_Rome, Dec. 18, 1869._—After the solemn receptions, and the formal opening
of the Council, visits, audiences, and homages, the time for serious
business has arrived, and the Fathers have emerged from the dim twilight
of early synodical dawn into the clear daylight. People have begun to get
mutually acquainted, and to question one another. The first chaotic
condition of an exceedingly mixed assemblage, some of whose members
scarcely understand one another, or not at all, has been succeeded by a
sort of division, through the _rapprochement_ and closer combination of
men of similar views. As we related before, two great parties of very
unequal strength have organized themselves, and the shibboleth which
caused this division is the question of Papal Infallibility, which is
universally and consistently taken to imply that whoever is resolved to
vote for this dogma is also ready to give his vote for all the articles of
the Syllabus, and generally for every dogmatic proposition emanating from
the Pope.
The Synod is unquestionably the most numerous ever held; never in the
early or mediæval Church have 767 persons entitled to vote by their
episcopal rank been assembled. It is also the most various in its national
representation. Men look with wonder at the number of missionary Bishops
from Asia, Africa, and Australia. If one considers the constant complaints
of want of funds in the missionary journals, the great distance, the
difficulty and expense of the journey, and how much these men are wanted
in the ill-organized state of their dioceses, with so few priests, the
question occurs, Who bears the cost, and what means were employed to rob
so many millions for a long time of their spiritual guides? Meanwhile most
of the Bishops are pupils of the Roman Propaganda, and obedient to every
hint of its will. And the more the new dogma is combated, the more
necessary is the imposing _consensus_ of five quarters of the world—of
Negroes, Malays, Chinese, and Hottentots, as well as Italians and
Spaniards.
More than two-thirds of the Council are either completely agreed, or at
least won over to the necessity of making the personal infallibility of
the last 256 Popes, and their future successors, an article of faith now.
Since the original design of carrying it by simple acclamation has been
given up, Manning has renounced the _rôle_ assigned to him of initiating
it. But the Bishops of the Spanish tongue on both sides the ocean—in South
America and the Philippine Isles—have declared, in a meeting held in the
apartments of their Cardinal, Moreno, that they are ready to propose the
dogma. A Roman Cardinal said lately of Bishops of this sort, “If the Pope
ordered them to believe and teach four instead of three Persons in the
Trinity, they would obey.”
The other party, opposed to the dogma, includes towards 200 Bishops, and
this is more than even the most sanguine ventured to hope at first. To it
belong the majority of the German, Austrian, and Hungarian Bishops, half
the French, all the Portuguese, some Irish, at least half the North
American and Canadian, and a considerable number of the Oriental. If the
votes were not only counted, but weighed according to the intellectual
standard of the voters, the 200 would be far the majority. Among the
German Bishops, besides those already named, the two Tyrolese, Gasser and
Riccabona, Leonrod Bishop of Eichstadt, and the Vicar of Luxembourg,
belong to the Infallibilists. Ketteler of Mayence, half won over by his
hosts—he lives in the German College(19)—half succumbing himself, is said
to purpose deserting to the same camp. He, as well as Stahl, Leonrod, and
Martin are hampered awkwardly by the Fulda Pastoral, which they
subscribed, but when once the knot is loosened or cut, they have only to
bring their assent to the new dogma.
It is said in the ruling circles that an opposition of 40 Bishops and
under is so small and insignificant in so large a Council that no account
need be taken of it. This would be to give up the principle always
hitherto maintained, even at Trent, that no decision in points of faith
could be issued without the physical or moral unanimity of the Council.
But as the dogma in question is one which for the future will make all
majorities and minorities of episcopal votes superfluous and valueless, it
may very well be that by anticipation, or by virtue of an exception which
is now to be made into a rule, the minority should in this case be
pronounced non-existent and undeserving of any notice. I hear other
curialists say that, as soon as the Opposition is reduced to 40, they,
under a sense of their impotence, will give up all resistance, and either
quit the field, or come over to the conquering side. And so the present
strength of the Opposition must be greatly diminished, and this is being
strenuously laboured at. There are plenty of means for the purpose, and as
long as there are Bishops who think themselves fortunate if they gain the
title of “Domestic Prelate to the Pope,” a gentle pressure or insinuation,
the prospect of a privilege, or a robe of distinguished colour, will
produce the desired effect on many. Such things act like those insects
which bore through the hardest wood. The episcopate of course has still
many men to show who are inaccessible to threats or seduction. But we
should like to count up at the end of the Council how many have passed
unscathed through the fiery ordeal. Meanwhile a confident certainty of
victory prevails among the majority. Manning said the other day to an
acquaintance of mine, “So sure as I stand here, the dogma of Infallibility
will be proclaimed,” and on the other hand, one of the leading Bishops of
the Opposition said lately, “I came here with small hopes, and with a
feeling of oppression, but I have found everything worse than I expected.”
A German priest had been summoned to Rome as theologian of his Order by
the General, a Spaniard. At first greeting him the General said that the
great end they were all bound to work for was to come to an understanding
on the dogma of Papal Infallibility. And when the German professed an
opposite opinion, and handed him a work he had written in that sense, the
conclusion was soon arrived at: he was sent home at once as useless, and
even mischievous. When he was taking leave of certain Bishops, one of them
said to him, “I should rejoice if any one recalled me or sent me home; we
Bishops have been ordered here to the Council, without being told what we
are to deliberate upon, and now that I know it I would gladly turn my back
on the Council and on Rome.”
The 500 Infallibilists have good ground for their confidence. It is but
natural, to begin with, that they should trust the magical power of those
resources of the _Curia_ they have themselves had experience of. And,
next, they are well aware of their excellent organization, which has
hitherto proved irresistible. They are commanded from two centres acting
in common, the Gesù and the Propaganda. The Jesuit General, Beckx, if by
no means in harmony with the line taken by the _Civiltà_, which has been
removed from his jurisdiction, thinks and feels about the Infallibility
question in strict accordance with the doctrine and rules of his Order,
and knows how to hold fast the threads with the support and counsel of his
assistants. Not a few Bishops, without knowing it themselves, get drawn
and moved round by these wires which meet in the Gesù. If they cannot be
commanded at once, they will be slowly but surely led into the right road
by a chaplain or secretary or consultor devoted to the Order. The
Propaganda, as we said before, provides for all missionary Bishops, and it
again is inspired from the Gesù. The whole machine works so accurately
that lately, in the selecting of a Commission, 450 voting papers contained
the same names. So admirably is the discipline managed that many a Cabinet
majority might envy this scarcely attainable ideal of the Council.