_Rome, Dec. 24, 1869._—The first part of a tolerably comprehensive
document, 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 constitution
_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
hitherto been endeavoured to soften or set aside. For the originator of
this tractate assures 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 hell, 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 assuming 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
God has created the human race in order from generation to generation to
plunge into hell 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
God 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
passed 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 _cæremonia_, 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 principally 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 pronounced 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 transmute 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
_Civiltà_, 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 institution 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
assemblies, 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 assemblies 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.