_Rome, December 1869._—The Council is opened. It is, we may say, in full
swing, and the situation has to a certain degree revealed itself. Two
great questions are in every mind and on every tongue—_first_, “Wherein
will the freedom promised to the Council consist, and how far will it
extend?” and _secondly_, “Will Papal Infallibility be erected into a
dogma?”
As regards the freedom of the Council, the position of the episcopate is
in some respects better and in others worse than at Trent three centuries
ago. Then the Italians had the most complete and undeniable preponderance
over the Spanish and French Prelates, who were the only others that came
into the reckoning at all. The opposition of the latter could at best only
stop the passing of some particular decrees, but, generally speaking,
whatever the legates and their devoted troop of Italian Prelates desired
was carried, and as they desired it. The numerical relations are entirely
changed now, and there is a far more comprehensive representation of
National Churches. The Italian Bishops, even if unanimous among
themselves, do not form a third of the whole Synod. But what they have
lost in numbers is abundantly made up by the lion’s share the Papal Court
seizes beforehand for itself, and thereby for the Italian _prelatura_.
The first step taken, and the regulations already made by Pius IX. for the
present Council, prove that it is not to follow the precedents of the
ancient free Councils, or even of the Tridentine. At Trent all decrees
still ran in the name of the Council. “The 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 Bishops a
_Methodus in primâ Sessione Concilii observanda_, which prescribes thus:
“The Pope will hand over the decrees to the Secretary or another Bishop to
read, who reads them with the heading, ‘Pius, Episcopus, servus servorum
Dei, _sacro approbante Concilio_, ad perpetuam rei memoriam.’ ” After
reading them he asks the Cardinals and Bishops whether they assent. If all
say _Placet_, the Pope declares the decrees carried “nemine dissentiente.”
If some answer, _Non placet_, he mentions the number, and adds, “Nosque,
sacro approbante Concilio, illa ita decernimus, statuimus atque sancimus
ut lecta sunt.” This is the formula first introduced after Gregory VII.’s
time, when the Papacy had climbed to its mediæval eminence. The first to
use it was Alexander III., at the Roman Synod of 1079.(13) It stands in
glaring contrast to the practice of the ancient Synods for the first
thousand years of Church history, which drew up and promulgated all their
decisions freely, independently, and in their own name. Here the Pope
appears as the author of the decrees, the one authoritative legislator,
who out of courtesy allows the Bishops to express their opinions, but
finally decides himself, in the plenitude of his sovereign power, as seems
good to him. In another Papal document communicated to the Bishops it is
said still more emphatically, “Nos deinde supremam nostram sententiam
edicemus eamque nunciari et promulgari mandabimus, hâc adhibitâ solemni
formulâ, Decreta modo lecta, etc.” Meanwhile one concession has been made,
which might possibly have some value: the Pope has declared that, though
the right of initiating measures belongs entirely to himself, he is
willing to allow the Bishops to exercise it. This would give them the
opportunity of at least bringing forward for discussion some of the worst
evils—such as, _e.g._, what many of them feel to be the hateful nuisance
of the Index—and preparing remedies. But then it must be borne in mind
that on every question the _Curia_ has at its disposal a majority of
Prelates, who are its own creatures, and many of them in its pay. With the
help of this troop of devoted followers it can get rid of every
disagreeable proposal before it is even submitted to discussion.
The Sessions of the Council are solemnities only held for the formal
promulgation of decrees already discussed and passed; the real business is
done in the previous Congregations. Every Bishop who wants to speak there
is to give notice the day before, but those who wish to speak without
having given notice are not to be prevented. A congregation of twenty-four
members is to be chosen by the Bishops from among themselves, for the
purpose of specially investigating subjects on which differences of
opinion have been expressed, and reporting on them. At least nine-tenths
of the Prelates are condemned to silence simply from being unable to speak
Latin readily and coherently through want of regular practice. And to this
must be added the diversities of pronunciation. It is impossible, _e.g._,
that Frenchmen or Italians should understand an Englishman’s Latin even
for a minute.(14)
There will no doubt be some subjects on which the Bishops may really speak
and determine freely. But the moment a question in any way affects the
interests and rights of the Roman _Curia_, there is an end of their
freedom. For every Bishop has sworn not only to maintain but constantly to
increase all the rights of the Pope, and it is notorious that at Rome, and
in regular intercourse with the Papal Congregations, one can take no step
without being reminded, directly or indirectly—by courtly insinuation, or
rudely and openly,—of this oath, and the enormous extent of the
obligations incurred by it, which embrace the whole range of
ecclesiastical life. The Bishops then are so far free in Council, that no
Bishop who expresses an opinion unpalatable to the _Curia_ is threatened
with imprisonment or bodily injury.(15) Those Bishops enjoy a larger
freedom who have the moral courage to incur the reproach of perjury and
the threat of Papal displeasure and its consequences; who, knowing well
that they can only carry out the most indispensable rights and duties of
their office by virtue of Papal privileges and delegations—quinquennial
faculties and the like,—yet vote simply according to their
convictions.(16) The only question is how many Bishops will act thus.
The members of the Court of Rome vie with one another in assurances that
perfect freedom will be left to the Bishops in the grand question of the
proclamation of the new dogma of Papal Infallibility. This is confidently
asserted by those Germans who are more deeply initiated into the views of
the _Curia_, such as the Jesuits Franzelin, Schrader, and Kleutgen. And
above all, Bishop Fessler, the Secretary of the Council and favourite of
the _Curia_, who was the first among the Bishops to declare that it was
the main business of the Council to formulate and proclaim the new dogma,
takes especial pains to convince the Bishops that the Pope has no
intention of bringing the subject before them himself. He admits that the
preparatory Commission has discussed this most important and comprehensive
of all doctrines, and has almost unanimously decided it to be both true
and opportune; and that their reporter has shown conclusively, that
considering the boundless devotion to Rome of the present episcopate (at
least the majority of them), no more favourable moment could be chosen for
enriching the Church with this new and fundamental article of faith.
This is now their watchword. All the initiated repeat it, and some
episcopal optimists try to persuade themselves and others that the danger
is really past, and the scheme abandoned for this time. But the truth is
this: the authorities know well enough that the absolutists among the
Bishops—all those who hope to strengthen their dominion and extend it over
secular matters by means of Papal Infallibility—are both numerous and
organized, and only await the intimation that the right moment has arrived
to come forward themselves with a motion powerfully supported. To begin
with the Germans, there is the Bishop of Paderborn, whose Jesuit
theologian, Roh, says that, precisely because Papal Infallibility is
called in question by Bishops like Dupanloup and Maret, the Council must
define it, to make any repetition of this atrocity impossible for the
future. Then there are the Bishops of Regensburg, Würzburg, St. Pölten,
and Gratz, the Belgian and English Prelates, and those of French
Switzerland, among whom Mermillod rivals Manning in his fanatical zeal for
the new dogma; the Spanish Prelates—men selected for promotion by Queen
Isabella and the nuncio at Madrid, simply for their thorough-paced
ultramontanism—pure absolutists in Church and State, who would gladly see
the new dogma ready-made at once, but have to be restrained for a while.
To these must be added such French Prelates as Plantier of Nîmes, Pie of
Poitiers, the Bishops of Laval and Montauban, and others. One knows least
of the votes of the Italian and United States Bishops, who, like the
Irish, will probably be divided. In any case the Court party can count on
a considerable majority in favour of the new dogma.
Of course the opposite party, who wish to stave it off, is strong and
numerous. To it belong the majority of the German and Austrian, as well as
the Bohemian and Hungarian Prelates, and among the French, the Archbishops
of Paris, Rheims, and Avignon, the Bishops of Marseilles, Grenoble,
Orleans, Chalons, and many more. And on the point of the time being
inopportune for defining the Infallibilist dogma, a portion of the “old
Papal guard,”—viz., the Italian Bishops—will join them, not to speak of
American and Irish Prelates.
But—and in this lies their weakness—they are only held together by a very
loose bond. The one point they are agreed upon is that the promulgation of
the new dogma will cause great embarrassments to the Church and to
themselves personally, and involve them in all sorts of conflicts. On the
main question, whether this substitution of an infallible man for an
infallible Church is true, and attested by Scripture and Tradition, they
are themselves divided. If the confidants of the _Curia_ understand how to
insert the wedge into this split, and drive it home, they may perhaps
contrive to break up the whole Opposition, and carry through, by an
imposing and apparently almost unanimous vote, this Alpha and Omega of
ultramontanism, in which all their wishes and hopes are concentrated.
Meanwhile no stone will be left unturned, and very various methods will be
applied, and arguments used, in working upon different Bishops. The
earnest desire of the Holy Father will be urged on some soft-hearted
Prelates; they will be told that the only way the Council can rejoice his
heart amid his bitter trials, and brighten the evening of his life, is by
freely offering him that crown of personal infallibility which former
Popes have striven for, but never obtained. To others it will be intimated
that the Council itself must look like a play with the chief figure left
out, or an abortion, if the Syllabus and Infallibility are not made into
dogmas, for there is no other question important enough to justify
collecting 500 Bishops from five quarters of the world. Those who agree
with the doctrine, but shrink for the present from the unpleasant
consequences it might entail upon them, will be told, “Now, or perhaps
never.” With freedom of the press established everywhere, it will be
impossible much longer to keep the poison of historical criticism, so
especially rife in Germany, out of the theological schools and seminaries,
and so perhaps the next generation of clergy will not believe so
absolutely in Papal Infallibility as the clergy in many countries do now,
and then the new dogma will come at an unseasonable time, and encounter
powerful opposition. Besides, it is best to lose no time in putting the
iron bar of the new dogma across the way, for then all historical facts
that witness against Infallibility, all results of criticism and
investigation, all appeals to the forgeries and fictions which helped to
build up the edifice, are once for all got rid of and destroyed, at least
within the Church. No Catholic will any longer venture to appeal to them,
and if he is an historical student, he will only be able to console
himself by saying, _Credo, quia absurdum_. The dogma has triumphed over
history, as Manning has so admirably explained in his last Pastoral.
Their favourite argument is the common one about increasing the strength
and security of the coercive power of the Church. The Bishops are told
that the personal infallibility of the Pope will make not only him but
them, his delegates and plenipotentiaries, much more powerful, and that
under its shadow they will rule with a stronger hand, for resistance will,
in most cases, be blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, speaking through the
Pope and his chosen instruments. Who, for instance, would any longer dare
to defend a book condemned by the Congregation of the Index, after it had
become infallible? On the other hand, the Bishops have their scruples, and
some of them may be heard saying that this would be a poor consolation for
losing half their episcopal authority, and that it is hard to ask them to
degrade themselves, and renounce their former dignity as the supreme
tribunal of faith, by making the Pope infallible. It might not be pleasant
to return home from the Council with the consciousness of having
themselves abdicated at Rome the best, and what has hitherto been held in
the Church the highest, part of their authority, and burned it as a
holocaust on the altar of Papal autocracy. The _rôle_ of a Papal courtier,
however convenient at Rome, has its dark side north of the Alps.
Already many symptoms of uneasiness betray themselves. Pius IX. said the
other day to a German Prince of the Church, who formerly gave his opinion
against the Immaculate Conception, and has now again pronounced openly
against the Infallibilist dogma, _Ce dogme de l’infaillibilité passera,
comme l’autre, malgré vous_. On the other hand, the _Regolamento_ has
excited great discontent, for it unmistakeably indicates the design of
giving the Pope the decision, and making the Bishops only consultors. Had
the assembly been in some degree prepared for it, and had time allowed
them for coming to an understanding, there would certainly have been
opposition to it. But the heads of the French episcopate have only just
come together, and no attempt even has been made to bring the German and
French Bishops into communication with each other. And a feature of Roman
policy about the Council, now first introduced, is not exactly calculated
to promote confidence and a happy expectation of the prosperous results of
the Synod. I mean the rigid secrecy. According to the last directions,
all, bishops and theologians, are to maintain the strictest secrecy about
everything, and the preliminary labours, as is well known, had to be
carried on under the seal of secrecy of the Holy Office (the Inquisition).
Nothing was communicated to the Bishops themselves, who came to Rome in
complete ignorance of what they were to vote about—a procedure without any
precedent in Church history. It really seems sometimes as if the object
was to turn the Church topsy-turvy, and take pleasure in doing exactly the
contrary to what the Church of earlier ages did when nearer her original
foundation. Formerly the idea of a Council was associated with the notion
of the fullest publicity, and the common participation of all the
faithful; the deliberations were conducted with open doors, and all were
admitted who wished to hear them,—for from the beginning all secrecy was
strange and unnatural to the Church, which was distinguished from
heathenism in the very point of neither having nor tolerating any esoteric
doctrine or secret compact. But the Roman _prelatura_ too shares the
Italian predilection for making mysteries,—as evidenced in the number of
secret societies in the Peninsula,—and then the Jesuits of the _Civiltà_,
and their French and German copyists, had so solemnly promised that the
Council would provide in its decrees a sure and effective remedy for
humanity, sorely diseased as it is, and threatened with destruction. As
yet we have waited in vain for any intelligible intimation of what this
panacea is to be. Beyond Papal Infallibility and the Syllabus, nothing has
transpired. Were the curtain to be drawn back at the beginning, and the
secret betrayed,—that the much lauded panacea is only moonshine, and that
the Council is not in a position to prescribe any other medicine to the
patient named mankind than the usual and well-known remedies of faith,
hope, and charity—the discord, already growing, would be still further
increased. It is well therefore to lay the finger on the lips.
Meantime the Pope has united the most thorough-paced Infallibilists,
Manning, Plantier of Nîmes, Pie of Poitiers, Mermillod of Geneva, and
Deschamps of Mechlin, on a Committee said to be intrusted with the
discussion of very important questions. Manning appears to be recognised
as their leader by all the adherents of the new dogma, and Mermillod
strongly supports him. Cardinal Pitra, the French Benedictine formerly
intrusted with a mission, which proved unsuccessful, to the Archbishop of
Rouen, Cardinal Bonnechose, has lately tried the same plan with the German
Bishops. He began by describing the Bishop of Orleans as a mischievous
teacher of error, and was obliged to hear, much to his surprise, that
these German Bishops quite agreed with Dupanloup, and the Hungarians with
the Germans. Thus all have taken their side, or will do so in the next few
days. All the Spanish, Belgian, and English(17) Bishops, the majority of
the Italians, and a considerable number of the French, have ranged
themselves under the banner of the new dogma. They all declare that it
must now be decreed that every one, without exception, must inwardly
believe and outwardly confess Papal Infallibility on pain of damnation;
and all the more so, since Pius himself has now abandoned the reserved
attitude he had maintained up to this time in presence of the
diplomatists, and openly proclaims, that, being himself profoundly
convinced of his own infallibility, he neither can nor will tolerate any
further doubt about it in others. And thus the influence of this party is
very powerful, and already preponderates; the whole mechanism of the
Council, the order of business, the _personnel_ of its officers, in short
everything, is substantially in their hands, or will be placed at their
disposal. All preparations were made in their interest, and all
alternatives were foreseen. That great ecclesiastical polypus, with its
thousand feelers and arms, the Jesuit Order, works for it under the earth
and on the earth; _Mea res agitur_ is its watchword.
On the other side, ready for the contest, and resolved at least to show
fight, stand the German, Bohemian, and Hungarian Bishops,—with the
exception, of course, of Martin, Senestrey, Fessler, and some others—and
all among the French, American, and Irish Bishops who possess any culture
and knowledge. These men still hope to see a portion of the Oriental
Bishops—the real ones, not the mere Italian so-called
Vicars-Apostolic—join their side, and there is indeed a very general
anxiety as to what position the Orientals, especially the Armenians, will
take up in reference to the great questions at issue. They would all like
to keep the Church free from the millstone of the new dogma intended to be
hung about her neck, though very few even among them have a clear
perception of the momentous consequences it would entail, in science and
literature, in politics, and in the relations of the Catholic Church to
other Churches. But the whole party has wind and sun against it, and has
to join battle in the most unfavourable position, on slippery soil, and
confined to acting on the defensive under the greatest difficulties. The
Infallibilists, from the nature of the case, are far clearer and better
agreed, both as to end and means, than their adversaries, many of whom do
not conceal their predilection for the dogma, though they tremble at the
consequences of it. Moreover, many of them will allow themselves to be
gained over before long, whether through devotion to Pius IX., or by the
threats and enticements the _Curia_ knows so well how to apply, and for
which it possesses an inexhaustible treasury to choose from. There is, for
instance, the honorary title granted by Rome to about 250 Bishops, _solio
Pontificio assistens_, which seems to the short-sighted only fit for
lackeys, but is in fact greatly sought after, and will be most graciously
accorded to those who unconditionally surrender themselves. And then there
are those manifold concessions out of the rich store of Papal reserved
rights, special benedictions, and the like, so that there are always nine
out of every ten Bishops who want one at least of these privileges.
We may readily conceive the excitement in the Jesuit camp. After the
patient, indefatigable toil of years of seed-time, the harvest-time seems
to them to be come at last. Up to 1773, their Order, from its numbers, the
cultivation of its members, the influence of its schools and educational
establishments, and its compact organization, was unquestionably the most
powerful religious corporation, but at the same time was limited and held
in check by the influence and powerful position of the other Orders.
Augustinians, Carmelites, Minorites, and, above all, Dominicans, were
likewise strong, and, moreover, leagued together for harmonious action
through their common hatred of the Jesuits, or through the natural desire
to escape being mastered by them. Dominicans and Augustinians possessed by
long prescription the most influential offices in Rome, so much so indeed
that the two Congregations of the Index and the Holy Office were entirely
in the hands of the Order of Preachers, to the exclusion of the Jesuits.
Since the restoration of the Jesuits this is completely changed, and
entirely in their interest. All the ancient Orders are now in decline,
above all, in theological importance and influence; they do but vegetate
now. Moreover, the Dominicans have been saddled with a General thoroughly
devoted to the Jesuits, Jandel, a Frenchman, who is exerting himself to
root out in his Order the Thomist doctrines, so unpalatable to the
Jesuits. The youngest of the great Orders, the Redemptorists or
Liguorians, act—sometimes willingly, sometimes unwillingly—as the serving
brothers, road-makers, and labourers for the Jesuits. And hence, now that
they enjoy the special favour of the Pope, they have come to acquire a
power in Rome which may be called quite unexampled. They have, in fact,
become already the legislators and trusted counsellors of the Pope, who
sees with their eyes and hears with their ears. To those familiar with the
state of things at Rome, it is enough to name Piccirillo. For years past
they have implanted and fostered in the mind of Pius IX. the views he now
wants to have consecrated into dogmas, and have managed to set aside, and
at last reduce to impotence, the influence of wise men, who take a sober
view of the condition of the times. When the Dominican Cardinal Guidi, who
was then the most distinguished theologian in Rome, freely expressed to
the Pope his views about the projected Council and the measures to be
brought before it, from that hour he was not only allowed no audience of
Pius IX., but was excluded from all share in the preparatory labours of
the Council, so that he remained in entire ignorance of the matters to be
laid before it. But the Jesuits are also the oracles of many Cardinals,
whose votes and opinions are very often ready-made for them in the Gesu.
The Congregation of the Index, which they used formerly so often to
attack, blame, and accuse of partiality, when their own works were
censured by it, is now becoming more and more their own domain, though the
chief places are still in the hands of the Dominicans; and this may
gradually take place with most of the Congregations in whose hands is
centralized the guidance and administration of Church affairs in all
countries.
And thus, if Papal Infallibility becomes a dogma, what inevitably awaits
us is, that this Infallibility will not merely be worked in certain cases
by the counsel and direction of the Jesuits; much more than that. The
Jesuits will for the future be the regular stewards of this treasure, and
architects of the new dogmas we have to expect. They will stamp the
dogmatic coinage and put it into circulation. It is enough to know the
earlier history of the Society to know what this means, and what an
immense capital of power and influence it will place at their command.
“Rulers and subjects”—that will henceforth be the relation between the
Jesuits and the theologians of other Orders. Worst of all will be the
position of theologians and teachers who belong to no Order. At the mercy
of the most contradictory judgments, as is already, _e.g._, the case in
France, constantly exposed to the displeasure of the Jesuits, of the
_Curia_, and of their Bishop or his adviser, and daily threatened in their
very existence, how are they to get spirit, perseverance, or zeal for
earnest studies, deep researches, and literary activity? Every Jesuit,
looking down from the impregnable height of his privileged position, will
be able to cry out to the theologians of the secular clergy, “Tu longe
sequere et vestigia prorsus adora;” for now is that fulfilled which the
Belgian Jesuits demanded 230 years ago in their _Imago Societatis Jesu_.
Their Order is now really, and in the fullest sense, the Urim and Thummim
and breastplate of the High Priest—the Pope—who can only then issue an
oracular utterance when he has consulted his breastplate, the Jesuit
Order.(18) Only one thing was still wanting for the salvation of a world
redeemed and regenerated once again: the Jesuits must again become the
confessors of monarchs restored to absolute power.
It is one of the notes of an age so rich in contradictions that the
present General of the Order, Father Beckx, is not in harmony with the
proceedings of his spiritual militia. Here, in Rome, he is reported to
have said, “In order to recover two fractions of the States of the Church,
they are pricking on to a war against the world—but they will lose all.”
But for that reason, as is known, he possesses only the outward semblance
of Government, while it is really in the hands of a conference. With this
the fact seems to be connected that he has appointed for his theologian at
the Council the most learned and liberal-minded man of his Order, Father
de Buck—a man whose views stand in much the same relation to those of his
fellow-Jesuits Perrone, Schrader, and Curli, as the Bishop of Orleans’s
views to those of the Archbishop of Westminster.