In former times, the assembling of an Œcumenical Council was caused by a
general sense throughout the Catholic world of some religious need,
whether the definition of an article of faith or the abolition of grave
evils and abuses—in short, a reformation—was felt to be necessary. It was
universally known what questions the Council was to treat of. The
sovereigns communicated, for this end, with the heads of the Church and
the Pope, and brought forward their own wishes and requirements, as at the
last Œcumenical Council of Trent, which had at least to be taken into
consideration. But how entirely different is this Council under Pius IX.!
Already, in 1854, an episcopal assembly, at Rome, raised to the dignity of
a dogma the thesis of a theological school of the middle ages, combated
even by Thomas Aquinas, but which happens to have become a favourite
opinion of the Pope, although no ground had been discovered for this new
article of faith in any want of the religious life which the Church has to
cultivate. And this was done against the judgment of a considerable number
of the prelates who were consulted, without any basis for the doctrine
being able to be found in Scripture and Tradition, by the acclamations of
the assembled bishops—after a fashion, that is, in which no dogma had ever
been defined before. The Abbé Laborde, who craved permission to lay his
objections before the assembly, received for answer his banishment from
Rome, and the name of another priest was subscribed to the Bull
proclaiming the dogma without his knowledge or consent, so that he found
himself compelled to protest publicly against it. In view of these facts,
and under the just anticipation that at the approaching Council the
dominant party in Rome will be equally tyrannical in their treatment of
dissentients,—it is already reported that three members of the present
Commission, who are opposed to Jesuit tendencies and practices, have been
suffered to retire—several distinguished heads of the Church have
renounced the idea of delivering their testimony there. And how is this
Council the outcome of any urgent requirements of the Church’s life, and
does Catholic Christendom know what end it is designed to serve, and what
is to be expected of it? Nothing of the sort. The necessity of the
Council, if it will not put its hand to a reformation of the Church, in
accordance with the needs of modern civilisation, is not everywhere
understood by the clergy themselves. Only this winter wishes were loudly
expressed by some of them that its assembling might be dispensed with,
considering the position of the Church in Austria and Spain; but in the
Holy Father’s state of exaltation on the subject these wishes could have
no effect. Then again,—what is perhaps without precedent in all Church
history—the the matters to be treated of in the Council have been
carefully kept secret; the Bull of Indiction confines itself to vague
generalities, and the theologians employed in the preliminary labours were
bound to silence by the oath of the Holy Office,—_i.e._, the
Inquisition—imposed under pain of excommunication to be incurred _ipso
facto_. It seems not to be necessary, therefore, at least for the present,
that Christendom should have even any inkling of the doctrines on the
acceptance or rejection of which salvation or damnation is to be made
dependent.
It is not the satisfaction of real religious needs that is
contemplated—there would be no need to shun publicity in that case—but
chartering dogmas which have no root in the common convictions of the
Catholic world. Leibnitz used to call even the Council of Trent a “concile
de contrabande;” the way in which this last Council is to be brought on
the stage would make the designation for the first time fully applicable.
If these circumstances alone are enough to make Governments that have
Catholic subjects suspicious of the designs of the _Curia_, there are also
further proofs that their designs are not confined to strictly
ecclesiastical affairs, but involve direct encroachment on the life of the
modern State. Not to dwell here on the too open-hearted confidences of the
_Civiltà_, which, although published with the approval of the Holy Father
himself, have been characterized by him as an “imprudenza,”(4) we will
pass to other facts which sufficiently indicate the projected decrees of
the Council.
To the inquiries of ambassadors about the reasons for summoning a General
Council, Antonelli could only reply by referring to the great revolution
and fundamental change in civil and political relations. It may be
inferred from this declaration that the Council is intended to discharge a
political office also, and in what sense, Rome has told us in the Syllabus
and the condemnation of the Austrian Constitution. For this object an
ecclesiastico-political consulting committee has been formed, subordinate
to the Commission intrusted with the supreme control of the Council, with
Cardinal Reisach at its head, and whose Italian members are as conspicuous
for their want of scientific culture as for their opposition to any
concession to the requirements of the age, and their hostility to all
foreign countries, and especially to the non-Roman portions of Italy. The
Syllabus will be put into shape in its affirmative form by this Section,
in order thus to be submitted for sanction to the Council. One of its
members lately expressed himself in the following terms, with the applause
of his colleagues and of the Holy Father himself:—“The Syllabus is good,
but raw meat, and must be carefully dressed to make it palatable.” This
skilful dressing, which is to make it everywhere acceptable, it is hoped
to effect by publishing the propositions in the form of exhortations,
instead of commands, which, however, will come to the same thing, as the
exhortations emanate from the head of the Church.
It is with good reason that Prince Hohenlohe, in his despatch, expresses
the fear that the Council, according to the programme of the _Curia_, will
publish decrees on political rather than ecclesiastical questions, and he
rightly states that the projected dogma of Papal Infallibility is also an
eminently political question. For when once that is defined, the mediæval
pretension of the Pope to dominion over kings and nations, even in secular
matters, which has never been abandoned, is thereby also raised to the
rank of an article of divine faith. Thiers lately made the remarkable
observation that the temporal power alone holds the Pope in check;—a monk,
who was Pope, would think himself omnipotent. Certainly, without the
temporal power, the maintenance of which depends on the goodwill of the
French Government, and the administration of which keeps the Pope within a
political area, he would give freer rein, when it was possible, to his
views of the corruption of the modern State. Once seat a monk on the Papal
throne, as many have already sat there, unacquainted with the actual
world, and in heart alienated from it, and arm him with the prerogative of
infallibility,—his decrees in the present condition of society are sure to
evoke the most deplorable conflicts.
The ultramontane press in Germany, which is itself beginning to find the
decisions sketched out by the _Civiltà_ intolerable, now adopts the
tactics of denying the official character of the Jesuit journal, and
clings to the straw of hope that neither Papal Infallibility nor the
Syllabus will be made dogmas. But it is no secret in Rome that those
alarming communications of the _Civiltà_ were letters written by French
Jesuits, prepared and published with the sanction of the Holy Father
himself, and cannot therefore be treated as mere chance contributions of
private correspondents.
For several years past the Court of Rome, with the aid of its
indefatigable allies the Jesuits, has been preparing the way for securing
beforehand the votes of the Bishops on Papal Infallibility. Thus some
years ago the Bishops of different countries received, quite unexpectedly,
an urgent admonition from Rome to hold Provincial Synods, and frame
decrees at them. These decrees had to be sent to Rome, to the Congregation
exclusively charged with the revision of such ordinances, and were then
returned, after correction and enlargement by the Cardinals and Committees
of the Congregation. When they came to be printed, it was found that all
these Synods had shown a wonderful unanimity in adopting Papal
Infallibility as a self-evident principle into their exposition of
universally known Catholic doctrine. The Jesuit organs have not failed to
point triumphantly to these decisions of so many Bishops and Synods.
It is a fact that Antonelli publicly declared there could be no difficulty
about the promulgation of Papal Infallibility, because it was a doctrine
already held by all good Catholics. And this is the watchword of the whole
ultramontane party at Rome. It is also a fact that the question was
brought before the directing Commission in order to be put into shape, and
then submitted for confirmation to the Council. And although it is certain
that the discussion of it by the Commission is finished, the decision will
be carefully kept secret for a time, because as yet courage fails them for
a straightforward course of procedure, and they hope to gain their end by
a sort of _coup d’état_, viz., carrying the dogma by spontaneous
acclamation, to be evoked by a foreign prelate.(5) And thus Governments
will be deprived of the opportunity of gaining any influence over the
decisions of the Council, and protecting themselves against threatening
eventualities.
Well-informed persons, who do not deny the intention of making
Infallibility into a dogma, think that some innocuous formula will at last
be discovered, such as prefixing a “quasi” to “infallibilis,” so that all
the trouble expended in gratifying this darling wish of Pius IX. will be
almost labour lost. But so long as the decision rests with the Jesuits,
who have an overwhelming majority in the preparatory Congregation, there
is no ground for this hope. They foresee the possibility of being again
driven from the helm a few days after the death of the Pope, and therefore
press for an unqualified definition, that they may make capital out of the
infallible Pope for conquering a new position of influence for themselves
in civilized Catholic countries. And if they could not reckon without some
regard to other factors also, still their calculations had a good prospect
of success, for Pius IX. is completely in the hands of the Jesuits,
especially of Father Piccirillo, the chief person on the _Civiltà_ staff,
who will act as _spiritus rector_ of the Council. The Pope is seldom left
alone, lest he should fall under the influence of others who judge more
correctly of the situation of the modern world and the real wants of the
Catholic Church; he lives in an artificial atmosphere of homage poured
forth by the ultramontane journals. He is so possessed with a sense of his
own power that he believes he ought not to regard or fear any possible
opposition of the French Government to the decisions of the Council.
Meanwhile there are growing signs that at least a portion of the French
episcopate are not willing to degrade themselves to the humiliating _rôle_
of mere acclaimers to the propositions of the _Curia_. In two articles of
the _Français_ (for March 18 and 19) Dupanloup has already decisively
disclaimed sympathy with the tendencies and insinuations loudly expressed
in the notorious correspondence of the _Civiltà_. He gives a specimen of
the hopes and wishes about the Council intimated by the French Bishops in
their pastorals, where he shows that they are all far from expecting it to
assail political and social liberty and freedom of conscience, to condemn
modern civilisation and widen the breach between the Catholic Church and
other Christian bodies, by proclaiming new dogmas; but, on the contrary,
that they look for a reformation of Church discipline adapted to the age,
and a work of general reconciliation with the great ideas of cultivation,
freedom, and the common weal. These declarations of the French episcopate
excited great surprise and deep disgust at Rome, without, however, to all
appearance, having disturbed the _Curia_ in their plans, as they know from
the statistics that they can count on an imposing majority in the Council.
Seats are prepared for 850 Bishops at the Council, but the question
whether Bishops _in partibus_ are to have decisive votes is not yet
decided. Since, however, their admission will not materially affect the
relative position of the two parties, they may be left out of the account.
To these voting members of the Council must be added 57 Cardinals, and the
number might be raised before its opening to 72, by the bestowal of the 15
hats vacant at present. There are thus about 920 decisive votes, including
40 Italian Cardinals, 294 Italian Bishops, 66 Spanish, 22 Portuguese, 90
French,—in all 512 prelates of the Romance race in Europe, to whom must be
added 77 Brazilian, Mexican, and South American Bishops, raising the whole
Romance representation to 600 votes. From this number about 60 must be
deducted for vacant Italian Sees, and some 140 who may presumably be
unable to attend. And so about 400 are left, whose votes, with the
exception of a number of French Bishops, are counted upon by the _Curia_.
The Court also reckons on the votes of 48 from England and Ireland, 52
from North America, 20 from Greece and Turkey, 6 from Belgium, 5 from
Holland, and 16 from Canada. If the Polish and Russian Bishops are allowed
to come, they too will swell the majority; and so, it is believed, will
the Armenian and Uniate Bishops in Austria, Russia, and Bulgaria,
numbering about 40. Of the 65 German and Austrian Bishops scarcely half
will side with the Opposition. And so, if matters are to be settled by
majorities, the _Curia_ is fully assured of its victory. Cardinal
Antonelli counts on from 500 to 600 votes of those actually present.
Under these circumstances the Governments of countries with Catholic
populations should be urgently pressed to devote their serious attention
to what is already going on in Rome, and not to let themselves be taken by
surprise by the decrees of the Council, which, when once promulgated, will
place their subjects in a painful dilemma between their duties towards the
State and their obedience to the Church; will everywhere create disquiet
and conflicts; and must, above all, involve their Bishops in
contradictions with the Constitutions they have sworn to observe. In the
present difficulties of the general political and social situation in
Europe, a conflict in the highest degree fatal might ensue with the
Church, whose mission of culture is not yet diminished even for the time,
and whose co-operation for its own purposes the State cannot dispense
with. In this contest the Church cannot conquer, because the spirit of the
age is against her; but the very crash of so mighty an edifice would cover
and destroy with its ruins the institutions of the State itself, perplex
consciences, and entail universal mischief by for the first time fully
confirming the spirit of absolute negation of the ethical and ideal
conception of life. The proceedings of Prince Hohenlohe may have sprung
from this statesmanlike consideration; they are inspired by a friendly
spirit towards the Church herself, and are of a thoroughly loyal
character. He wishes the Governments openly to communicate with their
Bishops, in order to point out to them the deplorable consequences which
must follow from so premeditated and systematic a revolution of the
existing relations between Church and State, and also, while there is
still time, to take precautions against the event of conciliar decrees
encroaching on the political domain. He challenges the learned
corporations of the State most directly competent, to give their opinion
publicly as to the practical results involved in making the Syllabus and
Papal Infallibility into dogmas. This proceeding is far from being
premature, for it is the business of a statesman not only to legislate in
view of accomplished facts, but to provide for menacing dangers, nor will
his conduct be blamed by any true friend of Church and State, whose
faculty of judgment is not utterly blinded by hatred. The repressive
measures which Governments would be compelled to employ after the
promulgation of the contemplated dogmas would not be at all in the
interest of the Church. Suppose, for instance, freedom of conscience,
already condemned in the Syllabus, were anathematized by the Council, and
the doctrine of religious compulsion sanctioned, the Bavarian Bishops who
had assented to this decree, or wished to obey it, would have broken their
oath to the Constitution, the Constitution which guarantees freedom of
conscience would be under the ban of Rome, and the Government would have
to answer by publishing the Concordat.