusqu'au fond de
+l'Orient.
+
+3. Notre faiblesse, en ce moment, ne vient ni des Ecritures, ni de la
+tradition des Peres, ni des monumens des Conciles Generaux et de
+l'histoire. Elle vient de notre defaut de liberte, qui est radical. Une
+minorite imposante qui represente la foi de plus de 100 millions de
+Catholiques, c'est-a-dire de presque la moitie de l'Eglise universelle,
+est ecrasee par le joug impose de reglemens restrictifs et contraires aux
+traditions conciliaires. Par des deputations que nous n'avons pas
+reellement choisies et qui osent introduire dans le texte discute des
+paragraphes non discutes, par une commission pour les interpellations
+imposee par l'autorite; par le defaut absolu de discussion, replique,
+objection, interpellation; par des journaux que l'on encourage pour la
+traquer, pour soulever contre elle le clerge des dioceses; par les
+nonciatures qui viennent a la rescousse, quand les journaux ne suffisent
+pas pour tout bouleverser, c'est-a-dire pour eriger en temoins de la foi
+les pretres contre les eveques, et ne plus laisser a ces juges divins que
+le role de deputes du clerge secondaire avec mandat imperatif, et blame si
+on ne repond pas au mandat. La minorite est ecrasee surtout par tout le
+poids de la supreme autorite qui fait peser sur elle les eloges et
+encouragemens qu'elle adresse, _par brefs_, aux pretres, et par toutes les
+manifestations a Dom Gueranger contre M. de Montalembert et autres.
+
+4. La majorite n'est pas libre; car elle se produit par un appoint
+considerable de prelats qui ne sauraient etre temoins de la foi d'Eglises
+naissantes ou mourantes. Or, cet appoint, qui se compose du chiffre enorme
+de tous les vicaires apostoliques, du chiffre relativement trop fort des
+eveques Italiens et des Etats Pontificaux, cet appoint n'est pas libre.
+C'est une armee toute faite, toute acquise, endoctrinee, enregimentee,
+disciplinee, que l'on menace, si elle bronche, de la famine ou de la
+_disponibilite_, et l'on a ete jusqu'a donner de l'argent pour ramener
+quelques transfuges. Donc, il est evident qu'il n'y a pas de liberte
+suffisante.--La conclusion ulterieure est qu'il n'y a pas _oecumenicite
+nette et plausible_. Et ceci n'infirme en rien les vrais principes:
+l'Eglise est et reste infaillible dans les Conciles Generaux; seulement il
+faut que les conciles presentent tous les caracteres d'oecumenicite;
+convocation legitime, liberte pleine pour les jugemens, confirmation par
+le Pape. Si une seule de ces conditions manque, tout peut etre revoque en
+doute. On a eu le Brigandage d'Ephese, ce qui n'a pas empeche d'avoir eu
+ensuite un vrai Concile de ce nom. On pourrait avoir _Ludibrium
+Vaticanum_; ce qui n'empecherait pas de tout reparer dans de nouvelles et
+serieuses assises....
+
+Vous pourrez repandre ces reflexions, je crois que le grand remede
+aujourd'hui nous doit venir du dehors ...
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+Je n'ai point parle une seule fois, je ne parlerai pas davantage dans la
+suite. Je n'aime ni les gens qui posent, ni les choses completement
+inutiles. _J'agis_ depuis quatre mois, et je crois avoir rendu quelques
+services par ce moyen qui en depit de toutes les entraves, nous a donne
+trois representations, une commission internationale, des commissions de
+nations et 137 signataires(161) qui succomberont avec honneur et horions,
+si l'on continue a nous traiter aussi mal.
+
+Je crois inutiles tous efforts pour resister a l'aveuglement de l'orgueil
+moyen-age, toutes Notes diplomatiques, toutes menaces qui ne sauraient
+aboutir, et dont je deplorerais le premier l'execution, si elle etait
+possible. Le remede n'est pas la; on se jouera de tout, et on ira
+triomphalement aux abimes.
+
+Quand on a affaire a des gens qui ne craignent qu'une chose, il faut se
+servir de cette chose,--c'est-a-dire de l'opinion publique.
+
+Il faut par ce moyen etablir ce qui est vrai--point d'autorite parceque
+point de liberte. Le defaut de liberte. Le defaut de liberte, gros comme
+des montagnes, creve les yeux; il repose sur des faits notoires,
+appreciables pour tous, et sa constatation publique est la seule planche
+de salut dans la tourmente inouie que subit l'Eglise.
+
+A notre arrivee, tout etait fait sans nous. Toutes les mailles du reseau
+etaient serrees, et les jesuites qui out monte le traquenard ne doutaient
+pas un instant que nous y serions pris. Ils voulaient nous faire poser par
+enchantement la pierre angulaire de leur fronton, et se seraient charges
+ensuite, sans nous, de batir le portail de leur edifice en un clin d'oeil.
+
+Nous avons donc trouve un reglement tout fait,--c'est-a-dire des menottes.
+Pour faire droit a nos plaintes, on a serre de plus belle, et nous
+jouissons de l'ancien brodequin que Louis XVI. a supprime. Pour etre vrai,
+il faut dire que les tourmenteurs out fait la chose avec toute la grace
+imaginable. Nous avons trouve une majorite toute faite, tres compacte,
+plus que suffisante en nombre, parfaitement disciplinee et qui a recu au
+besoin instructions, injonctions, menaces, prison, argent. Le systeme des
+candidatures officielles est distance de 100 kilometres.
+
+Une commission, la plus utile, celle ou l'on peut adresser ses
+reclamations, a ete creee et imposee d'office.
+
+Mais il faut dire a sa louange qu'elle ne fonctionne pas, parce qu'elle ne
+repond jamais ou qu'elle ne repond qu'aux membres de la majorite. Nous
+avons ete libres de nommer les autres commissions, c'est-a-dire que la
+majorite fictive a pu les creer a l'aide de listes dressees et
+lithographiees.
+
+Restait la parole; mais a quelles conditions? Defense de repliquer un mot,
+de discuter, d'eclairer. Si on voulait parler, il fallait se faire
+inscrire, et le lendemain, ou deux jours apres, quand tout etait refroidi,
+on pouvait venir ennuyer l'assemblee par un discours. Defense alors de
+sortir du theme donne aux ecoliers (excepte pour MM. de la majorite) et
+quand on a tente de parler de liberte, de reglement, de commission,
+d'acoustique, de decentralisation, de desitalianisation, on a vu se
+produire les scenes tumultueuses qui ont demoli les Cardinaux Rauscher et
+Schwarzenberg, les Eveques de Colocza, de Bosnie, d'Halifax, tandis qu'on
+trouvait bon que Moulins, Belley et d'autres introduisissent de force la
+grande question a propos de la vie des clercs.
+
+La pauvre petite minorite est en butte aux injures, aux calomnies, et
+traquee par la _Civilta_, _l'Univers_, _le Monde_, _l'Union_,
+_l'Osservatore_ et _la Correspondance de Rome_. Ces journaux sont
+autorises et encourages. Ils soulevent contre nous le clerge de nos
+dioceses, et ce clerge applaudi. Un de nous a ose ecrire contre son
+collegue, est il n'a pas recu un blame officiel.
+
+Mais voici ce qui acheve d'opprimer notre liberte: elle est ecrasee de
+tout le poids du respect que nous portons a notre chef.
+
+La question est pendante; elle n'est pas meme a l'ordre du jour, les juges
+de droit divin sont reunis et attendent pour la traiter. Or, en pleines
+assises, le chef se sert de sa haute et divine autorite pour blamer devant
+les pretres qui lui sont presentes _leurs_ eveques _mineurs_. Il fait
+l'eloge funebre de M. de Montalembert devant 400 personnes; il ecrit a Dom
+Gueranger, a l'Abbe de Cabrieres de Nimes, qui s'est dresse devant
+l'Eveque d'Orleans, aux dioceses dont les pretres font des Adresses pour
+forcer la main a _leurs mandataires_; et il fait tout cela en termes tels
+que _la Gazette du Midi_ et _tutti quanti_ declarent qu'il n'est plus
+permis ni aux eveques ni a personne de soutenir le contraire; et on
+appelle cela de la liberte!
+
+On nous menace de passer par-dessus une minorite imposante, contrairement
+a toute la tradition, de fouler aux pieds la regle supreme de saint
+Vincent de Lerins: _Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus_. On preche
+que l'unanimite morale n'est pas necessaire, que le chef est maitre de
+tout, et que nous devons rendre des services et non point des sentences,
+faire de l'affection quand il s'agit de la foi. Voila notre liberte! Un
+Cardinal me disait pour conclusion: "Mon cher, nous allons aux abimes."
+
+Tout cela est capable d'ebranler les faibles, de desagreger ce qui tient a
+si peu.
+
+Je crois vous avoir peint la position ce qu'elle est. Priez pour nous,
+faites valoir la chose, parce qu'elle est _vraie_, parce que je crois
+servir l'Eglise en vous la revelant.
+
+Apres mes souffrances de cet hiver, je ne pense pas pouvoir affronter les
+chaleurs.... D'ailleurs, Dieu seul peut nous sauver.
+
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX III.
+
+
+DIFFICULTES DE LA SITUATION A ROME.(162)
+
+
+
+
+I.
+
+
+La question de l'infaillibilite pontificale, devenue, contre l'attente
+universelle, l'objet capital du Concile du Vatican depuis son ouverture,
+ne semble pas toucher encore a une solution immediate. Cette grave
+question qui devait, au dire de certains hommes, etre definie par
+acclamation des les premieres seances du Concile, puis le jour de
+l'Epiphanie, puis, apres de courts debats, pour la fete de Saint Joseph ou
+le 25 Mars jour de l'Annonciation; differee de jour en jour a raison des
+enormes difficultes qu'elle rencontre, a la grande surprise des partisans
+de l'infaillibilite, doit enfin, nous dit-on, etre, sans nouveau delai,
+resolue solennellement le 29 Juin, jour de la fete du Prince des Apotres.
+Si telle est veritablement la pensee des Presidents du Concile, il semble
+difficile qu'elle puisse se realiser. Quelques jours seulement nous
+separent de cette solennite, et pres de cent orateurs sont inscrits pour
+traiter cette question devant le Concile. Dans cette situation, il faut
+qu'on choisisse entre trois partis: ou supprimer toute discussion, ou
+proroger le Concile, ou exiger qu'il poursuive ses travaux jusqu'a ce
+qu'enfin toutes les difficultes soient pleinement eclaircies, et que tous
+les Peres puissent donner leur suffrage en parfaite connaissance de cause.
+
+Supprimer, ou du moins restreindre la discussion de telle sorte que la
+conscience d'un nombre considerable de Peres qui sentent vivement toute la
+gravite de la question et les difficultes de tout genre dont elle est
+herissee, ne soit pas pleinement satisfaite, ce serait violer toutes les
+regles des deliberations conciliares que nous voyons de siecle en siecle
+pratiquees avec la liberte et la maturite la plus complete. Rien ne
+saurait dispenser d'un examen approfondi, lorsqu'il s'agit d'imposer un
+dogme nouveau a la croyance des fideles; et, au dire des theologiens,
+toute definition rendue sans une discussion prealable qui porte jusqu'a
+l'evidence le caractere de doctrine revelee dans le point mis en
+deliberation, demeure par cela meme frappee de nullite. Il suffit de
+parcourir rapidement les actes des Conciles OEcumeniques pour se convaincre
+des patientes recherches, de la sage lenteur qu'ils out apportees a leurs
+deliberations; et il est incontestable que les questions a resoudre dans
+ces grandes assemblees etaient loin de presenter les difficultes qui se
+rencontrent dans celle qui s'agite en ce moment. Le monde Chretien
+n'ignore pas cela, et il ne verrait pas d'un oeil indifferent un jugement
+solennel, en une matiere qui touche a la constitution meme de l'Eglise,
+prononce a la hate et par un coup de majorite.
+
+Sans doute ceux qui tiennent dans leurs mains la direction du Concile, se
+persuadent que la question est depuis longtemps assez discutee pour qu'on
+sache a quoi s'en tenir sans de plus amples recherches; et, parce qu'a
+leurs yeux l'infaillibilite du Pape est une verite, ils regardent toute
+nouvelle discussion comme une pure formalite que rien ne commande
+imperieusement. Mais par cela meme que la question est discutee depuis
+plusieurs siecles, et que l'on discute encore avec science, erudition et
+bonne foi, il faut conclure evidemment que la lumiere n'est pas encore
+faite a ce point qu'on puisse dire que telle est incontestablement la
+tradition antique et universelle.
+
+Si a leurs yeux l'infaillibilite du Pape est une verite certainement
+revelee, et qu'ils tiennent a precipiter la definition par egard pour
+certaines impatiences, ils ont un moyen bien simple de les satisfaire,
+sans commettre une violation des lois conciliaires. Dans le systeme
+ultramontain, le Pape etant infaillible, et, du consentement de tous les
+catholiques, l'Eglise universelle ne pouvant jamais accepter l'erreur et y
+adherer, toute definition _ex cathedra_ sera immanquablement suivie de
+l'assentiment de tout le corps de l'Eglise. Pie IX., assure-t-on, est
+profondement convaincu de son infaillibilite comme Pontife supreme. Eh
+bien! de deux choses l'une: ou il faut que le concile agisse en concile,
+et par consequent avec circonspection, pesant avec une attention
+scrupuleuse les raisons graves, les faits, les textes allegues de part et
+d'autre; ou le Pape, en vertu de son autorite apostolique, par un acte des
+plus solennels, doit trancher toutes les difficultes et definir lui-meme
+le dogme de cette infaillibilite qu'il croit etre un apanage essentiel de
+la dignite supreme dont il est revetu. Pourquoi ne pas tenter cette
+experience? Si l'Eglise adhere a sa decision, son infaillibilite est tres
+canoniquement etablie: si elle n'adhere pas, il est evident qu'il ne peut
+pretendre a ce privilege. La question est alors definitivement etablie, et
+toute dispute cesse. Jusqu'ici, aucune decision nette, precise et
+solennelle sur ce point n'a ete donnee; hesiter sur l'emploi de ce moyen,
+ne serait-ce pas douter de cette infaillibilite? Et si, en l'ecartant on
+veut que le Concile prenne lui-meme la responsabilite d'une definition
+dogmatique, il est alors de toute convenance, de toute justice, de toute
+necessite qu'il ne prononce qu'apres l'examen le plus approfondi.
+
+L'etat des esprits dans le Concile et hors du Concile, les discours
+prononces, les ecrits nombreux publies de part et d'autre, prouvent
+evidemment, aux yeux de quiconque juge sans parti pris et avec une
+parfaite impartialite, que la question, depuis 1682, pour ne pas remonter
+plus haut, n'a pas encore fait un seul pas; elle en est toujours au meme
+point. L'etude la plus attentive de la Tradition n'a pas donne de
+nouvelles lumieres a ceux qui sont capables de ces etudes, et sans doute
+l'etat de la question dans cette sphere merite une attention tout
+exceptionnelle, et bien differente de celle que pretend attirer sur soi un
+enthousiasme factice ou irreflechi.
+
+
+
+
+II.
+
+
+La prorogation du Concile serait done la mesure la plus rationelle et la
+plus prudente. Mais les impatiences provoquees, enflammees de plus en plus
+par toute sorte de manoeuvres, comment les contenir? Ces feuilles, ces
+ecrits, cette propagande pieuse, qui les excitaient par la promesse d'une
+satisfaction prochaine, tout cela ne va-t-il pas devenir l'objet d'un
+mepris universel, pour avoir leurre si longtemps les ames honnetes et
+religieuses d'une esperance si lente a se realiser? Mais que faire! Telle
+est la difficulte de la situation qu'on a si imprudemment creee. S'il faut
+que le Concile decide, il ne reste plus qu'a le proroger, pour qu'il
+puisse un peu plus tard reprendre ses travaux avec toute la patience et la
+liberte d'esprit qu'ils reclament: ou bien il faut qu'il les poursuive
+actuellement sans desemparer, jusqu'a ce qu'enfin tout soit mur pour le
+jugement a prononcer.
+
+Mais ici deux tristes reflexions se presentent a l'esprit. D'abord, quelle
+rigueur,--le mot n'est pas excessif, et on l'a entendu sortir de la bouche
+de bonnes femmes Romaines, au moment ou les venerables Peres faisaient
+cortege au Sauveur du monde porte en triomphe a la procession solennelle
+de la Fete-Dieu;--quelle rigueur ne serait-ce pas de retenir plus
+longtemps, dans cette saison de chaleurs accablantes, sous un climat que
+les Romains eux-memes se hatent de fuir a cette epoque de l'annee, des
+vieillards epuises par l'age, par les infirmites, par les fatigues de tout
+genre, fatigues du corps, fatigues de l'esprit, angoisses de l'ame en
+presence des plus terribles dangers pour leurs troupeaux particuliers,
+pour l'Eglise universelle, pour la societe tout entiere; des vieillards
+qui sentent le poids enorme de cette responsabilite, qui entendent tous
+les jours la voix de l'opinion publique, et la voix plus puissante et plus
+penetrante de la religion alarmee; des vieillards, parmi lesquels
+plusieurs ont deja succombe, plusieurs autres sont atteints de maladie,
+tous sont prives de l'air vivifiant du pays natal, des soins particuliers
+que ne sauraient donner des mains etrangeres, des consolations qu'un
+pasteur fidele trouve toujours au milieu d'un peuple qui l'aime.
+
+Les seances en Congregation Generale, continuees presque tous les jours
+sans interruption, durent, depuis huit heures et demie du matin jusqu'a
+une heure de l'apres-midi. Le devoir de la priere, la recitation de
+l'office canonial, la meditation des matieres a discuter, la preparation
+des discours a prononcer, rien de tout cela ne peut etre suspendu. Des
+jeunes gens robustes ne resisteraient pas longtemps a ce travail si
+multiplie, si continu, a l'effort d'une attention soutenue pendant les
+longues heures des seances conciliaires sur des questions qui ne pesent
+pas uniquement sur la pensee, mais aussi et plus encore sur la conscience,
+et enfin a l'action accablante des fortes chaleurs, dont l'intensite, par
+l'agglomeration de six cents prelats, redouble sans mesure dans une salle
+d'ailleurs extremement incommode sous tous les rapports. On entend les
+plus vigoureux de corps et d'esprit declarer qu'ils sont a bout de forces.
+Et l'on persisterait encore a les retenir!
+
+Mais il y aurait encore la quelque chose de plus grave. Retenir les
+eveques jusqu'a ce qu'une definition de l'infaillibilite pontificale ait
+pu etre rendue apres une discussion parfaitement libre, et aussi longue
+qu'on doit l'augurer du nombre des orateurs inscrits et des questions
+graves et nombreuses qui se rattachent a cette definition, c'est leur
+dire: eveques, il faut vous resoudre a mourir ou a bacler en toute hate un
+jugement duquel dependent les destinees de l'Eglise et du monde. Oui,
+mourez, accablees par l'ennui, la fatigue, le climat devorant, l'age et
+les infirmites; ou, si vous tenez a vivre encore, foulez aux pieds les
+regles les plus sacrees des conciles, sacrifiez votre conscience, et avec
+la votre celle de plusieurs millions d'ames!
+
+Sous le rapport de la liberte de discussion, bien des choses dans le
+Concile du Vatican ne ressemblent pas aux anciens Conciles Generaux,
+toujours veneres dans l'Eglise. Au dedans, au dehors, un parti a exerce
+sur les Peres une pression toujours croissante. Au dedans, des reglements
+mal faits, des interruptions sans cause, dont le resultat inevitable etait
+de decourager les hommes les plus fermes, et d'empecher ou d'affaiblir la
+manifestation de la verite; une certaine fraction de l'assemblee,
+turbulente, impetueuse, arretant par des murmures les prelats les plus
+venerables dont la doctrine ne se pliait pas a ses idees; les presidents
+fermant les yeux sur ces faits et n'ayant de severites que pour les
+adversaires de l'infaillibilite; la discussion brusquement arretee au gre
+de ceux qu'elle deconcertait. Au dehors, des journalistes qui ne cessaient
+de prodiguer l'insulte aux eveques contraires a leurs opinions.
+
+Rome est tout emue d'un fait recent concernant l'un des membres les plus
+eminents du Concile, le Cardinal Guidi, Archeveque de Bologne,
+precedemment religieux Dominicain, et tres celebre professeur de theologie
+dans la capitale du monde Chretien. Il avait parle dans le Concile sur la
+question de l'infaillibilite, exigeant pour celle des definitions
+pontificales le concours de l'episcopat. Le jour meme, il est mande et
+admoneste du ton le plus severe. "Saint-Pere, a repondu le cardinal, j'ai
+dit aujourd'hui ce que j'ai enseigne au grand jour pendant plusieurs
+annees a votre college de la Minerve, sans que jamais personne ait trouve
+cet enseignement reprehensible. L'orthodoxie de mon enseignement avait du
+etre attestee a votre Saintete lorsqu'elle daigna me choisir pour aller a
+Vienne combattre certains docteurs allemands dont les principes
+ebranlaient les fondements de la foi catholique. Que mon discours
+d'aujourd'hui soit soumis a l'examen d'une commission de theologiens; je
+ne redoute pas ce jugement." Des paroles menacantes pour le cardinal ont
+termine cet entretien. Le matin, apres la seance, un prelat domestique
+disait dans la salle meme du Concile: apres un pareil discours, le
+cardinal devrait etre enferme pendant dix jours dans un couvent pour y
+vaquer aux exercices spirituels.
+
+La puissance absolue du Pape, son opinion visible, le pouvoir arbitraire
+qu'exercent les presidents, la petulance de certains prelats, trop
+notoirement passionnes et violents; tout cela pese sensiblement sur les
+membres les plus sages de l'assemblee qui ne peuvent s'empecher de s'en
+plaindre avec tristesse dans des entretiens intimes. Faut-il s'etonner que
+plusieurs, le fait est tres certain, expriment le desir d'un vote secret,
+s'il etait possible?
+
+C'est avec une douleur profonde que nous racontons toutes ces choses. Mais
+la situation de l'Eglise en ce moment est telle qu'on ne peut se dispenser
+de parler. Au Concile du Vatican se traite une question de l'ordre le plus
+eleve Chacun a le droit de savoir comment est conduit ce grand proces, qui
+est le proces de tous. Il s'agit de la paix du monde, il s'agit aussi de
+choses qui sont au-dessus de tous les interets perissables, de la foi, de
+la conscience et du salut eternel des ames.
+
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX IV.
+
+
+LETTER OF A FRENCH BISHOP TO COUNT DARU.
+
+On sait a Rome que vous aviez l'intention de rediger une note ou un
+memorandum qui devrait etre appuye par les puissances.
+
+Si vous agissez, vous serez appuyes. Ici les diplomates se plaignent de
+votre inaction.
+
+Mais il faut agir immediatement, on veut introduire l'infaillibilite apres
+Paques.
+
+Vous ne pouvez rien faire par le M. de Banneville. Ses collegues ne le
+comptent pour rien, sinon pour un obstacle.
+
+Il ne faut pas vous mettre exclusivement sur le terrain des canons des
+Ecclesia. On vous repondrait, soit en supprimant les Canons auxquels vous
+vous opposez; soit en disant que cela ne vous touche pas, a cause du
+concordat; soit, enfin, en les expliquant dans un sens qui vous paraitra
+satisfaisant, quitte a decreter apres tous les Canons, tous les Syllabus
+qu'ils voudront, et les plus formidables. Mais il y a un terrain ou vous
+etes invincibles, et sur lequel les puissances vous suivent. C'est celui
+de la liberte du Concile et du droit publique de l'Eglise, sous la
+protection duquel vos eveques sont venus a Rome.
+
+Cette liberte n'existe plus. Ce droit est viole sur un point que plus de
+100 eveques ont declare de la derniere importance.
+
+Leur protestation vous donne un point de depart et des arguments
+invincibles.
+
+Ces eveques declarent que le Reglement est contraire a la loi de l'Eglise
+sur le point decisif de la Majorite. Car ce droit, depuis Nicee jusqu'a
+Trente, declare que la regle indisputable et certaine pour les definitions
+dogmatiques c'est l'unanimite morale, et non la majorite.
+
+Un nombre immense de faits confirme leur protestation:
+
+Les scenes de violence faites a Haynald et a Strossmayer.--Les Presidents
+n'ont pas cherche a proteger leur droit et liberte de parole, tout au
+contraire.
+
+La precipitation de la discussion par les Presidents.
+
+Le Schema de Fide, 4 chapitres, 20 pages, canons avec anathemes, a ete
+distribue 24 heures seulement avant l'ouverture de la discussion, on a
+vote sur 47 amendements en 5 quarts d'heure.
+
+Le lendemain de la scene avec Strossmayer, on a lu un _Monitum_, non pas
+pour admoneter les interrupteurs, mais pour recommander aux orateurs de se
+presser, de peur qu'ils n'ennuyent l'assemblee, et n'en provoquent des
+manifestations.
+
+Ce _Monitum_ est une provocation aux interruptions. Quelquefois un eveque
+est recu avec des murmures avant de commencer.
+
+Les demandes de la Minorite:
+
+D'une salle ou on puisse les entendre.
+
+De bureaux, pour les discussions preliminaires, qui enverraient des
+Commissaires a la Deputation.
+
+De la liberte d'imprimer leurs discours et memoires pour les distribuer
+parmi les peres.
+
+Que les auteurs d'amendements puissent les expliquer et les defendre dans
+la Commission, et puissent avoir le droit de repondre dans les
+discussions.
+
+D'un proces-verbal des seances.
+
+Sur la majorite et l'unanimite.
+
+Toutes ces demandes sont restees sans reponse et sans effet.
+
+La pression exercee sur les Orientaux.
+
+La scene faite au Patriarche Chaldeen.
+
+L'emprisonnement intime a l'Archeveque d'Antioche et au chef de sa
+communaute.
+
+L'arrestation et les coups donnes au pretre, secretaire de l'Arch. de
+Diarbelair.
+
+Les menaces aux Melchites, Maronites, et Chaldeens.
+
+Le langage tenu par le pape lui meme. Les cas de Montalembert et de
+Falloux.
+
+Les lettres du pape a Gueranger, Cabrieres, etc., traitant les Eveques de
+l'Opposition en ennemis.
+
+Les allocutions publiques roulant presque toutes sur l'Infaillibilite.
+
+Les cadeaux faits aux Vicaires Apostoliques en les priant de ne pas
+l'abandonner.
+
+Attitude de la presse approuvee par le Vatican, exploitant ces lettres, et
+appelant les eveques a se retracter, en les denoncant a leur clerge.
+
+Meme le journal officiel de Rome traitant la minorite d'allies des
+Franc-macons. Apres tout cela, il n'y a pas de liberte au Concile.
+
+L'ambassadeur que vous enverrez en recevra des preuves peremptoires. Les
+autres puissances sont deja plus avancees que la France: la Prusse, la
+Hongrie, meme la Turquie.
+
+A nom de l'ordre publique menace par l'inevitable refus de reconnaitre ce
+Concile. Au nom de votre droit, ayant rendu possible la reunion du
+Concile, de proteger la liberte de vos eveques.
+
+Dire--
+
+"Ce Concile ne peut pas continuer dans les conditions actuelles.
+
+"Nous protestons des a present contre la Non-liberte manifeste du Concile.
+
+"Achevez ce que vous avez deja commence.
+
+"Il y a des points sur lesquels vous pouvez esperer l'unanimite morale,
+sans violation de liberte.
+
+"Tenez une session publique sur les _Schema de Fide_ et de Discipline
+assez pour sauver votre honneur.
+
+"Et prorogez une assemblee qui, aux yeux des eveques et du monde, ne
+possede plus ces conditions d'ordre et de liberte sans lesquelles ce n'est
+pas un Concile.
+
+"Nous desirons que nos eveques retournent dans leurs dioceses jusqu'a ce
+que les conditions soient plus favorables pour la celebration d'un
+Concile."
+
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX V.
+
+
+PROTESTATION CONTRE LE PROJET DE PRECIPITER LA DISCUSSION.
+
+(_Presented early in May._)
+
+Permettez, Monseigneur, que je proteste ici contre un tel projet, s'il
+existe, et que je consigne entre vos mains ma protestation. Saisir ainsi,
+irregulierement et violemment, le Concile de cette question, c'est
+absolument impossible.
+
+Cette discussion immediate de l'Infaillibilite Pontificale, avant toutes
+les autres questions qui la doivent necessairement preceder, ce
+renversement de l'ordre et de la marche reguliere du Concile, cette
+precipitation passionnee dans l'affaire la plus delicate, et qui par sa
+nature et ses difficultes, exige le plus de maturite et de calme, tout
+cela serait non seulement illogique et absurde, inconcevable, mais encore
+trahirait trop ouvertement aux yeux du monde entier, chez ceux qui
+imaginent de tels procedes, le dessein de peser sur le Concile, et pour
+dire le vrai mot, serait absolument contraire a la liberte des eveques.
+
+Comment une telle question, sous-introduite tout a coup dans un chapitre
+annexe a un grand _Schema_, le dessein de ceux qui nous ont ete soumis,
+passerait avant tous les schemata deja etudies, avant toutes les autres
+questions deja discutees, et non encore resolues par le Concile.
+
+Des questions fondamentales, essentiellement preliminaires a toutes les
+autres; Dieu, sa personnalite, sa providence, Jesus-Christ, sa divinite,
+sa redemption, sa grace, l'Eglise, on laisserait tout cela de cote pour se
+precipiter sur cette question, dont nous n'avions entendu parler avant le
+Concile presque qu'a des Journalistes, dont la bulle de convocation ne
+parlait pas, dont le _Schema_ sur l'Eglise lui-meme ne disait pas un seul
+mot.
+
+Et l'examen de cette nouvelle question, si compliquee, cette discussion,
+si necessaire, cette definition si grave, tout cela se ferait a la hate,
+violemment, au pied leve. On ne nous laisserait ni le temps ni la liberte
+d'etudier un point si important de doctrine avec gravite et a fond, comme
+il doit l'etre. Car aucun eveque ne peut, sans blesser gravement sa
+conscience, declarer de foi, sous peine de damnation eternelle, un point
+de doctrine de la revelation duquel il n'est pas absolument certain. Ce
+serait, Monseigneur, dans le monde entier, une stupeur et un scandale. Ce
+serait de plus autoriser trop manifestement les calomnies de ceux qui
+disent que dans la convocation du Concile, il y a eu une arriere pensee,
+et que cette question qui n'etait pas l'objet du Concile, au fond devait
+etre tout le Concile. Ceux qui poussent a de tels exces oublient
+clairement toute prudence: il y a un bon sens et une bonne foi publique
+qu'on ne blesse pas impunement.
+
+Sans doute on peut passer par dessus toutes les recriminations des ennemis
+de l'Eglise; mais il y a des difficultes avec lesquelles il faut
+necessairement compter. Eh bien! Eminence, si les choses venaient a se
+passer de la sorte, je le dis avec toute la conviction de mon ame, il y
+aurait lieu de craindre que des doutes graves ne s'elevent touchant la
+verite meme et la liberte de ce Concile du Vatican.
+
+Que les choses se passent ainsi, on le peut, si on le veut: on peut tout,
+contre la raison et le droit, avec la force du nombre.
+
+Mais c'est lendemain, Eminence, que commenceraient pour vous et pour
+l'Eglise les difficultes.
+
+Par un procede aussi contraire a l'ordre regulier des choses, a la marche
+essentielle des assemblees d'eveques qui ont ete de vrais Conciles, vous
+susciteriez incontestablement une lutte dans l'Eglise et les consciences
+sur la question de l'issue oecumenique de notre assemblee: c'est a dire,
+tout ce qu'on peut imaginer aujourd'hui de plus desastreux.
+
+Ceux qui essayent d'engager le Pape dans cette voie, en l'abusant et le
+trompant, sont bien coupables. Mais je ne doute pas que la sagesse du
+Saint-Pere ne dejoue toutes ces menees.
+
+
+
+
+
+ADVERTISEMENT.
+
+
+Third Edition, Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d.
+
+_The Pope and the Council._
+
+By Janus.
+
+_Authorized Translation From The German._
+
+Opinions of the Press.
+
+"Had the book been, as its title might at first seem to imply, merely a
+Zeitschrift evoked by the exigencies of the present controversy, we should
+not have noticed it here. It is because it has an independent and
+permanent interest for the historical and theological student, quite apart
+from its bearing on the controversies of the day, and contains a great
+deal of what, to the immense majority of English, if not also of German
+readers, will be entirely new matter, grouped round a common centre-point
+which gives unity and coherence to the whole, that it falls strictly
+within the province of this journal."--ACADEMY, _October 9_.
+
+"In this volume the main idea of the writers, the long fatal growth of the
+principles which are now about to develop into the dogma of the Pope's
+personal and exclusive infallibility, is traced in full detail, with a
+learning which would be conspicuous in any of the divided branches of the
+Church, with a plain-speaking which few Roman Catholics have been able to
+afford, and with a sobriety and absence of exaggeration not common among
+Protestants."--GUARDIAN, _October 13_.
+
+"A profound and learned treatise, evidently the work of one of the first
+theologians of the day, discussing with the scientific fulness and
+precision proper to German investigation, the great doctrinal questions
+expected to come before the Council, and especially the proposed dogma of
+Papal Infallibility. There is probably no work in existence that contains
+at all, still less within so narrow a compass, so complete a record of the
+origin and growth of the infallibilist theory, and of all the facts of
+Church history bearing upon it, and that too in a form so clear and
+concise as to put the argument within the reach of any reader of ordinary
+intelligence, while the scrupulous accuracy of the writer, and his
+constant reference to the original authorities for every statement liable
+to be disputed, makes the monograph as a whole a perfect storehouse of
+valuable information for the historical or theological student."--SATURDAY
+REVIEW, _October 16_.
+
+"It affords an opportunity for persons in this country to learn, on the
+most direct authority, how the grave questions which just now agitate the
+Church are regarded by members of a school within her pale, who profess to
+yield to none in their loyal devotion to Catholic truth, but are unable to
+identify its interests with the advance of Ultramontanism. Its aim is to
+show that the object in chief of the coming Council is to elect Papal
+Infallibility into an article--and therefore inevitably a cardinal
+article--of the Catholic Faith. It purports to investigate by the light of
+history this and other questions which are to be decided at the Council,
+as well as to serve as a contribution to ecclesiastical history."--MORNING
+POST, _October 20_.
+
+"The concluding words of the volume, coming as they evidently do from a
+great leader of thought among German Catholics, are so startling and
+suggestive that we give the passage as it stands, while exhorting our
+readers to lose no time in procuring and carefully perusing the whole
+volume for themselves."--CHURCH HERALD, _October 20_.
+
+"It is our intention to deal with this book hereafter as it deserves, for
+we have reason to believe, we will not say to know, lest we should imitate
+the vicious example of Janus, that the work is a fabrication of English
+and German hands. Its name has been well chosen; Janus had two faces,
+which nationally may mean English and German, but in morals signifies a
+character not highly estimable for truth."--TABLET, _October 16_.
+
+"This extraordinary work should be read by the millions of Protestant
+England, as the ablest and most authentic exposure of the ecclesiastical
+and political despotism of Popery which exists in any language or any
+country."--ROCK, _October 20_.
+
+"We feel, as we have already said, that it is hardly possible in a review
+to give an adequate idea of the volume before us, considered merely as a
+storehouse of facts on the Roman controversy, a value enhanced by the
+circumstance that it is written by earnest but sorrowing members of that
+Church, who desire, by its publication, to avert the progress of
+corruption and to save the Church from the blundering threatened by the
+action of the Council. We had marked many passages for extract in the
+course of our own examination. Space, however, forbids our indulging
+ourselves. We regret this the less because we feel assured that the book
+which we have so imperfectly noticed will soon be in the hands of most
+persons interested in the question which is debated."--JOHN BULL, _October
+23_.
+
+"It is of great importance at such a crisis that the public mind should be
+thoroughly informed as to the points on which the judgment of the Council
+is to be asked, or, to speak more correctly, as to the monstrous claims of
+the Papacy to which it is expected to give its formal submission.
+Especially is it desirable to understand clearly the exact position
+occupied by the 'Liberal Catholics,' men who are not prepared to forsake
+their Church nor to declare war against all progress, and who, despite
+many discouragements, still cling to the belief that it is possible to
+find some mode of reconciliation between 'Catholic' principles and modern
+ideas, and who resent such fanatical outbursts as that of Archbishop
+Manning even more bitterly than Protestants themselves. We attach,
+therefore, great value to a little volume just issued on the 'Pope and the
+Council,' by Janus, which contains a more complete statement of the whole
+case than we have anywhere met with."--NONCONFORMIST, _October 27_.
+
+"Beginning with a sketch of the errors and contradictions of the Popes,
+and of the position which, as a matter of history, they held in the early
+Church, the book proceeds to describe the three great forgeries by which
+the Papal claims were upheld--the Isidorian decretals, the donation of
+Constantine, and the decretum of Gratian. The last subject ought to be
+carefully studied by all who wish to understand the frightful tyranny of a
+complicated system of laws, devised not for the protection of a people,
+but as instruments for grinding them to subjection. Then, after an
+historical outline of the general growth of the Papal power in the twelfth
+and thirteenth centuries, the writers enter upon the peculiarly episcopal
+and clerical question, pointing out how marvellously every little change
+worked in one direction, invariably tending to throw the rule of the
+Church into the power of Rome; and how the growth of new institutions,
+like the monastic orders and the Inquisition, gradually withdrew the
+conduct of affairs from the Bishops of the Church in general, and
+consolidated the Papal influence. For all this, however, unless we could
+satisfy ourselves with a mere magnified table of contents, the reader must
+be referred to the book itself, in which he will find the interest
+sustained without flagging to the end."--PALL MALL GAZETTE, _October 29_.
+
+"It is very able, learned, compact, and conclusive. The subject of Papal
+Infallibility is admirably treated, with a thorough mastery of Church
+history. We commend it to the perusal of all who take an interest in the
+progress of ecclesiastical questions, and wish to become more nearly
+acquainted with the Romish Church, its doings, pretensions,
+decrees--especially with the conduct of its successive heads. It is a
+perfect storehouse of facts brought together with telling effect. Let the
+voice of these German Catholics be listened to by enlightened Englishmen
+of all creeds, and they will be in no danger of ensnarement from the
+plausible rhetoric of Ultramontanism, whose principles are opposed to our
+free institutions--to the glory and strength of England."--ATHENAEUM,
+_October 30_.
+
+"In France, in Holland, and in Germany, there has already appeared a
+multitude of disquisitions on this subject. Among these several are the
+acknowledged compositions of men of high standing in the Roman Catholic
+world,--men admittedly entitled to speak with the authority that must
+attach to established reputation: but not one of them has hitherto
+produced a work more likely to create a deep impression than the anonymous
+German publications at the head of this notice. It is not a piece of
+merely polemical writing, it is a treatise dealing with a large subject in
+an impressive though partisan manner--a treatise grave in tone, solid in
+matter, and bristling with forcible and novel illustrations."--SPECTATOR,
+_November 6_.
+
+"It is, as all our readers know, a history of how the Papal claims have
+grown from their modest germs in the _fifth_, down to their full
+development in the _sixteenth_ century. This history, too, is accompanied
+by a corresponding exhibition of the inconsistency of these claims with
+actual facts. But the work is done with such elaborate care, and with such
+a well-marshalled and complete view of the historical facts of the case,
+that it may well be bought and read irrespective of the circumstances
+which have called it forth. It is a full, able, and learned bill of
+indictment against Popery proper."--LITERARY CHURCHMAN, _November 13_.
+
+"This book, characterized by great ability, singular grasp, and
+scholarship, demonstrates, with proof infallible, that the Ultramontane
+doctrine of the Pope's infallibility is the centre of an arch based upon
+error, raised by cunning craft, settled and cemented by shameless
+treachery. And this most damaging exposure of Popery proceeds from divines
+calling themselves 'faithful Catholics.' No Ultramontane is able to sneer
+at the scholarship of the book; nor can they take off the edge of its
+blows by ascribing it to the malice of Protestants."--RECORD, _November
+17_.
+
+"Yet on this and other documents of the same kind, the whole fabric of
+Papal power and assumption has been built up. The forged donations of
+Constantine, Pepin, and Charlemagne are the title-deeds by which its
+possessions are held, and the _Liber Pontificalis_, and Isidorian
+decretals, are the authorities on which it rests for the assertion of a
+power inconsistent alike with the rights of God and the liberties of man.
+We know of no book in which the whole process is exposed with the same
+completeness and in the same brief compass, and we commend it to our
+readers as one from which they will derive an amount of valuable
+information for which otherwise they might search in vain."--ENGLISH
+INDEPENDENT, _November 18_.
+
+"The book before us is making England and Germany ring with valiant and
+wise words of warning, which ought to make the representative of St. Peter
+weep tears of honest grief over past and present, the crooked policy of
+the one and the headstrong ambition of the other. As a rule, we may say
+that anti-Papal literature is of the lowest grade of literary merit,
+filled with illogical and inconclusive reasoning, and characterized by
+ignorance, bigotry, and cant. The present work is a splendid exception,
+severe in tone, but not unduly so, clear in statement, and unsparing in
+its dissection of the contradictions involved in modern Ultramontane
+theories. Its German authorship secures for it patient and exhaustive
+treatment of the subject; its Catholic origin places its statements far
+above the ordinary suspicions of unfairness, while it raises our
+admiration for the love of truth, which could lead men to oppose so
+bravely the current of popular Roman thought."--CHURCH TIMES, _November
+26_.
+
+"Now, what this book of Janus proves is, that all these _a priori_ reasons
+for Papal Infallibility are absolutely worthless. They are beaten off the
+stage entirely and altogether. There is not the smallest atom of ground
+for them to stand upon."--CHURCH REVIEW, _November 27_.
+
+"This work, written by continental Roman Catholics of the liberal school,
+will be read in Protestant England with the deepest interest, and on more
+accounts than one. Accustomed as we are so much to view this great Church
+system of Rome with feelings of antagonism, it is well we should know and
+learn to sympathize with able and earnest men within its body, who are
+keenly alive to its weaknesses, and are anxiously seeking for light as to
+how Christianity, as they have received it, may help to solve the
+perplexities of the age. We should hope that no Protestant who reads this
+able treatise will feel differently. At the same time, it has no little
+value for us Protestants, in days when our Protestantism is so scornfully
+arraigned among ourselves; for if anything can justify our position and
+deepen our gratitude to a merciful Providence that has ruled our history,
+it is a candid work like this, proceeding from what we must call the
+opposite camp."--CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, _December_.
+
+"Rumour will, no doubt, be busy with its conjectures as to the name which
+lurks beneath the _nom de plume_ of 'Janus.' We do not intend to offer any
+contribution towards the elucidation of the mystery, unless it be a
+contribution to say that the book bears internal evidence of being the
+work of a Catholic, and that there are not many Catholics in Europe who
+could have written it. Taking it all in all, it is no exaggerated praise
+to characterize it as the most damaging assault on Ultramontanism that has
+appeared in modern times. Its learning is copious and complete, yet so
+admirably arranged that it invariably illustrates without overlaying the
+argument. The style is clear and simple, and there is no attempt at
+rhetoric. It is a piece of cool and masterly dissection, all the more
+terrible for the passionless manner in which the author conducts the
+operation."--TIMES, _December 3_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES
+
+
+    1 [It may be well to add, to preclude misconceptions, that both
+      Letters and Articles are exclusively the work of Catholics.--TR.]
+
+    2 The weight to be attached to the _Civilta_ on all questions
+      connected with the Council may be gathered from the Brief of Pius
+      IX. of Feb. 12, 1866, printed in the _Civilta_, Serie vi. vol. vi.
+      pp. 7-15. The Pope declares that this journal, expressly intrusted
+      with the defence of religion and with teaching and disseminating the
+      authority and claims of the Roman See, is to be written and edited
+      by a special staff to be named by the General of the Jesuits, who
+      are to have a special house and revenues of their own. The previous
+      censorship, as is known in Rome, is exercised with particular care,
+      so that nothing appears without the approbation of the _Curia_.
+
+    3 [Cardinal Reisach was absent at the opening of the Council, and died
+      soon afterwards, Dec. 26, 1869, in Savoy.--TR.]
+
+    4 [See Introduction to The Pope and the Council, pp. 1-4.--TR.]
+
+    5 [Cf. _The Pope and the Council_, p. 6.--TR.]
+
+    6 These fears, as is well known, were not realized at Fulda.
+
+    7 The Cardinal's subsequent attitude has not justified this hope.
+      Freppel too, as Bishop-designate of Anjou, has now declared himself
+      for the infallibilists.
+
+    8 This design does not seem to have been persevered in.
+
+_    9 Corresp. de Rome_, 1869, p. 384: "L'infallibilite du Pape, decidant
+      en matiere de foi _ex cathedra_, c'est-a-dire comme maitre de
+      l'Eglise etant deja admise par tous les vrais catholiques, un decret
+      du Concil fera juste l'effet d'une confirmation d'une chose
+      universellement sue et crue."
+
+   10 "Praesidentia auctoritativa dicitur ... insuper cum auctoritate
+      coactiva compescendi etiam per censuras ecclesiasticas, et alia
+      juris media contradictores et rebelles et contumaces, prout ex
+      constitutione XI. Martini V., etc."
+
+   11 "Juramentum contra utilitatem ecclesiasticam praestitum non
+      tenet."--Lib. ii. tit. 24, c. 27; Sext. Lib. i. t. 2, c. 1.
+
+   12 Cf. "Janus," p. 230.
+
+   13 [The third Lateran Council.--TR.]
+
+   14 The Scotch pronounce Latin much as the Germans do.
+
+   15 [Even this must be taken with reserve.--Cf. _infra_, pp. 174,
+      175.--TR.]
+
+   16 [Most of the rights originally inherent in the episcopate are now
+      reserved to the Pope, who only allows Bishops to exercise them
+      during good behaviour, by virtue of "faculties" renewed every five
+      years. Cf. "Janus," p. 422, note.--TR.]
+
+   17 [This must be taken with some reserve, as will be seen further
+      on.--TR.]
+
+   18 "Obligatam haerentemque sanctiori Pontifici velut in pectore
+      Societatem."--Bolland, _Imago_, p. 622.
+
+   19 [The German College is conducted by the Jesuits.--TR.]
+
+   20 [Archbishop MacHale does not seem to have justified this
+      anticipation.--TR.]
+
+   21 Excommunications _latae sententiae_, as distinguished from
+      excommunication _ferendae sententiae_, are those which immediately
+      take effect on the commission of the forbidden act, without
+      requiring any sentence of Pope or Bishop to be pronounced.
+
+   22 When the news arrived from Paris of the abolition of the Pragmatic
+      Sanction, _i.e._, of the reforms of Basle.
+
+   23 [This formula, often mistakenly supposed to occur in the Papal
+      Coronation service, refers to the traditional length of St. Peter's
+      pontificate--twenty-five years. No Pope has yet reigned to the end of
+      his twenty-fifth year, and only one has entered on the beginning of
+      it. Pius IX. completes his twenty-fourth year on June 16, 1870.--TR.]
+
+   24 [This point is forcibly dwelt on by Count Daru in his memorandum,
+      which the Pope refused to lay before the Council.--TR.]
+
+   25 "Animas eorum qui in solo peccato originali, vel mortali actuali
+      decedunt, in infernum descendere, poenis tamen disparibus puniendas."
+
+   26 "Imprimis itaque fide Catholica, tenendum est illorum animas," etc.
+      The author seems really to believe that the Rationalistic tendencies
+      of the age can be cured with an emetic.
+
+   27 [Cardinal Reisach, who was formerly Archbishop of Munich, used to
+      say he had almost forgotten how to speak German.--TR.]
+
+   28 "Supremam ideoque ab errore immunem esse Romani Pontificis
+      auctoritatem, quum in rebus fidei et moram ea statuit ac praecipit
+      quae ab omnibus Christi fidelibus credenda et tenenda, quaeve
+      rejicienda et damnanda sunt."
+
+   29 "Per l'infallibilita, essendo l'Abbate Mastai, l'ho sempre creduto,
+      adesso, essendo Papa Mastai, la sento."
+
+   30 [This reads almost like a prophecy, when we remember how afterwards,
+      and on slighter provocation than is here supposed, hundreds of the
+      Infallibilist Bishops danced like maniacs round the pulpit when
+      Strossmayer and Schwarzenberg were speaking, yelling and shaking
+      their fists at them.--Cf. _infr._ Letter xxxii.--TR.]
+
+   31 [Archbishop Darboy's interposition stopped the conspiracy being
+      carried out at the first General Congregation, and four American
+      Bishops disconcerted a second similar plot on St. Joseph's Day,
+      March 19.--Cf. _infr._ Letter xxxvi.--TR.]
+
+   32 "In specie ne Concilium declaret vel definiat infallibilitatem summi
+      Pontificis, a doctissimis et prudentissimus fidelibus S. Sedi intime
+      addictis vehementer optatur. Gravia enim mala exinde oritura timent
+      tum fidelibus tum infidelibus. Fideles enim ... corde turbarentur
+      magis quam erigerentur, ac si nunc demum fundamentum Ecclesiae et
+      verae doctrinae stabiliendum sit; infideles vero novarum calumniarum
+      et derisionum materiam lucrarentur. Neque desunt qui ejusmodi
+      definitionem logice impossibilem vocant et ad ipsam Ecclesiam
+      provocant, quae ad instar solis splendorem lucis suae monstrat quidem,
+      sed non definit. Jure denique quaeritur, cui usui ista definitio
+      foret, de cujus sensu, modo et ambitu ampla inter theologos
+      controversia est."
+
+   33 [Monsignor Nardi said this _totidem verbis_ to an Anglican clergyman
+      who was inspecting the Council Hall.--TR.]
+
+   34 "Questo puzza di schisma."
+
+   35 [Compare with this account of the freedom of the Council the letters
+      of two French Bishops, published in the _Times_ of May 3, and the
+      _Journal des Debats_ of May 10.--TR.]
+
+_   36 Etudes de Theologie_, Janvier 1868, p. 26:--"Le Concile n'imposait
+      rien a notre foi, qui n'eut obtenu a peu pres l'unanimite des votes.
+      L'obligation de croire est une chose si grave, le droit de lier les
+      intelligences est un droit si auguste et si important, que les peres
+      pensaient n'en devoir user qu'avec la plus grande reserve et la plus
+      extreme delicatesse."
+
+_   37 Is Healthful Reunion Impossible?_ By E. B. Pusey, D.D. Rivingtons,
+      1870.
+
+   38 [Gratry's four Letters have been translated by the Rev. T. J.
+      Bailey.--(Hayes).--TR.]
+
+   39 [Cf. _supr._ pp. 90, 91. The _Tablet_ made the same assertions in
+      both cases.--TR.]
+
+_   40 Adversus eos qui Sanctissimum R. Pontificis studium et Vaticani
+      Concilii celebrandi necessitatem vituperant._ Romae.
+
+   41 [Some idea of it may be formed from the answer made some months ago
+      by a distinguished English Prelate at Rome to an Anglican friend,
+      who had quoted the words of one of the Opposition Bishops, "You need
+      not quote _them_ to me; _they are no more Catholics than you
+      are_,"--thus excommunicating at one swoop the very flower of the
+      hierarchy of his Church.--TR.]
+
+   42 [The _Curtisanen_ were clerical place-hunters, who came to Rome to
+      beg or traffic for benefices. Cf. "Janus," p. 341.--TR.]
+
+   43 [The Bull _Apostolicae Sedis_.--Cf. _supr._ pp. 100, 1, 5, 6.--TR.]
+
+   44 "Damnamus perversas eorum cavillationes qui dicere audent externum
+      quidem obsequium, non autem internum mentis cordisque assensum, R.
+      Pontificis judiciis esse praestandum."
+
+   45 It will of course be understood that the 300 boarders (cf. _supr._
+      p. 128) are divided among the Prelates mentioned above.
+
+_   46 Istoria del Concilio de Trente_, xix. 15. 3: "Facendosi quelle sole
+      difinizioni nelle quali i padri conspirassero ad un parere."
+
+   47 [Liverani published a striking pamphlet on the abuses of the _Curia_
+      some years ago.--TR.]
+
+   48 Joshua ix. 21.
+
+   49 Purgat. xxvii. 104.
+
+   50 "Ove accadesse collisione tra le definizioni del Concilio ecumenico
+      e le leggi dello Stato, queste cesserebbero per cio solo di avere
+      _qualsiasi_ vigore obbligatorio," p. 262.
+
+   51 So Pius VI., in his Brief of 1791, directed against the new laws of
+      the French Assembly for securing religions freedom. Therein the
+      distinction is still drawn between heathen and Jews on one side and
+      Protestants or heretics on the other, that the former cannot be
+      compelled to receive baptism, but the others, "qui se Ecclesiae per
+      susceptum Baptismi Sacramentum subjecerunt, cogendi sunt" (_Collect.
+      Brev. Pii VI._, Aug. Vindel. 1791, i. 34). Benedict XIV. declared
+      the same before in 1749 (_Bullar. Mag._, Romae, ed. Coquel, T. xvii.
+      p. 272). And Pius VII. afterwards, in his Brief of 1803 (Kopp, _Die
+      kath. Kirche des 19 Jahrh._, Mainz, 1830, p. 429). "According to
+      Scripture, Councils and Tradition, heretics remain subject to the
+      laws of the Catholic Church."
+
+   52 Job xiii. 7.
+
+   53 The idea is thrice repeated; "fideles tam seorsim singuli quam simul
+      omnes officio ... verae obedientiae obstringuntur," is said once again
+      in the _Schema_.
+
+_   54 Correspondance_, Paris, i. 247.
+
+   55 [A writer in the Cologne _Rheinischer Merkur_ of May 14, a newly
+      started organ of Liberal Catholic principles, conducted entirely by
+      priests, learnedly discusses the question "whether St. Thomas
+      Aquinas taught Papal Infallibility," and comes to the conclusion
+      that, in spite of the influence of these forged authorities on his
+      mind, he did not.--TR.]
+
+   56 Navagero, _Relazione_, p. 389 in the Venetian Collection, ed.
+      Alberi, i. 7.
+
+   57 "Ammantar la pigrizia di superiorita, sottrarsi alla noja d'esaminar
+      le quistioni col disprezarle, sono vezzi troppo communi in Italia, e
+      il beffarsi di questi pesanti Tedeschi, che vanno a cercare la fin
+      dei fini. Ma in tal caso rassegniamoci a vederci trattati, da questi
+      di negligenza e di spensierataggine quando accettiamo a occhi
+      bendati carte, falsificate da tristi speculatori o da sbadati
+      raccoglitori," etc.--_Archivo Storico Italiano_, 1860, xii. 19.
+
+   58 [It was originally intended for public use also, and is still
+      recited publicly by Cathedral Chapters and religions communities.
+      Some portions of it, as Vespers and Compline, are often used in
+      parish churches also, especially in France.--TR.]
+
+   59 [Cf. "Janus," pp. 60-62, 275-8.--TR.]
+
+   60 The proposal of two Rhenish Prelates for a common declaration
+      against Doellinger's paper on Infallibility was rejected in the
+      meeting of German Bishops. The chief opponents were Hefele,
+      Eberhard, Raynald, Strossmayer and Foerster, who maintained that,
+      certain arguments apart, Doellinger represented in the main the views
+      of most German Bishops on the subject. It was further insisted, in
+      express repudiation of the stand-point of mere "inopportuneness,"
+      that the addresses already signed by the Infallibilists were
+      directed in principle against the doctrine of the Church. The two
+      Prelates declared nevertheless that they would not separate
+      themselves from their colleagues who had signed those documents.
+
+   61 Tac. _Annal._ XV. 53.
+
+   62 I take this opportunity of observing that the _Memorial
+      Diplomatique_, which has the credit of supplying the world regularly
+      with methodical fictions from Rome, has also given a spurious reply
+      of Antonelli's to Beust's note. Perhaps one of your Paris
+      correspondents can explain the rare persistency of that journal in
+      habitually making game of the French with lies and inventions which
+      are immediately exposed. Here in Rome many are disposed to seek the
+      authors of them in the office of the _Civilta_ or in the _Gesu_.
+
+_   63 Pastoral on Infallibility of the Roman Pontiff_ (Longmans), p. 126.
+
+   64 It is also quoted in the _Journal des Debats_ of March 12. [This
+      same Bishop opened the debate on the _Schema de Romano Pontifice_ by
+      arguing that the Pope must be infallible, because St. Peter was
+      crucified head downwards. _Cf. infr._ Letter xlvi.--TR.]
+
+   65 The _Unita Cattolica_ of March 12 makes its Roman correspondent say
+      that to-day the Bishops are signing in crowds a Petition to the
+      Presidents of the Council, demanding that the discussion of the
+      article on infallibility may take precedence of all other business,
+      because they long to put an end at one blow to the scandal of the
+      Liberal Catholics and Gallicans. But Margotti's journal at the same
+      time urges patience on its readers, because decorum must be
+      preserved, as far as may be.
+
+   66 [It seemed better to give the Letter itself, as published "by
+      permission" in the _Standard_ of April 7, rather than to translate
+      the secondhand, though remarkably accurate, paraphrase given in the
+      German text. It addressed to Bishop Ullathorne.--TR.]
+
+   67 [Archbishop Errington was Cardinal Wiseman's coadjutor with right of
+      succession, but was arbitrarily deprived of the post by the Pope, on
+      his declining to resign it. His name was the first of the three sent
+      to Rome by the Chapter of Westminster for the vacant Archbishopric
+      on Cardinal Wiseman's death, the other two being Clifford and Grant.
+      All three were passed over in favour of Dr. Manning.--TR.]
+
+   68 [This explanation, that the Requiem "was intended rather as a
+      political demonstration than a religious act," was elaborately
+      insisted on in the _Tablet_ of March 28, which added the guarded but
+      equally gratuitous statement that "the Bishop of Orleans, _it
+      appears_, intended to speak at the funeral service;" winding up with
+      the somewhat remarkable comment that "the prudence and the charity
+      (!) of Pius IX. have been equally conspicuous in the affair." The
+      world hardly seems to see it.--TR.]
+
+_   69 Reform der Kirche an Haupt und Gliedern._
+
+   70 [The correctness of this prediction was conspicuously illustrated in
+      the _coup_ of June 3. _Cf. infr._ Letter lii.--TR.]
+
+   71 This word (_niedertraechtigen_) was lately used by a German Bishop.
+
+   72 The original text ran: "Qua sane benignitate ipsius ac providentia
+      factum est, ut ex OEcumenicis omnibus Conciliis, et ex Tridentino
+      nominatim amplissima in universam Catholicam Familiam utilitas
+      dimanaverit;" the amendment of Dreux-Breze runs: "Qua sane
+      benignitate ipsius ac providentia factum est, ut _licet omnibus
+      Ecclesiae necessitatibus per ordinarium Summi Pontificis regimen et
+      magisterium satis fuerit provisum_, tamen ex OEcumenicis omnibus
+      Conciliis," etc.
+
+   73 [It is understood to have been Bishop Clifford of Clifton.--TR.]
+
+   74 See _Times_ for April 2, 1870.
+
+   75 [The English _Tablet_ and _Dublin Review_ have received similar
+      papal commendations.--TR.]
+
+   76 "Relapsum flammi ex lege addixit," says the Dominican Bzovius in his
+      Panegyric _Paulus V. Borghesius_, Rome 1626, p. 57.
+
+   77 [It will be seen that Simor, with the other Hungarian Bishops,
+      eventually voted among the _Non-placets_ and signed their protest.
+      Cf. Letters lxiv, lxv.--TR.]
+
+   78 "Quoniam vero satis non est, haereticam pravitatem devitare, nisi ii
+      quoque errores diligenter fugiantur, qui ad illam plus minusve
+      accedunt: omnes officii monemus servandi etiam Constitutiones et
+      Decreta quibus pravae ejusmodi opiniones, quae isthic diserte non
+      enumerantur, ab hac Sancta Sede proscriptae et prohibitae sunt."
+
+   79 "Schematis de fide catholica conclusio, quae incipit ab his verbis:
+      _Itaque supremi Pastoralis_, etc., cum de ea in ultima Congregatione
+      generali non satis explicite actum fuerit, adhuc debet subjici
+      Patrum suffragiis, antequam ad ferenda suffragia de toto Capite IV.
+      procedatur. Ideo monentur Reverendissimi Patres, ut nunc in finem
+      _Emendationes de capite quarto_ hujus Schematis propositas etiam ad
+      proximam Congregationem generalem secum deferre velint."
+
+   80 [Conditional votes, as will be seen, are not allowed in Solemn
+      Sessions, but only a simple _Placet_ or _Non placet_.--TR.]
+
+   81 [Cf. _supr._ p. 348.--TR.]
+
+   82 [See an exhaustive article on the subject from a Catholic pen in the
+      _North British Review_ for October 1869.--TR.]
+
+   83 [He refused to do so.--TR.]
+
+   84 This proved to be a mistake.
+
+   85 "Elle estime justement qu'elle a le devoir de ne pas favoriser la
+      diffusion de l'erreur ou des attaques contre l'autorite des Vicaires
+      de Jesus-Christ."
+
+   86 The infallibilists are of course luckier. Their writings are readily
+      printed and circulated. At the same time with the writings mentioned
+      above, Archbishop Spalding has published a letter to Dupanloup,
+      emphatically denying that he had spoken against the opportuneness of
+      the dogma in the paper he drew up with several other American
+      Bishops, and declaring himself a zealous advocate for it.
+
+   87 [English readers may be referred to Renouf's _Case of Honorius
+      Reconsidered_. Longmans, 1869.--TR.]
+
+   88 It is now understood to have been written by Dr. S. Mayer under his
+      direction.
+
+   89 [See _Pastoral on Infallibility of Roman Pontiff_. Longmans, 1869.]
+
+   90 "Animadvertendum quippe est, quod in publica Sessione juxta Litteras
+      Apostolicas _Multiplices inter_ d. d. Novembris 1869 Num. VIII., quo
+      modus procedendi in Sessionibus publicis praescribitur, non liceat
+      aliter suffragium dare, nisi pure et simpliciter per verba: _Placet_
+      aut _Non placet_, excluso alio quovis modo."
+
+   91 [Cf. _Janus_, pp. 382-4.--TR.]
+
+   92 [Since, that is, the Lateran synod of 1517 under Leo X.--TR.]
+
+   93 Tac. _Annal._ II.
+
+   94 Antonelli's, notoriously.
+
+   95 "Animes d'un profond respect pour l'autorite _legitime_ du S. Siege,
+      nous sommes obliges d'autre part de preserver de toute atteinte
+      presente ou future les rapports entre l'eglise et l'etat (as lately
+      settled by the Concordat and the Constitution). Nous joignons nos
+      instances aux remonstrances du Gouvernement francais et nous nous
+      croyons appeles a le faire d'autant plus, que dans le sein du
+      concile lui-meme une grande partie des representants de l'Eglise
+      d'Allemagne, dont le devouement religieux est bien connu, atteste
+      par son attitude que nos craintes sont loin d'etre vaines."
+
+   96 "Si, diciamolo altamente, Pio IX. credette aver ricevuto speciale
+      missione di definire la Immacolata Concezione e la infallibilita
+      pontificia."
+
+   97 "Jure tam divino quam humano laicis nulla potestas in ecclesiasticas
+      personas attributa est."
+
+   98 See Raynald. _Annal._ xix. ann. 1493, 22.
+
+   99 "Haec conditio pro Concilio Vaticano eo magis urgenda esse videtur,
+      cum ad ferenda suffragia tot Patres admissi sunt, de quibus non
+      constat evidenter, utrum jure tantum ecclesiastico an etiam jure
+      divino ipsis votum decisivum competat."
+
+  100 It appears from a passage in Letter lii. that this severe judgment
+      on the Prince Bishop was based on an erroneous report of his conduct
+      in the papers.
+
+  101 "Jamvero infallibilitatem S. Ap. Sedis et Romani Pontificis ad
+      doctrinam fidei pertinere ex allatis fidei documentis constat, et
+      contrariae illi sententiae a magisterio Ecclesiae non semel fuerunt
+      improbatae. Cujuscunque ergo scientiae etiam historiae ecclesiasticae
+      conclusiones Rom. Pontificum infallibilitati adversantes, quo
+      manifestius haec ex revelationis fontibus infertur, eo certius veluti
+      totidem errores habendas esse consequitur."
+
+  102 "Al male dominante della licenza dei tipi, per cui il giornalismo
+      nega e bestemmia ogni giorno, bisogna contraporre il salutare
+      rimedio del Papa infallibile, che ogni giorno puo insegnare,
+      condannare, definire, senza che mai sia licito ai cattolici dubitare
+      de' suoi oraculi."
+
+  103 [The English Jesuit, Father Gallwey, says they will be like "the
+      daily provision of manna" to the Israelites.--TR.]
+
+  104 He should have said "the Italian prelates."
+
+  105 Cf. _supr._ p. 517.
+
+  106 It will be seen from the protest afterwards published that this
+      passage was greatly toned down.
+
+  107 Matt. xxvi. 49.
+
+_  108 Von der Roemischen Einheit_, Wien. 1866, vol. ii. pp. 444 _seq._
+
+  109 See the decree of Eugenius in Porter's _Systema Decretorum_, p. 535,
+      and in Raynaldus.
+
+  110 "Ad officium nostrum spectat de _quocumque_ mortali peccato
+      corripere quemlibet Christianum; et, si correptionem contempserit,
+      per districtionem ecclesiasticam coercere."--_Decretal. Novit_, c.
+      13, De Judic. [Cf. _Janus_, p. 158.]
+
+_  111 Concil._ ed. Labbe, x. 384.
+
+  112 Innoc. _Epist._ ii. 209, p. 473, ed. Paris.
+
+  113 Raynald. _Annal._ xv. 156.
+
+  114 Raynald. _Annal._ an. 1376, 1.
+
+  115 See Bull _Romanus Pontifex_ confirmed by Callixtus III. in 1456 and
+      Sixtus IV. in 1481.--Morelli, _Fasti Novi Orbis_, p. 58.
+
+  116 See Bull _Inter Caeterae_ in Raynald. _Annal._
+
+  117 Raynald. _Annal._ an. 1493, 19.
+
+  118 Harduin. _Concil_ ix. 1756.
+
+  119 Baron. _Annal. Eccl._ an. 1102, sect. 18.
+
+  120 Rog. Wendover, _Hist._ iii. 251.
+
+  121 Raynald. _Annal._ an. 1283-4.
+
+_  122 Litera Apost. Summorum Pontif. pro offic. S. Inquis._, Venet. 1607,
+      p. 3.
+
+_  123 Ib._ p. 39.
+
+  124 Del Bene, _Decreta et Constitt. Pontif._ in his _De Offic. Inquis._
+      ii. 647.
+
+  125 [That this is no mere abstract theory, even in quite recent days,
+      may be seen from Blanco White's account of his mother's agony of
+      mind when she began to suspect his opinions and feared it might
+      become her duty to denounce him to the Inquisition.--TR.]
+
+_  126 Decr._ v. 7, 9, and Lucius III. and Alexander IV. in Lib. vi. 5. 2.
+      4.
+
+_  127 Ib._ 5, 2, 5.
+
+  128 Carsetti, _Storia del Regno di Vittorio Amadeo di Savoia_, Torino,
+      1856, p. 178. The Pope said it was "cosa da non potersi dir senza
+      lagrime."
+
+  129 Guerra, _Pontif. Constit._ i. 177.
+
+  130 See, _e.g._, Tartarotti, _Apologia del Congresso_, etc., p. 176.
+
+_  131 Decr._ ii. 24, 27.
+
+  132 D'Achery, _Spicileg._ iii. 714. ["Vobis et successoribus vestris
+      Regibus et Reginis Franciae in perpetuum indulgemus, ut confessor
+      religiosus vel saecularis quem vestrum vel eorum quilibet duxerit
+      eligendnm, vota per vos forsitan jam emissa, _ac per vos et
+      successores vestros in posterum emittenda_ ... necnon juramenta per
+      vos praestita, _et per vos et eos praestanda in posterum_, quae vos et
+      illi _servare commode non possitis_, vobis et eis commutare valeat
+      in alia opera pietatis." Two cases are reserved, viz., vows of
+      chastity and _vows taken to the Pope_.--TR.]
+
+  133 Bzov. _Annal. Eccl._ an. 1555, p. 306, ed. Colon.
+
+  134 Dodd, _Church History of England_, iii. 288; _Tractat. Dogmat. et
+      Scholast. de Ecclesia_, Romae, 1782, ii. 245.
+
+  135 D'Acheray, _Spicileg._ iii. 721.
+
+_  136 Acta Sanct. Bolland._ Ap. 23, p. 157.
+
+  137 Spondani, _Annal. Eccl. Contin._ ii. 595.
+
+_  138 Decr. de Transl._ c. ii. 3, 4. [Cf. _Janus_, pp. 55, 56.]
+
+_  139 Decr._ iv. 1, 16.
+
+_  140 Dist._ 81, c. 15.
+
+_  141 Concil. Gangrens._ can. 4.
+
+_  142 Concil._ ed. Labbe, t. xiii. pp. 1322, 3.
+
+  143 See Amort, _De Indulg._ i. 146.
+
+  144 D'Argentre, _Collectio Judiciorum_, Paris, 1728, iii. 297.
+
+_  145 Clementin._ i. 5, De Usuris, tit. 5.
+
+  146 [On this subject, as also on persecution, the reader may profitably
+      consult _Papal Infallibility and Persecution; Papal Infallibility_
+      and _Usury_. By an English Catholic. Macmillan, 1870.--TR.]
+
+  147 [This had been protested against by the minority. Cf. _supr._ pp.
+      327-8.]
+
+  148 The text of the speech, as it is now printed in the journals, has
+      been subsequently corrected and toned down.
+
+  149 "Il est sans doute de certaines fonctions ou, tenant, pour ainsi
+      dire, la place de Dieu, nous semblons etre participants de sa
+      connaissance, aussi bien que de son autorite," etc.--Lemontey, p. 151
+      (ed. de Bruxelles).
+
+  150 1 Cor. ii. 14.
+
+_  151 Pachym._ II. 20, ed. Bonn.
+
+  152 According to a letter of his which reached Breslau the 12th July,
+      permission to depart has been refused him.
+
+  153 [The same strange confusion of thought seems still to prevail among
+      some fervid infallibilists of the English and Irish Episcopate, to
+      judge from their pastorals issued since the decree of July 18.--TR.]
+
+  154 Meanwhile the _Unita_ of July 15 has already begun to indicate the
+      wholesome political fruits which may be looked for from the dogma of
+      infallibility. Gallicanism, which demanded fixed guarantees against
+      papal decisions, has paved the way, according to Margotti, for
+      constitutionalism and parliamentarism; for after a Pope whose
+      decrees _ex cathedra_ are not irreformable, comes a king limited by
+      the Constitution, and then the era of parliamentary revolutions and
+      political storms is introduced. But now the bright example set by
+      the Bishops in their submission to the infallible Pope will restore
+      not France only, but the whole of Europe. From them the nations will
+      learn to submit as children to their sovereigns, the kingdom of
+      unrighteousness will pass away, and the kingdom of God succeed. That
+      is plain speaking; absolutism in the Church will lead to absolutism
+      in the State. Margotti then surrenders himself to the most brilliant
+      hopes, predicts unprecedented miracles, and records those which have
+      been already wrought for infallibility during the Council, or will
+      immediately be wrought. We cannot venture to withhold them from our
+      readers. First, it seemed impossible to attain an agreement of the
+      Bishops on the proclamation of infallibility; all wanted to speak,
+      and the discussion seemed likely to be endless. But the Holy Ghost
+      unexpectedly interposed; above sixty Bishops waved their right to
+      speak, and the _Schema_ was voted and approved. Secondly, a great
+      opposition of all the governments was feared, who only kept quiet
+      while they watched the quarrels of the Bishops themselves in the
+      Council. But scarcely had the Bishops shown themselves unanimous,
+      when the Hohenzollern question turned up, which absorbs everybody's
+      attention, and leaves the Church in peace. The third miracle is
+      still in the future--the dogma will suddenly dissipate the menaces of
+      war, because the word of God, like the Son of God, only comes into
+      the world in the midst of universal peace.
+
+  155 The impending war led to its being held earlier.
+
+  156 [On the essential connection between the infallibility and the
+      impeccability of the Popes, see _Janus_, pp. 113 _sqq._, and Maret,
+      _Du Concile General_, vol. ii. ch. 13.--TR.]
+
+  157 [The decree of Constance defines that "every lawfully convoked
+      OEcumenical Council representing the Church derives its authority
+      immediately from Christ, and every one, the Pope included, is
+      subject to it in matters of faith, in the healing of schism, and the
+      reformation of the Church." It was carried in full Council without a
+      dissentient voice.--TR.]
+
+  158 [That in fact is exactly what Antonelli calls it in his
+      circular.--TR.]
+
+  159 This is emphatically asserted in a sermon preached last year at
+      Kensington by Archbishop Manning, where he says, speaking in the
+      Pope's name, "I claim to be the Supreme Judge and director of the
+      consciences of men; of the peasant that tills the field and the
+      prince that sits on the throne; of the household that lives in the
+      shade of privacy _and the Legislature that makes laws for
+      kingdoms_--I am the sole last Supreme Judge of what is right and
+      wrong."
+
+  160 These letters are taken from the _Journal des Debats_ of May 6 and
+      11. The Bishops of Marseilles and Montpellier are said to be the
+      writers.
+
+  161 Lire: spartiates.
+
+  162 From the _Gazette de France_ of June 28. The Vicar-General of an
+      eminent French Bishop, who had been at Rome, is the reputed author.
+
+
+
+
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