_Rome, Jan. 9, 1870._—The Opposition has become exceedingly troublesome.
The successive gradation of Roman judgments about it is noteworthy. First,
it was said that the Council ran like a well-oiled machine; that all were
of one mind, and only vied with each other in their devotion to the
Supreme Head. Then the local correspondents of foreign papers reported
that something which looked like opposition was manifesting itself, but it
was a mere drop in the ocean. So said the London _Tablet_ and _Weekly
Register_. Next they allowed there was certainly an Opposition, but it was
already demoralized, or, as Antonelli said, must speedily fall to pieces.
In diplomatic circles it was said that they were good people enough, but
one must wait a little till the impressions of Fulda had worn off, and
they had imbibed the _spirito Romano_; “il leur faut deux mois de Rome, et
tout le monde sera d’accord.” One month more, January, has to pass, and
then in February conversions and desertions will begin. Meanwhile, Simor,
Primate of Hungary, Tarnóczy of Salzburg, and Manning, are favourites for
vacant Hats. It is hoped that the first will split up the harmony of the
Hungarian Bishops, and bring over some with him as trophies into the
Infallibilist camp.
Cardinals Schwarzenberg and Rauscher—that is now become perfectly
clear—have not budged an inch; both of them feel thoroughly as Germans,
and are nowise minded to desert, cowardly and despairing, into the great
Romance camp. Schwarzenberg has circulated an excellently composed
treatise, which speaks out very judiciously on the real needs of the
Church, and certain reforms which are become urgently needed, and
emphasizes the perversity shown in the demand for the Infallibilist
dogma.(32) Cardinal Rauscher has done the same, and his treatise against
Infallibility is now in circulation. Something more has occurred also: on
the 2d of January, 25 Austrian and German Bishops, with Schwarzenberg at
their head, subscribed a protest, drawn up by Haynald, Ketteler, and
Strossmayer, which is said to have been read and talked over fifteen times
before it gave entire satisfaction. They appeal to their inherent rights,
not dependent on Papal grace, but on Divine institution; ready as they are
to guard the rights of the Head, they must also demand that the rights of
the members shall be preserved and respected; the forms and traditions of
the Tridentine Synod should not be so far departed from. The tone of the
document is dignified. Rauscher has not subscribed though he thoroughly
agrees with it, it is said from considerations the force of which the
other Prelates acknowledged. The petition handed in by 15 French Prelates
for an alteration of the order of business the Pope has answered by a mere
dry refusal. We shall soon see whether the Germans will meet with similar
treatment; in the eyes of these Italians the most modest criticisms and
demands are open rebellion. To many of the German and Hungarian Bishops
even this Protest seemed too bold and audacious, and they have prepared
another representation, with forty signatures, expressed in much more
moderate terms. They entreat the Pope to be graciously pleased to allow
them to inspect the stenographic reports, and to let the Bishops print
their treatises on the questions laid before them without the censorship,
for the information of their colleagues. Posterity will marvel at the
humble submissiveness of these Bishops, and the wisdom of the Roman
policy, which, after two years’ preparation for the Council, provides a
hall where all discussion is impossible, and furthermore prohibits the
Bishops from inspecting the stenographic reports of their own speeches.
Some ten of the leading Bishops of different nations have formed
themselves into an International Committee, so as not, for the future, to
ask concessions of the Pope in the name of one nation only—the French or
German. They wish that every Bishop should be admitted to speak in
Congregation according to the order of inscription, irrespective of
hierarchial rank or age, and that the speeches should be at once printed,
and distributed to the Bishops before the next Session; and finally, that
the Papal Commission for revising motions, which holds the whole Council
in its hands, should be increased by the introduction of members freely
elected. Some further requisitions which I am not acquainted with are said
to be added.
Against these things, which make the Pope very irritable, two principal
remedies are adopted. In the first place, an attempt is made to prevent
any number of Bishops meeting together, either by direct prohibition or by
announcing the displeasure of the supreme authority against those who take
part in such separate deliberations, which are said to be revolutionary.
And next, the Bishops are worked upon individually, and every one is
watched and taken stock of, on the assumption that everybody has his
price, if one could only discover what it is. Two examples of this may be
cited here. One of the most distinguished German Bishops, who is free from
the usual clerical vanity, and could neither be bought with titles nor
with the cut or colour of a vestment, was quite lately accosted by the
Pope—in full consciousness of his Vicarship of Christ—with the question,
asked in the most affectionate tone, “Amas me?” What inference was
attached to an affirmative answer need not be specified. The other case
occurred somewhat earlier. Lavigerie, Bishop of Nancy, came to Rome
coveting some striking mark of distinction. It seemed worth while to bind
him closer to the _Curia_, and so an article of ecclesiastical dress was
hit upon, which he and no other Bishop of the Western Church was to wear.
It was called a superhumeral, and is described as a somewhat broader
stole, thrown over the shoulders, and adorned with fringes, with two
maniples of the shape of shields hanging down from it. The effect is said
to have been enormous, and of course since then Mgr. Lavigerie is a
profoundly convinced Infallibilist. “C’est avec de hochets qu’on mène les
hommes,” said the first Napoleon; but it moves one’s pity to look at
Bishops who let themselves be led by the nose by these childish toys.
Very instructive considerations may be formed here on the representation
of particular nations and national Churches at the Council. Frenchmen and
Germans must practise themselves in the virtues of humility and modesty,
and learn how insignificant they are in the Catholic Church, in all that
concerns doctrine and legislation. There is the diocese of Breslau, with
1,700,000 Catholics, but its Bishop has not been chosen for any single
Commission, while the 700,000 inhabitants of the present Roman States are
represented by 62 Bishops, and the Italians form half or two-thirds in
every Commission. For the Kingdom of God, wherein the least is greater
than John and all the Prophets, lies, as is well known, between
Montefiascone and Terracina, and whoever first saw the light in Sonnino,
Velletri, Ceccano, Anagni, or Rieti, is predestinated from the cradle
“imperio regere populos.” It is true the 62 Bishops of this chosen land
and people have not succeeded in restoring the most moderate standard of
morality in their little towns and villages; there are still whole
communities and districts notoriously in league with brigands—but the
Council has no call to trouble itself with matters of that sort. There are
the Archbishops of Cologne with 1,400,000, of Cambray with 1,300,000, and
of Paris with 2,000,000 Catholics, but any four of the 62 Neapolitan and
Sicilian Bishops can out-vote these Bishops with their 5,000,000 Catholics
at their back. Thus the 12,000,000 Catholics of Germany Proper are
represented at this Council by fourteen votes. Their relative positions
may be expressed in this way: in Church matters twenty Germans count for
less than one Italian. And should a German indulge any fancy that his
nation, with its numerous theological High Schools, and its learned
theologians, might reasonably claim some weight at a Council, he only need
come here to be cured at once of that notion. There is not in all Italy
one single real Theological Faculty, except in Rome; Spain gets on equally
without any higher theological school or any theology; yet here at the
Council some hundreds of Italians and Spaniards are masters, and are the
appointed teachers of doctrine and dictators of faith for all nations
belonging to the Church.
Count Terenzio Mamiani has lately observed, in the _Nuova Antologia_,
published at Florence, that in Italy there are not so many religious books
printed in half a century as appear in England or North America (or
Germany) in one year. And we must remember too that the theological
literature published in Tuscany and Lombardy might almost be called
copious in comparison with the nearly absolute sterility of the States of
the Church. Here in Rome you may find a lottery dream-book in almost every
house, but never a New Testament, and extremely seldom any religious book
at all. It seems as though it were a recognised principle that, the more
ignorant a people, the greater must be the share their hierarchy have in
the government of the Church. And thus we have the question of
nationalities within the bosom of the Church. Everything done here is but
the expression of one idea and the means to one end, and this idea and end
are that the spiritual domination of the Italians over the other nations,
especially over the Germans and French, should be extended and confirmed.
Above a hundred Spaniards have come from both sides of the ocean to let
themselves be used as instruments of the Italians at the Council. They
have no thought, or will, or suggestion of their own for the good of the
Church. It is difficult to form a notion of the ignorance of these Latins
in all historical questions, and their entire want of that general
cultivation which is assumed with us as a matter of course in a priest or
bishop. And up to this time I have always found here that the predilection
for the Infallibilist theory is in precise proportion to the ignorance of
its advocates. It has been deemed necessary still further to help on this
immense numerical superiority, and so the Pope, as I am informed, has
appointed during the two years since the proclamation of the Council 89
Bishops _in partibus_, whose flocks are in the moon or in Sirius.
And now for something about the course of procedure in the Council as to
the _Schema_ during the last ten days. There are only constantly speeches
on each side, for a real discussion is impossible in the Hall, and it is
obvious that it was chosen, and is still kept to in spite of daily
experience, for that very reason.(33) Some speakers, however, whom nature
has endowed with a specially ringing voice, have made an unwonted
impression. The most significant occurrence was Cardinal Capalti’s
interruption of Strossmayer’s speech. The Bishop had touched on the novel
and unconciliar form in which the decrees were to be published, as
decisions of the Pope, with the mere approval or forced consent of the
Council. It was an ominous circumstance that the assembly sacrificed by
its silence the man who was speaking for its rights. Meanwhile there has
been a wholly unexpected attack on the _Schema_ by a host of speakers, so
that Antonelli, on leaving the Council, said, in visible excitement, to a
diplomatist who was waiting for him, that this could not continue, or the
Council would go on for ten years. Strossmayer was followed by Ginoulhiac,
the learned Bishop of Grenoble, who spoke in the same sense. The
proportion of speakers against the _Schema_ is overwhelming. In the
Session of January 3, all four spoke against it, even the Patriarch of
Venice. An impression was produced by the warning of the Eastern
Patriarch, Hassoun, against embittering the Orientals, and driving them
into schism by dogmatic innovations. The Italian, Valerga, named by the
Pope to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, represented the Roman
standpoint in its crudest form, but he had his speech read for him by
Bishop Gandolfi.
It is now said to be certain that Darboy, Simor, and Tarnóczy have been
apprised of the intention to make them Cardinals. As regards the two last,
the abandonment of all opposition to the Infallibilist dogma, and to every
other decree on faith in a Papal sense, is an indispensable condition. But
with Darboy the case is different: the _Curia_ must take him as he is or
let him alone, for he cannot be bought at any price. The irritation,
complaints, and sighs of the Pope at having to make this man a Cardinal,
who will not yield or apologize, have already lasted some years. The
Romanist party have published in a Quebec newspaper the Pope’s bitter and
reproachful letter to him, to which he made no reply. Darboy was and is
resolved to be the _bonâ fide_ Bishop of his diocese, the largest in the
world, and will not admit any arbitrary encroachments or concurrent
jurisdiction of the Court of Rome to annul his acts at its caprice. “This
stinks of schism,” say the Romans here.(34) And therefore, according to
Roman notions, he is “a bad Christian,” for he does not believe in Papal
Infallibility, and will not vote for it even as a Cardinal. Moreover,
nobody sees better through the whole web of curialistic policy, with its
artifices, small and great, and he shows not the slightest sympathy for
it, so that in any case he will be a very inconvenient and unprofitable
Cardinal. At the same time he is a man of rare eloquence, rich experience
and knowledge of mankind, and easily outweighs ten Italian Cardinals in
culture and learning. And the worst of it is that this bitter necessity of
elevating Darboy has to be accepted with a good grace, for France wills
it, and France must still remain the magnanimous champion of Rome and the
Council. Some consolation is found for it in the now openly proclaimed
apostasy of Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore, who has hitherto been
wavering, for it is hoped that other American Bishops will follow his
example.
If at the end of the first month we take a view of the situation, it is
clear that the word “Council” requires to be taken in a very wide and
general sense to include this assembly. It cannot be compared with the
ancient Councils in the first thousand years of Church history, before the
separation of East and West, for there are no points of contact. In the
first place, the whole lay world, all sovereigns and their ambassadors,
are entirely excluded from the Synod, which has never happened from the
Council of Nice downwards. That was, of course, necessary, for even at
Trent the French ambassador announced, on entering the Council, that his
King had sent him to watch over the freedom of the Bishops; and certainly
the ambassadors of Catholic Powers would have protested against the
present arrangements and order of business, which give much less security
than even at Trent. Here the Bishops are in a sense the Pope’s prisoners.
Without his permission they cannot leave the Council, they are forbidden
to meet together for common deliberation, are not allowed to print
anything till it has passed the censorship, or to bring forward any motion
without the Pope’s approval. It is the Pope who makes the decrees and
defines the dogmas; the Council has simply to assent. Two rights only are
left to the Bishops; they can make speeches in the General Congregation,
and they can say _Placet_ or _Non placet_. There is a quite luxurious
abundance of means of coercion, impediments and chains;—with the Pope’s
300 episcopal boarders, the 62 Bishops of the Roman States, the 68
Neapolitans, Sicilians, etc., all manœuvring with a precision a Prussian
General could not wish to surpass on the reviewing-ground, the _Curia_
might have fairly hoped to gain its ends, even were a little more freedom
allowed to the Opposition section of the Assembly.(35)