Letters From Rome on the Council Part 3

The opposition of German and French Bishops to the new dogma was more or less antic.i.p.ated here; what was not expected was that the Orientals, numbering about sixty, and the North American Bishops, would p.r.o.nounce 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 Const.i.tutions 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, "n.o.body 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 ma.s.s 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 Const.i.tution of their country.(24) A Belgian layman here a.s.sured 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 doc.u.ment, 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 const.i.tution _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. .h.i.therto been endeavoured to soften or set aside. For the originator of this tractate a.s.sures 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 h.e.l.l, 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 a.s.suming 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 G.o.d has created the human race in order from generation to generation to plunge into h.e.l.l 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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.sed 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 princ.i.p.ally 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 trans.m.u.te 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 inst.i.tution 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 a.s.semblies, 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 a.s.semblies 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 att.i.tude and mind. The circ.u.mstance 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 a.s.sembly should be divided into eight national groups, and that each of these "eight nations" should be ent.i.tled 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 crus.h.i.+ng out all opposition. For it has already become evident that the strength of the Romanist party lies in the number of t.i.tular 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 n.o.body, 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 a.s.surance that they were ready to die in absolute subjection to him. Hereupon Schwarzenberg came forward to declare that he would not sign the pet.i.tion, 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 subst.i.tute a string of new obligatory articles of faith for the _theologumena_ or doctrines of the theological schools. .h.i.therto 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 mult.i.tude 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_ c.u.m 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 manuvring 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 s.n.a.t.c.h 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 h.o.r.n.y 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 s.h.i.+nes 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 part.i.tion, so that the speakers could be somewhat better understood. Among the five speakers, who, like the seven that had preceded them, p.r.o.nounced for the rejection of the _Schema_, Strossmayer, and Ginoulbiac, of Gren.o.ble, 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 a.s.sist 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 a.s.sembly 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 a.s.sist.i.ti 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 s.e.x, 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 sc.r.a.ped 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 t.i.tle 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 s.h.i.+eld 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 pa.s.s that the Popes, who only needed to prefix the word "Orbi,"

or "Ecclesiae Catholicae," to their decrees, in order to make them infallible and una.s.sailable, 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 G.o.d." 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 ill.u.s.tration.

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 a.s.sured 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 pa.s.s, 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 inst.i.tution; 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 doc.u.ment 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 pet.i.tion 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 censors.h.i.+p, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 a.s.sumption 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 t.i.tles nor with the cut or colour of a vestment, was quite lately accosted by the Pope-in full consciousness of his Vicars.h.i.+p 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. .h.i.t 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 s.h.i.+elds 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 G.o.d, 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 a.s.sumed 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 circ.u.mstance that the a.s.sembly 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 Gren.o.ble, 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, Ha.s.soun, 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.