We have received the following interesting information from a trustworthy
person, who is returned to Germany after a long sojourn in Rome, where he
was in a position, among other things, to get to know the projects for the
Council. The relations of Pius IX. to the _Civiltà_ may be fully
understood from the fact—attested by the officials of the Chancery—that
the editors are regularly admitted to an audience with the Holy Father,
like the prime minister, usually once a week, never less often than every
fortnight. At these audiences the manuscripts prepared for the next number
are laid before the Pope, who reads them, and, according to his interest
in the contents, comments on them or returns them unaltered to the
Chancery. The ideas of the _Civiltà_ are therefore not only not unknown to
the Pope, but are published with his express and personal approval. The
chosen model of Pius IX. is Gregory VII., and his favourite notion is to
discharge that _rôle_ in the present Church which Gregory did in the
middle ages. He is therefore thoroughly given up to theocratic tendencies
in the contest against the modern State, and the attacks of the _Civiltà_
upon it and the whole system of modern civilisation express his innermost
thoughts. Even the General of the Jesuits is said often to be uneasy about
the language used by members of his Order in their journal, and unable to
avoid the apprehension that it may seriously prejudice the Order
hereafter.
In the Chancery, where Antonelli’s confidant Mgr. Marini revises the
_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
Council the _Civiltà_, is simply the organ of the Holy Father himself,
Antonelli does not cease to give the most reassuring answers to questions
addressed to him on the subject by the various diplomatic agents. Rome, he
assures them, will not take the initiative in making either the
propositions of the Syllabus or Papal Infallibility into dogmas. Many
representatives of foreign Governments have been deceived by these
declarations, and have written home in that sense, the immediate
consequence of which was seen in the reception accorded in some Courts to
the despatch of the Bavarian Government. But they will not allow at Rome
that they mean themselves to give the first impulse for these solemn
dogmatic decisions. That only proves the confidence felt in the Vatican
that a considerable number of the Bishops will come forward to demand it.
It is a secret already pretty well published in Rome, how the play is to
be put on the stage, and who is to be the protagonist. Nor does any one
there venture seriously to deny the fact that a version of the Syllabus,
composed by Father Schrader, at the wish of the Pope himself, changing its
negative theses into positive, is already drawn up.
Archbishop Manning and Cardinal Reisach are the leading persons in all
these designs. Reisach,(3) who is accounted in Rome a man of eminent
learning and wisdom, and who always manifests the most unbounded devotion
to the Pope, takes an unfavourable view of German affairs. It was through
him that Dr. Mast, well known through what occurred at Rottenburg, was
placed on two of the preparatory Commissions (_Politico-Ecclesiastica_ and
_De Disciplinâ Ecclesiæ_) as consultor. So again, he has sought out
Moufang of Mayence and Molitor of Spires, for his own Congregation,
because he presumes them to be like-minded with himself. The general rule
in selecting persons for the preliminary work has been to consider their
devotion to the cause, not their scientific capabilities. First among
them, in the directing Congregation of Cardinals, must be named Bilio, who
never loses an opportunity in conversation of eloquently extolling Papal
Infallibility. To the same class belongs Panebianco, a zealous friend of
the extremest claims of the Bourbons. Neither of them is known for learned
labours of any note, as neither are Barnabo and the aged Patrizzi, who is
named President of this Congregation merely on account of his name and
age. Among the domestic consultors of the Commission on dogma, known in
literature, and as its very soul, sits the Jesuit Perrone, who is become
indispensable to the Pope; then comes Spada, the Dominican, Master of the
Palace, who gained his theological reputation by a controversial treatise
in defence of eternal punishment; Cardoni, who exhibited his strong views
in a work advocating the obligation of religious when named to bishoprics
still to live according to the rules of their Order; and finally,
Bartolini, who has vindicated the identity of the Holy House of Loretto
with the house of the Blessed Virgin at Nazareth—all simply men of the
most rigid type. Among those employed in these preliminary labours,
Professor Biondo, of St. Apollinare, excels all the rest, if in nothing
else, in his conviction that true devotion to the Church can only be found
in Italy. We may take as a significant illustration of the method of
choosing foreign consultors, the appointment of Mgr. Talbot for England,
who, when appointed, was out of his mind, and has now been for four months
in a lunatic asylum. Among the French who are invited the Abbé Freppel
appears to be the most moderate. But even in Rome there are many
clergymen, and even Cardinals, who do not conceal their opinion that with
such designs the Council will be an embarrassment for Rome, and a danger
for the Church. But nothing of this comes to the ear of the supreme
authority, nor would information of it directly conveyed to the Pope be
likely to effect any change. Even the _Curia_ measures the sentiment of
the Catholic world by the homage paid to the Pope, and therefore the
solemnity can only encourage them in their designs about the Council. It
is sometimes feared that the French Bishops may give trouble; any
opposition on the part of secular governments is not taken into account,
for the _Curia_ has completely broken with the modern State, and has
systematically ignored it both in the project and the proclamation of the
Council, while according to the precedent of nearly all former Œcumenical
Synods, an understanding should have been come to with the Catholic States
as to the time and place of holding it, and the subjects to be discussed.
The separation of Church and State in this last procedure is the act of
Rome, although the opposite theory is sanctioned in the Syllabus. Anything
like a literary and scientific opposition, or a movement among the laity,
such as has here and there begun to show itself, is regarded in the
Vatican as a mere tempest in a tea-cup.