Letters From Rome On The Council - free ebook by Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger

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Letters From Rome On The Council

Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger

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Preface.

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 m

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Views of the Council. (Allgemeine Zeitung, May 20, 1869.)

Views of the Council. (Allgemeine Zeitung, May 20, 1869.)

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 wor

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The Future Council. (Allg. Zeit., June 11, 1869.)

The Future Council. (Allg. Zeit., June 11, 1869.)

In the Chancery, where Antonelli's confidant Mgr. Marini revises the Civiltà , 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 formâ 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 C

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Prince Hohenlohe and the Council. (Allg. Zeit., June 20 and 21, 1869.)

Prince Hohenlohe and the Council. (Allg. Zeit., June 20 and 21, 1869.)

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

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The Council. (Allg. Zeit., Aug. 19, 1869.)

The Council. (Allg. Zeit., Aug. 19, 1869.)

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 Nîmes, none of them have o

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The Fulda Pastoral. (Allg. Zeit., Sept. 25, 1869.)

The Fulda Pastoral. (Allg. Zeit., Sept. 25, 1869.)

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 Civiltà , and Rheinischen Stimmen , from the Monastery of Laach, as well as the Archbishop of Mechlin (Deschamps), and Bishop Plantier of Nîmes, have put forward the erection of Papal Infallibility into a dogma of the Universal Church. Moreover, the assembly at Fulda

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The Bishops and the Council. (Allg. Zeit., Nov. 19 and 20, 1869.)

The Bishops and the Council. (Allg. Zeit., Nov. 19 and 20, 1869.)

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, primitiv

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First Letter.

First Letter.

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 Œcumenical 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 Bishop

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Second Letter.

Second Letter.

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 rôle 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 hel

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Third Letter.

Third Letter.

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

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Fourth Letter.

Fourth Letter.

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,

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Fifth Letter.

Fifth Letter.

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

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Sixth Letter.

Sixth Letter.

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

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Seventh Letter.

Seventh Letter.

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 do

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Eighth Letter.

Eighth Letter.

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 Civiltà 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 Bisho

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Ninth Letter.

Ninth Letter.

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

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Tenth Letter.

Tenth Letter.

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

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Eleventh Letter.

Eleventh Letter.

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. Th

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Twelfth Letter.

Twelfth Letter.

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 i

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Thirteenth Letter.

Thirteenth Letter.

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

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Fourteenth Letter.

Fourteenth Letter.

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 ch

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Fifteenth Letter.

Fifteenth Letter.

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

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Sixteenth Letter.

Sixteenth Letter.

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 Châlons 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

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Seventeenth Letter.

Seventeenth Letter.

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 be

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Eighteenth Letter.

Eighteenth Letter.

Pius has even had his naïve 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 o

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Nineteenth Letter.

Nineteenth Letter.

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 o

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Twentieth Letter.

Twentieth Letter.

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 busin

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Twenty-First Letter.

Twenty-First Letter.

But while the German Bishops rejected Ketteler's proposal, and left to the Civiltà 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 betwee

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Twenty-Second Letter.

Twenty-Second Letter.

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 a

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Twenty-Third Letter.

Twenty-Third Letter.

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 t

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Twenty-Fourth Letter.

Twenty-Fourth Letter.

In the Third Party, headed by the Cardinal-Archbishop of Rouen, are included Périgueus, Bourges, Tarantaise, Cambray, Arras, Nevers, Troyes, Pamiers, Tours—ten votes. The Bishops of Digne, Fréjus, 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,

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Twenty-Fifth Letter.

Twenty-Fifth Letter.

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 t

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Twenty-Sixth Letter.

Twenty-Sixth Letter.

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 P

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Twenty-Seventh Letter.

Twenty-Seventh Letter.

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

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Twenty-Eighth Letter.

Twenty-Eighth Letter.

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 with

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Twenty-Ninth Letter.

Twenty-Ninth Letter.

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 Objecti

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Thirtieth Letter.

Thirtieth Letter.

“... 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 Ci

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Thirty-First Letter.

Thirty-First Letter.

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,

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Thirty-Second Letter.

Thirty-Second Letter.

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 Œcumenical. To be quite consistent, the minority ought to take no further part in the Council till this point, on the decision of which they right

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Thirty-Third Letter.

Thirty-Third Letter.

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 cri

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Thirty-Fourth Letter.

Thirty-Fourth Letter.

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

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Thirty-Fifth Letter.

Thirty-Fifth Letter.

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 rôle 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

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Thirty-Sixth Letter.

Thirty-Sixth Letter.

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 b

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Thirty-Seventh Letter.

Thirty-Seventh Letter.

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 hel

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Thirty-Eighth Letter.

Thirty-Eighth Letter.

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-off

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Thirty-Ninth Letter.

Thirty-Ninth Letter.

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 d

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Fortieth Letter.

Fortieth Letter.

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 “feelin

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Forty-First Letter.

Forty-First Letter.

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 minorité se recueille,” like Russia after the last war, and on the division day will be found fully equipped for the f

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Forty-Second Letter.

Forty-Second Letter.

“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 t

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Forty-Third Letter.

Forty-Third Letter.

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 Civiltà was mistaken;

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Forty-Fourth Letter.

Forty-Fourth Letter.

In consequence of this rapid manœuvre 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 fore

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Forty-Fifth Letter.

Forty-Fifth Letter.

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,

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Forty-Sixth Letter.

Forty-Sixth Letter.

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 it

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Forty-Seventh Letter.

Forty-Seventh Letter.

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:

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Forty-Eighth Letter.

Forty-Eighth Letter.

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 t

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Forty-Ninth Letter.

Forty-Ninth Letter.

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 Civiltà the necessity of moral unanimity for dogmatic decrees. Another Iris

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Fiftieth Letter.

Fiftieth Letter.

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

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Fifty-First Letter.

Fifty-First Letter.

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 t

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Fifty-Second Letter.

Fifty-Second Letter.

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

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Fifty-Third Letter.

Fifty-Third Letter.

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

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Fifty-Fourth Letter.

Fifty-Fourth Letter.

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

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Fifty-Fifth Letter.

Fifty-Fifth Letter.

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

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Fifty-Sixty Letter.

Fifty-Sixty Letter.

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

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Fifty-Seventh Letter.

Fifty-Seventh Letter.

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—th

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Fifty-Eighth Letter.

Fifty-Eighth Letter.

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 amen

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Fifty-Ninth Letter.

Fifty-Ninth Letter.

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 probabl

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Sixtieth Letter.

Sixtieth Letter.

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 Christendo

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Sixty-First Letter.

Sixty-First Letter.

Guidi, on being summoned by the Pope directly after his speech, was greeted with the words, “You are my enemy, you are the coryphæus 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

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Sixty-Second Letter.

Sixty-Second Letter.

“Beatissime Pater! Episcopi infrascripti, tam proprio quam aliorum permultorum Patrum nomine a benignitate S. V. reverenter, fiducialiter et enixe expostulant, ut ea, quæ 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 inpræsentiarum conditio nostra est. Calor æstivus, jam desinente mense Junio, nimi

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Sixty-Third Letter.

Sixty-Third Letter.

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 busi

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Sixty-Fourth Letter.

Sixty-Fourth Letter.

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 sta

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Sixty-Fifth Letter.

Sixty-Fifth Letter.

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 papa

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Sixty-Sixth Letter.

Sixty-Sixth Letter.

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 shal

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Sixty-Seventh Letter.

Sixty-Seventh Letter.

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

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Sixty-Eighth Letter.

Sixty-Eighth Letter.

“In Congregatione generali die 13 h. m. habitâ, dedimus suffragia nostra super schemate primæ Constitutionis dogmaticæ de Ecclesiâ Christi. “Notum est Sanctitati Vestræ 88 Patres fuisse, qui, conscientiâ urgente et amore Sanctæ Ecclesiæ 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 g

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Sixty-Ninth Letter.

Sixty-Ninth Letter.

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 los

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Appendix I.

Appendix I.

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 i

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I.

I.

4. La majorité n'est pas libre; car elle se produit par un appoint considérable de prélats qui ne sauraient être témoins de la foi d'Églises naissantes ou mourantes. Or, cet appoint, qui se compose du chiffre énorme de tous les vicaires apostoliques, du chiffre relativement trop fort des évêques Italiens et des États Pontificaux, cet appoint n'est pas libre. C'est une armée toute faite, toute acquise, endoctrinée, enrégimentée, disciplinée, que l'on menace, si elle bronche, de la famine ou de la

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II.

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 complétement inutiles. J'agis depuis quatre mois, et je crois avoir rendu quelques services par ce moyen qui en dépit de toutes les entraves, nous a donné trois représentations, une commission internationale, des commissions de nations et 137 signataires 161 qui succomberont avec honneur et horions, si l'on continue à nous traiter aussi mal. Je crois inutiles tous effor

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I.

I.

L'état des esprits dans le Concile et hors du Concile, les discours prononcés, les écrits nombreux publiés de part et d'autre, prouvent évidemment, aux yeux de quiconque juge sans parti pris et avec une parfaite impartialité, que la question, depuis 1682, pour ne pas remonter plus haut, n'a pas encore fait un seul pas; elle en est toujours au même point. L'étude la plus attentive de la Tradition n'a pas donné de nouvelles lumières à ceux qui sont capables de ces études, et sans doute l'état de l

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II.

II.

La prorogation du Concile serait done la mesure la plus rationelle et la plus prudente. Mais les impatiences provoquées, enflammées de plus en plus par toute sorte de manœuvres, comment les contenir? Ces feuilles, ces écrits, 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 mépris universel, pour avoir leurré si longtemps les âmes honnêtes et religieuses d'une espérance si lente à se réaliser? Mais que faire!

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Appendix IV.

Appendix IV.

Cette liberté n'existe plus. Ce droit est violé sur un point que plus de 100 évêques ont déclaré de la dernière importance. Leur protestation vous donne un point de départ et des arguments invincibles. Ces évêques déclarent que le Règlement est contraire à la loi de l'Église sur le point décisif de la Majorité. Car ce droit, depuis Nicée jusqu'à Trente, déclare que la règle indisputable et certaine pour les définitions dogmatiques c'est l'unanimité morale, et non la majorité. Un nombre immense d

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Appendix V.

Appendix V.

Comment une telle question, sous-introduite tout à coup dans un chapitre annexé à un grand Schema , le dessein de ceux qui nous ont été soumis, passerait avant tous les schemata déjà étudiés, avant toutes les autres questions déjà discutées, et non encore résolues par le Concile. Des questions fondamentales, essentiellement préliminaires à toutes les autres; Dieu, sa personnalité, sa providence, Jésus-Christ, sa divinité, sa redemption, sa grâce, l'Église, on laisserait tout celà de coté pour se

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Advertisement.

Advertisement.

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

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